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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 6/2/2025
Transcript
00:00let's go out to the river islands guest line as we said a few minutes ago we always enjoy it
00:06when this man comes on we feel smarter we feel sort of like we feel like all our questions got
00:12answered let's do it again our favorite capologist out there bobby marks espn right here on willard
00:20and dibs hey bobby how you doing i'm good guys how we doing we're doing great man you know what
00:24i want to ask you first you probably heard this shams recently said on the mcafee show
00:29this is about to be the craziest off season of all time do you agree and what does that look like
00:36well i mean i think you know every off season is there i mean i don't know if you compare it to
00:422019 that was the kawaii off season here i think i think a lot of that comes from and i do agree i
00:50think there there could be a lot of activity from a from a trade standpoint i think there's probably
00:54two big reasons one the lack of money that teams have this off season to go out and sign free
00:59agents um you know really brooklyn's the only team out there that has significant money um certainly
01:05two i'm probably going to give you three i said two two is that um it's not a good free agent class at
01:10all um when you look at a lot of guys likely returning back to their own homes and then the
01:16third thing probably is just there's just so much parity in this league right now when you look at
01:21certainly the the two teams in the in the uh in the nba finals gold i mean oh oh my city's been
01:26the best team all year and then you certainly see what indiana's been able to do and we don't know
01:30what will happen in boston or milwaukee or some of these other places i think you you see teams out
01:35there seeing an opportunity to try to get themselves better and the way to do that is probably have to
01:41be in a trade are the new rules that the league has put out over the last couple of years are they
01:46going to start suppressing salaries to the point where some of these free agents you talked about
01:51are going to have to take less than what they would have gotten a few years ago well i mean we're kind
01:56of in a log jam right now it's going to get better um you know because as the as the salary cap grows so
02:01so do these apron rules and so the luxury tax threshold and of course the salary cap i mean it's
02:07you know next year we're projecting probably half of the teams um will have cap space to go out and sign
02:13players this year we have one um it's just that we're just kind of in a kind of in a traffic jam
02:18right now of of contracts here but as you guys have seen that really that the way of building
02:24rosters is a lot different than in you know 2016 when they signed kevin to that contract or when brook
02:31went out with him got him and kairi in 2000 um i think 2019 um it's really trades in in um in the draft
02:39is the is the kind of the way to go about uh building some of these rosters bobby i'm sure
02:44this will not surprise you our audience is really thinking a lot about jonathan kaminga and how this
02:49is all going to play out this offseason so first and foremost you've already mentioned it once
02:54brooklyn's the only team with that kind of cap space but if they don't want to just sign him
03:00outright to an offer sheet as a restricted free agent are are there other teams that threw some sort of a
03:08a sign and trade you think will will be interested in bringing him in i i think so i mean but it
03:15would require the cooperation of golden state um if that's what they the path they want to
03:20go down because it would probably you know could require them taking back salary and you're not
03:25going to take back salary of players that you don't want i think the sign and trade is interesting
03:29just because um there's no no restriction from the warrior standpoint doesn't hard cap them because
03:34it's the acquiring team um but kaminga would have to have to would want to have to sign for it has to
03:40be for a minimum three years to contract so he's got to make sure that it's the right number for him
03:45and team that's acquiring him um you know golden state's got to be careful from an apron level they
03:50do have some flexibility there so yeah i mean i think you're looking at probably three scenarios him
03:55resigning with you um him signing an offer sheet which it's hard for me to see brooklyn going out and
04:02putting a big number down on him because the one thing you don't want to do is get stuck with the
04:07contract if that's not the player you want uh and then as you guys have mentioned kind of the
04:11sign and trade um option which yeah listen he'll have a market of teams interested in that i think
04:17it's just a matter of the warriors cooperation um to go out and do something like that i mean you
04:23mentioned big number what what is that number what are you expecting him to get uh he you know it's
04:29interesting you know players are now slotted um you know at the day and age of of signing a player
04:36to a 30 million dollar north contract is long gone if you're not considering him as your top top three
04:42player um you know is he a is he a 20 to 25 million dollar guy is he a guy that would want to just do a
04:49one-year deal and then go into free agency but that would certainly require that the cooperation of
04:56golden state and you basically would have to resign with the warriors here um and then basically put
