Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00and get back into Jimmy Butler and much more with our good friend Monty Poole,
00:04NBC Sports Bay Area, who joins us now on the River Islands guest line on a very, very big week.
00:11Monty, thanks for coming on, man. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you guys doing? We're
00:16doing okay, man. What is your dust-settling initial reaction to everything the Warriors did this week?
00:25Well, if Jimmy is healthy, he'll be fine at least at first. His history, his pattern is that every
00:34time he shows up to a new team, he's really good, really good. It's the breakups that tend to be
00:40ugly. So if you're the Warriors and you want someone to give Steph a helping hand, Jimmy
00:47Butler is a pretty good choice for that. What sort of a dynamic offensive game does he have?
00:53We've talked a lot about them needing three-point shooting and he doesn't really have that. Is he a
00:59guy who can score at the other two levels? I know he gets to the foul line, but what do you
01:03make of his game, Monty, and how it will fit with what the Warriors try to do?
01:08Yeah, he's kind of a point forward with a shot. His mid-range is really good. He gets to the hoop,
01:16gets to the line like you mentioned. His three-point shot tends to come and go.
01:21It's funny how he can hit the big three-point shot, but on a regular basis, his three-point
01:26shot is just not very good. He's like a 30% shooter from three, a little over that.
01:33But I think his three-point shot is good enough to where defenses will respect it
01:39and therefore they won't just let him go out there and shoot open threes.
01:44So in its own way, that can help the offense. That's one of the reasons why Buddy Hill is
01:52playing. Even though his three-point shot has been missing for most of the last couple of months,
01:56defenses still respect Buddy, so they follow him around. Other than Steph and Buddy,
02:03that's it for the Warriors. As far as guys, the defenses automatically decide we've got to cover.
02:08Everybody else has to prove it. And Jimmy may get some of that, but I think that for the most part,
02:15he'll be able to help their offense because he's really good at orchestrating things on offense.
02:22That's the one thing he does, at least on offense, better than Wiggins is that
02:26he can make plays for other guys. Wiggins is mostly a guy who can get his own shot pretty well.
02:31Jimmy can get his own shot, but he can also set up other guys. And that's one of the reasons why
02:35he took some Miami Heat teams that were pretty good but not great to the finals. He's one of the
02:41reasons why they overachieved. Manny, is this the deal the Warriors really, really wanted?
02:49No. No. This was not plan A. What are we on, like plan L? Plan A was Paul George,
03:00plan B was Larry Markin, and plan C was Kevin Durant. Obviously, the plan pie in the sky is
03:08Giannis, but this is plan, I guess, D or E, you might say, because he's an impact player who comes
03:16in right now. He's a right now guy. Timeline fits with Steph and Draymond, 35. So I understand the
03:24move, and I also understand the skepticism around the league that I've heard over the last couple
03:29of days. So I think it's going to be interesting to watch, but he's a smart player, and it's a
03:36pretty good fallback option because Jimmy's one of the guys in this league who, when he walks into
03:41your locker room, he's a dude. There's a handful of guys like that, that he walks in and the
03:46temperature changes, and he's one of those guys. So I'm sure that Stephen Curry is extremely happy
03:53to have somebody to kind of give him a little hand here because he's been trying so hard
03:59to carry this offense, and it has not gone well the past few weeks. Yeah, and you can see last night
04:04where he shot it, what, 35 times, or I mean, he couldn't do anything but shoot it. That's kind of
04:09the only option they had. As you look at the construct of the roster, not for this year, Monty,
04:14but going forward, what does this mean for Jonathan Kaminga? Because Jimmy's going to be making
04:1955 or so, and you're starting to run out of dollars for J.K. I think the worst part is saying
04:25we'll figure it out, and the truth is that when there's somebody you definitely want to keep,
04:30you always find a way to figure it out. Now, does that mean moving somebody else? It probably does,
04:36but I think they're at a point where they're saying, let's see what we can do right now,
04:40and let's deal with the offseason in the offseason. The fact that they didn't pay
04:45Jonathan Kaminga last summer tells you that they weren't sure. You know, a lot of those
04:50guys that were in the same draft class got paid. Some guys got max contacts,
04:54Kate Cunningham, Franz Wagner, Scotty Barnes, Evan Mobley. These guys all got max contacts
05:00in the same draft, and Franz Wagner was chosen after Kaminga was, so the Warriors, they said,
05:08no, he's not a max guy, and he's not, and they also said, no, he's not a 40 million a year guy,
05:13and he's not, so they got to figure out exactly how far they're willing to go with him
05:18before they can really kind of proceed with the rest of the offseason. Right now,
05:24I think that's one of those things they're looking at as a back burner for right now.
