OAKLAND – Observers around the NBA are impressed with what the Warriors have done through the first five weeks. Their fans are euphoric. Their players generally believe this team is onto something good, if not great.
Don't bring that happy talk to the boss, Warriors CEO Joe Lacob.
The general manager, Bob Myers, doesn't care to hear it.
And the coach, Steve Kerr, might challenge you to a debate.
The bosses are not satisfied with the Warriors being 15-2 and riding a 10-game win streak. Or with knowing that never in the 69-year history of the franchise, Philadelphia or San Francisco or Oakland, have they been so good, so soon.
When the Warriors were 10-2 and I asked Lacob if he was "satisfied," his answer was immediate and pointed. He said he was not satisfied and, moreover, that he's not comfortable with the word "satisfied."
He did, however, have a trace of a smile as he spoke.
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Lacob is enjoying the moment but would be the first to acknowledge he's exceedingly tough to please. Myers is a realist, cautiously optimistic by nature. And Kerr, the new guy, is asking the impossible.
"I'm not satisfied either,'' Kerr said after practice Wednesday. "I'm not happy at all with the way we've been playing. I'm happy we're winning, but I know to that win when we need to win, in May and June, we've got to play at a much higher level.
"Joe and Bob and I all share the exact same concept, which is we're seeking perfection. You're never going to get it, but you have to constantly seek it to get as close as you can to it."
The coach makes a strong point. The Warriors are winning without playing consistently good basketball, which will be required when the schedule starts snapping back. And it will. Always does.
Their defense is usually good, but the offense comes and goes and sometimes needs to be saved by what Kerr refers to as "individual brilliance."
That was the case Tuesday night, when the Warriors trailed the Magic throughout the fourth quarter before winning on a Stephen Curry 3-pointer with 2.2 seconds remaining.
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That has been the case several times this season, when Marreese Speights has come off the bench to cure an ailing scoring attack.
It has been enough, so far, to put Curry in the MVP conversation and Speights in the Sixth Man of the Year discussion.
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An avalanche of individual accolades might welcome, but that's not Kerr's goal. That's not what Lacob is after, and it's not why Myers constantly studies every team in the league, including the Warriors.
Mark Jackson arrived nearly four years ago and immediately changed the culture. He was the coach that raised the bar. He did. He's gone. Kerr and his staff have been given, in essence, a mandate to raise it even higher.
They want to be measured by what the Warriors accomplish in the postseason. Until then, everything else is prelude.
"The biggest thing is not individual performances," Kerr said. "It's the team performance. I don't care if a guy doesn't make shots one night, because that's going to happen. What I care about is when we don't execute offensively and generate rhythm and pace. That's what's happened to us the past few games. We have not played well together. We've had individual brilliance to bail us out in dire circumstances. Like last night. Like in Miami. Like in Charlotte, with Mo.
"We have to meet our standard of execution and flow and pace every night, and we're not doing that right now."
So you can have your gaudy record, your franchise-altering achievements and your potential individual awards. They all add to the luster.
But there must be luster. The Warriors want to be the last team standing. That can't happen until June. Meanwhile, no matter what they do or how good they look while doing it, there is no joy in the executive suites.
