- 12 minutes ago
Willard and Dibs discuss how Yaxel Lendeborg, just five games into his career, is already making a number of NBA teams look bad for passing on him in the draft.
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00:00at Yaxo Lindenborg and is this too much too soon in terms of attention and excitement I certainly
00:05think not but it all depends on sort of where your brain goes um I I'm not I don't really
00:12have
00:12a projection in terms of like honors you know all-star um a one on a good NBA team or
00:21hell
00:22the indication again nobody has had a five-game start like this to their career and not ended up
00:27in the hall of fame in terms of points and rebounds and assists and all that I don't want to
00:31project
00:32anything like that but I feel very very comfortable about a few things this is a special athlete who
00:38is is really going to um provided with health and provided with the emotional stability that I think
00:45he has this person's going to have a really good NBA career you don't have like this is a special
00:50talent um but the main thing the main takeaway isn't really about stats it is about emotion
00:57he's changed the season for warrior fans already I I think a warrior fan woke up Monday morning and
01:04they're just like what what is there to this season I don't know what there is for us to get
01:09excited
01:09about we're having a hard time finding hope we're having a hard time finding excitement about watching
01:15games and in two nights in two nights on the road with two wins he has changed all that um
01:23it gives
01:24a fan and the organization direction hope excitement um and then there's the x's and o's part about
01:30having a two-man game and having somebody who can score the basketball without Steph Curry leading the
01:37way at times relieves the pressure there to me these things even five games in are already true
01:44um but is it too much too soon there's I mean I get it there's a conversation there sure it
01:50depends
01:50on how far down the road you want to go and Stiney and Gu were going back and forth because
01:54Gu was
01:55saying how he could see him win a series or two and so Stiney was giving him the whole like
01:59whoa whoa
01:59whoa if they win two series now you're in the western conference finals are we really saying that
02:04after five games and so Gu is a dreamer and Stiney is I mean I won't say he's a hater
02:10but he's I don't
02:11know what the opposite of a dreamer is he's a nightmare like a wet blanket a little bit I know
02:15he's a realist yeah okay he's much more of a realist and so yeah you're five games in are you
02:20suddenly
02:21now gonna say okay western conference finals because Yaxos had five good games probably not but
02:26what you said I think is the best way to look at it which is you've given the warriors something
02:31to
02:32fixate on other than the rest of it which is okay this is gonna be a gap year well no
02:38it's not
02:38and Steph can't play every game and Chris Tapps has got pots and he won't play and well boy Draymond
02:43is washed and Dunleavy he's got to go and why'd they bring back Steve Kerr and you can go through
02:49all the other negative things you want to go through and why'd they pay pods I mean I left him
02:53out but now you look at it and you go warrior basketball this dude's fun I have a prediction
02:58to make about Yaxos I have a prediction to make about Yaxos not hall of fame and all stars and
03:03all this
03:04stuff but first you're listening to 95.7 the game KGMZ FM and HC1 San Francisco and Odyssey Sports
03:09Station in the home of the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries always live on the free Odyssey app
03:13coming live from the Laughing Monk Studios you know how every fan base and their team and you could do
03:18it with all the teams here in the bay if that's who you root for every fan base has their
03:22list of guys
03:23who they could have drafted and they passed on them and they're ticked about it Patrick Mahomes
03:31or if you're the Warriors like you took Wiseman and you could add Tyrese Halliburton right or
03:38whatever like everyone's Wagner one with Jonathan Kaminga Franz Wagner went the very next pick or I
03:44think it was and Steve loved him and blah blah blah I think Trey Lyles was taken after Moses Moody
03:50in
03:50that same draft uh that's possible I think that was the one there's another one in that same draft
03:55where people are like oh where did you mean Trey Murphy Trey Murphy is one of them thank you
03:59yeah Trey Lance appreciate it I was thinking Trey Lance but I knew that was wrong yeah they didn't
04:04pass on Trey Lance nobody's list but anyway yeah there's that list you have of like oops we screwed
04:10that up Yaxl's going to be on about five other teams list the 10 picks that went in front of
04:17them
04:17I'm going to predict about five of them people are thrilled with your cam boozers let's see what
04:23happens with the Bansa um there are others I don't think any although those are not all busts these are
04:28really good players who got drafted this year but there are going to be about five fan bases at least
04:33that went I cannot freaking believe we let Yaxl Lindeborg get to number 11 and let Steph Curry's
04:43team take him I will predict that I and that takes probably a couple of years at least for sure
04:50before
04:50you can have that feeling um although I like looking at even five games there's probably already