05:27Things are so urgent now to where I think their energy is about, what can we do right now on
05:32February 7th to make our team better? Monty Poole, NBC Sports Barrier, all over the Warriors,
05:37with us on Willard and Dibs here on 95.7 The Game. Monty, there was that Brian Windhorst report
05:43at the beginning of the week that Jimmy Butler called off this whole idea he is not going to
05:48sign an extension with the Warriors. Then he did, so what changed, and do you think he's actually,
05:55in his heart of hearts, happy to be here? Well, one of the things that changed is that
06:01there was no way for him to get to Phoenix. The Warriors wanted Kevin Durant to return,
06:08and Kevin said, no, I'm not feeling that right now, so let's not do that, and as I've been saying
06:13for the past few days, the most powerful man in the NBA also said he ain't going anywhere.
06:18That's Bradley Beal, and Phoenix wanted to move him, and Miami, their team wanted Bradley Beal,
06:24and Brad said, no, I'm going to sit right here, and my no-trade contract says I can do that.
06:29He was one of the only guys to have no-trade contracts, and he used his, and so the fact
06:34that he didn't want to be traded meant that KD wasn't going to be traded. It meant that
06:39Jimmy Butler wasn't going to go to Phoenix, so I think Jimmy figured out, okay, Phoenix is not
06:45an option, and the Warriors came back at him and said, look, I'm sure we can work out another,
06:52an extension for you, and we'll figure it out from there, and boom, here we are.
06:57Yeah, that's quite an extension. When you heard the details of it,
07:00Monty, were you a little surprised at just how lofty the number was for two years?
07:05Well, I mean, that's what he can command, you know? I mean, they couldn't pay him 30 mil.
07:09You know, he's way past that already, and he's not at the stage of his career where he can say,
07:15well, I'll take a giant pay cut, so that's what it took, and I think the Warriors felt a sense
07:22of urgency here, and they also knew that they didn't have many other options that were appealing.
07:28No KD, then where do you go from there? I think there was a time, you know, four or five years
07:34ago when people thought, well, maybe Bradley Bill could fit with the Warriors. Well,
07:38that time has passed. They're not interested in Bradley Bill anymore,
07:41so, but now Jimmy Butler, the kind that he has, you know, at some point he can be moved,
07:48and, you know, maybe the pilot's guy dream of Giannis Antetokounmpo ends up here in a year or
07:53two, who knows, because I think a lot is riding on what the Bucs do in terms of Giannis' future.
07:59It's interesting, Monty, to hear you say that it sounds like the Warriors still have,
08:06I don't know if flexibility is the right word, but like mobility on the trade market, because
08:13I sort of look at how hard it was to trade Jimmy this time and feel like it'd be even harder
08:18as they get older. Do you still think the Warriors have the ability in the next year to make more
08:24deals? There's always a way, unless you're in, unless you're stuck in one of those aprons,
08:31you know, there's usually a way. A good general manager, and Mike Dunlap did a pretty good job,
08:37I think, in general, finds ways to offload people that don't fit anymore, that, you know,
08:44their salaries don't line up anymore, and make it work. The Jimmy Butler deal wasn't easy to do,
08:50but they found a way to do it, and it involved four teams. So, I believe, and the same thing
08:57applies to me in football too, and even to a lesser degree in baseball, is that if there is
09:02someone you want on your team, there's usually a way if that person is willing to come to your team.
09:10And so, they could have made it work for Kevin Durant, but Katie said, I'm not doing that right
09:14now. And Jimmy Butler came around and said, you know what, let's do this, because Miami...
