• last month
Transcript
00:00I think that we're projecting a little bit based on the idea that the Warriors are off to an unbelievable start.
00:08Nobody in this moment, emotionally at least, I don't think, wants to make a trade.
00:13Why would we want to do that?
00:15They're 9-2. They're pummeling people.
00:18They've got three wins over high-level competition.
00:22So they already look like they can hang on the highest level.
00:26And the team is littered with homegrown players and new additions who seem like they're fitting right in.
00:33This is a touchy, feely, very positive type of an environment so far.
00:40So nobody wants to change anything.
00:43But I do think that it is going to be fair to ask the question going forward.
00:49And that is, how does that project to when we really get down to brass tacks?
00:56How does this project in the end?
00:58And do the Warriors, we spent all year asking about a number two score.
01:03Do they have that guy?
01:05You answered that there are three people who rotate and play the role on a nightly basis.
01:12That's dangerous.
01:13That's dangerous because sometimes none of them will do it.
01:17And in fact, I'd argue that the other night was one of those nights.
01:21They were all fine.
01:24Wiggins was good, but more of a defender.
01:26Defensive side really good.
01:28Kaminga was solid.
01:30But he was pretty quiet by his standards.
01:32But they all combined for 38 points.
01:36You're like, whoa, that's great.
01:37Well, not when it's three people.
01:39Not when it's three people.
01:41So we asked Tim Kawakami of SF Standard and the Odyssey Network with both of his podcasts.
01:48He's dialed in, very, very dialed in.
01:50And we asked him yesterday, hey, this 9-2 start, are they playing so well that maybe there won't be a trade at some point?
01:56I think what it does, it takes them out of the market for like a Jimmy Butler, who I never was high on as a trade candidate for them this time around.
02:04I think he's a little too old.
02:05I think he's going to want a contract.
02:06I think they want to get a younger player if they're going to do that.
02:09Giannis is right in the middle of his prime.
02:11That's just about as old as you want to get.
02:13Obviously, he's an incredible player.
02:15If not, then you want to get a younger player.
02:17Just a real quality 1B score.
02:20I think they might need that.
02:21We saw the second unit kind of get bounced around by Dallas in the second half last night.
02:27Just didn't have that one guy.
02:28Now, listen, that's hard to get.
02:30Not many people have that guy.
02:33But I think they still can do that or they cannot do it.
02:37It's optionality.
02:38You can look for a trade that is the best thing for your team at this moment.
02:41And maybe Kaminga's contract is something you don't want to worry about at the end of the year.
02:45Or if you don't do it, okay, you keep Kaminga and Moody and Wiggins or whoever else you'd have to trade in order to get that.
02:51And you ride with what you got.
02:52It's looking pretty good right now.
02:54Steve Kerr, figure it out.
02:55Go with a long rotation.
02:57Work out different combinations.
02:59I think what this start is doing is giving them the ability to do either thing instead of feeling incredibly pressured.
03:07We've got to make a trade.
03:08We've got to make a trade.
03:09We've got to make a trade.
03:10And what if the trade's not there?
03:11And the trade may not be there.
03:12Okay, and he's absolutely right.
03:13That last part for me is the absolute truth, which is this start has made it so you don't feel that desperation, that urgency.
03:21You're 9-2.
03:22And right now, you're 9-2 based on still not really having a second score for the most part.
03:29The question is whether or not, and he's right and you're right, which is, okay, is this something that can work long term?
03:38Well, you're not in a pressured spot.
03:40You've got good leverage here.
03:42You can either make a deal.
03:43You cannot make a deal.
03:44But we also know where Steph and Draymond and Steve Kerr are going to come from on this.
03:49The urgency is now.
03:50Now, now, now, now.
03:52Forget development.
03:53Need to try to win a title.
03:55And I think this also just challenges our sensibilities.
03:59Because I look at this team and on one hand, I go, man, this is fun.
04:03I love seeing everybody play.
04:05They're a really fun watch.
04:07They're a feel-good story.
