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00:00All right, people, you've got to listen to this now.
00:05You've got to listen to this.
00:06And I'm sorry if, like, gosh, I'm sorry if this bothers you.
00:11I really am.
00:13And we've had this conversation for so long now.
00:18And I do know, I get it.
00:20Some of you feel like this is, I don't know, a victory lap for people who are against JK.
00:27I don't even like that label.
00:29I'm not against Jonathan Kaminga.
00:32I simply see this situation a certain way.
00:35And my opinion is, is that the last 72 hours have actually been rock bottom for JK and the Warriors.
00:45Because this DNP is built differently than the previous DNPs.
00:51Those previous DNPs were high-leveraged situations, playoff games, play-in games, all of that stuff.
00:59This time it was just Sunday in Chicago.
01:02And you and I talked about that yesterday, and you seemed to agree.
01:06And then after that, listen to these two questions.
01:11Dibs, you crushed it yesterday.
01:13Thanks, partner.
01:14Listen to Steve Kerr, how he answers them right in the middle of the afternoon drive on 95-7 the game.
01:31So here's the first one.
01:34And this is with regard to following up Pat Spencer's appearance on Stiney and Goo when he referred to himself and TJD and some of those other guys as the stay-ready crew.
01:44So take a listen.
01:46Pat Spencer joined Stiney and Goo earlier today, and he talked about being part of the stay-ready crew, where you just never know when you were going to tab them to come in and play.
01:57Is Jonathan Kaminga cut out to be one of those stay-ready guys in case that he happens to fall out of the rotation?
02:03Well, you know, he's obviously a guy with a lot of ambition, which I love.
02:11He wants to be a star.
02:12He's got the ability that gives him that hope and gives us that hope.
02:18But there has to be a consistent level of play in order to achieve that.
02:23You know, you've seen Jimmy really take him under his wing this year, and I love what the veteran players have done, Draymond and Steph.
02:32You know, they're all really fighting for him in his corner.
02:36So the potential is there, but there has to be a level of consistency, especially at this level.
02:43I mean, we're talking about the best basketball league in the world.
02:47And so the consistency has to be there for us, and, you know, if it's not there, then it makes it much more difficult for me to just to give him consistent minutes and give him starts.
02:59So that's what we're asking for is a more consistent level of production.
03:04Okay, so there's a second one that we're about to play.
03:07Warrior fans would really love to know how these two responses make you feel.
03:13Okay, 888-957-9570.
03:16We'll take your calls throughout this 5 o'clock hour.
03:18888-957-9570.
03:22So the first one right there, you asked him, can he be part of the Stay Ready crew?
03:26And his answer is kind of like, basically his ambitions are a little bit too high for that.
03:32Yeah, his ambitions are to start, play a lot, 25 or 30 minutes, and be featured.
03:37And that doesn't really go along with being a Stay Ready guy.
03:40No, and I think that that is a horrible characteristic to have for any athlete.
03:46Your coach has a hard time saying that, yes, you'll stay ready in every moment.
03:52I think that's a very bad characteristic.
03:54And then check this one out.
03:56Another question that you asked.
03:58And this one is simply about effort and trying and want to.
04:06And is that a part of why Jonathan is now not playing?
04:12Listen to this back and forth between Dibbs and Steve Kerr.
04:15Is it as simple as those little things like the effort and the want to that maybe has been missing from his game of late?
04:23Yeah, for sure.
04:25He's not played well lately, and that's why I went away from him last game.
04:30Because Guy Santos came in and really made a huge impact, both Philadelphia and Cleveland games.
04:37And the energy and the passing, the connection, all those things that packed and Guy can provide, that's what our team needs right now.
04:46And so, you know, I said this the other night, I mean, it's no different from any other player on the team.
04:52It's just that, you know, J.K. always gets the most attention from you guys.
04:56And we cop to that.
04:58There's no question.
05:00Jonathan Kaminga is the number one most polarizing situation of 2025 in Bay Area sports.
