When Zaza Pachulia recently revealed that he was the only person at the Warriors’ coaches retreat [video clip below the paywall 👇] who believed the Spurs would become contenders, my first reaction was probably the same as yours: How could he be the only one?

But the more I thought about it, the less surprising it became because seeing change coming is one thing, acting on it is something entirely different.

The last two games I watched told the same story. One was the Spurs losing Game 2 of the NBA Finals to the Knicks. The other was the Valkyries falling to the Aces — different leagues, different levels of experience, different expectations, but same lesson: development does not happen on demand.

Watching Victor Wembanyama against New York, I found myself thinking about how easy it is for fans to assume greatness arrives all at once. Wembanyama finished with numbers that many players would celebrate, but the game itself told a different story.

Karl-Anthony Towns repeatedly imposed himself physically on the Spurs. He attacked the paint. He absorbed contact. He established territory.

Meanwhile, Wemby often settled. He drifted to jump shots. He deferred possessions. He threw away opportunities to impose himself physically against a Knicks team that was daring him to do exactly that.

That doesn’t mean Wembanyama isn’t great. It means he’s 22.

People forget that Michael Jordan had to learn how to beat the Pistons. The talent was already there. The athleticism was already there. The skill was already there. The maturity wasn’t.

The understanding of when to use finesse and when to use force took years to develop.

That’s not criticism. That’s the process.

The same thing is happening with the Valkyries. A couple of losses to the veteran Aces have suddenly shifted the conversation. Now everybody wants a roster move, or play Justė Jocytė more, or install more actions, or run more weakside cuts, or create a bigger playbook.

Those ideas sound reasonable until you remember one thing: The Valkyries are an expansion team. What Natalie Nakase and her staff have accomplished already is establishing an identity.

That identity is not perfect, but it exists. The Valkyries defend. They compete. They generate threes and can force them, yes, but they also trust Veronica Burton and Gabby Williams to create advantages, sometimes out of necessity-bordering-on-desperation. At least there is a foundation.

One of the most interesting sequences of the Aces game came on a Jackie Young three. The play itself was beautiful, A’ja Wilson operating as a hub, split cut by Chelsea Gray, turn around and stick her derriere out for a second split cut by Young, all with the real threat of Wilson popping the middy up top. [NOTE: see clip beneath the paywall 👇]

Perfect timing, perfect spacing, open shot as Young curled around wven more action off-ball after the cut.

Fans watch that and immediately ask: “Why don’t the Valkyries run that?”

Because it took years to build. The Aces didn’t wake up one morning and install an elite offensive system, they developed it, they practiced it, they refined it, they learned it through mistakes. Then they repeated it thousands of times.

Basketball fans often treat systems like downloadable software, as if coaches can simply install version 2.0 overnight. Real life doesn’t work that way. Every new wrinkle requires practice time. Every new action requires repetition. Every adjustment requires players learning exactly where they’re supposed to be. And practice time is one of the rarest resources in professional basketball.

This is where I think Warriors fans can relate. Last season, the Warriors opened against Denver and looked fine. Then came a series of younger, faster teams: Portland, Indiana, Milwaukee, Orlando. Suddenly the cracks appeared.

The reaction from fans was immediate. Change this, trade that, bench him, start him, play younger, play faster. But organizations aren’t speedboats. They’re cargo ships.

They spend an entire training camp building an identity. They spend months reinforcing it. Changing direction takes time.

That’s why I found it fascinating when Pachulia recently revealed that he was the lone voice at the Warriors’ coaching retreat warning about San Antonio’s rise. The Spurs didn’t become dangerous overnight. Some people simply recognized the trend before others did.

The hardest skill in sports is patience. Fans want immediate answers because immediate answers feel satisfying, but basketball keeps teaching the same lesson, whether it’s Wemby learning how to dominate physically, Nakase building an expansion franchise, or the Warriors trying to adapt to a younger, faster league.

When I first covered the Dubs full-time over at the Oakland facility, Mark Jackson would almost always give as the answer to a tough, perhaps critical question: “It’s just part of the process.”

Yes, we beat reporters got tired of that and nary a writer put those six words in their articles, but you know what? Despite the stubbornness borne out of a long 17-year career that included epic playoff runs with the Knicks and Pacers, he was right.

And that helped reinforce why I kept showing up every afternoon, popping out of the 12th Street BART station and heading up to the fifth floor for Warriors practice.

You gotta fall in love with the process.

That is what they mean when they say for the love of the game.

[Under the paywall: two clips of Zaza, including announcing on-air with ABC7’s Larry Beil and Adonal Foyle that his sons received D-1 scholarships that day. 👇]

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A little online research will reveal to you that Dwyane Wade’s contract with Li-Ning is believed to be $10 million per year for ten years, plus an equity stake. That puts one Wardell Stephen Curry II at four times that value with his new Li-Ning deal at $400 million (per Shams Charania of ESPN).

Also, shame on you if you believed that $1.9 billion fake tweet garbage! 😂

I think we can assume there is similarly an equity stake from Li-Ning for Curry, as well, although to my knowledge there has not yet been a report to confirm or deny that. He certainly had one with Under Armour, as its poor performance on Wall Street recently ultimately led to Steph severing the partnership with UA.

I’ve been told by sneakerhead sources in China — similar, but not the same as the one who broke the news to me years ago that Curry would have his own brand — that Li-Ning, ANTA and Nike all had submitted offers to Steph.

Li-Ning came back around one more time and increased theirs. It was still not as much as Anta and Nike’s, as Charania confirmed Curry “passed on more money from another company” in this podcast segment with Tracy McGrady:

Li-Ning is well-respected by diehard basketball performance aficionados for its innovative design and feel. I’ve been told that, other than the Kai series led by Kyrie Irving, ANTA’s basketball products “can’t compare” to Li-Ning at this point.

My own experience with the Klay Thompson’s signature “KT” line would also seem to confirm that, as I always found those shoes to be bulky to walk around in, let alone play basketball, albeit very original in its design and actually rather unique and eye-pleasing, overall.

But… clunky, indeed. Thompson was never really of the ankle-breaker archetype of basketball player, though. You can get away with wearing stiff shoes if you are just going from Point A to B, where B = catch-and-shoot.

Still, when news broke that Steph had signed a massive new deal with Li-Ning, my first reaction wasn’t surprise that he chose a Chinese brand.

My surprise was that he chose Li-Ning instead of Anta, whose market capitalization, global revenue, brand reputation as a result of recent acquisitions of Puma and Wilson, and sheer number of retail stores across China actually dwarf that of Li-Ning.

But it “was not about the money,” my source said.

If you’ve followed the basketball shoe industry at all, you know that Anta is a giant. Their footprint is enormous and they already have an impressive roster of NBA athletes, including quite famously former Splash Brother Klay. On paper, Anta looked like a natural landing spot for Curry.

But the more I thought about it, the more Li-Ning made sense. For one thing, Steph has rarely been attracted to the safest path. Throughout his career, he’s consistently aligned himself with growth opportunities rather than established hierarchies.

That’s essentially what happened when he left Nike for Under Armour over a decade ago. He wasn’t interested in being another athlete in someone else’s ecosystem. He wanted to help build something.

Just listen to him in this recent Instagram Reel — from the GOAT Movie premiere in LA — talking about his underdog experience at Davidson:

Li-Ning feels similar. While Anta is the larger company, Li-Ning still has room to grow globally, particularly in the United States.

In fact, here’s what Ernie Plascencia tweeted after Curry’s announcement — Ernie happens to be the right-hand man of Jimmy Butler, who also has a signature line at Li-Ning:

The company already has a strong reputation among serious basketball shoe enthusiasts. Many sneaker reviewers consider Li-Ning’s Way Of Wade line to be among the best in the world.

In other words, Steph isn’t joining an unproven brand. He’s joining a respected brand that still has another level it can reach.

There’s also the athlete roster to consider. Anta already has Irving as its flagship guard. Kyrie is one of the most influential basketball shoe athletes on the planet and his signature line has become a centerpiece of Anta’s basketball strategy. From a branding perspective, it may not have made sense for Steph to share that spotlight.

Li-Ning, on the other hand, offers Curry a clearer lane. Maybe that’s the simplest explanation of all. Sometimes the best partnerships happen when both sides are at exactly the right point in their growth.

Steph is one of the most recognizable athletes in the world, while Li-Ning appears eager to expand its global presence and strengthen its position in the United States. That combination feels less like a traditional endorsement deal and more like a strategic partnership.

As we’ve seen throughout Curry’s career, he has a habit of finding opportunities where others see risk. This one may end up being another example.

🫶💙💛

The Knicks beat the Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, but the biggest thing I came away with wasn’t Victor Wembanyama settling for too many jumpers. It wasn’t Dylan Harper’s impressive rookie moments. It wasn’t even Karl-Anthony Towns bullying his way to a huge night against San Antonio’s front line.

All of those are valid strategic observations for people that care about the outcome.

It would be nice if Latrell Sprewell — a former Dub who got his All-NBA status while wearing the blue and gold, but now can be seen courtside at Madison Square Garden sitting next to other former Knickerbockers — finally gets his revenge on the Spurs.

But as a rather non-invested Warriors fan, this identity-stamping win by the Knicks reminds me of a different, distant solar system.

For New York, it was the simplicity. Over and over again, Mike Brown’s offense boiled down to a very straightforward question: Who do we want Jalen Brunson attacking?

Once they identified the matchup, the Knicks used screens, re-screens, slips and spacing to get Brunson onto that defender. A lot of the time, it was getting Stephon Castle off of Brunson by hunting Julian Champagnie.

Then they just let Brunson play. That’s it. No twenty-second symphony. No five actions chained together. No organized chaos. Just a superstar getting to the spot he wants against the defender he wants. And it worked.

Of course, there’s also the Knicks’ culture of just playing their hearts out, epitomized by — no pun intended — Josh Hart.

Here’s an hour-long video of Brown at the annual University of San Diego Coaches’ Clinic that I attended last August. His topic was Culture and Leadership:

Watching the Knicks last night made me think about the Warriors. Golden State’s offense has always been different. It begins with one Wardell Stephen Curry II’s gravity.

The goal isn’t necessarily to get Steph the shot. The goal is to force five defenders into impossible decisions and then punish whichever one they get wrong. When it’s working, I still think it’s the most beautiful offense in basketball.

On top of that, to close out games, the Curry-Draymond Green two-man game remains one of the greatest shared brains in the history of the NBA.

The funny thing is that Towns may have been the key to the meat of the game. KAT set the tone physically. He attacked the rim. He forced contact.

As for San Antonio, Wembanyama too often settled. For him, there were way too many jumpers, too many possessions floating around the perimeter and too few trips where he simply imposed himself in the paint.

The scary part for the rest of the league? Wemby’s already this good. That part of his game is still sitting there, waiting to be unlocked.

It might even be deliberate, to a degree. I’ll be in the minority on this, but I really can’t blame Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson too much for their Game 1 loss. You can mess up the process and leak confidence if you command that lithe, talented big to go in the paint and embrace contact with the much heavier KAT.

Mastering the physicality of the NBA is gradual. It’s maturation towards blending of a brute force style with the finesse you brought to the table.

In a way, Quinten Post is going through the same thing, albeit with other nuances and at a far smaller scale with a much lower ceiling.

Some guys have the opposite process of that, such as Jalen Duren. He would benefit from a game that includes more finesse.

Michael Jordan comes to mind as a superstar who evolved his game to include more physicality.

Friendly reminder: Steph has also evolved his game to include absorption of a lot of physicality.

Game 1 belonged to the Knicks, but for me the lesson wasn’t about New York or San Antonio. It was a reminder that there are many ways to build great offense.

Some teams weaponize simplicity. The Warriors weaponize chaos from the gravity of Steph.

And I’ll take this moment to plug my roster strategy of obtaining Kawhi Leonard, LeBron James, and not one but two Top-20 picks to surround Curry as the ultimate doable off-season, with the strongest preference for the latter of those three moves:

Every time I see Brunson close the game for NYK on the offensive side of the ball, I reminisce that Curry is one-of-one and I am here to remind you why we love our team and to never give up on the dream of just one more chip.

🫶💙💛

Below the paywall is the long overdue full transcript of Kirk Lacob’s recent guest appearance on the Warriors Plus-Minus podcast with Tim Kawakami of the SF Standard and Marcus Thompson of The Athletic. The conversation lasted over an hour.

I had seven bullet points listed out for the whole pod covering various topics, but after re-checking all the stuff I actually transcribed and edited for clarity, context and NBA-correctness, I realized there was a massive amount spanning all those topics I wanted to highlight.

Therefore, I’ll have to split up all those subject matters into separate posts, even though the behemoth transcription is technically in this post (beneath the paywall).

Knowing there was potentially a mountain of information to share with you is mainly the reason why it’s taken me so long to at least post this subset from the Lacob pod.

I’ve also been super-busy with creating off-season videos talking about various roster moves the Warriors can make [playlist] — which involve a lot of spreadsheet work — as well as hosting Valkyries and NBA Playoffs watch parties.

It’d be great to see you on tonight’s Finals Game 1 live chat:

Fyi, every watch party, I take timestamped notes and then, after the live is done, I re-edit the Description into a quasi-recap, just in case you missed the game.

Anyways, the main topic I want to start with is when the conversation with Kirk veered into roster-building around a superstar and how hard that is, which then morphed into a quick rant about the “garbage” of NBA rumors out there.

But Kirk is right. In fact, just since my last post nearly two weeks ago, there have been a few “garbage” rumors:

1. Anfernee Simons or Collin Sexton are Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception targets for the Warriors. I debunked this rumor because the only way to get below the luxury tax line is either to (a) renounce Kristaps Porzingis, which isn’t a fiscally responsible way to manage your salary slots, particularly when you are not a small-market team and you have a cash cow in Chase Center, which according to Sportico makes you the highest-valued NBA franchise on the planet, (b) or trade out Jimmy Butler or Draymond Green — the latter of which we can probably rule out with the return of Steve Kerr and the former of which would still leave you a couple million of the full $15 million mid-level short, that you would need to compete for names like Simons and Sexton. I should add that this is not a shot at Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, who wrote that sources told him Simons and Sexton are targets for Golden State. There is nothing wrong with reporting what league sources told him at the NBA Draft Combine. In fact, that is his job: get sources and report what they tell you. It’s the resulting virality that turns a report into aggregated memes instantly accepted as fact, that is unfortunate, that’s all. It is social media content consumption without deeper context and the failure to put a weight on whether something is speculation versus information. This is all explained in this video:

2. Second garbage viral tweet: That amount that one Wardell Stephen Curry II signed with Li-Ning for was $1.9 billion. How many of you fell for that dollar figure? Lol. Good on Shams Charania of ESPN for finding out the real number was $400 million. But I’ve already seen one guy on Instagram, who makes Reels about finance, where he actually believed that the $1.9 billion figure could be true. I mean, look it up: the market capitalization of Li-Ning is “only” $6 billion. As such, Mr. Li Ning himself might not even be worth that $1.9 billion number, depending on how Chinese companies are typically structured before they go public. That being said, with Anta sitting at a market cap of nearly $30 billion — five times the size of Li-Ning — we will explore why Steph chose Li-Ning and not Anta, in a forthcoming post.

3. The third one is not a shot at Kawakami, but more so another indication of the failure of social media when it comes to speculation versus information. Kawakami wrote in a thought piece that he believed James to be a “live target” of the Warriors at, just like with Simons or Sexton, the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception. And just like with Simons or Sexton, I can tell you that the math results in our usage of that exception to be only at a maximum $13 million, even if we do go through with a potentially realistic salary-reduction move of trading two picks and Jimmy plus Brandin Podziemski to the LA Clippers for Kawhi Leonard. That puts the Warriors behind the eight-ball if there are other teams out there that can outbid LeBron at the full NTMLE of $15 million. However, given all this nitpicking, I do agree with Kawakami that LeBron is a “live target” — again, my problem is that people on social media take things to another level. It’s nuanced and hard to put in words. After all, I have already advocated signing-and-trading Porzingis for James, in multiple video essays that show you the math of the GSW cap sheets:

4. The Jaylen Brown three-team trade rumor: I’ve actually met NBA beat writer Sean Deveney of Heavy.com — back then at Oracle, he was with The Sporting News — and he’s a great guy and solid reporter. He wrote that the Warriors are in play should a three-team trade involve Giannis Antetokuonmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks and the Boston Celtics, who would need a salary slot like Brown’s to consummate the deal and probably are not trading the other salary slot that would work, Jayson Tatum. But Deveney did not write any further than that. There is no proposed trade, no trade machine scenario, zero additional reporting from sources. And that’s fine. He’s doing his job, which is to take what he knows about the NBA and write it into a story. And there’s no doubt that Joe Lacob would instruct Mike Dunleavy, Jr. to call in to both teams should the Celtics indeed go for Giannis, among GM circles. While there haven't been actual trade scenarios discussed, most people believe that the Bucks would not want to deal with Brown’s huge forthcoming extension and therefore Golden State could enter the picture as a landing spot, with those future draft picks in play. The Deveney article blurb is merely just one sentence of a surface-level speculation and written innocuously. But you know how aggregators are. They’ll find any little morsel, blow it up like a news report, and tag the author of the article as if it give it the stamp of approval that it is an actual trade, that actual NBA general managers are considering in this very moment. As of this writing, there is no credible information that the Celtics are considering moving Brown. People are just connecting gossip-y dots of words Jaylen chose on a recent Twitch livestream — please go look it up and ask AI, you can confirm this yourself. Aggregators love to aggregate morsels of speculation and trick you into believing it as news. I would not even be surprised if the kids that run these aggregator accounts are not even aware that that is what is happening. They just do it, they have been doing it since their first tweet, and people on Twitter love consuming it, so there is an addiction to the process where everybody can’t even remember how it all started.

Per Kirk Lacob:

There is an unbelievable amount of noise in the NBA media sphere right now. There always has been and I get why there is. I don’t have a problem with it, but, man, is there a lot of garbage out there these days and I feel bad for the people who, like, their names are involved in it, whether you’re the GM or the player involved and I get why people like this stuff too. But, like, there is a lot of garbage out there and I’m like kinda shocked at how easily people believe this and how easily people spread it these days. And it’s not like an attack on, like, you bringing it up or anything like that.

…I’m just like kind of amazed. Like, there are a lot of insiders out there who don’t know anybody and they just spread rumors. And there’s, I guess, nothing inherently wrong with that. It just doesn’t feel right. But, look, I get stuff all the time. People send me stuff all the time, whether it’s, frankly, friends of mine or text messages or Instagram or Twitter, whatever. I get stuff all the time where people are like, “So-and-so said this. How can you guys not be looking? You’re an idiot.” But I’m just, like, where are people getting this information? And I get that this is big business and people love it, but there is just so much out there that is so false and there’s a lot — there are some people who are really bad about it. They will spread anything you might call it, like clickbait. It’s gotten really bad. I don’t think it really affects our business in a major way and, again, I don’t care that much. I’m just surprised by it, how easily people fall for this stuff sometimes.

There’s even a joke about his dad further in the convo, see more of this transcript below.

Again, like Lacob says, it’s not the original report that I am calling garbage. It is the resultant culture of creating a meme with an eye-pleasing jersey swap or large headline with the player in question against a dark backdrop, that catches your attention. It’s preying on the social media addiction. It happens.

I want to repeat: we need guys like Siegel and Kawakami and Deveney. Aggregators hungry for clicks? No. Then again, I do use aggregators for, well, aggregation of news plus as notifiers of breaking news and perhaps obscure topics from podcasts that you would otherwise not have the time of day to keep track of.

So, okay, aggregators, you can stay. But I’ll keep warning the average fan of how often you step out of bounds.

In fact, this is why I created our LetsGoWarriors Discord server (a good portion of which is free), to lower the entropy that aggregators create and to organize the mess they cause, turn all that into source-based news and information with searchable excerpts that point to exactly which reporters said what.

But as far as trade rumors, if you just sit down with some spreadsheets and actually try to do some math and balance some books of respective teams to ensure they are below the luxury tax line, the first apron, and the second apron, depending on their circumstances, you can easily tell how realistic it is for Player X to land with Team Y.

Here are the relevant excerpts from Kirk, Tim and Marcus. The entire 1-hour transcript (well, most of it) is under the paywall 👇

Unfortunately, I did not keep track of speakers, but generally speaking you can tell when it’s Lacob talking:

22:17 You’re in with this roster, right? I mean, obviously, the financial constraints are what they are, but as you look at this, I’m in Oklahoma City for Game 1 of Spurs-Thunder and these look like the two powers, right? Of the West. And there’s a very clear, like, contrasting style of play to how the Warriors have played. Do you still feel like, obviously with some amendments and some tweaks, that the way Steph and Draymond and Steve has built it is viable against that, maybe even a great counter to it? Or do you kind of got to get more the five-out athletes everywhere, everybody shoots, the skinny big guy, all that?

22:39 I think there’s a lot of different ways to win basketball. That’s always been my philosophy. I think you build your team around your best player. Like, that’s — your best player is usually really unique. The best players in the world and the league are unique and you need to build a style around them. I think we’ve seen a copycat sort of situation in the NBA for as long as I can remember. You see a team win and you say, “We need to, we need to — That’s what’s next.” And that was us for a while, right?

22:53 This is them copying you, right?

22:54 Right. I mean, but I remember talking to teams. We need to find the next Steph Curry, Draymond Green. We need to be able to play small ball five and speed this, and we need these sort of wings, two-way wings. And then they tried to do it, but you realize there’s something missing. You can’t beat someone at something they created and they’re best at. So you can’t recreate Steve. You can’t recreate Steph. You can’t recreate Andre Iguodala. You can’t recreate all these guys, Draymond, Klay. And so, actually, I always respected what Houston did. And they were like, “We’re just gonna do the exact opposite. We’re gonna build the best possible version of the exact opposite. Everyone else is trying to do what you do and not as well as you do. We’re gonna try something completely different.” And it almost worked. They almost beat us. They didn’t. They didn’t, right? And that’s all you have to remember. And at the end of the day, that’s all that matters, but they came really, really close. They came closer than anybody else, closer than anybody else and I always gave them credit for trying to do it their own way. And I actually think that’s the only way you can really truly be something that is unique, is by building your own unique thing. So do we wanna try to build what Oklahoma City or San Antonio are building? No, because they’ve got singular talents that we’re not gonna be able to replicate, so we gotta find what works best for us. You can’t — you just can’t chase what other people are doing. Now, there are some attributes that I do think, ultimately, are the best and the things that win, I think, we all see them. At the end of the day, it’s competitiveness and it’s IQ, ability to process, like, those two things at the highest level play a lot, but then there’s different things, whether it’s the athleticism, the size and length or the shooting, or maybe it’s on-ball creation, whatever it is, but I love what Oklahoma City’s done. They created their own style of play that a lot of people didn’t necessarily see coming. They have a lot of really powerful, fit defensive players who are really getting you, and then they run their offense, not that dissimilar to we. I mean, they run it through a singular talent and they create an offensive system around the talent. They’ve got some great pieces that really complement that. San Antonio’s doing the same thing. I mean, would you tell me they’d play this exact style if they didn’t have a guy who was singularly talented? Probably not. I actually really love —

24:05 Luke Kornet.

24:05 Luke Kornet, exactly. Yeah, but I really love the way they built that team. And look, I went to college with Mitch Johnson, their head coach, who I’ve always respected immensely and I think is a really great leader. He’s also a really smart basketball mind. He was a kind of genius point guard. He just — he’s got a coach’s voice, too, though. He just sounds like a coach. He does. He has an — Mitch has an incredible voice. Like, he really does. I’ve thought that since the first moment. He has an ability to project and the way he says things just really affects you. He’s built to be a head coach, but he’s got a great basketball feel, too, as a point guard. He knew exactly — I might wanna run a pick-and-roll differently depending on if it’s Brook or Robin Lopez, based on who I want to touch the ball and where I wanna touch them. These were my teammates back in the day and so, like, he just has a great feel for that. I think he has an awesome staff, too, so both those teams, two teams, they really figured it out, especially Oklahoma City. They won a championship last year, right? So they definitely figured it out. Teams in the East, too, are doing a great job of figuring out exactly who they are and playing their own distinct, unique style of basketball. We’ve always had our own version. I think Steve has said there’s some things that we need to tweak and maybe it’s not because the NBA’s changed, but because, at the end of the day, our personnel’s changed. We don’t have the guys who can do exactly what we were doing before and, I said this before, we can’t try to recreate that stuff. There is no Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston, Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes. We don’t have those guys. Here, we might have players who are somewhat similar. We might be able to find someone similar, but it’s a different team now, so we have to find a different sort of player that’s really effective. And we can stick to our guns in terms of philosophy that Steve has and all that, but there are some tweaks that we have to make, based on who’s here or who could be here. So that’s probably the biggest difference. You’re asking, how do we get back on top of the mountain? We gotta really find a direction that we believe in and go full bore on that and build a team in that way and coach the team in that way and, I mean, this whole discussion started about Steve. Like, Steve is super-energized about that. He really has taken on some new ideas the last couple years and he really wants to do some things differently this upcoming year. Don’t lose the soul of what makes him Steve and what makes this team the Warriors, but tweak some things, so that we can take advantage of where we’re at today.

25:22 That’s such a good question, good answer that I feel stupid asking my little question here. But we have Brandin Podziemski, controversial figure in the Warriors fandom universe.

25:28 Not asking specifically about that, but there’s a recent report that Daryl Morey when he was a Sixers GM tried to trade for him. Is that accurate? And are — Is there just... Can you just tell us, is there more interest around the league in Brandin Podziemski as a player. Then, some of this negative stuff from the fan base, would you like to tell them a little bit about his value?

25:38 I don’t know if I wanna specifically talk about player values, but I can —

25:41 When you’re negotiating a contract, maybe?

25:42 Yeah. I mean, look, I’ll answer this a couple ways. One, Brandin is a really good basketball player. Anybody can try to tell me, they can try to argue with me that he’s not what he is. Objectively, he’s a really, really good basketball player. Happy to get in an argument about that. He is really, really good at a lot of things that we really value, too. He’s also a young player and he’s still learning bits and pieces about his game and where he can go to and about himself as a person. He’s learning all about that stuff and I think he gets a good amount of feedback about it. I know he hears things. I know he asks questions to people. He really wants to be a really good player. He wants to be a great player. He really works and he’s about the right things. I can tell you that there’s a lot of people around the NBA who feel the same way. He’s a player, for sure, that we’re talking to contemporaries across league. They’ll be like, “Man, I really like what Brandin does for you guys. He’s a really good player.” He’s an incredibly hard worker. Those are the sorts of people you wanna bet on, somebody who has great confidence and really wants to get better. I mean, he’s in here every single day, already, just as he has been the last few years. He listens to feedback. I think he’s got a long way to go still. I think he’s got a nice amount of a ceiling left in him, so I mean, look, again, this is a guy who loves to compete, so Brandin, big fan. Your part about the report, that — did Daryl actually say that or did someone write that?

26:29 Someone reported that. There were several players he wanted to try to acquire at the — or put offers out or had discussions and Brandin Podziemski at the trade deadline and Brandin was one.

26:35 Okay, so I’m a little worried I’m gonna go slightly off topic here, but there is an unbelievable amount of noise in the NBA media sphere right now. There always has been and I get why there is. I don’t have a problem with it, but, man, is there a lot of garbage out there these days and I feel bad for the people who, like, their names are involved in it, whether you’re the GM or the player involved and I get why people like this stuff too. But, like, there is a lot of garbage out there and I’m like kinda shocked at how easily people believe this and how easily people spread it these days. And it’s not like an attack on, like, you bringing it up or anything like that.

26:56 No, it’s okay.

26:56 No, I’m really — and you actually —

26:57 Wait, Tim’s a super-spreader, what do you mean?

26:59 Tim, yeah, he loves to get aggregated, is what I heard. He says things specifically to get aggregated. No, I’m just like kind of amazed. Like, there are a lot of insiders out there who don’t know anybody and they just spread rumors. And there’s, I guess, nothing inherently wrong with that. It just doesn’t feel right. But, look, I get stuff all the time. People send me stuff all the time, whether it’s, frankly, friends of mine or text messages or Instagram or Twitter, whatever. I get stuff all the time where people are like, “So-and-so said this. How can you guys not be looking? You’re an idiot.” But I’m just, like, where are people getting this information? And I get that this is big business and people love it, but there is just so much out there that is so false and there’s a lot — there are some people who are really bad about it. They will spread anything you might call it, like clickbait. It’s gotten really bad. I don’t think it really affects our business in a major way and, again, I don’t care that much. I’m just surprised by it, how easily people fall for this stuff sometimes.

27:34 They fall for the stupidest stuff. That’s what, like, that’s what I get.

27:35 Yeah.

27:35 And the stupidest stuff is the one that seems to get spread the fastest, maybe because it’s lurid. But, like, could you guys look at that person, what that person has spread in the last 10 times? It’s all been wrong and this one time, don’t spread it yourself? That’s what —

27:43 Yeah, that’s the other one, is people love to say a bunch of things and then when they get one right, they repost, repost, repost, and then everything else disappears. Yeah, there’s just a lot of information — I mean, I see it all the time. I mean, not to defend my dad at all, but there’s a lot of stuff out there about him.

27:51 You don’t wanna defend your dad? That’s crazy.

27:52 No, I don’t, really. It’s not my job to do it. And he doesn’t — honestly, he’s great about — he knows what his role is and he takes responsibility for everything, so he’s he’s happy to take lumps for the organization. He knows that that’s what happens when you’re there, but there are people who always claim to know what he’s thinking or what he said and I’m incredibly close to the situation. Sometimes I’m like, “That is not remotely what happened.” And then it becomes gospel, so that’s just one example, but I’ve seen this with Mike and with Bob and even with Steve, is people will just put words in their mouth or say what they’re thinking because maybe they overheard part of a conversation or somebody says, “I knew this guy.” And it’s just kind of unbelievable to me how far some of this stuff goes, which was really all an answer to your question about, was player X —

28:18 It wasn’t a trick question. It wasn’t a trick question.

28:20 Yeah, was player X like — I mean, could that team have called us and said, “We have interest in your guy”? Yeah, that might have happened, but that doesn’t mean — that happens all the time in the NBA, by the way. You see somebody and your whole purpose is to go up to them and be like, “Hey, these are the players we like on your team. Who do you like on our team?” Those conversations happen constantly and for it to be like player X was in a trade offer for this, that’s really kind of, I don’t know, that’s taken a little far.

[gargantuan transcript below the paywall 👇 with more excerpts coming soon on this website…]

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Victor Wembanyama is an 👽. We all know that. Game 1 the other night truly showed this, even giving us an eerily similar dagger:

[NOTE: This was posted on our Discord server the night-of, join here for free: https://whop.com/letsgowarriors]

People all around DubNation are thinking that the Warriors need to get their own Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper, although we do have our own 👽 obviously in one Wardell Stephen Curry.

The problem is, notwithstanding the $70 million of “dead cap” for half a year in Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody being shelved due to major injuries, the Spurs acquired not only Wemby, but also Castle and then Harper, in successive Drafts as Top Five picks.

Btw, this “dead cap for half a year” thing is my over-exaggerated analogy, as I’m not literally saying Jimmy and Moses can’t be moved — read on and you’ll see, at least for the former. For Moody, let me get this out of the way: any GM trading for somebody rehabbing from a patellar tendon tear will have to explain himself to local reporters.

And getting an all-time gravity guy, then two more Top Five Draft picks in successive Drafts will no longer be possible for the Warriors or any team, at least in one iteration of Adam Silver’s proposed anti-tanking rules.

Besides, as Kirk Lacob said on the Warriors Plus-Minus podcast with Tim Kawakami and Marcus Thompson, you have to build around what you have.

I’m not entirely sure that a ball-dominant downhill guy is the best fit for either Steve Kerr or Curry, even though there are a lot of those types in this Draft and one will almost certainly be available at 11, whether it’s Labaron Philon or Brayden Burries, let’s say.

I am actually watching Spurs-OKC Game 2 as I write this, and Castle just committed four turnovers in between commercial breaks. That would be inexcusable in the 2026-27 version of Kerr’s system, despite the poster dunk.

Btw, check out our Draft Primer with Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net:

A newer Draft Primer 2.0 is just around the corner. The first one above merely establishes the fundamentals: the Top 4 are a lock and the Top 7 are also a lock.

In fact, Lacob on the podcast reinforced my belief that the best way to improve the roster for 2026-27 is, indeed, through established vets. I don’t see another path, especially the one where you are stocking up with young Draft picks.

That should throw Warriors Twitter for a loop. If you are not going after a star vet, then you are not spending Draft picks. For the spend-3-picks-on-Trey-Murphy crowd, they cannot have it both ways and suddenly not want to spend picks to improve.

For the “you’re wasting Steph” people, you can’t say “save future picks” for that next Castle/Harper.

I prefer to just say, look, the Draft is hard. Trading for stars is also hard, especially when you have old guys taking up large chunks of your cap sheet.

Remember, Sam Presti and the OKC Thunder had to go through three rebuilding seasons stockpiling picks. The Spurs finished 11th, 10th, 15th, 14th and 13th in the Western Conference before breaking through this season. That’s also a lot of picks.

Of course, I would totally understand if Golden State changed course to get young guys — I would admit I was wrong about my analysis and figure out how to get better at this.

But yeah, I don’t see it happening from a cap sheet perspective — again, for the millionth time, understanding the aprons is the singular best way for fans to be better educated on the direction of any NBA franchise.

The aprons suck for owners and general managers, reducing optionality across the board, but in turn that should help the average fan.

Anyways, without a bunch of Draft picks, the best young downhill guy on the market is Ayo Dosunmu, who will be an unrestricted free agent. But with Donte DeVincenzo going down, I would be shocked if Minnesota let Dosunmu walk.

Are there others like him? Well, not really. This particular free agent class is not that great. Some names that might be of remote interest: John Collins, Rui Hachimura, and, well, De’Anthony Melton. Melton might be the best available combo guard who can get downhill off the bounce.

But based on my analysis of the spreadsheets, it’s very hard to get under the luxury tax to enable usage of the Non-Taxpayer Mid-level Exception (NTMLE). Maybe if the Warriors are a second-apron team, they can use the Taxpayer Mid-level Exception at $6.1 million, however, Gozlan told me Melton is probably worth $10 million on the open market.

However, a pursuit of both Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James might just be attractive enough to try and pull off getting under the luxury tax and utilizing the NTMLE.

Incidentally, Giannis Antetokounmpo does not want to play on the West Coast, therefore I assume he will not land in Golden State. That's fine. We move on.

Based on my calculations and discussions with devout Lakers and Clippers friends who are knowledgeable about their own cap sheet situations, the Warriors could trade for Kawhi and give up Jimmy along with, say, the 2027 and 2032 first-round picks. This was actually proposed by Zach Kram, Aaron Snellings and Bobby Marks of ESPN some time ago.

My Clippers friend wanted Brandin Podziemski as well and, quite frankly, his salary slot would have to be jettisoned if the Warriors wanted to get LeBron at a salary at least at the NTMLE. This would be via sign-and-trade for Kristaps Porzingis, which — to my surprise — my diehard Lakers friend said he would do.

