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00:00All guests on 95.7 The Game appear on the River Islands Guest Line.
00:04Isn't it time for you to discover the islands, River Islands in Lathrop?
00:09Let's welcome in Brian Geldseiler, Sirius XM, NBA Radio.
00:13What's going on, Brian?
00:14How you doing, man?
00:15I'm doing good, guys.
00:16How we doing?
00:17All right.
00:18We're doing well.
00:19All right.
00:20So over the weekend, I heard and we heard Dennis Schroeder's going to the Warriors.
00:25And over the course of a few days, I was thinking, that's nice.
00:28They should help.
00:30But now we're to Wednesday, and it's starting to feel to me like a more significant move.
00:37Like it could really help the Golden State Warriors.
00:41How do you feel about it?
00:43I love it.
00:44I love the player.
00:46I have to tell you guys, and I think that sometimes this is a guy, because he hasn't
00:51been involved in a ton of winning situations, and he's been to a lot of different places
00:56in his career.
00:57I think he's a guy that is pretty underrated.
01:00Listen, watch what he's done in international basketball.
01:02And I know the game is different, yada, yada, yada.
01:05I get all that.
01:06All right.
01:07What he's done for Germany international basketball, he led them to a World Cup in the summer of
01:132023.
01:14This guy can score, he can play make, he's happy to have the ball in his hands, and he's
01:19a good pick and roll guy.
01:21And listen, what you need right now with the Warriors, someone, anyone, just take a little
01:27bit of heat off Seth.
01:28Jeez.
01:29Gotta take a little heat off Seth.
01:30And Schroeder is a guy who will, he will use a lot of possessions.
01:34And I don't mean that in a negative way.
01:36The Warriors need guys to use possessions outside of Seth's 36 years old.
01:41Like, this is just something that has to happen.
01:44And I love the trade.
01:45I love the player.
01:46The fact that the Warriors got a guy of Schroeder's caliber without giving up a first, and now
01:51as we come into trade season here in the NBA, December 15th in the rearview mirror, and
01:56then January 15th soon being in a rearview mirror, we're going to be in a spot where
02:00you're going to see if the Warriors can do something potentially larger.
02:03They make this deal using Melton's expiring contract as capital, and they essentially
02:09skip what they trade three seconds, get one back for a net two seconds, keep all their
02:14firsts.
02:15And now they're in a spot where the Wiggins contract is still with them.
02:20And the Wiggins contract is the one that could potentially bring back that bigger player
02:25as we get closer to the deadline.
02:27BG, always a pleasure.
02:29Good stuff.
02:30Now, I'm excited about the move.
02:31We all are.
02:32But we hadn't talked to you.
02:34After the Melton injury, this team went 2-8.
02:36It looked lethargic, and they were scrapping, BG.
02:40But offensively, you saw the Houston debacle meltdown for the play-in.
02:47What were your thoughts on what was ailing the Warriors then before this move was made,
02:52if you don't mind me asking?
02:54I'd never mind you asking, Daryl.
02:56And listen, first of all, Melton is an underrated guy in the league.
03:01I know they traded him for Schroeder here, but they got good value back for him.
03:04Melton's a really good defensive player.
03:07And the Warriors and Kurtzman, we know Kurtzman playing a lot of guys.
03:11But the Warriors, you know, they need good defensive players.
03:15And so I think Melton, and I said it to you guys last time I spoke to you, I told you,
03:19Melton's hurt a lot.
03:20Like, Melton's hurt a lot.
03:22So not having him and counting on him is a tough thing.
03:27And especially when you've got guys like Heald, who doesn't guard all that well, Pudzemski
03:32doesn't guard all that well, you needed a guy like Melton.
03:35Here's the good news on Schroeder, he's not necessarily a defensive player that Melton
03:38is, but he can guard.
03:39He gets his butt down, and he'll get on point guards, and it'll make life tough for him.
03:44So I look at the big picture, yeah, they kind of collapsed a little bit.
03:48They may have been playing over their head a little bit early in the season, but I also
03:51think they've been playing a little lesser than what they could be.
03:53You know, you mix in there, Darrell, Curry missed a handful of those games, too.
03:58And I think right now, without Curry, they are not a good team.
04:03And that's not really, I'm not saying anything earth-shattering in making that declaration.
04:07With all that said, they'll be a much better team for the games that Curry ends up sitting
04:12in.
04:13He does get hurt, or he load-manages a little bit, which you have to be concerned with,
04:16with a 36-year-old player with the ball in Dennis Schroeder's hands.
04:19We're joined by Brian Gelsiler, Sirius XM, NBA Radio.
04:23What would you say Schroeder's biggest deficiencies are?
