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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 7 hours ago
Transcript
00:00Out to the River Islands guest line, we go for one of our favorites.
00:03She's the best, tapped into the league like nobody else on ESPN, Ramona Shelburne.
00:08Hey, Momo, what's going on?
00:09How's it going, Mark?
00:10We're doing pretty good.
00:11You know what we're sitting here talking about?
00:13After watching, well, the Warriors played the Heat last night.
00:16And let me think, there were no Steph, no Jimmy, no Draymond, no Al, no Jonathan.
00:24So we're having just a healthy little conversation about how the league fixes this load management thing
00:33and how they can make this better for the current players.
00:37But we're taking away the answer, play fewer games.
00:41Because obviously the owners, they're never going to agree to less money.
00:45So what's your thought?
00:47How concerned is the league about this?
00:50I think they're concerned because, you know, it's just not good for this to be a continuing storyline.
00:57But not even just like, oh, these guys sat out of the game and they're load managing, they're not available.
01:03I think it's just terrible for fans to constantly be feeling like they don't know who's going to play if they buy a ticket.
01:11And then for these guys to be getting hurt when they do play.
01:14You know, like the rash of the Achilles injuries last year was terrible.
01:18The knee injuries, like there's so many great stars in the league that are not even playing this year.
01:23I mean, these are just bad headlines to keep popping up.
01:27So I think they're concerned.
01:28It's not great for the product.
01:29I mean, look, they've already sold the rights, the TV rights, and they already got their new billion-dollar deals.
01:35But it's about the health of the league.
01:37And they've got to figure something out here.
01:40Yeah, you need to have your top attractions doing top things more often.
01:44And my idea, Ramona, and tell me if this is cockamamie or not, but I thought you could institute an NFL-style bye week where every team would have a week where you just didn't play.
01:54You didn't have to practice.
01:55You got to just chill.
01:57I don't hate that.
01:59It's kind of cool.
01:59Yeah.
02:00I mean, like, they kind of have that with the end-season tournament, right?
02:03Where, you know, then after All-Star break, you have, like, one of those bye weeks.
02:07But, you know, most of the people I talk to about this issue, they say it's really just about the style of the game right now.
02:14It's that guys are just running so much more.
02:17It's so much – you know, you can find all kinds of data on this.
02:23But the amount of wear and tear that players are putting on their body now, it's not just from coming up from their youth days and college and AAU and all that.
02:34But it's in-game.
02:36Like, in-game, the way they play now is just a lot more taxing on the body.
02:40And, you know, I don't know how you change that.
02:42I mean, I still think you got to come back to some sort of, you know, shortening of the season, et cetera.
02:47But that's not how the TV contracts are written and that's not how the, you know, the player contracts are written.
02:52No one wants to give back money by not playing as many games.
02:54But somehow we've – I think we got to end up there because it's just the style of play.
03:01I mean, I don't know, didn't Adam Silver float something about saying that we have a shortened game?
03:06I think it's like a 40-minute game rather than a 40 – like, if it really is the style of the game,
03:11maybe making the game shorter would actually help.
03:14Yeah, going from 48 minutes to 40, something like that.
03:17Yeah.
03:17Yeah, Ramona Shelburne, ESPN, is with us.
03:20Look, we got all kinds of questions surrounding, obviously, Draymond Green's comments in Oklahoma City last week,
03:28the Jonathan Kaminga injury and situation.
03:31But I would love to start with this.
03:33The Warriors have talked so much about the difficulty of their travel, their back-to-backs.
03:38They lead the league in back-to-backs, road games, different cities.
03:42And they've struggled a bit through all of that.
03:44But they're 9-8 as things now start to loosen up.
03:47What are your early impressions of how they look as a whole?
03:53I think when they've been good, they've been much better than I expected them.
03:57And when they've been bad or not altogether present, they've been worse than we expected them, right?
04:02Like, the highs are higher than we thought and the lows are lower.
