There is one pending Warriors free agent who isn’t named Kevin Durant or Stephen Curry, but he’s still an enormously important figure:

Executive board member Jerry West’s most recent contract with the Warriors is scheduled to expire this July, and as of yet there have been no serious discussions with owner Joe Lacob about an extension, both men told me recently.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be any discussions–Lacob specifically said he planned to have a conversation with West soon–and West indicated that he knew that Lacob and co-owner Peter Guber had been very busy getting the San Francisco arena to the ground-breaking stage.

Also, West, 78, suffered a fall in LA two weeks ago and briefly went to the hospital for observation and some tests; he returned home feeling OK and attended the Warriors’ victory over the Clippers in LA last week.

Previous to the hospital episode, West had been telling associates that he wasn’t sure what he’d do after this season, but he knew he still wanted to remain active with a team.

Just yesterday, long-time NBA writer Mark Heisler suggested in the Orange County Register that the Lakers should bring back West as a big part of their continuing front-office shake-up.

Multiple sources indicated to me that West might be intrigued by an offer from the Lakers, but he also feels very connected to the Warriors’ quest for championships.

West, one of the greatest executives of all-time from his Lakers and Memphis days, has been a vital part of the Warriors’ turn-around since joining the franchise in May 2011 as an executive board member and key front-office voice.

He championed the selection of Klay Thompson in 2011, for instance, was one of the strongest voices arguing against even considering trading Thompson for Kevin Love in 2014, and held a key phone conversation with Kevin Durant in the hours before Durant decided to leave the Thunder to sign with the Warriors last summer.

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West, who also has the right to purchase a small percentage of the Warriors, received a two-year extension from the Warriors in September 2014 (when he had one year left on his first deal).

That 2014 extension was twinned with a longer extension for GM Bob Myers–months before the Warriors’ championship in 2015.

But somewhat interestingly, Myers received another new deal last summer (while he still had a year left)… and West didn’t.

On my podcast on Friday, Lacob suggested that there was nothing to read into the separation of the West and Myers contract situations.

I can vouch: Myers and West remain close; in fact, West apparently strongly supported Lacob and Guber giving Myers the promotion (to president/basketball operations) and raise he received last summer

—Here are some excerpts from my podcast conversation with Lacob last Friday.

-Q: How is Jerry? I know he was at the game in LA (on Wednesday)…

-LACOB: I’ve talked to him. He’s obviously feeling better and doing well. And I think he’s going to be just fine. I don’t think this is any major thing. He still should be a little careful…

I’ve warned him–‘You’re a go-go guy, you need to just chill a little bit.’ Make sure you’re OK here. I think he will. I hope he will. But he sounds great.

-Q: West’s contract is up after this season. Do you plan on having a conversation with him for an extension?

-LACOB: Sure. Yeah, we’re going to talk. I’m not going to talk to him right now while he’s going through this.

I might’ve even mentioned to you earlier that after the 1st of the year we would at some point sit down. And I’ve told him as well we’ll talk, figure it out, what’s best for him.

-Q: It was notable, I thought, that you’ve extended both Jerry and Myers together recently, but last summer Myers was extended and not Jerry…

-LACOB: We don’t do everybody all at the same time necessarily. We do things when they need to be done. Every situation is different. Jerry, he’s approaching 80 years old, depends on what he wants to do, quite frankly. I don’t really know what he wants to do.

We haven’t had a chance to sit down and talk and we’re going to do that. We’re going to do something that works for him and works for us.

—And here’s a short conversation I had with West several weeks ago about his future with the Warriors…

-Q: What kind of talks have you had about your future past this season?

-WEST: I have not had a conversation with Joe about a commitment after this season, nor have I sought one. We haven’t talked about this at all.

I like everybody up there. They’ve been great to me, everybody has.

It’s a non-story, as far as I’m concerned, because the story should be about that team and trying to get to another level, which I think they can do.

I know what Joe’s trying to do up there. The work to get that arena built has been very time-consuming and I realize how much it has taken to get that projected started, and he has to feel a lot of excitement and relief now that it’s happening.