- 21 hours ago
Willard and Dibs debate if they accept this Warriors offseason, which has seen the team essentially return last year's team that won 37 games and will be more injured to start this season than the team was to start last season.
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00:00The article from Anthony Slater is comprehensive.
00:04It's going to answer your LeBron questions, your Anthony Davis questions,
00:08your Jalen Brown questions, your philosophical questions,
00:12the thought process from Mike Dunleavy and Steve Kerr.
00:16And for me, the line that stands out above all others came from Kerr.
00:20Quote, sometimes not making a move can be the best thing to do for your future,
00:25and you keep stacking up good moves,
00:27and eventually you pounce when you're ready.
00:30So the implication is now's not the time.
00:34And as I think I've sort of said earlier this week, I don't love this.
00:39I can accept it, but only for a certain period of time.
00:43Yeah, and I think you put them on the clock for a year, like by next year, July 4th.
00:48Well, you got – and what does pounce mean?
00:51You know, it doesn't mean you got to bring in a superstar or whatever,
00:54but there's got to be a different level of – especially now, of course,
00:59by next year you're going to have a whole other year of information.
01:02Yep.
01:02And how does it go?
01:03And possibly another lottery pick.
01:05Yeah.
01:05Or, you know, possibly another parade.
01:09Possibly.
01:10Yeah, they're allowed to.
01:12I didn't say championship parade.
01:13Oh, gotcha.
01:15There's always a parade on the 4th of July.
01:17Exactly.
01:17My favorite part is not a quote, but it's something that Slater wrote, and he wrote,
01:22it has generated a sense that the Warriors are content in a state of stagnation
01:26as they meekly ride out the final seasons of the Curry era, accepting a non-contention fate.
01:32Okay.
01:32It has generated a sense.
01:34Do read the next line, though.
01:36The very next line.
01:38That's a summation management would push back against.
01:41There you go.
01:42So I get that is the perception.
01:44It has generated that sense.
01:46Of course it has.
01:47Of course it has.
01:48It's just the way he uses state of stagnation, meekly ride out, accepting a non-contention fate.
01:55Yeah.
01:55I don't think that they will accept a non-contention fate, but right now, with what you've done this
02:01summer, you're in a non-contention mode right now, for sure.
02:04Well, I think, I mean, he literally said, Steve Kerr said in this article a number of times,
02:10like, we are not in the championship picture.
02:16We're like, let's just call it what it is.
02:19Right.
02:20And I'm not demanding that they always are every year.
02:23Most teams aren't.
02:24But you, I do get the sense that, you know, the state of stagnation, you drafted two guys
02:30and then you brought everyone back.
02:31Yeah.
02:31And they haven't totally brought everyone back yet.
02:33GP2 is still out there and there are some free agents you can maybe get in.
02:37And some are gone.
02:38Right.
02:39Don't dance on the graves of Pat Spencer and Quentin Post.
02:42No, they're gone.
02:42They are no longer on this basketball team.
02:44Quentin Post wasn't getting, what, $10 million a year?
02:47Wasn't getting $10 a year.
02:48We should do a five-minute segment when the season starts and make a list of people making
02:55less than Quentin Post.
02:58That's going to blow your way.
03:00Yeah.
03:00Look at the free agent.
03:02First of all, LeBron James doesn't make half of what Quentin Post makes.
03:05That's right.
03:06But that one's a little quirky.
03:07But some of the players who actually signed that people actually wanted, who didn't get
03:13$10 million a year, and Quentin Post did.
03:16Dude, if you're seven feet and you can sort of shoot, my God, it's like being a left-hander
03:21in baseball.
03:22Is Kaminga getting $10 million?
03:23Or will he get less than what Quentin Post got?
03:26My understanding is that he's already got a $10 million on the table.
03:31And that's not attractive to him right now.
03:35Gotcha.
03:36But I don't know if anybody's going to offer more.
03:38I think Jonathan will get $10 million.
03:41Okay.
03:41Maybe.
03:42Yeah.
03:44For playing Europe.
03:45I don't know.
03:46I don't know how that one's going to go.
03:48I kind of would have expected, once the LeBron thing got figured out, that the Jonathan thing
03:52would have gone rather quickly.
03:54And it hasn't.
03:55Yeah.
03:55And a lot of these other things, too.
