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KGMZ-FM / 95.7 THE GAME
  • 7/3/2025
Transcript
00:00Bobby Marks of ESPN joining us here live on Willard & Dibbs 95.7 The Game.
00:05Bobby, good evening and thank you for coming on. How are you?
00:08I'm good, guys. How are we doing?
00:10We're doing fantastic. We're trying to figure out all things Warriors,
00:14and obviously it's been very, very quiet.
00:16I'll start with this.
00:17How would you read the fact that this is taking a few days
00:22with regard to the Jonathan Kaminga situation?
00:25Does it make you lean toward sign and trade,
00:27or does it make you lean more in the direction of he'll stay with the Warriors?
00:33Yeah, I mean, listen, he's got no leverage.
00:37I mean, the only leverage he has right now is to sign a qualifying offer
00:41at $7.9 million and then try and go out in free agency next offseason here.
00:51You know, when you look at the landscape of the league right now,
00:55the money, I mean, it took Milwaukee waiving Damian Lillard
01:00and paying him $25 million over the next five years just to create cap space.
01:05And the only team out there that has cap space is Brooklyn,
01:08and I don't see them putting an offer sheet down on Damian Lillard.
01:13Of course, there's the sign and trade mechanism here,
01:17but that requires cooperation from Golden State as far as what salaries
01:21they would want to take back in a deal here.
01:24So I think that's, you know, I think there's,
01:26if he's going to be on a long-term contract,
01:28it's going to be basically on the terms of the Warriors
01:31as far as what that number could be.
01:34And, you know, and what happens with Kaminga dictates what your flexibility is also
01:40with what you have, you know, whether it's your tax middle-level exception
01:44or maybe a default exception here.
01:46So, yeah, I don't, you know, he's in the boat with a bunch of them.
01:51I mean, Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes, Cam Thomas.
01:54I mean, there's a list of the restricted free agents
01:57who are basically in the same situation.
01:59And is the market such where their value has been deflated?
02:03And Santi Adama gets about $17 million a year,
02:06and I know Kaminga has more upside,
02:08but what does the market tell you about where these players might be priced,
02:12especially Kaminga?
02:13The market tells you it's not a good time to be a restricted free agent.
02:18That's what the market tells you.
02:20I think Memphis is a little bit different
02:22because of where they were financially.
02:25They could do that.
02:26I mean, I think if Golden State's payroll, and, you know, they're okay right now,
02:31I think they're, I don't know, $16, $17 million below the luxury tax
02:35and $24 below the first apron.
02:38If they have where Memphis is,
02:41they could probably be a little bit more aggressive.
02:44But certainly if you're trying to bring back Kaminga
02:47and you're also trying to get big,
02:49whether it be a player like Al Horford, for example,
02:52you know, you're probably your threshold as far as a new contract is,
02:56I don't know, $16, $18 million.
02:59Maybe could you get closer to $20 million?
03:01That's probably where, you know,
03:04probably your walkaway number would be.
03:06Bobby Marks with us here on Withered and Dibs.
03:09Bobby, we keep hearing that the Heat and the Bulls
03:13are like the teams to watch in this situation.
03:16Does that fit what they've got going on?
03:19And if it did, what could a theoretical warrior's return be?
03:25Yeah, I think that Duncan Robinson's sign-and-trade with Detroit probably,
03:30I don't want to say eliminate or would eliminate Miami.
03:32I think you kind of rule them out of the equation,
03:36especially where if you're trying to get a third team involved
03:39and if that third team is in Brooklyn to take back more money,
03:42you saw what the Nets did over the last couple days,
03:45that their cap space is certainly shrinking there.
03:50I mean, whether it be Chicago, you know,
03:54they've got a bunch of those expiring contracts,
03:56whether it be Nikola Vucevic, you know,
04:00I think it's a matter of, as I said, like, your number,
04:04whatever number you're willing to take back for Kaminga
04:07is basically the number that you were willing to pay him,
04:10you know, whether it be $16 or $18 million in salary.
04:14And then the big question is, you know,
04:15sign-and-trades are interested because you have to,
04:19it has to be a minimum of three years.
04:21So if you're Jonathan Kaminga,
04:23do you want to be locked into a contract for the next three years
04:26that you, not to your liking,
04:28even though you'll maybe double what you get in a QO this year,
04:31or as I said,
04:33is it your best chance to just become an unrestricted free agent,
04:36you know, next,
04:38next off season by signing that one-year deal?
04:41How unprecedented would it be to have Kaminga come back
04:44and play on that qualifying offer?
04:47Well, in the last 10 years,
04:50there have been five players that have signed a qualifying offer.
04:54That's the numbers.
04:56And the beauty of the qualifying offer is that
04:58he has veto power on any trade also.
05:04And if he signed the qualifying offer
05:06and he did allow the trade to go,
05:10the acquiring team does not inherit his bird rights.
05:13So they would not have much leverage
05:16as far as to re-sign him to a new contract.
05:18So that's the danger of the one-year deal
05:21as far as there are certainly some limitations that come with it.
05:25That's interesting.
05:26I don't think a lot of us know that, Bobby.
05:28So just to repeat that,
05:30if he were to play on the qualifying offer,
05:32he essentially gets a no-trade clause with it?