Why? Because, in his words, “LeBron is gonna fall off at some point,” so Porzingis is at least an asset that he thinks won’t fall off as soon as LeBron would. No Draft pick needed.

The Lakers will be well under the cap to be hard-capped at the first apron for receiving KP in a sign-and-trade and, for the Warriors, the whole point is to get under the first apron (and the luxury tax line) to enable the NTMLE and attract one more pretty good guy. LeBron via sign-and-trade for Porzingis is the mechanism.

At first, I was thinking that pretty good guy at the NTMLE could be Collins, but now I’m thinking, especially with the sheer amount of downhill guys we are witnessing in the Spurs-OKC series, why not just get Melton all over again?

Incidentally, all the spreadsheet work is here in my video:

In my spreadsheet math, we also require Draymond Green to “take a discount” which means opting out of his $27 million contract and coming up with a new deal that, per my calculations, can pay both LeBron and Dray an equal amount of $20 million, each.

Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron, on his latest podcast detailing potential moves for the LA Lakers, which includes re-signing Marcus Smart, but also going after Lu Dort and Rudy Gobert (😮), ends up with LeBron re-signed at $24 million, per his calculations.

The Warriors can actually also do that, even though my analysis came after Gozlan’s first stab at simply trading for Kawhi and no LeBron, here (in case you want to establish a baseline on even pursuing Kawhi):

With my benchmark of $20 million for both LeBron and Dray, thanks to the good graces of Day-Day, Golden State can simply give James that other $24 million benchmark established by Gozlan, and lower Green to $16 million — which is way below the standard practice of a 25% discount (40-ish%, actually 😬). So, yeah, between Bron and Dray, there would be about $40 million available under the first apron — again, with the salary slot of Podz traded away.

Maybe Dray would be willing to do that big of a discount, if it meant fielding a team with Kawhi and LeBron, his buddy, as well as Melton on it?

As for that 11th pick, for the purposes of my new NTMLE capsheet with Kawhi and LeBron, it doesn’t really matter who it is, but if they do not pick a combo guard, it should raise some eyebrows because the common wisdom would be that they need a downhill guy, especially if there’s a chance Melton could find a solid deal somewhere (Gozlan estimates roughly $10 million).

I do have some insider information on Yaxel Lendeborg which will be discussed later on this Substack, which would justify picking him and not, say, Philon. Obviously Lendeborg is not really a guy to break people down via dribble.

And in this scenario, Kawhi and LeBron’s individual abilities to get downhill make Podziemski expendable, but also, as I said, it is required to unload the Podz salary slot to make everything fit — see the previous video or this updated one:

Of course, getting both Kawhi and LeBron is a long-shot and a lot of dominoes have to fall. But as Kirk told TK and MT, “Once you have a star, it’s easier to get more stars.”

I hope to have that transcript up, next Substack article.

Also, I kind of only want to get Kawhi or LeBron if it’s the both of them. I do not think getting one of the other makes us a better squad than, say, the Clippers or the Lakers, necessarily. Kawhi and Bron would, therefore, just stay on their respective teams.

Quite frankly, though, it is more likely that with all those dominoes needing to fall to get Kawhi and LeBron to jump, that Draymond comes back at the $27 million opt-in price. The deadline for him to opt in is June 29th, so there is some time pressure involved.

Then, it would behoove you to just sign Porzingis at whatever price you can under that second apron, which is $25 million, to maximize his salary slot for optionality. Then, you have those two trade chips (KP and Dray) to get back a $50-ish million guy in February — maybe Kawhi all over again, if he isn’t traded this summer — if you hit another desperation point as the team did back in February 2025 when Butler was acquired.

Even though everyone including Warriors media are saying Draymond will opt-out and re-sign at a discount, or that Porzingis is expendable — perhaps because of Steve Kerr saying that having so many guys taking one end of a back-to-back is untenable, see previous article for transcript(s) — if you do the cap sheet math, I don’t know, there’s just more of a likelihood that both LA teams are not ready to move off Kawhi and LeBron.

And so if you’re “stuck” with keeping KP and Dray, just maximize their slots.

As for LeBron, the cap sheet math would actually point to Cleveland as the most plausible destination because the Cavs’ cap sheet is overloaded past the second apron. But Gary Payton, Sr., a former Laker who presumably knows LBJ pretty well, said on a recent podcast that he just can’t envision Bron playing anywhere but LA or Golden State because of commitments to his family and lifestyle.

So, a lot of moving parts.

What I am trying to do here is simply lay down the gauntlet that the Kawhi-LeBron combo would improve the immediate roster. That is essentially swapping out Jimmy for Kawhi and KP plus Podz for Bron. The extra cost is two picks, 2027 and 2032.

But also that just because the Spurs and OKC have a ton of downhill combo guards does not mean the Warriors have to suddenly build their team that way.

As Kirk said on his podcast with TK and MT, the ultimate goal is always a championship, even though it may take steps to get there spanning multiple seasons. The commitment from Kerr will re-establish the ecosystem that will be less gambling and turnover prone.

But when you are a competitive basketball head, you are a competitive basketball head. The Kawhi-Bron solution or “hope” is just me being as competitive as I can with what is available, as armchair GM.

Next summer, you can pursue the “younger guys” route as the “get started vets” route will have run its course, anyways. Who knows, maybe a lineup with Kawhi and Bron gets us to Game 6 versus the Spurs or OKC. Maybe that’s enough for both to want to all come back at NTMLE levels for 2027-28?

If someone has a better idea to improve the team, let’s hear it.

I’ve said before, and the Clippers Play-in victory is a sign of this, you don’t need a ton surrounding Steph because, in Jimmy’s words, he’s a cheat code.

Granted, if Kawhi and/or LeBron do not end up as Warriors, then that’s fine. Having so many things break your way is not easy and, heck, we would keep two future Draft picks.

The last procedural item is that, in case you didn’t know, many of the Warriors salaries come off the books next summer. You could literally build a new team from scratch. As of right now, only Moody is guaranteed for 2027-28.

The advantage we will have is that Steph and Dray love the Warriors so much, they could come back at fair salaries and enable pursuit of that All-Star that checks off the “gets downhill” box. Donovan Mitchell, anyone?

Even Kawhi’s contract ends next summer, whether or not he ends up on the Warriors and barring an extension with the Clips. With all of these in alignment, it is not a far stretch of the imagination for LeBron to take this home run swing and also agree to a one-year contract.

Maybe I need to do a video, maybe in August or September when there’s no Draft or Summer League to look forward to, and do a deep dive on what kinds of big- or even medium-game hunting GSW can embark on in the Summer 2027.

All this leads me to believe that it makes more sense not to extend Curry or Podz this summer — but if they do, then I will add this experience to my knowledge base so that in future Warriors eras, I’ll have just that: experience with contract extensions.

Imagine that, a Warriors pundit actually admitting he is not an expert and just simply willing to continue learning. 🙋‍♂️

Anyways, I’ve talked about all of the above many times on nearly every livestream that I host, so please come by some time and join the conversation: https://youtube.com/@LetsGoWarriors

Overall, friendly reminder, here at Let’s Go Warriors it’s really just all about understanding why the franchise makes certain decisions and having the breadth of knowledge to see that forest for the trees.

I hope those help people get away from all the negativity on social media apps because I truly think there are adverse affects on mental well-being. Spending all day thumb-typing complaints about Joe, that is going to make you an entitled, judgmental person IRL and that will not be good for the people you have meaningful relationships with.

Instead of making you feel bad about your team, I am here to make you feel better about your team. Mildly hoping to get both Kawhi and LeBron, knowing that transactionally there are viable paths, is merely an avenue to keep loving your Dubs.

If there are ways I can help spread my passion for the game of basketball and also the Dubs through to you and you can use that model to uplift yourself in daily life, that is kind of my purpose now and what even keeps me going.

It’s easier for me to not feel entitled because I always felt it an extreme privilege to be credentialed at Warriors practices and games, especially compared to “normal everyday” gyms where I ran amateur basketball leagues across the Bay.

Whenever a former pro from overseas came to play in my league, you could see the difference not only in skill, but also motor and attitude and leadership. To walk through the doors of GSW and witness this at the highest levels on the planet, to feel the culture of Steph and Steve and Dray, it was easy for me to feel gratitude and never have a feeling of entitlement. Of course, it took some refinement over the years to reach this point, but I am here now and I have never loved the game or the Warriors more.

I wish you guys could have seen Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman in their first days being present in the Oakland practice facility. It is that level of awe and appreciation and I am happy to remind people how to not feel entitled on every live stream that we do.

Thanks for joining me on this ongoing journey and discovery of new things basketball. I would have never guessed that I would enjoy constructing possible Warriors cap sheet.

Remember that basketball is, at the end of the day, modern-day gladiators. So it’s a very competitive environment. Just look at Austin Rivers go at it with Dray in the podcast world.

But there’s also a way to consume NBA content by laying your swords down on the floor before entering the room, and Let’s Go Warriors is that place and I am grateful to those of you who have read this far.

Below is the transcript for the Dunleavy presser. General managers usually are very good at saying nothing that adds to what you already could have guessed, so there’s really no reason to put it behind a paywall, so here it is, below. 👇

Okay, so we are now all caught up on the Kawhi-Bron roster, as well as the “keep KP/Dray opt-in” one that our YouTubers have already known since the beginning of May.

I probably need to analyze how to keep Melton and KP one more time, see if that is even possible, but now that we know the Warriors are picking 11th, we have the potential cap sheets a bit on lock-down.

As is tradition here, I will take the previous transcript out from behind the paywall. In this case, it is Kerr on TK’s podcast in the previous article:

00:00 MIKE DUNLEAVY, BELATED EXIT INTERVIEW: Okay, well, thank you guys, honestly, for your patience over the last couple weeks. I normally get together after the season, but I think this year, with Steve’s situation, it made more sense just to wait, to have resolution and with that, we do. Very excited to have Steve back next year to coach and coach beyond that, hopefully, but yeah, it was a busy couple weeks, a lot of really good conversations and I think ultimately we landed on what we felt was the best for the franchise moving forward. And I think that was the premise of all the discussions that we had and Steve as an active participant in those was, it was a great way to go about it. And so again, really excited to have him back. I know he’ll be up here later to talk to you guys and can talk more about it, but that’s one thing we’ve got under control here this off-season. As far as the season, haven’t touched on that yet. I think overall, obviously pretty underwhelming to win 37 games with the team that we had. I think we’re all disappointed, but injuries played a factor into it, for sure. For me, the disappointment was probably in the sense of we didn’t control the things that we could’ve controlled. Injuries happen, schedule can be difficult, you have some teams on nights that just, they make a bunch of threes and things happen. But there’s small things we can control, starting with turnovers, that we didn’t do and I thought there was some game plan stuff, being able to execute those things, just the little things we didn’t take care of over the course of 82 games and it put us in a tough spot where we’re stuck having to win two games on the road to just to get in the postseason,so we all feel disappointed, but I think moving forward this summer we can get better and that’ll start in June with the Draft. Having the 11th pick and the 54th pick are two ways we can definitely add to the roster, improve, and then we’ll roll into free agency and see what we can do there. But I think a big focus will be on internal improvement and that’s something we discussed with Steve. He’s all over it. He feels very strongly about it and we see some things we can do to be better. And so for that, we’re excited. It will be a little tough to start next year with a couple of our better players not ready for camp, not ready to start the season, but we know that going in and we’re gonna have to find a way to kind of circle the wagons a little bit early and hang in there till those guys can get back. But all in all, really excited to have Steve back. It’s a big thing for our franchise and we’ll go from there. Happy to answer any questions you guys have.

02:40 Yeah, how much of the conversation you’re talking about with Steve were about the roster and what you can get done this summer? And within that, do you think you can make big improvements this summer?

02:53 So, in the grand scheme of things, not a lot about the roster. This just isn’t about the roster, frankly. Like, this year I don’t think we came up short because the talent of the roster. It was injuries and things we could control. Do we need to get better roster-wise? I think so, but we didn’t get to a point where we played a team where their roster is better than ours, so for that reason, we’re more focused on the stuff that we can control. We’ll always look to be better talent-wise, roster-wise, all that, but going back to the question as far as the discussions, weren’t really about that. It was more with the team that we have, how can we be better and what are the things we need to do to build on for long-term success?

03:39 How do you expect things to change in terms of building on the things that you already have with Steve going forward?

03:45 Yeah, I mean, I think you’ll sense it from Steve talking with him, there was a desire to come back and coach. Coaching the Warriors is a great thing, coaching Steph Curry, all those things, but there was another layer of desire to get this thing right. And I think sensing that was something Joe and I felt amazing about and I think it starts with just tighten things up a little bit. We talked about the turnovers with the possession game, all those little things you can control on a nightly basis and I think we’ve started to do a lot of those things, but we just have to take it to a different level. And I think Steve’s — that was, we’re both in agreement on that. That was something he pushed pretty hard and I think we’re capable of it. We can do it and we just gotta focus on it.

04:31 Mike, watching these playoffs, Oklahoma City, San Antonio, very athletic teams. How much of a priority is it to add athleticism to this roster?

04:40 Yeah, I mean, I think the top priority is to take care of the ball, limit turnovers and then after that, we’ll try and get better in every which way. We took the most threes in the league last year, so definitely wanna have as many guys as we can that can make shots. Athleticism helps, for sure. I mean, having two wings like Jimmy and Moses, they’re not gonna be out — I’m sorry — that will be out to start the season, that’s a huge hole in generally your most athletic position, so yeah, I mean, we’ll always look to add athletically, length, size, skill, all those things but yeah, I mean, watching the playoffs, you learn a lot. You see these teams where they’re at, where you need to go, and it’s good to see.

05:20 Mike, you obviously saw what happened to the season after Jimmy went down. Not having Jimmy and not having Moses to start the season, do you have the pieces internally to get those holes or do you think that you need to go outside to improve those specific parts of the roster?

05:33 Yeah, I mean, I think we’ve got some pieces internally, but if you’re looking at our roster in terms of who’s back under contract, we don’t have a lot of guys if, especially if you factor in Moses and Jimmy not being ready to start the season, there’s only a handful of guys under contract. So we’re gonna have to do some stuff, whether it’s retain some of the free agents that we have, bring in some new players, but the general core of guys, though, I think is very solid and we’ll look to add to it.

06:02 How much do you expect — I mean, you mentioned the turnovers a few times. Do you expect, with internal improvement, a different style of play next year, potentially?

06:10 You know what? We can play however we want, just don’t turn the ball over. I don’t — yeah, I really don’t care. I think Steve would probably say the same thing, but it just, if we — I think it’s more of, you’re bottom five in the league in turning the ball over, I don’t think we can get to the top five in the league. That’s a huge jump. I don’t want to over-set expectations, but if we can get the top half of the league turning the ball over on the offensive end, I just — we do so many other good things. We get good shots. I think we’re about the right things. We do a decent job on the offensive glass, but if we can take care of the ball, offensively we’ll be in pretty good shape.

06:44 You mentioned the 11th pick, pretty good chip to have in terms of improving the roster. How do you see you guys exploring using that piece and do you like the optionality you have with that pick?

06:53 Yeah, I mean, it’s a Lottery pick so, and I think in a strong Draft we feel like we can get a good player. So we’ll look at it that way, but we’ll look at everything, if there’s offers for the pick to move up, move back, trade for a veteran player that could help us, I mean, we’ll definitely look at all that stuff. But it’s early in the process right now and just get through, got through with the Combine and so going through that stuff, starting to evaluate the prospects, but we feel pretty good about 11. Had some good success there before.

07:19 Do you expect to go big fish hunting in the trade market? And along those lines, how do you view the futures of both Draymond with his option and Jimmy with the last year of his deal?

07:31 Yeah, I mean, I think as far as trade acquisition stuff, I mean, we’re probably always in the conversation, frankly, because we have the Draft capital to be. So we’ll always look at stuff, whatever we can do to make the team better that makes sense, kind of now and in the future. I mean, as far as those guys, Jimmy and Draymond, Draymond’s got a player option, so the ball’s in his court in terms of returning but, I mean, I think we’ve had the discussions where we want him to finish his career a Warrior. He kind of feels the same way, so I would expect him to be back, but it’s his call on that. And then Jimmy, yeah, his surgery went well, rehab going well. I’m excited to get him back whenever we can, as safely as possible.

08:11 Mike, can you sort of describe your emotions and feelings as this played out with Steve? And because it sounds like he’s been pretty honest about he felt like he was leaving at some point, and the Phoenix press conference, certainly we felt like — it looked like he was leaning that way.

08:25 Yeah, me too.

08:26 What was that like for you?

08:29 I did not talk to Steve about it all year. Didn’t ask him one time what he thought he was gonna do. I thought it was just right to approach the season, get through the season the right way. He’s got a lot on his plate, so didn’t bring it up to him one time, but then when the season ended, took a little break and then we got together and met couple times with Joe. And if I’m being honest, there was plenty of nights I went to bed and I think Steve would say the same thing, where I thought he probably wouldn’t be back as coach, but as things unfolded and we talked more and got through, it became clear as long as he wanted to do it, made a ton of sense for him to be back. And I think he really felt it. He’s excited about it and I think we came to a really good decision.

09:09 Mike, the standard is the standard around here because of what you guys have built for so many years, but do you think because of the uncertainty with the roster and Jimmy and Moses and whatever else you guys decide to do this summer that a championship next year is a realistic expectation still?

09:27 I think it’s similar to last season, going into the year, where it’s, you can evaluate the rosters around the league and say, “Look, that team’s probably not the favorite.” But for us to get through the season and put ourselves in the conversation — and I thought the year before, we somewhat did that by acquiring Jimmy and then we get in the series against Minnesota, stuff goes down, and you have stuff like that, you just, you can’t overcome. This year we just never saw what we could be, between the injuries and just the subpar play, we didn’t do that. I think some of that stuff is correctable. We’re obviously behind the eight ball with no Moses and Jimmy early, so it’s more about starting the season with — we gotta get through a certain point of the year. Like, we need to hold it together here for a little bit, but let’s see where we go when the trade deadline comes around into the Spring. I think the last couple years, we can say we’ve added talent in a good way in February. And who knows where we’ll be come April, March, May, so I think it’s kinda hard to say at the beginning of the season with these guys, not knowing. First of all, I don’t know the team right now and then I know those two guys are gonna be out, so it’s really hard. I think we gotta build this thing in steps next year, but by the end of the year, if you have Steph Curry on your team, Steve Kerr as the coach, Jimmy Butler’s back, like, in a seven-game playoff series, I don’t wanna, like, say we can’t beat anybody.

10:49 With Jimmy and Moses, do you have an at all updated timeline on their recovery as they progress in their rehab?

10:55 No, we don’t. I mean, even now it’s hard to specifically say, like, day, week, month they’ll be back. I know they won’t be ready for training camp, they won’t be ready for the regular season start, but we’ll see how it goes. A lot of it depends on the steps they make over the next weeks and months.

11:10 And then in the Draft, if you are selecting at 11 or otherwise, how much will you value and prioritize a prospect who’s ready to contribute right away versus someone who might take a little bit longer to develop?

11:22 Yeah, I mean, I think there’ll be a temptation to feel, like, let’s try and draft somebody that can step in and play right away. It’s just so hard in the Draft to be able to project that. Even the last year’s draft, the Duke kid from Charlotte, who would’ve thought he’d be able to come in right away and play so well? So I think you get caught up a little bit and you get in some trouble doing. That we’ll just draft who we think’s gonna be the best player for us, for our franchise moving forward. That’s kinda what we’ve always done and particularly the last few years, we’ve been pretty good about it, whether it’s mid-first, second round, whatever. We’re a little bit higher this year, but we’ll take the same approach.

11:57 Mike, it’s a two-year deal with Steve. You mentioned he’s back for this year and hopefully beyond that. Is that — I know nothing is ever for sure — but was it important to you guys to hear from Steve that he would make a two-year commitment even though obviously he could maybe not, but do you have that from him?

12:15 Yeah, I think so. I just wanna leave it open to the fact of, like, he considered it this year and at his age and however many years he’s done it. I mean, it’s his call, but we fully expect him to be here at least two years and perhaps more. I mean, hopefully more, I would say, in the sense of he’s really focused right now and you’ll hear it from him about getting this thing right. And it’s not just a one-year swan song “Last Dance” type thing, like, “Hey, let’s ride off into the sunset.” That is 100% not what this is about. Steve will tell it to you. I’ll say it. Joe would not have been good with that. Nobody wants to do that. We gotta get this thing right and we need a multi-year commitment and Steve unequivocally gave us that.

12:55 And, at all would you term some of this — did you guys have to convince him to come back? Was that any part of this or was it something different than that?

13:05 I think we all had to put our chips on the table and figure out what was right and I think we had to convince one another of what we need to do to get there. And some of that was what it looks like with Steve as a coach and that’s him sharing it and us asking questions. And so it was, it — look, it was a great way to make a decision. I don’t think it can be done in a lot of areas, but because of Steve and what he’s accomplished here and the equity he has in the franchise, we could do it. But it was a very open and honest conversation. Steve made points to why, like, it wouldn’t make sense for him to be back, which were great, and then we made points for why it made sense for him to be back and those conversations happened over the course of a couple weeks, multiple meetings and, again, I think we came to the right spot.

13:51 Mike, was there a moment in those conversations — over here — that you said, there were many times during the conversations you were unsure if he was gonna come back, was there a moment or a conversation, a specific one that you said, “Okay, I think we’re gonna get it done and he’s gonna come back”?

14:06 Yeah, I mean, I think it went both ways because, look, if you can be honest about it, there’s good arguments for him to be back and there’s good arguments for maybe to move on and on his own personal reasons in life, just to move on and do something else. So, saw both sides of it and that’s where we just needed to take the time and get through it and ask the right questions, talk about the right stuff, talk about where we’ve been, where we’re at and where we’re going and, again, figure out what’s right for the franchise.

14:34 Mike have you developed any sense of what’s gonna happen with Porziņģis and Al?

14:42 Yeah, I mean, those are guys that we definitely would love to have back. They had some really good performances for this year with us. They add an element to our team that we haven’t had in the past, Al specifically with his size, his shooting, his leadership. KP is just a unique player on both ends of the court. And so I think for us to have that talent back is something we want. And so those guys, Al’s got an option. I think, frankly, his option is twofold. One, do you wanna keep playing? And two, do you wanna be back with the Warriors? And then KP is unrestricted, so we’ll start having the conversations to try and get him back in the fold, but we like what we’ve seen from him. I think next year could be a more healthy, productive year for him.

15:28 And when you look beyond your — the aging core, meaning Steph, Jimmy, Draymond, what are the sources of optimism about the rest of the roster that you seem to have going into next season?

15:38 Yeah, I mean, I think we’ve got some good young players, whether it’s Brandin, it’s Moses, it’s Gui. We’ve added some guys in the second round and then we have the 11th pick this year and multiple picks in the future, so I think we’re in good shape in that regard. Just, we’ve got good players on good contracts and I think a big part of it’ll be Moses getting back and getting healthy. That was a tough one for us, but overall I think, relatively speaking, we’re in pretty good shape.

16:05 Mike, over here. Brandin is eligible for an extension this summer. Is re-signing him or signing him to an extension a priority for you guys?

16:14 Yeah, I mean, I think it’d be great. We’ve been in through it before with restricted free agents, so we know how it goes. I think it’s one of those situations where you want a player back, it’s gotta work for you and them and hopefully we can come to a contract agreement before the start of next season. And if not, have no doubt that going into the season and play it out and work it out that way.

16:36 Mike, as you said earlier, you don’t want it to have to be a one-year “Last Dance” scenario. And Steve’s also said a few times, they wanna end this thing the right way, I think, is the way he puts it, with Steph and Draymond. Seems like kind of a unique balancing act where you’re kind of honoring, respecting everything Steve and Steph and Draymond have achieved —

16:56 Mm-hmm

16:56 And obviously trying to take those young players and figure out a way, as you said, to get it right. How do you, in your mind, sort of balance the unique spot you’re in?

17:05 Yeah, I mean, I think the good news on that as these guys age is, they’re still playing at a high level, so it’s gonna end — to be clear, it’s gonna end for them, whenever it does in the next few years. It’s not gonna end for us. The Warriors are gonna go on forever and we’ve gotta keep pushing ahead, but for those guys, yeah, I mean, I see where Steve’s talking about from his end, those guys’ end, like, they want it to end in whatever way they do. We want that to happen and they make it easier on us by continuing to play well. And so that’s been fun to watch and we feel good about having those guys back.

17:41 What does ending it the right way mean to you? I mean, short of winning a championship, which I know is obviously the goal, but is difficult, I mean, what does that mean? How do you, would you define ending that era the right way?

17:53 Well, again, those are the guys that are, quote-unquote, “ending,” so I’d leave it to them of how they want it to be. I do know that happy endings are always tough and so, but I’m not — I don’t wanna get carried away with what that looks like. Hopefully a few years from now, you know? Hopefully it’s not the end of this season, but we’re at the stage of the game where it could be at any point. And so I really haven’t given a lot of consideration to that. I think that’s probably more things for them, but for us it’s to keep this thing going.

18:25 You were just at the Combine. You have the 11th pick, as you said. How good do you think that part of the Draft is? And with that pick, do you want them to be able to come in and get a lot of opportunity?

18:38 Yeah, I mean, I think it’s a very strong Draft. It’s been talked about. You saw a third of the league this year tanking to get to the top, so that speaks for itself, but I think there’s a good amount of depth, at least through the first half of the first round, which is where we fall. So again, I’m confident we can get a good player, yeah, and hopefully that player will have opportunity next year to perform, produce, help us. I mean, given the state of the injuries of Jimmy and Moses, my guess is they’re gonna have more of an opportunity than maybe in another year, so that’ll be there, but the, again, the most important thing is just kind of the long-term development, so make sure we get that right

19:15 Mike, last year was kind of a unique off-season where things were kind of drawn out. Obviously, players didn’t sign until start of training camp. How important is it for you to have your team set way earlier than that and have everybody in the building ready to go compared to last year?

19:29 Well, for my personal summer vacation plans, it’s very important. I don’t wanna — yeah, I hope I don’t have to be dealing with roster construction til the end of September, but that was a unique situation. My guess is it probably won’t happen again in that regard, so yeah, we got some things to figure out, though. Draft and then obviously Draymond’s got his player option and we’ve got some unrestricted free agents that we’d like to get back, so a busy summer as always and hopefully it ends up being a little bit shorter than last year.

20:01 Steph’s talked about his knee not being the same. It’s a new normal after that knee thing he had this last season. How much does that affect the roster construction this summer, mitigating the knee issues?

20:13 Yeah, I mean, I’ve tried to understand that as best as I could. I think it’s important to consider and my understanding is we expect him to have a year next year where that knee’s — we’ll manage it, but it’s not something we’re worried about. At his age, given what’s happened, you have to think that way, but it’s not something — I probably need to think more about his actual age than I do the knee. I guess that’s the way I’m thinking about it.

20:38 Another Steph question. He said he is interested in talking about an extension. He’s eligible for an extension, obviously. Would you be pretty sure that you’re gonna be offering him an extension this off-season?

20:50 Yeah, that day will come, but I think we’ve always stated, we want Steph to finish his career here, be here for as long as he wants. And so I’m sure those conversations will happen and you can predict where they’ll be going, but yeah, I don’t see under any scenario where we don’t wanna figure out a way to have him finish here. All right. All right, thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

🫶💙💛

If you’ve spent any time on any of our live chat Watch Parties over the last several years, you know that when the Golden State Warriors start screwing up in any given game and maybe throw the ball to the other team two times in a row, someone, probably Pinky from Portland, will comment, “Uh oh, the bakery is open.”

I probably have to credit Miami Bruce Maro, though. I could be wrong, but I think he’s the originator of the “bakery” reference on our chats.

So…

Wow, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Steve Kerr — including Kirk and Joe Lacob, via the meetings that helped decide the return of Kerr — really are now committed to not turning the ball over? 😮 🤯

Cue Newman scene on Seinfeld: “What took you so long?” (Okay, not the best exact parallel of what happened, but same reaction nevertheless!)

At the GM and head coach exit interviews last week, Dunleavy even went so far as to say, when asked if he expected the Warriors to have a different style of play next season, “You know what? We can play however we want, just don’t turn the ball over. I don’t — yeah, I really don’t care.

“I think Steve would probably say the same thing, but it just, if we — I think it’s more of, you’re bottom five in the league in turning the ball over, I don’t think we can get to the top five in the league.”

[Full Dunleavy transcript to come in the next post. This article is mainly to get the Kerr transcripts documented.]

Don’t forget, in my LA Clippers Play-in game recap, despite the fact the Warriors had roughly twenty turnovers, they went the last ten minutes of regulation without committing a nary one!

But what exactly does this mean? Is it the end of “organized chaos”? I don’t think so. When I picture organized chaos, it’s like when Draymond Green said it one time on the podium. If/when one Wardell Stephen Curry loses the ball, then gets it back, then fires a three when least expected, literally in that same moment, that is organized chaos.

Or maybe someone else loses the ball or gets a steal, then your No. 1 priority becomes locating Steph. Because 3 > 2 and that splash might just blow the roof off the building, which can demoralize the opponent even more than a poster dunk.

Said Steve at the same exit interview:

It may mean walkthroughs, it may mean written tests, it may mean more video work. Hopefully, it also means more time on the court. We need that, but we, I think, we lost some of our discipline and we got a little loose and that’s my job. And if we can go into the season with a really clear vision of what we’re trying to do on the court, everybody is tight and committed and we get the process going, that’s what will lead to success. And so I can’t sit here and predict anything, wins and losses, but what success means to me is rededicating ourselves to a process where we’re gonna put in the work and we’re gonna get better.

Written tests? 🧐

Yeah, Kerr even doubled down on Tim Kawakami’s TK Show later that day:

It’s evaluating how we operate, practice-wise. Maybe we would have been better having walkthroughs in ballrooms when we’re on the road, instead of just giving the guys a day off to rest. Like, maybe there’s more that we can do. Maybe I need to quiz players on off-days so that we can execute better. And it’s not all roster, it’s not all strategy, it’s not all process. It’s all of the above and that’s what we have to sort through this summer.

Full transcript (with timestamps) on the turnover issue, which was covered for about the middle ten minutes with Kawakami, below the paywall. 👇

With that, I’ll unlock the previous full transcript of Al Horford, who I think will definitely come back and opt-in, from the previous article.

Speaking of which, I haven’t posted in awhile, but tbh I’ve been doing tons of work with Draft analysis (twice!) and salary cap sheet projections on the YouTube channel.

I might need to switch things up and break some old habit so mine, as well, in terms of investing way too much time typing these thoughts out. If I can get more info and (high-vibrational) takes out on this Substack on a more frequent basis, I think that’s the way to go.

In fact, the entire Kerr saga, and then some, has already been covered in-depth in near-real-time on our Discord server. Here’s a sample from even before the decision:

Again, our Discord is the antithesis of Twitter, where truths can be twisted and you never can remember where you heard a rumor.

By contrast, our Discord server is completely searchable. The VIP version at $5/month has specific video feeds and information sources from all over, neatly organized into topics.

Sign up for either the free or VIP version here: https://whop.com/letsgowarriors

Finally, my quests for truths does not end here. I will have at least a couple of coaches on various livestreams coming up to talk about just what it means to change your culture to not turn the ball over. And, in that vein, what the hell kinda quizzes could Steve possibly be suggesting?

Best to subscribe to our YouTube channel, hit the 🛎️ for alerts, and you’ll know when those interviews go down.

By the way, that 36-minute exit interview is, to my knowledge, the longest Steve has ever been on any Warriors podium. If you’re a paid subscriber here and want to see the Kawakami transcript, you’ll need to scroll down a ton to reach the paywall! 👇

00:00 STEVE KERR, BELATED EXIT INTERVIEW: Hi, guys. How you doing? I guess I’ll just start off and just say I’m thrilled to be back. Couldn’t be more excited to continue on this job and we had a great process the last few weeks trying to figure this out together, collaboratively. I don’t think this actually happens in pro sports, honestly, where you have these kind of conversations and genuinely, authentically try to figure out together what’s the right thing, you know? So I’m very lucky to be in this organization, to work with the people I do, to work with Joe and Mike and before that, Bob Myers. And where it truly is a partnership and we’re trying to do what’s the best thing for the franchise. And we literally spent a couple weeks trying to figure out if the best thing for the franchise was me coming back. And, ultimately for me, I took about a week to really think about whether it was the right thing for me. And my wife and I spoke every day about it and bottom line was, I still love what I do which is what I told you guys throughout the season. I love coaching. I love being part of the Warriors. And so at the end of about a week, my wife and I decided let’s let’s keep doing this, if the Warriors want me to keep doing this. And it was — she, my wife said something. She said, “You know, you might coach again someday, but you’ll never coach the Warriors again.” And that was really meaningful to me because I love this team. I love our players and that struck me, you know? I couldn’t imagine walking away from the Warriors. And so at that point it was really, what do you guys wanna do? And we had great meetings and over the course of about a week, we all agreed, let’s do it. And so here I am, so I’ll take questions.

02:22 I don’t know how specific you can get, but what within those conversations mattered? What changes? Or just what, why did you guys decide it was right for you to be back and what made that so?

02:36 Well, ultimately, it was, I think, just the partnership and what we have and what we’ve built. And I think, what we had to get to was, it wasn’t so much, “Here are all the changes we need to make,” because we know we need to make some change. I know I have to be better. I didn’t have a great coaching year this year. I know there are a lot of things I can do better. And they and Mike and Joe know they have a big job on their hands this summer. We’ve got to find somebody in the Draft who can help us and make a couple good signings, maybe a trade. Who knows, right? We — so that stuff was more general. It wasn’t sort of, “Here are the things I need,” or, “Here are the things they need.” It was more just an inflection point for the franchise, where we are where we’ve been and what does it look like? And with the injuries to Jimmy and Moses, I think we had to come to a much more reality-based shared vision of what does success look like for us? What are we trying to accomplish? Because for the first time, really since the injury plagued year — what was that, ‘19 or ‘20 — we aren’t sitting here saying, “Hey, we can win a championship,” right? So that’s — I don’t need to say that. We all kind of know that, where we are, right at this second. And so I think we had to hash that out. We had to talk about all those things. One of the things I feel really strongly about is I want to get better. I want to lay a stronger foundation for next season that will carry forward for years to come, beyond when I’m here. I think that’s important to the franchise. I know that it’s important to Steph and Draymond. And frankly, this year, we, I think we got a little away from that. We got a little too loose, obviously, literally loose with the ball, but I think we, because of our age, because of our injuries, we spent a lot of time kind of resting and I got to tighten the ship next year. And so these were all parts of the conversation, but the idea is, let’s see how good we can be and we think we can still be good. We’ve got to get some guys back from injuries. We’ve got to make some moves. I’ve got to do some things, but let’s run it back. Let’s see how good we can be and I think we’re all really excited about that.

05:20 What does tightening the ship and laying a stronger foundation for the future look like for you?

05:25 Well, for me, it’s — and Mike and I have agreed on this — we have to fix the turnovers. I’ve literally been watching all of them from the season the last few days and that has to be an organizational-wide effort. Everything we’re doing in player development, we have to look at, fundamentals, decision-making. We’ve got to think of creative ways to implement things in practice that will help us become better decision-makers, but we know that where we are right now, we have to win on the margins. And we knew that last year. Coming in, we wanted to win the possession game, get extra offensive rebounds, limit our turnovers and we didn’t do a very good job of it. And so that’s on me and that’s on my staff to try to make that happen.