04:09They're succeeding.
04:11But teams like this historically don't win championships.
04:15That's not how it works in the NBA usually.
04:17Right, right.
04:18And if you look at the Western Conference, and I'm just going down the standings right now, OKC is number one.
04:23And they've got Shea, Gildas Alexander, and they've got Jalen Williams, who's averaging 20 a game.
04:28Phoenix has the big three.
04:30We know that.
04:31Denver's got Jokic and Murray.
04:33Houston's got Shangoon, who's averaging 17 and change to go alongside Jalen Green.
04:39The Lakers, we know, have LeBron and Anthony Davis.
04:42So as you go one through six, every team has a one and a 1A, except the Warriors.
04:48The Warriors have a one and a bunch of 2Bs.
04:51And actually, some of those teams you threw out there have a one, a 1A, and a 1B.
04:55Yeah, in many ways.
04:57And again, I'm not saying necessarily that I know that's going to work.
05:01Phoenix has had that for a little while right now, and it's been a total disaster.
05:04Maybe they've got it figured out this time around.
05:07I don't know.
05:08I don't know.
05:09But I do think that this is a question that's coming.
05:12And I do think that the other night, we saw our first clip of like, oh.
05:18And it's great that they won anyway.
05:20Yeah.
05:21But you're not going to rely on that kind of stuff heroics every night.
05:25Like, even the best in the world, when they try to do stuff like that, it usually is not going to work.
05:31Like, that was an unbelievable final 90 seconds for one of the all-time greats.
05:37It was, but defensively, you still played mostly well against a team that does have, you know,
05:43three legitimate scores in Klay and Kyrie and Luka Doncic.
05:48And, you know, you held everyone else, the others, as much as you could.
05:52And, you know, Kaminga gave you 16 and Buddy 14 and Draymond 11.
05:56And so you did get other contributions.
05:59I don't think that this team needs 35 from Steph and 25 from fill in the blank.
06:04If you don't get 25 from your number two guy, you do need 18, 16, and 14 for the most part.
06:12And, you know, the other night, they kind of got that because Kaminga gave you 16.
06:16Buddy gave you 14.
06:18And then, you know, Melton gave you 14, which was unexpected.
06:21Draymond chipping in with 11.
06:23And it looks like he's looking to score more than ever.
06:25And Wiggins had a bad, a quiet offensive night.
06:29But I think Wiggins is good for 14 or 15 most nights.
06:32I think what you're saying is accurate in that there's a good aspect of this where you're like,
06:38look, there's like four or five different people who can do this role.
06:41Good chance that a couple of them do it each night.
06:44And that's all you need.
06:45That's true.
06:47But that also puts Steve Kerr in the position that I, at least personally, and many others.
06:52And you said this last year.
06:53We are trying to use tools to get him out of this spot all year long,
06:57which is that he's supposed to, on a night-in and night-out basis, be able to predict who's got the hot hand,
07:03who doesn't, who gets the minutes, who doesn't, who's going to make the three in the fourth quarter, who's not.
07:09Andrew Wiggins, by the way, he had a bring-the-house-down corner three,
07:15also in the middle of that Steph Curry 12-point run at the end of the game.
07:20How'd that go?
07:21He broke it.
07:22Yeah.
07:23He broke it.
07:24And the defense was so amazing that it saved him.
07:28But that's kind of the point.
07:30The point is you're going to need somebody else to be a shot-maker at some point down the stretch of these basketball games.
07:39And Wiggins is such a question mark.
07:42And Kaminga is kind of a slasher and somebody who needs to iso sometimes.
07:48Buddy Heald, I think, is someone who needs someone else to sometimes help create the shot for him.
07:55Same for D'Anthony Melton.
07:57Draymond Green, my goodness.
07:59You're hoping for him to be hitting threes on a given night?
08:02Maybe.
08:03Good luck.
08:04So that's all I'm saying.
08:05I love this.
08:07And you don't have to answer this question today.
