Joe Lacob does not see this offseason the way a lot of Warriors fans do.Appearing on “The TK Show” with Tim Kawakami, the Warriors owner was pressed directly on why Golden State enters the 2026-27 NBA season with essentially the same roster that finished 37-45 a year ago, missed the playoffs for the second time since the 2022 championship, and lost in the play-in tournament to the Phoenix Suns.
“I understand from the standpoint of the everyday fan, some of them anyway, why they might say that,” Lacob told Kawakami. “I know that’s the narrative, and I read everything, too.”
The context behind that record is more complicated than the win total alone suggests. The Warriors were 25-19 — a genuine playoff-caliber pace — before Jimmy Butler went down with a season-ending torn ACL on Jan. 19. The team collapsed to 12-26 the rest of the way without him, then went 9-18 during Stephen Curry’s separate absence with a knee injury, and 3-7 over the final 10 games after Moses Moody ruptured his patellar tendon in March. That is the injury-driven version of this season Lacob is pointing to, and the numbers back...