- 21 hours ago
Nick Friedell, who covers the Warriors for the Athletic, joins Willard and Dibs to break down the Warriors' offseason, if there was anything else they could have done this summer, and more.
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00:00Nick Friedle, River Island's guest line, with us on YouTube as well.
00:04Yeah, yeah, how about now, right?
00:07How about now?
00:08They brought in Yaxa Lundeborg.
00:11You didn't see that coming.
00:13Scoreboard.
00:13Uh-huh.
00:15I just want to make sure you guys can hear me,
00:17because I built it up like three times the other day,
00:21and then I froze and I was losing my mind.
00:23So are we all good, technically?
00:26Yeah, we're liking it early.
00:27Yeah, you look like you're back in your spot with your Cubs hat on,
00:31and so all is right in the world.
00:33Nick?
00:34I like that.
00:35What I don't like, Mr. Willard, is as I've been listening to the station
00:40and I've been on social media, I have told you guys for years,
00:46I respect the hell out of the loyalty and the interest of the fan base out in the Bay.
00:54I mean, people love this team.
00:56They love what Steph has done.
00:59I've just been surprised, I have to tell you,
01:02at just how much people are losing their minds over the last couple months
01:08and the lack of activity for this team.
01:12I mean, I hope we have plenty of time to get into anything you guys want to get into,
01:17but as I look at now what's happened, especially now that the Draymond thing is official,
01:22this is about what I was expecting all along.
01:25I mean, the LeBron thing would have been a bonus,
01:27but I don't think anybody within the Warriors, at least top level, was like,
01:33oh, yeah, that's going to happen.
01:35It felt like maybe there was a chance, but this is about where I thought they would be,
01:41and it's because Jimmy Butler got hurt, they don't have a lot of cap flexibility at the present time,
01:49and they don't want to load up into the future with guys that they aren't sure on.
01:54So I feel the intensity, and I can understand and appreciate why people are frustrated,
02:01but if people really thought that there was some move that was going to take them
02:06from where they are as the 10 seed and put them back into at least the conversation
02:12with the San Antonios and the OKCs, good luck to you,
02:16because I never thought that was going to happen,
02:19and now we're through basically that end of July, and we are where we are as a whole.
02:26And where we are is with a win total of 39.5, according to most books,
02:32and you're heading for mediocrity most likely, or as Anthony Slater said,
02:37stagnation in his piece today.
02:39So is it as simple, Nick, as, all right, Warrior fans,
02:42wait until February and hope you can swing something then?
02:46Yeah, I mean, Mr. Dibbs, that's basically where it's at.
02:51But this is where, and we can go into negative Nick,
02:55and I can't see the positive, we can go into all of that.
02:59Jimmy Butler makes almost $60 million.
03:04Jimmy Butler tore his ACL.
03:08The second that that happened, and that was January 19th, guys,
03:13the writing was all over the wall.
03:17And to all the people that, because I was sitting there with Grandy a few weeks ago,
03:22and we took calls for four hours, and I could feel where all this was headed.
03:27And now they didn't get LeBron, and people are so pissed off.
03:30But I was trying to explain that day.
03:32Like, if you're a $60 million man, one of two max guys on your team,
03:38if he gets hurt, that's it.
03:39And if you really think that Jalen Brown for four first-round picks
03:44was going to make that much of a difference, I just – I can't help you.
03:51Anthony Davis.
03:53Like, are you kidding me?
03:54I think that's what's so frustrating, having watched this team night to night last year, guys,
04:00and why I was starting to get so frustrated the other day before I got cut off.
04:06They're not that good.
04:08They're just not that good.
04:10And so if somebody thought that you should pour in your first-round picks
04:15and get some kind of name in here, and that was going to close the gap that much,
04:20it's not.
04:21And first-round picks are more valuable than they've ever been in the league.
04:25So the idea that you're going to trade some first-round picks
04:29and, oh, let's get a little bit better, and what does that do?
04:32That just screws you down the line.
04:35And so I think that's where I stand.
04:37I was lucky enough to have a job that allowed me to watch these games every night.
04:43And I think that this team, and it's such a huge if, if they can stay healthy,
04:48is better than what they showed last season.
04:50And that's what Dunleavy said in his press conference after the year ended all along.
04:54But the idea that they were one big swing away from getting close to where they've been
05:01or that they're doing such a disservice to Steph at 38 with a chronic knee injury
05:07that they have messed this up so badly and people call into the station every day going nuts,
05:13I just don't see what everybody else does in that regard.