05:08Right.
05:08Brandon Ayuk won the award last year.
05:10He will be on hand at the award show on New Year's Eve to hand it over to Jonathan this year.
05:16That's the way it went.
05:17So, sure, we're guilty on that, just like everybody is.
05:21We are.
05:21All of you listening to.
05:22Right.
05:23And we got to that spot in the interview, and I was asking him a loaded question that was designed for him to say,
05:30no, I wouldn't say it's effort or want to.
05:32I just don't think that the combinations and the connectivity and the fit right now, you know,
05:37we still love J.K. and what he can bring to our team, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
05:41But instead, yeah.
05:43Steve, is it the effort?
05:44Is it the want to?
05:46Yeah.
05:46And he goes, yeah.
05:47And then he says, for sure.
05:49Right.
05:49Yes, for sure.
05:51He's not playing well.
05:53He's not playing hard.
05:54That's a direct quote.
05:55He's not playing hard.
05:57The want to is not there.
05:58And those were my words, which, you know, anytime you ask a question like that, you're looking for the coach to have a chance to just to not say that that's the case.
06:08And this way, this time, he's like, that's actually the case.
06:11Yeah.
06:12That was what was shocking.
06:13And I looked at Grandy and he looked at me and he's like, I can't believe he answered that like that.
06:17And I was thinking, I can't either.
06:20Speaking of Grandy.
06:22Pat, is that mother?
06:23That became clear.
06:24All right.
06:25There it is.
06:25Okay.
06:26There it is.
06:27That's the sounder.
06:29Boom.
06:30Pat Spencer jersey time.
06:32Be caller 5-415-523-4652 and you win.
06:37It's that simple.
06:38Caller 5 right now.
06:39415-523-4652.
06:43Good luck.
06:44And if you don't win, remember, one more keyword still coming up this hour for you to try to text in and win the Brown the Town.
06:52Curry, Butler, and Draymond jerseys later on this hour.
06:56Okay.
06:56888-957-9570.
06:58So, to me, this is all kind of like laying in the weeds under the radar.
07:04But he gets a DNP on Sunday and people are still like, oh, we're back here again.
07:09No.
07:10No.
07:10This is way worse, in my opinion.
07:14And this, I'm sorry to say, this is exactly what I was worried about all summer long.
07:21We are here.
07:22This is what I was worried about.
07:24And this is not for me to pile on JK.
07:26The point that I actually have today is this is a failure by the Golden State Warriors to correctly assess when was the right time to move on.
07:35Because I believe that time has now passed.
07:38It doesn't mean that they won't.
07:39It doesn't mean that they won't get anything in return.
07:41It just means that it's not optimal.
07:44It's not an optimization sensation is what it is.
07:49Because the Warriors have clearly felt this way for a while.
07:52And all summer long, it was wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
07:56And then they do this contract that, let's be honest, feels a little bit like putting a square peg into a round hole.
08:03Because they wanted to try to maximize the asset.
08:07And maximize the asset probably means doing something two years ago.
08:11Well, and I don't think that they, at that point, were ready to, quote, give up on Jonathan Kaminga.
08:17And I look at this past summer, and I don't think that that was the time.
08:20We went round and round all summer on this idea of the qualifying offer, the sign-and-trade, what Kaminga wants, who might want him, what's the package.
08:30We all kind of ground ourselves into submission over the same thing over and over and over.
08:35So I'm going to withhold judgment on the right time or the wrong time based on how this ends.
08:42Because they might get to the deadline or when they can move him January 15th.
08:46And they might still get a nice, nifty package back from whoever for Jonathan Kaminga.
08:51So we don't know that.
08:53And I don't think that the summer was the right time.
08:55And if you want to go back a couple years, well, I think that's a little unfair.
08:59Because before Jimmy Butler came and before Kaminga got hurt, he was playing his best basketball.
09:05And they weren't always winning those games.
09:07But he was showing you the player that he thinks that he is and that they thought that he could be.