03:57Like James Harden opted out ostensibly to create that room.
04:01And he is still unsigned.
04:02And Westbrook is out there.
04:04And the aforementioned Kaminga and DeMar DeRozan.
04:06And there are other players who have long resumes who are still unsigned.
04:11I mean, it would suggest, I think Harden's a little different, but it would suggest that
04:14all those guys are not hearing what they want to hear from the general managers they're
04:19talking to.
04:20Yeah.
04:20That's my only guess, is that, you know, I think teams at this point, they're kind of
04:25out of money.
04:26Like, whatever they're going to spend, they did it.
04:28They did it.
04:28And you also don't want to extend for multiple years with a lot of these guys because of
04:33the threat of the aprons and all of the lack of optionality you would have if you're inking
04:39like James Harden.
04:40If you give him four years and $140 million, well, that's a fixed cost for four more years.
04:45So the Warriors say this is not the time.
04:47They're aware of the criticism, but now is not the time.
04:52So they say they're aligned.
04:54This is exactly what they see for this offseason based on other factors.
05:01So accept or not accept.
05:04888-957-9570, Isaac in Oakland.
05:07Hi, Isaac.
05:08Thanks for calling us.
05:09What's up?
05:14Isaac.
05:14Isaac.
05:16All right.
05:17Isaac's going back on hold.
05:18See if you can rattle his cage.
05:20Let's go to Rob in San Francisco.
05:24Rob, thank you for calling.
05:25What's up?
05:28Hey, guys.
05:28Thanks for having me on.
05:29You know, I think it would be okay if they, you know, they had a move to make in future
05:35years or if they actually were giving up today for the future.
05:38But, you know, you don't sign big free agents anymore in free agency.
05:41You know, you look at Giannis.
05:43They get traded a year before they hit the market or two.
05:45You got to have assets to get those guys.
05:48You trade those assets.
05:49After you trade them, you got to have assets that those guys want to come to.
05:53You can't say, hey, we'll give away our next four first rounders and get Jokic.
05:57And, hey, Nikolaj, you can come and play with Pods and Moody and Yaxel.
06:02Those are your three main guys to go with.
06:05I mean, the Warriors have nothing.
06:07They've made a lot of bad small moves to get to this point where there's no moves less.
06:13They've gone from two timelines to no timelines.
06:16I get what you're saying, Rob.
06:18Here's the one caveat I'll throw into that, and this is now reminiscent of the conversation
06:23we had with Mark Spears yesterday.
06:25If you didn't hear it, Odyssey app, YouTube, you can go back, check that out.
06:29And he was very, very much pointing not just to the future, but specifically the trade deadline,
06:36February, this next February.
06:37And the reason I think that that's interesting is because the Warriors at that time,
06:43they have worked hard to create a situation where they can do almost anything at that point.
06:51Because at that point, expiring contracts, expiring big contracts, could be very, very attractive.
07:00Think about it.
07:01By then, Jimmy Butler, in theory, is healthy-ish.
07:04We have a donut bet on, what, January 15th, is that right?
07:08January 24th.
07:09Okay, that's right.
07:10But, yeah, like, Jimmy's an expiring deal.
07:14They've worked hard to make sure that Draymond's deal and Kristaps' deal and all of those deals
07:19are very tradable and expiring in a sense.
07:25So you're going to have the flexibility to do some things at the deadline.
07:29Where I'll agree with Rob is just having nothing but cap space.
07:34In other words, let's say everything expires.
07:37You get to the end of next year, Jimmy, Draymond, free agents, you know, Steph maybe has signed
07:44an extension and you've just got all this room.
07:46Well, it's a trade league.
07:48And how do you trade?
07:50You'd have to do, like, sign-in trades with old players.
07:53Your salaries need to match and all of these things.
07:55Yeah, and the caller's point is good where you're not going to bring somebody in unless
07:59you have other stuff that that player wants to come play alongside.
08:03And, you know, no disrespect to the young players they have right now, but if you're
08:07a big-time free agent and the team wants to trade you to the Warriors and you look
08:11at the Warriors roster and you say, nah, I don't want to go there, GM.
08:14Well, I guess the only rebuttal there is that they would have the space to add more
08:18than one.