04:05In other words, you know, I think 9-8 is about right around how they've played
04:09because they just haven't been all together.
04:11But I don't know.
04:12I didn't take anything from Draymond's comments after Oklahoma City.
04:15I felt like that was just him saying, let's get our act together, guys.
04:18And then they did have a very good response in San Antonio.
04:22What I feel like when I watch them is that I've been watching these guys go through similar troughs
04:29and hard spots in the season for so many years that I really don't worry about them.
04:36Like, I just feel like they'll figure it out.
04:37They've been through so much.
04:38And I also just got done watching the Dodgers go through their regular season where, you know,
04:43I mean, the bullpen was terrible.
04:46Like, the offense sucked for a while.
04:48They had a very underwhelming regular season based on how good they are and the talent.
04:53But they were there when it mattered at the end.
04:56And I think that's, with an older roster, that's kind of what you've got to do.
05:00I don't care that much about where they finish.
05:02I think it'd be better for them if they finished out of the play-in tournament.
05:05But as long as they're in the top six, which is a big ask, I don't think it matters that much
05:11as long as they're healthy and well going into the playoffs.
05:14Yeah, healthy and well.
05:15And hopefully deep and the depth can continue to improve.
05:18And I wonder about your impressions of Jonathan Kaminga early because the first handful of games,
05:23it was, wow, he's awesome.
05:24And then the subsequent games was, oh boy, kind of last year all over again.
05:28What have you seen from afar with J.K.?
05:30Yeah, I mean, you know, I saw him in L.A.
05:33And it was like everyone was going out of their way to, you know, kiss up to, you know,
05:37like basically say, like, how great he's been.
05:40And, you know, we had this little bromance here with, you know, both Draymond and Jimmy
05:45sort of claiming him, right, of like he's their young guy that they mentor.
05:49I mean, definitely with Jimmy.
05:51There's a real bond there.
05:53But the thing is, when things are going well, people talk about that.
05:58When you get to be friends with Draymond and Jimmy Butler, they're going to also tell you
06:03when you're not doing the right things, right?
06:05Like they're going to praise you when you're good, and they're going to let you know when
06:09you're not doing well.
06:10And I think, you know, he was part of the reason he was doing so well early is because
06:14he was doing all those little things, not turning the ball over, you know, making the
06:18right reads, making the extra pass.
06:20You know, everything he was doing defensively, there was, you know, I don't want to say he
06:26locked up Luka Doncic, the guy had 40-something points, but he played him well enough straight
06:30up that they didn't have to double him every time, which helped the defense in L.A.
06:34in that season opener.
06:35And so you see those flashes, but it's, when he goes bad, it's usually the little things
06:41that all start snowballing on him.
06:43Ramona Shelburne, ESPN.
06:44And that's why I think a lot of Warrior fans right now, I don't know, they've either got
06:50opinions or PTSD or whatever, because every time the Warriors aren't winning, immediately
06:56it feels like all things go to Kaminga, and I think what people are curious about now,
07:02does he feel that way?
07:04Your colleague Anthony Slater with a very big article today, right?
07:07I'm sure you did.
07:08And the one thing, after losing 5-7, here comes this quote from a team source, he feels like
07:17the scapegoat again.
07:18Is that your impression right now, that Jonathan feels like he gets the blame every time it
07:24goes wrong?
07:26Yeah.
07:27You know, I don't think anyone knows the Warriors better than Anthony Slater, right?
07:31And so, and I do think having covered them pretty deeply, like they, look, we know what
07:36we're going to get from Steph, usually.
07:38Like, you know, there's good Draymond games and bad Draymond games, but generally speaking,
07:44at least defensively, you know what you're going to get from him.
07:46And the up and down is usually, you know, fluctuating with the shot and how aggressive
07:50he is.
07:51Jimmy, it's just whether he's healthy or not, and hitting his outside shot, but he gets
07:56to the line so much, and it's a pretty remarkable consistency.
