GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 1, 2025

Mike Dunleavy

Media Conference

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Thanks for being here, guys, and most importantly, thank you for your patience and understanding over the last couple weeks or really the whole summer with our media availability. I think we were just waiting to get everything squared away.

That being said, we've got everything signed, sealed, delivered roster-wise and pretty excited about this group, about this season. Feel like we made some really good additions and obviously have some really good key returning players as well as some young guys that we think will be able to take a step.

For us, the main thing here is the team we put together we feel like will be in the mix this season, which is exciting, and I think to me that's the big story. That's the big story of this off-season.

I know you guys will have a lot of questions about other things, but my headline is this team heading into the season has got a great shot. That's where you want to be when Steve Kerr is your coach, Steph Curry is your best player and you have guys like Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green and so on and so forth. We're excited about this group, and happy to answer any questions around that.

Q. Can we get into the structure of the Kuminga contract; it seems pretty clearly at least to be used potentially as a trade piece. I'm curious how you view the dynamics of him coming in and just obviously some relatively contentious negotiations and how that kind of could bleed into the season.

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Well, as far as the negotiations go, it was fair, reasonable, no issues on my end. I think just sometimes these things take time.

But by my count, I'm all good with it, feel good about the deal we've done and really the deal for JK. I think it's good for both sides.

As far as the team goes and what that contract structure means, really it comes down to the way I feel about the team is we're in great shape. Much better shape, I'd say, than we were certainly this time last year and even as much as this time like when we were in the Playoffs and lost 4-1 to Minnesota. What that means for the contract structure is we feel like we have a player that can be really good, and I don't feel like there's a need to make a move.

Now, we'll see how the season unfolds. This time last year I would have said we need to get better. I don't feel that right now. It could change. We have a lot of guys in the team that have value around the league and could be traded, but I think the structure is more so what works for us and the player, and we came to an agreement that works.

Q. Do you anticipate him coming in bought in?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Absolutely. He signed the deal. We agreed upon it. I think he's had, from all accounts, a pretty good off-season. Seems like he's been in the gym working, and I think we'll be in shape, be ready to go, committed, about the team. I have no reason to believe otherwise.

Q. Lots of discussion about what his role is and certainly his agent talked a lot about it. Do you go into this with any set, like, we're promising him a role, we're promising this role, it won't be that role? How far along did those talks get with what his playing time might be?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: We just want him to be the best player he can be. He does that, he'll have a great role. Our team will be really good. I don't think there's anything more to get into it than that.

Q. To follow up on all this, Draymond told us the other day that Kuminga told him he wants to be here long-term. Is that the message that has been conveyed to you either from him or his agent?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Well, I'll let him answer that. Again, these discussions and messaging from our end stays private, so as far as, like, those things that we talk about on the phone or behind closed doors, I keep to myself. So it may be a better question for him.

But by all accounts, I think he wants to be here because he signed the contract.

Q. How did the way the season ended last year inform the roster construction, and in what areas -- we know the players you guys brought in, but obviously you mentioned you feel like you're better off now. What are the general expectations of the season with the group that you put together?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, I think when you evaluate the team out of last year, despite Steph missing the last four games and us losing that series, I think you had a pretty good idea of who we were and where we need to go. I think for us to add some more size in the front court while also having a shooting piece to that to go along with a guy like Quinten Post, so we get Al Horford, and then we felt like defensively in the backcourt, especially with what Melton was able to do for us last year in that short time, trying to bring a guy like that back who we know fits was something we wanted to do.

Then always it's about internal improvement, how can we improve some of these younger players, whether it's Brandon, Moses, JK, QP, Trayce. All these guys, if half of them can take a step, you're really in business.

Obviously the addition of Jimmy softened the need for us to go crazy this summer. I think we've done just enough to take us to another level, and again, I'm really optimistic about this group.

Obviously we'll have to evaluate it and see as the season moves along. If we need to do something, I think we'll be able to do that. We have the assets, the contracts, all those things, but I think we're in a much different spot this year than we were last year.