04:59a player option for next year um it's it's uh it's challenging um you know teams are hesitant you
05:06know brooklyn would be hesitant to sign him to an opportunity because your money gets tied up too
05:10um it's there's such a an interesting body of work because as you guys saw in the towards the tail
05:17in the playoffs he was really good um you know he doesn't fit with every team here so
05:21i do think he's probably in that 20 to 25 i don't think he's a 30 million dollar player i don't um
05:28you know maybe he is two years from now but right now i don't see that and if it is a sign and trade
05:32with kaminga the warriors can only accept half the salary back is that right yeah yeah that's another
05:37yeah i feel like i'm giving you all these complicated rules and stuff yeah so there's a there's an
05:43interesting provision in the cba it's called base year compensation it really only applies in signing
05:48trades here so um i'm actually writing about the warriors right now it's one of the most interesting
05:53teams for the off season and in there i put in there like if yeah so coming to sign for um example
05:59let's say he signed for a 30 million dollar um um contract there um that 50 of that is used as far
06:07as outgoing salary so 15 million counts as outgoing salary and 30 million counts as incoming for the
06:12acquiring team so it might look like a 30 million dollar player that maybe you're getting back but
06:18technically it wouldn't work under under the rules bobby marks espn with us you're writing about the
06:24warriors let's hear some names like who who might be accessible to them to improve this team i you know
06:31listen everyone's going to want to talk about the honest and um you know certainly probably kevin again
06:36you know some of the bigger names here i just listen i never want to rule out things um i just think i
06:42i see it extremely difficult even though you do have four first round picks to trade um even though
06:49you have pick swaps in the next seven years i just think it's extremely difficult to go out and get
06:54you honest if you're in golden state if that's the guy that you want unless you're going to trade
06:57butler or green um i i do think it's and even if they did want to trade draymond i think it's you know
07:05how does that how does he fit in milwaukee here so i think the bigger salaries are become a become a
07:11challenge here just because you've got 85 of your salary tied up to those three guys and you've
07:16the other six are making 30 so it does become a challenge as far as going out if you're if you're
07:20trying to go out and do another blockbuster type deal well beyond the big ticket items then assuming
07:27that a cominga sign and trade doesn't net you a 15 million dollar player what sort of uh aisle so to
07:33speak where the warriors be shopping obviously not top shelf hopefully not bottom shelf what shelf bobby
07:40what can warrior fans look to as far as a possible acquisition well i mean it all depends on
07:45cominga i mean that that's the that's the you know comes it really comes down to he basically
07:50controls free agency in golden state because if they sign him to a contract and bring him back then
07:57that's really it as far as what they can do in the off season as far as they might have won their
08:02smaller exceptions and everything here i think it's you know and then you look at the rest of the
08:06roster and it's like okay is it healed is it brandon and some of those other players
08:11guys not making that much money i think it's it will be interesting to probably pay attention
08:17as far as what happens you know teams looking to shed salary certainly boston is a team um that we
08:24will circle as far as what happens with uh with celtics here some of these other higher
08:28you know orlando's another team that's got pretty high cost um you know moving forward
08:34bobby marks espn with us are like i'm wondering about the names that are floating around right now
08:41in terms of how available they they actually are we don't need to go through like tons of them but
08:46the the you know does read and cam johnson and michael porter jr and and uh you know trey murphy like
08:54are these guys actually on the move this off season and can the warriors get involved there
08:59well nazry's got a player option um so if he declines his option he could become a um he could
09:07become a free agent i don't see you having a bigger big enough exception to go out and sign him
09:14outright to a contract michael porter jr makes 38 million dollars you know when you look at the math
09:20you know how do you how do you get that number uh unless you're including green in a deal i don't see
09:26i don't see trey murphy uh i don't um i think there's there's probably more pressing issues they
09:32need to figure out in uh in new orleans besides trying to find a new home for for trey certainly
09:37coming into the first year of that that contract here so yeah like it's you know there's there's
09:41four different tiers as far as where you look at this offseason i think golden state's probably in
09:46that tier two but the tier two teams are you know there's 16 or 17 other ones as far as the
09:51flexibility they have to go out and do that and i said it when you have 85 percent of your roster
09:57comprised of three players and salary it makes it a little bit more challenging despite having draft
10:02picks to go out and trade players you mentioned boston and jason tatum likely gone for the year
