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00:00We want to hang out with our friend Monty Poole, who with NBC Sportsberry is joining us right now
00:05on the River Islands guest line. Monty, what a perfect day to talk Dubs basketball, huh?
00:12Well, I'm not sure they would agree with that, but yeah, not so bad.
00:16I mean, my gosh, like, okay, so one night, just brush your shoulder off, forget it, move on,
00:24or do we have legitimately some signs of major concern here? What do you think?
00:31Yeah, I mean, there are some signs of concern because, you know, this is looking at a game that
00:37they practically did not show up. You know, there was all this talk about
00:41setting an early defensive tone, which they didn't do against Dallas on Sunday.
00:45And Steve Kerr was like, yeah, we are a defensive team. That's what we have to hang our hats on.
00:52And they had a couple of days of practice. They had one game over a seven-day period. And so they
00:55had a little bit of time to sort of pull some things together. And then to see that performance
01:00last night, yeah, it has to put you on alert. I'm curious to see how they respond tomorrow in
01:06Minnesota. If they lose again, if they lose big again, yeah, then sound the sirens, sound the
01:14alarms because you've got real problems. If they play well and still can lose, then I think you
01:19can ease up a little bit and see where it's going because it's going to take some time for
01:23Dennis Schroeder to be able to assimilate himself with his group. You know, he's playing with a
01:28totally different team in Brooklyn. Basically, the last four or five days for him have been a
01:33whirlwind. Yeah, he had about maybe two hours worth of practice time with these guys. And he
01:38was in the starting lineup last night and he didn't play well. But who did besides Wiggins?
01:45So yeah, I think you don't want to overreact. But at the same time, you've got to be on alert to
01:49see what happens tomorrow night because if they get blown out again tomorrow night, wow, that's a
01:53real problem. Yeah, it's been kind of a real skid and you know, Mark and I have been going back and
01:58forth about the idea of has Steph earned enough over the course of his year to warrant them to
02:05make a move ahead of the deadline if the team is not doing much better. I'm more interested,
02:10Monty, in about what you're seeing and how teams are defending Steph because it seems to me more
02:15and more that teams are willing to, you know, top lock him and guard him for 94 feet and really
02:20take him out of the game. Are the Warriors not adjusting to this new defensive approach on Steph?
02:27Well, yeah, I think that's part of the issue. I mean, that's happened before. But what's
02:32happening is that the teams are taking the mentality, which I'm not surprised that anybody
02:38but Steph, you know, and it's not that they're saying everybody else can score, but they're
02:43saying there's one guy on this team we don't want to see get loose. And you're seeing that a lot now
02:50and Steph is, you know, he's one of those guys that we know, you know, he's had some knee issues,
02:55both knees. And so you've got some issues there that he doesn't really want to get into. Steph
03:00is one of those people who just doesn't even acknowledge his injuries. And so I have no doubt
03:04that he's playing through something. Just because of what I'm looking at, the eye test is telling me
03:09that this isn't a Steph that is fully healthy. And he's not on the injury report. He wasn't
03:14yesterday started, played 24 minutes, I believe that's what it was. So when you when you're not
03:20quite 100%, and you're getting 94 feet of pressure, double change, getting blitzed,
03:26it can take something out of you. And so you do need somebody to step up. And so yesterday,
03:32I mean, I thought Wiggins was the only guy giving him any offense early on. But their problem was
03:36that two problems one, turnovers. Yeah, a turn was in the first quarter, you gave away 12 points
03:43to the Grizzlies and in the first 12 minutes. And the problem with turnovers, live ball turnovers is
03:49that there's no way to defend it. Your defense doesn't have a chance to set up, might be able
03:56to scramble back and maybe get something but the Grizzlies shot nine of 10 on fast break points.
04:01Guess what most of those were live ball turnovers, and you can't defend them. So
04:06if you should 90% in any part of your game, you're probably going to win. And so the the
04:12offenses the poor play on offense was accentuated by the fact that the offense was committing so
04:19many turnovers that led to points the other way. So looking at a team yesterday, I didn't bring
04:23offense because it was bad. And the defense, you know, again, the defense didn't look good, but it
04:28it's worse, made worse by the fact that there were so many turnovers that allowed
04:34Grizzlies to go the other way and get easy buckets.
