- 9 minutes ago
Willard and Dibs react to Dejounte Murray's trade request from the Pelicans and wonder if the Warriors should try to trade for the disgruntled guard.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:008-1-3 just texted in and said, forget DeJounte.
00:06That's it?
00:07I want Nas Reid.
00:09Right.
00:10Like that's happening.
00:11I want Iguodala.
00:13I like that.
00:14Max Kellerman.
00:15I don't think that Nas Reid is going to be available.
00:18I mean, eventually he could be.
00:20He got kind of benched one game,
00:22and I think since then he's gone out and played more than 30 minutes a night.
00:26So it feels like that was just kind of a quick like, okay, you're on timeout.
00:32You sleep in the guest room, whatever the temporary punishment is, and he's back.
00:37A career 15.5 points per game, a one-time All-Star.
00:43Three times in his career he's averaged over 20 points per game.
00:48He averages almost six rebounds per game.
00:52He averages five and a half assists per game.
00:56DeJounte Murray is who we're talking about, of the New Orleans Pelicans.
00:59He is like many Pelicans, which is that they don't actually usually put their good players in the game.
01:05It's very odd.
01:07We could have a whole discussion about why the Pelicans aren't better.
01:12They've got all of these names.
01:15They've got all of these names, you know, starting with Zion,
01:20and then getting to Trey Murphy and DeJounte Murray,
01:24and now we're looking, you know, Jordan Poole, who we know,
01:28somewhere in there there's a basketball player that other teams are not seeing.
01:33But anyway, Murray today asked for a trade.
01:38Here's what I'm thinking.
01:41Because is he a perfect fit for the Warriors?
01:45No.
01:45But we've got some circumstances that have come into play.
01:49And that is, A, Steph Curry is hurt.
01:52So Steph Curry is not going to play for a month.
01:55And Brandon Williams is hurt.
01:57So he's not going to play for at least a week and a half.
02:00And Chris Tapps Porzingis doesn't play basketball anymore.
02:05And he's on the payroll.
02:07He's got some great teeth, though.
02:09So I've heard.
02:12Nice smile.
02:13For the YouTube audience.
02:14So you need to, in an ideal world,
02:19find a team that has a player that either wants out
02:23or they want off of that player.
02:26And in theory, that player will have more than one year left on their deal,
02:31which is why the team is going to want to get off of that player
02:35and be activated by the idea of acquiring Chris Tapps Porzingis.
02:38Because what you're doing is you're just acquiring a contract
02:41that can expire at the end of the year.
02:43And you probably don't have to pay all of it or any of it
02:47because he is in the process of retiring.
02:50So I don't even know if that contract is payable.
02:52The Warriors are not paying him right now.
02:54I know that.
02:56So could this be target one?
02:59And if you make the deal before December 15th,
03:02same way they did a year or two ago with Dennis Schroeder,
03:06it makes that player tradable again at the actual trade deadline in February.
03:13So I think the goal right now for the Warriors
03:15is to see if you can find a new spot for Chris Tapps Porzingis' contract.
03:21Is there a helpful player out there that can come join you?
03:26And this is the first trade request of the year.
03:30And contractually, it would take Chris Tapps and another piece.
03:35Right.
03:36But not a big piece.
03:37Probably Moses Moody.
03:39If you look at the math that I did the ESPN NBA trade machine,
03:43as we all want to do as these things pop up,
03:46that actually works just fine.
03:48And if you give them Moses Moody,
03:50which you hate to do because he's been a good warrior and he's injured
03:54and you hope that he comes back,
03:55you give him the carcass of Chris Tapps Porzingis' career
03:59and he probably never even shows up there, which is fine.
04:02And New Orleans can line item that thing right away whenever they possibly can.
04:07And they get one year of a,
04:08all right, Moses, you're here.
04:10Let's see what you can do at a relative bargain if he's healthy,
04:14$13 million.
04:14And they can either have a 25 or 26-year-old player
04:18that they re-sign for a low amount,
04:21or that's another salary slot.
04:22And for the Warriors, you get DeJounte Murray,
04:25and in the short term he helps because you need more buckets
04:28while Steph is out.
04:29And I would imagine that when Steph gets over the oblique,
04:32he probably won't play every game the rest of the year anyway.
04:35And so the only real holdup for me is that DeJounte Murray
04:39has a player op for $30 million next year.
04:42So you're kind of on the hook for that
04:44if he decides that he wants to have that picked up.
04:47Yep, exactly right.
04:48But I don't think that you'd have to part with any real pick
04:51to make that happen.
04:53Maybe you give him two or three second-round picks,
04:56which is like what?
04:58I mean, you could sweeten the deal with that if you had to.
05:00You could have second-round picks.
05:02I don't know anybody who cares about second-round picks.
05:06If you feel like it makes your team better for second-round picks,
05:10I mean, you could have as many of them as you want.