07:59And so, really, the bellwether is Kaminga.
08:01You know, I mean, you could, and is it fair to him?
08:05I don't know.
08:05I mean, like, I feel like Pods has kind of had a down year, right?
08:09Like, you could make him a scapegoat.
08:11You can, you know, there's been up and down with Moody.
08:13He had a great game the other night, but it's not there every single night.
08:17Like, you could, you could point at, you know, Jimmy's production or, you know, good
08:22Jimmy games, bad, but Kaminga is the lightning rod because he kind of made himself the lightning
08:26rod, right?
08:27That extended negotiation and how public it was and how acrimonious it was.
08:32Like, that's what's going to happen now.
08:34Like, you became the story.
08:37So, when things are good, people are going to write good things about you.
08:40When things are bad, it's going to be all your fault.
08:42Like, that's, that's just kind of how it works sometimes.
08:45And when he plays great, they have impressive wins like they did over Denver and like you
08:49saw in Los Angeles.
08:51But in general, if he isn't great and they don't deal him, I mean, you use the phrase
08:57bellwether, will they only rise as high as JK's role play can take them?
09:03I don't even know if I would go with that.
09:05I, I, I think they can still win when we saw that last year, they, they sort of won
09:09in spite of him last year.
09:11He had good games when Steph got hurt, but they, they were, they were okay when he was
09:16either not playing that much or, or come off the bench.
09:19He was, or even out of the rotation altogether, right?
09:21They were, I don't know the exact stat, but I know that I know the stat from when Jimmy
09:25came over to the end.
09:27And some of that was, some of those were JK games and some of those weren't, but, but
09:30they did okay without him last year.
09:32I just, I think their, their, their ceiling is a lot higher with him when he's in the
09:37best version of himself, but I think their floor is pretty high either way.
09:41Ramona, my, if my math is correct, we're 56 days away from what is being called JK day.
09:49Um, right.
09:50I know I, I don't even love it, but yeah, I kind of came up with it.
09:54And so can you handicap this for us right now?
09:57What, what you think the likelihood is in terms of trade or keep?
10:00I mean, look, we, we know the teams that we're interested in as a free agent.
10:04So you should look at those same teams right now, the Kings, Suns, right?
10:09Um, I think there was some interest in the Miami heat too.
10:12Um, I forget another couple of teams I'm forgetting right now, except of who the, who the interesting
10:17team is Chicago.
10:18Maybe I think was interested at one point.
10:20Um, you know, I, Kings lost seven in a row and they just lost the bonus for a month.
10:26Could they, could they be blowing it up fairly soon?
10:29I could see that.
10:31Right.
10:31Like, um, Phoenix is playing pretty well.
10:35Um, you know, and, and, uh, I don't know if they want to really shake things up that much
10:40or if they have much of what the Warriors want.
10:42I think, I think it really does come back to the same question you had over the summer,
10:46which was if they get a trade that they like, um, you know, will they do it?
10:53I don't know that either of those teams have what the Warriors like.
10:56We've already, you've already seen what those lesser offers are, but maybe things change
11:00because the Kings have been so awful this year.
11:02What do the Warriors like?
11:04What, what draw, draw the player they want?
11:06Um, I, well, I think you, you, you definitely want more consistency and like that four or
11:12five role, you know, I mean, right now you have Horford who's good, but he's playing every
11:16other night of a back to back and he's, you know, he's, he's a real system guy for them,
11:21but he's not going to, he's not going to be a jump off the page.
11:23Like, you know, like what's the ideal fit?
11:27A guy like Laurie Markkinen, I don't, I don't know if you go again, you know, but, but like
11:31if you could drop a player, that's who I would say, you know, that something in that,
11:35something in that vein, there's a, you know, he makes a lot of money and I don't know that
11:38Utah's trading him right now.
11:40So you have to look at the teams who are already interested and, and you have to look at the
11:44teams who thought they were going to be good, but aren't right.
