It was a situation that went somewhat unnoticed, and a situation that could’ve blown up several NBA locker rooms.
After beginning the season as the team’s starting center, Zaza Pachulia was relegated to the bench for the majority of the Golden State Warriors’ run to their third championship in the last four seasons. The 15-year veteran lost minutes to rookie Jordan Bell, deep bench big Kevon Looney and famously aloof shot blocker JaVale McGee. A starter for the majority of his career, Pachulia only stepped on the court in garbage time and never played more than six minutes in any playoff game.
Yet Pachulia did not see the loss of minutes as a demotion. He worked just as hard, and he made sure he prepared his teammates that had essentially made him obsolete during the most important time of the season.
“To see the buy-in that he continued to have, with 21- and 22-year-old guys playing ahead of him, instead of being upset and saying, ‘I should be playing…’ He took it as an opportunity to continue to hold other players accountable and continue to help make them better,” said Santa Cruz Warriors General Manager Kent Lacob. “Seeing it up close, it was genuine. It was purely authentic, and that’s the type of culture we want when we talk about culture.”
Those were the moments that rose above the rest for Lacob and Santa Cruz head coach Aaron Miles during their time with Golden State this postseason. Lacob was working side-by-side with Golden State General Manager Bob Myers and Assistant General Manager Kirk Lacob, his older brother, while Miles tagged along with head coach Steve Kerr and his coaching staff.
Of course, being on the stage for the NBA Finals trophy presentation and donning the goggles for the champagne showers in the locker room afterward, were moments that Miles will never forget. But from a professional perspective, picking Kerr’s brain about culture, going over minutes charts with Mike Brown and discussing defensive strategy with Ron Adams made the last month-and-a-half as educational as it was inspirational.
“For coach Kerr, Bob Myers and the organization to open up their arms and allow me to participate the way they did, I feel truly blessed,” Miles said.
Miles sat-in at coaches meetings, worked one-on-one with players before games and during practice and even broke a little bit of a sweat as the scout team point guard during the Warriors’ first two playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs and New Orleans Pelicans.
“That was fun,” said Miles, who played the role of Dejounte Murray and Rajon Rondo during the scout team sessions. “I kind of forgot how big and athletic and long these guys are.”
There were a few familiar faces for Miles and Lacob to latch on to during their time with Golden State. Guards Quinn Cook and Patrick McCaw and bigs Damion Jones and Bell all spent time in Santa Cruz during the 2017-18 season. All four played a significant role for Golden State throughout the season, but Cook’s ascension from two-way player to key contributor late in the year held a special place in Miles’ memory. An ESPN clip of Kerr telling Cook how valuable he was during their championship run, only further enforced how important building a team-wide culture through relationships is to a team’s success.
“That’s how you treat people,” Miles said. “That’s how you develop that culture.”
Both Miles and Lacob admitted that developing a culture in the G League is a different task. With so much turnover from season to season, the challenge of building the culture falls heavily on the coaching staff and front office, Miles said. So the implementation of the team culture won’t be the same, but the time spent with Golden State has given Miles and Lacob several ideas of how to continue to develop the culture in the coastal city for years to come.
“It’s not going to be the same culture as Golden State,” Lacob said. “We don’t want to try to replicate what they’re doing in Golden State, we want to find our own culture.”
He added: “It won’t be easy, we won’t get it perfectly, but that’s what we’re here for, to continue to learn, make mistakes…hopefully that will work out in the long run.”