04:58some fans whose eyebrows are raised going okay Darius Acuff's over here shooting 14 percent from three
05:05and Yaxl's averaging 23 and nine he's up to 21 percent from three that's exciting so I'm glad he's
05:11starting to put some respect on his uh on his bounce back no I actually like I really like him
05:15right and I do
05:16think what you said before is the fairest way to look at it with one exception and I'll share that
05:20in a moment but these guys are all most of them are 19 year old babies and Yaxl's not so
05:26he should
05:26be ahead of all of them and these guys were drafted on upside DeBansa upside Peterson sure even Caleb
05:34Wilson is coming off an injury and Keaton Wagler and all the rest of the guys who were taken ahead
05:38of
05:39him with the exception of this one Mark and this is where I can't help but scratch my head because
05:43Dallas hires the former coach at Michigan and it happened the announcement happened hours before
05:50the draft and so either they went to Dusty May and said hey uh who do you like on your
05:55team because
05:56there's a couple guys we might take you know you got three guys on his team who all went in
06:00the top
06:01uh 12 including the one Dallas took at number nine Merez Johnson Jr and you know he's played all five
06:07games and I think he's a good player but Yaxl is blowing this whole thing out of the water so
06:12why didn't Dusty May tap them on the shoulder and say yo uh you should take Yaxl at nine not
06:18Merez
06:18I don't know but then there's also fit like I mean maybe they're looking at Yaxl Lindeborg and
06:23Cooper Flagg and thinking these this is a little redundant maybe I don't know I don't know but um
06:29you know it's certainly a fair question or or something to watch uh no doubt about it let's take
06:35some calls on this Christian in Fairfield hey Christian thanks for calling us what's up
06:40hey Willard you're right you don't want Flagg and Yaxl on the same team that's too many
06:45two guys that play the same way that's too many balls you know ball dominant you can't have that
06:49that's not going to work but uh I'm calling about pods people are sweeping under pods I called Monday
06:55Sonny and Goo and said they'd beat the Timberwolves and the Lakers because Pogs gives Kurt an option
07:00to go five and out they're playing the center out of the game with that lineup he played the five
07:06best
07:06players against the Nuggets he would have did that but he got that mysterious injury and he played
07:10gang also pods is plus 36 they're two and one with pods oh and two without pods he's averaging 15
07:17five
07:17and five uh like one and a half fields we got to give Dunleavy credit because pods and Will Richard
07:23were the two youngest guys on the court so against the Lakers you're going to see the same thing it's
07:28the pods matchup is the key he matched what um Jamal Murray did he outplayed Melo for the fourth time
07:36he's four and oh against Melo by the way when I called in on Monday to Stiney I said he
07:40was three
07:40and oh that makes four and oh and so he has to match what Austin does because Yaxl is going
07:45to do what
07:46he does I don't think it's over hype and Yaxl I just think pods and Dunleavy aren't getting the credit
07:52they deserve for what's going on now I know that Porzingis being uh uh doing the scam thing was a
07:58little black eye on Dunleavy but you can't predict that you know I'm saying I could call in and say
08:02I played in the rucker which I did but unless you do your research how are you going to know
08:06so
08:06you know you know what I'm saying but predictions I look at it that Christian you're right but
08:11predictions are also part that's part of the deal when you're a general manager like we think this
08:15guy will be a good free agent signing we think this guy will be a good draft pick we think
08:19that you
08:19know what I mean so you're I agree with you at the same time any general manager understands that's
08:24part of the evaluation of a general manager your predictions need to be pretty good you need to
08:30hit on more than you miss on I think Dunleavy has I don't think he gets credit for that I'm
08:37not worried
08:38about Mike Dunleavy I think the Chris Stapps thing was a mistake but I think his draft picks are looking
08:43pretty sexy right now yeah so far so good and obviously more to do and I just can't help but
08:48think
08:48about the Brandon Iuke saga when it comes to Chris Stapps Porzingis and you know Brandon Iuke had a
08:54chance to do things a different way and get a lot more money and still not really be a 49er
08:59and so
09:00I'm not saying that Chris Stapps is going to go on Instagram and talk about you know you need to
09:04stop
09:04being a little cat because it's not really his thing but Iuke gets the contract he plays football
09:10he gets hurt and all he really had to do was show up and try to rehab even though you
09:16didn't want to
09:16maybe play football ever again and you could have gotten some money and the thing about Chris Stapps is
09:21you sign a deal and now it's I'm sick I can't play and I'm not going to be around it
09:27just stinks a
09:28little bit no there's no question about it um and the IU thing will forever be a mystery um because
09:35yeah he's cratered his career and uh and not of interest to anyone anymore um but even if you like
09:41wanted to crater your career you could have like at least gotten a certain amount of money and said
