There was a brief moment Sunday morning when it felt like the tournament might get interesting again.

As I walked toward the seventh hole at Edgewood Tahoe after a slow start to the day in the nearby media room, I glanced at the large leaderboard. One Wardell Stephen Curry II had climbed to 51 Stableford points.

Mardy Fish, who ended the first round with an eagle to propel him past Joe Pavelski and Annika Sorenstam at 52 points, sat at 54. Sorenstam held what turned out to be a brief lead with 55.

Four points! It was a deficit of eleven when the day started. With more than half the round still to play, that gap didn’t feel as impossible as it did in the morning.

Then I saw Victor Keys, one of the Warriors’ own video producers, walking past, setting himself and his equipment up for the eventual putt at that hole.

“He's off to a good start,” I said.

“Yeah,” he replied, “but he just hit the water.”

Moments later, the leaderboard changed. Curry’s double-bogey on the sixth hole dropped him two points, and from there the uphill climb became even steeper.

Over the next several holes I watched a few birdie opportunities slide past the cup. The tee shots remained strong. His approach play was solid, but golf has a way of magnifying the smallest mistakes. Before long, it became less about chasing Fish, Pavelski and Sorenstam and more about preserving another impressive finish.

Third place. On paper, it doesn’t jump off the page the way his unforgettable victory in 2023 does, but after spending another four days at the American Century Championship, I couldn’t shake a different thought.

What if we’re looking at the wrong comparison?

A Different Kind of Competitor

Throughout the week, one observation from our photographer Bianca Rhodes of B.Marie Photography stayed with me.

“I think it’s been a little different so far because Steph wasn’t goofing around as much and it seemed more serious the past two days.”

Rhodes has photographed Curry at Edgewood for years. She knows what relaxed Steph looks like. This year felt different. Not joyless. Focused.

Steph’s own comments throughout the tournament backed that up. After Friday’s opening round, he didn’t spend much time talking about birdies. Instead, he talked about bouncing back from adversity.

His favorite moment wasn’t a spectacular shot. It was saving par on the famous 17th hole after avoiding another big mistake:

Later, he explained something that may have been the most revealing quote of the entire week:

The idea of how do you pace yourself over the three days... not get too ahead of yourself when you get on a birdie streak and not get too deflated when you have a double... that emotional discipline is tough.

Then he made the comparison that, not being a golfer at all myself, but born to love the game of basketball, I could actually resonate with:

I play a sport that if I turn it over, I can go back and try to get a stop... Out here... you’ve got to stay in the moment as much as you can. It’s really hard out here.

That doesn’t sound like someone treating golf as an offseason hobby. That sounds like an elite competitor trying to solve a different puzzle.

Why Third Place Might Actually Be More Impressive

It’s easy to forget just how unusual Steph’s situation is. Fish and Pavelski have devoted enormous amounts of time to tournament golf. In fact, both regularly play in the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions every January — Pavelski won it in 2025 and Fish did so just six months ago. Steph obviously can’t partake in that yet.

His calendar is still built around an NBA season, playoff runs, international commitments (more so nowadays Li-Ning China tours than actual basketball — I’ve been told nothing is imminent this summer in China so far), recovery, and training.

He skipped the ACC entirely in 2024 because of the Olympics. Last year, he arrived after recovering from a hamstring injury, a Warriors playoff run that included a grueling seven-game series against Houston and, well, not having played at Edgewood since his 2023 championship.

This year? He still finished third, not because celebrity golf is easy, but because Steph Curry is extraordinarily competitive.

The Rick Rhoden Blueprint

During Thursday’s media session, Fish mentioned a familiar name to longtime followers of this tournament: Rick Rhoden. “The best athlete golfer in the world,” Fish said.

Most sports fans remember Rhoden as a Major League Baseball pitcher, mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Golf fans might know him differently. After retiring from baseball at age 36, Rhoden devoted himself to golf.

He won his first American Century Championship at 38. He would go on to become the tournament’s most decorated champion, winning it six times. He came remarkably close to earning full status on the PGA over-50 seniors’ circuit, now known as the Champions Tour, eventually competing in multiple Champions Tour events through sponsor exemptions and qualifiers before later enjoying tremendous success on the celebrity golf circuit.

That raises an intriguing question: What happens when Curry eventually has the same luxury Rhoden did?

No NBA training camp, no 82-game season, no playoff series. Just golf, twelve months a year.

It’s difficult to imagine someone as obsessive about improvement as Steph not taking another leap once basketball is no longer demanding nearly every day of his calendar.

Will that mean multiple American Century Championship titles? Could it eventually include a serious run at PGA TOUR Champions qualifying?

Nobody knows, but after watching him this week, it feels like a possibility.

The final day wasn’t only about scores. Our photographs captured something else entirely. The hugs with longtime caddie Jason Richards after good shots, the constant joking between the two, Steph pausing to sign golf balls before tossing them to kids lining the ropes, a dunk at the basketball hoop near the 17th tee, family traditions continuing with Dell and Seth Curry — even as Dell claimed this year’s Curry family championship belt.

Afterward, Steph reflected on what mattered most:

The memories you create with the week you spend here is awesome… Golf's given me so much... the camaraderie... meeting new people... I think so much good comes out of it.

That’s exactly what Edgewood feels like every July. The competition is genuine. So are the friendships.

Third place won’t be remembered the way 2023’s championship will, but years from now, if Curry is lifting another ACC trophy — or chasing a place on the PGA TOUR Champions circuit — we may look back on the summer of 2026 a little differently.

Not as the year he finished third, but as the year it became clear that golf wasn’t simply his offseason passion anymore. It looked like the early blueprint for whatever comes after basketball.

Just remember there’s one caveat to Curry following in the footsteps of Rhoden onto the PGA TOUR Champions circuit: because that would effectively establish Steph as a (senior) pro, he would lose his eligibility to play at the American Century Championship.

Then again, the HGV is in January so before Curry ever earns pro status, fans might be able to add Orlando to the current amateur celebrity tournament list that has Tahoe on it.

Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself and I’m certainly no Nostradamus, but let’s be grateful we can enjoy Steph’s presence in nearby beautiful Tahoe every July, whether or not that’s for another ten to fifteen years or so… 🔮

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There may very well be a “transaction after the transaction” waiting in the wings as LeBron James mulls his decision. We’ve already discussed how likely it is that the Warriors would have to get off of Moses Moody’s contract should the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level be utilized — and, no, the contract of Brandin Podziemski is not enough, based on cap sheet calculations and the requirement to stay under the first apron in doing so.

But there may be one more.

Nothing really slips past our Discord Knowledge-Base and back on June 28th, a little over two weeks ago, the great Michael Scotto of HoopsHype — in the midst of a bevy of other big names mentioned right before the official start of free agency — reported that Golden State were among several teams showing interest in Brandon Williams:

While in Portland, new Mavericks general manager Mike Schmitz joined the Trail Blazers as an assistant general manager months after the team gave current Mavericks guard Brandon Williams his first opportunity to be an NBA player during the 2021-22 season. Four years later, Schmitz is beginning his tenure as Mavericks general manager, and Williams is coming off the best season of his career, averaging 13.0 points and 3.9 assists in 66 games, including 15 starts, for Dallas last season.

Several teams are expected to show interest in signing Williams as an unrestricted free agent, including the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors, Boston Celtics, and the Mavericks, who want to retain him, league sources told HoopsHype. Dallas has Early Bird Rights on Williams entering free agency this summer.

Incidentally, by now, two weeks later, I think we can rule out a return to Dallas. One quick look at Yossi Gozlan’s CapSheets.com shows the rebuilding Mavs with 15 guaranteed contracts already, many of them young guys, all underneath the names of four familiar long-time vets.

So why do I think Dallas may already be out of the running—and why could Williams be connected to Golden State’s much larger LeBron, Melton and Moses Moody decisions? That is where the cap sheet, one longstanding personal connection and the Warriors’ possible next transaction begin to intersect.

Read more

One of the advantages of covering the American Century Championship year after year is that you begin to notice the subtle differences.

On Friday, Bianca Rhodes of B.Marie Photography said something that perfectly captured the mood of one Wardell Stephen Curry II’s opening round.

“I think it’s been a little different so far because Steph wasn’t goofing around as much and it seemed more serious the past two days,” Rhodes told me.

That wasn’t a criticism. If anything, it was recognition that Steph arrived at Edgewood ready to compete. After all, everyone who has played this tournament understands one reality: if you fall too far behind on Thursday or Friday, you’re probably chasing for the rest of the weekend.

That focus showed throughout a first round that finished with 25 Stableford points, good for third place behind the familiar names of past recent champions Joe Pavelski and Mardy Fish.

One of my favorite photographs from Friday wasn’t even a golf swing. It was Steph standing at the famous basketball hoop beside the 17th hole, ball in hand, reminding everyone that no matter how seriously he’s taking the tournament, he’s still Steph Curry.

The biggest moment of the day came at the par-3 17th. Due to the crazy winds, Steph found the beach area but recovered beautifully, saving par and keeping his round alive.

On 18th, he apparently took some advice from his caddie Jason Richards, with Richards joking he “almost got fired,” but actually getting the dap from Curry:

Afterward, Steph didn’t talk about birdies. He talked about resilience:

“17 was my favorite part of the day. Those are the parts, avoiding another double, keeping your round going.”

That’s probably the best summary of Friday. Not perfection. Patience.

After a costly four-putt on No. 12, Steph regrouped instead of unraveling. He made a long par putt on 13, escaped trouble on 17, and kept himself firmly in contention heading into the weekend.

As he explained afterward in the media room, “I was happy I didn’t get too rattled after the double and kept my round together.”

For someone who only plays a handful of competitive golf events each year, Steph admitted that the biggest challenge isn’t mechanics. It’s emotional discipline.