09:13So circumstances led in a certain direction.
09:17He got hurt.
09:18Butler came.
09:18He got DNPs and all the rest of it.
09:21But I do think that if you go back to last year, it's unfair to say that the team should have seen this endgame.
09:28Because he was playing well.
09:29Yeah, but first of all, I think you said something key in there.
09:32You're still not winning a whole lot of those games.
09:34You were winning some.
09:35But it's not like it was translating to winning.
09:38And secondly, you do have to go back further and remember, like, there was a rebounding issue against the Kings in the playoffs two, three years ago.
09:46Like, the organization for a long time, whether they're right or wrong almost is not even my issue right now.
09:53Their assessment is that there has been a problem in terms of style of play, and now we're in the space of effort.
10:01Now we're really in an offensive space.
10:04This is really an offensive space.
10:07Like, how would you all feel if, give me a young player for the Giants.
10:11How about Bryce Eldridge?
10:13You want to know what Steve Kerr just said yesterday?
10:16Bryce Eldridge is in the opening day lineup for the Giants.
10:19And three games in, they send him down to the Miners.
10:24But it's because he keeps hitting ground balls to second base and then not running to first.
10:31Would all of you stand up and be like, you have to give Bryce a chance.
10:35It was a little bit like Doval, I think, when he was closing and then he was a little bit chaffed that they had him come in in games that weren't safe situations and he got lit up.
10:46And then he kind of went into a funk and it's like, he's not the same pitcher he was the year before when he was an all-star.
10:52So he got sent out, came back up, pitched well, and then some of those things kind of percolated again and he got dealt.
10:59So I think that's a fair comp.
11:00Yeah, I think it's a very fair comp.
11:03So these are, to me, this is, I don't know.
11:07I know a lot of people are like, oh, same old story.
11:09I think this is different.
11:10This is very different than the playoffs last year, in my opinion.
11:15And to have Steve Kerr openly agree with you or confirm your question by saying, yes, yes, effort, want to, these are problems right now, is a, I think it's a big deal.
11:27Yeah, and I think what you said about the timing of it is what makes it so just kind of head-scratching because it's not a high-leverage game.
11:34It's just a game in December, just another one of these NBA games, and he didn't get to play at all?
11:41Yep.
11:42Yeah.
11:42Yep.
11:43Let's go to Pert in Hayward.
11:46We'd love to hear, Warrior fans, how did these responses from Steve Kerr make you feel?
11:51He says yesterday, yes, desire, want to, effort have been an issue, and then also hesitated to say that Jonathan Kaminga could be part of the Stay Ready crew that Pat Spencer has nicknamed, the bench players who sometimes don't play.
12:08Pert in Hayward, you're first up.
12:10Hi, Pert.
12:10Thanks for the call.
12:11Hey, guys, love the show.
12:15I just wanted to weigh in on the Kaminga situation.
12:19I think we're way past, like, giving this kid a chance.
12:25And we have to, like, really, you have to trust Steve Kerr.
12:29There's so many fans, like, divided.
12:33But, like, when you really think about it, when you just put it in plain, you know, terminology, it's like either you have it or you don't.
12:41This is like the NBA.
12:43This is like the best basketball players in the world.
12:47Like, we're five years in with this kid.
12:49And his trajectory, his career basically has been, oh, okay, potential, potential.
12:56All right, he starts playing well.
12:57Oh, my God, he's playing.
12:58Lights out.
12:59Boom, he gets injured.
13:00He goes out for a while.
13:02Okay.
13:02And then he comes back, oh, okay, where's my role?
13:05What am I doing?
13:06He's got to find his game.
13:07He still has not found his game.
13:10And, like, you look at everybody, like, in the NBA who becomes superstars, right?
13:15They have it right away.
13:17You see it.
13:18The eye test is there.
13:20And lately and, like, every now and then you see JK, he's just like, he loses confidence, he loses interest.
13:27And it's just like, you know what, either you got it or you don't.