06:18 Steve, how much did you hear from Steph and Draymond while you were making a decision, talking to Joe, talking to Mike? How much did you hear from them, and how much input did they have?

06:28 I was in touch with both of them. They did not have any impact or influence on whether I was going to be the coach. And that’s a credit to them. I think one of the strong points of our organization is that our best player, who is one of the greatest players in the history of the game, is not telling Mike or Joe what to do. He understands the repercussions of that if he wanted to go down that path and it’s not healthy. It usually doesn’t work out well when a player tries to dictate what an organization does, so Steph has always recognized the sanctity of that wall that should exist, but we had a lot of discussions and talked about everything, talked about our team and some of the things I’ve just mentioned where we can get better. I know he wanted me to coach. I know I wanted to coach him and that mattered, but ultimately, we have a really special strong bond that should carry over into our success as a team. I think I have a better chance of coaching this team than anybody else because of that relationship, my relationship with Draymond, my intimate knowledge of our team and our organization. And as I said from the beginning, I still love what I do. If I were tired and burned out, then I would not be doing this, but I love my job. I love coaching the Warriors, being in this city, being in the Bay, so it all worked out.

08:13 Steve, as you literally watch every single turnover, how vast of philosophical changes need to happen to tighten those things up?

08:20 Well, there’s only so much you can change philosophically. It’s really more about the approach. It’s not so much about style of play. We actually changed our style quite a bit this year. We ran more five-out than we have ever before because of our personnel with Quinten and Al and Kristaps that, for the last 25 games, whatever, we haven’t had space-5s. This was also the first time we didn’t have an offensive rebounder at the 5 with Loon’s absence. It really changed the dynamics of our team quite a bit, but we changed quite a bit strategically. But you still have a personality as a team and as long as Steph and Draymond are part of that personality, you’re gonna see them do their thing, their two-man game that you saw against the Clippers that won that game. But we have to figure out the process of creating better possessions. We have to look at everything. That’s what we’re doing. Obviously, things were jumbled this year with all the injuries and made it difficult, but we can’t use that as an excuse. We have to go into next year with a really clear plan and our players have to be part of that this summer. It’s not like we’re gonna show up on October 1st and we’re gonna say, “Hey, here’s what we’re doing.” Like, I’m literally gonna be talking to our key stakeholders and leaders within the team and bouncing things off of them. And so you’ll see some differences, but basketball’s still basketball. It’s not like all of a sudden we’re going from the wishbone to the run-and-shoot. I don’t know. I mean, that was a terrible metaphor. That was good. Anyway, you can only change so much, but your process can lead to better decision-making, better fundamentals and that can lead to better possessions, and then you capture momentum from there.

10:28 I think within that,

10:30 as you watch the playoffs, aside from just talent, is there a certain type of players or trends that you’re seeing that could help you guys as well too?

10:37 Well, we’ve been really studying all those trends for years now. It’s what we do every summer. We have — every one of our assistant coaches is doing deep dives on what’s happening around the league. Analytics department is making suggestions and you’re seeing it around the league. You see the changes in the way people play. I think the example I’ve given you guys before is every coach I ever had, if I took an early shot in the — a jumper in transition they would say, “Don’t, that’s a bad shot.” It’s, “You can always get that shot.” And now we have analytics to prove that that was dead wrong, you know? The highest efficiency shots are the earliest ones in the shot clock and it’s not just throw ahead for layups like the old days. It’s throw ahead for threes. Those are really good shots and everybody’s trying to create early shots before the defense is set. We know that and we’re trying to do the same thing, so we have to match our personnel with what we’re working on this summer, what we’re implementing in the Fall and really be ready to roll that first day of camp.

11:51 Hey Steve, Steph likes to mention meaningful games, which I kind of think aligns with what you’ve been saying today. And you had — you guys had that moment in LA where, that very special moment. Is that kind of the chase right now, having those moments in —

12:05 Yeah, but we want more of them, you know? We wanna be able to feel that way consistently. This year was really weird because it felt like we were locked into 10th for about the last 10, 15 games. There was nowhere to go, up or down. Created a really weird situation where we went into that Clipper game without much of an edge. We weren’t healthy. We weren’t sharp. We hadn’t played a meaningful game and I think our team showed what they were made of by playing an incredible game, to pull that game out, literally meaningful basketball. And so I know it’s still in them and we’ve got some young players who have gained great experience, who are really getting better by the day and that’s exciting. And yeah, we wanna create a meaningful season where we are putting the best version of ourselves out there, winning games, putting ourselves in the hunt and then getting Moses, Jimmy back. And best-case scenario, we build that momentum and get guys back and we feel like we can make a run and that’s — when you do, that’s all you can ask.

13:26 Hi Steve, I have two sort of disparate questions. First, you’ve said a few times you wanna end this the right way with Steph and Draymond. How do you sort of balance that with obviously trying to reshape the team and get younger or move forward, fix some of the things you’ve talked about? What does that look like, I guess, anyway?

13:45 Yeah, I mean, I think the things I’ve been describing are what that looks like and I think that that means that we have to — we, meaning our staff, Steph, Dray, our veteran players — we have to be willing and open to some new thoughts and ideas about how we’re going about our day, our practice schedule study habits. Can we do more without taxing the players too much with their legs with all the games we play? Can we implement some things? Can we just be sharper? And strategically, if there’s a couple changes, can you guys get out of your comfort zone a little bit and embrace something different? And it’s not gonna be dramatic, but it’s enough where, if we’re gonna win on the margins, then everybody has to be open to the fact that we’ve gotta get better. And I will tell every player that I look in the mirror first. I’ve gotta be better next year and I’m excited about the challenge, but I’m gonna ask them to be better, too.

14:55 And sort of a non-basketball question, but you acknowledged in the New Yorker interview that you needed to soften your tone sometimes on your political comments and that became a talking point a bit the last three weeks or whatever while you were deciding. Did that, how much — was that part of these conversations?

15:11 No.

15:11 And did you — how are you gonna do that going forward? I mean, how are you viewing that whole issue?

15:17 It never came up. I think I’ve learned over the years the balance and I think for the most part, I’ve found a good balance where I can speak my mind on things that are really important to me and represent the franchise in a dignified way. And that literally never came up. That was not a part of the conversation at all in terms of whether I was coming back or not.

15:49 How would you describe kind of your relationship with Joe and the complexities of — clearly some of the conversations at the high level are Joe’s vision of the future and the grandness and where this is all going and the end of this era. Just how would you just kind of describe that?

16:04 I think Joe, Joe and I have great respect for each other. I mean, I was here as a player all those years out at Oracle when the crowd was loving it and the team was lousy, you know? It just was, I mean, the team did not have what it has now, which is strong, really strong leadership, incredible infrastructure and a vision for winning. Everyone booed Joe when he said we’re gonna win a title or we’re gonna we’re trading Monta, whatever it was, right? But you can’t argue with the results. Like, Joe came in here and he built a pretty incredible organization on the business side, on the basketball side. And we’ve had a great partnership. Doesn’t mean we always agree, nor should we. We want to be pushing each other and the only thing I would reveal from our our conversations — and I don’t think he would mind if I shared this — but we were talking about our injuries and how this is the first time where we can’t realistically just say, “Hey, let’s win a title next year,” you know? And he just said, “You know, I’m the owner and I can’t help but just say, I expect to be in the playoffs every year and have a shot.” And frankly, that’s one of the reasons why we have done that. It’s because of his vision and his passion and I admire that. I love that. I think he sees the same thing in me. We’re both incredibly competitive and he’s gonna be frustrated with things that I do and I’m gonna be frustrated with his reaction sometimes on the sideline if he’s upset with something. We’re — like, that’s all part of it, but we have great respect for one another and we share the exact same goal and that’s ultimately why I’m coming back because if that didn’t exist, then this would have ended.

18:05 Steve, in the ESPN story, it sounds like your family pretty much universally wanted you to keep coaching.

18:12 Yeah.

18:13 A lot of other people did, too. How much influence did other people’s opinions have and did sometimes you think they could see that this was where you were supposed to be, better than you could see it?

18:25 Well, yeah, my daughter, I think, she — it may have been in the article, but she said, “Dad, don’t focus on the two or three things you don’t like about your job, focus on the hundred things you do like.” And she said, “You know, most of us don’t love everything about our jobs.” I was like, “Yeah, that’s true.” It hurts when your kids tell you the truth and you realize they’re smarter than you. I was also reminded of a great story. It was like 25 years ago. There was a baseball player who retired. He said he wanted to spend more time with his family and then a year later he came back. And they, the media, when he came back, he said, “What happened?” He said, “Well, I wanted to spend more time with my family, but I realized my family didn’t wanna spend more time with me.” There was a little bit of that in there, too. It’s a very healthy separation when I fly off on a 10-day road trip and I’m really kidding on that stuff. My family knows me better than anybody. I’m happiest when I’m on the court with my players, when I’m collaborating with Mike and the organization. And I love this. And even through the struggles this year, I love the struggle. I love the challenge. And what Margot said to me, if you leave, you can come back and coach, but you can never coach the Warriors again. That was the most meaningful thing because I love the Warriors. I love Steph and Dray and the guys and rick Celebrini and Mike and our crew, Eric Housen and then Bert (Ortiz). And I mean, I can go down the list and there’s people, when I walk into that building every day, who I love and admire and who I know share the same values and desire for us to win. And it’s an incredibly exciting and enlivening feeling to have that and I wasn’t ready to walk away.

20:28 Also, the Clippers game was amazing and you said we were us for one night, but if that game hadn’t happened, could this not be taking place? I mean, did you need to see it again right before you were about to make this decision?

20:46 It helped. I can’t — I couldn’t tell you if that hadn’t happened, I couldn’t predict. I think I would still be here, but you do live for those types of moments and it’s something you — it’s hard to describe how awesome and just exhilarating it is to to coach and to win a game and to see everything come together and it’s one of the reasons we all have trouble walking away. And I don’t wanna be the guy who can’t walk away, so a lot of that went through my mind. It was a time to really think, but I’m still pretty young. I still, I’ve got a lot of energy. I love what I do. It made sense to keep going and so I’m excited.

21:51 Steve, going off of that and — over this way — trying to know when to walk away and knowing when it’s time, with this being a two-year deal, do you see that as, okay, at the end of these two years, that’s gonna be it? Or do you leave the door open?

22:03 Yeah, I mean, the way the NBA works, I could get fired a week into it, who knows? I mean, you just don’t even think about that stuff. And I think this year was such an obvious inflection point for the franchise. It’s why we deliberated. It’s why we really gave it a lot of thought. And I think, as I said, we came to a really clear path of, let’s really recommit to this group and how we’re operating and what we’re trying to do and make sure our foundation is strong and that it’s setting up whatever’s next because we have to be looking forward, but I can’t predict any of that.

22:56 Fired a weekend for not playing the rookie. I’m just kidding. I did wanna ask about that, though.

23:02 Yeah.

23:02 Let’s say you guys use the 11th pick.

23:04 Yeah.

23:05 Should theoretically have minutes available with Jimmy and Moses being down, but how, considering where everything’s at, how committed do you feel like you’re gonna need to be to, like, the development —

23:14 Totally.

23:15 ...of that Lottery pick?

23:16 I think that’s a huge factor and I think we’re in a different place now, right? There’s no question. And I’ve talked to Mike. I mean, I don’t know the Draft, but he feels really strongly that we’re gonna get a good player. It could be a 19-year-old, it could be someone older. It’s obvious where we are with the injuries to Moses and Jimmy. You look at our depth on the wings. That guy has to play and he’s gotta earn it, you know? But we’re committed to, absolutely, the development of our young players and trying to do this thing in a way that allows for success down the road. “Down the road,” meaning the end of next season and beyond and we’re excited about that.

24:08 So Steve, what did Obama wanna know about Kuminga?

24:16 That was when he was a free agent, so it was last summer and we have a mutual friend. And we had dinner and he literally walked up and just, “What’s gonna happen with Kuminga?” It was like he was talking about the contract, you know?

24:33 On a even more serious note, you mentioned this, Mike has mentioned this, it seems like all cards were on the table during your conversations. And there is a reality, especially because of the injuries that you’ve talked about several times, a championship may not be a realistic expectation next year. So what do you think success looks like for next season?

24:56 I think it looks like recommitting to our values and our process. I think the last couple years, frankly, have been difficult with the age, collective age of our team, the injuries. I think we had, like, six guys this year who either couldn’t play back-to-backs or were on minutes restrictions often at the same time and I think I really, frankly, gave everyone too much leeway this year. It just felt like we were constantly resting everybody and just trying to survive to the next game and have enough healthy bodies. And we talked about that in our meetings and we have to address that. It may mean walkthroughs, it may mean written tests, it may mean more video work. Hopefully, it also means more time on the court. We need that, but we, I think, we lost some of our discipline and we got a little loose and that’s my job. And if we can go into the season with a really clear vision of what we’re trying to do on the court, everybody is tight and committed and we get the process going, that’s what will lead to success. And so I can’t sit here and predict anything, wins and losses, but what success means to me is rededicating ourselves to a process where we’re gonna put in the work and we’re gonna get better.

26:38 With Terry Stotts and Jerry Stackhouse departing, just what’d they kinda mean to your coaching staff and what’s sort of the plan to replace them?

26:45 They were both fantastic. Terry told me six weeks ago, probably, what his plans were and I kinda had an inkling he may coach again. I think he just recognized it felt like a good time for him to leave and either take some time or see what other opportunities are out there. He’s still got great energy and phenomenal human being and I really valued my time with him, looked forward to seeing him every day and collaborating and we’re gonna miss Terry. And obviously I wish him well. And then Stack, two years coming in here as a former player, a guy with head coaching experience at the collegiate level. I loved what he brought, his voice in front of the team, the conviction he has as a coach, as a man. He wants to be a head coach and so we’re looking at some candidates. We’re also looking to promote from within. I’ve already spoken with a couple people on the outside and that process will continue here the next couple weeks.

28:05 Steve, you mentioned you talked to Steph and Draymond during the process here. How important was it to just do that, to hear what they had to say? You knew how you felt. You kinda knew how they felt, but just to, voice-to-voice, how important was that?

28:20 That was very important. Yeah, I mean, it was, those — we’ve been together for 12 years now, so it goes beyond just coach/player. It’s family, you know? And so those conversations were important and I just liked that everybody was very honest and open. And I think both of those guys showed me the respect of just saying, “Hey, you know, we want you to be excited about this and we want you to be happy, but it’s your decision.”

29:00 And do you have any idea — I don’t know if you’ve spoken with them or not — what’s ahead for Al and KP?

29:08 Oh, in terms of, like, contract stuff?

29:11 Yeah.

29:11 Yeah, yeah. Just whether they will be interested in coming back and so forth.

29:15 Well, I had an exit meeting with Al a couple days after the season ended. Obviously, we want him back. It’s his option as with the player option. I know he really enjoys it here. I know his family loves it here. I’m hoping he’s back and Kristaps, actually, we did not have an exit meeting. I gave him a pass on the exit meeting because he had to fly somewhere, like, the next day after our season ended. And I do that frequently with veteran players. There’s only so much you need to discuss. He’s obviously unrestricted. I’d love to have him back. I know he enjoyed it here and he’s a really talented player and I thought showed an awful lot for our team. And I’d love to have them both back, but we have to just see how it plays out.

30:12 Coach, before you were in here, Mike was in here talking about, “Yeah, we gotta fix the turnovers.”

30:16 Mhmm.

30:16 And I just wonder, with all the success you’ve had, how challenging is it for you on a personal note, as you self-reflect on the season, “I’ve gotta get better,” and then hearing it from when you’re having those discussions with Mike and Joe that maybe a little thing here or there needs to improve. How easy is that for you to digest it and say, “Yeah, they’re right, I need to fix this and that”?

30:35 Yeah, those are great conversations. And as I said earlier, I mean, we are in a partnership. We all want the exact same thing and one of the things that I think is most important when you’re in a position of leadership is listening and not taking stuff personally and feeling offended, and understanding that when you’re in partnership with people you have to listen. Not that I needed any arm twisting to fix our turnovers. I’m well aware that that was a big problem for us this year, but I think it’s just important to take everybody’s thoughts and advice and try to come up with the best solution. That’s always been the way I’ve coached and operated. And I think we have — what’s exciting and very challenging, we have a lot to figure out this summer. And I’ve been talking about it just in terms of our process and how we’re gonna do it because it’s not as simple as it sounds, obviously. We’ve gotta really think about our whole process and how we can implement enough change to make it make an impact.

31:51 Steve, on a serious note — this way, other way, right here — are there any concerts that you’re planning on going to this off-season, so we have lyrics to watch for?

32:00 That didn’t sound that serious to me. I’m a big Counting Crows fan, so yeah, you, if you pay attention next year, who knows? You might hear a little Adam Duritz, so...

32:15 How disappointed were you in the beat writers’ —

32:20 I’m sorry?

32:21 How disappointed were you in the beat writers’ lack of knowledge of Taylor Swift songs?

32:26 It was pretty well-coordinated and camouflaged, so yeah. I think the only one that might have been obvious was when I — not obvious, but revealing — was when I complimented Janie (McCauley) on her scarf and the word scarf was in the song that I was quoting. And pretty sure I’ve never mentioned the word scarf before in any of our sessions together, so I had a little fun with that. That was my internal family humor that is no longer internal, but that’s okay.

33:05 Just, you’ve mentioned a couple times that it’s kind of unrealistic to think, like, a title is ahead, but where are you at on the roster and can you guys get back there? What do you — what’s needed and, I guess, how accepting are some of your veterans of that reality?

33:26 Well, I mean, this is, these were conversations that we had. What are some of the things that we can do? We don’t really know and that’s obviously Mike’s department, but nothing happens right now. But I know that mike and Joe are committed to putting the best roster on the floor. I do think it’s important that we don’t have the vast number of players who couldn’t play back-to-backs this past — we can’t do that again. It’s too hard to build continuity, so we need some younger legs, for sure. We know that. How do you do that? It’s a difficult job and so that’s up to Mike and obviously I will — he will consult with me on moves and we’ll hash that stuff out, but I just, I feel very strongly that what we have here is something special and strong. And despite the injuries, we can have a year where we get back in the hunt and I’m confident of that.

34:26 When you think about the vacancies on your staff and thinking about internal, external candidates, regardless of where they’re coming from, what kind of qualities are you looking for your future top lieutenants?

34:38 Well, you’re always looking for the best people. We did lose our two defensive coordinators this year in CD (Chris DeMarco) and Stack, so I’d like to bring in somebody with a strong defensive mind, but you’re always looking for the very best people out there. And every summer is different based on who’s available, but you’re always keeping your eye out. And so we’ve been doing that and we’ll see how it plays out.

35:16 Draymond’s future is kind of probably the most up-in-the-air over the next month-and-a-half. You said you had conversations within this. How do you still view his future and the possibility of him finishing here?

35:31 Well, he — the number one thing is, it’s up to him. He has a player option, so he’s gotta go through that with his agent. How that plays out, I am committed to coaching him, coaching Steph, obviously, for as long as they’re here and I look at them as collaborators. And what we’ve built is pretty special, so rare for a coach and two players to be together for 12 years as a trio. It’s remarkable, really, so I’m ready to coach Draymond and it’s — we’ll see how it all plays out. It’s really more up to him than anything and we’ll see how the contract stuff happens. Thanks a lot.

17:25 TIM KAWAKAMI: You talked about you definitely need to get younger, athletic and Mike Dunleavy talked a little bit about that, but in this discussion — and we know there’s some potential, as there always are for the Warriors on their white board to get some big targets — was there a discussion like, ‘Yeah, we’re gonna go get some veterans here who can really help these, whatever, two, three years of Steph Curry’s final prime years. Steve, we want you to know that.’ Was that that discussion?

17:54 STEVE KERR: No.

17:54 Are you saying, ‘I want these guys’?

17:56 No.

17:57 ‘I want you to go after it’?

17:58 No, there was none of that and, again, we are now at a different point organizationally and that, to me, is the entire reason for this indecision from all of us as to what the best course of action is for me. Because it’s not as simple as it has been in the past, where we knew we were a contender and we were starting every season thinking we could win a championship. And we’re now in a different place and what does that mean? We don’t know what it means. The possibilities that a GM has are endless, but they’re really hard to navigate and they also don’t really start until probably a month from now, when you’re getting close to the Draft. And so when we talked about the roster, the discussion basically was there’s no way of knowing who’s gonna be here, but we needed to get that out in the open, and we needed to have a shared perspective on our goals and our vision and I think those discussions were really healthy.

19:04 You mentioned adjustments or you acknowledge that it’s natural for some things to change a little bit — not drastic, as you pointed out, not major changes — but do you have to have an offense, let’s just say specifically, that can be more open to younger players? I’ll just say, like, someone who could’ve been like Jonathan Kuminga. Maybe your 11th pick is a younger player or any player who’s drafted has not played NBA systems. Do you have to just make that concession in your mind, ‘I’m going to let things play out a little longer with some of these players who maybe, when you were in a different phase. Just couldn’t get on the floor that much’?

19:42 Yeah, there’s a lot to that question, both style and personnel and I think part of where we are now is, we have to be open to everything. Mike’s very confident we’re gonna get somebody at 11 who can play, and I’m very confident that I’m gonna give that guy every opportunity to play. Part of that is, there’s no Moses and there’s no Jimmy for the first half of the season. I mean, I — and we don’t have enough talent right now to say “Well, I’m not playing that guy because he doesn’t know this or that yet.” We’re gonna have to play the most talented guys and we’re very committed to the next era that’s coming, making sure our foundation is right. I think we had some slippage this year, frankly, and that’s on me. I think we got a little loose. I think we lacked some fundamentals. I think we’ve gotta tighten up some things and that’s up to me and the staff to make sure we kinda get back to our values, what’s important, how we conduct ourselves, how we work. We gotta evaluate all that stuff because we just had a lousy season and, when you have failure, you have to respond. And that’s actually kind of exhilarating for me. I’m excited about that part. I’m literally watching every turnover we had —

21:08 That just can’t be fun.

21:09 ...from the season this year.

21:10 It can’t be fun. Dunleavy really hammered the turnover thing —

21:14 Yeah.

21:14 ...over and over again and I’m sure that was brought up many times and you discussed it, too, with them. In any way — obviously, it was a system that led to four championships. Steph Curry, obviously, has flourished in a read-and-react, split action, all those things, floppy. Do you think in any way that system — I know you’re not only running that, but that read-and-react maybe sometimes with players who aren’t good at it, has led to some of these turnovers or a lot of these turnovers?

21:44 Some of them, yeah. I mean, as I look at them, I’m literally categorizing all of them. Is it decision-making? Is it spacing? Is it skill? Is it just a great defensive play? And then when I get through all 82 of these, it’ll be really easy for me to present this to the players. And I’m gonna do that this summer, not October 1st. This is part of this quest that we’re on, to tighten things up, is going around and visiting with the players and getting them to understand, like, this is our goal and this is what we have to do to get there. And we’re gonna tighten some things up and this is — these are our expectations. And some of that will be strategic, some of that will be more cultural, but yeah, it’s all part of the off-season and we have all of our coaches doing deep dives on different aspects of the game, so we can come in and put the best plan forward possible.

22:46 Is it possible we’re gonna watch the first few games of the season and go, “My God, they’re not running split action that much anymore”?

22:51 Well, we’re definitely not gonna get rid of split cuts for Steph Curry, I can tell you that. Because they still work, but what we have to evaluate is, what are the best things that we did last year, what were the worst things, how can we kind of tailor a more refined offensive system? We really started to evolve this year into a five-out team. We’ve never been a five-out team, but all of a sudden we have Kristaps and Al, Quinten Post. We became a five-out team with much more spacing. We taught different concepts. It wasn’t always effective, but it a lot of it depended on personnel, certain — even without Steph, we were able to find combinations that clicked, but they were very particular. We had to have the exact five guys that we needed on the floor and it’s not always possible to do that, so strategically and roster-wise, we’ve gotta spend the summer trying to find the right balance offensively. As long as Steph and Draymond are here, they’re gonna run pick-and-roll. The two of them together this year, when they were on the floor together, our offensive rating was 120, which would’ve been second in the NBA. So you’re still gonna see a lot of Draymond-Steph two-man game. All the stuff they did at the end of that Clipper game that we don’t even teach, that is just inherent to them and their 13 years together, 14 years, whatever it is, but we’ve gotta look at everything else and make sure we have the right blend.

24:32 Just my point of view and I don’t know if this falls under the categories, is that just somebody or two people who can beat people off the dribble might cut down a lot of these.

24:42 For sure.

24:42 Yeah, because so much of this is not being able to beat a guy off the dribble or forcing a pass because you can’t beat a guy off the dribble. As you go through them or just mentally as you remember them, how much do you think that played a part in — I guess that will lead to my question — do you just need to get guys who can beat guys off the dribble?

25:00 Well, yeah, everybody needs that. You’re watching the Spurs right now. They have three different guys, Fox and Castle and Harper. And they’re all — they can all get to the rim at any point that they want. And that’s really hard to guard, you know? And the — when you face that defensively, it puts so much pressure on you. And it makes spacing easier, right? When you’ve got guys who can get downhill, you have to bring help and now there’s an easy outlet pass. And I think that absolutely played a factor. We were asking Gui Santos to do way more than he should’ve been asked to do and he had a great season and really made strides, but he was a high-turnover guy. And Gui is a guy who, on the right team, where he is in his role, he should be a low-turnover guy. The number of possessions that ended up in a late shot clock one-on-one move after Steph got injured late in the year, that put a lot of guys in Brandin, Pat, it put them in tough spots where they had to create a play with with no clear advantage. And so there’s some of that. That’s dead on, but there’s lots of other stuff and it’s, to me, it’s mostly decision-making and discernment, but in order for us to put our players in the best position, we’ve gotta give them better offensive flow and find ways to do that.

26:32 Earlier today you definitely mentioned several times about the restrictions you had on the guys you could play, that couldn’t play back-to-backs. And it was obvious, right? We could all see it. Like, which six guys are you gonna sit tonight?

26:42 Right.

26:42 Or is he gonna go three and three? Is it — wait a minute, if he plays them again on the back-to-back, does he not get them for the other back-to-back that’s coming up?

26:49 Right, right.

26:50 But that’s a lot of personnel decisions, Steve. Like, those were literally guys who you guys —

26:53 Yeah.

26:54 ...added. Do you think there just has to be a real discernment saying, “We just can’t sign some of these guys. We can’t bring some of these guys if we’re not gonna be sure they can play 70 games”?

27:05 Yeah, I mean — and that is not just roster decisions, but it’s evaluating how we operate, practice-wise. Maybe we would have been better having walkthroughs in ballrooms when we’re on the road, instead of just giving the guys a day off to rest. Like, maybe there’s more that we can do. Maybe I need to quiz players on off-days so that we can execute better. And it’s not all roster, it’s not all strategy, it’s not all process. It’s all of the above and that’s what we have to sort through this summer.

27:49 With Jerry Stackhouse and Terry Stotts leaving, I know these are their decisions, but you kind of went through this a little while ago. I remember when you brought Kenny (Atkinson) in and some other staffers.

27:58 Yeah.

27:58 You said, like, we kind of needed a refreshment of minds, of people. Do you feel that it is something that the staff could use, different people, different schemes, different way to approach stuff?

28:11 Yeah and that’s always been the case. It’s the case with every team. I remember with the Bulls, we would bring in a new coach. Frank Hamblen one year came in and Michael said, “My goal this year is to get Frank a ring,” you know? And it was, like, new blood and Frank — everybody loved Frank. And it’s the same, been the same way for me for 12 years. Luke Walton moves on and who’s gonna come in? We get Mike Brown. There’s a new energy, a new set of ideas. So this is true on the roster. It’s true on the coaching staff. You hate to see guys go, but there are moments where you go, “All right, we lost Chris DeMarco, we lost Stack, we lost Terry.” We’ve gotta find some really good people to come in and help us energize this thing.”

🫶💙💛

Good thing the Al Horford Experience happened in crunch time at the LA Clippers and on the national stage that the Play-in was.

Not only did that performance demonstrate that the Warriors still have that championship DNA, albeit when fully healthy and rested, but it may have kept Horford from retirement — maybe.

Thanks to a question from Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area at Golden State’s exit interviews a few days ago, it seems like Al still wants to scratch that itch.

“It told me that I have that ability to be able to do that,” said Horford. “And at that point it was like, I work so hard to put myself in those positions and to be able to be in those moments, so when those moments come, or at any point, I feel like I’m capable, that I can do that. I put in a lot of work. I put in a lot of time, but I’m confident that those displays, I could continue to do those types of displays.”

I think we can cross out the retirement option. I love how he used the word “displays”. Ballers always want to “display” their talents.

The only time I really had a moment like that was at the Chinese New Year Tournament eons ago. I scored 21 in front of a packed house in San Francisco’s Chinatown, pushing oneof the mainstays of the tourney, Cornerstone Church, to the brink in a double-elimination format. Even had my name printed in the SF Chronicle in the tiny little “Community Basketball” section where all the other linescores and stats went, on the back page.

However, one big difference: my buckets didn’t come in crunch time. That was always the one thing I couldn’t quite reach at the highest levels — known as “AA” in the nomenclature of the Nippon Athletic Union — of amateur Asian ball. Maybe I’ll delve into that some other day, but if you search on Conant Chi on this website, you’ll get a sense of who are the MVPs of “AA” ball.

After that tournament, I soon found myself as the “Poor Man’s Commish”, building a basketball league across the Bay for the guys that played in the tournaments I had played in, so that was kind of the abrupt end of my serious playing career. I mean, I still had good games in various league play and what not, but never again in front of a meaningful or prestigious tournament crowd, just in mostly empty gyms.

But yeah, if there was ever an itch to hoop, “displays” are it. And Al can do them at the highest level on the planet and in peak crunch time.

So if I’ve experienced putting on a display in non-crunch time, I can only imagine its effects in crunch time, as Al showed us. Based on that, I’ll guess he’s coming back. The chance to display can sometimes be that much of an addiction.

But the next problem is, in my opinion, maybe the Boston Celtics want him back, too? I have not delved into this much yet, and perhaps my colleague, salary cap expert Yossi Gozlan of has some ideas, but I would think the Celtics sneaking Al in at around a Taxpayer Midlevel Exception ($6-ish million) would not be that difficult and they could theoretically offer him a one-plus-one just like the Warriors did, if their cap sheet allows.

But I doubt Al is getting an offer anywhere near the TPMLE from any other team besides the Celtics, hypothetically.

Also, Horford addressed previous cryptic statements about Boston, see transcript below, but it did sound like the Celtics chapter of his career is over. You never know.

For now, them and Denver are the only other team out there that are championship-caliber and could value someone as old as Horford, but the Nuggets already have $10 million committed to Jonas Valanciunas next season. Whew! 😅

This might not be resolved until the deadline for player options, which is June 29th, about a week after the 2026 Draft. What happens with the Draft Lottery as well as Horford taking or passing on his player option will help clue us in on how the roster will look.

The way things stand with the cap sheet and the aprons right now, it looks like the Warriors can keep either Horford or De’Anthony Melton, but not both. Here’s a primer for the 2026-27 salary cap sheet situation, joined by my co-host Dean “of Positivity” Chambers:

Of course, the big Steve Kerr decision could branch off an entirely new Warriors universe, so there’s always that. We will talk about that more as I determine whether or not it is worth my time to transcribe the super-awesome Warriors Plus-Minus pod that Tim Kawakami of the SF Standard and Marcus Thompson and Nick Friedell of The Athletic did postgame Phoenix in dissecting Kerr’s impending decision — which obviously also involves Joe Lacob, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and one Wardell Stephen Curry — but for now, my thought is that the Draft Lottery on May 10th is important.

Shouldn’t the results of the Lottery serve as a data point towards Kerr staying as head coach or not?

Full transcript of Horford behind the paywall…

00:00 Hey, Al.

00:07 AL HORFORD, EXIT INTERVIEW: What’s up?

00:08 What’s up?

00:09 How’s it going?

00:09 Just how would you assess how this season went for you, between the injuries and everything that’s happened with the team?

00:17 Yeah, I felt like it was a good season for me, a learning experience being in a new environment and seeing things in different ways, but I think it was good in that sense. Obviously, not pleased with some of the injuries and missing some of the games and obviously everything that happened with our group as a team. We didn’t accomplish or achieve what we wanted to, so that wasn’t it, but individually I felt like it was good for me. It was — I’m still at Year 19. I feel like I’m still growing and developing, so that was positive and I felt like it was a positive step for me, basketball-wise.

01:13 You didn’t need to come here. You were an accomplished NBA player way before you even got here. What brought you here and why? I mean, I assume you probably want to keep going, but what do you stand on that?

01:25 Yeah I felt like it was a nice opportunity and a challenge to be here and to play with some of these great players and this great franchise. That’s the reality of being here and for me these next few — about this week, week-and-a-half, I’ll be speaking with (wife) Amelia and just thinking about everything and seeing kind of what we’re gonna do with our future so that’s kind of where we’re at.

02:05 So you’re not decided yet what you want to do?

02:07 Not yet, no.

02:08 Yeah.

02:08 Mm-hmm.

02:09 How much do you like it here?

02:12 We really like it here. Yeah. Yeah, we like it.

02:16 Steve’s future is obviously uncertain right now. Just what has your experience been with him this season, just having him as your coach and what have you kind of gotten from that?

02:27 It’s been a very positive experience for me. Steve, just such a legendary coach already in its own and just getting to see how he, he how he operates, how he thinks, it’s been great for me to be able to learn and see those things, so it’s been for me, it’s just really a big learning experience, just trying to take different things in and just see how how I can be better and see how he does things and how he’s thinking the game and things like that, so it’s been a very positive experience.

03:11 When it comes to your future, what are some of the factors that you and your family might consider in terms of how you want the rest of your career to unfold?

03:22 Yeah, I mean, I think that for me, it has to do with not rushing to anything or not let emotions or heat of the moment determine anything, so I just think it’s — I’ve done this the last few years and it’s just kind of taking time to step back and have a clearer picture, look at the outlook of the team, looking at the future of the team, how things look and also seeing kinda where I’m at and how I’m feeling and, fortunately for me, I’m healthy. I feel good. I still feel like I can contribute and play at a very high level, still, so those are all things that I’m gonna look at. And now that everything kind of gets quiet it’s something that I’ll reflect on all that.

04:19 To follow up on exactly that, obviously you have a decision with the option, whatever you’re gonna do, next couple weeks. Is retirement off the table? I mean, are you confident that you’ll play somewhere next year?

04:34 That’s a good question. That’s a really good question. Yeah, it’s definitely — that’s been on my mind, but I just, I enjoy playing and being in this position and definitely taking all that stuff into consideration.

05:02 Both Quinten (Post) and Charles (Bassey) talked about just how you’ve kind of helped them along, big men. And I remember I asked you a while back, I said, would you want to coach? And you were like, nah, I don’t think so, but I mean, it seems like you have a lot to offer. And what is it you try to do to the young guys on this team, the young guys that — what kind of advice did you offer those guys?