“You don’t want to get too ahead of yourself when you get on a birdie streak and not get too deflated when you have a double,” said Curry. “You’ve got to stay in the moment as much as you can.”

That mindset probably explains why Bianca noticed a different version of Steph this week: Less joking around, more focus.

Friday wasn’t all business, though. The Curry family tradition continued as Dell, Steph and Seth Curry once again battled for the family’s unofficial championship belt.

Steph laughed afterward that Seth, the two-time defending champion, might not be quite as confident after Friday’s round.

“They brought the belts out on 17 today. It’s such a cool tradition with my dad and my brother,” said Steph.

Those family moments remain one of the unique charms of the American Century Championship. Just minutes after grinding over every putt, the Currys were smiling together on the course, sharing another summer at Edgewood.

With two rounds remaining, Steph’s goal is simple: Eliminate mistakes, stay patient, keep yourself within striking distance heading to Sunday.

“We all take golf so seriously, but there is a level of awareness that we’re out here to have fun,” said Curry. “You want to see everybody do well. You just want to play a little bit better than they do.”

That’s the spirit of this tournament. Competitive enough to care, relaxed enough to hug your caddie after saving par. And, if our photographs are any indication, another memorable chapter in Steph Curry’s Lake Tahoe story.

📚 Thursday practice round + video/autographs

👀 My BTS moment with Anthony Slater in the ACC media room

🏆 Why Steph ❤️ ACC

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Every summer, one of my favorite traditions begins the same way. Thursday at Edgewood isn’t quite tournament golf yet, the pressure hasn’t fully arrived, the galleries are a little smaller.

One Wardell Stephen Curry II has a little more time to interact with fans. And for us, it’s often the best day to simply observe. While I’m outside the ropes filming video and covering the media sessions, Bianca Rhodes of B.Marie Photography is inside the ropes looking for the moments television usually misses.

These are her favorite eight photographs from Thursday’s practice round.

One of the moments that stood out happened near the 18th tee. A young fan handed Curry a custom Davidson Wildcats No. 30 sombrero. Steph later wore it during his walk to the tee and even mentioned it during his post-practice media session:

A kid gave me a nice Davidson Wildcat No. 30 custom sombrero… You never know what’s gonna happen on that walk.

We managed to capture both the celebration after a great shot while Steph was wearing the sombrero and a quieter moment showing the fan who made it.

It’s those little stories that make this tournament different.

The other memorable part of the day happened inside the media room.

I happened to be sitting next to Anthony Slater of ESPN, with whom I was on the daily Warriors beat for about seven years (!) as he asked Steph the opening questions about LeBron James — questions that quickly became one of the day’s biggest NBA stories.

Instead of zooming tightly on Steph, I pulled my camera back so viewers could see a little of the reporting process itself: a veteran beat writer asking the question, recording the answer, and preparing the clip that would soon spread across social media:

Sometimes the story behind the story is just as interesting. For me, that’s what makes covering the American Century Championship so enjoyable year after year.

The golf is great. The scenery is spectacular, but it’s the human moments — between shots, between interviews, and between headlines — that keep bringing us back.

Tomorrow we’ll be back at Edgewood with more behind-the-scenes coverage from South Lake Tahoe.

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Featuring longtime tournament PR director Phil “Dinger” Weidinger and superfan Mason Barber (@sfgraphs)

Every July, something interesting happens. For one week, the intensity of the NBA season gives way to mountain air, pine trees, crystal blue water and one of the most unique sporting events in America.

This one Wardell Stephen Curry II isn’t just another golfer at the American Century Championship anymore. He’s become one of the faces of the tournament.

As Let’s Go Warriors prepares to spend another four days covering Curry in South Lake Tahoe, I thought this would be the perfect time to revisit a conversation I recorded last summer with two people who know the event from completely different perspectives.

One is Phil “Dinger” Weidinger, who has spent decades leading public relations for the major golf events including the American Century Championship.

The other is Mason Barber, better known online as @sfgraphs, a longtime Warriors fan whose unforgettable interactions with Steph have become part of ACC lore.

Together, they tell the story of why this tournament has become so much more than celebrity golf.

“Congratulations on Raising a Son Like That”

One of my favorite stories from our conversation came from Phil.

Long before Steph became a four-time NBA champion and global superstar, he arrived at Edgewood Tahoe for his first American Century Championship in 2010.

Phil remembered something that had nothing to do with golf. He remembered how Steph treated people. After that first tournament, Phil told Dell Curry:

“Congratulations on raising a son that’s as nice as this young man.”

Dell smiled and replied:

“Do you know how much that makes a father feel?”

That exchange has stayed with Phil ever since.

What struck me most is that it echoes what Warriors fans and Bay Area media have witnessed for years. Whether it’s Chase Center, a community event or Lake Tahoe, Steph’s reputation isn’t built only on championships, it’s built on consistently treating people with respect.

Phil told me something else that stood out:

“He’s gotten even better because as he’s acquired more fame... he’s one of the most thoughtful people I’ve ever met.”

That’s high praise from someone who has spent decades working with celebrities across professional sports.

The Tournament Is Different Because the Athletes Can Be Themselves

Most sporting events naturally create distance between athletes and fans. The American Century Championship does the opposite.

Golf creates pauses. Players walk between holes, fans walk alongside them, there are conversations, high-fives, inside jokes.

One of them last year: “Hey Steph, are you a fan of Megan Thee Stallion?”

His answer? A smile. A glance back at the crowd. My oh my, times change quickly, don’t they? 😂

Occasionally, there’s even a memorable autograph. As Phil explained, the celebrities aren’t there carrying the pressure of their primary profession. They’re there to compete, yes, but also to reconnect with friends, enjoy Lake Tahoe and have fun.

Every year, NBC refreshes the field with new personalities while longtime participants return for what has become something like an annual reunion.

That atmosphere is exactly what makes Steph such a natural fit.

The Fans Are Part of the Show

Nobody illustrates that better than Mason Barber. If you’ve followed Warriors social media over the years, you’ve probably seen one of his viral moments.

There was the famous “Look at Curry, man...” jersey that Steph signed during the pandemic tournament after Mason happened to encounter him at Edgewood. That photo ended up making the rounds across national sports media during a quiet period in the sports calendar.

Then came perhaps the greatest autograph story I’ve ever heard. Mason asked Steph how many push-ups it would take to earn a signature.

Steph smiled: “Thirty.”

So Mason dropped to the ground — in front of roughly a thousand spectators at Tahoe altitude — and completed all thirty before earning not only the autograph, but also a handshake and a hug from Steph.

Eventually Steph even shared the moment on his own Instagram. You simply don’t find interactions like that during an NBA season.

Covering Tahoe Is Different, Too

For Let’s Go Warriors, this tournament has become its own tradition. Bianca Rhodes of B.Marie Photography and I have been credentialed here for years.

While Bianca works inside the ropes capturing photographs from angles most fans never get to see, I’m outside the ropes filming video, talking with fans, gathering interviews and trying to bring everyone along for the experience.

Every evening, Bianca selects her favorite images from the day, many of which we’ve shared on Instagram over the years.

Those photographs have become one of my favorite parts of covering the tournament because they preserve moments television often misses: a smile between holes, a candid interaction with fans, or simply Steph enjoying one of the most beautiful sporting venues anywhere.

Why Lake Tahoe Never Gets Old

One thing Phil said really stuck with me:

“If you don’t have fun in Tahoe during this tournament, you better look in a mirror.”

He’s probably right. This event isn’t just about golf. It’s about atmosphere. It’s about the lake. It’s about watching athletes from different sports relax together. It’s about seeing personalities instead of press conferences.

And for Warriors fans, it’s another opportunity to appreciate Steph in an environment where his generosity toward fans is on full display. That’s one reason I’ve never gotten tired of covering it.

Even after stepping away from the daily Warriors beat, Lake Tahoe remains one event I look forward to every single summer.

Watch the Full Conversation

Below is my full discussion with Phil Weidinger and Mason Barber.

If you’re curious about the behind-the-scenes logistics of the tournament, the evolution of the famous 17th hole, Mason’s unforgettable fan stories, or why the American Century Championship has become such a special stop for Steph Curry, I think you’ll enjoy the conversation.

Follow Along This Week

Over the next several days we’ll be sharing:

• 📸 Bianca’s favorite photos from each day

• 🎥 Behind-the-scenes videos from the course

• ⛳ Daily YouTube updates

• 📬 Additional coverage here on Substack

Whether you’re making the trip to Lake Tahoe or following from home, I hope we can bring you a little closer to one of the most enjoyable weeks on the Warriors calendar.

See you at Edgewood.

⛳️💙💛

I thought I had reached my conclusion after three-and-a-half hours of salary cap analysis. Then a phone call made me realize something even more interesting.

Just a day after publishing my thoughts on LeBron James’ free agency, something unexpected happened. I had a phone call that didn't necessarily change my opinion, it reinforced it.

The reason I found the conversation so compelling wasn’t because someone claimed to know where James is going. Quite the opposite. It was because someone who approached the question from an entirely different perspective ended up arriving at almost exactly the same conclusion I had.

That caught my attention.

In Thursday's article — and during a 3½-hour livestream — I tried to answer a question that I don't think gets asked often enough. Not, “Where can LeBron go?” But rather, “Where would LeBron actually want to go?”

The exercise quickly became much more than salary-cap math. As I worked through the cap sheets, roster construction and projected rotations, I found myself crossing teams off the list, not because they weren't talented, but because I couldn't realistically picture LeBron voluntarily coming off the bench.

