The Golden State Warriors are a second-apron tax team. They’ve consistently been, or around, in the luxury tax throughout their decade-long spell of dominance. However, Joe Lacob would like to see that change in the near future as the Warriors look to shed the punishments that come with being a repeat tax offender in the NBA.
Lacob shared his thoughts during an interview with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami. He noted how there’s a 1A and 1B plan, with the latter being a more aggressive tear-down of the current roster. As such, “1A” seems to be the more logical route moving forward.
“Our Plan 1, or 1A, is actually we’d like to be out of the tax, and we think that we have a way to do that,” Lacob said. “That kind of is the plan, not just under the second apron. I’ll tell you why that’s important, because the truth is that we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four, below the tax line, in order to get this repeater thing off our books. We don’t want to be a repeater. It’s just so prohibitive, not to say we wouldn’t do it if we had to, but you’ve gotta look at what the downside is to doing that.”
The Warriors have an aging roster. Some of the younger talents in the rotation are starting to blossom and earn their minutes in the starting lineup. As such, Golden State has some difficult decisions to make in the coming months.
Nevertheless, the Warriors would be smart to duck under the tax. Not only because of the money it would save them but also because of the flexibility in free agency and the buyout market it would bring.