05:16Nick Friedle with us here, Withered and Dibs at 95.7 The Game.
05:20All right, let's pull that apart a little bit.
05:23Your Jalen Brown comment, I think, at four first-round picks is well accepted.
05:29What I hear from a lot of people, and so for that reason I want you to answer this,
05:33is they're very much highlighting that statement of the Celtics called,
05:40the Warriors didn't like the price, and that was the end of that.
05:43Nobody ever talked to anybody ever again.
05:46Like, could the Warriors, should the Warriors, have at least stayed engaged in that conversation
05:53knowing what Jalen ended up going for, which was much cheaper?
05:58Mark, the way I would answer that is I've talked to a lot of people around the league,
06:03and I would go back to something my old colleague and friend Bobby Marks said,
06:08and this was at this point probably six weeks ago,
06:11but he said, you know, there are analytics departments around the league that say,
06:16ah, Jalen Brown just isn't as good as he appears to be.
06:21There are plenty of people in the league that appreciate and respect Jalen Brown's game.
06:27They see the way that he has continued to improve over the last couple years,
06:32but they just don't see him as some kind of number one piece on a title team,
06:38and that's why, like, I never want to get into a situation where I am sitting there going,
06:45oh, well, if only they had done this, and that had happened over and over,
06:51specific to Jalen Brown.
06:53Mark, we can go through all of them if you want, all the possibilities.
06:57I looked at what the Warriors could have done and the conversations that clearly never got that serious,
07:05and I went, I think that was a really smart move.
07:08When you look at the rest of the money on his contract,
07:11and that's what I can't stress enough in all of this.
07:15If you're giving up, and to your point, Mark, let's play it out,
07:18two first-round picks, three first-round picks,
07:20I mean, Jimmy getting hurt, absolutely hurt whatever deal they were going to make in general,
07:25but if you're giving away two or three first-round picks,
07:28it has got to be for a guy that you know is going to take you to some next level.
07:36There are far too many people in the league, as much as they respect Jalen Brown,
07:40that don't believe that's the case.
07:42And then Warriors fans, because I've been trying to talk to a few of them on Twitter,
07:46actually, the last week, because I'm in such disbelief that the fervor has reached this level.
07:52They say, oh, well, if you had traded for Jalen Brown, then you get LeBron.
07:57One, we don't know that for sure, but let's play that out.
07:59And this has been my point all along in the last couple weeks with this conversation.
08:04Guys, if you took Jimmy out, you plugged Jalen Brown in,
08:09you gave up, for argument's sake, let's say it was three first-round picks.
08:13Let's say they whittled it down there, and you plug LeBron on that team.
08:17Of course they're better.
08:19They are a much better team than what we've seen.
08:23I can only speak for myself, though.
08:25That team is not good enough.
08:28They're still not good enough.
08:30They're more interesting, for sure.
08:32And they're a hell of a lot more fun to watch than what we just saw last year
08:36and what it appears like we're going to see going into next year.
08:40But Jalen Brown's deal is gigantic.
08:43There's a reason Boston wanted to move off of him.
08:46Like, I just, in that regard, I absolutely understand why the Warriors did what they did
08:54because I don't view him, and there are a lot of people around the league that would agree with me,
09:00as the centerpiece or close to it of a title team.
09:04And that's the problem I have in this discourse.
09:07People want to make moves for move's sake because they say,
09:12we just watched this team.
09:13This team's not good enough.
09:15I don't want to watch it again.
09:16But just because you make a move doesn't make you that much better.
09:20And I think that's the conclusion that the Warriors on the whole came to,
09:24not just with Jalen Brown, but with a slew of these different things that we can go through now.
09:29And I also look at the other side of the deal,
09:32which is Boston is fancying themselves as a team that probably still wants to be good,
09:36so they weren't going to take on a broken, currently broken Jimmy Butler in this deal.
09:41And Slater was reporting that he had heard that Yaxl would have had to be a part of it.
09:45And so you're shoveling away future picks and a guy in the present who looks pretty good.
09:51Let me ask you this, Nick.
09:53How many of those type of players are out there and are potentially available?
09:58Difference makers who teams are going to want to get rid of?
10:01Well, Dibbs, this is another layer of the conversation that's been ongoing all along.
10:07Because the guy that you're describing and that we're talking about is Giannis.
10:12And if Warriors fans want to be pissed, there's a lot of reason for them to be upset right now.
