- 2 days ago
Danny Emerman, who covers the Warriors for the San Francisco Standard, joins Willard and Dibs to discuss the Warriors' offseason after LeBron James chose the 76ers.
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00:00Warriors beat SF Standard, River Island's guest line, and on video with us on YouTube as well, Danny Emmerman talking
00:08dubs.
00:08Hey, Danny, what's going on, man?
00:11Hey, not much. Thanks for having me on, guys. How are you guys doing?
00:13Well, I mean, like, just to be honest, a little Warrior depressed today.
00:19I feel like the Draymond Green contract that was signed today was the final nail in the coffin of something
00:26we knew was already coming,
00:27but just the reality of it is kind of a bummer, which is that the Warriors really, really, really are
00:32just running this thing back, aren't they?
00:36They sure are. I don't know if the Draymond Green signing in particular made people feel some type of way,
00:44because I felt like that was coming down the pike no matter what.
00:48You know, Draymond opted out with the idea that, hey, I'm going to get, you know, my money and I'm
00:53going to stay here one way or another.
00:55You know, I think he deserves credit for giving the Warriors some level of, like, flexibility to at least pursue
01:02LeBron James earlier in the free agency period.
01:04But, yeah, he's coming back. They're getting the band back together.
01:0737-win team, and, you know, they'll do all the same things.
01:11It'll be like Groundhog Day. It's like, can Rick Celebrini work his magic?
01:16Can we limit our turnovers enough to go on a little run?
01:19And, you know, can we, you know, survive without Jimmy and Moody enough?
01:24All the same things we were talking about last year. So it should be a fun year.
01:28Yeah, super fun and also frustrating because you imagine a team that's a year older,
01:33and now you're expecting guys to not be as injured.
01:37Is it really as simple as Rick Celebrini, if they have a healthy year, that he might be the MVP,
01:43if he can coax more out of staff, and certainly Chris Stapp's Porzingis?
01:48Yeah, I mean, I know people were saying that last year, and it didn't quite work out, you know, that
01:53way,
01:53where Rick got all his flowers.
01:55But, yeah, he and his training staff are going to have a lot of work on their plate.
01:59And how healthy the team stays, it's not, like, entirely due to Rick and his training staff.
02:06It comes down to what the players do to get their bodies right and condition themselves.
02:11But, yeah, I mean, he's definitely one of the more important figures on this team, for sure.
02:15Danny Emmerman with us here on Willard and Dibs, 95-7 the game.
02:20What do you think is going to happen at the end of next month with Steph Curry
02:25when he becomes extension eligible?
02:29I would imagine that he and the Warriors work towards his contract extension.
02:33I think they've both been honest and open about having mutual interest in one.
02:38So, yeah, I think that's, you know, Occam's razor is the most likely thing.
02:44That'll probably happen.
02:45Okay, what does that extension look like, though?
02:47What kind of numbers are we talking about?
02:49Is he taking a max one year, two years?
02:51What are we looking at?
02:53So, I've talked to people about this topic broadly.
02:57You know, I think Steph, hypothetically, would be open to taking a pay cut.
03:02But I think he would only do so if it would really help the team competitively.
03:06You know, if he could take half as much and that would really help get the next huge free agent
03:12or make a new trade, I think he would be open to at least considering that.
03:17But, yeah, I mean, the way the NBA contracts work is you can either tack on one or two years
03:22to an over 37-year-old player, which Steph famously is.
03:27So, I would imagine that it's probably a one-year deal and they keep pushing it out to revisit it
03:34every offseason.
03:35Does he have the ability to wait until December, January, February?
03:39In other words, to, like, really size up how good Yaxl is and his Richard better in Guy,
03:44really see what his team for the next year might look like?
03:49Yes, he does.
03:51There's no deadline on an extension, like a veteran max extension.
03:55So, he can take it into the season if he'd prefer.
03:57And that's something that I could see him doing for sure.
03:59Okay, to that end, though, Danny, and I'm sure you're aware of this.
