SAN FRANCISCO – Steve Kerr is sitting in his new office.

There is no ceiling, just the blue sky over Mission Bay and seagulls that make their way from the Chase Center construction site to the nearby water. There is no finished floor, just a slab of foundation overlooking the 26-foot hole in the ground where his Golden State Warriors’ practice court will be in 18 months.

But what there is — after seven months in which 450 workers dug up 300,000 cubic yards of dirt, erected more than 1,300 piles and adhered to a 200-page playbook to keep this $1 billion, privately financed facility on schedule for a 2019-20 season opening — is a chance for the down-to-earth Kerr to try a few one-liners.

“I forgot to tell you guys, I want a bigger office,” Kerr, whose team downed the Lakers in Los Angeles the night before this recent visit with USA TODAY Sports, says with a smile to the two foremen who are leading this tour. “So if you could just start over? Thanks.”

The team’s longtime media relations man, Raymond Ridder, chimes in: “This is probably where you’ll be fired.”

“No question,” Kerr says with a grin.

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You can joke like this when you’ve won two titles in the past three seasons, winning at an unprecedented regular season rate (207-39) while boasting a roster so deep they don't need to be at full strength to dominate. The Warriors, winners of 11 of 12 games despite being without Steph Curry (ankle) and Draymond Green (shoulder) for much of that stretch, head into this Christmas Day clash against Cleveland with the second-best record in the league.

The harsh reality for their rivals? The greatest threat to the Warriors' would-be dynasty is the mountain of money it will take to keep all these future Hall of Famers on the roster. And that, as the Warriors knew when they started planning their move from Oracle Arena in nearby Oakland, Calif. years ago, is where the building itself becomes the ultimate X-factor for the future.

The numbers are mind-numbing. The Warriors’ combined payroll projections between this season and the 2020-21 campaign are set to be an unprecedented $1.1 billion, passing the price tag on the arena itself so long as they hand out the maximum salary contracts necessary to keep this special core together. Curry re-upped with a five-year, $201 million deal last summer, and there’s the forthcoming free agency for Kevin Durant (this summer), Klay Thompson (2019) and Green (2020) that will put them into unprecedented luxury tax territory if they're all retained.

It’s the kind of economic reality that rival teams hope short-circuits this Warriors’ run, the last, great hope that the “Super Villains” core will be broken up. Except for one thing: Their Death Star, this 11-acre entertainment district that will help owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber balance their books with concerts and shows, doesn’t have a fatal flaw.

“It’s the absolute foundation for our success for – I would argue – decades to come, because it ensures that we’re going to be competitive financially with any other team in the league,” said Warriors president Rick Welts, who has spent recent years shepherding this project while navigating political minefields and, he estimates, taking part in more than 500 arena-related meetings. “Even under this new collective bargaining agreement, the numbers are getting kind of eye-popping, if they weren’t already, in terms of what it’s going to take financially to field a championship-caliber team. And I think our view is that it ensures this future for as far into the future as we can see.”

As Kerr is the first to note, these are first-world problems of the highest order. This is the first time he’s seen the progress since a groundbreaking ceremony in January, when dancing forklifts and Cirque Du Soleil-style dancers dressed as construction workers performed for the hundreds on hand.

“How are those guys doing on the job, by the way?” Kerr quips while wearing the mandated hardhat, yellow jacket, protective glasses, and gloves.

Kerr, who once tried improv on the famed Second City stage in Chicago and has long been known for his dry wit, is equal parts impressed and amused by the lavishness.

During a tour of one of the luxurious bunker suite models, a space bigger than most San Francisco apartments that will cost as much as $2.25 million, the 52-year-old Southern California native deadpans, “It reminds me of when my Dad used to take my brother and I to the Dodgers game, sitting in those left field bleachers with our jug of lemonade. It’s so similar ...”

When the viewing party moves to a second model of a suite, the type that will be located in the lower bowl of the 18,064-capacity building and be bought by the wealthiest of corporations, the outspoken opponent of President Trump says of the exorbitant cost, “That’s okay. With the new tax plan, they can afford it ...”

But based on the rules of today’s NBA, this is what it takes to stay on top. And jokes aside, this isn’t the kind of joy ride anyone wants to hop off of – least of all Kerr, who missed 43 games in the 2015-16 regular season and 11 playoff games last season because of complications from botched back surgery in 2015.

“I love what I do, so I keep doing it,” Kerr says when asked about his long-term view. “Coaching is actually helpful, and it’s no secret that I still deal with a lot of pain. But it’s not like I’m going to walk away because of it. I love what I do. I love coaching. I love being around the guys, and I’ve just had to learn how to kind of manage my life. So that’s what I’m doing.”

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Kerr, who told The Athletic in October there are plans to extend his contract next summer, clearly expects to be here when the Chase Center opens.

Long before this visit, when assistant general manager Kirk Lacob was making sure the coaching staff had a say in the building strategy, Kerr made a few specific requests that were ultimately granted.

“How the courts were going to be angled, (like) which way, and based on the lines (of sight), and how many hoops (there would be),” he explained. “There were a few details that I felt strongly about it. The balcony (overlooking the court). We have a lot of visitors to practice — coaches. And we wanted access for people to come in and visit and watch without being able to go downstairs.”

As Kerr learned, though, the non-Warriors components make this move from Oracle Arena work. The 588,000 square feet of office buildings that will house companies like Uber, or the 100,000 square feet of restaurant retail that, as Welts said, is filling the “budget hole in what otherwise wouldn’t be do-able if you were to just build an arena.”

It is, like it or not, the key to their continued dominance.

“Two championships, three Finals (in a row), and now a brand new building, it is pretty remarkable,” Kerr said during the drive back over the Bay Bridge. “I didn’t see the championships (when he decided to take the job in 2014), but I saw the aspirations of the organization. I saw the dreams that Bob and Joe and Peter really laid out, and I knew they were real. I felt that when I took the job, and I was hoping we could do big things. But when they actually happen, it’s like ‘Wow.’”

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