10:19But if you really want to be that upset, you're upset that they completely whiffed on James Wiseman
10:23and they whiffed again on Kaminga because, guys, those are the two pieces that would have allowed you
10:30to plug in however many other first-round picks you wanted and to have landed Giannis.
10:36So, Dibbs, how many of those guys are out there?
10:40There aren't a lot of them, as we know.
10:42But in this whole core of, okay, what about this guy and what about that guy?
10:46That's the guy, if you're a Warriors fan, that you have every right to really, really be frustrated by
10:56that they couldn't make it happen.
10:58Because they couldn't make it happen because they whiffed so badly on those two picks.
11:02That's, again, I want to be real clear.
11:05The Warriors have made mistakes.
11:07You can blame Kerr and Lakob and Bob Myers and Dunleavy,
11:11and they deserve every bit of whiffing on those two picks.
11:15And, again, where I want to at least have everybody take a deep breath is,
11:21when you look at this summer, I don't see them having, like, all these missteps.
11:27Like, they're still going to try to go after a whole bunch of guys.
11:31If they're any good and Steph physically is doing fine a few months in
11:37and they have a good record, they're going to be in every conversation.
11:40But specific to this summer, when you just break down what could happen,
11:45I don't see this as some kind of major point of a meltdown for the fan base.
11:52I mean, people are just losing it.
11:54And I think that Steph has spoiled them rotten.
11:58I mean, guys, four rings.
12:01Nobody wants to hear that part.
12:02And he's still an all-NBA player.
12:05He's awesome.
12:06But he missed half the games.
12:07He's got a knee injury that's not going away.
12:10It's not going to disappear.
12:12So all of this is part of a broader conversation.
12:17But, Dibs, you know, any one of these other players,
12:20they're going to improve the team but only to a point.
12:24And I think from a broader standpoint, if you're the Warriors,
12:27you're not giving away your future in the form of all these first-round picks
12:32unless you are sure that that player is going to make you that much better.
12:36And there just aren't a lot of those guys out there.
12:39Nick, can I run something by you that is my perception?
12:42And I want you to let me know if this is reality or not.
12:46Right now, the last couple of years has become this annual thing,
12:50which is there's a fringe of people that will say, you know,
12:55maybe they ought to actually entertain trading staff.
12:59And then there's another faction of people that are like, boy, he pissed.
13:03He's definitely like, I know he won't say it, but he is not pleased with this.
13:08And the more I hear it, and then the more I listen to guys like you,
13:13my perception is this is a completely concocted subject that is totally made up
13:22by everyone who is not in the organization at all.
13:27Steph is fine.
13:29The Warriors would never trade him, and he's not even thinking about leaving.
13:33Is that accurate?
13:35Mark, if Steph were that pissed, Steph would go to Joe Lacob and say,
13:39hey, help me get out of here.
13:41All he has said repeatedly to me, to everybody that covers that team
13:47through the years, I want to play in one place, and I want to wear one jersey.
13:51And if he's that upset over the course of the next year,
13:56then he's going to ask out.
13:58But I would also tell you, and again, this is where I feel like people
14:01are just losing their minds in the last week.
14:03You don't think that Mike Dunleavy is having at least a conversation
14:08with Steph Curry on a regular basis about what's going on.
14:12You don't think that Steph knows that they've tried to get all these different guys?
14:17I mean, I go back, let's go back like a year plus ago, guys.
14:20I thought Kevin Durant was coming back to the Warriors.
14:23I think the Warriors thought Kevin Durant was coming back to the Warriors.
14:26And then right at the end, it didn't happen.
14:29Go back a couple more years.
14:30I thought Paul George was like, all right, it's going to happen.
14:33I'm coming to the Warriors, and then the Clippers wouldn't sign off on it.
14:36It's not for a lack of effort.
14:40And that's why, like, do I think Steph's frustrated that he's still playing
14:43at this level and there's only so much they can do?
14:46Absolutely.
14:47He's a competitive guy.
14:48He wants to win.
14:49But the idea that the Warriors are operating one way
14:53and not having at least an ongoing conversation with the star of stars
15:00and the guy that makes it all go, I just don't buy that at all.
15:05And, I mean, I throw this in there, and people are going to go nuts either way
15:09and they're going to have their opinion.
15:11Mark, I've covered the league for almost 20 years now.
15:14I have seen what bad ownership looks like.
15:17I covered the Bulls for 10.
15:19I mean, if people want to get pissed off about something, try being a Bulls fan.
