Bob Myers, president of basketball operations for the Golden State Warriors, initially thought that acquiring DeMarcus Cousins was just completely impossible due to financial concerns. Cousins, after all, is a bona fide NBA star. Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry's contracts have a huge dent on the Warriors' finances. Little did Myers know that Cousins was willing to take a hefty pay cut.

Speaking with Greg Papa and Bonta Hill on 95.7 The Game, Myers said that they were saving their taxpayer mid-level exception for some players who might not get paid in the tight free agency market. Around this time, Myers was talking with Cousins' agent.

Myers insisted that they wouldn't be able to absorb Cousins, given that they would have to move pieces around the financial burden it would create would limit the Warriors moving forward.

‘Look, our roster is what it is. To move that many pieces around, to create $10 million in room, or $15 (million), it’s just prohibitive, I don’t want to waste your time.’

Myers told the agent that they can only offer the taxpayer mid-level. And at that moment, he knew that Cousins' camp was very serious about joining the Warriors.

“So I thought that’s where the conversation was going … and I said to him, ‘We don’t have the money that you’re probably commanding out there.’ And this is the moment it became real — he said, ‘We understand what you have.’ And I said, ‘Well we only have the taxpayer mid-level.’ And then when he said, ‘I know,’ that’s when I knew it was real. They were very serious about it and they never really wavered.”