Built for now and the future, Golden State's roster features superstar talent in Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green as well as potential rising stars like Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman.
With a sixth trip to the Finals in eight years, the Warriors answered a question we asked way back at the start of the regular season: can the Warriors win now without mortgaging their future?
Golden State's current success and bright future is the work of the team's architect — General Manager Bob Myers,
Myers was hired by the team in 2011 and promoted to General Manager in 2012. Under Myers, the Warriors won championships in 2015, 2017 and 2018.
While he didn't draft Stephen Curry, Myers is directly responsible for almost every other move that got the Warriors to where they are today.
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Who is Bob Myers?
Myers played college basketball for UCLA and was part of the 1995 NCAA championship-winning team. After college, Myers went to law school at Loyola and then embarked on a career as a sports agent, working for Arn Tellem.
Myers climbed up the ladder at Tellem and Associates and later became vice president when the agency became SFX Sports. He then joined Wasserman Media Group, where he represented 20-plus NBA players including Brandon Roy, Kendrick Perkins and Tyreke Evans.
Warriors owner Joe Lacob hired Myers in 2011 to be the team's Assistant General Manager. However, after just one year, Lacob promoted Myers in 2012 to be the team's General Manger.
“We’re extremely pleased to announce Bob’s promotion as we conclude the 2011-12 season,” Lacob said in 2012. “We are confident that he is the right person to guide our Basketball Operations Department into the long-term future and, similarly, through a very important time for this franchise as we begin to prepare for next season.
"As we acknowledged a year ago, we think his potential as a young executive in this business is outstanding and that intuition was certainly confirmed during his first year with the organization. Bob is a well-respected, intelligent and dedicated executive who has developed many solid relationships in the game of basketball and understands what it takes to be successful in this business. He’s the ideal person for this job.”
Lacob's words proved to be prophetic as since becoming the Warriors general manger, Myers has built a team that has won three championships and has a dynamic roster that could be a contender for years to come.
Every move Myers had made since getting hired
With the Splash Brothers in place, Myers began making his mark in the 2012 draft. Among his first selections? Draymond Green.
While not every trade, signing or draft pick landed quite like Green, Myers quickly showed an uncanny ability to find indispensable, championship-level contributors at great value. Here's a complete breakdown of every notable move made by Myers as Warriors GM.
June 28, 2012: Selected Harrison Barnes (1st round, 7th pick), Festus Ezeli (1st round, 30th pick), Draymond Green (2nd round, 35th pick) and Ognjen Kuzmić (2nd round, 52nd pick) in the 2012 NBA Draft.
July 10, 2013: Acquired Andre Iguodala. As part of a 3-team trade, the Golden State Warriors traded Andris Biedriņš, Richard Jefferson, Brandon Rush, a 2014 1st round draft pick (Rodney Hood was later selected), a 2016 2nd round draft pick (Tyrone Wallace was later selected), a 2017 1st round draft pick (Josh Hart was later selected) and a 2017 2nd round draft pick (Alpha Kaba was later selected) to the Utah Jazz; the Golden State Warriors traded a 2018 2nd round draft pick (Thomas Welsh was later selected) to the Denver Nuggets; the Denver Nuggets traded Andre Iguodala to the Golden State Warriors; the Denver Nuggets traded cash and a 2018 2nd round draft pick (Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk was later selected) to the Utah Jazz; the Utah Jazz traded Randy Foye to the Denver Nuggets; and the Utah Jazz traded Kevin Murphy to the Golden State Warriors.
July 12, 2013: Signed Marreese Speights as a free agent.
July 23, 2013: Signed Jermaine O'Neal as a free agent.
May 6, 2014: Fired Mark Jackson as Head Coach.
May 19, 2014: Hired Steve Kerr as Head Coach.
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July 11, 2014: Signed Shaun Livingston to a multi-year contract.
June 25, 2015: Selected Kevon Looney (1st round, 30th pick) in the 2015 NBA Draft.
July 9, 2015: Signed Draymond Green to a multi-year contract.
July 9, 2015: Traded David Lee to the Boston Celtics for Chris Babb and Gerald Wallace.
July 13, 2015: Signed Leandro Barbosa.
July 31, 2015: Traded Gerald Wallace to the Philadelphia 76ers for Jason Thompson. (PHI also gets rights to swap MIA or OKC 2016 1st Rd Pick for GSW 2016 1st Rd pick)
September 14, 2015: Signed Ian Clark.
