The Golden State Warriors entered the 2011 NBA Draft Lottery with a 0.8% chance at winning the number 
one spot. And like true to lottery form, the Warriors did not win the lottery and will be drafting at number 11.
While I was at the lottery, I had a chance to go one-on-one with Warriors owner Joe Lacob before and after the lottery. In this interview, Lacob spoke on the 2011 NBA Draft, his vision for the Warriors next season, San Antonio Spurs’ assistant coach Mike Budenholzer, his thoughts on the draft lottery results for the Warriors and more.
As I walked though the hospitality tent, I caught up with Mr. Lacob before the lottery began:
Jeff: Many say this upcoming draft class is not as strong. Do you beg to differ?
Mr. Lacob: No I don’t think I would beg to differ. It doesn’t look, at least on the surface, like it’s going to be one of the stronger drafts. My personnel guys are saying that, I think you’re reading it generally. However, I don’t know that we always know for sure. There are a number of players every year, for instance are drafted in the second round even, that turn out to be quite successful. So I think it’s an important and probably the best source of acquiring new talent is the draft. I think we all have to pay attention and do the best job we can to try to figure out who the players are going to be.
For the Warriors in the draft, are you targeting a specific positional type player or best available when it’s your turn to select?
I think it’s really best available. I just think, regardless of position, you have to find who you think is going to be the best player out there at your draft position. We clearly have a couple of needs we feel, I think it’s been widely reported, and it’s very obvious we need some more size inside, we need some more depth on the team as well but so we would prefer to get a great, big interior presence as an addition to the team. But we really can’t focus on that exclusively. It really depends on where we’re going to pick, and what’s available at the time. So again we’ll pick the best player we can.
What’s the latest on the coaching situation for the Warriors?
As is reported, in multiple media outlets, we are interviewing a number of candidates and trying to arrive at a final list which then I will also get involved in the process and begin to interview those folks.
Reportedly, one of the candidates was San Antonio Spurs assistant coach Mike Budenholzer. Was he one of your more preferred candidates?
Click HERE for the complete interview at Project Spurs.
