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00:00But real quick, over the next 10 minutes, if you want to answer that question, 888-957-9570
00:07right now, do you wish Jordan Poole was still on this team?
00:10How would you answer it?
00:11I would answer it no, but I do look at this team and think about a guy who can get you
00:1620 on the regular, and yes, it's a 20 that might be 5 of 17 one night, and it might be
00:2411 of 23.
00:27His points definitely come with a certain amount of gravity, because he needs the ball,
00:33he has the ball, and he doesn't often share the ball, and when he does share it, it's
00:37usually to the other team, so I do understand everything that comes with Jordan Poole, but
00:42I do also believe that a lot of fans out there look at this team and think, if you only had
00:47Jordan Poole as a No. 2 bucket getter, because he will get you 20, he'll get you a 16, to
00:5434, he can score, and so yes, I do think that the conversation, for me anyway, is much
01:01more of a straight line, forget like all of the other machinations about like, well, Kamingo
01:06would be gone, and I do think you're right, because if you had Poole at this number, and
01:11you've got Draymond and Steph and Wiggins, that right there next year would be about
01:16140 million.
01:17Well, and I don't know that you would have been able to do what they did this year and
01:20get under the apron.
01:21I don't know that they would have been able to do that.
01:23Well, you would have been able to do it, but you wouldn't have Melton or Slomore or
01:28Buddy Heal.
01:29Even that, yeah, even that, I don't know that that adds up to 32, even on its own.
01:33I think it's more of a clean question just in terms of, like, would you like Jordan Poole
01:38to still be on this team?
01:39Steph and Draymond and Jordan Poole and Wiggins as your core four.
01:43I hear you, but here's what, like I'll ask you, is it fair that I think that what I hear
01:49is unfair?
01:51Is it fair to say this?
01:52I hear a lot of that the last four weeks.
01:57Could have had Jordan Poole, Jordan Poole would fit on this team.
02:01Here's my problem.
02:03The last four weeks are the first time I've heard that.
02:06Where was that opinion over the last year and a half?
02:09It's a little bit last year when Clay was going through what he was going through.
02:12Yeah, but not, I didn't hear it much.
02:15Last year Jordan was awful.
02:16Right, right.
02:17Awful.
02:18And this year he's been good?
02:21He's better.
02:22He's definitely better.
02:23Yeah.
02:24I still don't know exactly, I don't know how to quantify things with individual players
02:29when the team's won eight games and it's late January.
02:31Well, I mentioned it yesterday that he's, I think, 103rd among qualified players in
02:36field goal percentage.
02:37Yeah, like, I mean, he's shooting the ball better.
02:39Better than last year.
02:41I haven't watched a ton of Washington Wizards games to tell you if his decision making has
02:45gotten any better or what have you.
02:48Still not an incredibly efficient player.
02:50My point is, is I think the opinion of a lot of Warrior fans is a little circumstantial.
02:56Suddenly we're like, wait a minute, down the stretch of basketball games, the Warriors
03:00are having a hard time scoring, now I'm going to adjust my opinion and say that they should
03:06have kept Jordan Poole.
03:07Well, no, I'm sorry, personally I don't feel like you get to do that.
03:12You needed to have that opinion all along.
03:14You can't show up two years later and say that, that's what I thought, well, I didn't
03:19hear anybody say that.
03:20If you've thought that the whole time, then great, you're in the minority and you get
03:24to think that.
03:26But I also, I think those who are really being analytical about the Warriors' problems realize
03:34that it's not as simple as they need another scorer.
03:38It's not that simple.
03:39The Warriors don't need another guard.
03:42That's not my opinion.
03:44The Warriors don't need another guard.
03:48Melton was a good player, terrible what happened to him.
03:52Dennis Schroeder is a good player.
03:54I think he's still getting used to a new style of offense.
03:57It's starting to look better to me.
03:59I think it's going to look even better a month from now than it does in this moment.
04:04I think everybody who I've talked to who's close to this team and really understands
04:09the way the Warriors operate all sort of feels the same way Bob Fitzgerald said it to us
04:14yesterday.
04:15They need somebody who, A, can help Draymond Green not have to defend all of the centers
04:22on the defensive end of the floor, and on the offensive end of the floor, they need
04:27somebody who will space it better so that the middle is not so clogged up.
04:31And I'm describing the same person on both ends of the floor.
04:35Even though he's not a great defender.
04:36He's a bad defender.
04:37He's a bad defender, but he's a big body and he can at least do some work in that spot.
04:44And it's Nikola Vucevic.
04:46And even if it's not Nikola Vucevic, pick someone else.
04:49But it needs to be a big.
04:52The Warriors need a floor-spacing big.
04:55We can have this conversation in three ways.
04:57We can make it about Jordan, we can make it about a star, or we can make it about the
05:02actual characteristics I think that would help the Warriors right now, which is a floor-spacing
05:07five.
05:08Yes, and I agree with you offensively.
05:10Defensively though, Vucevic is not going to help you, and I know you read the Ramona
05:14Shelburne piece today on ESPN about Jimmy Butler and Miami, and I thought that it was
05:19a fascinating look, and Ramona had a lot of sourced quotes from people who didn't want
05:25to be named, and a lot of the takeaways that I had were, you think it's bad now?
05:32You just wait until Jimmy goes into full defiance mode.
05:36And so the whole idea about Jimmy Butler for me, for the Warriors, or for any team
05:41really is so toxic, because Jimmy is a guy who is really good at blowing things up, and
05:49he's blowing it up in Miami, and what's to say that he won't go to his new team and also
05:53blow it up?
05:54So I do think you're right about what the Warriors actually need, but I'm just struck
06:00by Jordan Poole coming back, and the amount of people who I'm hearing are saying, if we
06:06only had Jordan Poole, our offensive problems wouldn't be here.