09:47you couldn't get I'm here you want me gone I don't want to be here there's a certain amount of
09:51money
09:51you have to still pay me and not void my deal no question I mean his larger point though on
09:56pods
09:56look um I don't know if you're preaching to the choir you're talking to two people who have had an
10:02appreciation for Brandy Pajemski the entire time he's far from perfect I know that he regrets some
10:08things that he said or the way that he said them I also get that he is not a traditional
10:13young
10:13basketball player um who you know sort of generates excitement he's more an intricacy guy in terms of
10:21what he does on the court but the data is as clear as it can be and my feeling right
10:26now is that the fan
10:28base is about to find a new level of acceptance on Pajemski for two reasons one of them is his
10:36numbers
10:36and his production are going to be undeniable but the main thing is is the presence of Yaksa
10:43Lindenborg moves Brandon down in the perspective world oh yeah and so you're no longer viewing
10:50Brandon as this person who needs to be the centerpiece of the future and then your brain goes
10:56well he can't do it so that's not right so these dumb warriors think that Brandon's like this
11:02core piece going forward if you stop looking at him that way you'll gain a completely different
11:09feeling about pods in my opinion and instead you'll just see him as like do you want that guy on
11:17your
11:17team do you want that guy playing 25 to 30 minutes on your team and I think that the answer
11:24is yes
11:25and and and therefore um you'll like him better he'll bother you less if you're someone who is
11:32bothered by him right and I was using the baseball analogy yesterday and I think it's a good one where
11:37if pods is your number seven hitter and he's the guy who's going to hit 265 with 20 home runs
11:42and
11:42drive in 80 it's like yeah if he's got those same numbers and he's your number three hitter or your
11:47cleanup hitter you're thinking our offense sucks we can't have him be the best bat in our lineup and so
11:53it's a little bit like that in basketball where you get yaxled so now pods moves down the batting
11:57order and if jimmy comes back then he moves down another click and if pods can give you I don't
12:03know 13 points and four assists and seven rebounds and he'll play 30 minutes a night over the course of
12:1075 games you'll love him as your fifth best player you just made me think of wilmer flores when you
12:15just
12:15said that wilmer wilmer flores was a really good giant right but it bothered people when he was batting third
12:21as it should yeah exactly he's not a number three hitter and I know the number three hitter is not
12:27what it used to be now like your number one your number two hitters or your number three hitters
12:30whatever the bigger point is if you look at the bottom of the giants batting order for example
12:35you get to never heard of you please don't let him hit and oh my god he's an automatic out
12:41and if pods is you know down in that spot he's not that guy yeah joe in san jose is
12:46next hi joe
12:47thanks for calling man hey thanks for taking my car i told you guys friday i was right like the
12:5349ers
12:54come from behind when i needed to see more they couldn't do it but back to the warriors
12:59steph curry man let's we're not the warriors is not in a rebuilding i mean they're not
13:06they're not championship quality i guess you guys all can agree with this but steph curry 40 points is a
13:15distraction a distraction playing good huh why is it a distraction a distraction yeah please explain
13:23yeah i mean because i mean i mean it's good it's good because they can get good value from
13:30for him right now but the warriors have to rebuild come on let's be real stuff not gonna make it
13:36the
13:36whole season something's gonna go wrong hopefully don't but realistically statistically i mean consistently
13:42the warriors has to move on and the 40 points is great but it's a distraction they have to rebuild
13:50so joe you're suggesting that the war are you still suggesting even after the contract extension
13:55that the warriors need to trade steph curry uh yeah they have to rebuild i mean we let's be i
14:02mean
14:03are you can you ask can you answer this question or the warriors championship quality team they are not
14:09but but that is irrelevant in the steph curry contractual conversation in my opinion joe i
14:15understand your emotional feeling about it i don't think you're alone thanks joe but what what i do think
14:21is if you are still out and about harboring feelings of trading steph curry you're gonna have to go on
14:28a
14:28camping trip or something and leave it behind it is over they're not they won't he doesn't want to
14:36they don't want to and those reasons go way beyond winning and losing this year like it's just
14:43not in the cards he wants to retire here they want him to retire here steph curry warrior for life
14:50i'm sorry that conversation's over joe's right though when it comes to like a 40 point game as a
14:56distraction when he hits that second or his third three in a row and i'm gonna tell steve this when
15:01he
15:02comes on you gotta take him out all those made threes that lead to a win on the road it's
15:07distracting us no i gotta admit i did watch them i was like oh maybe he'll do it again i
15:13was supposed
15:14to be playing pups and ladders with my daughter but i said i'm sorry honey i'm being distracted by
15:18steph's greatness