For me, that essentially eliminated New York, Oklahoma City, and San Antonio. On the live, I crossed off Miami, but I’ ve changed my mind because obviously it isn’t unfathomable that Andrew Wiggins, even getting paid $30 million, would give way to Bron and be his backup, despite probably being a better point-of-attack defender than his would-be 42-year-old counterpart. But with sure-fire starters Bam Adebayo and Giannis Antetokounmpo, that’s a very badly spaced starting frontcourt.

Then another thought occurred to me. As someone who is now older than when I used to play basketball regularly myself, retired from playing the game due to double Achilles concerns, I started wondering whether I had been looking at LeBron through the wrong lens.

When you’re thirty, you’re still trying to prove yourself. When you’re forty-two and you’ve already won championships, particularly the one where you dragged your hometown squad over the finish line against the best regular season team of all-time, the competitive itch has already been scratched many times. Your worldview changes.

You’ve already silenced critics. You’ve already built your legacy. Maybe what matters changes. Maybe the question isn’t simply, “Where can I win?”

Maybe it’s, “Where will I enjoy playing basketball the most while still giving myself a chance?” With the Warriors, it should be quite obvious to all NBA fans that Joe Lacob has created a physical environment and day-to-day culture that is envied across the world.

That’s ultimately why I found myself leaning toward Golden State, not because I think it’s the easiest road for James, but because I wonder if it might actually be the most enjoyable one.

Then something happened that genuinely surprised me. A conversation with someone whose basketball judgment I respect independently arrived at almost exactly the same conclusion.

And here’s where things got really interesting...

[The rest of this article is for paid subscribers.]

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QUICK BONUS/PLUG: Here’s everything we know about LeBron’s 2026 decision, as a screen recording of our wonderful Discord server, which is more so a searchable knowledge base library of breaking NBA and Warriors than a community.

Sign up and view the “Mike Dunleavy, Jr.” channel do FREE at https://whop.com/letsgowarriors:

Below, I’ll share why a league source with longstanding connections around the Rich Paul and the Klutch Sports ecosystem believes my conclusion may not be as far-fetched as it initially sounds — and why his reasoning actually strengthened my own…

Read more

After spending 3½ hours building NBA cap sheets, I came away with a very different conclusion than I expected.

For the better part of three and a half hours on Thursday’s livestream, I put myself through an unusual exercise.

Instead of asking where LeBron James should go, I tried asking a different question: If I were LeBron, what would I actually choose?

The cap sheets were only the beginning. The numbers eliminated more teams than I expected. Going into the livestream, I assumed there would be half a dozen legitimate destinations.

After working through roster construction, salary rules and likely rotations, the list became surprisingly short. One realization kept popping up: Would LeBron have to come off the bench?

The more we worked through each roster, the more certain I became. I crossed the Knicks, Thunder, Spurs, and eventually Heat off my list. Not because they aren’t good enough. Because I simply don’t believe LeBron wants to spend what could be his final NBA season coming off the bench behind younger established stars.

[NOTE: The video has detailed timestamps…]

That’s a completely different question than whether he’d accept it. Could he? Sure. Would he choose it? I don’t think so. That single question changed the entire exercise.

The cap sheets narrowed the field. Some contenders could only offer the veteran minimum. Others were squeezed by the first or second apron.

The Warriors’ situation was unique. If Golden State signs LeBron, my conclusion remains the same as during the livestream:

The most realistic path is moving Moses Moody’s salary while preserving the rest of the core. Trying to move Brandin Podziemski doesn’t get the math where it needs to go and, based on conversations with cap expert Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron, trading Kristaps Porziņģis immediately after agreeing to his new contract would be highly unusual. The cap mechanics consistently pointed back to Moody as the cleanest solution.

Meanwhile, Philadelphia became fascinating but largely because it still appears to be another veteran-minimum destination after using most of its available exceptions. Denver fell into a similar category because of its second-apron constraints.

Once the math settled, the list of realistic basketball fits became much shorter than I expected.

Then my old hoop buddy Mark Sapinoso texted me. He’s someone who used to enter teams in my Dream League Bay Area amateur basketball league. We’ve both been through the ringer and won our fair share of chips over the years in Asian-American tournaments all over.

We’re both older now. His response was simple: Cleveland for one final run. James is from there; he has a home there. It’s the perfect full-circle story.

Honestly, it’s hard to argue with that. If Hollywood wrote LeBron’s career, that’s probably the ending.

But after sleeping on it, this morning I texted him back. I’m starting to think Bron could still choose Golden State and I realized why.

When you’re 30, basketball is different. When you’re 42, it’s different again. You’ve already fought every battle, proven every point, carried various franchises.

You’ve already answered every criticism. Maybe what matters changes. Maybe you just want to enjoy basketball again.

That’s why Golden State suddenly makes sense to me. Not because it’s the easiest championship path. Not because it’s guaranteed. Because it might actually come with less pressure.

If LeBron returns to Cleveland, the expectations become enormous. People won’t celebrate the reunion. They’ll expect a Finals return, especially in the conference that doesn’t have OKC or the Spurs in it. Anything less probably gets viewed as disappointment.

Golden State feels different. You’d play with one Wardell Stephen Curry II instead of against him. You’d have a legitimate puncher’s chance. Go look at last season’s standings and tell me, as a DubNation diehard, that the Dubs can’t go win some games against Denver, the Lakers, Houston, a newly smaller Wolves, Portland with those two diminutive guards now, the Clippers, Dallas or even the upstart Jazz.

Maybe, for the first time in decades, LeBron wouldn’t have to carry the emotional weight of an entire franchise. Maybe that’s worth something when you’re 42.

Alas, the cap sheets tell us where LeBron can go, but they can’t tell us where he’ll be happiest. They can’t measure pressure. They can’t measure peace of mind. They can’t measure what it’s like to wake up one morning after twenty-plus NBA seasons and realize maybe your priorities have changed.

Maybe that’s exactly why this decision has taken so long, because this isn’t simply a competitive basketball decision anymore. It’s a life decision. A “love for the game” opportunity.

And if I’ve learned anything from spending 3½ hours staring at spreadsheets, it’s that sometimes the math narrows the choices. But only the person making the decision knows which one feels right.

Dear Joe Lacob, Mike Dunleavy, Jr., and Draymond Green. Feel free to include that “love of the game” montage if and when you send Rich Paul that last-ditch deck. I think a grizzled, mature 42-year-old man would actually appreciate that.

It may be enough to push him over the fence.

🫶💙💛

How did I go from from “keep Kristaps Porziņģis” to suddenly pondering if the Warriors are legitimately a LeBron James destination?

NBA free agency moves fast!

At the time, the math and the difficulty in viewing Moses Moody or, really, anybody other than Porzingis as a trade chip supported the conclusion that the only way to open up a Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (NTMLE) was to renounce him as a free agent.

But just keeping him preserved a valuable salary slot that could later be used in a trade down the line. Giving that up for a difficult path to the NTMLE simply didn’t seem worthwhile.

Then the dominoes started falling. First, Draymond Green opted out. Instead of locking in his $27.8 million player option, Green chose free agency, immediately opening new possibilities for how the Warriors could structure the roster.

That alone didn’t solve everything, but it cracked open a door that had previously been closed. Then came the biggest shock of the offseason.

LeBron James and the Lakers publicly acknowledged that they would be parting ways, complete with mutual farewell messages on social media. Suddenly, this wasn’t just another rumor cycle.

LeBron was genuinely available and, now, the cap sheet has become the story. The Warriors have been linked to stars before: Lauri Markkanen, Paul George, Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokuonmpo, heck, Jimmy Butler — and we actually signed that one!

Every summer and February trade deadline seems to produce another blockbuster rumor. LThis one feels different, not because James is necessarily more likely to end up in Golden State, but because the Collective Bargaining Agreement plays such a critical role in his decision.

This is no longer necessarily about basketball fit. It’s about what each team can legally offer. That distinction has become the focus of my recent livestreams.What can each team actually offer him under the salary cap?

As if that weren’t enough, another report completely reshaped Golden State’s options. When KP agreed to his new two-year, $40 million contract, many assumed he had simply re-signed as a free agent.

Instead, Marc Stein later reported that the deal was structured as an extension to his existing contract. That matters enormously because extensions can carry different trade implications than newly signed free agents. Because sign-and-trade deals require at least three years and Porzingis’ deal was reported as a 1+1, begore Stein’s tweet I had thought nevermind, KP will stay as a Warrior.

Instead of Porziņģis simply occupying cap space, his contract could theoretically function as one of Golden State’s most important trade assets immediately. That reopened discussions about trade constructions that previously appeared impossible.

Then came another twist. Salary-cap expert Yossi Gozlan also weighed in. His conclusion: Based on his decade of experience with extension signings, not only would trading Kristaps be considered a “reneg” of the deal and therefore Porzingis was highly unlikely to be turned around and traded right after signing on the dotted line, if Golden State wants to maximize its flexibility — particularly if the Warriors hope to use the full NTMLE on LeBron — Moody may have to become part of the equation.

That’s a painful conversation, as Moody has become a fan favorite and remains one of the organization’s better developmental stories. But the new CBA often forces front offices to choose between sentiment and flexibility.

Over the last several days we’ve essentially built a running “Decision Tree” together. Every report changes another branch. Every contract changes another calculation. Every insider update sends us back to the spreadsheet.

Tonight we’ll continue that process. We’ll compare what the Warriors can actually offer LeBron with what appears to be available from several of the other reported contenders, including:

• New York

• Philadelphia

• Cleveland

• Miami

• Denver

• Minnesota

The question isn’t simply:Who wants LeBron?

The better question is: Who can actually construct a legal path to signing him?

That’s where things get fascinating. As of this writing, Golden State appears to possess one of the strongest financial paths available.

That doesn’t guarantee LeBron becomes a Warrior. There are basketball considerations, family considerations, championship-contending considerations, organizational relationships and franchise reputations.

