The Warriors Like, but don't LOVE, Kuminga

KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME

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00:00It's a very indirect sort of a message from the Warriors, but I do think it's a message

00:06from the Warriors.

00:08If they are this desperate, and they have been called that, even as recently as by Anthony

00:15Slater on our show yesterday, if you are that desperate, and you are that excited about

00:21Kevin Durant, who is the same age as Steph Curry, he's literally like eight months younger

00:28than Steph Curry.

00:29So you want Durant, and he's 36, and you are that desperate, and you want now now now

00:35now now.

00:37And I largely support that idea, by the way.

00:40But let's just look at the Warriors' behavior.

00:43On some level, aren't you saying, we're not that into Jonathan Kamenga.

00:51Like we're not that into him.

00:54We don't believe that what he's going to be two years from now is that impressive.

01:00And oh, by the way, how come I've never heard anyone with the Warriors say publicly over

01:07the last few weeks, you know who our acquisition is going to be in February?

01:11Jonathan Kamenga.

01:13We think Jonathan Kamenga is going to make us a lot better here in a couple of weeks

01:18when he gets healthy.

01:20It feels to me like the Warriors, when you add that with the fact that they would not

01:25sign him to an extension before the year, I just think we can circle back to this right

01:31now.

01:32It feels to me like the Warriors are showing their hand, and they're just not that into

01:39Jonathan Kamenga.

01:40I still think it's information gathering season, and what happened in the offseason was Jonathan

01:45Kamenga wanted a certain amount of money, and the reports were that he wanted the max,

01:49he wanted the Scotty Barnes, he wanted the Cade Cunningham, he wanted the Franz Wagner,

01:54he wanted that rookie max extension, and the Warriors not only didn't necessarily counter,

02:00but they said, nah, we're good.

02:03Next, Ariana Grande.

02:04And to me, that does not mean that you're not into him.

02:07I do think that they wanted to wait and see.

02:09And what they've seen is, man, he's not great.

02:13And then, oh, my God, he's amazing.

02:15And then he got hurt.

02:16I don't know if I can draw personally from what we've seen from Jonathan Kamenga this

02:20year to lead them to make a real determination.

02:24Now, if there's a team out there that sees Kamenga at $7 million and thinks, yeah, we'd

02:30pay him $30, we'd pay him $32, $33, whatever we would pay him, and the Warriors think,

02:36jeez, we wouldn't want to do that, then they'll trade him between now and Thursday at noon.

02:42We're down to 45 hours and 39 minutes.

02:45So I personally don't look at what has happened and draw any conclusion about how they feel.

02:52I know they didn't want to give him the max, and I know that what they've seen him do on

02:56the court has been, eh, and then it's been, oh, my God, and then he got hurt.

03:02That's kind of what I'm getting at.

03:04I want to be very careful here.

03:05I think the Warriors like Jonathan Kamenga.

03:08I like Jonathan Kamenga.

03:10This is about love, though.

03:13This is about something bigger than that.

03:14If you liked it, then you would have put a ring on it.

03:16Exactly.

03:17I think there are a lot.

03:18This is kind of, if we're going to have a mature debate about Jonathan Kamenga, we got

03:23to not do the 2025 debate show thing, ah, he's great or he sucks, or I'm in or I'm out.

03:30You're out.

03:31And I'm in.

03:32Jonathan's very good.

03:33Yeah.

03:34Jonathan's very good.

03:35But do we project future greatness is probably the question the Warriors have been trying

03:40to answer, and I think the answer's no.

03:44I think, A, the answer's no, and then secondarily, I think the word timing is just so, so unfortunate

03:50for the Warriors right now on two fronts.

03:52A, the injury really, really stunk and came at a bad time, but B, I wonder how everyone

03:58would feel about all this Kamenga Wiggins stuff if they were making the same amount

04:02of money, because in about six months, they will be.

04:06Andrew's about to make 28.

04:08Whatever the hell Jonathan's number comes in, I think we'd all agree, it's somewhere

04:12in that neighborhood.

04:13I'm pretty sure.

04:14So you're about to make the same.

04:15Therefore, you're the same in trade conversations.

04:19And if that were all things equal, which one would you like to move forward with, with

04:24the Warriors?

04:25They're both still in their twenties.

04:26I understand.

04:27Jonathan's way younger.

04:28It's kind of a nuanced way to break it down.

04:30That was kind of fun.

04:32Except for the Warriors are telling us that what really matters is the rest of Steph's

04:37career.

04:38Well, that's the next two years.

04:40And if that's what matters to you, yes, I would argue Andrew Wiggins is better than

04:44Jonathan Kamenga.

04:45Andrew is in his twenties for 19 more days.

04:48So if we want to be fair about the statement, he's not an old player, no, but he's going

04:52to be 30.

04:53And I do think that as many games as he's played at 30, he's older than what Kamenga

04:58will be at 30.

05:00And you know, all the players in Kamenga's draft class, they've all played a lot more

05:04minutes in college and in high school even than Kamenga has.

05:09So I do think when we look at Kamenga's age, it's a little bit unfair because yes, his

05:13chronological age is a thing, but his basketball age is a lot younger.

05:18It's a fair point.

05:19It's absolutely a fair point.

05:21I would say this though, because of that salary, it has led to a lot of us and today's a good

05:26day to do it.

05:27Cause I don't know if y'all watched the game last night, but Andrew Wiggins was pretty

05:30freaking awesome.

05:31Yeah.

05:32And he's actually, if you really want to dive in over the last three to four weeks of Warrior

05:37basketball, it's been pretty consistent.

05:39Mostly.

05:40He has been really good.

05:42He's been averaging over 22 points a game, in fact.

05:45So when I look at these two players, the way we talk about them and the way we involve

05:52their names in trades, here's what I would say.

05:56Andrew Wiggins is undervalued and Jonathan Kamenga is overvalued.

06:01He's overvalued at 7 million a year?

06:03No.

06:04By the way that it's viewed around the league, by the way their names are bandied about by

06:08fans.

06:09I'm not talking about the number, cause the number's about to be equal.

06:11Well, you mentioned the salary, and we don't know what the number will be.

06:14It's about to be about equal, is what I'm saying.

06:16At 7 million, I don't think that he's overvalued.

06:18I guess what we're saying here is that there's too much tossing around of Andrew Wiggins'

06:23name like he's a chump, and he is a very, very productive two-way NBA wave.

06:31If you want to bring in a real player, if you want to bring in a Kevin Durant or a real

06:35like big fish, you can't do it with Dennis Schroeder's expiring and a bunch of crap.

06:40It would have to include Andrew Wiggins.

06:43Not true.

06:44Not true.

06:45I'd love to hear your deal that you think would be doable.

06:48I don't even want to.

06:49Cause it's not out there.

06:50I don't want, well it is out there, I did it, but I don't want to do NBA Trade Machine

06:54because we don't know the rules, but there are a thousand ways to do it.

06:58You can get other teams involved.

07:00You can have the money going in, the money going out.

07:03Like I did, I did come up with a deal where the Warriors can get Durant without giving

07:07up Wiggins.

07:08It's possible.

07:09But Kaminga's on the move.

07:10Yeah, Kaminga would be on the move.

07:12So that's all I'm saying.

07:13All I'm saying is, for my taste, the way we talk about Wiggins, undervalued.

07:20There's too many throwing of his name around like he's not a really good player.

07:24And there's too much projection of Jonathan Kaminga as if he's just a future lock All-Star

07:32in two years, which I don't think is true either.

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