Are Warriors' youngsters good enough?

KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME

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00:00The more we've been sitting here talking about this, and Mike Dunleavy says we're trying

00:03to maximize the window of Steph, Clay, and Steve, and we do want to chat a little bit

00:08about the fact that he included Steve in that thought.

00:12To me, I'm in on that, and not because I believe the Warriors are a player away from contention

00:20or whatever.

00:22My contention is this.

00:23I think we overstate what the Warriors have going into the future, and I want to try to

00:29do that without making it sound like I'm taking shots at Kaminga, or Moody, or Podjamski.

00:34They're all young players.

00:37Have we seen their best stuff?

00:38I'd argue no, but the bottom line for me is there's no way around this in the NBA.

00:44When you have stars and they have success, when they leave, you start over.

00:50You just do.

00:51You have to start over, and so the Warriors are going to be, in my opinion, starting over

00:55in a couple of years, and Jonathan Kaminga, Brandon Podjamski, and Moses Moody collectively

01:02add up to the same thing as if you had no players at all.

01:09They are not the centerpieces of anything special.

01:12You're still a lottery team, so again, it doesn't mean they're not good, but I'm willing.

01:18I'm willing to dance with those ideas so that you can try to be good this year.

01:24I think that that is an overstatement, and you were a lottery team last year with those

01:29players and also with Steph, Klay, and Draymond, so it's not as easy as, well, you got stars

01:35so now you're not a lottery team, and you have those guys and so you are a lottery team

01:39because you were a lottery team last year.

01:41There's no way to escape the reality that you were a reality team.

01:45No, but I can have a conversation with you about that, and you know exactly that Draymond

01:49was suspended for a portion of the year, Andrew was not himself, and this team last year,

01:54that didn't fit, is the same team this year that it doesn't fit.

01:58Well, this team is completely different than last year.

02:00So it's time to quit!

02:01This team is completely different than last year's team.

02:05Last year you had Dario Saric, and this year you've got Flomo, you've got Buddy, now you've

02:09got Dennis Schroeder.

02:10But there are fundamental similarities, which is Jonathan Kaminga and Draymond Green are

02:16still both best suited to be the four, and there's only one four, and so Draymond Green

02:22can no longer be the five for the majority of games, it's too exhausting, it'll wear

02:27him down, it'll get him hurt, and Jonathan Kaminga is not the three.

02:32And so, what do you do?

02:34That was the case at the end of last year, it's still the case now, and to me, if you

02:40can address it responsibly, I would.

02:43Yeah, see, I would address it responsibly, that's different than going out there and

02:48trading multiple first round picks and trying to trade your young core, and I disagree with

02:53what you said, and you've said it a bunch already about how you have nothing, or you're

02:57a lottery team with those guys as your core, I think that Jonathan Kaminga, what he continues

03:02to show me, is that he's getting better, he's getting more assertive and more comfortable

03:06as an offensive player, and I don't know if he'll ever be an all-star, but if he's your

03:11second best player, you can be a very good team, and I look at the future of Jonathan

03:15Kaminga at 22, in year four, really year five of organized basketball, if you count

03:22his one year in the G League, and you know, Steph played three years of college, Clay

03:26the same, Draymond played four, TJD played more, four or five years, these are more ready-made

03:32players by the time they came in, so I'm willing to be more patient with Jonathan Kaminga,

03:37and allow him the grace to continue to get better at 22.

03:41I do want to let you know, when you say that, I'm not here to tell you you're wrong, I'm

03:46here to tell you that Steph and Dray are telling you you're wrong.

03:49Of course, because they're not going to be here, by the time Jonathan Kaminga is his

03:52best player, the best that he's going to be, by the time that that is, neither one of them

03:57is going to be in the association.

03:58And there's your conundrum.

03:59And it's not a conundrum for the organization, it is for those two, and those two are not

04:03the organization.

04:04Memo to Steph and Dray, you are not the organization.

04:08Then I'd argue you should be trading them.