That’s worth exploring carefully, not just because of LBJ, but because understanding these rules also helps explain every other move Mike Dunleavy, Jr. makes this summer.

So, join us on the live or check out the archived version — I always post detailed timestamps within one hour after our livestreams air.

If you’ve been following this offseason with us, you know these live chats aren’t rumor shows. They’re work sessions.

We pull up the cap sheets, we test ideas, we stress-test trades and sometimes during that process, we discover why an idea won’t work. Sometimes we stumble onto one that just might.

And it’s not just for this season. It hasn’t been talked about much by anyone in DubNation save for myself, but the Warriors are on schedule to have tons of cap space available next summer. They’ll be able to go on a free agent shopping spree akin to what the LA Lakers did these past several days.

Makes you wonder if we might be better served to hang on to those draft picks and maybe not throw ourselves at a non-All-Star like Trey Murphy. As for Jaylen Brown in the thumbnail, we can assume that the Boston Celtics did not want to trade for an injured Jimmy, but now, the Philadelphia 76ers do become an intriguing destination for LeBron. We’ll examine the math for all of this.

With his future now hanging over the league and new reports arriving almost hourly, there’s never been a better time to walk through the Decision Tree together.

I’ll see you live tonight:

One thing I’ve really grown to appreciate over the last week is how collaborative these livestreams have become. Together we keep refining the Decision Tree until we arrive at the most realistic possibilities.

Whether LeBron ultimately lands in Golden State or not, the process itself has become one of my favorite parts of covering this offseason.

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Other than myself, Bobby Marks of ESPN became the first reporter (finally!) to say that unless the Warriors make significant financial sacrifices, the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (NTMLE) remains extremely difficult to access:

Because of the first apron hard cap, it is unlikely Golden State can use the $15 million non-tax midlevel exception and still have flexibility to remain under once the roster is filled out.

Of course, that part wasn’t as sexy as the next paragraph listing a bunch of free agents — we will discuss the top ones here — Marks thought would fit on the Golden State roster, so a lot of those kid aggregator fan pages skipped to the eye candy.

That sent me back to the spreadsheets, knowing that double sign-and-trades of Kristaps Porziņģis make a whole lot more sense than simply signing a free agent to the hard-to-get NTMLE.

After all, this was how Klay Thompson was traded out to the Dallas Mavs. The Dubs brought in Kyle Anderson and Buddy Hield, plus Chris Paul was waived to help duck under the first apron. Teams that receive a sign-and-trade free agent are hard-capped at the first apron.

During last night's livestream, I wanted to stop being at the mercy of the rumor mill and instead follow every realistic path the salary cap would allow. If Draymond Green opts in, one branch opens. If he opts out and takes a discount, an entirely different branch appears.

If Porziņģis returns at one number, one set of possibilities exists. If his number changes, the entire tree changes with it.

The fascinating part wasn't discovering dozens of new possibilities, it was eliminating them.

One by one, many of the names Warriors fans have discussed started falling away because of guaranteed years, apron restrictions, hard-cap implications, or Golden State's apparent desire to preserve maximum flexibility for the summer of 2027.

By the end of the exercise, the Decision Tree looked much different than it did when we started.

Below the paywall, I'll walk through why commenter-suggested Quentin Grimes unexpectedly survived the capsheet exercise better than many bigger names, why Collin Sexton and Anfernee Simons may be harder to acquire than they first appear, and why — perhaps surprisingly — the strongest branch of the tree may simply be keeping KP after all.

Incidentally, I have added timestamps to the livestream, so you can skip around as needed:

[Decision Tree conclusions below the paywall 👇]

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One of the reasons I enjoy building salary cap spreadsheets is that they force me to think like an NBA front office. Fans naturally ask, “Should we trade for this player?” or “Should we sign that player?”

A front office asks a different question: What possibilities does this move create — or eliminate?

That distinction became very clear on Thursday. The morning began with the news that Al Horford had agreed to return to the Warriors on a reported two-year, $14 million contract.

By itself, that didn’t dramatically alter my cap sheet. Horford’s deal fits neatly into the range of the 2025-26 taxpayer mid-level, the mechanism by which Horford joined Golden State, that I had already been projecting.

The bigger surprise came several hours later: Jimmy Butler appeared alongside Joe Lacob during the Warriors’ introduction of IREN as the franchise’s new jersey patch sponsor. Obviously, that wasn’t a basketball transaction, but I think it mattered.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve built dozens of Warriors salary-cap scenarios. One of my favorite — not because I expected it to happen, but because it solved so many mathematical problems — was trading Butler for Kawhi Leonard.

The appeal wasn’t Kawhi himself. The appeal was what the trade unlocked.

Specifically, the Dubs would be sending out Jimmy and Brandin Podziemski as well as two first-round picks (2027 and 2032) for Leonard. In fact, this was first proposed at the end of the regular season by ESPN’s Aaron Snellings.

Because Jimmy’s salary is already $6 million more than Kawhi’s and Podziemski makes about $5 million, the combined $11 million savings represented a jump start towards ducking under the luxury tax line.

Then, by having Draymond Green opt-out and sign an extension at a lower average annual value, plus massaging the number for Kristaps Porziņģis, you could theoretically get under the luxury tax line and enable the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (NTMLE), which is roughly $15 million.

I’ve always understood how unlikely that trade was. Steve Ballmer has consistently been reported as wanting to keep Kawhi, and there has never been meaningful reporting that the Clippers were shopping him.

But if the dominoes fell, an entirely different decision tree opened. The Warriors could:

• stay below the tax,

• gain access to the NTMLE to go out and sign a free agent for roughly $15 million (this is the mechanism by which a lot of presumptuous speculation has been made by reporters),

• retain De’Anthony Melton for roughly $13 million while remaining below the first apron,

• and potentially execute a sign-and-trade involving Porziņģis at a competitive salary (as high as $24 million, depending on the discount Green would give – in this case, down to $16 million), perhaps enough to dissuade LeBron James from staying with the Lakers, who have a lot of cap space.

That wasn’t really a Kawhi story. It was an optionality story. The Kawhi trade simply opened the most doors.

Then Thursday happened. Seeing Jimmy next to Joe changed how I think about that branch:

Could the Warriors still trade Jimmy this summer? Of course. Nothing in the collective bargaining agreement prevents it, but organizations send signals. Introducing your brand-new jersey patch sponsor with Jimmy sitting beside your owner sends one.

From a business standpoint, it would create awkward optics to feature Jimmy as part of the franchise’s public face only to move him a couple weeks later when free agency begins. That doesn’t make a trade impossible, though, especially in a world where Luka Dončić got traded.

It just makes me think the probability dropped dramatically. The Kawhi branch of the decision tree suddenly looks much smaller.

Maybe it isn’t gone forever. Maybe it simply gets postponed until February. Cue the Jaylen Brown trade scenarios — which, indeed, we have talked about, especially towards the end of our Pr-Draft Livestream Special back on Monday, June 22:

Why does this IREN sponsor event matter? Because once Jimmy stays, the Warriors lose their cleanest path toward getting below the luxury tax. That also means the NTMLE becomes extraordinarily difficult to access.

And it was this morning when Bobby Marks of ESPN finally blessed my conclusion, saying:

Because of the first apron hard cap, it is unlikely Golden State can use the $15 million non-tax midlevel exception and still have flexibility to remain under once the roster is filled out.

However, I have a feeling that little paragraph still might get glossed over. We’ll see, because dutifully, Marks made a list of potential free agents that might fit the Warriors after that paragraph and those might get taken out context if the assumption is via the NTMLE.

I’ve seen plenty of discussion suggesting the Warriors can simply use the NTMLE. The spreadsheet says otherwise.

To reach that point, you’d essentially have to renounce Porziņģis—or ask both Kristaps and Draymond to accept discounts that I simply don’t believe are realistic (KP to roughly $12 million and Dray to $17 million).

This was shown step-by-step here on my last video:

That’s asking KP to slash his market value while simultaneously asking Draymond to take a massive pay cut.

Possible? Technically. Likely? Not in my opinion.

This is where I think fans and salary-cap mechanics often diverge. Many discussions begin with: “Do we even want Porziņģis back?” That’s almost the wrong question.

The better question is: “Do you want to preserve a $20-plus million salary slot?” Because once you renounce Porziņģis, that slot disappears.

Now you’re shopping with exceptions instead of contracts. That’s a very different toolbox. Keeping KP isn’t necessarily about keeping KP forever. It’s about preserving optionality.

Only a couple more days to go! Everything now circles back to June 29. Draymond’s player option has become the biggest remaining domino. If he simply opts in, most of the Warriors’ offseason becomes fairly straightforward:

1. Re-sign Porziņģis, operate above the tax,

2. use the Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (TPMLE), and

3. keep building from there.

If Draymond instead opts out and signs a longer extension with a smaller first-year cap hit, suddenly new branches reopen. That’s where names like LeBron become mathematically interesting.

Not because LeBron would sign for the TPMLE (roughly $6 million). He almost certainly wouldn’t. Instead, the conversation shifts toward a sign-and-trade involving Porziņģis, but even there, the first apron becomes the limiting factor.

The Warriors can’t simply absorb any salary they want. Everything has to fit.

As I worked through Thursday’s livestreams, three names kept resurfacing:

1. Bron — If Draymond accepted a lower first-year salary, the Lakers might have interest in Porziņģis as a frontcourt piece alongside Doncic, giving the Warriors a plausible sign-and-trade framework.

2. DeMar DeRozan — Unlike LeBron, DeRozan could potentially be acquired more directly through a Porziņģis trade if Sacramento viewed Kristaps as a better roster fit. Credit our long-time YouTube commenter Robby Bautista for this idea. I think I would rather keep KP, though.