05:12Isn't that what the Warriors had to attach to James Wiseman
05:15in order to, like, get Gary Payton back
05:19and give him a bunch of second-round picks?
05:21Like five second-round picks.
05:22Yeah, second-round picks.
05:24Right, second-round picks is like, you know,
05:26what you put in the recycling bin.
05:28Yeah, well, and you can go buy those back,
05:29as we've learned, if you want on draft night.
05:32Just pull out your wallet and buy a second-round pick.
05:35Somebody will give you one.
05:36So, listen, again, I don't think it's perfect.
05:39I know a lot of people right now have their eyes on Wendell Carter from Orlando
05:45and thinking that Orlando is going to kind of fall apart.
05:48And so, you know, maybe you wait for that.
05:51I have no idea what the interest is.
05:53The team has not responded to this public trade request yet,
05:56so I don't know what New Orleans is thinking.
05:59But it is November 13th, and the Warriors essentially have,
06:03in my opinion, in a perfect world.
06:05Yeah, they could hold them until the deadline.
06:07But in a perfect world, there's a trade in the next month.
06:11The team, by the way, just recently has officially responded
06:15to the statement from DeJounte Murray.
06:18They released, quote,
06:19Today, DeJounte Murray's representatives informed us of his request to be traded.
06:24We will evaluate potential trade opportunities
06:27that are in the best interest of our organization.
06:29Okay, so they're open to a deal.
06:31That's great.
06:32That's very different than we're not trading DeJounte Murray.
06:38So, I've had worse thoughts than this one, for sure.
06:44I don't, none of these are going to be,
06:46you're not getting something perfect for Kristaps Porzingis' contract.
06:50That's fair.
06:50You're just not.
06:52We all have an emotional tie to Moses Moody.
06:55He's a great dude, and he was drafted here.
06:59But let's also point out, he's gone through a major, major injury.
07:05It is fair to wonder if he's ever going to be himself again.
07:09And also, what he was is not quite a game-changer.
07:15He's not a game-changing player.
07:17He's not, but he is a seventh or eighth man on a really good team.
07:21Somebody who can be three and D, and he's reliable, and he doesn't hurt you.
07:26He helps you at times, and sometimes he's a net neutral,
07:29but in general, he's a good, solid rotational player.
07:32He's a dedicated, good locker room guy.
07:35So, it's not like you're giving away nothing.
07:37Like, you're giving away Porzingis' number,
07:39and you would have to throw in something.
07:41So, if you didn't want to throw in Moses Moody,
07:44well, then now you're looking at how do you come up with another
07:46$12 or $13 million worth of player.
07:50And so, that would be, I mean, Al Horford and somebody else.
07:54I do think that the cleanest way to do it would be to, you know,
07:58trade Moses Moody and his potential upside.
08:00The Porzingis contract is the centerpiece of everything you're trying to do.
08:04Any other player on the, like, you played with this on the trade machine.
08:08Is there any other asset on the Warriors that could be paired with Chris Stapps
08:12that's not Moses Moody?
08:15Anything else fit?
08:16I'll have to look at the exact numbers of it, but, for example, Pods,
08:20he's not making enough right now.
08:23He will be making more down the road, and if he was only making,
08:26well, if he was making $22 million now, well, then you could do Pods
08:30and something else, or Pods and Chris Stapps and be in a different spot,
08:33but he's still making that rookie money.
08:35I don't want the Warriors to trade Brandon Pajemski for this.
08:39No, I'm talking about people that they would actually be interested in parting with
08:43for someone like DeJounte Murray.
08:45It really is, you get into no man's land because you've got Steph and Jimmy
08:50and Draymond, big money.
08:52Porzingis is 20, please go away.
08:54Moses at 12 and a half.
08:56Then you get to, Al's making six, and I think he has a no trade,
08:59just looking at the ESPN trade machine.
09:02Yax is making six, no way.
09:05Pods at 5.7.
09:06Guy's making 4.6.
09:08So you could do Chris Stapps and Guy and Bassie and Will.
09:12I mean, what are we even talking about at this point?
09:14It's really, it's Chris Stapps and Moses to match up with $30 million.
09:19That's what you're looking at.
09:22I'm with you.
09:23I mean, no matter what you do with Chris Stapps,
09:25you're not going to be able to do the carcass of his career for 20
09:29and get $20 million worth of, yeah, you're really good.
09:33That's not going to happen.
09:35So it'll have to be either the carcass of Chris Stapps' contract
09:39and a couple picks to get something good,
09:41or you're just going to trade that and something else to get something decent.
09:46That's kind of where you are, I think.
09:48I mean, the Warriors right now, again, I don't even know to what level
09:53they want to start pushing anything into the middle of the table right now,
09:57but they need some buckets.
09:58Going to need some buckets over here,
10:00and I don't want to do a deal that's about the next month.