04:04There is so much talk, and I feel it comes actually from the fan base, not from Steph,
04:10but fear about him getting to a point where he wants to play somewhere else
04:17or he might use this extension eligibility as leverage against the Warriors.
04:22How do you see these two sides?
04:24Are they on the same page, and does Steph have even the potential to want to play somewhere else at
04:33some point?
04:35We can only go by what's available, the information available to us,
04:39and the information available to us in terms of what Steph has said publicly,
04:43what people around him have said privately, is that he wants to finish his career as a Warrior.
04:48So, I don't see that changing.
04:50It's possible, you know, that things can change and things go really sideways
04:54and maybe he has a change of heart.
04:56But no, I mean, the Warriors want him to finish as a Warrior.
04:59He wants to finish here.
05:02That's as far as he's said.
05:04So, I don't know why it would be worth speculating otherwise.
05:09I think it's important to note that even though this offseason was probably pretty frustrating for a lot of fans,
05:16the Warriors don't make moves or they don't choose to not make moves without at least running it by Steph.
05:24You know, he's privy to everything they're doing, and if he was really upset by something
05:30or if he was banging the table on something else, like, maybe this offseason would have gone differently,
05:35you know, for better or worse.
05:37But we haven't heard anything that would suggest that Steph's really upset by this offseason.
05:43Would we be, I guess, assuaged and have us feeling better if he signed the extension earlier
05:48as opposed to kind of what you're laying out, which is if it's another year like last year
05:53where it's the runner's knee and Jimmy's not back soon and maybe Moses doesn't play at all,
05:58would it be more comforting for Warrior fans to have him sign early as opposed to wait?
06:04I guess it depends on the Warriors fan you're talking about, right?
06:07I'm sure some Warriors fans probably want to see him play for a contender, you know?
06:12I'm not really, you know, in the business of fan behavior policing.
06:16You know, fans can root for the team however they want.
06:18It's all good.
06:20But, yeah, I think if you want Steph to stay as a Warrior and finish his career here
06:25and cheer him on for the rest of his career, that's cool.
06:28So, then, yeah, you'd root for him to sign the extension as soon as you can.
06:32Danny, I'm also interested in the Steve Kerr angle.
06:35This one's interesting to me.
06:36The last time we heard him spoke or speak, he said,
06:40we need more people who can play back-to-backs.
06:44And now the roster is almost exactly the same except for Yaxo.
06:48I also had the perception that as he talked about potentially coming back,
06:54if he was going to do that, it was going to be based on some sort of a philosophical change,
07:00which, again, we also can't see.
07:03So, is this what Steve signed up for based on what you know?
07:09I think what Steve signed up for is what he's been hinting at, you know,
07:14repeatedly for the past year or so.
07:16And it's that, you know, we're not a championship contender anymore.
07:21And we want to go out with dignity.
07:23We want to go out together.
07:25We want to go out, you know, playing our style of basketball
07:29and competing as much as we can.
07:30I think that's what he signed up for.
07:32I don't think he was given any assurances that the Warriors would go out and get LeBron.
07:37I actually know that to be a fact that he wasn't given any assurances.
07:41As a competitor, I'm sure he wanted to improve.
07:44And I think that first part of your question about how he described that we need, you know,
07:51younger guys, we need to be, we need to have more continuity on back-to-backs.
07:56We need to get fresher, younger legs.
07:57I think that's a good example that, you know, contrary to popular belief,
08:01Steve doesn't run the show.
08:02You know, he's not the GM.
08:04If he had it his way in that dynamic, in that element,
08:08I think the roster might look a little bit differently.
08:10But he's not the GM, and Mike Dunleavy is.
08:13And you look at what's taking place in July, and, you know,
08:16Colin Sexton and other lower-level free agents just kind of whooshed on by
08:20as they waited for LeBron James.
08:21Do you think their all-eggs in the LeBron basket was a good approach,
08:26a bad approach, or the only one they could have made?
08:31You know, waiting for LeBron, I've heard various different things from sources about that.
08:39You know, some people thought that they had an okay shot.
08:42Some people at Summer League were, you know, cautiously optimistic,
08:45but were really in the dark.