05:23 Yeah for me, it’s really trying to give them perspective, but also trying to help them see things and try to help them become better players and trying to understand kind of how the league operates and works and things like that, so — and any chance that I can to talk to them or give them advice or tell them different things, that’s what I’ve tried to do in this season, or making sure that I’m always making myself available if they have questions or if they want to talk about the game or experiences of mine. So always just trying to be mindful to help them. That’s just finding a way to kind of pay it forward and be there for them.

06:16 And those four threes that you banged in LA, did that tell you anything about yourself that you didn’t already know?

06:25 Yeah, I mean, I think it was rewarding, but something that, I guess, to answer your question, I think yes, I think it told me that I have that ability to be able to do that. And at that point it was like, I work so hard to put myself in those positions and to be able to be in those moments, so when those moments come, or at any point, I feel like I’m capable, that I can do that. I put in a lot of work. I put in a lot of time, but I’m confident that those displays, I could continue to do those types of displays.

07:13 Hi Al, what’s your favorite moment in this season?

07:20 My favorite moment in this season. Man, I think, there’s — I would have to say that win against the Clippers, going on the road and being in the Play-in and it wasn’t quite playoff basketball, but kind of fighting for your playoff lives and giving ourselves an opportunity. I felt like our group was so resilient that game. We’ve already had so much adversity and then being down multiple times and not knowing what was gonna happen, but for us to find a way to group, band together as a group and figure it out and win the game, it felt very rewarding in a season that we were just kinda our backs against the walls all year and bad news after bad news, or different things happening and finding a way to still care and try to represent the Warriors in the right way. That, to me, was important. I know that our fans appreciated that. And I think they understand that we didn’t — we gave everything we had for the fans and we appreciate the fans in that matter. And I think it showed with the way that we played, even the Phoenix game. Obviously, we lost that, but I felt like we were playing hard and we were trying to do our best.

08:53 Al, obviously when you got here, the hope was that there could be title contention.

08:58 Mm-hmm.

08:58 Like you mentioned, injuries, a hundred things happen. If in the thought process of the next few weeks there’s a reality that that may not happen here, how much would that impact your decision of whatever you decide to do for next year?

09:18 Yeah, I don’t know. I think those are all things that are fair questions and then we’ll have to ask and address, but like I said, I like being here. We’ve gotten acclimated, my family and I, to be here and those are questions, all that stuff that is gonna be going through our minds.

09:46 When the Celtics were here, I guess, a few months ago at this point, you said that your departure from Boston was about something bigger than basketball. What did you mean by that?

09:56 Yeah. Yeah, that’s a good que — that’s a question that kind of stayed out there, kind of open-ended, but what I meant by that was that a lot of the times, when people are making decisions are making decisions, there’s also the things that you see and the things that kind of make sense for the human eye and the things like that, but the way that I operate and that I’ve carried my career, it’s been through my faith. And when I went to Boston, man, that was 10 years ago, so it was 10 years ago. Boston wasn’t what it was now. They were in the middle of a team that they just lost to the Hawks and I was on the Hawks team and we beat them. And there was other places that I could’ve gone that would’ve put me in a better position, but I chose to go to Boston and and take that chance. But I took it because of my faith, because that was the place for me that I felt that — there was that I needed to be. And then when all of this happened I felt like it was time for me — I shouldn’t say I felt, I knew that it was time for me to move on. Nothing to do with Boston, but again, following my faith, my belief, and I knew that I had to go elsewhere. And when I looked at it, I felt like here was a place for me to be able to do things. And sometimes it’s bigger than basketball for me. That’s what I meant by that. There are other things that I need to do and accomplish, and that’s why that decision was made. It wasn’t an easy decision for me to leave Boston because for me, I was very happy there with my family and everything, but I just felt like I didn’t feel like I knew it was the right time and this was the next challenge and the next step for me. And now I’m here. And it’s gonna be interesting to see kind of what happens now, but I have to be able to embrace this new challenge that I have.

12:17 What are some of those things that you wanted to accomplish and do you feel like you did this year?

12:22 Well, I mean, I think time will tell with some of these things, but I came here to try to contend and try to win a championship. And I don’t shy away from that. And I failed helping the team do that and we failed as a group, but that’s still something that would be, if I decide to come back here and decide to continue to play. It’s something that it’s in my sights and something that we would like to accomplish.

🫶💙💛

With Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody both on the shelf for awhile, can “organized chaos” evolve yet again to, as one Wardell Stephen Curry put it on the podium after the Warriors were eliminated, “get back to the basics of what makes a good basketball team, a competitive basketball team, every single night”?

Here’s the context: About halfway into the postgame presser, Nick Friedell of The Athletic had this exchange with Steph:

The goal obviously here has always been the title and you guys were consistent from the start of the year that, if everybody was healthy, you felt like you could take some swings and get there. As you see what happened this year, the uncertainty about the summer, do you walk into next year feeling like if you get everybody back healthy with the group that you do have, that you can still at least push for that level?

Yeah, but I think we can approach it differently in the way that we build the year because we started the year with that as an aspiration. I’ve only been in one locker room for the last 17 years. Before you win the title, there was only like those first two years, like, you’re building the foundation for what a championship team looks like, even though you had no idea what that really meant. Then you accomplish it and then everything else is based off of that. And it’s been that way for, since 2015, so I think we can reshape the narrative, like, knowing the back of our mind, like, that is the ultimate goal, but we have to get back to the basics of what makes a good basketball team a competitive basketball team every single night. Understand how, realize how hard it is to win in this league, but can we rethink how we do things with the foundation that we’ve established? We don’t have to keep saying, “Championship, championship championship,” every day, even though we’ve experienced that. It’s, can we just build a foundation again with what this team needs to do, with the way that the game is played now, how fast it is, how young and athletic it is, all of those things? We have to kind of put everything on the drawing board to get back to just being competitive every single night.

Ron Kroichick of the SF Chronicle then followed up:

Is (Steve Kerr) still the right coach for where you guys are and do you agree with it, “Every coach has an expiration date,” or can it go longer?

I think everything we’ve done is unprecedented and there’s only a few examples you can kind of look to in the history of basketball, especially in the modern era where, when we started, again, the way the game is played has changed from 2013-14 when we were kind of ascending to, or ‘14-15 when coach got here, where we were ascending to how it’s played now, roster construction, like, all those things. You have to adapt and evolve, for sure. I think Coach is fully capable of doing that and thinking outside the box as we go, but to his point, and your spirit has to be in it, your mind has to be in it. Your coaching staff, like, every dynamic has to be on that journey with you, so only he can answer that and it sounds like he’s put a lot of thought into it, but we’ll have those conversations where I get to kind of understand where his mindset is because it’s not like he was going to open up to me on that front, over the last, or at any point during the season because we still had a job to do.

As a former coach, I can say that, as thrilling and vintage a performance as we got from Curry in LA, as damaged goods as he looked in Phoenix, they did not deserve to win either game.

You cannot show up and throw the ball to the wrong team twenty times in a do-or-die situation and expect a good outcome. Of course, as Jimmy likes to say, Steph is the ultimate cheat code.

And when fully healthy, the Draymond Green two-man action is probably the most beautiful “shared brain” type of basketball I’ve ever seen:

Individually, Michael Jordan was more of a one-man wrecking crew in the illegal defense era. As far as beautiful basketball goes, “organized chaos” with Klay Thompson spread fifty feet away from Steph felt more like a full team thing.

So, gravity with Curry is definitely still must-watch TV, except that in its present form, when it doesn’t work, the turnovers become layups and kick-spray threes in the modern NBA. It only takes a minute-and-a-half for 10-0 runs to happen. That’s where the athleticism comes in.

The Clippers lacking scoring with Darius Garland in foul trouble and Draymond doing a number defending Kawhi Leonard straight up helped brew the perfect storm for them, but what might have been lost in the shuffle is the fact that the Warriors had reached twenty turnovers at around the ten-minute mark of Q4 in LA.

Mathematically, that’s 20 turnovers in 38 minutes of play. They were on pace for 25 turnovers, but they went the final ten minutes without committing a single turnover.

It’s all documented here:

But then, 45 hours later in Phoenix, the Dubs reverted back to the same bad habits and started the game averaging about one turnover per minute again, with a near-identical 13-2 deficit by the time Kerr had to burn his first timeout:

I am definitely relieved, though, that Steph himself acknowledged the need to evolve.

It does seem odd if Steve is not at the helm for this next evolution. We’ll cover this more in the next week, but I also think a lot of that really comes down to the Draft Lottery.

I would not be surprised if Joe Lacob waits until after May 10th, the date of the Lottery, to decide on Kerr’s fate.

If Golden State somehow gets lucky with the ping pong balls and lands a Top Four pick, then you must play that Top Four pick next season in heavy rotation minutes and you cannot allow another Jonathan Kuminga situation to happen.

Two roster spots occupied by $70 million worth of healing ligaments and tendons until January 2027, at the earliest, demand such.

Even the 11th pick, or 12th through 14th, should GSW be leapfrogged with an unfavorable Lottery — or whatever roster moves are to be made with that pick or another roster spot — you must start playing other pieces!

By the way, Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net hopped on postgame after the Phoenix loss to give us a primer for the 2026 Draft:

It is a fluid situation and the Draft Combine could move guys up or down on mock boards around that 11th pick. There will definitely be a ton more headed your way pertaining to the Draft, coming up.

So I think everyone sees the writing on the wall: the turnover issue must be solved. Even Kerr himself at one point early in the season, before Butler went down, said that the turnovers were up to Curry and Green.

Jimmy became the calming force to the organized chaos. There were four games of this where it finally gelled, then he went down.

The basketball gods have a way of regressing things back to the mean, back to how the game should be played.

Organized chaos, as it now hinges on the runner’s knee of a 38-year-old who runs around the most in the NBA, will have to become the exception, not the rule — makes you kinda appreciate prime Klay, ya know?

Steph’s full transcript behind the paywall below will be unlocked at the next post, as are the previous transcripts, or just head to the Comments on YouTube…

00:00 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME GSW-PHX: I’m gonna take Steve’s lead. Just, we haven’t had any of these conversations, so we all have to kind of assess where we’re at and I’m sure decisions either way will be made, but just the idea of just looking at how we try to make something out of this year is the focus for me and we’ll get to the rest of what the future looks like. But we had a lot of good moments in the locker room, just appreciating the fight and the battle that we had and the ability to try to extend our season. Didn’t go the way we wanted to. We’ll get together stuff later.

00:44 But knowing that it is his choice, how much of a preference were you (inaudible)?

00:52 I want Coach to be happy. I want him to be excited about the job. I want him to believe he’s the right guy for the job. I want him to have an opportunity to, again, enjoy what he does, so whatever that means for him, everybody’s plan is their own and not gonna try to tell anybody what to do. He knows how I feel about him. That shouldn’t even need to be said, but however it goes, you’re excited about, or not excited, you’re thankful for what we’ve been able to accomplish over this run. I’m thankful for an opportunity, hopefully, to put it together, to do something again next year and, again, I just want Coach to be able to look at the situation as a whole and feel like he’s the right guy.

02:00 We asked Steve about that last moment with you, Draymond and him on the sideline, and he said this could be the last time. Did that hit you then, like, the last time you three are together in a competitive moment?

02:14 I mean, I was kind of fighting it, to be honest. You always have— we’ve lost games. You’ve ended your season in a lot of different ways and you’ve had those moments on the sideline where you go up and down and thank everybody for what they poured into the year, but for it to start with that conversation and that moment, it was definitely weird because we had spent the last, all season, but really the last two weeks trying to hone in on just the moment right now, that we had to extend our season and then all of a sudden you look up and time’s run out. And I do appreciate the fact that he took that moment because regardless, like, we’re human beings and we have to be able to acknowledge each other in that moment, but I don’t know if that’s a signal of anything. It’s just we wanted to appreciate what we’ve all poured into to this journey.

03:09 Given what you guys have been able to accomplish, how are you gonna remember the season, given all the ups and downs and everything

03:17 that happened?

03:18 It was a roller coaster ride, to say the least. The way we came in with the locker room that we had, we had our sights set on realistically trying to chase home court advantage, knowing where we were last year after the trade deadline with Jimmy. And then he goes down, Mo goes down, I miss 20-whatever games and you see, like, just momentum slipping away, but there was still this underlying belief that when it comes to the Warriors, you’re always talking about championships. That’s what we’ve established as a goal, but when we had to reshape that, it’s like, okay, can we just make something out of this year to get a playoff experience and playoff berth and that felt like the right goal and why I forced my way to try to get back. And for us to have that moment we did in LA, the highs of that and the lows of tonight, it’s just what basketball is, what sports is about. You never know what’s gonna happen, but you give it everything you have and for us to have had these last three, four days and the whole Play-in situation, I’m proud of the way we finished it because it could have been very sleepy, like, I not come back and we get blown out in the first game and everybody kind of just goes into the summer with no real direction. It was a fun ride these last four days,

04:53 How would you categorize kind of the state of the knee issue you’re dealing with? And do you think any, like, do you need anything done this summer or is it just— ?

05:02 It’s mostly rest. I mean, there are some things I can do to prepare myself for next year, which I’ll stay on top of. And they say a lot of golf helps my knee, I heard. That was part of the research I did. It was pretty incredible, so hopefully we can do that and then we come back next year and I think long, big picture, I don’t think there’s anything you have to be mindful of, what it showed, how it showed itself this year knowing there was a clear, like, how I prepared pre-injury and post-injury. So the things I’ve been doing recently, I’ll continue to do when it comes to rehab and maintenance and all that, but it is kind of touch and go just knowing, hopefully, rest will get me right, go into to training camp feeling good and be able to manage it early in the year and kind of see where I’m at. That’s kind of the idea, but I don’t feel like there’s gonna be any real long term symptoms or anything.

06:06 You’re still seeing multiple years and beyond for the rest of your career?

06:12 Multiple, for sure. There’s more than one? Yes. That’s perfect. Perfect.

06:16 Would you be interested in an

06:20 extension?

06:21 For sure, but none of those conversations have happened, so it’ll be a busy summer for the Warriors.

06:28 Steph, to follow up on what you were saying earlier, the goal obviously here has always been the title and you guys were consistent from the start of the year that, if everybody was healthy, you felt like you could take some swings and get there. As you see what happened this year, the uncertainty about the summer, do you walk into next year feeling like if you get everybody back healthy with the group that you do have, that you can still at least push for that level?

06:56 Yeah, but I think we can approach it differently in the way that we build the year because we started the year with that as an aspiration. I’ve only been in one locker room for the last 17 years. Before you win the title, there was only like those first two years, like, you’re building the foundation for what a championship team looks like, even though you had no idea what that really meant. Then you accomplish it and then everything else is based off of that. And it’s been that way for, since 2015, so I think we can reshape the narrative, like, knowing the back of our mind, like, that is the ultimate goal, but we have to get back to the basics of what makes a good basketball team a competitive basketball team every single night. Understand how, realize how hard it is to win in this league, but can we rethink how we do things with the foundation that we’ve established? We don’t have to keep saying, “Championship, championship championship,” every day, even though we’ve experienced that. It’s, can we just build a foundation again with what this team needs to do, with the way that the game is played now, how fast it is, how young and athletic it is, all of those things? We have to kind of put everything on the drawing board to get back to just being competitive every single night.

08:14 Steph, Steve said, the words he used were, “Every coach has an expiration date.” He certainly —

08:20 Was he in here like going crazy? Like, y’all giving me some lines. I’ve only had one conversation with him, so I didn’t get the— I’m learning on the fly, so please, sorry.

08:29 Take a week or two.

08:30 Continue.

08:32 But my question is— ?

08:33 Huh?

08:35 He certainly seems as engaged as ever in his 12th season.

08:38 Yeah.

08:40 And how do you view, sort of, is he still the right coach for where you guys are and do you agree with it, “Every coach has an expiration date,” or can it go longer?

08:52 I think everything we’ve done is unprecedented and there’s only a few examples you can kind of look to in the history of basketball, especially in the modern era where, when we started, again, the way the game is played has changed from 2013-14 when we were kind of ascending to, or ‘14-15 when coach got here, where we were ascending to how it’s played now, roster construction, like, all those things. You have to adapt and evolve, for sure. I think Coach is fully capable of doing that and thinking outside the box as we go, but to his point, and your spirit has to be in it, your mind has to be in it. Your coaching staff, like, every dynamic has to be on that journey with you, so only he can answer that and it sounds like he’s put a lot of thought into it, but we’ll have those conversations where I get to kind of understand where his mindset is because it’s not like he was going to open up to me on that front, over the last, or at any point during the season because we still had a job to do.

09:59 Going back to the Suns, basically KD was here last year. He’s no longer here. A lot of people thought the Suns wouldn’t be doing this well this year. What do you see on the court from them this season, in particular this Play-in game, that kind of just changed their mentality? It just looks like they got better this year without Kevin.

10:17 They got better and they look different and they figured out how to put the pieces together to highlight what they could do, what their strengths are, what this particular group is. They’re super talented, fast, athletic defensively. They like to switch a lot and you got Devin doing his thing as a playmaker and a scorer. I heard Draymond talk about what Dillon’s brought, in terms of just the mentality, but you have a lot of, we call them the others, but a lot of guys who show up on a nightly basis. You know what Jordan Goodwin did tonight was incredible. Ighodaro stepping in and starting, rolling, you had— what’s his name?— Williams out, so like, they do it— they seem to do it by a committee, but they all play hard every night and you’re gonna be in a track meet and that’s what it felt like tonight, so they did what they had to do. It’ll be fun to watch them against OKC. I’m sure they’re pretty confident they can go out and challenge the champs.

11:28 Sam (Gordon), Sam you had a question, right?

11:30 Yeah, just going back to Steve for a second, did this season feel different for you guys knowing that he didn’t have a contract?

11:36 Nah, it was more the injuries and the change of who we had available on a nightly basis, halfway through the year. That was more the concern and the challenge that we had to face. I think he did a great job of not letting that be too much of a talking point within our circles, which that’s what a professional does.

12:02 Did Steve literally say on the sideline there that this could be the last time?

12:06 He said, yeah, it’s— “I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but if it is the last time, I just wanna share this moment,” which to the point of, like, after laying it all out in the line for as long as we did during this game, that was kind of a jolt of a message, but he left the door open.

12:24 Great.

12:24 Alright, last one.

12:26 So, the Suns had to take a step back last off-season in order to take a step forward. And the Warriors, five years ago, had to do the same thing. Been playing and then got bounced out by the Lakers. Then you had to take that leap forward, of course, to win the championship. Do you see similar or different scenarios in that way in which the Warriors had to take that step back, just like the Suns took a step back, knowing you did that before?

12:54 Yeah, I think when you’re at the bottom or you underperform based on your expectations, like, again, that’s where we are right now. You have to assess where you’re at and put your best foot forward to put a team together that can be competitive. They have more games ahead of them, so they’re still writing their story and however it turns out, I’m sure they’re gonna be proud of what they’ve accomplished this year, but there’s 30 teams out there that are trying to do the exact same thing every year and it’s a super-competitive league and you have to hold on to whatever momentum you have when you get it, so they’re on that ride and we’ll see how it goes.

🫶💙💛

Draymond Green waxed poetic about long-time teammate Gary Payton II at yesterday’s practice before today’s Play-in matchup between the Golden State Warriors and the LA Clippers.

There was even a reference to perhaps the greatest calming force ever to don the blue-and-gold.

“He’s become a steady force for us. You used to throw GP in the game, he rattled some stuff up. Now you throw him in the game to settle things down. He’s kind of morphed into that Shaun Livingston role, where he come in the game and things settle down a bit,” said Green.

Yes, Gary got-ejected-on-a-secomd-tech-after-shooting-a-ball-from-halfcourt-during-a-timeout Payton II (see Warriors-Kings recap) was described as someone who settles things down. The potentially crazy one who sometimes throws the ball to the wrong team or makes a silly needless foul as we pull our hair out on the livestream Watch Parties.

I kid, though. GP2 has, indeed, filled up the stat sheet since one Wardell Stephen Curry got sidelined with that runner’s knee, averaging 12-5-2-2 (points, rebounds, assists, steals) and just one turnover per game off the bench in Curry’s absence since January 30th.

“Him just growing into kind of a calming force for this team and everybody believes in that. And then also I think he takes a lot less shit than he used to. And I love that part,” added Dray.

The scrum also got steered right after the question about Payton, posed by Mark Medina of The RG Media, into reverence of Steph, drawing upon Game 4 of the 2022 Finals in Boston.

“Speaking of G,” Draymond said, referring to Gary, “when Steph speak like that, it’s a calming force for everyone. When you see him, there’s a confidence that comes with that and when it’s playoff time, when the stakes rise, the game level rises, he’s that steady force where, go back to Game 4 in Boston… nobody could really get it right. I was rattled and he was just like, ‘Oh no, it’s cool. Like, everybody come on, let’s go. Like, it’s fine.’”

Assuming the Warriors exit this post-season early, I can’ t wait to do a rewatch of that series. I also want to see if the Draymond detractors on Xitter are correct in that he regressed that entire run, or if they are using the benching incident as a red herring.

Anyways, leave it to Day-Day to pull me back onto the Curry bandwagon — as I’ve written and recorded on the YouTube channel recently, my heart will no doubt make me root for the on-court Dubs during the broadcast tonight, but my brain still tells me that had Moses Moody not gone down in a heap in Dallas, maybe I’d ride this version of the 2025-26 Warriors till the wheels fell off:

Be sure to stop by tonight, live on our Watch Party, as I become that basketball fiend watching what happens between 94 feet. Then around 9:30PM, after the final buzzer, I’ll go back to wondering if Yaxel Lendeborg might drop to the 11th pick or maybe if Atlanta Hawks GM Onsi Saleh might be amenable to a trade for his 7th pick:

Full Draymond transcript below the paywall (or click on the video below and read the transcript in its Comments)…

00:00 With everything that's that's at stake, how would you describe the level of preparation this past few days and how locked in the group is?

00:07 DRAYMOND GREEN, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE GSW-LAC: Everybody's locked in. I think our coaching staff has done a great job putting the game plan in. I think it's on us, Steph, Al, KP, myself, to make sure guys are locked in and understand what playoff preparation mean and you do that by leading by example, what your preparation look like when you're coming in, so I think we got a great game plan. It's on us to just go out and execute.

00:37 What does being a 16-game player look like?

00:41 I think number one is you have to have a certain focus level. You have to meet a certain level of physicality. If you can't raise to that level, like, we all know. Everybody talks about it every year, but when playoff time come around, the game gets more physical. The fouls called are pulled back a bit and I think one of the beautiful things the NBA does and the referees do, is you have to go win. It's not — you're not getting bailed out and so I think it's really understanding that, being able to lock in on the game plan. If you're someone that can't lock in on the game plan, you can't be a 16-game player. If you're someone that's gonna shy away from contact, gonna shy away from physicality, you can't be a 16-game player. And so I think those are the two biggest things and then understanding what their defense is trying to do and how you combat that.

01:46 Are you a little more excited for this game than you were last week?

01:49 Yeah, like I said last week, once the game get here, competitor, you ready to go. You go out there, you get embarrassed, you're not ready and so just as a competitor, as the game get closer, for sure, but I definitely didn't lose sleep last week. I may tonight.

02:10 How's the preparation with a do-or-die game different than maybe like a playoff series, like a seven-game series?

02:18 Well, when you go into a playoff series — it's a nice watch, brother, I like that. Catch my eye. When you go into a playoff series, you want to get the first game, but you ultimately know after that first game, win or lose, you're gonna make adjustments. And that's the name of the game in the playoffs. Who's going to adjust better? Who's going to adjust quicker? The one-game do-or-die take you back to college. You don't have time for adjustments and so ultimately what it boils down to is, who's gonna play harder? Who's going to get the loose balls? Who's gonna make less game plan discipline mistake, game plan mistakes because you get one game. And so, yeah, halftime you'll make some adjustments, but it's not to the level of what happens in a playoff series. After Game 1 — you win Game 1, the other team's adjusting. They win Game 2, you're adjusting. Game 3, there's more adjustments, right? Like, this is different. You gotta go out there, you gotta — This is oftentimes, in one-game situations, usually the team with the best will is gonna win that game. And so I think it's a little different from an X and O standpoint, whether it's one-game or whether it's a series, that's why you always hear people talk about Game 7. Everything goes out the window because it's one game. And so this is a little similar. Obviously, you get to a Game 7, you've seen this team six times now, but as far as you got one game, everything goes out the window. We've played this team four times this year. It all goes out the window. You got one game. Who's going to come into that game with the higher focus level, with the higher level of physicality? That's probably the team that's gonna win.

04:23 Draymond, go ahead. Draymond, good to see you. Gary has often expressed gratitude with how you've been an ally throughout his career. What did you see from him when he first joined you all and what do you see now?

04:38 It's continued to improve. Most importantly, he — the way he's learned how to read defenses and play off of other guys, Steph in particular, GP probably play off Steph better than I do, which is saying a lot. Whether he does or doesn't is irrelevant, but the point that I could make that statement says a lot. And so just seeing him gain that continuity and with myself as well, like, me and GP, I can find him in places, but it's because he knows, he knows how to read, to find those open gaps in the defense. And I think that's one of the biggest things is, like, he's gotten here, he's found his way, he knows his role and he's just continued to get better in that role. I think so oftentimes in this league, you see people wanting to outgrow their role and get themselves in trouble. And he's just become a star in that role. He's become a steady force for us. You used to throw GP in the game, he rattled some stuff up. Now you throw him in the game to settle things down. He's kind of morphed into that Shaun Livingston role, where he come in the game and things settle down a bit. You get to your certain actions you want to get to and I think that's one of the biggest things. And him just growing into kind of a calming force for this team and everybody believes in that. And then also I think he takes a lot less sh_t than he used to. And I love that part.

06:25 Draymond, you obviously played a ton of meaningful basketball, as Steph puts it, with him. What is he like when the stakes rise like this? What — how does his, I mean, Steve talked about your focus sharpening. What's Steph like when the stage becomes bigger?

06:40 His focus level goes to a completely different level. When you have the skill level of Steph Curry, you don't have to always focus because you can bail yourself out of any situation. That's, I think that's the beauty in being a superstar like Steph Curry, the level of focus that I have to go into a game with on the daily. He don't have to, but when it comes playoff times, his focus goes to a completely different level. He talks more, he's putting guys in position, he's telling people what you're going to see. And speaking of G, talking about G calming, when Steph speak like that, it's a calming force for everyone. When you see him, there's a confidence that comes with that and when it's playoff time, when the stakes rise, the game level rises, he's that steady force where, go back to Game 4 in Boston.

07:48 Right, 43.

07:48 Where it was like, man, like nobody could really get it right. I was rattled and he was just like, oh no, it's cool. Like, everybody come on, let's go. Like, it's fine. And that's, I think that probably, it explains it better than anything. Like, if you look at that game, that's his level of focus. When the intensity rises, when the game pressure, when the pressure of that game rises, that's who he becomes. And it's, to have that guy on your side, that's why you always have a chance.

08:25 Kawhi's na guy you've seen multiple times through your tenure here, but he's averaging career highest points, just three-point rate's the highest he's ever been. How do you begin to prepare for a guy like that when he's been so aggressive, offensively?

08:35 Well, number one, I think it's important that A) it's a complete team effort. No one guy is gonna stop that guy. He's too good, so it's complete team effort and being locked in on our game plan. And then you just try to make him take tough shots and live with the results. Ultimately, I always tell guys, Kawhi is a great player. If he shoot 50% from the field, if I can make him miss one more shot and I did my job, if I could out of 10 shots, if he's gonna go 5-for-10, if I can make that 4-for-10, then 4-for-10 becomes 8-for-20, right? I did my job. And I think that's ultimately what you have to understand when you're playing against superstar players, it's like, man, NBA coaches are the best coaches in the world, so they're going to put that guy in positions over the course of 48 minutes to have some success, no matter what you do as a defender. So ultimately as the defender, I just want, when they're putting him in all of these positions, for success. I just need to try to make it a little bit tougher, make that shot a little bit tougher. If he want to get that shot where you stand, can I make him take that shot one step further back? That's what it ultimately boils down to, but man, he's an incredible player. I was telling somebody the other day, like, having this Kawhi we're watching now and he's even better, but we're seeing him healthy. And he looked like the Kawhi that we played in the NBA Finals seven years ago. And then just as a competitor, as someone who's played him throughout my career, I'm happy to see him healthy as a guy who, he's a hard worker. Look where he started. he come in with the 14th, 15th pick or something like that, couldn't throw the ball in the ocean. Now, he's one of the better shooters in our league, so he works. To see that yearly get cut by something that he couldn't control and then to watch people talk about him like he not who he is, it was unfortunate. And so to see him playing at the level that he's playing at, competitor or not, just as a fan of basketball, happy as hell.

11:05 Draymond, yesterday Steve was praising the way that you handled the film session. What is a engaged, enthusiastic film session from you feel like and sound?

11:15 Probably a little too close to how Steve sounds, but honestly, just really trying to share different things that may not get covered. Trying to be another set of eyes for our coaching staff. They're going through so many things. When you are watching the amount of film that they're watching, sometimes that can lead to some fatigue, so what if they miss something and that one thing can ultimately help save a bucket? Save one bucket could be the game and so I just try to be an extra set of eyes for our coaching staff, for our team, share some things with them that they may not catch, share some things with them that they may not know, just from experience, is ultimately what I try to do, but I probably talk a little too much.

12:11 No.

12:11 But it's all right.

12:14 You were the first — last question, go ahead. You were the first one to amplify there's 16-game players and there are 82-game players. When did you first recognize that from what you saw?

12:27 I think early in my career. You start playing playoff basketball and initially you realize the difference. You realize the difference in intensity. You realize the difference in the amount of focus it requires. You realize how much more you have to raise your level than the regular season. And so I think initially it's going through that and being like, man. And then you see it and you start to see people fold, guys who you watched all regular season and then they get in the playoffs and you're like, whoa, who is that? And to have the level of success that we had, that we've had, you quickly realize like, ah, you bring in some guys, right? And you're like, oh man, we've played against this guy. He's crushed us. Regular season basketball, you bring those guys in, you get to the playoffs, they can't think straight, so you quickly realize, like, ah. There's guys that's made for this 82 and there's guys that's made for the 16. In an ideal world, you're made for both, but it ain't always ideal. And so me personally, I'd rather have a 16-game guy. 82, yeah you need it. It's important, but I've just seen too many guys over the course of my career and, like I said, starting early, that when they get to time for the 16, they're like a shell of themselves and quickly realize like, all right, this ain't for everybody. There's guys that get in the regular season and they're gonna get their points, they're gonna get whatever to make it look good to get their money, but when it's time to win that ain't the guy you want on your side. So I figured that out pretty early in my career, just due to the level of success that we had.

🫶💙💛

Good to hear De’Anthony Melton talk about the game plan process, as well as Steve Kerr saying Draymond Green is excited, plus Kristaps Porzingis mention that he didn’t want to give away too many of the details while acknowledging Kawhi Leonard is liable to pull up from deep, which is an added wrinkle to his game that the Clippers’ superstar has added this year.

The gathering of the scrum with beat writers midday on the road, it sure feels like the NBA Playoffs, if not for a day or two or three, although it’s just a one-game playoff because, well, it’s the Play-in “Tournament”.

Going into Wednesday’s matchup, my most intriguing thoughts included:

1. Would the rotation be squeezed à la 2021 to just eight players? UPDATE: Danny Emerman of the SF Standard tweeted on Tuesday that Kerr said in today’s practice he could go 10-11 deep. This sounds plausible considering some of the old guys are on a minutes restriction roughly classified by Steve as “we’re not playing him 40 minutes”.

2. How will the actions look, especially as we even saw a double-big pick set for one Wardell Stephen Curry by both Porzingis and Al Horford in the meaningless 82nd regular season game the other night, see timestamps:

3. And will the defense play better? Will the Clippers not be as fast (i.e., John Collins not have multiple fast break dunks) with Kawhi the focal point, which would be a silver lining to our old guys? Looks like Dray will guard Kawhi, obviously, but Melton said the best way to wear him down is to “attack him,” perhaps suggesting that they either expect Leonard to guard Melt or the offense will target Kawhi. We shall see.

Transcripts from Monday’s practice are below the paywall:

00:00 KRISTAPS PORZINGIS, PRACTICE, 2 DAYS BEFORE GSW-LAC: Okay. Obviously, good team across from us. I saw, even yesterday without them having like some of the best players, they were still a good team, know how to play, a few decent defenders, so it’s gonna be a battle, obviously, you know? So they were close to being the 8th seed. That would’ve changed the picture for them, so I think they’re gonna be hungry and we just have to be hungrier and go for it.

00:32 You’re in a bit of a three-point shooting funk right now for the past few games. You have two days to prepare. What do you do in those two days that might be different than what you would normally do?

00:41 Nothing. Nothing, honestly. I’m gonna still shoot it and I believe the next — I always believe the next shot is gonna go in. You have to have that belief, you know? Even if the shot is not feeling perfect or the wrist, or this or that, I can still make shots. I know it. So hopefully the timing will line up perfectly and I can have a good shooting game, next one.

01:06 How did it feel starting next to Al again, last game?

01:09 It was good it was good to, yeah, I mean, Al was super experienced, helps me a lot. I always learn from him, ultimate professional, so to have him out there with me, both of us can shoot. It only helps.

01:25 Could you see you Al and Draymond all sharing the floor with Draymond being obviously on Kawhi and you guys being that behind defense, too?

01:34 I don’t know. I don’t know. Not that I’m saying — I’m not saying, oh yeah, this is the perfect — you know? I don’t know. This is a little bit to the coaching staff. For sure, we can play together, of course. Draymond can guard anybody, so but I don’t know what makes the most sense. That, I’ll leave it to the coaching staff.

01:51 What do you think your presence in the paint can do to help Draymond on defense?

01:56 Yeah, I mean, of course. I have levels still to get to, like, defensively. Obviously, I haven’t been — not near my best, like, mobility-wise, in this like last — this season, in total. So but for sure I’m looking forward to doing what I can on Wednesday. And yeah, I mean, my length is still there, you know? My length is still there, just anticipating things, making the right reads, being there for my teammates, all those things I can do.

02:28 How do you feel like your offensive rhythm with Steph has kind of come along?

02:32 Yeah, I think each game’s a little bit better. Obviously, it’s not perfect from the get go, but also we barely got any time together. It’s just hard to develop some crazy plays playing 14 minutes together, so it’s a process and I’m learning stuff and picking up on these things. And I’m talking to him and to let him know what I like and this and that and yeah, I wish we had more time. I wish we had more time. Maybe we can make more time, you know? So it’s in our hands, but we have to go for it, figure that out, like, on the fly, in the Play-in game, for sure. I mean, not that I don’t know him and he doesn’t know me. It’s not like, oh, okay, we go from zero to a hundred, but for sure we can make some progress, even in this game. Like, we had yesterday a little bit of time together. We had good talks and stuff and a guy like Steph, like honestly, he draws so much attention that he can make me look good without me even doing anything, just being out there, you know? So it’s a blessing for me.

03:34 To follow up on that, how much of a benefit is it to have these two days of practice?

