Ridiculous Upside Podcast #4: Golden State Warriors' Assistant General Manager Kirk Lacob

As previously mentioned here on RidiculousUpside.com, along with the new year of 2014 comes the annual NBA D-League Showcase just a few days later (January 5th).

With that in mind, there's plenty to talk about, address, and ponder regarding the minor league and its most promising prospects as we depart 2013.

The RidiculousUpside.com staff had quite the special guest call in to discuss an array of different topics on what was our last podcast of the year. Golden State Warriors' Assistant General Manager Kirk Lacob called in to our latest show to talk about all sorts of aspects of the NBA D-League.

As part of his role with Golden State, Lacob serves as G.M. for the NBADL-affiliated Santa Cruz Warriors. While overseeing the minor league franchise, the executive played a big part in the team's move out to Santa Cruz and their run to the D-League Finals just last season.

Speaking with our staff on Monday night, Lacob discussed the team's successful new season, highlighting some of the team's most exciting players. What's more, a main component of the Warriors' winning ways as of late (both in Golden State and Santa Cruz, for that matter) has been the organization's seamless, effective, and terrific integration of the D-League as a development tool for employees across the board, from players, to front office employees, and even broadcasters. The top notch executive expressed his appreciation for the up and coming employees he gets to work with everyday.

But the fun in Santa Cruz doesn't just stop there. There's surprisingly a refreshingly passionate fan base. Lacob also addressed the ongoing development of big men like Dewayne Dedmon and Hilton Armstrong, both of whom have spent time with both Warriors' teams already this season.

And lastly, Lacob, like a slew of other NBA executives, will find his way to Reno for the D-League Showcase in less than a week. He discussed what he looks forward to in Reno, and added that such a gathering of big league personnel serves as a great forum for many to touch base and explore things leading up to the NBA trading deadline.

Needless to say, our discussion with Lacob was a great one filled with plenty of worthwhile info and interesting minor league tid-bits.

From there, we explored some of the top headlines heading into the Showcase itself, as well as some of the most exciting D-League-related ones from the past year.

Despite some early technical difficulties to start things off, this was a fun episode we were excited to host. To listen for yourself and hear who Lacob called the new next "best kept secret" in the D-League click here.