3. Anfernee Simons — While the Dubs do have a glaring need for a ball-handler who can get downhill and get a bucket, this one becomes much harder. It’s not enough for the Warriors to want Simons. Chicago would also have to decide that receiving Porziņģis in a sign-and-trade is preferable to every other offer available around the league. That’s a much tougher sell.

4. Collin Sexton — Sexton ironically ended up a teammate of Simons on the Bulls at the February trade deadline. Simons has made more money in his career, but the Warriors might prefer Sexton’s better defense. Again, it all depends on if the Bulls have better sign-and-trade offers than Porzingis.

That’s ultimately what Thursday taught me. One piece of information quietly eliminated one of the cleanest pathways through the Warriors’ cap sheet: Jimmy isn’t getting traded this off-season.

The decision tree became smaller. Now, almost every remaining branch runs through June 29. We’ll know much more once Draymond “makes his decision”, although I would be shocked if he and Mike Dunleavy, Jr. have not worked through their own spreadsheets as I have. Until I am presented with evidence otherwise, I am of the firm belief that opt-ins or opt-outs are usually mutually agreed upon to a certain extent.

And so the math — not the rumors — should be leading the conversation.

The NTMLE needs to be tweeted about with caution, my friends!

Below the paywall 👇 is my projected cap sheet for 1) if Draymond opts in, or 2) if Draymond opts out — as well as a couple tidbits on Quinten Post, Charles Bassey and Pat Spencer.

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The Warriors drafted Yaxel Lendeborg with the 11th overall pick and while most of the discussion immediately turned to his versatility, defense and playmaking, I came away from his first interview as a Warrior thinking about something else: his personality.

Over the last few months, I’ve watched a lot of prospects go through the pre-Draft process. Most of them are polished. Most of them say the right things. Yaxel feels different.

One of the reasons I became such a believer in him during the Draft process is that he consistently gave honest answers, even when those answers weren’t necessarily the safest ones.

That continued Thursday night. Sure, the one about Wardell Stephen Curry II went viral, but he also said this about the impending Michigan-Michigan State tug-of-war that’s about to happen behind closed doors between him and Draymond Green:

I know he’s a Michigan State guy, so it’s not really— I’m not really too, not too fond of that, but I’m definitely excited to be able to meet him, speak to him in person and learn, just learn everything I can…

I only been there for one year, but I definitely hate those guys [Michigan State]. All that they were saying, and they can’t really say much because I went 2-0 against them this year, so they’re gonna be little brother for me forever and I’m not gonna represent the losers, ever.

As for the question about Steph, in case you missed it on social media, Yaxel admitted something that Warriors fans probably never expected to hear from their newest first-round pick.

Back in 2016, he hated Steph.

Not because of anything personal. He was a huge Kyrie Irving fan and, like a lot of young basketball fans at the time, he found himself rooting against the Warriors dynasty. Now he’ll be learning directly from Curry every day.

That alone made for a funny full-circle moment, but there were other moments that stood out even more. When asked what kept him going through the years when his basketball future wasn’t guaranteed, he didn’t talk about rankings, trainers or personal ambition. He talked about his mother.

Yaxel said there were many times he wanted to quit, but he always thought about how his mother would feel if he gave up. It was another reminder that his path to the NBA wasn’t the typical five-star journey.

Later, during a question about Men’s Mental Health Month, he spoke openly about meditation, prayer, music and learning how to replace negative self-talk with positive self-talk. I can’t wait to delve into that side of Yax more, as I myself am a practitioner of meditation and it has helped changed my life for the better.

Again, Lendeborg doesn’t exactly give standard Draft-night answers and I had been told, even before Eric Guilleminault hopped on our livestream to discuss all the faults he was hearing…

…that Yaxel doesn’t have a filter — DubNation, get used to that! I think it’s a good thing, though. The honesty.

The basketball fit is obvious. I’ve already written and spoken extensively about why I think he fits what the Warriors do offensively and defensively, but the more interviews I watch, the more I think the Warriors may have drafted someone whose mentality fits their culture just as well as his game does. He sounds like someone who genuinely believes he still has something to prove.

One other update from Draft Night: while Yaxel joked about Draymond’s No. 23 jersey being unavailable, the Warriors later announced to reporters at Chase Center, present for the Mike Dunleavy, Jr. presser, the transcript of which I will post soon, that he’ll wear No. 1 with Golden State.

The full interview is embedded below, with 40 seconds of my celebration at 6:12PM of the pick. Paid subscribers can continue below the paywall for the complete edited transcript, which includes a translation from a Spanish-speaking reporter…

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For the past few weeks, I’ve probably spent more time talking about Yaxel Lendeborg than any other prospect in this draft.

The fit with the Warriors feels obvious. He rebounds, he passes, he defends, he plays with force. He talks about getting assists before he talks about getting points. He sounds like a Steve Kerr player and a Draymond Green teammate. I even said Lendeborg could be Draymond 2.0.

So when I sat down with Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net, I expected to hear more confirmation of what many Warriors fans already believe. Instead, I heard the strongest argument yet for why Lendeborg may not be the pick at No. 11.

Not because Guilleminault dislikes the player. In fact, Eric G. repeatedly emphasized that he likes Yaxel’s toughness, versatility and overall fit. The issue is something else entirely.

The biggest obstacle, seemingly, is simple: Yaxel is already 23 years old. Eric G. referenced a list of first-round picks from basketball analytics guru Dean Oliver. He tweeted all the names of recent first-round picks who entered the NBA at age 23 or older. The list contained plenty of solid NBA players, but very few stars:

The argument isn’t that older prospects can’t succeed. The argument is that teams drafting in the Lottery are often chasing upside as much as current production.

If a team believes the championship window of one Wardell Stephen Curry II is only a few more years, Yaxel’s age may not matter very much. But if a team is thinking about what its roster looks like three, four or five years from now, the equation changes.

Three years from now, Yaxel will already be approaching his late twenties. That’s the concern. One point Eric G. kept returning to was that NBA teams aren’t necessarily drafting the best player today. They’re drafting the player they believe can become the best player.

That’s why younger prospects such as Nate Ament, Karim Lopez and others continue to attract attention despite being less polished. Yaxel might be the better basketball player right now, but NBA front offices are asking a different question: Who will be the better player in 2029? That question can dramatically change a draft board.

Another point Eric G. mentioned was that Yaxel apparently has not generated universal enthusiasm during the pre-Draft process, referencing concerns that have circulated regarding private team interviews and maturity evaluations from the Combine.

What are examples of those? Guilleminault said, “I'm not privy to say,” when I asked him last night on our livestream:

Importantly, these aren’t concerns about Yaxel’s production at Michigan. In fact, nearly everyone agrees that he had an outstanding season. Rather, they are the kinds of background evaluations every team conducts when deciding whether to invest a Lottery pick in a player.

Whether those concerns are meaningful or overblown — whether out of candor or purposely designed as Draft strategy smokescreens — is impossible for outsiders to know, but if multiple teams have similar questions, it could affect where he ultimately lands.

Eric G. wasn’t necessarily arguing against Yaxel, he was arguing against Yaxel at No. 11. That’s a very different discussion. Eric even suggested that if the Warriors traded down and acquired additional assets, Yaxel could become a much more logical target. The debate is whether No. 11 is the correct value.

That’s a much more nuanced position than simply saying the Warriors should pass.

I still love the fit. Yaxel’s passing, rebounding, toughness and versatility would help the Warriors immediately, but after talking with Eric, I understand the counterargument better than I did before.

Check below the paywall for additional intel that just came in this morning 👇 — these are (except one nugget) available in the free section of our Discord server.

Still, for Golden State and what’s realistic with the 11th pick, I don’t think there is a better plug-and-play talent who fits our existing roster right now than Yaxel. You need to win a game tomorrow? Then pick Yaxel.

We’ll find out soon enough whether the Warriors agree with that perspective.

Be sure to join us in the Watch Party this evening for the most twists and turns we have ever seen in an NBA Draft!

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If you've been following our recent NBA Draft coverage on Let's Go Warriors, you've probably noticed a recurring theme: I keep coming back to Yaxel Lendeborg.

The closer we get to Draft Night, the stronger that feeling becomes. A lot has happened since I first wrote about Lendeborg following his pre-Draft workout and press conference with the Warriors.

We've now gone through scouting reports on Brayden Burries, Labaron Philon, Hannes Steinbach, Chris Cenac, Morez Johnson and others. We've dug into mock drafts. We've followed reporting from Brett Siegel, Jake Fischer, Marc Stein, Michael Scotto and plenty more.

And yet, after all of that, my conclusion remains the same: If Yaxel is available at No. 11, I would pick him.

What changed since the last Yaxel article? A lot. The Warriors have continued bringing prospects through Chase Center. We’ve now heard directly from several of them. We’ve learned more about how teams ahead of Golden State may be thinking.

And perhaps most importantly, we’ve begun hearing more about potential Draft-night movement. One report that caught my attention came from Siegel of ClutchPoints, who reported that Golden State explored moving around the board and inquired about Charlotte's picks.

At first glance, that’s not surprising. Mike Dunleavy, Jr. should be exploring every possible option, but the report reinforced something I’ve been talking about for weeks: I don’t want the Warriors to trade the No. 11 pick — at least not unless the board breaks in a very specific way.

One of the themes from our Draft Primer livestreams has been that this Draft is unusually deep. The top tier gets all the headlines: AJ Dybantsa, Darren Peterson, Cameron Boozer, Caleb Wilson (not necessarily in that order, as we’ve seen speculated on our Discord server in the free “Draft-SummerLeague” text channel).

The more I look at this class, the more I think the Warriors are sitting in a sweet spot. The difference between the player available at No. 11 and the player available in the late teens might not be enormous.

The difference between having No. 11 and having nothing? That's huge. Golden State is old and this roster needs youth — impact youth. The kind of player who can help now while also bridging the gap into the next era.