03:39 Of course, of course. More time, more preparation, more video, more talking, everything, so but it’s also for them, so it’s an even playing field. It’s not like we’re getting some extra time, so just getting fresh and ready for the game.

03:51 What do you feel like has affected your mobility on defense?

03:55 My weight. My weight, my rhythm. Like, I haven’t really played and I’m relatively healthy, I would say, aside maybe from the wrist and this, so yeah, I just need to lose a couple pounds, honestly. Like, I need to, you know? But and I know it sounds weird because all my career, everybody, oh, you gotta put on weight, you gotta — I’ve tried that. It doesn’t help my mobility and when I’m lighter, like how I was in Boston, it’s when I move the best, when I’m the most effective.

04:25 (Inaudible) Kawhi’s been averaging career-highs on threes, scoring. His three-point rate’s the highest it’s ever been, so how do you guys prepare, begin to prepare for a guy like Kawhi?

04:33 Yeah, he’s gonna shoot. He’s gonna shoot more. He’s gonna shoot in transition, so not to give away too much, but a big challenge on our hands, one of the best players in the world. And let’s see if we can stop him a little bit. Cool?

—

04:50 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: Because we feel like we’re better than our record given, I mean, the year that we had, so I mean, we got a game Wednesday to win another game, you know what I mean? — the following day, so I think that’s how we looking at it. And we feel like we can compete with any team, so we just gotta just take it quarter by quarter, man.

05:09 How much of an advantage is it to be able to stay here for, now, five days in a row?

05:13 Oh, most definitely, most definitely. I mean, not having to travel and not having to pack everything up, you know what I mean? — get on a plane, do all that stuff, I mean, it’s huge for us just to be able to just relax. It’s great weather, great weather out here, so just do what you want and just get ready for Wednesday.

05:31 Steve said that Draymond was very enthusiastic during film session today. What do you see as from his focus, from his mindset in this one game do-or-die kind of situation?

05:41 It’s different. It’s my first time being on the same side as them, so to see they game plan discipline, how they attack everything and how they think is huge because they’ve had a lot of success. They’ve been to the top of the top, you know what I mean? So just to see how they handle things, I mean, is important for me just to take for my career, but and having vocal leaders is important for us.

06:10 You’re an LA guy. Have you played many high stakes games in the city before?

06:14 Something like that, so but I don’t know if stakes have been this high, you know what I mean? — given what’s going on, so gotta just keep working.

06:26 How do you look back on your season, personally?

06:29 Ups and downs, but I think at the same time, I mean, I be trying to give myself grace sometimes and I think everybody else be trying to tell me, give myself grace because I want it so bad, but that’s what happens with the season that I have. That’s what happens with an injury like mine, so. It was fun and I think that’s all that matters. And right now, I mean, game Wednesday is the most important thing of the season, so that’s all I’m trying to worry about.

06:56 Kawhi had career-highs this year in scoring, three-point rate especially. How do you guys begin to game plan for a guy like him, especially when he’s been so aggressive offensively?

07:05 Attack him. Attack him, attack his dribble, attack him all around the floor. Just make it uncomfortable. Make it uncomfortable. Sometimes great players, they gonna get theirs and get their numbers and do what they gotta do. At the end of the day, you can make it tough. You can wear them down you can be physical with them and you can frustrate them, so roll around fourth quarter, see how they’re feeling around then. But dude like that, you gotta just keep attacking them.

07:35 I imagine you’ll spend some time defending Garland. What do you think about that matchup? What challenges does he pose?

07:42 Quickness. I mean quickness and I mean, he got a crazy hesi, so I just gotta make sure I don’t jump at none of that stuff, but he’s just so quick and he crafty when it gets to pick-and-roll and around the rim, so just gotta be disciplined. And I think the biggest thing for all of us and just all those guys really is just don’t foul them, like, you know what I mean? You see last four minutes of the game, we just giving team the little swipe seven times in a row, almost, so like that’s the type of stuff is just, we just can’t foul, can’t give up and-ones and yeah.

08:16 Do you feel like your quickness is fully back after the knee surgery?

08:21 Yeah, I feel like I can keep up with pretty much all the quick guards out here, but sometimes craftiness and quickness is tough to handle, so it’s a fun matchup for me. I like to guard dudes like that, you know? I feel like it tests my capabilities, so we gonna see.

08:38 To kind of follow on that, from a team perspective, what are the margins that you guys have to manage when you are playing, I guess, bigger, faster teams, more athletic teams?

08:47 Discipline. Discipline and turnovers. I mean, we’re the Warriors, so we always gotta watch our turnovers, but yeah, that type of stuff, you can’t let them dudes get out in transition, you know? They got some young dudes that attack the paint and that type of stuff. We just gotta play into our own hands, you know what I mean? Play our game.

09:08 When a guy has that kind of range though, I mean, you said discipline. When he has that range, he can shoot from 27, 28 feet, how much difficult is it in that moment to not react to a quick move here where he gets to step back on you, that he gets to where he beats you?

09:18 That’s why we pros, right? That’s why we pros. You gotta figure that stuff out, you know what I mean? Sometimes guarding deep bomb threes, you know what I mean? — sometimes you should guard them, but sometimes, I mean, it’s just a great shot, like, you know what I mean? It’s a tough one, so you gotta just be a pro. Just be a pro and see what happens.

09:40 As an on-ball defender, what can a combination of Draymond, Al and KP do for you, like, behind you?

09:47 Allows me to pressure the ball more. Allows me to be more aggressive. It allows me just to kind of be myself out there because they have so much help behind me. And, I mean, they so smart with how they handle defending the rim and switching out and being who they are that, like, it allows me to have a little more of a leeway room with try to attack the ball and try to frustrate people up there.

10:11 Going to battle with a guy like Steph Curry, I think Podz has said, like, just feels like you guys can beat anybody. When you have Steph, what kind of confidence does that give the team and everything?

10:20 Like you said, we could beat anybody when we have that man over there and I think he shows the ultimate confidence. And I think that’s what kind of resonates through the team for us, just how confident he is in us, you know what I mean? — as a team, as a group, even given injuries. And I mean, as you see, how he fought to get back. I mean, we gotta, we could just do our best and just play hard for him, like, you know what I mean? Just put our bodies on the line because he was definitely doing it for us.

10:48 How do you think he kind of looks right now, given that he’s only had like a week to kind of ramp up?

10:52 I mean, he look good. Every day is always better than the last, so I think that’s important, too, but I mean, we got the most utmost confidence in him, no matter what.

00:00 What was — what’s kind of like, I don’t know, the scripted practice, is what you’re trying to get done?

00:06 STEVE KERR, PRACTICE, TWO DAYS BEFORE GSW-LAC: We just went through a good chunk of our game plan, walked through stuff. With the game last night, we didn’t do anything live. Guys are getting shots up now, but good film session, start to lay out our game plan, but we have another day tomorrow to add to that and so we didn’t throw everything at them today.

00:27 Go more live tomorrow?

00:29 A little bit, yeah. Yeah, more drill work tomorrow and more active preparation.

00:34 Are you pretty confident injury-wise that everyone should be good to go?

00:38 Yeah.

00:39 I know you said last night Steph won’t play 40. How much do you think you can stretch him, minute-wise?

00:45 I think he’s had four games now. He stretched almost up to 30 last night, so with the two days off he should be able to get at least that and then hopefully some more.

00:59 You didn’t know for sure that it would be the Clippers in this Play-in round, but there was kind of, it was kind of trending that way. How much advanced prep were you guys able to do before this week?

01:08 Well, we have our advanced scout Scott Vaughan, who’s watched both of them pretty carefully over the last couple weeks. He was at the Portland-Clipper game the other night in Portland. He’s working with our individual coaches who have their respective scouts. This is Seth Cooper’s scout, so Seth has been tracking the Clippers the last couple weeks. Khalid Robinson has been tracking Portland, so we have a system in place so that we were ready for either team.

01:46 Kawhi is the first player to average career highs in his 14th season. Kawhi Leonard career-highs in points, three points, three-point rate is a lot higher this year. How do you begin to prepare for a guy like that? Are there things different with how aggressive he’s been offensively this year?

02:00 Well, he’s always been a great player, so I’m not sure how much you’d change now compared to when we saw him in the Finals in ‘19, for example. He’s just gotten better and better, but he’s still doing the same things. He’s just doing them at a high level, so the game plan doesn’t change but you have to recognize just how good he is, how much they depend on him. And we’ll watch everything in terms of what they’re running for him, his favorite spots to be in. We’ll have some rules for our guys that we’ve had in regular season games, too, in terms of not letting him do certain things. He’s gonna really try to get fouled. He’s going to do the NBA thing, which lots of guys are doing. BP does it for us, try to use the rules against the other team and get to the foul line, so we have to be prepared for all of that, just like they do with BP.

03:05 De’Anthony’s had a few rough shooting games lately. I’m wondering what have you seen from him over the last — ?

03:09 Well, he shot it better over the last week. He had the big game, last game. I can’t remember now who we played, but, I guess, Sacramento. He had the big second quarter. He had a good game at home before that. Shooting is up and down for everybody. It’s just part of the game, but I’m very confident. De’Anthony’s had a really good season and I’m confident in the body of work and the experience, playoff experience he has. I think he’s gonna come out and play great tomorrow or Wednesday.

03:42 What did you like or didn’t like about the two-big combination between Al and Kristaps last game?

03:46 I like it. I mean, it gives us a different look. Obviously, both guys are really good scorers we can play through. Either one of them gives us protection in the paint defensively, so I like the combination.

04:00 How does things change between them, though, having Dray on the court, too, though?

04:04 Well, we didn’t do that last night, but you’re saying if we play all three of them together? Yeah.

04:10 All three together or just having all three available.

04:12 Yeah. I mean, we’ll — It’s something we might do. It would be based on how the game is going, but it doesn’t change too much. What it does is, it forces you to make lineup decisions, who’s gonna start or who’s gonna guard the 5? Is the 5 a shooting big like Lopez? Can you have one of them on a wing? I mean, those are all the decisions that go into it.

04:43 What are the pros and cons of using Draymond as the primary defender on Kawhi compared to when you have a more free safety?

04:50 Well, the pros are that he’s the best defensive player on our team. He’s one of the very best in the league. You can put him on anybody, doesn’t matter, point guard, center, wing. And he’s gonna do a good job on those people, so and the negative is that he doesn’t play center field. He’s not there to clean other things up at the rim. He’s more out on the perimeter. And so some of that may be based on combinations, whether he guards him or not, so we have to prepare for everything.

05:24 Is that the benefit of this roster’s construction, potentially, that — ?

05:28 Yeah, having a little more size behind Draymond with Kristaps and Al, for sure we’re more capable of putting him on a perimeter player than we would’ve been before we got these two guys.

05:40 Steve, to that, Draymond doesn’t exactly back away from any challenge. Do you think he wants Kawhi for most of the game?

05:49 I wouldn’t say that. I think Draymond just wants to win, whatever that looks like. And but you’re right, he embraces every challenge, but the Clippers pose a lot of threats. Obviously, you’ve got Lopez on the pick-and-pop. He’s been shooting the ball really well. Garland has changed their look and their feel, added more speed, so we’ve gotta be cautious of giving him too much space and so there’s a lot that goes into this, not just guarding Kawhi.

06:23 Do you see any similarities in Steph and maybe Darius, to a lesser extent, in their game, the ability to stretch the floor out, be able to move a lot off the ball? Do you see any similarities there at all?

06:31 Say that again?

06:31 Darius Garland and Steph Curry.

06:32 Darius and Steph?

06:33 Yeah, do you see any kind of similarities in their game at all with the ability to extend the range, the ball movement, that kind of stuff?

06:40 Yeah. I mean, he’s a guard who can really light it up from three and penetrate and get into the paint, so guys like that are always really difficult to guard.

06:49 Draymond kind of said that, a couple games ago, like, he’s not exactly excited for this game. He, like, he’s gonna come and compete and everything, but he’s not exactly excited for this Play-in game. I guess, what’s the vibe around the team right now? Is there like a fiery sense of excitement?

07:02 That was last week. That was last week. Draymond’s very excited. Yeah, I mean, I can tell you just from going through our scout, our scouting report, he was extremely engaged and it’s basically a playoff game even though it doesn’t count. And I always wonder by the way, what if somebody gets, like, what’s the all-time playoff scoring record for one game?

07:21 It doesn’t count. (Inaudible) you mean? Playoff?

07:23 Playoff.

07:24 Jordan.

07:24 Jordan, 63? So if Steph or Kawhi gets 64 Wednesday, does it just vanish? Just disappears?

07:32 I guess we’ll see.

07:33 I guess we will. Hopefully, it’s Steph, not Kawhi.

07:36 Steve, does that one come up at the meetings at all? Like, can we count these stats for these games?

07:41 No, no, but we just chuckle about it, mainly.

07:45 You mentioned earlier with BP and his foul drawing, I think he had a play last night and maybe also the game before where he feels the contact, puts it up and it goes in, but they don’t give him the free throw. What’s the right continuation call, as you understand it right now?

08:01 The right one meaning — ?

08:03 The right way to call continuation.

08:04 Meaning the league rule?

08:06 Yeah.

08:07 As I understand it, if you’re within the gather, then it’s continuation. If you haven’t gathered yet and the foul happens before that, then it’s no free throws.

08:20 Has the way he been approaching those specific plays been the right way, or do you want to see him do something else?

08:26 It’s the right way, based on the way we officiate in the NBA, so if you can draw a foul, you just draw a foul, even if it’s not a shooting foul. You get — you’re one step closer to the bonus, so BP’s a really smart player. Those plays usually happen as he’s kind of running through the catch, as we say, and the defense is out of position and, in most leagues, college ball, FIBA, they’re not gonna call foul when you basically try to game the system. In the NBA, we reward gaming the system. And so guys have to understand that you got — you’ll see guys do the, as they’re driving and they do the swipe-through underneath. I mean, most of the league is doing that. And so this has been a big theme in the league, the last decade-plus, of understanding that the league is gonna be very black and white with their interpretation of plays. And so guys have learned how to sort of draw a lot of fouls. I think I said that very diplomatically, if I’m not mistaken.

09:43 There’s a documentary coming out about Jerry West and his life.

09:45 Yeah, I’m gonna go tonight, yeah.

09:46 What do you remember most about Jerry and what was his biggest impact on you?

09:52 Well, when I got here and he was with the Warriors, he was somebody I leaned on quite a bit. I would call him about once a month and just check in with him. Say, what are you seeing? What do you think with our guys? He was a big presence with our team. I remember watching him play, growing up here in Los Angeles when he was a Laker — kind of the very end of his career was like the early part of my NBA fandom at seven or eight years old. So I remember watching the Lakers on TV celebrate their championship. West’s one championship. ‘72? Tim (Roye)? I think it was ‘72, but yeah, so a lot of memories of him as a Laker, but more as an executive once he became the GM. And but once I got here, he became a friend and somebody I really leaned on, respected his opinion and he wasn’t shy about giving it, so he was really great to talk to about the game.

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If you’re on our Discord server (or follow the right people on social media), you know that Draymond Green and Kawhi Leonard are not playing in tonight’s season finale.

[NOTE: We have two versions of our Discord, free and VIP ($5/mo) which has real-time feeds in the context of the above.]

The fact that Leonard is out and the Trail Blazers just need to beat the tanking Kings at home in Portland tonight, tells us that the LA Clippers don’t want to risk injury to Kawhi and will just concede the 8th seed, which will result in a Clippers-Warriors 9-10 Play-in (re-)matchup on Wednesday.

So what is there to play for tonight? My detailed analysis (embedded below) from Golden State at Sacramento revealed a few problems:

1. Gui Santos was burned on multiple times by Nique Clifford and Devin Carter, exposing one of his greatest weaknesses: point-of-attack defense.

2. Kristaps Porzingis is in the midst of a slump: 7-for-21 from the field over the last two games and and 1-for-11 over the last three.

3. Gary Payton II had a brain fart and got himself ejected. Can he simply lock in and get rid of the silly stuff? I had said in the recap that Draymond also had a couple of mindless turnovers, but obviously he’s out, so he won’t be able to improve that until the actual Play-in game.

4. We know how one Wardell Stephen Curry runs his two-man actions with Dray and Gary, but how will the actions with Porzingis and Al Horford look?

Here is the whole recap in all three formats (YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts). I did not have time to compile highlights, as mentioned in the talks, but I hope to do so and remind the fandom of how beautiful the Warriors ecosystem can get — glimpses of having a squad — even though it may have been disguised by a so-called “bad loss” result in Sacramento:

I think only the fourth and second points above can be addressed tonight. I would almost wish for Santos not to play tonight, as his usage has been high and he’s been dealing with a pelvic injury. He will come off the bench, as it has been reported pregame that Steve Kerr will start Curry, Brandin Podziemskj, De’Anthony Melton, Al, and KP, so hopefully Gui gets a quasi-rest.

If he gets burned by a few Clippers tonight, that’s okay. Just clean that up by Wednesday night.

The third point above, Payton is always just hit-or-miss, mostly hit over the past few months, when it comes to not doing crazy things.

Of course, every game is a development opportunity for guys like Charles Bassey, Malevy Leons and Nate Williams, but this one game, we may not glean much. It would be nice to see Williams bounce back from a bad game against the Lakers, though.

According to SpoTrac, Bassey signed a rest-of-season contract, so he is eligible to play in the Play-in and playoffs as the 15th man. Williams is only on a one-year two-way deal, so he becomes a free agent as soon as the off-season hits.

But there might also be a subtle extra audition happening: Pat Spencer. I already talked about this at length here:

It may help his cause to have his last meaningful game produce results reminiscent of his three-game road trip run back in early December at Philadelphia, Cleveland and Chicago but barring a surprise “next man up” situation in the upcoming Play-in or playoffs, this might be his last game as a Warrior.

We will be on the live chat Watch Party tonight, per usual, rooting for no injuries, some good reps with Porzingis, but all in all, this 82nd game of 2025-26 should pass innocuously.

Tomorrow night, I’ll go live with a salary cap sheet analysis and we will dig deep as to what the Warriors can offer, say, KP and Dray (if he opts out and re-extends), add the Draft pick’s probable salary, and speculate on how that might impact Melton and, therefore, whom to pick in the Draft.

It will be a first stab at the numbers, literally starting from scratch. The following week, I’ll hop onto Yossi Gozlan’s Third Apron channel and look at possible trades.

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Good news, Moses Moody did not feel any pain when he tore his left patellar tendon in Dallas back on March 23rd (see full transcript below). And he said in Sacramento the other night that he had been dealing with patellar tendon issues since middle school:

My knees been bothering me for a while, like from middle school to high school and it’s all been patellar tendon, so I’m glad to finally get it fixed.

For his rehab, he dropped a pretty impressive name:

I don’t have a target right now. I just kind of put my head down and do the work and we’ll get there when we do. I’ve been thinking about setting some goals. I’ve been talking to my man John Doerr about OKRs and just the way to set goals and track them, track progress and figure out a plan then for success.

Back in my previous life, even before running men’s basketball leagues, my friend Paul Hsu — whom I met through hoops, thanks to a mutual family friend — helped get me a job at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the Emerging Company Services group (PwC-ECS), a very small handful of non-accountant business development staff who would help Silicon Valley entrepreneurs connect the dots with lawyers and venture capitalists.

Back in the dot-com era, the Big Three of VCs were Doerr of Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers (KPCB), Bob Kagle of Benchmark Capital and Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital, in reverse order of whom PwC-ECS had the best relationships.

OKRs stand for Objectives and Key Results, a methodology of “stretch goals” inspired by Silicon Valley legend Andy Grove of Intel, that Doerr brought to Google and Amazon. One of the most important things venture capitalists do is help grow companies from small teams surrounding the founders and scale them to global businesses, so OKRs became a tool for forming corporate culture.

Obviously, Warriors owner Joe Lacob works for Doerr’s legendary firm, KPCB, but did you know that Marissa Kagle, Bob’s wife, has been reported as serving on Golden State’s executive board, as the Kagles are minority investors in the team? She is often courtside a ways towards halfcourt from Joe and his wife, Nicole Lacob.

Perhaps not coincidentally, Moritz, who has retreated since 2012 from leading Sequoia due to health concerns, is the founder of the SF Standard, which of course has Danny Emerman reporting from Warriors games and, on occasion, feature writer Tim Kawakami.

The GSW are still represented by Sequoia in a big way, though. Mark Stevens also left the firm in 2012, but currently sits on the Executive Board of the Warriors as a minority owner. He was the partner that led Sequoia’s 1993 investment in Nvidia. Incidentally, Moritz famously has never sold a single share since.

So, Moody calling Doerr “my man”, that’s actually pretty big if you ask anyone down by Sand Hill Road.

But Moses has been continually making connections over there. He even recently created an AI version of himself:

Below is his transcript from postgame af the Warriors lost to the Kings:

00:00 Come get him now and you guys will get him back when he returns to practice sometime next season.

00:07 How have you kind of processed all the time since the injury and the surgery and everything that’s happened in between?

00:12 MOSES MOODY, POSTGAME GSW-SAC: Yeah, it’s been good just going through the processes, the stuff that we gotta do.

00:19 What is, I guess, for you the next step of rehab at this point?

00:23 Over time, we just getting more — bending it more and we have to strengthen the quad, activate the quad and all of that (inaudible).

00:33 How are you feeling?

00:35 Yeah, I feel good. It’s a unique time in my life just being able to kind of slow down. Being in NBA season, you ripping and running, doing so much, traveling so much, so being able to slow down, sit down, have a routine, get better at some stuff, it’s been cool. Talk to my family, talk to a lot of people on the phone all the time now, so yeah, just being intentional with my time is just something I’ve been focusing on and that’s been, I’ve enjoyed it.

01:02 How has it been to be around the team, this last week or so?

01:05 Yeah, it’s been cool because I’ve been away, obviously, with the surgery and the first week of rehab and all of that, so just coming back and being able to be back in the locker room, feel like a player again, be — yeah, be on the sideline, come to Chase, get the love that I got. I appreciated that a lot. That was big for me, just being able to feel it in the arena. It was — I really enjoyed it.

01:29 Kinda, I guess, you getting the surgery, I’m sure talking to a bunch of people, experts on the injury, where’s just your conference level that obviously you’re gonna miss probably a chunk of next season, but then you can kind of just resume your career?

01:42 Yeah, yeah. I’m good. I like talking to the doctor, talking to some players that’s been through it. I like what everybody’s saying and yeah, I’m confident it’ll be a good situation.

01:54 Any specific players that you were talking to?

01:58 Well, I was talking to Kelenna.

01:59 Yeah, for sure.

02:00 And talked about, like, because our injuries happened in a different way and everything, so just kind of comparing, contrast notes and, but — yeah. Yeah.

02:12 What kind of information did the doctors tell you about the recovery timeline and what will be required to recover successfully?

02:19 Yeah. Well, they told me I — for a patella tendon tear, this is the best-case scenario being straight from the bone or clear tear, so if it’s not, the tendon-to-tendon and that’s harder to make it heal and be stronger, but being from the bone, they can connect it to the bone and that’s just a better way to do it, so that was good news and then the surgery was, they said it was pretty easy. I was under maybe like 90 minutes. It wasn’t too bad, yeah. And then I was doing rehab the next day, so on my way back.

02:52 Are you, I mean, do you have any target in your mind, date-wise? Are you thinking about next season?

02:58 Yeah, I don’t have a target right now. I just kind of put my head down and do the work and we’ll get there when we do. I’ve been thinking about setting some goals. I’ve been talking to my man John Doerr about OKRs and just the way to set goals and track them, track progress and figure out a plan then for success.

03:18 Is there any advice you’re kind of taking to heart as you head into this rehab process? You said you talked to some of the players and other players and everything.

03:24 Can you say that first part again?

03:27 Is there any advice that you’re kind of taking to heart as you kind of approach this rehab process?

03:31 Yeah, my knees been bothering me for a while, like from middle school to high school, so — and it’s all been patellar tendon, so I’m glad to finally get it fixed. So, and then coming back, I think I would be able to be in a better place than I was when I left because of it and then slowing down and training movement patterns and a lot of the stuff that I’ve wanted to have the time to do, the recovery process, like that’ll be that, but then after I’m recovered, being able to really train my body and my movements in a way that I want to. I’m excited for that.

04:04 Moses, can you kind of just take us through the play that it happened on and did you instantly know something was wrong?

04:11 No, I didn’t. It didn’t hurt when it happened, so when I was going on a fast break, I thought Cooper ran from the backside and I thought we just bumped knees a little bit or something and then going back and look at it, he was nowhere near me, so I felt that, but when I looked at it is when I knew that it was something, I didn’t know what it was, but it was something, but I thought it was maybe dislocated or something and they could pop it back in and I’ll be all right, but yeah. So yeah, it was — yeah.

04:43 How many times have you watched the play?

04:45 Well, I’m not big on social media a lot and I know it’s been everywhere, so I mean, but I haven’t watched it that many times. I’ve seen it, but not a lot.

04:55 You, I mean, how do you view your season and how well you were playing? I mean, even the night that it happened, how well you were playing in that game and where you’re at your career up to that point?

05:04 Yeah, proud of it. I like the game we were having. That was the first game back from the wrist thing and it was a good game to be coming back. It was fun being out there and just the journey of my career has been a fun one and I’m at a good point, just getting better and better statistically and physically every year, so glad to continue that, figure some stuff out.

05:33 (Inaudible) feeling the fans’ energy? Have you felt like guys have felt more energy here on the team?

05:38 Oh yeah. I’m curious. You gotta ask them. I would hope —

05:43 You seem pretty optimistic. Is that a fair way to say how you’re feeling right now?

05:49 What you mean by optimistic?

05:51 Attacking glass half full, maybe? Just feeling positive and everything.

05:55 Yeah, I feel good. Sometimes you talk about optimism, it’s like a — I don’t know, but I have a — I feel good about the future. I see a clear path and just following that, I think is the task.

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It may go against roster-building optionality, but it’s sure hard not to jump on the train of one Wardell Stephen Curry.

“Coach mentioned it this morning. There’s a level of dignity and a level of competition that we can’t run from, the way that we approach things,” said Curry postgame in the locker room at Golden 1 Center…

“We’re gonna approach it the same way: dignity, competitiveness, and, yeah, confidence that you can win any game. That’s just the mentality we have.”

The Warriors started with a rotation that seemed to gel in the third quarter, turning a twelve-point deficit at halftime into a nine-point lead heading into the fourth quarter.

But Steve Kerr decided to play this one like a preseason game, sending in mostly G League players as the main guys started to hit their minutes restrictions, except keeping Brandin Podziemski and his high motor going, allowing Podz to reach that silly 30-point social media-generated personal goal.

Everything is summarized here, with an edited recap to follow and maybe a bonus highlights video to go over the beauty of the Warriors’ offense when all the pieces are clicking, at least offensively:

Stay tuned by subscribing to our YouTube channel.

“We were not good defensively,” said Kerr. “We had one good stretch in the game, third quarter where I thought we set a tone defensively. Obviously, Draymond (Green) got things stirred up a little bit and we needed that fire, that edge, but that was it. The other three quarters were really poor.”

As I stated in the uncut recap, Gui Santos was particularly bad at point-of-attack defense and there were still mindless turnovers by Curry, Draymond and De’Anthony Melton. There was even a mindless technical, two of them, by Gary Payton II, the second of which had him apparently shooting a ball during a timeout from halfcourt, which led to his ejection because it was his second tech.

“That hurt us and it's just careless,” said Kerr. “We just gotta be solid. That's what I talked to the guys in there about. It's like we're going in to Wednesday's Play-in game without much momentum, without a whole lot of continuity and health and all that. And so we're trying to put it together quickly and we're gonna have to clean up a lot of mistakes between now and then.”

But in terms of the Play-in game on Wednesday, the probable opponent LA Clippers are a slower team than the young run-and-gun Kings, so we’ll see.

Kristaps Porzingis could start getting into rhythm, as after a 4-for-12 night in Sacramento, he is now just 7-for-21 from the field his last two games, and one for his last eleven on threes, since going 5-for-5 against Denver.

Sometimes the best defense is a made basket.

So, going into another preseason-like environment for Game 82 at Intuit Dome, hopefully some of the familiar vets will stop goofing off and KP will make some shots.

It’s actually kinda simple.

Postgame video interviews with captions and transcripts from Sacramento below, including Steph, Steve, Podz and Melt — there’s also one from Moses Moody that I’ll save for its own post:

00:00 How nervous were you initially when it happened?

00:07 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME GSW-SAC: Oh, as long as it’s not my knee, I can deal with ankles. I’ve been dealing with that forever, so that was the interesting part. My knee felt pretty good, even better than last game, so I’ll take that as a positive.

00:21 How do you feel like you’re, like, where you’re at physically, but also just rhythm on-the-court-wise through the few games?

00:29 Pretty solid. I mean, the first game was pretty loud and I felt great. Last game was kind of a drag. I had a rough first half tonight and then the third quarter, we — I kind of view it more in the how we’re collectively playing because I know I’ll be able to figure out when I can get mine and force the issue, but we had a great third quarter tonight where, besides my dumb turnover on that fast break, we executed, we played with great energy on both ends of the floor and even regardless of the opponent, we put together a good run, so that’s all we’re trying to do is find those bright spots with getting guys back, me doing my part within that.

01:14 How much work do you feel like needs to be done between now and Wednesday to be ready for the Clippers?

01:18 48 great minutes. That’s all we gotta — that’s all we have in front of us. It’s a dumb answer, but it’s literally we’re trying to find all the one-liners to say and all the great narratives to lock in on. It’s weird because you have a lineup that you expect to have nine, 10 guys that are gonna play, but we haven’t really had reps, so I don’t know how else to quantify other than we have one game to find some good patterns, some good chemistry, knowing that the outcome doesn’t really matter. And then you gotta turn around on Wednesday and depending on who we play, probably the Clippers, we’ll see, but know what the challenge is gonna be.

02:05 Do you feel like you found anything with patterns of chemistry tonight?

02:10 Yes and no. I think it was just a collective effort, everybody feeling a little bit of sense of urgency in that third quarter to respond based on a pretty bad first half and we did that. That’s not just gonna be individually. It’s like playing hard, not making dumb turnovers, not giving up offensive rebounds. Offensively, we’re gonna be fine, I think, throughout the course of games, just because we have a threats out there and we can create good shots. It’s just a matter if you’re gonna make them or not, but it’s more just playing solid.

02:47 Do you happen to see Podz get his 30-ball?

02:50 You said what?

02:50 Podz get his 30-ball.

02:51 I told him we were gonna treat him like Devin Booker when he scored 70 in Boston and they lost, give him the sign and all that. I know he’s been searching for it. Everybody knew it, too, so it was fun to see him get it and the way he got it.

03:10 How much do you want to play Sunday, like how many minutes, I should say?

03:14 My normal minutes just because I haven’t done it in two months, so I think that’s the expectation.

03:20 When you say normal, you’re talking like 32 to 34?

03:22 Yeah.

03:23 And then come Play-in game Wednesday, how comfortable are you stretching it to an elimination game style or not?

03:34 I’ll be comfortable with it.

03:36 How comfortable do you expect Rick (Celebrini) to be with you?

03:39 You gotta ask them. Well, not to say we’re not all gonna be on the same page, but I find it hard to believe that the game calls for a couple extra minutes, that will — we won’t make the right decision there.

03:58 Having been at the top of this thing, what’s the motivation for a season at this stage, being in the Play-in?

04:11 I think it’s just removing ourselves from the expectations going into the year because they were way higher and we know that, but for all different circumstances and reasons, we are where we are. Coach mentioned it this morning. There’s a level of dignity and a level of competition that we can’t run from, the way that we approach things. I think I told you earlier, like, the fact that I had a chance to play and the fact that I’m out there, that comes with expectations. Whether you achieve them or not, the energy that you put into it is what makes you who you are. Whether you win, you lose, you chasing championships or not, so until we get bounced from whatever this is, like, we’re gonna approach it the same way: dignity, competitiveness, and, yeah, confidence that you can win any, like, any game. That’s just the mentality we have.

05:19 How many days did you have to pack for?

05:20 Say what?

05:21 How many days did you have to pack for?

05:24 The count was 12, I believe. Five or whatever it is through the Game 2 of the playoffs, there.

05:34 Think you’ll need all those pairs of socks?

05:36 You said what?

05:37 You think you’ll need all those pairs of socks, those 12 outfits?

05:40 I’m so happy that in 17 years, that’s the first time I’ve been asked the question right there. Absolutely. Yes sir.

05:51 Thank you. Thanks, Steph. Appreciate it.

00:00 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME GSW-SAC: Yeah, he’s doing fine.

00:01 Doing fine? What happened? What did you see in the first quarter? Did he roll his ankle or knee?

00:04 It was his ankle. Yeah, it wasn’t his knee, so that’s why I took the time out and I was worried it was his knee. I just saw him limping and he came over and he said, no, I’m fine. It’s just the ankle and I just gotta — I don’t know. He just tweaked it or something, but he’s fine. He’s fine.

00:21 Was the plan not to close with him?

00:23 Yeah.

00:23 Yeah.

00:24 Yeah.

00:25 And then do you know on Sunday, like, if that’s a game that you got, you want to keep seeing them or — ?

00:32 Well, yeah. The plan is to play, yeah, to play Steph and he wants the rhythm and to continue to build his conditioning. And I don’t know exactly how many minutes. The game is probably not gonna matter to the Clippers. Obviously, it doesn’t matter to us in terms of positioning, so we’ll have to — we’ll make sure that health is the number one priority, but rhythm comes after that.

01:03 You’re probably going to play the Clippers in the Play-in.

01:06 Yeah.

01:06 At least that seems like the likeliest option. Does not wanting to show them anything, does that come into play at all?

01:13 Yeah, for sure, for — I’m sure for both teams.

01:18 How would you diagnose some of the issues you guys had defensively tonight?

01:22 We were not good defensively. We had one good stretch in the game, third quarter where we — I thought we set a tone defensively. Obviously, Draymond got things stirred up a little bit and we needed that fire, that edge, but that was it. The other three quarters were really poor.

01:43 Did you see the combinations that you wanted to see tonight?

01:46 Yeah. Yep. Yep. Yep.

01:50 What’d you make of Gary’s (two technicals)?

01:57 I didn’t even see what he did, but I — coaches said he took a half court shot after he took the time out. Is that right? And then it went into the stands. Yeah, so obviously can’t do that, you know? That hurt us and it’s just careless. We just gotta be solid. That’s what I talked to the guys in there about. It’s like we’re going in to Wednesday’s Play-in game without much momentum, without a whole lot of continuity and health and all that. And so we’re trying to put it together quickly and we’re gonna have to clean up a lot of mistakes between now and then, but we do have some time. But we have to focus that first.

02:47 First game back with Steph was so electric. Did this feel more, like, more of a continuation from the second, where you said he maybe looked a little rusty? I just think he’s just getting his feet underneath him, you know? It wasn’t his best night, obviously, but just good for him to play and continue to get reps.

03:08 What did you like or not like about Al Horford and Porzingis and their time together? What’d you think about that pairing, how they looked?

03:15 They looked good together. I thought Al looked really good. He prepared really well over the last couple of weeks as he was getting ready for this ramping up, his minutes and scrimmaging and all that stuff, but the two of them, it was good to get them out on the floor together. We know they were good together in Boston. They’re smart players. They can play off of each other. They can both go inside or out on offense. Both protect the rim, so it’s a good pairing.