08:10But I saw shades of it the other night, and it is interesting because if you really have big goals for this season,
08:17I think that this is going to be a subject matter that comes up.
08:20For sure.
08:21And we can talk about regular season sustainability, and then we can talk about postseason sustainability
08:27because I do think in the regular year, when you have 13 guys who are playable,
08:32and you want to play 12 or maybe 11, and you're going to play 10 due to injury,
08:36you have a lot of rotating pieces.
08:38You can rest guys.
08:39You can play.
08:40You can win.
08:41You've got pieces.
08:42You can win 50, 51, 52, whatever that number is in the regular year.
08:47You can do that with this roster.
08:50And you face, you know, Kevin Durant and Beale and Booker, and you face the Joker and Murray and everything that Denver has,
08:58or you face OKC with Gilgis Alexander and Holmgren's back and Jalen Williams.
09:03And when you face these teams that have top-line elite players and you've got one, one A,
09:10and then you've got 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E, 3F, 3G, I mean, it works over 82,
09:18but does it work to get 16 wins?
09:20That, to me, is the question.
09:22Well, just again, and then we're going to go to the phones here in just a sec,
09:25but watch the way that game ended the other night and think about not the fact that it went so well,
09:31but what you're asking a team to do in these inevitable close games at the end.
09:37That was a Herculean defensive effort.
09:40Yep.
09:41And it's great that it worked.
09:43It's not always going to work.
09:45You see what that team offers you coming down and how difficult it is to look at one-on-one shotmakers
09:52like Luka and Kyrie and be able to defensively make the shot hard enough
09:57and then still lucky enough that they miss the shot, and then you rebound the shot,
10:02or you get a steal or whatever, or they don't kick it out to some, like a Klay Thompson or whatever,
10:07who's going to knock down a three, and he had a shot to do that, and he missed it, right?
10:12So all of those things need to happen, and then you need to go down to the other end
10:15and have your star absolutely lose his mind and go off.
10:18You mentioned the Herculean effort, and I'm going through the play-by-play,
10:21and it started with Draymond drawing a charge, which probably wasn't a charge
10:26because he was in the restricted area, but they had no challenges, whatever.
10:30Curry goes down and hits a jumper, cut it to four.
10:33The next trip down, Gafford goes up for a layup, and Draymond blocks it,
10:37and then Curry goes down and hits a 29-footer.
10:39Now we get a one-point game.
10:41So Herculean defensive effort, it's a Draymondian defensive effort.
10:46And he's Hercules on defense.
10:47He is Hercules.
10:48He's Hercules, Hercules!
10:50And the back-to-back plays where he draws the charge and then blocks the shot,
10:54I mean, that really is his ultimate value, but yeah, to expect that or to count on that,
11:00it's not necessarily that dependable.
11:02Let's go to Jonathan in Foster City.
11:04What up, FC? Hey, Jonathan, how you doing?
11:07Hey, guys, how are you? Thanks for taking the call.
11:11Look, this team is probably the most fun we've had in a while to watch,
11:16but I agree.
11:17I'm not sure it's sustainable to win a title.
11:20And if you look at the on-off with Steph, it's the highest since 2022,
11:24and he's playing the least amount of minutes.
11:27I'm just not sure that this team currently composed can win for the exact point
11:31that you just made, Willard.
11:33If Steph's not hitting, who are you going to to make a shot?
11:38We have the pieces to make a move, but this front office I don't think does it
11:43except for those big names, and it's going to be a wild ride.
11:47It's going to be really interesting to see if we can keep squeaking out
11:51these regular season wins and put us in a position to make a big move
11:55to try to win a title.
11:57I mean, I'll say it this way.
11:58Jonathan, thank you very much.
12:00It almost sometimes feels like the frustrating moments of Kyle Shanahan's offense
12:04because that is so motion dependent, and you've got so many people
12:09that are going in different directions, and they're all trying to execute
12:13a plan, right?
12:14And there's 11 of them.
12:15There's 11 different football players, and if all of them do their job,
12:19boy, I trust Kyle Shanahan's offense more than anyone.
