Joe Lacob urges Warriors fans to ‘chill’ about Klay Thompson contract

Joe Lacob urges Warriors fans to ‘chill’ about Klay Thompson contract originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Warriors CEO Joe Lacob has a simple message for Dub Nation members worried about whether or not Klay Thompson will sign a new contract with the only NBA franchise he has ever known.

“I hope it’s not a distraction,” Lacob told 95.7 The Game’s Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky on “The Morning Roast” on Wednesday. “I mean, we’re not in control of this. There’s two sides to every negotiation. We want him back. He wants to be back. It’s kind of like Draymond [Green’s contract situation this past summer]. I think everyone needs to just chill a little bit. Let it take its course. My guess is it works out. I can’t control it. I can’t dictate it. You can’t dictate it. Fans can’t dictate it. These things have to take their course. There are different parties involved, but the intentions are really good.”

Thompson is entering the final year of his Warriors contract and is eligible to sign an extension before the 2023-24 NBA regular season begins next Tuesday. But he also could wait until after the upcoming season and test free agency if he desires.

Everyone, from Thompson to first-year Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr., has made it clear the two sides want to remain together beyond this season. But if no deal is agreed to before the season, some fans and pundits worry if it will hang over the team like Green’s uncertain contract status did last year.

Lacob was pressed on whether Green’s contract impact last season’s team and if he’s concerned something similar might happen this year if Thompson doesn’t have a new contract when the season begins.

“Oh, it might have but look, there were some issues last year with respect to some of the contracts some of the other guys got,” Lacob told Hill and Shasky. “I know who you’re referring to. Maybe. Maybe it did. I don’t think there’s going to be anything like that this year though. I really don’t. Klay is a professional. Respect him tremendously and we’re going to do our best to get this done. And hopefully it is done sooner rather than later, but it might not be.”

Thompson agrees with Lacob, recently telling The Athletic’s Anthony Slater that his contract situation is “not going to be a thing.”

But while Lacob and Thompson both publicly are saying positive things about a possible new contract, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Sunday that the two sides haven’t made progress on a deal.

“I’m told that there has been absolutely no progress on a Klay Thompson extension in Golden State and that they are both still apart on years and money, and there’s a very real possibility that Klay Thompson goes into free agency next summer without a deal and I think that’s where it gets complicated for Golden State,” Wojnarowski said on “NBA Countdown.” “It becomes something of a high-wire act, especially if Klay Thompson duplicates this year the kind of season he had last year.

“You know in the marketplace teams value shooting, they value high-level wing defense. And I think for Golden State this has a chance to become the first real test of keeping together that core of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.”

While the terms of Thompson’s potential contract remain up in the air, Lacob’s latest public comments should give Warriors fans a bit of relief that something eventually will get done.

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