03:52 You said you don’t feel like there’s much momentum going into the Play-in. Are there things that, are there any, is there anything that you feel like gives you hope for that Play-in game or — ?

03:59 Oh, I’ve got lots of hope. I think we can win two games because I know these guys. I believe in them, but I also know that we’re not where we need to be. We just showed that tonight, so Sunday, I’d like to get more reps, have more focus, fewer mistakes, and we’ll have a couple of days to prepare and get after it.

04:27 Hi Coach, big picture about Gui Santos, what you think, what he’s done right in this season to —

04:32 I’m sorry, I can’t hear you.

04:34 A big picture —

04:35 Big picture?

04:36 About Gui Santos. You think what he’s done right (inaudible) to help him earn this position.

04:45 Yeah, Gui’s had a great year. He’s really taken advantage of the minutes with all the injuries. He’s gotten a lot better. He’s more confident than ever before and he’s, yeah, he’s a very important player for us.

—

05:02 What’d you feel like y’all kind of accomplished today? I mean, we talked about it last night, just the need to get reps with guys. What’d you feel like you kind of, I guess, got accomplished?

05:12 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Yeah, I think started the game, it was just much like feeling out and trying to do different things. And then it was kind of scattered in the second quarter and the third quarter. I think we really, that first group that was out there, really like honed in and got the game back in one, two possessions and we kind of found a rhythm there, so that was good, but we were pretty much scattered the rest of the game.

05:37 What do you make of that third quarter with all the technicals and the back and forth with the Kings and everything?

05:42 I mean, I was just laughing at a lot of it. Pretty funny stuff going out there, but everyone was just kinda having fun with the game.

05:52 Where’d you see the breakdown from?

05:54 I wouldn’t really call them breakdowns. I just, I think I did a good job of taking advantage in transition and then most teams, when Steph’s not out there, just switch everything, so just take advantage of matchups and getting to the rim.

06:11 (Inaudible question about what to practice more before the Play-in.)

06:16 I’m not sure what what Steve’s gonna want, if we’re gonna try to do some things or not because I think we’re gonna play the Clippers probably now, so it’ll be all up in the air of what he wants to do. But for me, when I’m out there, just try to hone in onto details things that we’re gonna have to do on Wednesday.

06:33 Did you learn anything about what worked or what didn’t work with that starting group with Steph and Kristaps and you?

06:39 Yeah I think we just gotta get a little bit more organized. There’s a lot of chaos out there with Steph and I don’t think KP’s quite used to that. Boston’s big on like spacing and spacing the floor and so he comes from a kind of a different system. And so just him being out there with Steph, he’s gonna learn and see things, but you gotta give it time.

07:00 Did you know your point total when you got to the line?

07:02 Everybody did. As soon as I — as soon as I missed the first one, everybody on the bench looked at me and that’s why I smiled a little bit, but yeah, they’ve just been giving me a hard time about it the whole year, yeah.

07:14 How gratifying is that on a personal level?

07:16 I mean, it’s cool. I’m blessed for sure. Last time we were here, I think Will had 30, so it was cool to replicate that. Yeah, it would’ve been bad on both ends, pizza and the account can be activated now.

07:37 You’re one game away from playing all 82.

07:40 Mm-hmm.

07:40 How much pride do you take in that?

07:42 I mean, a lot. I’ve had good vets. Like I mentioned the other day, Loon and Buddy who’ve done it before me, but I think really just after my injuries, I just found a flow on the days in between or back-to-backs that have allowed me to just be ready and be healthy through my injuries. I learned a lot about my body and how it works and by doing that, I’m able to prevent injuries before they occur. And so knock on wood, God willing, be able to play one more game, it’ll be a gratifying 82.

08:17 (Inaudible.)

08:17 Steve came in there and told us that I think the Blazers won, so they’re the 8th seed, unless, I think, they lose to Sacramento on Sunday, so fortunate for us, we’ll be able to spend a couple days in LA and get ready for Wednesday.

08:30 Is it nice to have some clarity (on the Play-in)?

08:32 I think it’s more so for the coaches, yeah. They’ve been game-planning for LA or Portland for a while now, but I think it just helps them have clarity, gives them an extra couple days now to really know who we’re playing.

—

08:43 DE’ANTHONY MELTON: I played all right. I think they came out with force and then they decided that we gonna try to come right at these guys, so you could definitely tell, but you know what I mean? We just getting ready for Wednesday and I think that’s the most important thing.

08:58 What needs to happen between now and Wednesday to get ready?

09:01 Health is wealth, man. Health is wealth. I ain’t even gonna lie. Just get healthy as possible, you know what I mean? Do what we gotta do, recover and just get ready to gear up.

09:12 Steve said he pretty much, it feels like you guys are gonna play the Clippers on Wednesday. Just what do you think about that matchup and how do you feel about playing, staying in LA for possibly five straight days?

09:22 Man, I think that’s good for us no matter who we play, you know what I mean? I think we had to get ready for whoever it was, but at the same time, it’s just not having to travel sometimes and having to travel a short distance. It’s also good, too.

09:43 (Inaudible question.)

09:43 Man, most definitely. Anytime he hit the floor, anytime any of our older guys hit the floor, like, you got a (inaudible) sometimes, so I’m glad to see him that he was able to get up and run around and still finish the game. So, yeah.

09:58 Feel good to do reps?

10:00 Yeah, most definitely. I think having mainly everybody out here, just to be able to get a feel for different lineups, different groups and see where the guys like the ball, too, was important.

10:14 How long can that process take, feeling-out process, figuring out where everybody needs the ball. You guys haven’t played with this exact group, ever.

10:24 Well, it doesn’t really matter because we have Wednesday to figure it out. You know what I mean? So, I mean, we gonna see, we gonna see.

🫶💙💛

Here were my closing statements on the latest “honest recap” of the Lakers-Warriors game:

16:27 I had some nitpicky things on Pat (Spencer). He would hit a left banker, so credit him to make a bucket before the night was over, but a swing pass to Seth (Curry) deflected out of bounds by Bronny (James). Looking at (Charles) Bassey inside, doesn’t pass it to him. Bassey has his man sealed. Those aren’t plays that resulted in points for the Lakers, but I’d like to see basketball played the right way and when there’s guys who are supposed to score out there, you gotta get those guys the ball.

16:56 Pat doesn’t really know how to do that. He does look unselfish a lot of times. He does look around, but it’s almost like looking around to make the right play than finding the right guy. He’s a good system player and you do need to run the right play when Steph (Curry) is out there. Of course, anytime Steph comes back, everybody’s gonna play better, (De’Anthony) Melton included, but when you’re just a point guard and an inability to actually execute playing the position, no matter who you have out there, you gotta go off script sometimes and just get the ball to somebody who’s probably gonna score for you in that moment in time and he can’t process that.

17:33 Maybe he’s been trained to a point where you lose some of that because the whole Steph ecosystem isn’t bulletproof. When Steph is not in the ecosystem, it is so vulnerable and so not talented, so not athletic, and of course we’re completely decimated with injuries. But when you’re trying to find the pieces around Steph, you go out and you get a Pat, you go out and you get a (Brandin Podziemski), a Gui (Santos). Those guys are good complements, but if we’re playing pickup, I’m sorry, I wouldn’t want Pat Spencer as my point guard. I don’t see any of the traditional point guard instincts. Yeah, throwing him under the bus a little bit.

18:12 I do appreciate his grit, his being available, once again playing 38 minutes, 40 the other night. I do appreciate that.

I prefer size, so I would actually waive Spencer on the last day of the season this Sunday and replace him with Nate Williams, who incidentally had a bad game and the picture above of Steve Kerr sinking in his chair is after one of Williams’ turnovers, roll into the Play-in and potentially more with an athletic wing and, of course, Bassey, who per SpoTrac has signed a rest-of-season contract. One of those three will not be eligible for the playoffs.

Below are the transcripts and videos from the loss to the Lakers, including Kerr, Bassey and Podziemski. Imo Podz is once again too over-confident in his assessment of both the Trail Blazers and Clippers not having as much experience than the Warriors. Let’s hope the basketball gods don’t feel like teaching him anything this time around:

00:00 Steve, what’s the word on LJ?

00:02 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME LAL-GSW: Sprained ankle. Sprained it pretty badly, but his foot is in a nice path right now and we’ll know more tomorrow.

00:11 Charles Bassey, he had another double-double. What do you make of the opportunities he’s creating for himself right now?

00:15 He’s played really well for us. We told him we had plenty of minutes for him when we signed him and that’s why he came. He wanted to play and he’s doing a great job, very active on the glass and nice scoring touch in the paint. He’s been very impressive.

00:34 It’s obviously been a pretty adverse couple months for y’all. Just with —

00:40 I’m sorry?

00:40 It’s obviously been a very adverse couple months with injuries, everything, losses. Sounds like you’ll get a large chunk of the rotation back tomorrow. Obviously, we know what’s ahead next week. Does this feel like a little bit of, here we go?

00:54 It does, yeah. Yeah, we obviously — we’ve been through the ringer here over the last six, eight weeks, but we’re in a position where we have a chance to get into the playoffs. We’ve got some guys who are getting healthy have a chance to hopefully put together a game tomorrow where we have what our roster would look like for the Play-in games, so tomorrow and Sunday, maybe we get a couple games to develop a little rhythm and get a swing at it. So we got some hope.

01:33 To follow on that, what do you want to see, I guess, on both sides of the ball, the next 48 hour — or the next two games?

01:38 I guess just intensity, connection defensively, talking, communicating and really being loud and being aggressive and Draymond will handle that. He’ll take care of that. And then on offense, we’ve gotta be a little cleaner. We had 19 turnovers tonight. Obviously, we put a lot of guys in some tough spots, but getting some guys back, we should be able to do a better job of taking care of the ball and executing.

02:10 Before the game, you guys honored Bert Ortiz with the Brate Award. What has he and his son meant to this organization?

02:17 Bert, Sr. and Bert, Jr., they’re amazing. The organization is basically as good as the parts, the people who are in it. And we’re really proud of the people we have at every level. And Bert has been here, really, since I got here 12 years ago with a makeshift kitchen in the Oakland facility. And he just has a smile on his face every single day, brings a lot of light to our players and he’s a really wonderful soul, so I was happy to see him receive that award. Well-deserved. He’s meant a lot to us.

03:04 Hey Steve, the other day you mentioned how Al has really kind of come out of his shell and felt more comfortable being a leader in that locker room. In a locker room with so many veterans already and a lot of leadership presence, like, what does that take? What kind of form does that take? What does that look like?

03:20 Just, you can tell when a guy’s got some wisdom, you know? Number one, the players respect the fact that he’s been in the league for 20 years, so they know he’s seen everything, but it’s the way he carries himself on and off the court, family man, very strong conviction the way he lives his life. He’s somebody all the players look up to and then he’s one of those guys who only speaks occasionally and just has a sense for saying the right thing at the right time.

03:54 Hi Steve, so with the Play-in approaching and the teams like Clippers and Blazers in the mix, so how to prepare for the different potential matchups?

04:05 Yeah, we’re trying to do some things during these games to mimic some of the coverages and some of the things we’ll see, implementing a few things here and there and we know both teams well, so we’ll be ready, but it’s really more about us and trying to find some rhythm here the next couple of games. Thank you.

—

04:33 Hey Charles, another double,-double tonight. What’s been working well for you tonight, in this stint?

04:39 CHARLES BASSEY: What’s been working what?

04:40 What’s been working well for you? I mean, I’m just going out there just to play hard, man, you know? Regardless of — we know we are down bodies today, so just wanting to get a win. But, man, just going out there playing hard, maximize every opportunity I got, so that’s what I’m doing, man. Just maximize my opportunity out there and just trying to help my team win, but we know we got a loss today, so I mean, we got another opportunity tomorrow. So that’s just what I’m doing, man, just playing hard out there.

05:10 You were on the injury report this morning with an ankle issue. You played through it. How was it, though?

05:17 I mean, I’m good. I played through ankle stuff before, but I mean, they didn’t want me — they didn’t wanted me to play, but I’m like, I mean, I gotta get the minutes, man, you know? But yeah, I told them I can go, tested it this morning, came in for treatment, tested it again this afternoon and I was good to go. I told him I’m good to play because, even though they didn’t want me to play, but I was like, I was ready to play, so just leave it out there. That’s it? Appreciate you guys, man. Thank you. That’s quick.

—

05:55 You’re on pace to play, I think, pretty much every game this year. What sort of that achievement mean to you, if you are able to do that?

06:01 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: It means a lot. I think I had Loon (Kevon Looney) do it my first year, Buddy (Hield) do it last year, so just to see the habits that they had and then just really finding a flow for me after my injuries last year, it just helped me just try to be available every game for the team.

06:19 Is there anything in your routine that you’ve been able to do to actually help that?

06:22 I think just being consistent, finding what works. If there’s two days between the game, if there’s one day, if it’s a back-to-back, just finding those solutions because it’s a little bit different for each, but really just finding it and sticking with it and trusting the process.

06:37 Hey Brandin, it sounds like hopefully you guys are getting some of these, some bodies back tomorrow and maybe for the last couple of games. What are you hoping to accomplish these last two games, as you guys head into the Play-in, in terms of — ?

06:50 Yeah, just put pieces together, put lineups together that work. I know the coaching staff’s mind is really just on Portland or Clippers, just because it’s who we’re gonna play, and so for these next two, it’s just really about building our principles and having everybody available and seeing what it looks like and going the Wednesday swing.

07:08 How difficult do you imagine that it’s gonna be to kind of try to create a new rotation with some guys who haven’t played together, basically at all?

07:18 It shouldn’t be too hard. I think we’ve got a lot of winners on our team, a lot of guys has won championships before and so to find that, especially in a one-game situation, I like our chances with that.

07:29 You take any extra pride just the way the season has gone for you in your availability and was it the injury situation the team has gone through?

07:36 I mean, the famous adage is the best ability’s availability, just always being there and who’s ever out there will always know that I’ll be out there with them. And yeah, I take it personal in a way, but I just enjoy hoops and love being out there playing, so I just try to be, if I can play, I play.

07:57 How do you think you’ve handled all of it?

07:59 I think it’s been cool for me having different roles throughout the year, being put in different situations, getting different opportunities and just seeing where I stack up in that regard. And I think a lot of learned lessons from it as well. And I think it’s gonna better me in my future.

08:17 Brandin, with all the bodies dropping and turnover in the roster and everything over the course of this season, in games like tonight, where do you find optimism going forward?

08:28 What you mean?

08:28 What are the things that tell you that — what are the reasons why you can be optimistic about what’s ahead?

08:34 I mean, we got Steph. I mean, that solves a lot of it, but I also think, like I mentioned earlier, we got a lot of winners. KP’s won a championship, Al’s won a championship, Steph and Dray. Then we got vets that have won championships, Gary, and so I like our chances when it comes to the one-game situation, especially a lot of guys from Portland haven’t been in the situation. Same with the Clippers. And so I think we have an advantage in that way, but it’d be — it’s gonna be interesting to see how we put it together.

09:04 You’ve been in a couple Play-in situations already. Just what do you take personally from those experiences, so far in your career?

09:08 Yeah, it’s just like a Game 7. You just lay it out all out there and just compete as much as you can and you try to do that without putting pressure on yourself and just go out there and it’s like another game, but you make sure you don’t have anything left in the tank, for sure.

09:23 Steve said you guys are already kind of implementing small stuff as it relates to Portland and the Clippers. I guess as a player, how much will you — are you already maybe like watching clips of Portland or — ?

09:35 Yeah. Big game tomorrow, too. Yeah, they play each other, so really good to see. I think it’ll be helpful for us. Just, I think — I don’t know if it depends on who wins, but if Portland wins, I assume Clippers are gonna play everybody against us on Sunday because they’re gonna need to win. And so we’ll be able to see it, we’ll be able to feel it against the Clippers on Sunday and then just go from there. Cool.

🫶💙💛

One Wardell Stephen Curry from the podium just before his return (April 3rd, to be exact) when asked what is still possible this season:

Hopefully, winning two Play-in games and then we have another conversation…

There is a difficult problem of either going all-in with Curry’s competitive desire or taking a moment to wonder if, with the latest serious injury to Moses Moody, it might be better to temper that and start thinking about how the 11th pick could help the injured roster for next season, assuming that player would perform better than would the 15th pick, especially from a strong Draft.

That is to say, barring Lottery miracles as well as a Curry-led run through the Play-in Tournament, Golden State right now is locked in with the 11th pick of the 2026 NBA Draft. Milwaukee is locked in for the 10th pick. If you look at the standings — in this case, Tankathon.com does a good job of turning everything upside-down for the Lottery view — the Warriors cannot lose enough games to “catch” the Bucks, who cannot win enough games, either. It is mathematically impossible.

But should the Dubs win two straight games and ascend to a seven-game playoff series as the 8th seed, to face what appears likely to be OKC, they would in essence and per NBA Lottery rules, “forfeit” their position with the 11th pick and drop to the 15th pick as the playoff team with the worst regular season record.

It’s basically straight math.

So the next question is, is having the 11th pick some kind of quantum leap better than the 15th pick?

By now, most people have heard that this is one of the deepest Drafts in recent memory. I’ve been told that the top seven or eight picks are virtual locks. In any typical Draft, the top five picks are usually franchise-altering. You could think of it as picks that have a legitimate chance of turning into a future All-Star, in due time.

That probably means there are seven or eight guys at the top of the 2026 Draft that show some combination of athleticism, skill, and talent that, on paper, have the chance at becoming a future All-Star.

That also means the closer you are to that group, such as 11th, the better chance you have of getting a solid, reliable, rotational non-All-Star piece.

But I also think, hypothetically, there’s also a better chance to move up a few spots via trade when you are at 11 than when you are at 15. Most of the teams in the Lottery are struggling and likely to hold on to their pick, but I could foresee a possibility for the GSW to maybe make a deal with Atlanta at 7th.

This is because they not only have a pretty solid roster as-is with certain positions occupied already and therefore the needs aren’t as glaring, but also their GM Onsi Saleh comes from the Warriors and, obviously, has already partnered up for a deal in the Kristaps Porzingis-for-Jonathan Kuminga trade.

I really do think the injury to Moody changed things. From a purely salary cap sheet and transactional, fiscal management lens, it makes no sense for the Warriors to win two Play-in games and enter the playoffs and thereby move down from 11th to 15th. No team worse than 12th has ever moved into the Top Four via the Draft Lottery.

Of course, we can’t automatically expect Steph — or Steve Kerr or Gary Payton II, see transcripts below — to think this way. In fact, a non-Top-Four Lottery team has snuck into the Top Four of the Draft six out of the seven times since the current rules have been in place (2019). The only time when no team leapfrogged into the Top Four was 2023. And only two times, a team in the 11th or 12th spot moved into the Top Four.

This year, if the 12th or worse team leapfrogs into the Top Four, that means the Warriors can even move down from 11th.

So to recap:

• Win both Play-in games, start the Lottery at no better than 15th, knowing that no team worse than 12th has ever secured a Top Four ping pong ball, or

• Lose either Play-in game, enter the Lottery at 11th, knowing that two times out of the seven Drafts with the new Lottery system, has the 11th or 12th team moved up — notably Dallas was 12th last year and the other time it happened was when the Lakers started at 11th in 2019.

I’m not that keen on linking talking heads, so I’ll just say without having to go hunt down the hyperlink that Bill Simmons recently theorized on a podcast that Adam Silver could make sure the Lottery ended up in favor of the Warriors for the simple fact that our beloved franchise has not done any tanking this season.

I know that the ping pong ball system is audited by Ernst & Young, LLP, and maybe I should do a video essay on this, but I would think that leader of a multi-billion-dollar organization such as the NBA will pull the levers as necessary, when necessary. Too many a Lottery have turned out coincidentally in favor of rewarding certain struggling franchises that needed that bone thrown to them: Patrick Ewing to New York, LeBron James to Cleveland and Victor Wembanyama to San Antonio, plus Joe Smith, at the time, felt like a favor for the Chris Webber debacle, and those are just off the top of my head!

Maybe Steph or Joe Lacob or Mike Dunleavy, Jr. are banking on that? 🤔 Of course, this whole issue might be a problem that takes care of itself. No reporters are gonna seek out Lacob or Dunleavy for a quote if the team can’t even win the first Play-in game.

My heart is telling me to just root for Steph’s desires and take down Portland or LA, then probably Phoenix after that. Still feels like that episode where Cosmo Kramer and the car dealership salesman go on a test drive and see how far they can go on “E”.

I’ll let Dean Chambers explain what my brain is telling me, though, if we pretend we are Lacob and need to have a sit-down with Wardell the day before the Phoenix game, to tell him that we are ruling him out with a sudden flare up of runner’s knee:

“I cannot risk one more injury for next season. Your job is to hate me for preventing you from your delusional belief that you can still win this year. I love that you are crazy enough to want that chance, like Michael Jordan in 1986 versys one of the greatest teams ever. But that’s also why he was a consistently bad decision maker as an owner. The fact we get a shot at a Top 4 pick in what looks like one of the deepest drafts this century is only right for a team that has lost its two best wings to devastating knee injuries. You just saw how much vitriol the Lakers got for keeping Luka Doncic in down, what, 40 points to that Thunder team? What if we force you at 38 years old, with what seems to be chronic knee problems, into that scenario, and God forbid, you get hurt? It’s not your job to think about that. It’s mine. And I have made my decision.”

Mr. Chambers has spoken! Now, I’m nitpicking, but my personal hopes for a Top-4 pick are probably much more tempered than everyone else’s, but I really do see a valuable rotation piece with the 11th pick. Granted, we will still need to do the homework at some point, but we will be interviewing Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net in due time to check out all the possibilities in that range of 11-15.

By the way, I did a video essay on this:

Below are the transcripts from April 3rd at practice with Steph and fellow “all-in” team members Steve and Gary:

00:00 Steph, just how’s the knee feel?

00:04 STEPH CURRY, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE HOU-GSW: Feels great. It’s been a long long process, longer than I thought, but I’m just happy to have a little clarity and a little window to get back out there and try to get to the level I was playing at and finish the year strong, so I’m excited.

00:23 There was a lot of talk about maybe shut down, why play the rest of the season for you. Why is it important for you to come back and play these last two games and into the playoffs?

00:33 I mean, I love playing basketball. That’s what I get paid to do, so if I’m healthy to play it and it’s safe to go out there and test it in live action and all the work that I’ve put in will hopefully pay off. So our season’s been different than we expected, but the fact that there is something to still play for gives all of us a lot of confidence down the stretch to try to make something out of it, and I wanna be a part of that.

01:11 What have you, what do you, what have you learned about this injury and this process and — I don’t know what kind of information you can give us on like, why you feel fine to come back — and if you think this is something that you have to monitor the rest of your career or what do you know about this injury?

01:31 I mean, more — it was more of a mental thing at first, meaning I didn’t know, to your point, I didn’t know enough about it and I thought I was gonna be out for like a week, 10 days max, let it calm down and every time I got on the court or tried to push it, then that first month, there was always — I call it a reaction or you knew it just wasn’t healing as fast as you thought, so the patience then was tough, just because it’s one of those injuries that you really just have to let rest. There’s nothing you can kind of push through or be on the court while it’s healing and it’s just a different experience than most injuries that I’ve had that have a very defined timeline and a very defined process of do this, then you’re gonna feel this, and then this is gonna heal, and then you’re gonna be able to do this, all those checkpoints. This is — every day I wake up, first thing you think about is how does it feel, so that unpredictability was definitely a struggle throughout the whole process. And then even still now, because as good as I do feel now, I hope it stays that way. It’s just a matter of getting out there and seeing.

02:52 Is it, I mean, have you been given a level of assurance or confidence that this isn’t something you’ll be worrying about next October, something?

03:00 Yes and no. There’s nothing structurally wrong with my knee, so it’s not like I’m compromised out there. It is a new normal though, if that makes sense, so just, it’s just a matter of understanding what I need to do off the court to make sure everything around my knee is strong and firing the right way. I will take full advantage of the off-season, whenever it is, to have a full reset. And then you just kind of figure out what it looks like going in the next year, but right now I kind of understand what the new normal is and it’s good enough to play.

03:42 You mentioned the off-season, but what do you think is still possible for this team this season?

03:50 Hopefully, winning two Play-in games and then we have another conversation. It’s the only thing that’s in front of us right now, so four, five games left to build momentum. It is weird that you could lose all five, win all five, it doesn’t necessarily matter, but the idea of what we’re trying to do, to be the best team come that first Play-in game and whoever we play, whether it’s Portland or the Clippers, be able to find and embrace that challenge, win one game and then have to go do it again. That’s pretty straightforward and then see what happens after that.

04:37 We know how much it means to you to be out on the court and having fun playing basketball, so how hard were these past two months for you being away from the game?

04:48 It was tough. Back to that earlier question, just because that first, that Detroit game, I knew something was wrong and when I left the court, I didn’t think I’d be gone longer than a week or so, from everything I was told. And then slowly as it started to reveal or show itself that it was gonna be a lot longer than that or — it was kind of take one step forward, two steps back kind of vibe and then watching your team kind of, I say, struggle, but with Jimmy going down and Mo going down, KP and the trade and not being available that early and wanting to get out there to play with him, seeing Draymond show up every night and give us what he has, the young guys step up, I just want to be a part of that. And that’s the most frustrating part of not being able to help, but thankfully, like I said, I’ve been working my butt off to get back out there with a little bit of time left to try to find the rhythm that I had early in the year and see where it takes us. I don’t ever — I feel like I can do anything out there and be Superman, but I understand it’s gonna take a minute to get back into the flow of things. But hopefully there’s enough reps to get ready for, that NCAA tournament kind of atmosphere where one-and-done, gotta win games.

06:12 Steph, you mentioned the new normal aspect of this. Is there any trepidation about tomorrow? I mean, are you feeling good enough where you’re past the point where you wake up tomorrow and there still could be some soreness or something like that?

06:27 It’s in the back of your mind, but even if that is the case, I know I’ve given, I’ve done everything I can to get back out there, so I don’t, I try to stay positive and optimistic, stay in the moment, and embrace the blessing to be able to play. So however it goes tomorrow, that is part of the reason I wanna come back, just to feel those, that adrenaline and the nerves and the competition. Again, after yeah, this long break and then however it plays out, I, like I said, I know I’ve done everything I can to give myself a shot and that’s all I can ask for.

07:07 To that point, how much of a relief are you feeling now that you have poured everything you can into it and now whatever happens, happens?

07:16 Yeah there was a moment in Atlanta where I thought I was gonna be a lot further along than it actually ended up being. And then you start looking at the schedule and you start counting games and the milestones that I had to get through to get back to playing and you start to panic a little bit just because there’s a point, and I’m sure it was talked about, like, I wasn’t gonna come back with one game left or just for the Play-in, so there was always like a sense of urgency on having enough of a slate of the schedule in front of me to make it make sense to come back. So there’s a little bit of angst in that moment, but working with Rick (Celebrini) and the team has been great, to have a goal of tomorrow and actually meet it and again, that’s all I can ask for.

08:14 Steph, you’ve watched, I think, 27 games. With sort of a coach’s eye and you see your team, what have you seen, the ups and downs that they’ve gone through? What are the things that encourage you, maybe some things you wanna see improve or whatever? What are the things you, I guess, taken away from what you’ve watched for your teammates?

08:35 First and foremost is the fight. We lost a lot of tough games, but I don’t think any of them have been because of a lack of effort, a will to win, guys just playing hard and playing competitive. We’ve had some tough finishes, lost some big leads, stuff that’s been really frustrating. And I know for the guys that have been out there, they want to have a lot more to show for, the spirit that they’ve been playing with, but considering all the injuries and how many games we’ve lost from guys at the top of the food chain, you have to be proud of that, being professional, showing up every day. X’s-and-O’s-wise, it’s hard to say because every game has been a different combination of guys, so it’s not like I can pinpoint anything to say this five-man unit is great, let’s do more of that or this the style of play is our identity, none of — like, it’s been kind of just trying to figure it out on a nightly basis, so I’m proud of guys for fighting through all of that. And with the Play-in situation now, like, whatever, five, six years, whatever, before the Play-in started, we would’ve had nothing really to play for, so it is kind of an interesting dynamic of no matter what our record is, we’re all looking forward to what happens in 10 days.

10:08 When you allow yourself to visualize playing with KP, what do you see?

10:14 I mean, there’s a lot of talent out there. He’s so unique and his ability to demand a double-team, at times, stretch the floor as a shooting big, be a guy that you can throw the ball to in the post or in isolation, and you have to kind of pick and choose whether you wanna leave him on an island and give him the advantage or you send a double. And I was telling him, I don’t know how people are gonna guard our pick-and-roll, so it’ll be interesting to be out there and kind of react to what defenses are gonna do, but anytime you have a talent like that and two guys that can demand attention, it’s always a good thing to create good offense and help elevate whoever we’re out there with. I’m sure it’s gonna be a kind of a feeling-out process like it always is, but I’m excited about it.

11:10 Steph, when you said you had a — would have a reaction each time you kind of pushed the knee, was that swelling, just pain, was it a certain way you stepped, you knew, okay, this thing isn’t right? Was there something that told you?

11:26 It was pain. This is a pain tolerance and if you feel pain, does that interfere with the function of what you’re trying to do? So there’s always a point where I wouldn’t — you do all these tests off the court and you do stuff to make sure it makes sense to get out on the floor and I’d feel great. And then you start running and you do your normal workout and towards the end of whatever the, however long the session was, you start to feel that pain creep back in and then the next day it would be awful. And you play that song and dance so many times over the last two months, so that was the most frustrating part. I’m sure anybody who’s had stuff bothering them or something that’s been chronic, it’s like, oh, some days I wake up and it feels great, can’t really explain why, and then you trying to make sure that feeling lasts for as long as possible. And then I, again, one step forward, two steps back a little bit, so that whole process was the unpredictability of the whole thing.

12:27 And how was that for you emotionally? Because you said, I thought I was gonna be out a week or 10 days and now, it’s two-plus months. What, how did you sort of get through that day-to-day?

12:41 It was tough. I think there was that moment after All-Star Break when I thought I was coming back after the East Coast road trip. I thought I was coming back. Most of the times long conversations about what’s going on and trying to assess where we’re at. Like I said, working with Rick has been amazing this whole process because there’s a lot of trust that we’re building towards getting me back as fast as possible, but doing it in a way that is taking care of the short-term and the long-term to the question of, will I be able to — is this something I’ll have to manage the rest of my career and all that. But I got great teammates, too. They’re always encouraging me. It is some long, dark days in the facility rehabbing and a lot of hours go into it, so it’s just a matter of reminding yourself, you’re working towards getting back as much as you can.

13:36 Steph, during this time with you out, Jimmy out, how did you see Gui Santos stepping up his game, especially offensively? And how do you think the fit’s gonna be for him now that you’re coming back?

13:50 Yeah. Gui’s taken a tremendous step forward. I think with the increased role of knowing he’s gonna be out there every night and his confidence being able to grow because he’s seeing the game the right way, he understands how he can be effective, multifaceted scorer and his unorthodox ways, great footwork, touch, shoot the ball really well. So he does a lot of things to help connect the game and it’s just good basketball, at the end of the day. It’s nothing — not say special, it is special. There’s nothing crazy other than just play, make the right pass, make the right cut. If you have an advantage, put the ball on floor. If you’re wide open, make a shot. He’s just seeing the game really well, so it’s helped us and I hope I can create more space for him and vice-versa where he’s finishing plays if teams are sending a crowd to me. So I’m excited to see the newer version of Gui I haven’t seen since I’ve been out.

15:08 Draymond was — Steve’s talked about how this has kind of been a tough year for Draymond, kind of being this last veteran standing while amid all these injuries. I’m just wondering, what have your conversations kind of been like while you’ve been injured and through this whole process?

15:24 Yeah, just maintaining the spirit of we still can make something out of this, even though, to your point, it’s been rough, him walking into the locker room not knowing who’s gonna be available. He’s been pretty durable all year and I see behind-the-scenes what he does to get his body and his mind ready to play every night. And he’s been very measured throughout this whole process, which has been great to see. And I told him, our conversations are more just don’t let go of the rope. Don’t let the situation kind of influence how you come into the arena every night because we all know as quickly as this went downhill for us, it can turn around in a way that could surprise a lot of people and give us, again, opportunity to do something special and make something out of a very tough situation. He’s obviously gotta be a huge part of that, so I’m excited to get back out there with him.

00:00 GARY PAYTON II, PRACTICE, DAY BEFORE HOU-GSW: ...like 30. That’s the only way he comes back and he’s practicing. He looks like himself, so I trust and believe he’s himself.

00:10 What do you think this team can still do this season?

00:15 Whatever we put our mind to, now that Superman’s back, so we’ll figure it out with that.

00:22 How difficult a, I guess, a path does it look like for y’all, in your mind?

00:31 Never too difficult when you got 30 with you, so you got 30 together, we got KP, we got Dray, we got Al, we got a lot of good pieces. So let’s just get there and we’ll figure it out from there.

00:43 Was there ever a time in the last month or so that you thought maybe it was better for Steph to shut it down? I don’t know. I mean, you know him so well. I don’t know what your conversation’s been like.

00:55 It’s way above my pay grade. If he says he’s coming back, then he’s coming back. If they say he’s not, I find out just like you guys.

01:05 Draymond was talking about how he likes watching Steph in those like return-to-play scrimmages and he likes rooting for the G League players and all those young guys. What is your experience watching those kind of games, those kind of situations with Steph trying to come back?

01:19 Yeah I probably, like Draymond too, just like to see the coaching staff and the G League guys get after it and play against them because I know they’re just excited to play against him, as if it’s like a regular game, so they get their shot at him. So, those games are exciting to watch.

01:41 With how good Brandin and Gui have looked without Steph, how excited are you to see them sort of play with Steph again and sort of add those skills back?

01:50 Yeah, it’s gonna be adjustment for everybody, so we’ll see how that adjustment is for everybody, how that looks for each individual, but I know everybody’s thrilled to have him back on the floor and adjust on the go. Oh, you guys are great.

02:06 Gary.

02:07 Oh.

02:07 Come on now, not that —

02:08 Gotta snuck outta that.

02:09 Not so fast, my friend. How does Steph make you better?

02:18 I get layups, wide-open layups. Easy. Hit his guy, they’ll probably blitz him and then I’m by myself, so get to play-make from there. It just depends on if the defense is gonna step over to me or not, so he makes everybody’s life easier on the court, especially me just because I know how to understand, how to get him open. If I get him open, essentially it’ll lead to me being open later, so as many open looks he gets, makes the defense adjust and then I get my looks.

02:50 And how does he change the overall energy, locker room floor, plane, whatever? How does he change the energy with you guys?

02:59 It’s like a gravity pull. Whatever he does in our locker room on the court, off the court, it’s some type of pull, force pull, so just see him available. I’m sure he gives life to players and coaches and front office. You guys —

03:22 Sorry.

03:22 Not done.

03:26 Payton, Draymond said, know how to play the game and know how to win the game is totally different. Like, what do you think about this expression?

03:35 What do you mean? With?