09:24Gone. Yeah, must hit a dead spot there. Like, I am in no way done with that conversation. No,
09:31there's always more with Monty. Yeah, yeah, like we got plenty, plenty more things that we want to
09:36go through with Monty. So, we're going to work on getting him back right away, because from
09:43why Kevin Durant didn't want to come, to, by the way, why is Steph not in the three-point contest,
09:49and any other deals. Like, let's get to my hypotheticals that I was throwing out there
09:55to gauge what the Warriors' interest might have been in some of those other deals that they didn't
09:59make. So, we'll get to all that with Monty. We'll get him back on here in a sec. And I'm just
10:02curious, like, where he sees the Warriors now after this trade. You sent out four players,
10:07you brought in one. Does this appreciably change who they are tied for the 10 seed right now? Is
10:13Jimmy Butler enough of a boost to make any real noise this year? I mean, I'm curious what his
10:20thoughts are. Yeah, like, it's going to be interesting. Obviously, we're going to want
10:24to see him make his debut, which he will tomorrow night at the home of his very first team in the
10:30Chicago Bulls. All right, back out to Monty Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area. Go ahead, Monty,
10:35you were saying? You were talking about Miami, and Miami's unwillingness to
10:44capitulate to Jimmy Butler and his needs. Yeah, well, Jimmy knew that Miami was no longer an
10:49option, and he wanted Phoenix, but Phoenix became not an option because KD didn't want to be traded,
10:56and Bradley Bill said, nope, I'm not going anywhere. So, I guess you could say the market
11:01shrunk on him, and the Warriors were obviously out there looking for a big name, a big fish,
11:08or whatever you want to call it, you know, and Jimmy fits that bill. They didn't bring him in,
11:15I don't think, to become a team leader or anything like that, like he was in Miami,
11:21but he can make players around him better. So, I think with the Warriors, they're thinking,
11:27can we do better than Jimmy Butler right now? And the answer is no, based on who's available.
11:34And so, they make the move because they feel like they're hamstrung. I mean, they've been
11:39a sub-500 team now for two months, and they obviously do not like that at all. And so,
11:46now you look at Jimmy coming in, and it's hard to believe that they're going to be 500 all the
11:51way through. In fact, if they end the season at 41-41, that means that this trade did not help
11:57them. So, this is a move that they believe will get them into the mid to high 40s, and therefore
12:05out of the play-in tournament. And when I talk to people around the league, yeah, there's some
12:11people who say, yeah, that's possible if Jimmy stays healthy, and there's others who are just
12:14skeptical about the fit. They still need, I think, shooting, and I still think that there are times
12:21when they look too small to compete in the paint. So, this team is not perfect. It's not close to
12:27perfect, but it got better a little bit because you now have a guy who comes in with instant
12:32credibility and can help your offense kind of get on track. And right now, you watch the Warriors on
12:41offense, and you see too many times where teams just load up on Steph and say, who else is going
12:46to beat us? And nobody has to have to do that. And Jimmy is a guy who they, I don't think they'll
12:51take that risk with. Monty, I think all of us can guess at what some of the reasons might be,
12:57but you're tapped in. So, I want to know your reasons as to why Kevin Durant didn't want to
13:02come back. I don't think it has anything to do with Draymond. That's the popular, oh, he didn't
13:08like Draymond. He and Draymond have been together numerous times since that happened. Hell, Draymond
13:14had him on a podcast, you know, and that was what, three years ago, I think now. So, I think they
13:20would be okay. I just, Kevin is a curious guy. I think he likes living life on his own terms.
13:26And when he came to the Warriors, he knew he took a lot of flack, but he did it anyway because it's
13:30what he wanted to do. When he went to Brooklyn, people were like, well, why are you doing that?
13:35Well, he wanted to play with Kyrie. Well, then that didn't work out, and he wanted to get out
13:39of there, and Phoenix sounded good to him. You gotta remember that Kevin is a guy that he could
13:45have gone to any college he wants to go to, and he grew up on the East Coast. He chose Texas.
13:52Why Texas? You know, that's a fair question. Why Texas? Of all the colleges you could have gone to,
13:58you chose Texas. He's a curious guy, and he likes to find out things and discover things.
14:05So, I think Kevin wants to keep his options open. At some point, he'll want to get out of Phoenix.
14:10I don't know when that point is, but I can't see him staying there as long as his sons are not in
14:15the championship picture. I think at some point, he'll want to get out. The question is when and
14:20where, and who knows, maybe a year from now, maybe less than a year from now, he might change
14:24his mind about the Bay Area. Yeah, and we all were hoping that would have been a couple of days ago
14:28where he was, you know, kind of itching to get out of Phoenix. One thing Mark and I talked a lot
14:33about is smaller moves, incremental moves. Cam Johnson is a name that's been thrown out.
