The Golden State Warriors found their replacement for Bob Myers among one of their own.
The team reportedly promoted team executive Mike Dunleavy Jr. to Myers’ old post of general manager, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Dunleavy originally joined the Warriors’ front office as a pro scout in 2018 after 15 seasons as a player in the NBA. The Warriors promoted him to assistant GM in 2019 and he became vice president of basketball operations in 2021.
Dunleavy spent almost all of the first five seasons of his playing career with the Warriors after Golden State drafted him No. 3 out of Duke in 2002. He was traded to the Indiana Pacers in 2007. Dunleavy finished his career averaging 11.2 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
Vice president of basketball operations Kirk Lacob will also take on a new to-be-defined role with the team.
Dunleavy had been speculated to be the top candidate for the job when Myers stepped down from his role in May. Myers left the Warriors after 11 seasons and four NBA championships, but the once-dynastical team appears to be at an inflection point.
The futures of players like Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Jordan Poole are all uncertain as contract extensions and luxury tax hits loom large this upcoming season. It doesn’t help that the Warriors, who won the 2021-22 NBA finals, cratered in the playoffs — barely beating the Sacramento Kings in a seven-game series and losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in six games.
All this will be for Dunleavy to now navigate. The approach of Myers was always to try and keep the teams’ championship core — Steph Curry, Thompson and Green — but it’s hard to gauge if that approach will be what ownership wants considering the contractual demands of a Thompson and Green extension as well as the impending money owned to Poole in the deal he signed this past offseason.
It’s Dunleavy’s team now, but the Warriors’ reign on the NBA could be in question.