That's why I've repeatedly argued that if anything, the Warriors should be trying to add another first-round pick, not subtract one.

The easiest thing to talk about is talent. Yaxel has talent. He’s 6’9” with a 7’3” wingspan. He’s built like a linebacker. He can rebound, pass, handle the ball, defend multiple positions. He runs the floor and has enough shooting upside to project into modern NBA lineups.

But talent alone isn't why I'm so high on him. The reason I keep coming back to Yaxel is the intangible side. One story in particular stands out.

When Michigan was struggling to stop Maryland guard David Coit, Yaxel reportedly decided he wanted the assignment himself. Not because a coach told him to, not because it was convenient, because he wanted the challenge.

A 6-foot-9 forward deciding to pick up a hot-shooting 5-foot-11 guard and take responsibility for changing the game? That’s the type of thing that reminds me of Draymond Green.

It’s akin to the Summer of 2012 when I attended Summer League, back when our Dubs were relegated to Cox Pavilion. The advantage with the smaller venue across the way from Thomas & Mack Center — before all the championships and popularity of the brand which has them playing on the main stage more often these days – you could hear everything. All the coaches’ barks of instructions. All the players yelling, “Switch!” on defense, and more.

You could hear Draymond go, “Uh-uh! Uh-uh!” anytime a big tried to post him up and dislodge him.

It’s the spirit, the leadership, the competitiveness, the accountability.

Those qualities are incredibly difficult to find and they're even harder to identify before Draft Night.

With Yaxel, I know they exist.

That doesn't mean I dislike the other names. Quite the opposite.

To me, Burries athleticism and footwork stand out. If Yaxel is gone and Burries somehow falls? I’d be okay with that.

Labaron Philon fascinates me. Watching him, I see flashes of Tyrese Maxey, with the burst, the array of crossovers, the creativity and ability to get paint touches.

The challenge with Philon is the fit. How does that archetype fit into one Wardell Stephen Curry II’s solar system? That's a much tougher question.

And stop it (in the YouTube comments) with the, “He’ll take over when Steph is retired.” We are not picking teams for next game at the rec center. We are integrating a young talent into the long-established culture of Golden State.

As long as Curry plays more than half the season in totality, the ecosystem will be predicated on his gravity, ball movement and off-ball cuts. That’s not Philon’s game. Now, if you were to be gung-ho about trading Steph and building around Philon, I would have more respect for picking Philon at 11, but as long as Steph is the face of the franchise, I don’t know that the 11th pick is worth spending on a Maxey archetype.

As for Hannes Steinbach, I simply don’t think his game will translate to the super-high pace of October-through-December NBA regular season basketball. Check out my scouting report on him, plus his podium interview. I do think he has a higher ceiling than Quinten Post, which should not come as a surprise, as Post was a second-rounder.

And so I land on Cameron Carr as the fall-back, although it sure would be nice to drop down a few spots and pickup additional future Draft capital in the process, which we covered as a report on the Discord server.

The newest development is OKC having an interest in moving up in the Draft, whereby Dallas and Atlanta are the likely targets, with an outside shot of the LA Clippers, per reports, again covered and now searchable on our Discord “knowledge base”.

Then today, you had the Mavs hiring away Dusty May from Michigan — don’t forget to catch our livestream tonight with Wolverines beatwriter Jake Singer of maizenbrew.com:

Oklahoma City has too many assets. That's a weird thing to say about a championship contender, but it's true. They have draft picks, young players, future draft picks, and more flexibility than almost any organization in basketball. And they just cleared out a roster spot by trading Aaron Wiggins to ATL for two future second-round picks.

And, no, the Warriors cap sheet could not allow a similar transaction, as we are too close to the second apron to absorb a contract that OKC needs to unload, and we have a huge free agent in Kristaps Porzingis waiting in the wings, not to mention the Green opt-in coming up June 29th.

So, reports continue to suggest Dallas could be open to moving down from No. 9. If that's true, OKC becomes extremely dangerous because they have the ammunition to move.

And if they move, one of the players who makes a lot of sense for them is... Yaxel Lendeborg. Of course, Aday Mara also makes sense, but certainly the Mavs have some overlaps at the power forward and center spots, so we’ll see.

The Thunder are one of the teams that worries me most heading into Draft Night, not to mention the Mavs, now that May is likely to help them draft one of Lendeborg or Mara — Johnson, Jr. might be a high price to pick at 11.

Why The Discord Matters More During Draft Week

This is probably the busiest week of the year for our Discord. You’ve got both rounds of the Draft, the opt-in dates, free agency, the California Classic and Vegas Summer League. Everything starts happening at once.

One of the reasons I've spent so much time building the Discord is because I wanted something different from social media.

Twitter is great for breaking news. It's terrible as a library. A report gets posted, people argue, then it disappears.

The Discord is organized, searchable, and categorized. If someone asks where a rumor came from, we can actually find it. If someone asks what was reported two weeks ago, we can actually find it.

That becomes especially valuable this time of year.

The next few days are going to be busy. We already had Eric Guilleminault from NBADraft.net joining us again and Jake Singer of Maize & Brew joining us to discuss Michigan prospects including Yaxel, Morez and Mara, plus insights on Coach May.

We'll continue breaking down the latest rumors, and then we'll have our 7th Annual NBA Draft Watch Party. Maybe the Warriors stay at No. 11, maybe they trade down, maybe they acquire another first-round pick.

Or, maybe OKC ruins all my plans. We'll find out soon enough, but if you're asking me today, with everything we've learned over the past few weeks, my board remains pretty simple:

1. Yaxel Lendeborg

2. Brayden Burries

3. Cameron Carr (via trade down)

4. Trade down and just pick BPA (“best player available” — we will get someone solid in this deep Draft)

Hope you caught my Yaxel video as to the deeper reason for picking him 😉 (timestamped, if you’re lazy or pressed for time).

Man, Draft night is gonna be epic and Wednesday night we can start imagining the fit of our Draft pick!

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If you’re an NBA Draft aficionado, the most interesting thing Yaxel Lendeborg said during Thursday’s Warriors pre-Draft media session wasn’t about being a “secondary ball-handler” to one Wardell Steph Curry II.

It wasn't about comparisons to Draymond Green. And it wasn’t even about why he believes his game fits Golden State.

It was what workouts he has left.

“I have the Clippers and the Hawks and I'm done,” said Lendeborg, apparently only “two minutes” (plus about ten minutes on the podium) after finishing his with the Warriors.

At first glance, that sounds like a routine Draft process answer, but the more I thought about it, the more interesting it became.

Lendeborg revealed his workout list:

• Oklahoma City

• Miami

• Chicago

• Milwaukee

• Charlotte

• Dallas

• Golden State

• LA Clippers (upcoming)

• Atlanta (upcoming)

With workouts scheduled with teams owning the 8th through 15th picks in the 2026 NBA Draft, why is the No. 5 team, the Clippers, looking at Yaxel?

Indeed, with their trade for Darius Garland and four marquee points guards projected to be picked between 5th and 10th, eyeing a move down should come as no surprise for LAC.

Makes you wonder who is thinking about moving up. My guesses are either Milwaukee at 10 or Dallas at 9. NBA Draft season is all about connecting dots and this should be one of the most intriguing Drafts in recent memory.

Be sure to join us on both Draft Nights for livestream watch parties. The link will eventually post in our NBA Draft playlist.

Actually, we’ve also got Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net scheduled for Monday, June 22nd, the night before the Draft — he’ll be too swamped on Draft Night itself to join us.

But yeah, I had other takeaways from Lendeborg’s Q&A, too. Remember, I said back on March 30th during the Final Four that he would be “perfect” for the Warriors:

Yaxel and I seem to be thinking on the same wavelength because when asked about Golden State, his reasoning wasn't complicated. He immediately referenced Curry’s gravity and off-ball movement.

“I think it fits perfectly,” said Lendeborg.

And by the way, that’s how the Michigan Wolverines played this season, as Steve Kornacki wrote on his Substack, The Wolverine Report:

The Kornacki Wolverine Report

Lendeborg, aka 'Dominican LeBron,' carried Wolverines to Sweet 16 by Dominating Saint Louis with 25 Points

Photos Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography…

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4 months ago · 4 likes · 3 comments · Steve Kornacki

“I think he’s done an unbelievable job of giving what the game has given him and playing smart, practical basketball all year,” said (Dusty) May. “That’s not easy to do to play two different styles and especially learning a new system. We play in flow 90 percent of the game. We call [plays] out of timeouts. Other than that, our guys are playing off of each other. For him to go from a set offense, 1-3-1 defensive team to a switching man and a free-flowing offense, he’s had to learn a lot, and he’s had to be two different people for us.”

Incidentally, I found this tidbit while looking up another tidbit, see transcript below: Yaxel got the nickname “Dominican LeBron” from his teammate LJ Cason.

I also liked how Lendeborg referenced “getting five assists” in the Warriors’ system — much more preferred than, say, 30 points?

“Whenever Steph is getting taken out the game I'll be there to assist,” added Lendeborg.

That answer felt important. The Warriors have spent years searching for players who can connect possessions, move the ball, defend multiple positions and keep the offense flowing when Curry sits. Whether he becomes that player remains to be seen, but he clearly understands the role.

Finally, my favorite answer of the entire session wasn't about basketball. When asked what he wanted teams to learn about him during interviews, he said, “I'm a very real, honest guy.”

That tracks. This is the same player who openly discussed crying in the medical tent after suffering his Final Four knee injury [again, see transcript below].

The same player who admitted yesterday that he was probably only operating at “40 or 50 percent” during Michigan's championship run, who admitted to a national audience at halftime in a Final Four game that he could not contribute to his fullest.