05:35Well, it's called it.
05:36It's not the Bradley Beal LeBron James no-trade clause.
05:40It's a one-year bird restriction,
05:42which he has full control over if he's traded or not.
05:46Okay, and then if he did that,
05:50if he took the $7.9 million,
05:53where does that leave the Warriors
05:55as far as what else they could do,
05:57how much they could spend?
05:58Oh, sure.
05:59Yeah, I mean, if he took that number,
06:00then they would probably have the whole $14.1 million,
06:04or most of it non-tax, mid-level exception.
06:07And when you have that mid-level exception,
06:10can you use that for two different players,
06:12or is that just a one-shot thing?
06:13Oh, no.
06:14Yeah, you can split it if you want.
06:16You can split it up into three guys, two guys.
06:19You can, yeah, definitely.
06:21And would that be Al Horford and somebody?
06:23Where do you think the Al Horford number is going to land?
06:26Anywhere from 5-7, I don't know.
06:31I don't know, 5-7, 7 million,
06:33somewhere in that range.
06:34I think the minimum will probably be the tax ML.
06:36And I think if you're trying to see what,
06:40I think before you get Al on board,
06:42if that's the plan for them,
06:44you're trying to figure out where the coming in number is.
06:46And so, Bobby, what if it goes the other way?
06:49What if they did sign Jonathan to a two- or three-year deal?
06:52And I don't know, let's say that number,
06:54as unsatisfying as it might be for him,
06:56what if that number is, you know,
06:59what if that number is $15 million per year,
07:01something like that?
07:02Then what could the Warriors do?
07:05Are they pretty much just that mid-level and that's it?
07:08Yeah, I mean, it's, you know,
07:11probably the 5-7 number is what,
07:13because remember, if you use any more than if you saw it,
07:15you guys saw this last year when you sang to Anthony Miller
07:17and the hard caps yet at the first apron.
07:20So if you're, you know,
07:22you could probably use a little bit more of it,
07:25but it's hard to see you using the whole thing.
07:29Bobby Marks, ESPN.
07:30All right, let's talk Dame Lillard real quick.
07:33Explain how this stretching out of his number
07:37affects what he's going to do next.
07:40What do you think his next contract looks like?
07:43Yeah, I mean, listen,
07:44he's going to get the full $113 million,
07:47but it's going to be over five years.
07:49You know, for his purposes, you know,
07:51it's stretched, you know,
07:52you're not getting it like, you know,
07:54if you're still on the roster.
07:55From a cap perspective, it's five years.
07:57For Lillard, it's, you know,
07:59I think he gets it in two years.
08:03You know, for him, it's like,
08:05okay, I'm already getting my money.
08:06How much do finances come play into it?
08:08Because whatever he earns,
08:11whatever his next team is,
08:12there's a set off that Milwaukee will get some savings.
08:16So if you're Lillard and you want to sign for $10 million somewhere,
08:19you know, it's great for you,
08:21but you're not getting the $10 from Golden State, for example,
08:25and the $22 million that's owed to him this year.
08:28So there's, that number gets reduced.
08:31So I think if you're Dame, you're thinking,
08:33okay, why would I want to give money back to Milwaukee here
08:35where I'm already earning that amount?
08:37So we'll see what happens with him.
08:39I don't, listen, that's, it's a brutal injury for him.
08:42I don't see him being back.
08:43If anything, I mean, maybe the earliest in March, I would say.
08:47So I think anything that's willing to, is going to sign him
08:50or if he wants to commit there, it's, it's for the long game.
08:53Yeah.
08:54It's just interesting to see where that might go.
08:56I know Bobby, we're getting close to being up against him,
08:58but what do you make of the LeBron James opt-in
09:01and then the conjecture about maybe he making a power play
09:04to do something else?
09:06Well, I would say this.
09:07If LeBron James wanted to play somewhere else,
09:10he would have been better off just opting out of his contract.
09:12And I know it's not my money to talk and it's $53 million,
09:15but he would add his pick to go to any team out there.
09:19So we'll see how it plays out.
09:20And, you know, I think for the Lakers,
09:22you're kind of operating on these two timelines
09:24with LeBron in the last year's contract
09:26and then certainly with the future with Luka building around him.
09:30Bobby, one more on Dame,
09:32just because it sounded like you were sort of insinuating
09:34that he's almost incentivized to not take money
09:38because that would help Milwaukee.
09:41In other words, like in theory,
09:42could a team like the Warriors sign him
09:46to a veteran minimum contract?
09:49Yeah.
09:49I mean, the offset is only about $900,000.
09:52So it's, you know, the more you make,
09:55the more that comes off with Milwaukee.
09:58Okay.
09:59All right.
09:59We heard some voices in the background.
10:01We didn't just have news break or something, did we?
10:05Oh, Bobby.
10:09Oh, that's a phone thing.
10:11Thank you so much for joining us.
10:12All right.
10:12All right.
10:12Let's let Bobby go.
10:14Yeah, yeah.
10:14Thank you, Bobby.
10:15Appreciate it so much.
10:16Appreciate it, Bobby.
10:16Bobby, yeah.
10:16Bobby Marks of ESPN.
10:17We made it.