08:47Other people, after the fact, kind of knew, you know,
08:51or at least they said that they knew early on in the process that it wasn't going to be them.
08:55So I don't think that the LeBron really sweepstakes affected the way the Warriors went out
09:02and did business this summer.
09:04And that might even frustrate people even more.
09:08But I think part of their plan was to roll over, you know, Porzingis to maintain the asset.
09:15So that's one piece you're bringing back.
09:16I know that they like Melton.
09:18They probably valued him higher than some of the fresher, you know,
09:23new guards that were on the market.
09:25So that was part of the plan, too.
09:27Draymond, obviously part of the plan.
09:29And then Horford, and then that's kind of how you get, you know, running it back.
09:35And it kind of all happened so fast, and nothing really happened.
09:39So, Danny, they're holding on to this optionality and flexibility
09:43as if it's a baby bird in a nest.
09:46And I want to know, where is this going?
09:48And in what way does that flexibility,
09:54what does it even grant you in today's NBA where it seems like big-time,
10:00middle-of-their-career free agents never change teams anyway?
10:04No, it's a trading league for sure.
10:08And part of the Warriors' optionality is that they have tradable contracts.
10:12They have their future draft picks to dangle in trades.
10:16Whether or not they want to push all of them in, some of them in, swaps, whatever,
10:21depends on a case-by-case basis.
10:24But, yeah, you just saw a crazy offseason where there was a ton of player movement.
10:28LaMelo Ball and Jalen Brown, LeBron James, almost all trades.
10:34So the Warriors are going to be in the market, you know,
10:37for a trade that makes their team better at some point.
10:40And if not, then it's not a bad thing to have your own picks.
10:44But I do obviously see the argument where you should be pushing them in,
10:49you know, cashing them in as much as you can, while Steph Curry's still amazing.
10:53I obviously, you know, understand that.
10:55But the alternative isn't terrible to have all your picks either.
10:59Especially as you get to the post-Steph era.
11:02And I'm just wondering, already ahead toward the deadline with Jimmy Butler
11:05and his $56 million deal, didn't feel like there was a lot of action
11:09this offseason for that contract.
11:12Does that change if he's able to come back and play a little bit before the deadline?
11:17It could.
11:18It could be really interesting to see how he comes back from that knee injury.
11:23I've heard that he's targeting, you know, as early as Christmas.
11:28Who knows how his rehab, you know, turns out.
11:32That is something that's obviously subject to change.
11:35If he comes back and he looks awesome, the Warriors might not want to trade him.
11:38They really love Jimmy Butler.
11:40And from what I've been told behind the scenes,
11:42they've constantly, like, reassured him in his camp that they don't want to trade him,
11:46that they're committed to him.
11:48So I think it's possible that he comes back and looks just okay.
11:52And that's kind of normal for a 37-year-old attempting an unprecedented rehab.
11:58And if that's the case, then maybe you can get him back on, like,
12:02maybe a veteran minimum deal.
12:03Maybe a mid-level exception kind of level.
12:07That would be an interesting piece going forward, you know, as just a contributor.
12:12But I don't know.
12:13We'll see how he looks when he comes back, either in December, January, February,
12:19whenever he does.
12:20You're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGMZ FM and HD1 San Francisco
12:23in Odyssey Sports Station, home of the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries,
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12:28Coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios,
12:30and it's basketball talk right now with Danny Emmerman, SF Standard,
12:34on the Warriors, that coverage on 95.7 The Game is presented by Xfinity.
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12:42Xfinity, imagine that.
12:44Danny, your co-worker, Tim Kawakami, has suggested that Joe Lacob is quite interested,
12:51maybe even if he just keeps this somewhat private,
12:53but very interested in kind of showing the world that the Warriors are still going to be
12:59a high-class, first-rate organization post-Steph Curry.
13:03What's your perspective on that?
13:06When you see, talk to, and read the tea leaves with Joe Lacob,
13:11is he kind of overly interested in that dynamic?
13:16What do you think?
13:18You don't really need to read any tea leaves.
13:21You can just go up and ask Joe about it.