04:29You know, people haven't liked having him around at a lot of places that he's been at.
04:34Dennis is, he's a little mouthy, he can be a little bit difficult to get along with.
04:40He can be kind of a pain in the rump.
04:43But I, you know, it's funny, there was a viral video from a couple weeks back where
04:49he was walking off the court with the team, and somebody ran a mouth about Ben Simmons.
04:54And Simmons was content to just keep walking and ignore that it ever happened.
04:58Dennis Schroeder would not let that go.
05:00Dennis Schroeder's combative by nature.
05:02And I think, like, sometimes that's a very positive thing, a guy sticking up for a teammate
05:06in a situation like that, even with a fan, there's other times where his combative nature
05:11is not looked at all that well and can be considered selfish.
05:14Listen, I will tell you this, I don't think the Lakers, who, you know, went to a conference
05:19final in 2022, I don't think the Lakers have been the same without him.
05:24I think he was, I'm sorry, 2023, I think he was a really important guy to that team.
05:30And so, yes, there are negatives with him.
05:33And he's been to a lot of places because he hasn't always gotten along great with people.
05:37But I do think that he's grown up a little bit, and his combative nature can go in the
05:41right direction here if it's spun properly, and he handles himself in the mature fashion
05:48that he handled himself, again, with Team Germany, and now with what he did with the
05:51Nets here.
05:52BG, Steph Curry's a bona fide Hall of Famer, he doesn't need me to fight for him.
05:57But BG, I'm hearing whispers that maybe the separation is becoming a little more difficult.
06:01And he's averaging 23 points per game, 23-5-6.
06:05The shooting percentages are there.
06:07Have you seen anything different from the chef?
06:10Because I'm telling my partner and all the callers, you know, he needs some help at his
06:14age.
06:15LeBron has AD, but have you seen anything to where you're like, oh boy, something might
06:19be changing?
06:20No.
06:21I mean, listen, he's 36, and I think we have to be conscious of that.
06:26His game, I think, is aging pretty well.
06:28But I think you hit it on the head, Daryl.
06:30You just, somebody has got to create some offense.
06:32Like, it can't be him all the time, every single night.
06:36There's no 36-year-old in the league that can handle that.
06:38Look what's happened to the 36-year-old Kevin Durant in Phoenix.
06:41They're running everything through him and everything around him.
06:44And listen, I don't blame Mike Budenholzer, it's his best chance to win in the playoffs,
06:47to be able to do it that way.
06:49But you look at the fact that Booker hasn't had the usage that he normally has.
06:53He's had a tough time adjusting to increased usage with Durant out.
06:57So that's been a problem for them.
07:00But the biggest crux of the problem is that he's 36 years old.
07:03It's the same thing with Curry.
07:05At 36 years old, his body's not going to do the same thing, he's not going to carry the
07:08same amount of load.
07:10But if you have someone out there that takes a lot of usage, that allows him to play off
07:14the ball sometimes, which I think we need more of.
07:17I think one of the things that people haven't looked at enough here in Golden State with
07:21where things have gotten tougher for Curry, it's actually Steph Curry's one of those guys
07:25that having the ball in his hands a little less is going to be good for him.
07:28Because you start running him off screen and he's in catch-and-shoot situations, that can
07:31be absolutely lethal.
07:32And I think you've seen a little bit of a drop-off because, listen, Clay has not been
07:36Clay for a couple of years when they had him.
07:39Now Clay's gone, there's been no one else to carry that offensive load with the ball
07:43in their hands.
07:44And to Dennis Schroeder here, I think that should change things a little bit.
07:46Yeah, I feel like, Brian, that when we're talking about the Warriors and Steph needing
07:53help, we always think of a Jimmy Butler or a Vucevic.
07:58But to me, this trade signaled something different and it's a different way to help Curry.
08:05And it's by taking some stuff off his plate.
08:09I was thinking about this, let's say they run 20 pick-and-rolls a game, well, they're
08:14still going to run 20, but Schroeder's probably going to run 10 of them.
08:18You know what I mean?
08:19Yes.
08:20100%.
08:21And that's the thing that'll help.
08:24And he'll run them efficiently, Matt.
08:26This is not just a guy with the ball in his hands that's going to be a high-usage guy
08:32for the sake of being a high-usage guy.
08:35I hate to invoke this guy's name because he's improved so much and is so much better at
08:39it.
08:40But the example of the guy I'm giving is like who Colin Sexton was early in his career.
08:43And he's gotten much better at that.
08:45But just a guy who isn't a high-usage guy for the sake of being a high-usage guy, just
08:49a volume type of shooter.
08:51It's not Schroeder.
08:52Schroeder is efficient.