14:38Nikola Vucevic, was there any talk that you heard, any rumblings about those deals,
14:44or after KD, was it just a focus on a big swing at Jimmy Butler?
14:49No, Nikola Vucevic was definitely being discussed, but not so much in the days leading up to the
14:56deadline, not this week. I think they kind of pivoted away from that and thought, you know,
15:01he's going to help us, but he's not going to help us enough to where, you know, really kind of give
15:06us the bump we need. Vucevic is a 2010 guy, but he tends not to be, his team, he doesn't make his
15:15teams better. And he's a numbers guy. He can make this, he can shoot the three really well for big.
15:24He's not a good defender. So there's this pros and cons there, just as there are with Jimmy,
15:29there's pros and cons there. And the Warriors thought, you know what? Yeah, he could bring
15:33him in, but is that really going to make us much better? And I think the answer there is no.
15:39And I agree with that one. I think he would have made them incrementally better,
15:43but not enough to where, you know, you break up things. And plus, you know, the Bulls up their
15:48asking price when they realized that Vucevic had some, you know, some market value out there.
15:53And there were several teams were talking about him and the Bulls decided, oh, we've been getting
15:57roasted for the LeBane deal. So what can we do now? Okay. Our fans have been roasting us.
16:02And they said, okay, we're not going to get stung again. And that's why Nicole is still there.
16:06Monty Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area. Hey, it surprised some people today, Monty,
16:10when the NBA released the contestants in the three-point shooting contest for All-Star Weekend.
16:17And we didn't see Steph Curry's name on that. Do you know why he said no thanks?
16:22Um, I think, I don't know why, but I never thought he was going to play. I don't know,
16:27I mean, if he has a specific reason, but I think Steph has got a big week ahead.
16:32He's got a lot going on ahead. And I wouldn't be surprised if he like lobbied to, you know,
16:38for Buddy, um, because, you know, Steph's been there and done that last, last year.
16:43You remember, obviously, you know, he went out there with Sabrina Unescu and that was quite a
16:47show. Um, and there was discussion about possibly he and Clay, uh, going against Sabrina and Caitlin
16:53Clark. That didn't happen. That's not going to happen. So, um, I think Steph's play is full
16:58enough. Uh, he's been carrying this team for quite a while. I think anything he doesn't have to do
17:03at this stage, he's probably not going to do. Yeah, I get that. I'm just a little disappointed
17:09when, you know, you've got it here in his backyard and Damian Lillard's going for a third straight
17:14and, you know, Steph would get a third. And so kind of a head-to-head battle. I was excited for
17:18the entertainment part of that. As you head into the all-star game here, Monty,
17:23what do you think the level of excitement is around the organization? And is it
17:27bolstered by the fact that they did something this week at the deadline?
17:31Uh, yeah. I mean, let's face it. Uh, the Warriors kind of captured the, the, uh, new cycle over the
17:37past couple of days. Once the Luca and AD thing, you know, trailed off a little bit and we're still
17:42talking about that, but you know, that, that stole the weekend. And then you have the, the Aaron Fox,
17:48uh, deal. I mean, you've got all these deals coming and going with, with the Kings and the
17:53Spurs and the bulls. Um, and we were joking in the office last night about how, wow, you know,
17:59the NBA found a way to put the Superbowl on the back burner this week. It's like all these things
18:04that have happened. And so, um, and Jimmy Butler is, you know, that's, that's, if you look at the
18:10biggest trade of the week, that's one of them, you know, Wiggins is a really good player and
18:14he'll be good in Miami. And so, um, yeah, I think that the Warriors like the idea of having eyes on
18:22them. Uh, and they certainly got them right now and they have, they'll have them next week. I
18:26was still in the entire Bay area with the officer festivities happening on both sides of the Bay.
18:31Okay. Manny. Uh, what's your thought? Are they one of the best eight teams in the West now?
18:37I think that remains to be seen. Um, they haven't proved it. So therefore to me, they're not,
18:43you know, the record says they're 11th. They've been hanging around 10 and 11 and nine, 10, 11,
18:47for the most part. And that that's outside the top eight. So until they get there, uh, I can't
18:52put them in there. Uh, that's a completely fair answer. Monty. Uh, thank you for, uh, for both of
18:57the phone calls that you just took from us. Thank you. All right, guys. Take care. There it is.
19:02All right, guys. Take care. Monty pool, NBC sports barriers. Really good Intel.