Q. You guys had to officially finalize your business this week. What was the process like with players other than JK and hanging out in limbo? Was there stress to that? Was it set and forget and we made a bigger thing out of it in the media than it was? What was that process like?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, free agency went a little long. You don't get any points for getting something done July 3rd versus September 30th. But that being said, there's some players that we keyed in on and we recruited and we had to stay on top of before they could sign their contracts. I know with a guy like Al at his age, retirement was a thing. De'Anthony with his injury, that complicated some things and had to see where he was at.

We hung in there, and usually free agency lasts a week, 10 days at most, and for us it was three months. But it's all good.

Q. Was there a threat of losing any of those guys? Did you feel a threat of losing them because of the process and how it played out?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Well, I think anytime you don't have pen to paper, anything can happen. You're not allowed to officially agree or sign anything until -- obviously with the parameters that we were working under, again, until there's pen to paper, you never know.

Q. When do you expect Melton to be cleared, or is that just kind of a floating timeline?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, it's going to be sooner than later. I don't think we expect him to be ready for the regular season. But it's not going to be a lengthy absence. He's working at it. He'll do his thing and get back.

I think for him and us after seeing what he could do for us last season, making sure that he's healthy, ready to go for the latter half of the season as opposed to right out of the gates is the most important thing.

Q. Do you expect Kuminga to practice as early as tomorrow?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, once Jonathan gets here - I think he should be landing soon - he's got to go through the physicals and all that, but with his age, with the way he works, I expect him to be ready to go.

Q. With Al, I don't think he played any back-to-backs last year. Is that the plan?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, we'll monitor it. I think our medical group has done a great job the last few years of pacing our guys, whether it's Draymond, Steph, any of these guys they've had at their age. We're good with it, familiar with it, and that's the beauty of having a team with some depth. There's going to be nights where those guys will be missing games, and we feel like we've got good solid rotation players that can step in and help us.

Q. Given that you like to keep discussions behind closed doors private, what did you make of Kuminga's agent media blitz, and did that affect negotiations at all?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, I would say for us it didn't affect anything. I think from my end as a former player, understanding there's a shelf life on your career, I've got no issues with guys doing whatever they can to get the deals, the things they want, the money, the teams, the role, all those things you're looking for as a free agent. However you want to go about doing it, I have no issues.

Would I do it that way? No. But I've got no issues with these guys. The off-season is time for business, and during the season is time for basketball, and however you want to go about it is all good, and we'll work with you.

Q. Steve kind of insisted yesterday that he has no concerns about having contract discussions until the end of the season. You guys all have such a good relationship. Is that something that may come up sooner or are you all just sort of saying, okay, we'll do that at the end of the year and everything is good and work it out then?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, a little bit of all that. We'll see at the end of the year. Personally, selfishly, want Steve back and want him here for a long time or as long as he wants to be here, so we're going to grant that opportunity for him.

There's the ability for him to stay whenever he says let's do it. So we'll just play it out.

I think this is different than most situations with coaches in the last year of their deal. Steve is so established here with our group that it's not really going to be a thing.

We're not too concerned about it other than I hope he's here beyond this year.

Q. You mentioned Kuminga's off-season. What details do you know exactly about that to give you the confidence that he's coming in here ready and eager to go?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: The same videos you saw on YouTube or Twitter, whatever it is.

Q. With you guys' cap situation, is there a plan for getting Seth Curry on the roster in the regular season, and can you explain how that would work?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, Seth is signed. He'll hopefully be here tomorrow for practice, so we're excited to add him. I think anytime you can add shooting in this league in this day and age, a guy who's, what, top 2, second best three-point shooter of all time by percentage -- a couple other guys in this building today, they're top 3. So all about adding shooting. We're looking forward to having him.

As far as the season goes, yeah, he's on a one-year deal, and we'll figure it out as we go. There's some cap and apron stuff that we've got to deal with, but that's something for our strategy team to figure out.