The honesty feels genuine and, frankly, it reminds me a little bit of how Draymond has always bonded with people inside the Warriors organization — well, other than that one time with the punch, of course, although the problem with that was mainly because it became public (fights happen all the time at practice, if you’ve ever been on a basketball team).

BONUS TIDBIT: I have more intel on Lendeborg coming up soon. It is also comforting to know that Warriors bear writer Danny Emerman of the SF Standard agrees that Yaxel is the guy.

We will be at the edge of our seats on Draft Night, whether or not Lendeborg is taken before the 11th pick.

This is precisely the reason why the Warriors should not trade the pick out. As I have said on the YouTube channel, if there’s a trade involving a draft pick to be made, it should be for an additional first-round pick:

There are other names DubNation seems to like that make sense, who seem to be falling in recent mocks: Karim Lopez, Cameron Carr, Hannes Steinbach, Aday Mara, Labaron Philon and more. It is a deep Draft and the Warriors roster needs to get younger.

So, go get a second first-rounder!

The idea of trading the 11th pick for two lower first-rounders would likely take Yaxel out of the equation, plus there are only two possibilities: OKC at 12 and 17, and Charlotte at 14 and 18.

I do not see a good reason for OKC to simply move up one spot to 11 at the cost of the 17th pick.

For Charlotte, they already have high picks on their roster pecking order like LaMelo Ball, Brandon Miller and Kon Knueppel. They have a couple open salary slots, so there is no urgency to reduce their picks to move up just three spots on the Draft board. Building a team with two more solid rookie scale contracts in a deep Draft makes more sense for the Hornets.

I don’t see a realistic “trade down” scenario for the Warriors.

The full transcript from Lendeborg's pre-Draft workout media session is available below for paid subscribers. It will be opened up to all subscribers next week.

00:00 Hey, over here. Joseph Dycus, Mercury News. Just wondering, what are you hoping to show the Warriors’ coaching staff today?

00:07 Moreso like my versatility. I can bring a lot of different things to the game and just being able to play multiple positions for these guys and do whatever I’m needed to do to win, so.

00:17 How do you see your skill? How would you see your skill set possibly fitting into this team as a passer?

00:23 I think it fits perfectly. They do a lot of them, like off ball moving sets, a lot of actions, get Steph open and playing off his gravity will make it a lot easier for me to make reads and for the other guys to get open as well, so I think it’ll be perfect.

00:35 What has this pre-draft process been like for you in terms of where you’ve gone, some of the workouts you’ve done so far?

00:42 Man, it’s been very, very tough. Not many days for breaks or rests. I don’t think I’ve gotten a day off yet, but it’s very fun. You get to learn a lot of new things, meet a lot of new people and just learn pretty much the way you’re gonna be living next year, so it’s all a learning point for me and a lot of good points, bad points, still, but a lot of learning.

01:02 And just to be clear, did you already go through your workout here today, or is that to come?

01:05 Yeah, I just finished like two minutes ago.

01:07 How did it go and what are some of the things they had you do?

01:10 It was fun. It was really, really, competitive. The guys there really, really played hard. It was a lot of like just playing off of actions, moving, a lot of 3-on-3, 1-on-1, stuff like that, so I mean, it was very competitive, very fun.

01:23 A lot of people call you a plug-and-play type of prospect. Where do you think you can make the biggest impact from Day One as a rookie?

01:29 Oh, I would say, like, five assists a game, maybe, to start off. Just a lot of defense, fast break kind of bucket opportunities for me and depending on if I’m here or anywhere else, my role would be a lot different. But if I was here, I would be more like a secondary ball-handler, whenever Steph is getting taken out the game I’ll be there to assist, maybe provide a little bit more offense or instant offense in a way.

01:51 You have kind of a unique journey to this point, obviously. How do you think that it’s helped prepare you to this moment?

01:57 Well, just my toughness, mental toughness, as well. It’s been a very long, long journey for me as far as just being willing and able to play as hard as I do now and thinking that I belong on the court with some of these guys, so I feel like every game I get, I have to showcase my skill set, show that I do belong and continue to just prove that I’m better than what I was before.

02:20 You have a winning pedigree after winning that championship with Michigan. How do you feel like that’s also gonna help you in your career moving, especially in your rookie year?

02:27 A lot of people like winners, so me being in the position that I was this past year, it just showcased that, me, I’m willing to put aside any stat or anything about myself to win. Same thing so, I mean, being in a winning culture, winning program shows you a lot of different things that you have to do, not just as far as sacrifices, but just as far as, like, everyday living, to bring a spark and bring kinda good energy to the squad.

02:51 Going off that, obviously, you’re an older prospect. I’m sure you’ve heard a lot about that narrative, but being a guy who won a lot in college and looking at guys like Brunson and Hart who are now on the cusp of a title and won as well in college, does that help you at all, knowing that it’s possible and there’s a path to clearly being an older prospect and having that success in the league?

03:11 Yeah, absolutely. If you can play, you can play. A lot of these younger prospects just been in the spotlight a little bit longer than I was, been playing since they were younger. So, I mean, everybody’s path is different and every time I get on the court, I’m gonna showcase that, you know? So whether it’s a guy that’s 30 or a guy that’s 18, I’m gonna go out there and show who’s better.

03:29 Just going back to the pre-draft process here, I mean, obviously fans and media love all the mock drafts and things. Is that something that ever comes into your radar, these mock drafts when you see that a team like Golden State might be interested or do you try and put all that aside?

03:43 Yeah, I kinda get tagged in those mock drafts every single day, so I can’t stay away from it no matter what, you know? And in a way, it kinda makes me envision myself playing on, like, a team like this, the Thunder, the Heat, Charlotte, all those teams that I’m getting a mock to go to. So, I mean, it kinda gives me something to get, like, attached to. So I can’t get too attached, though, because maybe on Draft night I won’t get picked by either of them. I’m gonna be upset, you know? But, either way, it is nice to see that and it’s a blessing to be a part of it, so.

04:12 What is the biggest thing you wanted to get across in the interview itself?

04:17 Biggest thing, I would probably just say, like, just my personality, how I am. I’m a very real, honest guy and a guy who likes goofing off a lot, so just showing my authentic self is something I always wanna showcase.

04:28 A lot of guys get, even after they made the team, they sit there and they start talking about what it would be like to play with Steph and to be around him. For you, having watched him growing up, what would that be like if everything falls and you get drafted here?

04:44 Man, it’ll be amazing. He provides so much gravity on the court that it really makes it super-easy for other guys to score, other guys to just showcase any ability that they have, so I’ve been having so many arguments going against Steph when I was younger with my best friend. And now, like, if I would be able to play with him, it’ll be kind of funny being on the other end, but I’ll be very excited to get the opportunity. He’s a great player. Great, great human being, as well. I got to meet him about, like, twice, so it’s really nice and I feel like I would learn a lot playing with him, as well.

05:12 When did you meet Steph those couple times?

05:14 Well, today, and then I met him when they played against the Clippers in the Play-in game, so those two times it was quick, brief conversations, but you can just tell he’s a genuine human being and actually cares for, like, the younger guys in a way.

05:26 And we talked a little bit about how you were a little bit later to basketball. Given that, like, how much more upside do you think you have to grow into even though you’re an older prospect?

05:36 Yeah, I think I have just as much as anybody else in this Draft. I really don’t like the word “upside” in a way because it’s, like, it’s basically just like, “Oh, this guy can be better” or not, or, “Will he be better?” It’s like if you’re better now, you can continue to try to get better every single day, but as far as upside, if we wanna use that word, I think I have the same amount as everybody, yeah.

05:57 What is something you would like to improve upon, once you hit the NBA? What’s something you would like to get better at?

06:02 I would like my defensive versatility, for sure, I gotta get a lot more fluid in my, like, my change of pace and just, like, my stance gotta be a lot more stronger, base wider, stuff like that, you know? So I mean, that’s my main key. And then second would be just a consistent three-point shot. I came a long way as far as the last three years of shooting the ball, so hopefully I can keep improving.

06:21 Whose game do you maybe compare yourself to or watch, as you go through this process?

06:25 I have three to four people. One is Paolo (Banchero). I’ve always tried to mimic his game. Naz Reid, as well, in a way. I try to mimic some of LeBron’s drives, how physical he is and how he uses his body, when to use it, stuff like that. And somebody I still watch to this day, like, just highlights, is Magic Johnson, but yeah, those guys are — I learn every, like, a lot of different things, like, little pieces from each player.

06:47 Do you like the Dominican LeBron nickname?

06:49 I do. Yeah, I really do. I really do. Yeah. It was really fun being able to try to keep that, like, legacy in a way, but yeah, it was very fun to have that, yeah.

06:58 And just your versatility has stood out, obviously, throughout your college career. What position do you maybe feel the most comfortable at?

07:05 I would say small forward. Obviously, I have to get my three-point shot way more consistent because the small forwards in this league are very lethal, so once I get that down, I think I’ll be perfectly fit in small forward.

07:16 To Dalton (Johnson)’s point, you’ve been actually comped to Draymond Green in a lot of ways. Do you see similarities in your games with him and how would you kinda see you fitting next to him, if you were to come to the Warriors?

07:26 Yeah, I do see some similarities. He’s a win guy, “win-all” guy, you can say, and he’s a connector for the squad. He makes the right read a majority of the time. He plays super-hard on defense, willing to take on the best player on the other squad, so I definitely feel like I have a lot of similarities just as far as that. And, like, if I play alongside him, again, just a lot of learning. He’s won many rings. He’s been in many, many tough situations where he has to step up his game and it’ll be a very, very, like, good vet to have by your side.

07:55 Can a Michigan and a Michigan State guy co-exist?

07:58 I don’t think so. I don’t know if he was too fond of me this year because we beat Michigan State twice, but it would be nice to see if we could.