September 28, 2015: Signed Ben Gordon.
February 22, 2016: Signed Anderson Varejão to a contract for the rest of the season.
June 23, 2016: Selected Damian Jones (1st round, 30th pick) in the 2016 NBA Draft.
June 23, 2016: Traded $2.4M cash to the Milwaukee Bucks for Patrick McCaw.
July 7, 2016: Traded Andrew Bogut and a 2020 2nd round draft pick (Tyrell Terry was later selected) to the Dallas Mavericks for a 2019 2nd round draft pick. (DAL has choice between 2019 or 2020) (DAL pick to GSW is top-55 protected; Did not convey)
July 7, 2016: Signed Kevin Durant to a multi-year contract.
July 9, 2016: Signed David West.
July 12, 2016: Signed Zaza Pachulia.
July 13, 2016: Signed Damian Jones to a multi-year contract.
September 15, 2016: Signed JaVale McGee.
March 1, 2017: Signed José Calderón.
March 2, 2017: Signed Matt Barnes.
June 22, 2017: Traded $3.5M cash to the Chicago Bulls for Jordan Bell.
July 8, 2017: Signed Nick Young.
July 12, 2017: Signed Andre Iguodala to a multi-year contract.
July 12, 2017: Signed Omri Casspi.
July 14, 2017: Signed Shaun Livingston to a multi-year contract.
October 17, 2017: Signed Quinn Cook to a two-way contract.
April 10, 2018: Signed Quinn Cook to a multi-year contract.
June 21, 2018: Selected Jacob Evans (1st round, 28th pick) in the 2018 NBA Draft.
July 6, 2018: Signed DeMarcus Cousins as a free agent.
July 7, 2018: Signed Kevin Durant as a free agent.
March 6, 2019: Signed Andrew Bogut to a contract for the rest of the season.
June 20, 2019: Traded cash and a 2024 2nd round draft pick to the Atlanta Hawks for a 2019 2nd round draft pick (Eric Paschall was later selected). $1.3MM
June 20, 2019: Selected Jordan Poole (1st round, 28th pick), Eric Paschall (2nd round, 41st pick) and Miye Oni (2nd round, 58th pick) in the 2019 NBA Draft.
July 7, 2019: Traded Andre Iguodala, cash and a 2024 1st round draft pick to the Memphis Grizzlies for Julian Washburn. (top-4 protected) $2MM
July 7, 2019: Traded Kevin Durant and a 2020 1st round draft pick to the Brooklyn Nets for Treveon Graham, Shabazz Napier and D'Angelo Russell. (top-20 protected)
July 10, 2019: Signed Klay Thompson as a free agent.
July 11, 2019: Signed Kevon Looney as a free agent.
August 3, 2019: Signed Draymond Green to a multi-year contract. (Signing his extension on deal signed in 2015)
February 6, 2020: Traded Jacob Evans, D'Angelo Russell and Omari Spellman to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins, a 2021 1st round draft pick (Jonathan Kuminga was later selected) and a 2021 2nd round draft pick (Miles McBride was later selected). (top-3 protected; becomes unprotected in 2022 if does not convey in 2021)
February 7, 2020: Signed Juan Toscano-Anderson to a contract for the rest of the season.
November 18, 2020: Selected James Wiseman (1st round, 2nd pick), Nico Mannion (2nd round, 48th pick) and Justinian Jessup (2nd round, 51st pick) in the 2020 NBA Draft.
November 22, 2020: Traded a 2021 2nd round draft pick (Miles McBride was later selected) and a 2021 2nd round draft pick (Aaron Wiggins was later selected) to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Kelly Oubre Jr.. 2021 2nd-rd pick is DEN own, Golden State also received a trade exception. (2021 1st-rd pick (GSW own) is top 20 protected, will turn into 2021 2nd-rd pick (MIN own) if it does not convey. Did not convey 2021).
April 8, 2021: Signed Gary Payton II to a 10-day contract.
May 16, 2021: Signed Gary Payton II.
July 29, 2021: Selected Jonathan Kuminga (1st round, 7th pick) and Moses Moody (1st round, 14th pick) in the 2021 NBA Draft.
August 6, 2021: Signed Otto Porter.
August 6, 2021: Signed Nemanja Bjelica.
August 10, 2021: Signed Andre Iguodala.
For a full breakdown of every Myers move, you can check out Basketball Reference.