15:25They don't want to spend.
15:26People can get all that at Lakeham for getting too involved in the draft stuff
15:31and wanting certain guys.
15:33I get that.
15:34But that dude spends.
15:35You don't think the other players, you don't think Steph Curry knows that?
15:40I mean, for all the flaws, like, it could be way, way worse as far as how things
15:46are lined up.
15:46So only Steph knows how he feels.
15:50He talked to my friend Marcus Thompson the other day in Arkansas,
15:54and I got the sense in reading those quotes that he is confident that they're
16:00going to find their way.
16:02And I think he's trying to figure out, do I want to get that extension lined up
16:06coming up in August?
16:07We'll see.
16:08But I just don't buy that Steph is so angry and he's so hurt by the fact that
16:14the cap situation is what it is and Jimmy's injury and Moses Moody's injury
16:19is what it is that he is just going to have a complete fit.
16:23First of all, that's not his personality.
16:25And secondly, he wants to try and make it work, and he wants to make it work
16:30here.
16:30And I don't buy that there's some kind of whole soap opera going on behind
16:36the scenes.
16:36Yeah, I don't think that that would be the case either.
16:39And you mentioned before about the fans being spoiled, and I have an almost
16:43four-year-old daughter, and she is spoiled.
16:45And once you spoil something, you can't unspoil them.
16:49So the Warrior fans, we're used to going to Hawaii for two weeks every summer
16:53and playing until June, and now all of a sudden we've got three nights at the
16:57KOA campground at fill-in-the-blank city, and so it's not what we've been
17:02expecting.
17:02So are we ever going back to Hawaii, Nick?
17:06It's going to be very, very hard to see Hawaii again, Mr. Dibbs.
17:14I think that the Warriors are too proud of an organization that has a standard for
17:20themselves that to write them off completely, I don't think that's right.
17:26Guys, I'll tell you what, I think the biggest question is moving forward.
17:29Now that we're through the LeBron-a-thon and whatever happened with however many
17:35teams he's thought I can do, he's going to Philly.
17:38The next biggest question to me is, Draymond and Jimmy are now locked in for one more
17:43year.
17:44They have both said they want to be here for the rest of their careers.
17:49Are they willing to take less to do it?
17:52How much less would that be?
17:55Because Steph's going to get paid.
17:56He's still a Max guy.
17:58Paz potentially is going to get very paid here before the season starts.
18:04Guy Santos is at $5 million.
18:06Yaxel's on his rookie deal.
18:08Will Richard's still in there.
18:09And you've got Melton and Horford for a couple more years.
18:15Where else are they going to be able to go get other players to come in here and get high
18:23level guys unless those two guys are willing to take less moving forward?
18:27And again, only they know the answer.
18:30I mean, Draymond has said repeatedly he wants to finish his career as a warrior.
18:35Okay, but Draymond no longer is a $27 million a year player.
18:40I think we all agree on that.
18:41That was just out of loyalty that they made that deal happen.
18:45So all of this is fascinating.
18:47But the overreaction, I don't want to say I'm shocked, guys, because I know the passion is there.
18:55But given the cap circumstances and given the possibilities and what it would take to acquire one of these guys
19:05with all the picks, I just cannot believe that people thought they were one piece away or a couple pieces
19:14away from being that much different from where they are.
19:17And I hear people say, well, I just don't want them to be the 10th seed again.
19:21I want them to go into the playoffs and have a chance.
19:25And that's fine.
19:25But what did they screw up so badly this summer that is impossible to fix going into January and February?
19:37I mean, that's where I get lost.
19:38Again, you want to get mad?
19:40They whiffed on Wiseman and it was awful and it has set them back and they whiffed on Kaminga and
19:47man, oh, man, was last summer a mess.
19:50And maybe back in time a couple of years ago, they should have unloaded that deal.
19:54And that is on them.
19:55That is on Joe Lacob and Bob Myers and Kerr.
19:59That's their fault.
20:00But specific to right now, I just can't get into the outrage.
20:05It seems to be enveloping.
20:07And it's not all the fan base, but it's a big chunk of it.
20:11Nick, great stuff.
20:12Great to have you.
20:13Please say hi to my favorite non-giant Pete Crow Armstrong.
20:18The MVP of the league, Mark.
20:20I don't care what his numbers are.
20:21As long as he keeps ripping Dodger fans, he's my favorite.
20:27You got it.
20:28It's always good to hear y'all.
20:29All right, brother.
20:30Appreciate it.
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