08:05 Do we have any questions on Zoom?

08:20 Yes, Yaxel. I was curious about the number of workouts as far as — I feel like it’s been every day for you. Who have you worked out with so far besides, obviously, Golden State.

08:21 I worked out for Oklahoma, Miami, Chicago, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Dallas, and then the Warriors.

08:26 And who do you have left? You got any more left?

08:30 I have the Clippers and the Hawks and I’m done.

08:45 Quick follow. What was interesting about these workouts was you were running into these faces that you’ve seen before, like, maybe you played against in college. Obviously, today you saw some familiar faces. What was that like, seeing guys that you competed against and now you’re in the workout with them , in essence competing to get the attention of teams?

08:53 Yeah, it’s fun. It’s fun being able to compete with such high-level guys. I try not to, like, keep the hatred that I had for those guys that I played against during the season, but it’s really nice being able to switch it and learn about those other guys and just go out there and compete, so it’s very, very nice.

09:09 Thank you, sir.

09:10 Yes, sir.

09:18 Last time we saw you play in the Final Four, championship, you were dealing with a knee issues, with —

09:22 One second, Jake.

09:23 How tough was that and how long did it take you to get fully healthy?

09:23 Man, it was very, very tough, mentally, when it happened. I went into the tent and I was crying for a good five to ten minutes just trying to say to myself that it’s not over. It felt like it was, so I was very, very emotional about it. But the next day I felt very, very bad, man. When I played I felt like 40, 50% maybe at most, but it was very, very tough mentally.

09:42 And then the last one from Jake Singer.

09:46 Hey, Yaxel.

09:47 Hello.

09:47 Coming off the national championship, it was a very quick turnaround to go right into the NBA Draft process. Given how long you guys have played for, have you been able to enjoy the championship with your teammates and really soak that in yet, or is that gonna happen after the NBA Draft when you finally have a few months to decompress?

10:03 Man, when we won the championship, it didn’t feel real for a good, like, month maybe. So our celebration was kind of the parade and the ceremony we had with some of the fans. So I mean, I would count that celebrating, in a way. We didn’t really milk it like I’ve seen many people do it, but, it was very fun. Very, very fun. We had a lot of good conversations about the season memories, spoke a lot about what we saw, what we did, but I think next year we’re gonna have the ring ceremony, the banner ceremony. And I think that’s when we’ll, like, truly get to celebrate it.

10:35 All right. Thank you.

10:36 Yeah. Thank you, guys. Yes, sir.

🫶💙💛

Potential Stan Wars on social media aside, which quite frankly do not matter IRL, the Golden State Warriors should absolutely be interested in LeBron James especially if you saw his performance for the LA Lakers in the playoffs.

If you’re on our Discord server, you already know that Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints has reported James will meet with one Wardell Stephen Curry II soon.

Meanwhile, Tim Kawakami of the SF Standard, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo Sports and Sam Quinn of CBS Sports (co-host of The Third Apron with cap expert Yossi Gozlan) all agree that LeBron is definitely in play for the Warriors.

Obviously, Mike Dunleavy, Jr. and Joe Lacob will investigate every possible avenue to improve the roster. It’s just common sense.

But the hidden problem is how people are assuming the Warriors would acquire him. As far as I know, everyone has said that the path to acquiring James is the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (NTMLE).

I won’t bore you with the details of how that works, but it is a way for teams that are below the luxury tax line to sign a free agent (or two), basically cap space relief worth up to roughly $15 million — as long as you stay below the first apron, which is about $9 million above that luxury tax line.

In case you didn’t know, the GSW payroll easily blew past the first apron last season, largely because the salaries of Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga shot upwards from their rookie baselines, as is allowed in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement — the Warriors were under the second apron, though.

Unlike the Warriors, most NBA teams are not paying the luxury tax, therefore the NTMLE is referred to as a convenient and easy way to value a certain substrate of available free agents. In fact, the NTMLE is often referred to merely as “the mid-level”, just removing the extra words denoting its “non-taxpayer” etymology.

So, I can see why reporters often toss around the mid-level exception as something that’s usually doable.

Based on my own spreadsheet calculations of the Warriors’ salary cap situation, I am here to say that the mid-level exception is not a magic wand.

The logic sounds simple enough:

1. Get under the luxury tax,

2. Open the NTMLE, then

3. Sign James.

The problem is that the first step is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Getting under the luxury tax is not a minor maneuver. It’s the entire challenge.

Depending on how the Warriors handle Kristaps Porziņģis and Draymond Green, their payroll can easily approach $220 million, which is just below the second apron where you would want to be, to avoid harsh penalties such as freezing future picks at the end of the first round.

The luxury tax line is roughly $200 million. That means the Warriors would need to shed approximately $20 million before they could even begin discussing the NTMLE. That’s the part of the conversation that often gets skipped.

The easiest way to get under the tax would be to renounce free agent Porziņģis. On paper, that sounds straightforward. In practice, it is a significant decision.

When you renounce a free agent, you are not simply removing a player from the roster. You are surrendering the salary slot associated with that player. That salary slot can be an asset, as it can be used in sign-and-trade scenarios or future roster construction.

Maximizing a roster slot preserves flexibility that may prove more valuable than simply creating room for a mid-level signing, such as aggregating salaries to acquire a more expensive star player.

Could the Warriors decide that LeBron is worth sacrificing Kristaps? Sure, but that is very different from saying, “Make some maneuvers and use the NTMLE.”

Tomorrow, I’ll go over what the grand plan should be when it comes to acquiring LeBron, which in and of itself the Warriors should only do as one of a series of moves, not the only move.

The grand plan includes trading for Kawhi Leonard and, at that point, Bron makes sense to me.

There may also be some competition for James. The Lakers could find a way to bring him back and, in a video with esteemed Lakers journalists Anthony Irwin and Harrison Faigen, cap expert Gozlan found a path to pay LeBron $24 million to return to LA.

James made over $50 million last year. That’s a pay cut of over 50%. Getting a contract at the NTMLE level would then seem like a slap in the face to LeBron’s camp as long as there are realistic pathways to something substantially higher than that (returning to the Lakers for $24 million).

We should do better than just the NTMLE.

Side note: I have been told by a trusted insider that LeBron is not going back to the Lakers, but I am still using that $24 million figure as a benchmark. It is just safer when guessing what the market will do.

That’s why in my mock off-season for the Warriors, I have them signing-and-trading Porzingis for LeBron, at that same $24 million figure — a number which can be brought down depending on a new contract with Green, assuming he opts out. That also gives the Lakers an asset and salary slot rather than just allowing James to walk and getting nothing in return.

The good news for GSW? Bron and Dray, of course, are both part of the family over there at Klutch Sports and share Rich Paul as their agent, so they can all hash their respective salaries out together.

My calculations tell me the two players have cap space of $40 million to figure out between themselves if Kawhi is traded for Jimmy Butler and Brandin Podziemski (and two first-round picks, as I will explain in a separate post, see the Comments for the eventual link).

There are other factors in play. What do the Lakers want to pay Porzingis, if they are interested at all? What other offers are out there for KP? I would assume likely not that many.

I actually presented this plan back on May 3rd on our YouTube channel:

Since then there have been a few tweaks, even significant tweaks, but Kawhi as the crown jewel still remains the primary pursuit, which again will be discussed next on this Substack.

Ironically, sending out Butler and Podziemski reduces the Warriors’ salaries by more than $10 million and, combined with Draymond’s opt-out and new smaller salary, sheds that $20 million and gets the Dubs under the luxury tax line, enabling that NTMLE.

But based on these salary slots for Dray ($16 million) and KP-or-Bron ($24 million), it only leaves $13 million for NTMLE usage to stay under the first apron, not the full $15 million that’s allowed.

I don’t think we are getting Bron at $13 million. That’s way too steep of a pay cut.

So is there a way for Golden State to keep KP and acquire LeBron?

Even if every GM agreed not to use their NTMLE on LeBron and the Warriors went ahead and got Bron with the full $15 million NTMLE, as well as made the Kawhi trade (remember, doing so reduces salary!) and kept Porzingis, thereby still getting under the luxury tax, you could only pay Kristaps a maximum of $19 million if Dray agreed to the steepest of salary cuts to $16 million.

I should say, aesthetically I’m not sure KP on the floor with Bron at the same time makes sense, either. Porzingis’ strength is the high post at the top of the circle and work from there, whereas Bron can fit into the gravity movement system of Steph while at the same time, post up in the mid-block if things get hairy.

So, I guess you can force feed me a scenario where Bron was obtained at the $15 million full mid-level while retaining KP and Draymond together earning $35 million in total — I just don’t see all that happening.

Also, doing it that way ruins my latest idea: trading a future pick plus a swap for one of OKC or Charlotte’s two first-round 2026 picks. The Warriors would need the extra wiggle room to take on the salary of that new pick. There’s zero wiggle if you’re trading for Kawhi, keeping Porzingis, and adding LeBron.

I’d even say getting a second 2026 first-round pick should be the No. 1 priority, even ahead of Kawhi. I’ll do a cap sheet analysis on the YouTube channel soon for next summer’s salary concerns and you’ll see why.

The spreadsheets for 2026-27 are telling me the ways to get LeBron using the NTMLE seem far-fetched, but I remain humble and open to the possibility that I may have missed something.

And one last thing: the above is very hard to explain in words, although I do see the value in at least attempting to document all this. That’s why it has taken me more than a month to put my Kawhi on idea on paper, here.

I will post the final cap sheet with Kawhi on it in the forthcoming article. This one, I just wanted to kind of temper the expectations of getting LeBron with a NTMLE.

Come to my video essays and upcoming livestreams on YouTube and let’s play around with the spreadsheets together.

🫶💙💛

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…]

🫶💙💛

Read more

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.

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