12:22But if somebody screws up, if one offensive lineman…
12:26Yeah, we saw it last year, right?
12:28Or if Garendo misses a block, or yes, if Burford goes the wrong way…
12:33Yep.
12:34The whole thing falls apart.
12:36And early on, sometimes I feel that way about watching the Warriors offense,
12:41which is this is a thing of beauty when the ball is moving the way it is,
12:46and you've got multiple people who are hitting their shot on that night.
12:50And so that's why you see spurts first quarter, third quarter,
12:54with stuff on the floor, where things I thought were really humming
12:58the other night.
12:59But they are prone to that period of time where it just all gets stopped up
13:04in the quicksand because either Steph's off the floor,
13:07or they're a little discombobulated.
13:10Someone goes the wrong way.
13:11Someone's not hitting their shots.
13:13And so they're prone.
13:14They're prone to periods where they can fall behind.
13:17And you saw Dallas go on big runs the other night to do that.
13:21Big-time runs.
13:22And if you don't have a second scorer and a team is able to take away Steph,
13:26then you're in a spot where you're going to be in a little bit of trouble.
13:29And I'm just looking at the game log down the stretch,
13:32and you got Steph, you're down six.
13:35Steph, pull-up shot from two.
13:37Steph, three-pointer.
13:39Steph, layup.
13:40Steph, the three-pointer, the night-night.
13:43Steph, two free throws.
13:45That was the ballgame.
13:47It was all Steph from the after Melton hits the three.
13:51Melton's three, which kept him in it.
13:54And then they answered, though, and it got back to six.
13:56And after that, it was all Steph for the final three minutes.
13:59And so, is that sustainable?
14:01No, but it's pretty freaking awesome.
14:03Oh, my gosh.
14:04I mean, it was delicious to watch.
14:06It was delicious to watch.
14:08But I'm not going to, you know, like he's going to run out of gas.
14:12David in San Mateo.
14:13What's up, David?
14:14Thank you for calling.
14:17Hey, guys.
14:18I think the deep bench scoring replaces the need for a number two for now.
14:24But I think to Willard's point, what we did learn the other night,
14:27is that if no slow-mo and pods is kind of off his game,
14:32that bench scoring gets slowed down quite a bit.
14:37There's no real distributor and facilitator for Kaminga and Heal.
14:42So, that's the concern, I think.
14:45But I think this bench, if you get pods and slow-mo back on it,
14:49will carry a lot of gains for you.
14:51Thanks, David.
14:52Appreciate it.
14:53Yeah, that's kind of the way I see it is the Warriors are still,
14:56and again, they look great.
14:57They're 9-2.
14:58But I do see a potential that they're prone to the periods of time where,
15:03and it's not just, oh, Steph's not on the floor.
15:05It's not that simple.
15:07But they're prone to offensive sets where they don't end up getting a high-level
15:12shot because they don't have that many people who can really create a shot.
15:16Steph can create his own shot.
15:18Draymond creates shots for a lot of people.
15:20Their ball movement creates shots for a lot of people.
15:23They're all very good at that.
15:24But you know what I've always had as my dream?
15:27I want to hear you take it, guy, which is the shot clock's got six left.
15:31Our ball movement didn't open anything up.
15:34Hey, Durant, you take it.
15:36And he can just shoot over somebody or create a shot.
15:40And the Warriors at times, certain lineups, they struggle to have that
15:44because right now, Kaminga and Wiggins are those guys,
15:47and they're just not A-level players at that.
15:52They're B-level players at that.
15:54Really quick, guys, the last caller mentioned Kyle Anderson,
15:57who did not play against Clay in the Mavericks.
15:59He is officially probable for the game tomorrow against the Grizzlies.
16:03Of course, we already know D'Anthony Melton is out.
16:05So, Melton out and Slo Mo back in.
16:07And so it will, in theory, I guess, be an 11-man rotation
16:10unless Lindy Waters moves back into the rotation because there's no Melton.
16:14Could be.