13:30And in this highest level, the it is the mental aspect.
13:35And clearly, JK does not have that mental aspect.
13:40Maybe, yeah, you have to give him a chance.
13:42He's only 22.
13:43But, for me, I'm out on him.
13:46It's like, dude, like, we got to move on, you know.
13:50And fans and people who are, like, love to blame Steve Kerr.
13:54It's like, what would you do if you were in Steve Kerr's shoes, okay?
13:59You've won championships as a player, as a coach, and you know what you know.
14:05Okay, Jonathan Kaminga, he doesn't know yet what he doesn't know.
14:10He thinks he knows that.
14:11But I don't know if that's making sense, but if you've been in the league, like, with Steve Kerr, what would you do?
14:17You have to go with the guys you trust, the guys who could make a shot, the guys who are just mentally prepared.
14:24And, like, people ragging on Pogs and, like, oh, he's not doing – Pogs, he came after JK, you know, and he's still trying to find his game.
14:36So, that's basically all I got to say.
14:39I'm out on JK, and that's nothing like, oh, no offense to him.
14:42It's just like, you know what?
14:44Again, you either got it or you don't.
14:46And in this case, it's like, we got to move on.
14:48Pert, thanks.
14:49Appreciate it.
14:49I'm not going to remove the possibility of players being kind of late bloomers, especially when you're Jonathan,
14:55and he doesn't come from that kind of structured college basketball background.
14:59So, I hear what Pert is saying.
15:01I don't think necessarily you can always see it right away.
15:05I just had my antennas go up yesterday because the conversation changed from fit to effort.
15:13That, to me, is a – you know, people want to know what's new in the JK situation.
15:19Well, my opinion is that.
15:21The conversation that we had with Steve Kerr yesterday, to me, was a conversation changer.
15:26And that's the quickest way for me to say it.
15:28But we've been talking about fit, and now we're talking about effort.
15:32And there's no lower thing that you can accuse a player of than lacking effort.
15:38Especially when that was a big talking point throughout the summer.
15:42And even last year, we had our exit interview with Steve, and I asked him about, you know, can it fit?
15:46Can it work?
15:47And he said, yeah, I'd like to think so.
15:49But I do.
15:50But it was going to be, you know, we need him in camp, and we need to work on it,
15:54and we need to put our heads together and figure out how it can work.
15:57And you look at the start of the year, and it did work.
16:00He was playing with effort and force, and it was working.
16:04And Jimmy had that big article, I think it was Anthony Slater in ESPN,
16:08and talking about taking him out to dinner and putting his arm around him
16:12and, you know, big brothering him and all the rest of it.
16:14And from then to now, it's only been maybe three weeks or four weeks of time since that article.
16:20And now we're back to DNPs and talk of effort.
16:23Yeah, 888-957-9570, the number, again, the last keyword of the week for the Steph Draymond
16:30and Jimmy Butler Brown, the town jerseys, is coming up here in just about the next, oh, 10 minutes or so.
16:38But we'll keep taking your phone calls for sure.
16:40Dave in Fresno is next.
16:41Hi, Dave.
16:42Thanks for calling.
16:42Hey, guys.
16:45Yeah.
16:46Yeah, I just, you know, with Steve Kerr's comments, I'm just, I'm like, come on.
16:51You know, like, I'm tired of the bashing of J.K.
16:54I know you guys are not doing that and piling on.
16:57I'm just, I think the bigger conversation is just the Warriors mismanagement of these picks,
17:04of J.K. Pods, to call him, what's his name?
17:10Wiseman.
17:12Wiseman.
17:13You know, to me, that's the bigger issue, in my opinion.
17:16I think the mismanagement of J.K., you know, we're at this point now, the question is effort
17:21because they mismanaged it from day one.
17:25And to me, that's the conversation that needs to be had, not where, you know, where we're at now.
17:31Well, Dave, Dave, can I interrupt?
17:33I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
17:35Can you tell me the mismanagement part?