04:37Monty Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area is with us. Monty, when you when you see the Warriors play
04:42like they are now, I wonder what you think the organization thinks. In other words, the worst
04:48they play. Does that make them think, hey, we have got to make a trade? Or does that make them think,
04:55boy, we shouldn't make a trade because it's not worth it to go for something that's not going
05:00well? Well, I think that's what that's a process they're in right now. Make no mistake, though.
05:08Joe Laker, the CEO is very much he's as ambitious as they come. You know, he's not a guy who accepts
05:13losing unless you tell him here's why we're losing because Steph's out, Draymond's out,
05:19you know, Wiggins is out. Okay. But when he looks up there and he sees the only guy on the injury
05:24report is Moses Moody and you're losing like that, yeah, he is not going to be a happy guy.
05:29And so Mike Dunleavy has made it clear that, you know, the shooter trade was a good trade,
05:34a sharp trade, a smart trade. It made sense given that they lost Melton and he sort of replaces that.
05:39But they're not done, you know. And the question is, what can they get and what are they willing
05:44to give up? And I've been of the opinion that, you know, it's hard to get a real
05:49an impact player, a real difference maker without giving up Kaminga. And I know that's not something
05:56that Joe wants to do. But I do also know that the organization is, you know, there are some
06:02people who think JK can be an all star and others are skeptical still. After four years,
06:09you know, I get that side because you watch them play and sometimes he looks good and sometimes
06:14he doesn't. And I think if you're Steve Kerr or Mike Dunleavy, that's what you have to figure
06:20out. You know, he had this little audition here for a couple of weeks where he was starting in
06:24the lineup. He was in the starting lineup and let's see what he does for us. And again, it
06:29didn't go well because they've been losing more than winning lately. So you go back to Draymond,
06:34put JK on the bench yesterday and looking for some defense and Draymond was not good at all
06:39yesterday. He was not good at all. So yeah, I think he had four fouls in 19 minutes, four
06:44turnovers. And so he wasn't good. Steph was not good, but I think you can look at the game and
06:50see why Steph wasn't good. So, so yeah, it's, it's a tough skit right now, but I think,
06:56I know that they're going to be active and talking to other teams trying to make something happen.
07:01But I also know that I don't, I don't sense at least that Mike or Joe feels like we got to do
07:06something right away. I mean, they still have about five, six weeks before the trade deadline.
07:11And I think that they're thinking, okay, let's, then it's just got here. Let's see how this looks
07:15for a few games. And before you, before we started looking at other options in terms of doing
07:20something pretty quickly, but right now I don't sense that they want to do something tomorrow or
07:24the next day or the next day. I think they want to play it out for a few days and see how it goes
07:28because we all knew that this, this month was going to be a tough month. We all saw the schedule.
07:34You saw who they were playing. And after the cupcakes they had for the most part in the first
07:38three or four weeks, this is like, okay, buddy, gravel road. Now what you got and it's uphill
07:44and you're seeing it. That's your, your tail is being told by that right now,
07:47is that the words are not a great team. They can be good, but right now they're mediocre.
07:52Yeah. And gravel road is a great way to put it. And you've got Minnesota still ahead and
07:56the Clippers and you got Cleveland coming up before the start of the year. And I wonder Monte,
08:01just hearing you talk about like the timeline, is there a chance that maybe they don't make any big
08:07moves until the off season? Because you still have what, two and a half more years of staff
08:11and you still have Draymond and the urgency we all want to feel this year, but is there a chance
08:17that they might wait until the off season where Kaminga gets signed and then they give him the
08:22Jordan pool treatment where you could actually get more back from him from a salary standpoint?
