By Kevin Jones
They call Bob Myers the Swindle God for a reason.
With the rest of the NBA trying to pry the Warriors apart, Myers’ negotiation skills, Steve Kerr’s culture and Joe Lacob’s checkbook may have just ensured Golden State another championship for 2018.
Andre Iguodala AND Shaun Livingston are coming back. Throw in David West as an added bonus.
The league’s most versatile chess piece, Iguodala’s return was paramount for the inevitable round four against Cleveland — and Myers delivered. Three-years, $48 million for Iggy will eventually put the Warriors in the luxury tax. But the team was competing against the Rockets and Spurs for Iguodala’s services. The money Lacob’s has to drop in the bucket was as much about keeping Iguodala as it was about not losing him to a chief rival in the Western Conference.
Many in the media had speculated Livingston would surely bolt for a large payday, something he’d never really been rewarded with in his career because of a frightening knee injury in 2007. Well, some of those prognosticators undersold how valuable Kerr’s culture is. Livingston’s back on a three-year, $24 million contract.
“You can’t put a price on happiness,” Livingston told NBC Sports Bay Area’s reporter Monte Poole, in reference to other bigger offers out there.
A year ago, Myers led the effort to land the big fish, Kevin Durant. A year later, keeping both Iguodala and Livingston are just two more notches on his belt. The Durant move has caused seismic waves across the NBA. The Iguodala and Livingston moves has squashed hope that another Western Conference foe can handle the Warriors.
Whatever Myers is saying behind closed doors in these free agent meetings, it’s working. It’s sweet music. Clearly, Houston and San Antonio were offering more money than Golden State was for Iguodala. From the outside looking in, my guess is the Warriors negotiated a much smaller salary for Iguodala in previous talks, and then floored he and his agent with a guaranteed third year and $48 million.
And in Livingston’s case, there was a reported desire for him to return. Instead of dragging it out, Myers got the deal done shortly after midnight on July 1.
This is Myers’ talent: each player on the roster is stimulated by different messaging, different communication. Myers has learned individual personalities enough to know what they — and their agent– want to hear.
Myers’ success even prompted the Lakers to hire Rob Pelinka as their general manager. Pelinka, just like Myers, was a longtime NBA agent. Other franchises aren’t just trying to copy the Warriors’ playing style. They want to emulate Myers’ front office.
When we look back on Myers, he wasn’t responsible for drafting Steph Curry. He wasn’t the lead man in control to select Klay Thompson.
But everything else? It’s been him. Drafting Draymond Green. Letting Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli walk. Landing Durant. Drafting Patrick McCaw. And now re-signing Iguodala and Livingston.
There are so many Warriors haters out there. That side of the bandwagon will become more and more robust. You’ll hear people whine about Draymond’s antics and Steph’s arrogance and KD’s insistence on joining an already stacked team.
But if these whiny babies really want someone to be upset with, they should yell at Myers. He’s fortified an impenetrable roster. He’s responsible for a likely dynasty.
He continues to be the swindle god.