Joe Lacob Told Warriors Staff 'We're Not Tanking' After Klay Thompson's Injury

The Golden State Warriors finished with the worst record in the NBA at 15-50 last season but have no plans to tank in 2020-21, even without Klay Thompson.  

"I said, 'We're not tanking,'" team governor Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic on the TK Show when discussing what he told the staff (h/t Anthony Slater of The Athletic). "If anyone's even thinking that, get it off your mind. Forget it. Give me options. What can we do to make this team as good as we can make it?"

The comments came after ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported Thompson had suffered a season-ending Achilles tear. While he is expected to make a full recovery, it was a particularly difficult blow since he sat out the entire 2019-20 campaign as he recovered from a torn ACL suffered during the 2019 NBA Finals.

Golden State surely hoped it would return to the upper echelon of the league during the upcoming season with a healthy Thompson, Stephen Curry and Draymond Green, but that path got much more difficult with the setback.

Still, the Warriors further indicated they will not tank when they traded a 2021 protected first-round draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder for Kelly Oubre Jr., per Wojnarowski.

While nobody is going to mistake Oubre for Thompson, who is a three-time champion, five-time All-Star, impressive defender and one of the best shooters in NBA history, he averaged 18.7 points and 6.4 rebounds for the Phoenix Suns last season. 

He can also slash into the spacing created by Curry's presence on the floor and hit outside shots at a capable rate, which he proved when he connected on 35.2 percent of his triples last season.

A lineup of Curry, Oubre, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and James Wiseman, who Golden State selected with the No. 2 overall pick in Wednesday's NBA draft, is solid and could compete in 2020-21.

However, making the playoffs, let alone competing for a championship, in the daunting Western Conference will be difficult with the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, Utah Jazz, Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans and perhaps Houston Rockets, depending on whether they trade James Harden and Russell Westbrook, all vying for postseason berths.

At least Warriors fans know their team is not going to tank.