08:19So, it would almost be kind of like when, you know, it's kind of like when Miami brought
08:24in LeBron and I think it was Chris Bosh was a free agent as well.
08:29And it was like, let's bring in two people.
08:31Let's bring in multiple people.
08:34So, maybe they would have the flexibility to do that.
08:36I don't know what Steph is signing for and all of that.
08:39But, yeah, just having all the flexibility doesn't make it easy.
08:43That's for sure.
08:44Let's go.
08:44Let's try Isaac in Oakland again.
08:46Isaac, you ready to rock this time?
08:49Yeah, man.
08:50What's up, fellas?
08:51What's up?
08:52Hey, man.
08:53Hey, you know, to me, it's all about coaching.
08:56If he could coach DeRozan, pick up DeRozan on the cheap deal, and they can have an instant
09:02offense when Steph's on hurt or he's on the bench.
09:05They can have that offense.
09:07The thing with Steph Curry, the coach is he can't coach people that shoot men range shots.
09:13You know, easy shots.
09:14That's the thing.
09:15Warriors need somebody that can make easy shots instead of just living and dying off the
09:19threes.
09:21Isaac, I like the idea, but we keep sort of being fed it ain't happening.
09:28I don't think DeMar DeRozan is looking at the Warriors.
09:32I like the idea.
09:33I don't think he's looking at the minimum, because you're left with about $8 million for
09:36three players, right?
09:37Yep.
09:38At least two.
09:39Right.
09:39And so if it's DeRozan and you're going to offer him the vet men, which is what LeBron
09:44took, $4 million, I think he'll probably have a better offer than that out there.
09:48I would think.
09:48I don't even know.
09:49I mean, I'm with you.
09:50I don't know why that's still taking so long.
09:52Why is DeMar DeRozan not on a team?
09:55Which must mean, like, maybe everybody's offering him the minimum.
09:58Yeah.
09:59He doesn't want to take it.
09:59And I haven't looked at everyone's current situation as it pertains to aprons and the cap,
10:04but what you said before is teams are kind of running out of money here toward the end
10:09of July.
10:10How's this one grab you?
10:12This was another Steve Kerr quote that I wanted to toss around a little bit with you.
10:16Buy or sell.
10:18I think sometimes when you fail, like we did last year, there's kind of a natural bounce
10:23back.
10:24Everybody's going to be really, really motivated and excited, and we've got good players.
10:31I mean.
10:32That was a dramatic pause.
10:33I buy it to the extent that I think that they will be highly motivated to not do that
10:40again, and the other piece that you're going to read is the part that I'm absolutely going
10:45to sell.
10:45We do need some better luck health-wise, but I think we'll get that.
10:51What we did last year wasn't good enough, and we've got to do a better job of just really
10:56finding the style of play, the two-way basketball we need.
11:00It's not sexy, but it's in the details.
11:03That's what I'm selling.
11:04Which part?
11:05The injury, bad luck.
11:07You got some injury, bad luck.
11:09Moses Moody, I saw some report that it happened because maybe it was a collar.
11:14There's ice under the floor, and it was a wet spot.
11:16I don't think that was the case, but the Moses injury was kind of a freak injury, and the
11:21Jimmy Butler one.
11:23ACLs happen.
11:24He's an older player, and that is to an extent bad luck, but your 38-year-old who's been running
11:30around, getting open for 15 years, and his knees now hurt, that to me is not bad luck.
11:37That's an older guy who works his butt off to stay in shape, and he's an older guy.
11:41Again, Al Horford's older, and Chris Stapps has either a mysterious illness or he's through
11:47it.
11:47He's got an injury history, so you can hope that you don't have as much injury bad luck,
11:53but I'm absolutely selling that as something that you can lean on.
11:57I mean, it feels like it's already confirmed that that bad luck will continue.
12:01Jimmy and Moses are not playing for most of the year.
12:05Right.
12:05So that's the baseline now.
12:07We could go up and down the roster, and maybe we'll do this closer to the season, and just
12:11set an over and under on games played.
12:14It's not sexy, but Chris Stapps, Porzingis, would you think that he's going to play 60 games?
12:20Yeah, my brain doesn't.
12:21You know me.
12:21I'm not Stiney.
12:22My brain doesn't work that way.
12:23But we're having a conversation about injury luck.
12:27How am I going to predict an injury?