13:23He's told me as much.
13:25I wrote a story last year about how he was talking about how the Lakers and Jerry Buss,
13:33that's what he wants to emulate.
13:35He wants to make it to the finals every year and have a 30-year span.
13:41By definition, not all those 30 years will include Steph Curry.
13:45So I was kind of laughing that that went so viral and people were so frustrated by that.
13:52I know Tim was amused as well.
13:55Yeah, that's not a secret that Joe wants to succeed after Steph.
13:59He said it over and over again.
14:00And that's not a bad thing, you know, to have your owner want to win no matter what.
14:05And again, like, both things can be true.
14:07He should really want to commit to this era as well.
14:11Like, I understand the frustration.
14:14But yeah, like, Joe's obviously going to want to win.
14:17He's spent more than any other owner.
14:19It's tough.
14:20You know, he's owned the team 16 years.
14:24I think his first decade as owner was like an A++, 10 out of 10, no complaints.
14:29Probably the best owner in sports, universally acclaimed.
14:32Past six years, they've won one title.
14:34That's not bad.
14:36But maybe it's like a 5 or 6 out of 10 as an owner.
14:40Again, like, not living up to his standard.
14:43But also, you could do so much worse than Joe Lacob as an owner.
14:47So, I mean, you even it out.
14:48He's still one of the best owners in sports.
14:51He's the source of some of the Warriors' issues, for sure.
14:54He's also the source of a lot of solid, you know, amazing organizational things that he's built over the last
15:0116 years.
15:02And he deserves credit.
15:03He deserves blame.
15:05That's all fair.
15:06Danny, I think, and I think you get this.
15:09The reason that that landed with people in kind of a funny way is not that anybody's saying, boy, Joe
15:15Lacob's a bad owner.
15:17That would be ridiculous.
15:18But when that sort of is what's highlighted.
15:22Not so much, hey, he wants to keep winning after Steph.
15:25Sure.
15:26But the thought is, is he prioritizing that now over the idea of pushing chips into the middle of the
15:36table while Steph is still here?
15:38That's why that landed with everyone so kind of poorly.
15:42And I think you know that.
15:43And what's your take on that?
15:46Yeah, I don't think that's necessarily true.
15:49I think the Warriors have gone after a bunch of these guys and put a bunch of their future picks
15:54on the table.
15:54And sometimes those deals don't don't, you know, get executed and you can blame the owner for that.
16:01But there's a lot of factors.
16:03It takes two teams to tango on these big superstar trades.
16:08Yeah, I understand where people are coming from.
16:10And that was also, you know, a 10 second clip out of a long conversation that Tim was having as
16:16well.
16:16So, yeah, I understand why people are frustrated.
16:19They have every right to be frustrated.
16:21Again, I'm not going to tell fans how to feel.
16:23It's their right to feel how they want to.
16:25It's their right to buy tickets, not buy tickets.
16:28You know, go to a Giants game, do the wave, do tarps off.
16:31I don't care.
16:32Not the wave.
16:32Yeah, not the wave.
16:33But I get what you're saying.
16:34Yeah, let's keep the tarps on for the most part.
16:37Danny, I just wonder about a jealousy tax around the league.
16:40In other words, teams not wanting to even trade with the Warriors.
16:43And if they do, taxing Joe Lacob a little more because he is self-confident and he's got four rings.
16:51I think that's the type of thing that happens in sports.
16:54I don't see why it wouldn't happen necessarily to the Warriors.
16:58But I don't think it's the biggest factor in not being able to execute some of these deals.
17:02I think there's a lot of things that go into it.
17:05And that might be one on a case-by-case basis, maybe around the Kawhi deal.
17:09You know, you hear some rumors about that one and at the ownership level, maybe things, you know, weren't super
17:16perfect in that respect.
17:20But who knows if that deal would have even gone through.
17:23You know, the Kawhi can't get traded now, apparently.
17:26Danny, great stuff, man.
17:27Thank you so much for coming on.
17:30Absolutely.
17:30Anytime.
17:31Thanks, guys.
17:31All right.
17:32Danny Emmerman.
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