03:37 Like, Draymond always said, like, know how to play the game and know how to win the game. It’s totally different. Like, what do you think about that?

03:44 Oh, absolutely. Situation, in the season, where you are, knowing how to play the game definitely comes into play and knowing how to win certain games at certain points of the season with certain teams. It depends on how your team looks. Knowing how to play and when, how to — winning the game is two very different things, but you gotta take into consideration where you are in the season and how your team looks and what’s going on around you, so he is correct on knowing how to play the game and knowing how to win the game, is very two different things, but they can tie into each other.

04:25 And Coach said, Stephen is the — have the, like, quality can bring the joys back. You think why he have this, like, quality, like, can change the games by?

04:38 Because Wardell does a lot of fun, exciting things and he makes the game very fun and exciting to watch and to also be on the court with him and get him to be able to do those things, everybody has to play their part, so once he comes back, it’s just an energy because if he gets 1, 2, 3 going, maybe that fourth and fifth one is probably gonna go up and that’s how you get started and that’s how he gets started and get the crowd into it. And then from that point on, it’s just, you’re at his will and that’s where the real fun comes.

05:12 Will he bring Nick (Friedell) joy?

05:16 Will he bring Nick Joy? I don’t know, Nick?

05:19 (Inaudible)

05:20 Really? We’ll see how that first Stephen-o-flurry goes and if you can see Nick, let me know what he looks like. Yeah, send a pic. Somebody takes a picture of Nick’s — somebody take a pic of Nick’s face. You got it? Thanks guys. You guys are great.

—

05:39 Is Steph coming back?

05:42 STEVE KERR: We hope so. He is officially listed as questionable. The plan is for him to play. He’s got a feel it tomorrow, but yeah, we’ll keep him as questionable.

05:56 How is he doing right now, the last couple days?

06:00 Good. Yeah. Yeah, last couple days have gone well, fully practiced today. He’s getting his individual shooting in now. And so things have gone well.

06:12 About what has Rick (Celebrini) suggested as kind of a guideline for minutes?

06:18 Less than 48, Raymond (Ridder) told me to say, so less than 48.

06:24 In the past, when guys have come back from a long absence and maybe been limited around 20 minutes, you’ve taken them off the bench to start. Could that be a possibility for Steph?

06:35 Everything is possible, yeah. Anything. Anything is possible, I think.

06:41 That was Zaza’s line, anything is possible.

06:45 No.

06:46 Anything’s possible —

06:46 Game seven.

06:47 Game seven. Nothing’s easy.

06:49 Nothing’s easy.

06:50 Nothing is easy. Nothing is easy, but —

06:52 If it’s not easy, it’s complicated and it’s possible.

06:55 How different do you expect the team to play with Steph back?

07:00 Well, the concepts remain the same, space the floor, share the ball. The execution seems to get better. The defense has to bend his way, which opens up things for other people. The game tends to get a lot easier for everybody when Steph is out there, so we’re — we’ll still be playing our style of basketball, but yeah, it’ll be nice to have him back, assuming he’s back.

07:33 Steve, you touched on it a lot the last couple weeks. Like, Steph really wanted to come back. He made a point to come back. He very easily could have just shut down or something. Why do you think this was so important for him to get back to the team?

07:48 I mean, I guess, I guess you have to ask that because of the context of people missing games all the time, but it’s pretty simple. He’s healthy, so if you’re healthy, you play. We have a lot to play for and we’re gonna be in the Play-in, got a chance to get to the playoffs. Why else do we do this?

08:18 Steve, how hard has it been to see so many of your guys both go through all of this, this season? I mean —

08:27 The injuries, you mean?

08:28 Yeah.

08:29 Yeah.

08:29 It. Seems like it’s been one thing after another and I’m sure that that’s sad for you at moments.

08:35 Yeah, well, it’s —

08:36 But they keep going, but —

08:37 Yeah, it’s just one of those years and it’s all part of it. It’s the worst part of it, injuries, particularly the really bad ones like Jimmy’s and Moses’ where it’s a year or close to a year recovery. You just feel so badly for the players themselves because this is a short career, relatively speaking, for all of them. Even the guys who play 15 years, a whole year is, that’s a lot. And obviously you have a lot of hopes and when you get injuries you just have to keep moving forward. And there’s — you don’t really have a choice. And so even though you feel bad for the players, for your team, keep going, keep moving forward, keep trying to be at your best.

09:33 Is it a reminder of how much has to go right and — ?

09:36 For sure.

09:36 Fortunate — ?

09:38 For sure, yeah. Yeah, every championship season is filled with good fortune, good health, the ball going in the basket a couple of times. The story is written afterwards, but so much of what happens in these seasons is based on good health and good fortune. And we’ve had our — plenty of that and we’ve been on the other side like we are this year. And that’s kind of how life goes.

10:13 Hi Coach, continue the last question, from your coach experience, what do you can take from the last two months?

10:22 The last two months, we’ve had guys in and out of the lineup. We’ve tried to maintain a high level of effort and energy and I think the guys have done a really good job of that, playing through the disappointment. The last couple games have been an example of that, playing two really talented teams, Cleveland and San Antonio and you saw great effort. You saw guys scrapping until the last possession and even though we weren’t able to to win those games, the effort mattered because the effort establishes who you are as a team, as an individual. And you tend to be more prepared for when you do get healthy, if you’ve established a set of standards. And that’s why I feel really good about these last five games and the Play-in. I think we have a chance to to get through and get into the playoffs. I’m excited.

11:25 Brandin and Gui both — Brandin and Gui have both shown a lot of growth the last two months playing more expanded roles. How excited are you to see how they’re going to, I guess, fit with Steph, now that they have played a little more of a different role?

11:39 Yeah, I mean, it just makes your team stronger. I mean, I don’t have any doubt that they will fit well with Steph because we’ve seen that already in the last couple of years, but they have more confidence now and they’ll be more powerful in terms of the role that they take on. With Steph coming back, it’ll be less of a usage rate, but a lot of confidence with all the minutes, the big shots they’ve had to take, plays they’ve had to make. So when your role guys have had that kind of experience, it bodes wealth for playoff type action more than Steph’s influence on the floor.

12:24 What does his return do to the locker room, maybe offering — ?

12:28 Great energy, hope. He just brings hope to everybody. And so the sun is shining a little brighter, food tastes a little better. It’s — Steph is Steph. He brings joy to everybody, players, coaches, fans, and so, he’s a special human being.

12:54 Looks like Al got a — was doing some work in practice — it looks like Al was doing some work in practice today. How’s he sort of progressing right now?

13:00 He’s doing better. Yeah, he took part in some of practice today and he’s progressing and so there’s a chance he could play before the end of the regular season, which we’re excited about, but he’s gotta continue to take it day by day. He’s working with Rick, he’s getting on the court more, so we’ll see how it goes this next week or so.

13:21 Even with all the injuries this year, you guys lead the league in generating wide-open three-pointers. When I saw that stat, I was like, all right, like, that is a coaching stat. That means you guys are doing something right.

13:32 100%. It’s, I mean, everything starts right here.

13:37 Beyond —

13:37 Which side is my brain on? Sorry.

13:40 Beyond wins and losses, like, what are some data points, some things that you see that measure, hey, like, we’re onto something here as a staff, we’re doing our jobs right?

13:54 Well, we should lead the league in wide-open threes because we take more than anybody, so hopefully some of those are wide-open. We have been hammering home the spacing. That starts in transition, running to the corners. When you have five guys spaced well to start the possession, you’re more likely to have driving lanes. If you have driving lanes, you get downhill, you kick the ball. With five-out spacing, that’s a really good way to get open shots. We’ve done a lot of things over the years that we’ve kept. Our split cuts generate some open threes, but we’ve played a little differently, too. We’re running more ball screens, more guard-to-guard ball screens, so this season our offense has evolved. It’s changed, but the concepts are the same. We’re trying to space the floor. We’re trying to sprint the floor and, based on our personnel, we’re trying to get as many threes up as possible because we’re not a great finishing team, especially without Jimmy. We’re not a team that gets to the rim, gets fouled, finish — creates and finishes on our own. It’s just not how we’re built and so we’re gonna continue to try to do the things we do.

15:18 I guess following up on Danny (Emerman)’s question, Mike D’Antoni was inducted into the Hall of Fame today. You’ve had several battles with him over the years. Wondering what do you think his greatest influence was on the game?

15:31 Well, I worked with Mike in Phoenix. He’s a brilliant coach. I think he was really the person to change the league and the way other coaches went about their business between the pace and the three-point shooting. His Suns teams with Steve Nash, Amare (Stoudemire), who also got in today which I’m excited about, Seven Seconds or Less. The whole league changed. When I, as I look at kind of the big picture, I think Don Nelson was the guy who was really ahead of his time in that regard, going way back, but Mike is the guy who seemed to initiate this shift in small ball. Nellie did it, but it seemed like it didn’t catch on. Mike D’Antoni did it and with the rule changes in the early 2000s with the three-point shooting that Mike was really pushing, and then with the pace that he was pushing, you’ve seen what’s happened over the last 20 years or so. And I think he is really the main guy, when you think about how much the game has changed.

16:49 Coach, you always mentioned that Steph can bring the joys back and Seth Curry also talk about the point is let the fans enjoy the game and have fun.

16:59 Yeah.

16:59 You think where this games adds to come from?

17:04 Where does that come from?

17:04 Where does, like, they can enjoy the game and try to make the fans enjoy it, the game? Where does fans —

17:10 Well, I mean, number one, it’s, I mean, Steph is the most joyful athlete I’ve ever seen. He loves to play. He loves to compete. He loves to work. And that joy is infectious and it’s infectious not only with our — with his teammates, but with our fans. The question earlier about why is Steph coming back? It cuts to the core of what our business is about. We want our fans to be really excited, to come watch beautiful basketball and nobody represents that more than Steph. And so he wouldn’t be coming back if he wasn’t healthy, but he’s healthy, so he’s gonna play. And we wanna bring joy to this building. We want to bring joy to our fans. And that’s what this is about. It’s about winning? Yes, but it’s about people really enjoying to coming to the building and watching our team play and it’s the most important thing and they go hand-in-hand, obviously. This last 12 years has really shown that. We’ve been able to play a really entertaining style and win championships. And frankly, Steph is responsible for more of that than anyone. Just, he was one of the greatest players of all-time, but he’s the greatest face of a franchise in any sport that I’ve ever seen, so you throw all that together, we owe it to our fans to get them the opportunity to watch Steph Curry play basketball this year. And Steph doesn’t even think twice about that. That’s what he wants. That’s what we want. That’s what our fans want. That’s what we’re gonna do.

🫶💙💛

First off, I’ll just quote myself from the forthcoming Warriors-Rockets recap, which was first said on the livestream Watch Party last night:

Man, this is really exciting basketball. This is what fandom is all about. If you’re all about the process, which I am, and I’m trying to teach more people to be, like, it doesn’t get any better than this.

Here are the Steve Kerr and Charles Bassey transcripts from the loss to Houston:

00:00 I mean, obviously, very different energy out there maybe than the last few years. Just what was it like to be on the sideline for the kind of the waiting for it then to see him get out there and then see him do some things that we’ve up you?

00:11 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME HOU-GSW: Yeah, I mean, you can just feel it. We’re back in the mix. We’re back in the fight with Steph and that’s a hell of a team. They’ve been really hot lately and fully healthy and we took them down to the last shot, obviously, so felt good about the effort, the process. I mean, 10 turnovers, 34 assists. We played really well offensively, just couldn’t get that stop there at the end, but the guys were fantastic.

00:43 You had 20 shots, I think, in 26 minutes. I’m sorry. Steph had 20 shots in 26 minutes. You, like, it seems he’s really trying to get back in rhythm, you know?

00:51 Yeah, and there’s — I don’t think there’s a tougher defender in the league for him to have his first game against than Amen Thompson, so that’s quite a test. Steph looked amazing. He’s worked really hard for this. You can see, it doesn’t take much for him to find his rhythm and his rhythm is also our rhythm, all the off ball stuff that we get as a result of his movement, we got a lot of easy layups. Gary got layups, big one near the end based on the attention to Steph, so he changes everything.

01:30 Was it a tough decision to bring him off the bench? I know it was probably about managing minutes, but — ?

01:35 Well, he and Rick (Celebrini) talked about it and the minutes, it was gonna be 24. We went over a couple minutes, obviously, but he just decided he didn’t want to start and then sit for a long period of time, so he just said, let’s play the last six minutes of each quarter. He and Rick made that decision, brought it to me and fine with me, so what we did was we moved our other rotations around a little bit. We wanted to get Draymond and Steph together, for obvious reasons, so we changed some of the other rotations to fit Steph, but obviously this won’t last for long. He’ll be in the starting lineup soon, but I’m not sure when, just based on minutes.

02:20 Steve, you kind of touched on it a little bit, but the spacing with Steph back, just how does that change, I guess, not just for him, but just for the entire team in terms of — ?

02:30 Yeah, it changes dramatically. I mean, you pull a defender out near half court on pick-and-rolls with Steph and just opens up the middle of the floor. You saw Gary get so many lays tonight. A lot of that was just him diving off pick-and-roll, Draymond finding him, Steph finding him, but he makes the game easier for everybody, for sure.

02:53 What did you want to see? What kind of action did you want to see executed on that final possession?

02:58 Well, we didn’t want to take the time out because we wanted to keep their defensive guys on the floor. That lineup on the floor, you take the time out, they just put all their dobermans in and switch everything and it’s really, really hard to get a good look, so I haven’t seen a replay yet. My gut as our spacing wasn’t great. I think I saw three guys on one side. We wanted to give Steph a high screen pulling their weaker defenders in and he got a decent look, but It’s probably a good clip for us to have for these last games and the Play-in and just to to go over that again. I mean, I never really like to take timeouts in that situation. If there’s time, I’d rather have the chaos that ensues and the matchups that you want and so the process was what we wanted. I’m not sure we got spaced very well. I’ll have to look at it.

03:57 And then they didn’t get to share the court too much tonight, but how important is it for you guys, for Steph and Kristaps to develop chemistry?

04:05 Yeah, I mean, the good thing with Kristaps is that he’s a really easy guy to play with, for anybody. He fit in immediately with our team, as soon as he got here. I don’t think it’s gonna take a long time for those guys to feel comfortable. Both guys space the floor, both guys are really smart. They’ll find each other. There’s a couple of unique things that our team does with Steph that he’ll get used to quickly, but other than that, it’s just basketball.

04:37 Speaking of Kristaps, five fouls in the third quarter and then fouled out pretty quickly in the fourth. What’d you sort of see from him there with the foul of trouble?

04:45 Well, Sengun went inside and we were trying to guard him single coverage, so he got a couple fouls there. There was one, I think it was his fourth foul, early in the half that it was, I think he grabbed Kevin (Durant) on the rebound. That was the one that hurt. because if he doesn’t commit that foul, he doesn’t get into foul trouble and we’re okay. So he knows he that was one he’s gotta let go. It was just a long rebound Kevin got and he grabbed his arm for his fourth foul, two free throws for Kevin, so yeah, Kristaps, it wasn’t a great night for him, but Sengun’s a really tough, tough matchup and we got another one in two days. So Kristaps will be right back out there.

05:29 Steve, you talked right off the top about the belief you we’re back in the fight with Steph. Can you just further explain how palpable it feels with Steph and how he can kind of change the belief in the mood that you guys feel, like — ?

05:38 You can just hear it, right? You can hear it with the crowd. And there’s a different energy in the building and there’s a different confidence with our team. He just infuses the whole team with confidence and, again, being able to play off of him makes the game much easier for everyone else, so there’s just a momentum and a confidence. And he’s Steph Curry for a reason.

06:05 Going 11 deep tonight, I mean, how crucial is this last week here to fine tune rotations and combinations going into the Play-in?

06:12 Yeah, well, we’re hoping to get Al back. We’ll see. He’s not gonna play Tuesday, but these next few days, we’ll ramp up his workouts and maybe some 3-on-3. And if we could get him back for a couple of games, just for some rhythm and rotation stuff, then that’ll be helpful.

—

06:38 Hey Charles, how did it feel to get out on the floor tonight and run with the guys and everything?

06:43 CHARLES BASSEY: I mean, it felt great, man. Like I said, this was what I was looking, this opportunity, so it felt great just being out there, being with the players and stuff like that. So it was good.

06:52 Seemed like you got a good rhythm there. What was sort of working for you tonight, especially playing with Steph?

06:57 To be honest, man, I was so wide open, man. They were telling me that, because after I got the dunk and they called the time out, GP was telling me, yo, I know you didn’t know you was gonna be wide open. I was like, trust me bro. I didn’t know, bro, but he was just telling me, yo, just you playing with Steph, you just gotta be ready, you know? Because Steph attracts a lot of like players and stuff like that, so just like I said, you see the second pass that fumbled it. So it’s like I just gotta stay ready, knowing he’s gonna attract players and just stay ready to finish the layup or something.

07:26 You guys checked in together in the first quarter. You obviously got that standing ovation. What did it feel like to come in the game with him and feel that ovation in the crowd?

07:33 Oh yeah, it felt good, man, just the energy and stuff like that. Like I said, he gave me the first pass and that was a dunk, but it felt great, man, just seeing the crowd. This is his city and stuff. It just felt good being a part of it.

07:44 And then how much does your experience with Santa Cruz this year kind of help you for Golden State?

07:49 Yeah. It’s been great, man. Like I say, it’s mostly — so I just really just got here last night and I got here this afternoon. So it was literally just, they run the same plays, just same thing. I met the G League coaching staff here, so it was just like, just same stuff and everything is just the same. So it was good being out there and I just, I was already up to speed and it was great.

08:12 What does the team sort of communicate to you about what they expect from you the next couple of weeks?

08:18 Today? So, I just got here today, so it was just telling me — Steve Kerr just telling me what he wants from me, just what I do. Just keep doing what you do that got you here. Don’t stop doing what you do, just keep going, keep rebounding, keep running the floor, keep blocking shot. You do what you do best and I got you. Just keep doing it, you know? And that’s what I did out there today.

08:44 Oh, hi. Hello. Here, sorry. It’s okay. I was curious what’s your first reaction you know you’re gonna play for Warriors tonight?

08:55 I mean, it was great, man, because it was literally last minute, because I didn’t even think I was gonna play today, because they were trying to get everything signed and quick. So I was just asking my agent, just let me know if I’m gonna play because I got here late last night, so I had to get my rest. And but I just, I found out this morning I was playing and everything, so it was — my mindset was already, like, thinking I’m gonna play, so it was good. It was good for — we didn’t get to win, but it was a good game out there today.

09:28 Oh, sorry. What’s your experience — you experience the stadium, the vibe, especially when Stephen comes on the court?

09:37 Like I said, man, the vibe was great, man. Like you say, you could see the energies of the arena was loud. It was great, the energy, so just me coming into the game with him, I felt the energy and obviously just going into the game, you just obviously wanna play hard and just, the energy was great, man. Like you said, the guys and the coaching staff and everything was, it was a good vibe around.

10:00 Now, obviously haven’t been here long. Like you said, you just got here today, but when you look at the impact that Steph has on the floor, given the looming implications of the playoffs coming on the other side of this, does it feel like there’s a different outlook on what can be accomplished here late in the season, now that he’s healthy and he’s back?

10:18 Yeah, I mean, of course you could see how the game today was a close game. We could have won the game, could have gone any way. We could have won tonight, but like I said, man, having him back it’s a plus. It’s huge for the team. And you could see, man. You could see the vibe of the team. Like, it was different today, man. And the energy of the arena, the energy of the players, just like we could have won that game, but I mean, it went the other way. But I’m saying, like, there’s a belief right now that we could do something, for sure, this year.

🫶💙💛

Transcripts of one Wardell Stephen Curry and one Seth Adham Curry below, from postgame Rockets-Warriors.

Seth shouted out Eric Housen aka “E”, VP of Team Operations aka “equipment manager” in old school terms, for helping him secure Steph’s jersey postgame.

It was fun to see a glimpse of Housen during the broadcast on the baseline near the Warriors bench kind of pissed at a foul call by one of the refs on a foul call. No one bleeds blue and gold more than him.

Full recap coming later today to the YouTube channel plus Spotify and Apple Podcasts, but I’ve started doing something new which is including an uncut version of the recap during the livestreams. The descriptions now have chapters, too, so it’s actually in there:

00:00 How’d you feel?

00:03 STEPH CURRY, POSTGAME HOU-GSW: I felt good, some good nerves going into it and obviously coming off the bench, just you’re trying to pace yourself physically, mentally to get ready for your runs. And first run was tough. Second run was great. Second quarter, once I got my feet underneath me and obviously the momentum carried, all the work you put in rehab to get through, even 26 minutes at that level, I was very grateful, for sure.

00:35 I was gonna say it felt like the rust definitely shook off as the game went on. How much rust do you feel like is still there right now?

00:43 It’s not as much rust as it’s the endurance. Honestly, you’re kind of picking and choosing a little bit of your spots to maintain. It’s not like you’re going a hundred miles an hour the whole time and just feeling it out, but yeah, after I traveled and got my shot blocked the first two possessions, I kind of settled in nice. You do all the training and scrimmages and all that type of stuff. It’s more just getting back familiar with the speed of the game, the physicality and just embracing it and that’s how the game kind of unfolded for me.

01:19 How do you, Steph, how did you feel you and Kristaps’ fit together, in your time on the court?

01:26 I thought we have a lot more to prove out there. I know he was in foul trouble all night, but there were a couple possessions they tried to blitz me, get somebody in the pocket, KP’s spacing the floor, defense has to make a decision, so more of those reps will be great for not just me and him, but for all of us to continue to build chemistry. I want, like I said, he had foul trouble, so there wasn’t much of a rhythm for him tonight, but that group that we had down the stretch, it felt like old times, just read the defense, they overreact to me on the perimeter, GP’s going to the bucket, Draymond’s finding guys, getting guys in the pocket. It was awesome. Tough finish, obviously, but I liked the way that we finished the game.

02:17 You took 20 shots and in 26 minutes. I mean, did you come in wanting to try to shoot yourself into a rhythm?

02:24 I actually had no expectations other than knowing Houston and their style of play, style of defense, and knowing kind of where I’d be able to find some good looks. The first quarter was really just if I saw any daylight, just shoot it and see what happens and then you kind of started to get a little bit more meticulous with each possession, but when you have fresh legs, it’s kind of easy to get going, knowing that you only have six-minute stretch. You can kind of take full advantage of those minutes, shots included.

03:01 You have, I mean, you know what type of condensed week you have before the Play-in. What do you want to accomplish over the next four, three games, maybe, you’ll play and how quickly are you trying to get your minutes back to Play-in level, whatever you’ll be in the Play-in?

03:19 I think I’d say you gotta be smart and do the right things for the right reasons. And I’m sure next game will look very similar to this one and then you kind of continue to assess how you feel moving forward and make, again, the right decision, so all I’m looking forward to is Tuesday. Probably be the same kind of flow and rhythm and hopefully it’s more of the same and then we kind of take it from there.

03:46 Steph, what was it like being able to play with Seth tonight out there?

03:51 Oh man, that was special. And we’ve both had a very difficult year, honestly, him more than me with injuries. And I was joking, calling us the Rehab Brothers because it’s been like that all year, but to have that moment coming out of a timeout and talking about our matchups, I was having flashbacks to Charlotte Christian High School, my senior year, his sophomore year was the last time in an actual game. I know he was on our training camp roster in 2013, but last time we actually played a game together, my mom was in the stands. She probably didn’t have any more memory in her phone from taking all the pictures and videos, so it was, that was a dream come true, to be honest. It hadn’t really sunk in yet, except when I came out the locker room just now, Seth is very serious about taking this jersey I have on me, so I knew he’ll take good care of it, for sure.

04:54 Did it bring you back even further than high school, bring you back to the backyard and just when do you think that it will sink in when you guys can bring back the memories years from now?

05:03 I mean, yeah, all of our basketball journey from growing up watching my Pops play and I think it was this video of us in Toronto when we were up there shooting around on the court as kids, like, basketball has been a part of our whole lives and it’s what we love to do. And the fact that at this stage of both of our careers that we’ve had this opportunity, even though this is, what, Game 77 and it’s the first time actually playing together, you definitely take a moment to reflect, for sure, and when it is all said and done down the road, I’m sure we’ll put the pictures up from tonight and talk about it.

05:47 Steph, did you figure there would be no time out there, after their made basket and just kind of just go?

05:52 Yeah, we, like, we didn’t have a play call because we thought we were gonna get a stop, but the usual kind of reaction there is to try to get — they had Sengun out there — was to try to get him in a pick-and-roll and see what they were gonna do, but everything kind of got a little stagnant at the top of the key. I haven’t watched the possession to see where there might have been a better option, but it seemed like there was a wall at the three-point line and I couldn’t figure out exactly where to go, but there’s no regrets. There’s, you like the matchup with their lineup out there, thinking that you can get a good shot with whatever it was, 11, 12 seconds left, so tough, tough finish for sure, but proud of the way we fought down the stretch.

06:36 And would you consider this meaningful basketball?

06:42 We’re building towards it. We’re gonna — we have two meaningful games, hopefully, down the stretch, but this is meaningful basketball in the sense of preparing ourselves for that moment. It’s not like we can just sleepwalk through these last four games and not focus on details that’ll help us win a do-or-die game and then do it again, so yes, you can kind of feel it in the arena, too. There’s a different vibe tonight.

07:08 how’d it feel to go toe-to-toe with Kevin Durant, especially at this point in your guys’ careers?

07:16 A competitor like that, all-time great like that, you go back and forth and you’re inspired by his level. I’m sure the same, vice-versa. And we obviously have great memories together as teammates, but just, it’s still crazy we’re doing it at this level, still at this stage of our careers. And he’s two years ahead of me, so I don’t know any other words other than just kind of a gratitude of you still have the battles ahead that greats, we look forward to.

07:57 Steph, I’m sure you don’t take anything for granted, obviously, at this point in your career, but after 27 games, take me through the emotions of the day. You came out and felt like you were kinda like a prize fighter in the pregame and getting ready. And then just the emotions of the Jumbotron and then hitting some buckets and pulling out a shimmy shake, too.

08:14 This is Easter Sunday, Resurrection Sunday. This has been a special day to reflect and appreciate, again, what I get to do every day on a daily basis. The gifts God’s given me to be healthy, fight through this rehab stint and be able to get back to the court and enjoy myself, there were a lot of nerves all day. My family supported me at home and I was a nervous wreck, trying to pass the the hours before I got to the arena, but once you get back into your routine, you’ve been doing it for so long, muscle memory takes over, the adrenaline takes over, and I appreciate the fans and the reception and just the buzz that was in the arena. Because that’s what you, at a certain point, you won’t be able to tap into that, so I’m very grateful. It was a beautiful day and now I can kind of settle into how we’re gonna finish the year.

09:12 Steph, you kind of just mentioned the vibe of the arena with everyone out there, the fans being excited, but then also when you think about having to watch the last 27 games of your team being out there, did it feel different, like a different type of performance put out there on the floor? I mean, the team talked about the fact that when you come back, it’s easier to play. Did it feel like that? Did it seem like that the game kind of go in that way?

09:35 I mean, yes and no. One thing I didn’t want was just because I’m out there, for it to be like an AAU game where everybody’s just running around trying to get me the ball. Like, we need to play sound, solid, deep, disciplined basketball and I felt like we got into that and, again, we were down, I think, it was double-digits in the fourth quarter and to battle back like that, that’s you tapping into that will to win. Even though we didn’t get it done, that’s just been the hardest part of this last two months. So there’s games where it’s, the game is hanging in the balance and sometimes we struggle to score or struggle to close games and you feel kind of helpless in that vibe, so — and it’s not just me, it’s everybody like I was talking about, that group that finished, we were in lock, in unison. It was kind of beautiful to watch and beautiful to be a part of, even for us to have a one-point lead with less than 20 seconds left, so the crowd was kind of feeding off of that.

—

10:37 So what was it like to finally be out there with your brother?

10:42 SETH CURRY: It was a great moment, great moment just be out there on the same floor for the first time since high school, was special for us, special for the family. So yeah, that’s really all I could say.

10:56 Where does the jersey go?

10:59 Oh, that’s going in the mancave at home. I got my hands on that right away. In one frame, I’m gonna have that for forever, so just try to, yeah, I thought about that before I asked. I went in there and asked E. (Eric Housen) this morning. I said, as soon as the game’s over, I’m getting my hands on both of those.

11:17 Seth, Steph said that your mom probably doesn’t have any more memory on her phone left after tonight with all the videos she took. Just what do you think that this night meant for her, your family, your siblings, everybody?

11:27 It’s a dream come true, dream come true. I mean, we’ve played against each other for a while now. For us to be in the same floor together as teammates was a different dynamic and I’m sure everybody was watching on the East Coast, stayed up late watching on the East Coast and, yeah, she was over there sneaking pictures when we were both in the hall, trying to get loose and she was really excited.

11:51 What are some of your other favorite souvenirs artifacts in your man cave?

11:56 I got a few things I’m not gonna divulge it all, but I’ve been smart. I’ve been collecting some good stuff.

12:03 This may sound like a silly question, but when you think about the players that come up and they’re like, wow, I’m playing with Steph Curry. You step out there, that’s your brother, but do you step out there and feel that, like, wow, I’m playing with the best shooter the game’s seen?

12:17 Nah, not really, not really. It’s just, I mean, I know, I mean, obviously you see him doing what he did tonight, trying to lead our team to a win, but for me, I’ve watched him for so long, I know different ways. Hopefully over this next week, I can play with him a little bit more and help him out. And while out there on the floor, I’m just trying to be aggressive and trying to make the game easier for him, spread the floor, find ways to help and that’s really my mindset.

12:44 You guys have such a condensed timeline here to try to get right for the Play-in week. Does how he looked tonight, 29 in 26 minutes, does that kind of boost the idea of what maybe you guys can still be?

12:58 I mean, you kind of know, I mean, who he is and what you’re gonna get. He might not shoot it the way he did it tonight every night, but he’s gonna create offense for us. Him and his presence out there does boost everybody, makes everybody’s job a little bit easier. You don’t have to carry the weight as much and it is condensed, so, but we gotta figure out. That was a good step — we have a little learning curve of guys who have different roles throughout the season, before he came back and their confidence has grown a little bit and they have to find ways to continue to keep that up, so yeah, I mean, it does — you know who he is, but it also does reinforce some things.

13:41 Hi Seth, Coach Kerr says Stephen is the player can bring the joy back and you also mentioned about the point is let the fans enjoy the game.

13:52 Yeah.

13:52 Where this ability come from? It’s kind like a Curry’s family, like born with or, like, develop over time?

13:58 Yeah, I think in our household, my mom always just drilled in us, enjoy the game. Have fun. Let — I mean, God’s given us talent to play this game, so you wanna go out there and maximize it. And it’s not life or death out there. You wanna go out there and have fun. It’s an entertainment product. Once you get to this level, you wanna go out there and have fun, enjoy yourself, but put on a show, let the fans enjoy it, so that’s what I always tell myself before the games, is to be a light and play with a smile on my face as much as possible. And Steph has done that forever as well.

14:36 Steph said he was even dealing with some nerves, maybe before getting to the arena, at least. I mean, when did you see him first today and what were kind of the emotional state that he was in, I guess, when you saw him?

14:46 Saw him in the locker — I mean, just, we both got to the gym before the game, seemed fine. I didn’t see many nerves, so looked pretty normal to me.

14:58 With just the injuries that you and Steph have been dealing with this season, was there any doubt that tonight would happen?

15:03 There was definitely some doubt, definitely some doubt. Like I said, he didn’t know if he would be able to come back at all for a period of time there. And myself, it’s just a crazy year. I’ve been dealing with so much. Like yeah, when we came back, only had like a week or two left, so it was definitely a lot of doubt, but I think we’re both feeling a little bit better now and can close these last few games playing well and getting better and heading into the Play-in with some confidence.

🫶💙💛

Numbers can be deceiving. Yes, Brandin Podziemski just led the Warriors in games, minutes, points, shots made, three-pointers made, free throws made and rebounds while ranking third in assists and fourth in steals for the month of March, but it was also a month riddled with turnovers, bad shots, selfish early shot clock pulls, bricks, two-for-ones to end quarters where in hindsight you wished they could’ve been just one-for-ones, and on two occasions an open Kristaps Porzingis throwing his hands up in disbelief of what he just saw.

The same numbers mirage can be said of De’Anthony Melton, who is at 20 points-per-36, if you round up. With Nickeil Alexander-Walker at 22 points-per-36, you can be sure Melton’s agent will throw that number out in round one of free agent talks coming up — more on this, later, as we delve more and more int salary cap sheet possibilities.

But look closer and you’ll see an alarming 40% field goal rate and 28% three-point percentage, both categories of which directly contributed to the loss to the Cavs the other night.

Granted, the absence of one Wardell Stephen Curry skews things. For Melt, he’s essentially the best bucket-getter on the team, on paper, and therefore draws the best or second-best defender from each opponent.

For Podziemski, the void makes it enticing to assume the combo-guard role that is usually reserved for guys named Jalen Brunson or Tyrese Maxey. The lack of depth, similar pendulum-swinging by Pat Spencer — more on this in due time, too — and minutes restriction on sharp-shooter LJ Cryer also means Podz has a long leash.

The pendulum has swung something like this:

1. March 13th at Chase Center: 25-10-2 vs Minnesota with smooth playmaking in Q4, goes on the podium and, when asked by Danny Emerman of the SF Standard what he’s learned about his game and having the ball more in Curry’s absence, says, “That I can do it.”

2. March 20th at Detroit: At the end of Q1, on a pick-and-pop with Porzingis, takes a sidestep three that leaves a crack on the window over a nice closeout by Caris Levert, with KP standing at the top, open. Btw, Paul Reed had also committed to helping Levert, for some strange reason.

3. March 29th, Chase Center vs. Denver: At the end of a quarter, does the same thing again to KP, who this time leaves his arms up in exaggerated exasperation. Also could not get the ball to the 7’3” target, guarded by 6’4” Jamal Murray, as two Nuggets closed in on him.

4. April 2nd, Chase Center vs. Cleveland: only makes two mistakes as the primary ball-handler, racking up 25-4-4. To nitpick, those two mistakes were the hapless drive on Jarrett Allen (got blocked) and shooting a three with 18 seconds on the shot clock. The rest of the game was filled with ball movement and great decision-making.

I did a video essay covering points 1 through 3 above, before the Cavs game:

It’s all about the approach. When you walk onto the court thinking you’re a point guard and wanting to do Chris Paul or Manu Ginobili things, you have made a conscious decision to be unselfish.

Keep it up, BP!

Now that Steph is back, I am quite certain there will be zero guys at the top of the arc throwing their hands up, wondering why they didn’t receive the pass from Podz.

Happy to report that Podz ended the pendulum swing in 30’s absence on the up-and-up. There will still be one back-to-back coming up, though, so we’ll see if we get the Minnesota-Cleveland or Detroit-Denver version of BP.

It took Moses Moody four full years to generally become reliable with consistently more good plays than bad, each and every game — albeit Year One for Moody was a title run with very little playing time, so maybe it only took three years.

Can Podziemski get to that level of consistency by the end of his Year 3?

