Warriors promote GM Bob Myers to president of basketball operations

As reported by Marc Spears, the Golden State Warriors announced a number of internal promotions today. Headlining the announcement: Bob Myers will become president of basketball operations/general manager. Seeing as Myers previously held the title of GM, this move appears to provide him with greater oversight of the broader operations, in addition to his pre-existing GM duties, continuing a process started almost as soon as Myers was hired. It makes sense too, as the bond between head coach Steve Kerr and Myers is something special.

One of the strongest questions when deciding whether to promote internally or search for a new hire is the question of whether or not you think you can find someone better on the open market. Given not just the direction of the team, but the speed at which the roster has been turned around, I think the Warriors’ top brass agrees that these individuals represent the best available talent and have taken steps to put them in greater positions of authority.

One of the first moves made by the Warriors front office (after Joe Lacob headed an investment group that acquired the team for a then-record $450 million) was to gut the front office of the Chris Cohan era. Although Larry Riley was retained at GM, it was no secret that the plan was to slowly replace Larry Riley as GM, and Myers was quickly slated as his eventual replacement. After a successful first five year run highlighted by a championship, these internal promotions just continue the process of putting more and more faith in Myers and his team.

The Warriors made a number of other moves, all internal promotions.

Travis Schlenk moves up from Assistant VP to “VP of basketball operations/assistant general manager.” Kirk Lacob—after what has been by all accounts a successful run with the Santa Cruz d-league team—will move to Vice President of Sports ventures/assistant GM.

Additionally promoted is Nick U’Ren, who is now Director of coaching operation/ special assistant to the head coach. U’Ren was previously famous for working late into the night with Luke Walton prior to proposing the drastic lineup change of substituting Andre Iguodala in for Andrew Bogut during the Finals two years ago that was pivotal in securing the Warriors’ championship. As detailed in this fantastic Tim Kawakami piece, U’Ren has long been not just a capable member of staff, but also a testament to how head coach Steve Kerr is unafraid to hand out responsibility. U’Ren, perhaps more than anyone else employed by the team, is a testament to that upwards-mobility mentality, or that start-up mentality that Lacob implemented soon after purchasing the Warriors. I mean, look how far U’Ren has come!

In his own words:

And I say that knowing that Steve would’ve never mentioned my name if wouldn’t have worked.

All of that was so kind of him. I don’t think there’s any other NBA team where a staffer, a kid like me could suggest something and it would be taken seriously and considered and then used like that.

That’s a credit to Steve and the empowerment he gives all of us. We can all make suggestions and everybody listens and eventually we all agree on something.

I’m so lucky to be here.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard! These promotions are well-deserved and will hopefully herald years of continued success for this franchise.