08:27Well, I mean, that's, that's on the table too. This is this next, I'm going to say two or three
08:34weeks are pretty critical about, you know, how they will pivot and say, you know, early to mid
08:40January, what are you going to do then? Because that's when, if this team doesn't show signs of
08:44coming to life, that's when the buzz will start to, you know, the volume on the bus will start
08:49to go up and whether they make something, make a move in two weeks or four weeks or just ahead
08:56of the deadline, or, you know, maybe in the off season, I do sense that they will definitely try
09:01to make a move before the deadline. But I think that more than likely that move is still, you
09:06know, not imminent. I'd be surprised to get something in the next week or so. I think it's
09:10going to be a little more time. They want to see how it goes with what they have right now,
09:14because they have to know they're not as good as they were when they started because they played
09:18a lot of teams that weren't very good. And they're not as bad as they are right now. They just look
09:22bad. And they looked really bad the last couple of nights. So I don't, I don't sense that they are
09:28pushing the panic button just yet. And I don't see that from Mike. I don't see it from Joe.
09:33They're trying to do some problem solving. And the question is, will those problems get,
09:37how soon will, how long will it take to solve those problems if they ever get solved at all?
09:43Monty, how real is the Jimmy Butler talk?
09:46Uh, everything that I've heard, uh, rumors, whispers, and the whole nine, uh, indicates that
09:53yeah, Jimmy Butler is nice in theory. Uh, the concept of having Jimmy Butler on your team is
09:59good because he's well known as a, you know, one of those players who really gets up for the post
10:04season. But, uh, everything that I've heard is that the Warriors are kind of skittish about his
10:10availability. You know, they, this is a team that, you know, last couple of years, you know,
10:15when they, when Wiggins was out, they missed him. Um, you know, you know, what happens if
10:20Steph goes out. Um, and so they want to make sure that they want to feel like he can be there for
10:28them and availability has been the problem with him in Miami. That's why he got on the bad side
10:32of Pat Riley. You know, Pat's like, yeah, Jimmy's great, but we don't always see him. And if you're
10:38the Warriors and you just went through this with Melton a little bit, they knew it was a risk
10:41because he had a back issue last year, but they thought, no, let's give it a shot because if he's
10:46healthy, he can really help us, which is true. But Anthony Melton is a lot different than Jimmy
10:52Butler in terms of Jimmy Butler makes four times the money, first of all. And he's a different
10:57kind of player. Jimmy Butler is an all-star caliber player, but he just seems to be in and
11:02out of the lineup. And I don't know if the Warriors want to break up their team for a guy
11:05who they can't rely on. Yeah. And that's fair. I mean, especially if he decides that he doesn't
11:10want to opt in next year. So now it becomes a three-month rental. The thing that's sticking
11:14with me, Manny, is the idea of Steph Curry and whether or not he can still quote unquote do it
11:20because at times, yes, he can do it. He can still be one of the top five players in the association,
11:26but do you look at Steph now coming up on 37 as a guy who can night in and night out,
11:31carry a team to be a legitimate deep playoff team? No, no, he's got to have help. They know
11:38that the Warriors are aware of that. You know, they're looking at Steph and Draymond in the same
11:43vein that Greg Popovich looked at Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili toward the end of their
11:48careers. Let's bring their minutes down to the high 20s, low 30s and put some guys around them.
11:54The Spurs got lucky in getting Kawhi Leonard. And so he was able to lead them to one more
11:58championship with that group. And Kawhi was used for that, for that team. If they didn't have him,
12:03that championship was not going to happen. But if you're the Warriors, you understand
12:08what Steph and Draymond have done for you. You're not going to short trip them now. You
12:12understand how important they are. So you want to keep them, you want to preserve them every chance
12:17you get, but at the same time, you're not going to walk, give up on them. I mean, I heard somebody
12:23yesterday saying, oh, maybe it's time to trade, you know, make a big trade. There are some guys
12:27in the NBA. You just don't trade. And number 30 is one of those guys, you know, you just don't.
12:32I mean, the Lakers, there was, remember the talk back in the day about the Lakers, maybe trading
12:36Kobe, Kobe wanted out, Kobe wanted out. Can you think of how silly that would have been?
12:41And it was never going to happen. It was never going to happen. And to me, uh, Steph is much
12:47the same in the same, uh, same status, the guy that you just, you don't trade because of what
12:51he's meant to this franchise. The warriors are the number one, uh, the most valued franchise
12:56in the NBA and second in all of American sports. How much of that happens without number 30?