08:53So you're going to have those extra pick-and-rolls that Steph's not going to have to run.
08:56And oh, by the way, Steph's going to be able to be off the ball on the weak side.
09:01Schroeder will more times than not force an extra defender to have to commit to that on-ball
09:05pick-and-roll action.
09:06And once you get a defense moving and you have Curry off the ball, those are the times
09:10that Steph Curry finds gaps for open catch-and-shoot opportunities.
09:14Curry needs more of those and less to have to create on his own.
09:18Now he has a guy that will create on the ball, which allows him more off-ball opportunities.
09:23And let's face it, here's the other part of it.
09:25And Daryl alluded to it in his earlier question to me.
09:30Curry plays minutes, and Curry monitors his minutes well.
09:34The minutes are labor-intensive, like ball-to-hands a lot.
09:38If you can have the minutes that he plays be a little less labor-intensive, you know,
09:43the Warriors here, they want to win a championship.
09:46Listen, at 14-11 right now, are they truly a championship contender?
09:50Maybe they're on the fringe.
09:51I think, you know, it's been a rough go of it recently.
09:55But if they don't want to win a championship, Curry's got a less than a main-jew.
09:58And having a ball in his hands all the time ain't a less than a main-jew, guys.
10:01This way, a guy like this that's there, who's a high-usage ball-in-his-hand guard, who does
10:07move the ball and his assist numbers are decent, and he doesn't have it all the time, and plus
10:12he's a really good shooter for when Curry gets double, that's the other part with Schroeder
10:16that's very good.
10:17Excellent catch-and-shoot guy.
10:18You have a guy like that, it's really a nice compliment to Curry.
10:21And listen, Schroeder, the toughest part is going to be hiding Curry a little bit defensively,
10:25which Curry always manages to find a way to do.
10:29Schroeder can guard his guy, you're going to have to find a weaker wing to put Curry
10:33on, but that really has never been a problem for Steve Curry.
10:36BG, let me ask you this, and not to put you on the spot, but I know you've got your ear
10:39to the street in every city, all the NBA cities, if there's a bigger move to be had by the
10:45Warriors, does anything make you tingle right now to where you're watching maybe some relationships
10:50come to an end or rot around to where the Warriors can swoop in and do basically what
10:56they did with Schroeder in Brooklyn?
10:58Listen, I think there's, here's what I will say, I think the Warriors' next move would
11:04be for a big fish.
11:06I don't know that the Warriors would kind of, and I don't want to call the Schroeder
11:10move window dressing because it has real on-court value to the team, but it's a piece.
11:16It's not, and is he a main piece?
11:19Well, yeah, he's probably, he's close to a main piece, but not a building block type
11:22of guy.
11:23Matt mentioned two names earlier, the butlers out there, the butler rumors, the question
11:28for the Warriors, if you want to go through the cap gymnastics staff to bring him in and
11:32then say goodbye to both Wiggins and Kaminga, does that make you a better team?
11:36And with Jimmy's injury history, I don't know that it does, and I don't know that I'm rushing
11:39to do that.
11:40He mentioned Vucevic's name.
11:41Vucevic's out there, unbelievable year.
11:42Guys should watch, 44, 45% from three, he's having the best shooting year of his career
11:49right now.
11:50Not much defensively, but you can put a guy like that next to Draymond Green and he'll
11:55really, really help you catch and shoot-wise.
11:57Another guy that I would keep an eye on, and we heard his name a ton this summer, Larry
12:02Markinan.
12:03He becomes trade eligible on February 7th, right before the deadline, okay?
12:10And we go back this summer, guys, and you talked about the untouchable guy that the
12:14Warriors and Mike Dunleavy didn't want to move, Brandon Pajemski, hasn't had a good
12:19year so far, guys.
12:20He doesn't look like a guy that should be untouchable in any book.
12:23He doesn't.
12:24So you wonder if maybe something changes there, A, maybe Utah's attitude about Kaminga changes.
12:30B, maybe the Warriors' attitude about moving Pajemski changes, and Utah still finds value
12:35in that.
12:36So it wouldn't shock me if down at the last minute, if the Warriors haven't done anything
12:40for a big guy, if we see those teams reconvene on a potential deal in the last 24 hours up
12:46to the trade deadline.
12:47Brian, you're the man.
12:48He is.
12:49We really appreciate it, as always.
12:50Always my pleasure, gentlemen.
12:51Anytime, and we'll do it again soon.
12:52All right, that's Brian Gelsiler, courtesy of the River Islands Gallery.
12:53We'll see you next time.
12:54Bye.
12:55Bye.
12:56Bye.
12:57Bye.
12:58Bye.
12:59Brian Gelsiler, courtesy of the River Islands Guest Line.