10:07with the achilles who do you think that might shake free from that i'm looking at the number right
10:12now 227 million already on the books for next year i think certainly um you know certainly christoph
10:18for zingas who's got an expiring uh contract he's going in the last year we'll see what happens
10:24with a player like uh drew holiday will be interesting i think for boston they have to
10:29be careful just because you know jason tatum is eventually going to come back and you've got
10:34them under contract for this is year one of that super max so you do want to still be good when that
10:40time comes and you don't need to go out and just all of a sudden have a you know fire sale with your
10:45roster you still need to you know have enough quality talent around him um to try to compete
10:51for a championship but i would i would certainly probably probably circle the the expiring contract
10:56of uh porzingis bobby let's go back to janice for a second like in in league circles you feel like
11:03you've got any idea what what he's looking for no because he hasn't met with with milwaukee um he
11:10hasn't told milwaukee what he's looking for he hasn't told him that he wants to be traded or he
11:14wants to return and this is what he wants um the roster to look like i think if he was in that
11:22position and he did ask out i i think you would for for himself and from a competitive standpoint i
11:28would try to stay away from the western conference you know i would try to stay east as much as i can
11:33now who would that team be you know it would it be toronto or some of the you know would it be i
11:39don't see new york you know i don't see boston i don't see brooklyn it's kind of a you know um
11:45miami's challenging as far as what they can do uh the teams in the western conference have more to
11:50offer but i think from a competitive standpoint i think if you were him you would prefer to stay
11:55um you know stay in the east now your previous yana's answer you sort of insinuated while the warriors
12:02have a hard time doing this unless you were going to give up butler or green and i could feel all
12:06of our listeners go that's fine we'll be like absolutely fine to give up butler or green what
12:13what are the challenges associated with that and and and wrap this into it steve kerr was recently
12:18sort of sort of quoted as saying you don't give up all of your picks and pick swaps when your star
12:24is 37 that doesn't make any sense yeah no i mean i i think the biggest challenge is what does
12:30milwaukee want you know it's it's interesting like we can talk about what all these offer but it does
12:37come down to what milwaukee would want in the trade um we don't know that we don't know if we'll ever
12:42know that as far as you know draft picks or young players or controllable contracts and um when you
12:48have a generational player top three player on your roster under contract for the next three years
12:53you're going to look out for the most um you know possible um the playoffs have shown that depth
13:00matters in this league having eight or nine good players matters in this league you know mike uh dunleavy
13:07made a smart comment basically like you don't want to you never want to be stuck right you never want
13:12to be stuck when you basically have traded everything you get 15 games in you're like where what else can
13:18we do to improve the roster here and that's that's the challenge when you try to go out and make a you
13:23know another big trade you look at other teams that might be looking to move big names and i'm thinking
13:28about phoenix and kevin durant what's your anticipation for how they're going to solve their mess with having
13:34three highly paid guys in that in that stratosphere i i would i would think that you know just looking at
13:41through the tea leaves that you know certainly durant they're going to get a new coach it's probably going
13:45to be a younger one of these young assistant coaches he's in the last year of his contract
13:50uh if you want to try to reset that roster somehow it's likely going to be in a durant trade here
13:58certainly i think the price is less than what um janice potentially could be here um but as i said he's
14:05still a guy making 54 million dollars and whoever's acquiring him probably needs to know if he's on the
14:10roster for more than one year bobby marks espn so bobby if if it feels kind of and it sounds like
14:18you're saying this it feels not only unlikely but a little pie in the sky to be talking about these
14:24big names with golden state what what kind of a move could they make and and who who might be sort
14:31of attainable yeah i mean listen i think it's it's probably going to have to be in a trade just
14:37because it's the free agent group um unless you're you know certainly if you're going bargain
14:41shopping some of the bigger names the miles turner of the world the mikhail alexander walker the tie
14:48jerome um those type players um at least the two backups i just mentioned alexander walker and jerome
14:55are not available to you if jonathan coming comes back so as i said like we kind of go back through
15:01you know malik beasley you know if you're looking for shooting if you're looking for you know
15:05if you're trying to go out and get a wing in free agency here um the free agent as i said coming
15:11dictates as far as what you have to spend in in free agency until you get that resolved you're kind
15:17of in a holding pattern interesting stuff bobby thank you so much for coming on man thanks guys
15:23appreciate it all right bobby marks espn