Q. I know this is about the details of the negotiation so maybe you won't go too much into this, but it went into camp. We know about the offer deadline was today. You want guys in camp; you wanted Horford and Melton in here. Was there some sort of ticking deadline on your offers, your offer? Was it a point where you had to say, this thing might go away unless you sign this pretty soon?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, I think it's hard to create deadlines, so the deadline is the deadline. I'd say from a CBA standpoint, I think it would be ideal for everybody if that deadline was moved up a couple months this summer. There's just a lot of, frankly, sitting around waiting to know that when the deadline gets closer we'll probably get closer to a deal.

A lot of idle time because of that date, but yeah, it is what it is, and you had to go off the calendar.

Q. You're now a few years into the job. I know we've been talking about Steve's future, but how do you view where you're at right now job-wise and your view of your own future?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, I'm enjoying it. I really like being here. We've got a great group, both as players but staffing-wise, coaches, all that. It's a great organization. I'm honored to be here. Hope I can be here a long time. I'm really enjoying the job, the challenge each and every day. Things like this summer are pretty unique, right, like probably won't have a negotiation like that ever again just given the circumstances that it was.

Nothing is ever the same. Things are always changing, and I kind of like that, being able to problem solve, think on your feet. I love this job, love being here.

Q. Even after De'Anthony's injury and the trade to the Nets last year to bring in Dennis, was there always a hope to keep him here in the Bay Area, and what were those conversations like with him after the trade to Brooklyn?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Well, not much conversation after he was traded because that's not allowed, but as far as just kind of small sample size what we saw, we really believed in him as a player in our group, and it was unfortunate that he got injured.

I'd say we kind of put a pin in it, took note, and said if we have an opportunity to bring him back at some point, let's try and do that. Fortunately enough we were able to do it. Made a long summer of it, but got him signed and ready to go. He'll finish up his rehab stuff and be with us soon.

Q. How would you categorize Joe Lacob's interest in the conversations or contracts that could have been coming this off-season? What was his curiosity level for updates?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: As always, very interested. I see Joe as an extension of the front office. Got to keep him involved and keep him up to date.

He was a little bit sidetracked this summer with the Valkyries, which is great, fun to watch, and they had an amazing inaugural season, so Joe was caught up with that a little bit, but for the most part it's business as usual, what's going on, where are we at, what's taking so long and all that stuff.

Q. With your three top players all over the age of 35, how did that kind of inform the kind of players you pursued this off-season and your plan for the team?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah, good question. I think the main objective for us right now is winning because of these guys and their age and frankly how good they are. Don't want to get too caught up in we've got to get way younger or we shouldn't be too old. The main thing was let's bring in good talented players, and I think we've done that at different age groupings because this timeline is year to year. We're going to try and win this thing this year, and I think the guys we've added to the roster reflect that.

I think that's kind of how we're thinking of it, but also, obviously always mindful of our future and don't want to mortgage too much. It's got to make sense, those types of things.

Q. How instrumental was John Phelps' role in you guys compiling the roster you ended up with?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: I don't know what I'd do without John. I'm fortunate to work with a great group. He's one of the guys in that group. I've got a great team, support staff.

John and his group, they know their stuff in and out and really was a valuable resource for me to be able to rely on, ask questions, understand, and frankly after this summer I feel like I'm an expert on the cap and restricted free agency and aprons and all that stuff.

I learned a lot, and John was a huge help.

Q. Did your trust in him allow you to feel comfortable where this was going to end up?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: Yeah. I was pretty comfortable with where this was going to end up just based on the circumstances. Restricted free agency is tough; we know that. When you have a restricted free agent, frankly you have a pretty good idea what the market is.

So for that reason I had a pretty good idea where this was going to end. I just wasn't quite sure on the timing. Thought it would take longer than most would think, and it did. But we got to where we needed to be.

Q. You mentioned the vets. How involved were they in terms of the team building in the off-season?

MIKE DUNLEAVY: I would say involved as they normally are. I like to bounce things off them, value their opinions, hear what they're thinking. But there's never, hey, we've got to do this or don't do that. That's just kind of how those dynamics and conversations work.

Anytime you ask me that I'll probably have the same answer.