Oh, and rejoice! His podium after the Cavs performance was much more humble than the one after the Timberwolves. He even took the blame on one of the Max Strus daggers, see below…

00:00 Coach, considering the injury Gui Santos was dealing with, how would you describe his effort tonight?

00:10 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME CLE-GSW: Gui was great. He really battled. He made a lot of plays for us, obviously, scoring 25 points and looked — he didn’t look quite a hundred percent. I could see him moving a little gingerly, but all of our guys just played really, really hard. Just didn’t make enough shots, but our process was really good all night, took care of the ball, a lot of offensive rebounds. We won the possession game. We had our chances, 13 extra field goal attempts, so we just — sometimes just comes down to making a few shots.

00:50 Steve, De’Anthony, 2-of- 12 tonight, just physically kind of where is he at? I know you’ve said in the past he’s kind of beat up right now. Just what are you seeing from him lately?

00:58 Yeah, well, he’s a little bit out of rhythm offensively. I think that’s obvious. His shots aren’t falling right now. We know what he’s capable of. I mean, his, first three quarters of the season has been fantastic, so he’s just in a little bit of a rut and I know that he can get out of it. I know we can do some things to help him do so.

01:21 Strus hits two threes in that final two minutes to kind of put the game away. What sort of happened there in the final two minutes?

01:27 Well, the first one, it looked like we over-rotated to start the play and they got the ball behind us and then we were scrambling. And the second one, BP came over to double Harden and he just came over a half second too soon. And that left one second on the clock and so Cleveland did a great job of spreading the floor. Obviously, Harden puts so much stress on your defense and his ability to score, get downhill, get to the rim. You have to react, you have to help and they’ve got shooting to support.

02:02 Was the goal to double Harden at all costs in those last two minutes?

02:06 Not necessarily. We wanted to stay in front of him, but he got past us and when he gets past you, you’ve gotta bring help.

02:14 How do you think your team handled the stretch in the fourth quarter with the flagrant technical and then technical, technical?

02:22 Yeah, it got a little heated there for a bit, but our team handled it well. I think we took the lead after that and had our chances, but I don’t think that stretch won or lost the game. I think it was just part of a physical game, two teams playing really hard and, again, they made the big shots, Strus with the two threes, Harden the floater. They made some big shots and they deserve credit.

02:51 Draymond, 35 minutes on a back-to-back. You’ve talked about it, just playing without Steph, without Jimmy, how much it affects him with the possibility of Steph coming back to the next game, just what do you, how do you evaluate what Draymond has meant in this period as like kind of the last standing legacy guy while Steph has been out?

03:15 Yeah. I mean, I’m really proud of him. I mean, this is not an easy position to be in. He’s such a proud guy so many guys have been injured and out and he’s really carried a heavy burden, but he’s handled it beautifully. He’s playing big minutes. His defense is still elite. I thought he played a really good game tonight, nine assists and three blocked shots, only a couple of turnovers. Draymond is playing well. It’s just a matter of hoping we can get healthy and not only will that help him on the floor, but I think it’ll help his spirits and lift the locker room if we can get Steph and Al back and Quinten and head into the Play-in healthy and ready to go.

04:04 Steve, we’ve talked a lot about Porzingis and his impact on the offensive end. How much has it changed the dynamics to have a guy like Gui not just scoring 20 a game recently, but a front court player doing that? I mean, you’ve had a lot of guards, but to have a guy with some size scoring the way he’s scoring and it’s not just a few games now, it’s sort of a trend.

04:23 Yeah, it’s a good stretch. He’s playing really well. He gets the ball into the paint probably better than anybody we have. His ability to make quick moves off the dribble, get it into the paint, either score or kick it out, it’s very important. He’s creating a lot of shots for us right now. He’s an excellent player. Thank you.

—

04:49 What makes it so difficult to stay in front of Harden?

04:53 GUI SANTOS: Man, he got a lot of stuff he can do, you know? Step back threes and if the plan is sending him down the lane, he gonna drive down the lane and he gonna floater or he gonna throw it up for, they got two guys that can catch lobs, so make it harder for Draymond or QP, no KP, to help. It’s very tough.

05:17 What was your approach and the team’s approach to try to slow him down in the fourth quarter?

05:22 So I was — we were trying to not let him do what he want to do, but it’s very tough, like, you know that he wanna get to his step back left, but he can get it whenever he wants because that’s what he does for — that’s what make him be in a league for a lot of time. Also like the drives, we were like, okay, if he drives, make him drive with the right hand, but he still drive with the right hand and he got a floater, tough floater. There’s not many players that can make floaters like that, so yeah, it’s really tough, too.

05:55 Hey Gui, what are your — two back-to-back games against some quality opponents. What are your kind of takeaways from this stretch of games?

06:03 That is two great teams. Yesterday, we were more shorthanded than today. Today we have a couple more players, but it’s still very hard when you don’t have Steph out there, when you don’t have Jimmy. Been saying that a lot, but that’s the truth. That is great players. Like, that’s what they do, so don’t have them out there with us. It’s tough, but we always trying to find a way to stay in the game, to be battling with them until the end of the game. We did that today, but in a little stretch they got two threes in an important moment and that’s when they opened up an advantage on us.

06:46 I realize it’s only been a couple months now, but what stands out to you the most, playing with Kristaps?

06:55 Man, the fact that he’s in the paint for us, it’s great, on the rebounds, on the blocks, make guys missing layups. And an offense end, he’s just so big and like he can do whatever he wants. He can shoot over guys, he can pass over guys. The guys are doubling on him. He still find the best pass, best that he can and a great thing — and one thing that I love about him is like he don’t care like how many points he got. He don’t care about stats and like nothing like that. He just want to like make the winning play. And every time he’s out there, you can see like doesn’t matter if you have 30 points or he have 10 points, he always gonna take the right decision.

07:38 Gui, what’s the, just, what’s the level of excitement with this, for this team, for Steph possibly being able to come back pretty soon?

07:44 You cannot measure it, brother. Yeah, we very, very happy to have him back. Like, Steph, like I said, for me, he’s the great greatest of all time, you know? So just have a guy like that back on the court with us, even like, you know? Let’s say, because he been out for so long and he’s not gonna be a hundred percent like he was when he stopped playing, but just the fact that he’s on the court opened up a lot of space for everybody else to play, you know? So that’s gonna be great to have him back for us.

08:16 What do you — there’s been a lot of talk about him getting a chance to play with Porzingis for the first time and they haven’t played together at all. Whenever Steph comes back, what do you think that will look like with them on the court together?

08:27 That would be — that would be crazy. Yeah, like, you got Porzingis, like, can do whatever he want in the paint. You got Steph that can do whatever he want on the whole court, so pick-and-roll between both, I don’t know. I don’t know who can guard that. That’s gonna be really, really interesting to watch the next couple games. That’s it? All right.

—

08:52 How do you feel like you guys played tonight?

08:55 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: We’re good in spurts, not good in some others. Pretty much been the theme since Steph’s been out. Really haven’t put together a full game of consistency, so just say average tonight.

09:09 What kind of happened in those last two minutes when the, the Cavs kinda pulled away?

09:13 I mean, I think some of the other guys hit shots. I think coming into the game our plan was just makes the other two or other guys out there besides Donovan and James beat us and Strus hit a bunch and then Mobley and Allen got some dunks.

09:33 You and Gui combined for 50 points tonight. How do you see your development together and the feat especially offensively?

09:42 Yeah, I think, to see Gui’s development since Jimmy really went down, has been impressive. Just super-consistent person, work ethic every morning, game days. It’s usually me, him and Draymond that are here in the mornings together. And just to see him do that through the course of the year and finally get rewarded for it, it doesn’t surprise me, but just like all of us, he’s learning. There’s some good, there’s some bad, and we’re all just trying to learn together and grow.

10:15 You mentioned sort of the themes since Steph’s been out. How much is there — how much anticipation is there starting to build? I mean, he’s obviously getting closer, whether it’s Sunday or Tuesday or whenever. What’s sort of the feeling like with him on the brink of coming back?

10:30 Yeah, I mean, him coming back makes everybody’s job easier, the gravity he obtains from other teams is like none other in the NBA. And so I think a lot of us are gonna get a lot more cleaner looks compared to what we’re getting just because of that.

10:49 Brandin, you guys in the fourth quarter actually had a lead a couple of times, a couple of leads, but Max (Strus) hit a couple of big threes and they were pretty open. Is that defensive breakdown or is that just them breaking down your defense?

11:02 Yeah, I think the last one was my fault. I just looked at the shot clock and I just saw Gui up there kind of with a lot of space and I was like, it was at three on the clock and I was like, oh, if I go, I don’t think he’ll have enough time to see me pick it up and throw it and then for him to shoot. And so I’ll take responsibility for that one. And I think the other one he got was, we just gotta find a better way to rotate to guys that we know we’re not trying to allow to shoot catch-and-shoot threes.

11:31 Is there a sense that you guys should have won this game or is it just too close to say?

11:35 Of course. I mean, whoever’s out there, we think we have a chance. Definitely want to win games is important at this time of the year, but I think, more importantly, it’s about building good habits going into that little three-, four-game stretch or how many ever games we have with Steph.

11:53 Hey Brandin, what’s the level of anticipation with the team surrounding Steph’s possible return and has that changed at all in the last week as he’s seemingly got closer?

12:01 I think everybody’s excited. I think it’s been 27 games or something like that and it’ll be refreshing to have him out there. It’ll be something new, like I said, to Ron (Kroichick)’s question, just it’ll make things a lot easier for all of us, but I know he’s not gonna come back with a mindset of just give him the ball all the time. He’s gonna want us to keep playing the way we’ve been playing and his greatness will allow him to do what he does.

12:32 Hello, Brandin. You just talked about Gui Santos and his development, but how did you think about the chemistry you guys build on the court and how did you think that will benefit the team, especially when Stephen will come back?

12:47 Yeah, I think, like I said, it’s just about building the right habits and playing the right way. And I think that’s what we’ve been doing for majority of the games that we played without Steph. And I think the better the habits you build when he’s not out there, the easier it becomes when he’s out there. And so we’re just gonna try to make that transition as seamless as possible when he gets back.

13:09 When he does come back, obviously, there’s only gonna be three or four games to kind of reacclimate. What’s that process gonna look like from your perspective in terms of — because he’s obviously gonna try to be getting used to playing with Kristaps for the first time. You’ve obviously played with him a lot, but how do you sort of approach the connection part of it, I guess?

13:29 I think I don’t approach anything different. Like I said, I think his greatness is gonna allow him to fit in and just make things happen. It’ll be interesting to see how teams guard things like him and Kristaps pick-and-roll, how they decide to do that and so those things we’ll see on the fly and just adapt to it, but I think with any great player in the league, their ability to just fit in and make things happen on their own is something that Steph’s gonna do.

13:53 Podz, similar question, but less about what it might look like once he gets out there in game time action and more about what it’s looked like since he’s kind of been able to be reacclimated to the 5-on-5 in practice. How has the continuity been?

14:05 Yeah, I think he — we haven’t done much kind of live stuff together, but like all the stuff, the sets and stuff, we’ve kind of reacclimated him back into and it’s just all the kind of similar stuff we’ve done before he got injured. But like I said, I don’t assume there’s gonna be any, like, a period of time where we have to acclimate or adjust. I think it’s just gonna happen naturally.

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Loved the Carmelo Anthony reference from Kristaps Porzingis postgame after the win versus Washington:

Even my post game and my turning and maybe sometimes I jab and shoot, like, I kind of developed my own stuff from that, but some of it started with me being with Melo (Carmelo Anthony) early in my career and seeing how he jabs and shoots, just those jumpers, you know? And so obviously there’s always that. Once you see somebody daily, like, even for sure, for guards like BP or whoever, just being around Steph, for sure, influences them in an amazing way, so there’s always that, for sure.

Also, thought the angle of this picture was funny, contrasting Porzingis (7’2”) to one Wardell Stephen Curry (6’3”), courtesy USA Today/Imagn Images:

The context of the question to KP was that Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos both referenced Jimmy Butler as someone they emulate, in particular for the Wizards game. Podziemski had a good night at the free throw line (7-for-8) and Santos’ footwork in finishing plays has been a boon to the Warriors over the past week and becoming a regular trend, see full transcript below.

Ironically, I have a couple posts on deck in regards to those two guys: Podz in terms of his (wrong, imo) approach to games and Gui in terms of that footwork.

It’s interesting how we have more patience for more veteran players. The only complaint I’ve had with Kristaps was his high-turnover game against Brooklyn. I find myself extremely forgiving on his self-proclaimed shooting woes, whereas I’ve lost some patience in the moment with BP’s shot selection plus untimely gambles on defense, as well as Gui’s turnovers, subpar free throw shooting, and general lack of point-of-attack defense — deep dives forthcoming on this Substack, plus the YouTube channel.

Here are Steve Kerr, Gui, BP, and KP postgame:

00:00 Obviously kind of a scattered game, but do you grow, get even more of appreciative of what Porzingis can do for you in the middle of a kind of scatteredness out there?

00:13 STEVE KERR, POSTGAME WSH-GSW: Yeah. Yeah, I mean we’re going to him a lot when we need a basket and he’s capable of that. He probably hasn’t done a ton of that in recent years. I mean, Boston has a number of guys who are gonna kind of have the ball in their hands late, but right now we’re going to him a lot. Generally, he takes care of the ball, he gets a shot for either himself or someone else, so he’s a great weapon, and at any point in the game. And it’s really fun to watch him play.

00:47 You’ve spoken about how finding the spacing around Kristaps has been an emphasis for this team since he arrived. Do you feel like the team has kind of figured out how to space around him by this point?

00:55 I think we’re getting better with it. The biggest thing with our team is just our decision making. The first half we had three turnovers and we generally just played a solid offensive half and then second half, we got crazy again and nine turnovers, most of them unforced and we just have to understand the value of the ball. And I think it’s a little tricky these days in the NBA. Everybody’s playing so fast. Everybody’s launching threes. There are times where the NBA game just gets it looks like a pickup game at times because everybody is just launching and playing fast. And so in some ways we have to reteach the value of time and score and hitting singles decision making because all it takes is a bad shot and a turnover and the whole game flips.

01:50 Steve, you guys have talked about building good habits along the way as you get toward the end of the season. What did you see tonight, good, bad? I mean, what, what did you see tonight?

01:59 First half I saw focus offensively, simple decisions and then I thought we let our guard down defensively in the second quarter, a couple back cut layups, some poor transition, missed communication on switches, so there was good and bad tonight, but I liked the way we closed the game and had a lot of good individual performances.

02:31 Coach, we didn’t kind of know what the incentives are for some of these teams that you’ve played recently. And we don’t need to maybe start a whole conversation about that, but just from your standpoint of being a team that’s fighting for wins, what is it like for your own competitive situation, to see a team just not play its best players down the end of the game, like this happened the last two nights?

02:55 it’s definitely strange, but it almost doesn’t matter because these guys are all in the NBA and, I mean, Jaden Hardy didn’t play the first 36 minutes and then he scores 14 in the fourth quarter, so technically he’s not one of their best players, but he was their best player in the fourth quarter. And so for us, we’ve had a few of these games. Utah came or came back and beat us in Utah, Chicago beat us late, and you can say, well, they weren’t — they didn’t have this guy. They didn’t have that guy. They still have NBA guys who can’t wait to play. And so it’s a strange phenomenon. I think it’s pretty unique to this season. I haven’t really seen this in the past. I think this is different, but I always remind our guys, every one of these guys is in the NBA for a reason, and Hardy was a great example of that tonight, so we can’t take anything for granted.

04:06 Another high scoring game for Gui. It seems like things are kind of slowing down from on that offensive end. What are you kind of seeing with his patience on that end?

04:14 Well, he’s — the more reps he’s getting, the more minutes, the more confident he’s become in his shot, in his ability to get past people. I agree, I think the game has slowed down for him. I think he’s making good decisions. Tonight was a great game for him in terms of handling the ball, only one turnover and as a shot creator, we’re asking a lot of him. And he’s playing really, really well. Sam?

04:53 Steph gonna make the trip to Denver?

04:55 I’m sorry?

04:55 Is Steph gonna travel to Denver?

04:56 No, he’ll stay here with Rick (Celebrini) and they’ll get some work in this weekend. Yeah, thanks.

—

05:05 GUI SANTOS: Hello, hello.

05:07 Another high scoring game. What was sort of working tonight for you?

05:12 I think especially the confidence when you have a high confidence, when you have a team just trusting you and like playing, kind of like giving me the ball for me to create some plays and all that, that’s give a lot of confidence and it make it easier for for me to go score or either find teammates. So when you have the type of confidence, it’s great to go there and just be free, play free.

05:38 Steve’s talked about the value of valuing every possession of avoiding turnovers. Just what is the key to not turning the ball over with this team?

05:47 I think we just got a slow down, you know? We don’t need to play — of course we need to play fast, move the ball fast, but at the same time, under control, you know? When we drive, when we get into the into the paint, we gotta just stopping two feet and like I learned a lot from Jimmy. Jimmy’s the guy that every time he was driving to the paint, he was stopping with two feet. And after that he decides what he can do. He go, he can go score, he can pass the ball, he can do whatever he wants to do, so watching him allowed me to try and do that right now in. When you start doing that, you see how much that help you, you know? And the whole team had this mentality of just getting into the paint, stopping two feet and just go there and play free. Don’t worry about turn the ball over and all that because when you’re too worried about it, it’s stuff you have that is stuck in your mind and you just go there and sometimes the passes is not there. You’re anxious and make you turn the ball over, but overall, today we did a good job of that.

06:48 Did you have conversations with Jimmy about playing off two feet or was it more just you watching him?

06:55 The first time when he got here, I have a lot of conversation with him, but after a time that he was here, I was just watching him. Every time he get into the paint, he took his time and that was so easy for him to do everything, so when you learn that and watch that, that’s very, like, you see how much that works and you know why he’s that great player that he is, because he can do that all night. He can get into the paint because he’s strong, he’s tall. He can get in there and just stop and create and take the decision after that.

07:27 And these past month, few weeks, you’ve had a lot of chances to initiate offense, create your own shot. When Steph gets back, do you imagine slotting back into the role you used to have or playing more like you have been?

07:43 I think that’s gonna be game to game because there is games they double, they of course gotta double a lot on Steph. And that’s two men less on the defense and that create offense for us, so when Steph’s in the game with us, I think that’s gonna be easier for me to create offense of him because they gonna double him. And he always is a great passer. He pass the ball either in the pocket or for the guy in front of him and that’s just 4 (versus) 3 situation. You just can do whatever is easier, so I think when he get back, that would make more easier for everybody else to create their own shot on offense.

08:24 Hello Gui, Draymond mentioning on Wednesday, he said, like, team during this time, team can’t just throw in the towel because they have a young guys like you and Brandin and trying to build a career. And how do you think about his, this kind of expression and this veteran’s leadership?

08:45 So you asking about the the leadership?

08:48 Draymond’s leadership?

08:49 Yeah, so Draymond leadership is always like you can see that he’s a guy that talk to us a lot because he want us to be at our best and that’s what make him great and make him like the leader of the team, because every time we step in there, he trusts a lot in us. He been talking to us, he been like trying to put us in another level and we, me and BP, all the young guys that are here, are very grateful to have him on the team because we learn a lot with him just by watching him on defense and offensely, but also just being around him and learn how, like, to be smart like he’s on the court.

—

09:37 The third straight game, your third straight game with 20 points. Just what’s working for you on that side of the ball?

09:43 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: Getting to the line quite a bit. I think it’s helped, but yeah just taking good shots within the flow of the game and getting to the foul line.

09:53 What’s the key to getting to the foul line?

09:57 Really understanding the rules. Learned a lot from Jimmy early in the season and then just watching other players play.

10:06 What’s something that Jimmy does to get to the foul line that you’ve kind of picked up on?

10:10 I think it’s constant aggression in terms of going to the basket. The more drives you do again, the more likely you’re gonna get fouled. And so just always being aggressive, going to the rim.

10:24 Brandin, there’s a lot of talk between you guys and the coaches, too, about building good habits as you go toward the end of the season, get to the Play-in tournament. Is, do you see it happening yet? And what does it look like when you do that?

10:37 Yeah, we’re getting there. We’re showing flashes of both good and bad. Fortunately, we got to do it against Brooklyn and Washington these last two, but we’ll see what we got come Sunday.

10:51 It seems like in the last couple days people have asked you a lot about the outside noise and some of the way the fans talk about you. Do you pay attention to that at all?

11:01 Yeah, I see it. Like I said, a few days, a lot of the things I said, I probably haven’t — I probably shouldn’t have said it because it can be construed a certain, but I understand where I’m at. A lot of it is self-indictive, but all I can do is look forward and give up my all every night.

11:22 How do you kind of not let that stuff like affect how you play?

11:26 I mean, I really just try to tune it out when I’m in between the four lines. I’m not gonna think about what someone says about me on the internet. And so every day just come in with a clear head, be happy, be blessed that I’m here, and so that’s my perspective every night.

11:50 Brandin, you’re been through a lot of upside downs this season, but did you feel like the process of finding your reason back each time is quite a little different?

11:59 Yeah, I think you’re right. I’ve had little ups and downs. I think, as of late, I’ve been able to find a good rhythm, understand what’s being asked of me every night and just kind of try to follow through with that and let the result fall where it may, but like I said, I just go out there with the attitude of playing the same way I did when I first got a chance to play in my rookie year.

—

12:34 You have 5-of-11 from three-point range tonight. How’d the jumper feel tonight?

12:39 KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: I got lucky. I got lucky. Crazy. No, honestly, it’s not feeling good now, but I hit the first two or three and yeah, I kept shooting. Something goes in anyway, but what you’re gonna see once I get it right-right, you’re gonna see. Like, there’s gonna be a difference, for sure.

12:59 Kerr mentioned that they basically were going to you a lot at the end. Did that — how good did that feel? How natural did it feel for you to kind of be initiating things, either taking a shot, obviously, or maybe even making the pass?

13:13 Yeah, no, I feel comfortable in those situations. I trust myself. I’ll make the right pass. I can either get a bucket, draw a foul or create some advantage for us. And I feel good in those situations and I like those situations, so and the team trusts me.

13:39 Both Gui and Brandin talked about how Jimmy has kind of influenced them and how they play. How important is it for young players to have veterans that they can kind of not just look up to, but also emulate and take things from?

13:52 No, for sure. Like, even my post game and my turning and maybe sometimes I jab and shoot, like, I kind of developed my own stuff from that, but some of it started with me being with Melo (Carmelo Anthony) early in my career and seeing how he jabs and shoots, just those jumpers, you know? And so obviously there’s always that. Once you see somebody daily, like, even for sure, for guards like BP or whoever, just being around Steph, for sure, influences them in an amazing way, so there’s always that, for sure. And yeah, obviously we have Al and guys like that, that are very experienced and you could always learn something from them. Good? Cool.

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Draymond Green gave an impassioned eighteen-minute postgame Q&A! Only comments I’d like to make are:

1. I’m still not sure I agree with letting one Wardell Stephen Curry come back and play (see previous article). The loss of Moses Moody to a long-term injury effectively leaves the Warriors with nine players under contract for 2026-27, seven of which are playable on Opening Night. I would be really careful with those remaining seven. You have to be more and more careful the more bodies you lose.

2. On that note, I would actually want to shut down Green himself, although the team only played ten players against Brooklyn. It’ s all about asset management and, in this case, asset protection. Nate Williams has only six games remaining where he can be active under the two-way contract rules and there are still nine games to go. Malevy Leons was listed as out with an illness. LJ Cryer, De’Anthony Melton and Kristaps Porzingis all seem to be playing with minutes restrictions, still. It might be hard to shut down Draymond just due to the need for bodies to get through any given 48-minute game without wearing guys out, but we shall see.

3. I’m not as worked up about Victor Wembanyama’s campaigning for MVP as Draymond is, because I am at peace with the fact that a select group of media members votes on the award. I’ve said it a million times: I don’t waste my time with CRAP (comparisons, rankings, awards and predictions). I’m all about the process, so when a select group of media members have voted for decades along the lines of “what name will look credible on the Wikipedia page (it used to be in sports almanacs) for NBA MVPs,” you will get a certain type of selection. I also understand that an NBA player like Dray would be extra-sensitive to these awards because they are literally tied to salaries, whether directly or indirectly. That part is unfortunate and that rule should be improvised.

Here is ye embedded video and ye transcript (paywalled) from postgame vs. the Nets. It will be taken out from under the paywall when the next article on this Substack gets posted, so if you are a free subscriber, you will just have to wait a little bit…

00:00 The (Play-in) tournament, do you care about that? Do you kind of, have you already gone about it as if you guys were gonna be in it? Just kinda what your thoughts on that?

00:07 DRAYMOND GREEN, POSTGAME BKN-GSW: Yeah, I definitely thought we was already in it, but great to clinch. Yeah, I thought we were in it already.

00:24 Steve said that you think you guys might be a little dragging, a little bit after seven games in 11 days. How are you feeling and what do you think of that?

00:32 You get back home, that first game is always tough after a long road trip like that, so to be expected, but I actually feel pretty good.

00:46 When you see that you guys are averaging, I think, 24 turnovers over the last four games, what do you think has going on there?

00:53 We can’t get sped up. I think we’re starting the game off getting sped up, not having proper space and getting to our spots and it kind of starts this domino effect, so then you have the first few turnovers and then it’s mental, right? So then all of a sudden you second guess a pass, then you throw the pass, and now it’s too late and so guys just gotta get outta their own heads. Play the game. The game tell you to pass, pass the ball game. Tell you to shoot, shoot the ball, you know? But I think it’s quite a bit mental, if you ask me.

01:35 A career high 31 points for Gui. As a fellow second round pick, how much can you relate to the work he’s put in to get to this point?

01:42 Man, you want my honest answer or you want me to sugarcoat it a little bit? My honest answer is when Gui got here, he did not look like an NBA player and he just put his head down, work every single day. You come in the gym early, he’s here, usually finishing up. You get here early on your time, he’s usually finishing up. What he’s been doing, he came in earlier today, he’s in here and so he worked to become this guy. He didn’t show up and then all of a sudden he just got an opportunity to show what, who he is. Like, he worked to become this person. You’re talking countless hours in Santa Cruz. Never once has complained, has always stuck to the process. And like I said, from the day that he got here, he never veered off the path. Stayed head down, working, and he’s getting the opportunity now to show everything that he’s working on and the game that he’s built. And it’s a beautiful thing to see, but I think for me personally, what I admire the most is just seeing him climb to become this guy. Look at earlier in the year, he got on the court just by going to get offensive rebounds. He didn’t get on the court by doing what he’s doing right now. He got on the court by — he was going to go get a rebound offensively, defensively. He was going to get the board and afforded himself an opportunity to then show who he is. And so, I mean, I couldn’t be happier for a guy. To watch him blossom into what he has.

03:29 You guys have won six games since the All-Star Break.

03:33 That’s nasty.

03:33 That’s not the win rate you are accustomed to here. How are you finding meaning in a really tough span with a lot of injuries?

03:42 Who, me or the team?

03:44 You and the team?

03:45 Myself, you just can’t be the guy that quit when it gets tough. I’ve had some incredible years here, been a part of some incredible teams, banners, all that stuff, and it’s great and when that stuff is happening. You want to be at the forefront of it. You want to embrace it, enjoy it, all of those things. It’s great. When it goes a little left, you can’t jump off the train. You can’t walk around and pout. You can’t throw in the towel or what was everything that you did before? We use a word around here all the time, front runners. And I think we, one thing we did through our dominant run was took advantage of front runners and I can’t give that to these guys, you know? Could I throw in the towel? Possibly. But does that — what does that look like then for Gui Santos? But what does that look like for Brandin Podziemski? You’re talking guys who’s trying to build themselves a career. De’Anthony Melton came back here after year off, trying to build back to where he was. You can’t just throw a towel in on them. That’s just not, it’s not who I’ve ever been, and it’s not who I’m going to become, you know? I’d rather go out there and get my head beat in every night and I walk off the court, I’m gonna go home with my family, my kids, wife and I always say at the end of the day, the day gonna end. But I can go home knowing, all right, we won or lost, regardless, but no matter the circumstance, I’m gonna go out there and give what I can give. And with that, I can sleep at night. If I just quit and throw — I hate seeing guys who throw in the towel in this league, you know? But then they come back, next year starts, they come back. The respect that you lost throwing in the towel, don’t just pop back up. You lost that respect. That is gone. And I, one thing I can tell you as someone who’s taken advantage of guys who struggle to gain in the respect department, it ain’t a fun place to be, you know? No one respecting you. The NBA is a hard, hard life. It’s a hard — take that with a grain of salt. I know guys make money. I know, but I’m talking about to continue to do it, it’s hard. Like, to do that on a nightly basis is tough. Try doing that with no respect for you, and that battle could just get steeper uphill, so I pride myself on respect but you don’t gain respect in the great times. That’s just never how it’s been because we all can show up and smile and feel great when times are great, but I made a commitment to this organization long ago. And the commitment that I made wasn’t on the dotted line that I signed, didn’t say all good times lie here. Everything that come with that, you have to embrace. And so to be a part of this organization on the way up was magnificent. When it go down a tad, I’m not jumping off the train. It is what it is and I have a lot of pride a lot to fight for, but most importantly, I can’t throw the towel in on these guys, you know? Who do they turn to then? So I try to provide that for them In this time where Steph is out, Al is out, Jimmy’s out. I try to just be a steady force that looks different every night, but try to be a steady force to where they can turn and know someone’s in the foxhole with them that’s been there. And try to give them confidence in that way.

08:17 Kind of along those lines, what are you seeing with Steph right now behind the scenes and how hard is it for you, or even maybe for him, to look at the clock kind of ticking on this season?

08:29 I think it’s hard to look at the clock kind of ticking because you just know he want to play. Like, he want to be out there. And so it’s not hard for me looking at the clock tick away, like, oh man, like what he doing? Like, is he gonna get back? Like, that’s not how we operate, but I think where you get a little worried is he wants to come back and he hasn’t. That’s when you start looking at the clock tick. Like, hold on, man. Like, not from a standpoint of, like, yo, when he’s coming back? But just, like, I know he’s working to get back. And if not now, what’s going on? I think you, you more so get a little worried than anything, but not from a standpoint of, like, oh man, like, he gonna come save the day. From a standpoint of, like, man, your brother down, what the hell’s going on, you know? Do you think he should come back? I think you — it’s a slippery slope, telling the guy who love basketball you can’t come back and play basketball when they feel like they’re healthy enough to play basketball. So I think if there’s an inkling of a doubt with his knee, no. A no, but if he’s healthy and he can play, absolutely, because that’s what you put the work in for you put the work in to give yourself a chance to have a great season to get into the postseason and flourish on that stage. And so — and you don’t know how many opportunities you get. You could — you can always kick the can down the road and say, oh man, we’ll get back at it, but that don’t always work like that. We kicked the can down the road last year, we didn’t kick the can down the road. Unfortunately, Steph got hurt, but say we kicked the can down the road last year, like, oh man, we’ll get it back next year and then look at this year, you know? So you gotta take advantage when you can and I know he’ll be out there if he’s healthy, but I think if there’s an inkling of a doubt that he’s not in the space that he needs to be in, no, I don’t. But I think that for anybody. I think everybody — when we play this game, we want to be a hero. We all want to throw you a cape on and come save the day, but if that risk future injury for him, I don’t think anyone would be in agreeance that that’s the right move. Whether we’re 35-38 or 58-12, if you’re not healthy, gotta play the long game, too.

11:11 Dray, I know you guys just played a stretch of games without Moses. Did it feel any different tonight just coming after the injury that he suffered and knowing the seriousness of it, or was it just the same?

11:24 I think you feel the presence more in there than out there. Once you get on the court, you just playing with the guys that’s out there with you. No one’s out there, like, oh man, Steph was right here or Moses was right there or if Jimmy — like, you can’t play the game of basketball that way, but where you do feel is absence is in there, the spirit that he brings on a daily basis. Loon (Kevon Looney) has a little thing he used to do when we’re getting ready to leave the locker room. Moses took over that. All of a sudden you don’t hear that today. You notice it more in that stuff than the game. Obviously, you miss him on the court, but again, when you’re out there on the floor, you’re not worried about who you’re missing. You’re trying to figure out what you need to do to win. But his presence, you miss more than anything.

12:11 I just wanted to take you off topic for a second. Wemby the other day was really kind of vocal about his MVP case. You’re a guy in the past who’s has vocalized your own case. I’m just curious how you took that, just like his willingness to come out ?

12:28 I hated it and I absolutely loved it. And the reason is because — the reason I hated it, is because until Wemby said defense is 50% of the game, it was like, oh man, no one realized that, right? Like, no one realized that 50% of the game we play is on that end of the floor, so he comes out and make this profound ass statement and it’s, like, oh, of course it is. And everybody’s, like, oh man, he has a great point. Hello? You think? So I hated it because he had to do that. For that to then be said, all of a sudden you turn on the TV and everybody’s, like, actually maybe Wemby is the MVP. And I can agree with that. Maybe he is, but the fact that he has to come out and remind people, hey, y’all see what I do over there? It’s, like, an indictment on the game of basketball and everybody talk all of this stuff about, oh man, you gotta play both sides and everybody wanna crush Luka Doncic when Luka doesn’t live up to the standard of defense, but we got this guy defending entire teams and no one took it into account until he said, well, number one, defense is 50% of the game. I want to give him so much credit for such a profound statement, but honestly, was it really that profound? But it’s so true. And yet it took for him to say that for everybody to say, oh man, he’s right about that. And so that’s a little bit of it and yet, and still I love what he said, but there’s some doubt. My goal is by the end of the season, there’s no doubt. Like, I love the way he was approaching it and the reality is I said, I hate it, but I’m just telling you, man, in these awards, if you don’t talk, people can’t see. You’re talking a game of basketball. Let’s not act like everybody can just open their eyes and know what’s going on. We know that’s not the case, so when you’re talking these awards, I know everybody’s, like, oh man, you said this or such and such said this about themselves. Until Evan Mobley finally said something last year, nobody was gonna give him Defensive Player of the Year. Then he finally said something, he’s like, oh, alright, maybe we’ll take a look. So the reality is, if you don’t come out and speak for yourself, it don’t work and I tipped my cap to Wemby for being willing to sit up there on that platform and say, this is why. Not hide from the question, not say, oh man, they’ll figure it out. No they won’t. I’m happy he’s smart enough to know they won’t figure it out. You don’t help them see it? Damnit, they can’t see. Got blinders on because I don’t know how people don’t see this. 7’6, whatever you’d like to describe him as, chasing a guard around the three-point line and then somehow get back to the rim to block. I don’t know how that’s hard to see. Like, that’s not difficult to see. Some cases on defense, you say, oh man, the stats ain’t there. Wemby blocks shots, so even if you want — if you can only see the stats, well, this guy blocks everything, so say we don’t see it because of the stats. Well, there’s no excuse for this one, so maybe the conversation need to be had of, again, why do people not appreciate defense? But then everybody throw out these things of, oh man, we wanna see the game played a certain way. No, the hell y’all don’t. You don’t wanna see the game played a certain way. What you wanna see is someone score the basketball because here’s a guy that had to say, hey man, it’s 50% of the game to get his point across.

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