10:02I don't think that's prudent.
10:04That doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
10:05I also don't know what they know with regard to what do they have their eyes on
10:10next year with the money that they have.
10:13Now, having Murray on the books is actually not that preventative.
10:18The Warriors have way more than that coming off of the books next year,
10:23depending on what they want to do with the likes of Jimmy Butler
10:28and Draymond Green, et cetera.
10:30But I don't know, man.
10:32I saw the trade request today.
10:34The Warriors are actively trying to get Chris Stapps Porzingis
10:39and turn him into something.
10:41Would it be better to get a stretch five in return?
10:46Sure, but the numbers on that are really difficult
10:49because those are overpriced and people don't want to give them up.
10:53So at a time when Steph Curry and Brandon Williams are both hurt,
10:57I don't exactly know.
10:59You know, pods is nice, but not in that sort of a way.
11:04It's not break down the defense and get a bucket.
11:07It's break down defense and within the offense,
11:10ball might come back to you and get a bucket.
11:13Like, he's very, very good.
11:15But I don't know.
11:17Like, even Yaxel today I saw said his confidence is at a 6 out of 10
11:22that he can handle the job that he's got over the next month,
11:26which is to be an NBA 1.
11:28I like that.
11:29He's excited about it, but as we know,
11:31there is no one more candid than Yaxel.
11:33They said, what's your confidence that you can do this?
11:36He said it's at about a 6 out of 10.
11:38Might help if there was, like, you know, another NBA scorer on the floor.
11:43And I just wonder about the DeJounte Murray arc of his career
11:47because when he left Atlanta, he was averaging 22.5,
11:50and it's gone to 17.5, 16.7.
11:53This year it's 13.4.
11:54And I know that New Orleans is in kind of a funky mode as a team,
11:59and he still is starting every game, and he's shooting less,
12:03and his assists are down, and I wonder if it's disinterest
12:06or is he kind of a deteriorating player?
12:10I don't watch enough Pelican ball to be able to say definitively,
12:14but his trend is not great.
12:16No, and you're absolutely right.
12:19Not a great three-point shooter through his career, just under 34%,
12:23but if you look at what has happened since he arrived at New Orleans,
12:2729.9, 30.6, and this year 29.6.
12:31That's bad.
12:32That's bad for a guard and for an outside shooter.
12:36And he's shooting only three threes a game.
12:38Yeah.
12:39Where it used to be, in Atlanta, it was seven.
12:41Yep.
12:41So is it that you've lost your confidence, you've lost your way?
12:44Is New Orleans just a place where good careers go to die?
12:47That's kind of what I'm thinking.
12:49Like, again, this is not a perfect deal,
12:52and my sense is, in knowing the Warriors the way I do,
12:56this is not something they're going to be interested in.
12:59But in the moment, it does sound a little appetizing
13:05just because the Warriors are going to need some buckets
13:08and they need some help at guard with Seth Curry and Brandon Williams both out,
13:12but obviously two-year commitment is not what you want to do
13:15when all you need is some help for a month or a month and a half.
13:18I totally get that.
13:20But what keeps ringing in my ear when I look at Murray's numbers is Jordan Poole.
13:25I mean, sitting in the locker room openly being like,
13:28yeah, I'd love to come back to where people know what the bleep they're doing,
13:33and it's like a team, and they play good basketball,
13:37and all of the things, and I'm paraphrasing,
13:39but all of the things he sort of indicated this week in the Warrior locker room
13:43while sitting in the Pelicans locker room, and that's where Murray is,
13:47and why is he requesting a trade?
13:49He clearly thinks this whole thing has gone sideways,
13:53and I don't think he's alone.
13:55So would the Warriors get something better out of him is the question,
13:59and my sense is probably.
14:01Probably.
14:02Yeah, the other piece is can the Warriors get something better
14:05with the Porzingis contract and whatever you throw in?
14:09That becomes the interesting piece,
14:11but the fact that DeJounte Murray has said,
14:13all right, I want out, and we are not even a month into the year,
14:17and he's been there now for two years and 11 or 12 games,
14:21and why at this point is he saying, yeah, I'm out,
14:24and you go back to last week or earlier this week
14:27when Jordan Poole was saying, boy, I would love to come back here.
14:30If anyone's listening, I loved it here.
14:32It was great.
14:33I want out, and think about what Zion Williamson said.
14:36Was that yesterday or the day before?
14:38Like, this is inexcusable.
14:40So if you look at all of the dominoes from the New Orleans standpoint,
14:44you've got young Jordan Poole marooned on the bench,
14:47kind of like pining to be a warrior.
14:49You've got your megastar saying this is unacceptable,
14:51and now you've got your veteran saying, yeah, trade me.
14:55That thing is absolutely decaying from the inside out.
14:59No doubt.
Comments