12:29You're not going to predict it, but...
12:30There's no reason.
12:32I mean, I don't know a damn thing about Potts.
12:34I don't know what that is.
12:36Well, it turns out he didn't have Potts.
12:37But then he did, and then he didn't, and then he did, and I don't know, and I don't...
12:41Coach Kerr said he did, and then he had to backtrack the next day.
12:44No, he said that he didn't.
12:46Gotcha.
12:46Right, and then he had to backtrack.
12:47I get the timeline confused.
12:48So I don't, like, I'm totally...
12:49I have no idea what it is.
12:51I don't know if he has it.
12:53I don't want to speculate.
12:55It's a new, fresh year.
12:57Is there, like, an ink reason that I can give you right now why Chris Stapps couldn't play 65 games
13:03or more?
13:04No.
13:05I can't tell you, like...
13:07I know that sounds optimistic, but, like, I can't tell you that he shouldn't be able
13:12to do that.
13:13Well, he's allowed to.
13:14Yeah.
13:15But if you look at the back of his basketball card, it's not something that he normally does.
13:18Yeah, but, I mean, that's...
13:21That's year to year.
13:22You know what I mean?
13:24What's year after year when it comes to his availability?
13:27It is.
13:27It is.
13:28So, yeah.
13:28Like, you can be overly optimistic.
13:31You can be overly pessimistic.
13:33I mean, it's sports.
13:35Injuries are going to happen.
13:37Yeah.
13:37Miss games and load management's going to happen.
13:39Like, I'm not going to put pods at 81 and a half.
13:43That seems a little high.
13:44But he played them all last year.
13:46He's allowed to get hurt.
13:48Yeah.
13:48It's...
13:48You know what I mean?
13:49I don't...
13:49Well, it's basketball.
13:50And there's one thing to where you have, like, a small little injury for a week, and you
13:54mentioned Jimmy Butler, and he'll probably miss at least half the season, I would guess.
13:58Although, you know, he reportedly is doing well in his rehab.
14:02I don't know what Moses is doing other than having to camp in Arkansas and having Steph
14:06come out there for a couple days, which is pretty awesome.
14:09I just look at, you know, injury luck, and they could be more healthy next year.
14:14But the other side of it is, your old guys, and even your young guys, are all a year
14:18older.
14:18And so, that's a tough one for me to actually lean on.
14:23Except for you do now have...
14:25You have a rookie that you want to play a lot.
14:28I mean, Steve admitted...
14:29Like, the other piece of this article that's going to get kind of glossed over today, I'd
14:34say half of it is explaining the offseason.
14:37The other half of it is about Yaxel.
14:39Like, that's...
14:40The other half of it is about Yaxel.
14:43It's about his history.
14:44It's about the draft process.
14:46It's about what they thought of him then and what they think of him now and their plans
14:51for him and who he is both on and off the court.
14:54I find that part very interesting.
14:57And as much as this makes people uncomfortable because he's only a rookie, he is an old rookie.
15:02He's the X factor.
15:05He is.
15:06And I don't mean if that goes well, the Warriors are suddenly a really good team and a playoff
15:11team or any of that.
15:12But he is very much...
15:14I think the way he plays, how much he plays and how he looks is going to kind of maybe
15:19set the tone for how fans are feeling about the season.
15:23If he looks really good and he's exciting and he's filling a role and it's helpful toward
15:28winning basketball games, I think that's going to calm a lot of this down.
15:33Well, I think even if they aren't winning basketball games, if he goes out and shows that he can
15:38be 15, 7, and 5 on the regular, he already looks like an NBA player.
15:44He's got the NBA body.
15:45He's not yet 24.
15:46But if he shows that he belongs and he meshes with the team, for me, it's not even about
15:52are you winning with him or are you losing with him?
15:54If he looks like the real deal, well, then that's another piece for the future.
15:58And Steve talked about, in this article, about stacking good decision after good decision,
16:04picking Yaxo at 11 could be a good decision.
16:07And that becomes another piece that moves you closer.
16:10Slates on the morning roast was asked, was this the plan all along?
16:14Pretty much.
16:15You know, not that they didn't explore other stuff.
16:18Again, you know, I put in there like, you know, there was definitely a Anferty Simons or
16:22DeAnthony Melton type conversation.
16:24They preferred Melton.