17:39What did the Warriors, I can get with the idea of, oh, they made a bad pick, maybe.
17:45But in what way did they mismanage him, in your opinion?
17:49In my opinion, if you bear with me.
17:51Yeah.
17:51I'll be as quickly as I can.
17:53In my opinion, to me, it's similar to Trey Lance's situation with Wiseman, Kaminga, and Trey Lance,
18:00where I think they drafted guys who were very raw.
18:04And both teams had a timetable, I think, of, you know, championship window, mode, however you want to describe it.
18:12And I think both cases, you know, I think these players were probably not drafted in the right situation
18:19where the team was really, you know, kind of in a rush that didn't have time to develop the player,
18:25to let the player work through their struggles and, you know, get on the field or court
18:30and trying to figure it out.
18:32And then you got veterans who are established veterans who are probably not going to sign off on a project.
18:39So the head coach has to, you know, kind of balance, do I want to develop the player?
18:44Well, I'm trying to win, but he's making mistakes.
18:46Like, I don't have time for that.
18:48So I think in all these cases with these picks, I think the Warriors find themselves a hard time trying to, you know,
18:55work through the groin pains of a player who you drafted who's very raw from a different country, young age.
19:01And it's like, you know, you're mad because you bought some oxtails, right?
19:06Oxtails take a long time to cook.
19:08The Warriors try to microwave it, and you taste it, and you're mad it don't taste right.
19:13Well, if you want to buy oxtails, you got to let it, you got to, you got to cook it slow, man.
19:19Yeah, so food analogies always will work here on Rulard and Dibs.
19:22Dave, thanks.
19:23So here's the thing, though.
19:24I think Dave's got great points.
19:26I wouldn't use the word mismanagement.
19:28What I would say is that strategically, it's the wrong pick.
19:34Not just it's the wrong pick, he's a bad player, bad guy, none of that stuff.
19:38Like, that's the number one thing I'd love to remove for this conversation.
19:41He even said, like, the J.K. bashing.
19:44It just isn't.
19:45I don't see it that way.
19:46It's not Jonathan Kaminga bashing.
19:48It's nothing personal against it.
19:50It is a situation where we're looking at a basketball team and one of its high-level picks that are not working out,
19:56and we got to figure out why.
19:58And if you do want to go back to the beginning and say the Warriors thought that their championship run was done,
20:04so they went with a project, and it turns out their run wasn't done,
20:08I think that's a very fair criticism.
20:09I also don't think that's a very nefarious mistake, though.
20:13Like, that's, you know what I mean?
20:14I do think it's one born out of hubris, and I don't know if it's a Lake of production,
20:19but the whole two timelines thing, which is a mythical ideology, but it reeks of two timelines,
20:25where you've got a team of veterans, and you're thinking, all right,
20:28we're going to go young with projects and think that in three to five years,
20:32when our old guys are old, these young guys are going to be ready to pop and flash,
20:36and we're going to turn the page into our whole new group.
20:39Yep.
20:39No, I think this is a great point.
20:41I really do.
20:42Like, that makes a whole lot of sense to me.
20:44But when you get to the more modern level of this, when you get to now,
20:49when you get to the last 20 months of this story,
20:53I don't think the Warriors have mismanaged it.
20:55I think that Jonathan Kaminga has not taken advantage of the opportunities that he's been given,
21:00and he should absolutely be thankful for those opportunities, because it's year five,
21:05and now you've got a coach questioning effort, and an NBA dignitary.
21:10Like, honestly.
21:12Honestly.
21:13Like, the JK side of it is one thing.
21:16The other side to this that really stinks is a multi-time championship coach
21:21which has somehow got a portion of the fan base thinking he's a jerk,
21:27thinking that he is stupid, thinking that he should be fired.
21:33Look, if you think that, you think that.
21:37But people with four rings usually don't kind of get treated that way,
21:42because I don't think that this is as personal as everyone has liked to have made it.
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