11:48So, you know, I, I don't know.
11:51Let's, let's see how the market develops.
11:52I haven't, I haven't gauged that market recently.
11:55So I'll be, I'll be honest with you.
11:57And I, I, I've kind of been of the opinion that I, I, I sort of feel like he could stay.
12:02They don't have to trade him at the deadline, especially if he improves his value, if he
12:08plays as well as he has at the beginning of the year, but what's, what's hard is, as well
12:12as, as well, when he plays, well, you kind of don't want to trade him, right?
12:16You kind of want him to be on your team because you see the glimpses of it.
12:21And, and, and just remember they, they, I know people call it JK day, et cetera.
12:25Like it's a kind of, you know, they compared to the D'Angelo Russell thing, but we're just
12:29got a really good return for D'Angelo Russell.
12:33They don't have to trade Kaminga.
12:35They're not.
12:35And they've shown you already, by the way, they handled negotiations that they're not
12:39going to trade him unless they get what they, you know, a good, what they deem to be a
12:43good value.
12:43Cause they, they think he's really good.
12:45They don't want to just trade him just to trade him.
12:48Yeah.
12:48Especially having the team option for next year.
12:50Also, they can just wait till the off season and do it then or next year, the deadline,
12:55whatever.
12:55Are you surprised Ramona at the bottom heavy nature of the Western conference?
13:00I'm looking at the Clippers who are woefully under, underachieving and Dallas kind of stinks.
13:06I thought that there'd be more teams in the mix.
13:08Okay.
13:09Hold on.
13:09I got to do something.
13:10I got to look at a stat that I saw earlier today.
13:12I got to look this up.
13:13It's so good.
13:14I have to look it up.
13:15Okay.
13:16All right.
13:17I'm intrigued.
13:18I'm in the stats too, Ramona.
13:20Let's see if I can find it.
13:21Okay.
13:21Let me see if I can find it while I'm on the phone with you.
13:23This will be fun.
13:24This is live Ramona searching right here.
13:26This is great.
13:27It's a live search.
13:29Stanford educated on the line.
13:30All right.
13:31So somebody had it like the bottom eight teams.
13:34It was, it was like basically the bottom eight teams in the, in the Western conference
13:38have lost like, and I think it's like a combined.
13:42Hey, the Warriors get Zubats.
13:44Could that happen?
13:45We love Zubats up here.
13:47Oh, I mean, I love Zubats down here in LA too.
13:50He, he's really good.
13:52I don't know why the Clippers would trade him.
13:53Why would they do that?
13:54Because they stink.
13:55You'd like, I'm looking at it.
13:56Like they're, they're not good.
13:58It's not working.
13:59And he's young.
14:00And I don't know that you want to just get coming up for him.
14:04I think you want to keep him.
14:06Like if the, the, the, the Clippers are old.
14:09The reason why they're not good right now is they're old and hurt.
14:12Um, and they don't have any draft picks.
14:14And so to me, you don't trade one of your young, valuable guys who's on a decent contract.
14:19You trade, you know, you, you trade him for an even younger guy.
14:25Uh, I think you keep him.
14:27All right.
14:27I don't think he's on the move.
14:29I'm just over here.
14:30I think that's one guy you say you stick with, you know, but if you're rolling with James Harden
14:34and Zubats, you don't, that's, that's the only thing they have right now that works offensively.
14:38Right.
14:39Right.
14:39No, I get it.
14:40I get it.
14:40The only pick and roll action that they have that even that they can score with.
14:45Well, just dreaming over here.
14:46That's all.
14:47Yeah.
14:48Yeah.
14:48Sorry.
14:48Um, okay.
14:49No problem.
14:50We'll still call you again.
14:51Thank you so much.
14:52Yeah.
14:52Thank you for coming on Ramona.
14:53And thank you for live Googling.
14:55You got it.
14:56All right.
14:57There she goes.
14:58Yep.
14:59Ramona Shelburne ESPN.
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