16:25And Rui Atomur is the guy that they looked at.
16:28They wouldn't have gone to like the full, you know, mid-level type number that they're
16:31willing to get to for LeBron.
16:33Because again, that would have cost probably Moses Moody on a trade.
16:36And then, you know, a Draymond pay cut that clearly Draymond was executing only for LeBron
16:41James.
16:42So there was outside free agents explored.
16:45I don't know every trade conversation that happened.
16:47There were certainly names that they talked about.
16:50But generally, yeah, I mean, like, you know, their priorities were bringing back their
16:55guys.
16:55I mean, you could tell that to the point that Porzingis and Horford were done before free
16:59agency started.
17:00I don't know if y'all remember.
17:00That was like June 26th and June 28th or something like that.
17:04It was super early.
17:05And I, where my mind has gone this week is back to Mike Dunleavy's press availabilities.
17:13There were two of them this offseason.
17:15One was when they were announcing that Steve Kerr would be back.
17:17The other one was right around the draft and Mike Dunleavy kept saying the same thing
17:22over and over.
17:22And I never believed him.
17:24I do now.
17:25Remember how jarring it was whenever everyone's like, what do you need to do about this roster?
17:31And Mike kept going.
17:32It's not about the roster.
17:34It's about turnovers, right?
17:36This is not about making changes to the people.
17:39This is about making changes to the way our people play.
17:43He kept saying it.
17:44And I kept thinking smokescreen.
17:47He's trying to not show you his cards.
17:50And it turns out he was totally showing us his cards.
17:54He was showing us that he wasn't going to play any cards.
17:56Right.
17:57And the cards, you know, trades are hard and we know that.
17:59And you go out there and if you think about one of the big trades they could have made,
18:04I don't think that any of them could have been made.
18:06Like the Jalen Brown one, Boston and Anthony wrote this in his piece.
18:10They clearly wanted Paul George as opposed to Jimmy Butler, who is not available until
18:15whatever date.
18:17And so, you know, they wanted the Axel Lendeborg as well in that four first round deal.
18:22So, you look at the options that maybe were there.
18:25Could you have given up Yaxel and three future firsts and, you know, gotten Jalen Brown?
18:31And would that have netted you LeBron James?
18:33It might have, but that felt to them like an overextension and an overpay.
18:38Um, this is one I know a lot of people want to get into and that is Steph, his thought
18:43process, his current relationship with the front office.
18:46Here's what Slate said about that.
18:48I've been given no indication it's anything different than it's always been, which is
18:52like highly respected on both sides.
18:55Communication, particularly from Steph to Steve Kerr, Steph to Mike Dunleavy, it used to
18:59be Bob Myers.
19:00That's typically how it's been in the off seasons.
19:03Mike doesn't overly bother Steph, but for big news or big, big recruitments or like,
19:09hey, you know, LeBron James should probably be called by Steph Curry within this recruitment
19:13process.
19:14Sure.
19:14But Steph mostly operates to himself during the off season.
19:18And, and again, look, all I can say at this point is I sense that there is no further
19:23angst between Steph and the front office than like, it's as, it's as symbiotical or however
19:29you want to say it as it's always been.
19:31I don't know what's going to happen here in a month, but everything that we're hearing
19:35suggests that Steph is fine and he's going to sign an extension.
19:39For how much?
19:40I don't know.
19:40That to me is the interesting part.
19:42I agree.
19:43Whatever he wants it to be.
19:43Well, that's the thing is what does he want it to be?
19:46Because, you know, Steve Kerr talked about, you make a series of good moves, smart moves,
19:50and that sets you up for, for the big swing.
19:53And if Steph Curry wants them to have that ability, then in my opinion, you don't sign for,
19:59you know, two years and $144 million.
20:01I mean, listen, with how little they've got on the books though, what would be the reason
20:06at this point to not do that?
20:08You know what I mean?
20:09Why, why, like, what's the, I'm taking less, why?
20:12That would give you more room to add more next year in the future.
20:16There's plenty of room.
20:17But there'd be more room.
20:18Everybody's coming off of the books.
20:20Right.
20:20But you would, I'm not saying he takes 4 million, but if you take 50 a year instead of 65
20:25a year,
20:25that creates a whole nother $15 million player.
20:28I got you.
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