16:15Which is possible.
16:16It's possible, but it feels like Steve started with 12 and he did a little bit of 13.
16:21But the 12, I think, has always been with an eye toward the 10.
16:25And Lindy's great.
16:27And what you found in Lindy is, as Guru would call it, Geico.
16:31That's Geico.
16:33That's insurance.
16:34So, if you get down to where you've only got 10 and Lindy's number 11,
16:39then you can play Lindy.
16:40Or if you've got 9 and he's 10, then you feel good about him being 10.
16:43Yeah, but Steve's got to be bummed because he just sort of like two nights ago
16:46was like, hey, this Melton thing, I think this works.
16:49This is our starting lineup.
16:50Yeah.
16:51No, it's not.
16:52Not anymore.
16:53Not for a while now.
16:54So now we're back to is it Moody, is it GP2, is it Waters?
16:57What are you going to do there?
16:58Depends on the matchup.
16:59At that two-guard position, which I think, by the way,
17:01that two-guard position could be the spot where you are looking
17:06for that number two scorer.
17:10I think that's kind of an opening with this particular Golden State Warriors
17:14roster.
17:15So, I know that some people want the conversation to go here.
17:19It's like, okay, if you do want that new number two scorer, who is it?
17:24And who's available?
17:26And I would say there's at least the potential for two different trades that
17:33could develop out there on the market.
17:36Depending on how things go over the next couple of months,
17:38they're both very different trades.
17:40And so we'll play with those a little bit here at the top of the hour.
17:43Yeah, yeah.
17:44Want to stick with you guys here.
17:45Chris in San Jose is next up.
17:47Hi, Chris.
17:48Hey, good afternoon, gentlemen.
17:50How are you doing?
17:51What's up?
17:52Excellent.
17:53Love it.
17:54Yeah, I was telling the screener that I'm always trying to be optimistic
18:01about the Warriors.
18:02I try to be glass half full in most aspects of my life.
18:06But simultaneously, I try to be a realist.
18:09And thinking back on that Dallas Mavericks game,
18:12while it was very glaringly obvious that Draymond Green was inspired,
18:18brought his A game defensively, this is also realistically a guy who has
18:23taken a few steps backwards defensively over the last couple of years.
18:27And that defensive effort that he put out there against the Mavericks,
18:30to me, is not sustainable.
18:33I do love how Wiggins, you know, he challenged Luka.
18:37He made him work hard.
18:39That was all good and well.
18:40But a lot of these guys, you think about a Luka, you think about a Jalen Brown,
18:45you think about a Giannis, you know,
18:47some of those truly elite guys that can get to the rim,
18:50it's not enough to just have a wing defender give him trouble
18:55and then a 6'5 Draymond meeting them under the hoop.
18:58You need a little bit of size because just a deterrent on the wing,
19:02for a lot of these guys, they're going to muscle through you,
19:04they're going to get to the hoop, and they're going to score the ball.
19:07You know, it's somewhat, everyone has off shooting nights,
19:10but it's a little bit of an anomaly that Donchuk only went 2 for 10.
19:14You know, Kyrie had a little bit of an off night.
19:17I just, you know, I love the team.
19:19I try to be optimistic about the Warriors, but simultaneously,
19:23you know, Steph's not going off.
19:25I do think we, you know, we need to, whether it's Kaminga,
19:29whether it's somebody out there on the market,
19:31there needs to be a solidified, defined second scorer on this team.
19:36While also, you know, hey, we swing the ball around, you got a great shot.
19:39Hey, if it's your night, it's your night.
19:41But I do think we need a clear, defined 2.
19:44And, unfortunately, that, you know, we run that small lineup,
19:47we dominate teams, but I still, realistically,
19:50I still think we need a little bit of size underneath the hoop, gentlemen.
19:54So I'll let you run with that.
19:56Go Warriors, we're rolling.
19:57Okay.
19:58Let's keep it going tomorrow.
19:59Okay, Chris, good call.
20:00Yeah, appreciate that.