04:10You'll never trade Steph Curry, that's a net negative from a business standpoint, I mean,

04:14what are we even talking about?

04:15Then you're spinning your wheels, doing nothing.

04:17You're making money as an organization, and you're putting out a competitive product that

04:21fans want to go see.

04:23I don't know if they need to worry about making money, and Joe Lacob will tell you straight

04:27to your face, that's not, like, he wants to win.

04:30Of course.

04:31He wants to win.

04:32He's not here to make money.

04:33They're fine with money.

04:34Right.

04:35They're going to make money.

04:36Let's get David and Sam Attale.

04:37Hey David, thanks for calling.

04:39Hey, great show guys.

04:41First time caller, long time listener, and I really agree with what Dibs said earlier.

04:48I've been a thief and ticket holder since the early 80s, and the last word you mentioned

04:53was entertainment.

04:54I have a partner that we split the games with.

04:57Long story short, he went to the game and said, you know, yesterday's game was the most

05:02entertaining game he's seen in a long time, win, lose, or draw.

05:06And I would say as two gentlemen that are approaching their mid-60s, we've seen it all.

05:14And I'm to the fact, it may not be a popular opinion by people, but I'm to the point to

05:21use your assets, if that means Curry and whoever, and let them go somewhere like clay where

05:28he didn't work up a sweat, stands in the corner as drilling threes versus Curry running all

05:33over the place.

05:36One ankle sprain away from this decision, the season being challenging.

05:41At this point, I don't want to leverage everything.

05:44I want an entertainment product.

05:46And I use the example, I've been a vice president of sales for several years for a fortune 50

05:53company.

05:54And I'm continually looking each year for top talent to challenge the folks that we've

06:00had on our team here, make people feel just a tad bit uncomfortable to be on their game.

06:07And we keep talking about these two all-stars.

06:11We're talking about things that have been in the past.

06:15They're great players now, but they can't play the whole season.

06:19There's a lot of things that you're seeing in signs.

06:22So for me, as a long time season ticket holder, I look at it as an organization where you

06:28got to continue to grow.

06:29You got to continue to bring quality people in and to eliminate everybody that has an

06:37opportunity to perform like a Jonathan Kaminga for people that are aging, that just can't

06:44get it done anymore.

06:46And you go look at, they had three people that could have finished the game yesterday

06:51and the Warriors don't have any way to get an easy back.

06:55So David, I want to ask you a question because this is interesting.

07:00If you're running an organization and that's how you feel, and you do have these established

07:06long time successful employees, and you want to run it the way that you're describing,

07:13what do you do if those very well-established superstar employees come to you and go, you

07:19know what, that doesn't fit with what I want to do.

07:21I'd like to go.

07:24And I think it's a mutual decision to find an opportunity for them that they're happy

07:31and that we all find a win-win situation for everybody.

07:38Those three all-stars, including Clay as well, they had to get their opportunity.

07:45They had to replace David Lee with Draymond.

07:49It's time for a new group of people to come in and make their mark.

07:55Why not let Steph go to a situation where it's going to get us some draft picks, get

08:00some people.

08:01This is a product.

08:02This is an entertainment product.

08:05And the last thing I'm going to say is we don't owe Steph Curry or anybody else to get

08:12some superstars, as Dibs said, which is not going to make a difference.

08:16That guy's life is tremendous and he's so happy.

08:20He's got so many things to look forward to when he's in his 40s and 50s.

08:25Why take a product and just disintegrate the quality of it?

08:30Like David, I get it.

08:31I completely get it.

08:33And here's where I'll give David kind of a nod.

08:35If that's how you feel, I get it.

08:39It's a minority opinion.

08:40To me, what you can't do is do both, which I kind of feel like might be your stance.

08:47We have got to hold our assets for the future.

08:50Oh, but we also have to hold Steph and Dray.

08:53I think Steph and Dray would disagree with you.

08:56I think they would disagree with it.

08:58To me, you've got to pick one or the other.

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