13:03Yeah, none of it. So they understand that part of it too. He is his own economy.
13:09As long as they have him on their team, which I believe will be, as long as he's playing in the
13:12NBA, um, he's going to be there. He's not going anywhere. And Draymond, you know, to a lesser
13:17degree. Yeah. Maybe Draymond at some point, but the question with Draymond has always been,
13:22what's his value to other teams. We know what he means to the warriors,
13:25but what do you mean as much to another team? And I think that's a fair question to ask.
13:29Body pool, NBC sports Bay area money. This might be a rabbit hole, but I hear people talking about
13:34it. So I I'd love to get your, your insight. Can we go back to the off season based on
13:41your knowledge, the chasing of Laurie Markanen, um, how real was it? And, and if it broke down,
13:51did it break down because Danny wanted too many draft picks or was Brandon Pudzemski actually
13:56the linchpin that he was rumored to be? It broke down because Danny wanted too much.
14:05And I think the warriors knew that anybody who's dealt with Danny before knows he's
14:10going to try and fleece you. Um, and the words looking at Laurie marketing and saying, he's a
14:14nice number two or number three guy. He's long. We could use his length. Um, but we don't want
14:19to break up our, our future nucleus for that. And now I don't know how good potential is going to
14:24be in three years, you know, but they think highly of him, you know, I need to see more.
14:30And so you're looking at Pudzemski and Kaminga. Those are two guys that the
14:34warriors look at and say, these guys can leave with us for the longterm.
14:37And I think Brandon's really good when he's at his best. Yeah. I love him. You know, I mean,
14:42when he got his best, he reminds me a little bit of Jenoblee when he was playing for the Spurs,
14:46you know, guy who's not super big, but always gets in the way, makes good things happen.
14:51Um, but Kaminga is, is different. I mean, coming to the different athlete and, uh,
14:56wondering what to do with him is, is sort of where they are right now. And, uh, but the,
15:02the trade, the market and trade was discussed and the words were very interested, but, uh,
15:09when you deal with Danny Ames, you got to know that what he wants and he's probably
15:13going to want too much. And sometimes it's better to walk away when you talk to that guy.
15:17Is there a certain reluctance around the league accordingly to maybe give the warriors,
15:22not a sweetheart deal, but to just deal with the warriors in general, because of all this,
15:26the success that they've had? Uh, I sent that. Yes. You know, not that they won't deal with
15:33them at all, but yeah, they're literally, they don't want to do the worst, any quote unquote
15:37favors. Uh, it has to be a tit for tat, you know? Okay. If, if you want our guy,
15:43give us your guy, you know, and, and that's the issue. And, you know, part of that is because
15:48yeah, the success they've had and where this franchise has gone, you know, if you've been
15:52around the Bay area long enough, you know, no, there was a time when the warriors were
15:56backwater in the NBA. They were like, nobody wanted to come here. And they were always losing
16:01ownership was bad and they couldn't retain stars. Gilbert arenas got going here. And he said,
16:06I'm out of here. Chris Cohan wouldn't even shake my hand, you know? So, you know,
16:11when it comes to, you know, where they are now and you say yourself, well,
16:15yeah, you give them a chance. Uh, this franchise is really blossomed from the bottom five elite
16:19to the top two in the league. And so, um, I just think that they got to have one eye on the future
16:27because Steph is not going to play forever. And you know, they're on Christmas day again,
16:32this year, 12th in a row and ask yourself, well, this Christmas game, Christmas day game streak
16:39continue. If number 30 is not there, I got to say no. And if you're looking at that,
16:43that means that they're not in the championship picture. They're not right now. And they won't
16:47be. Let's make another big move. It's, uh, it's, it's wonderful to have you at a time where, uh,
16:53you know, the, the, the frustrations and the questions and everything are at a real high
16:56after last night. So thanks. Thanks for doing it, ma'am. You got it guys. Take care. Okay.
17:01Happy holidays. Money pool, NBC sports Bay area.