Did Dunleavy really not include Draymond in any trade talks?

[Kerr/Dunleavy/Porzingis transcripts]

Mike Dunleavy, Jr., general manager of the Golden State Warriors, got super-defensive with a follow-up question from Danny Emerman of the SF Standard during a pregame press conference before the Dubs faced the LA Lakers at Crypto.com Arena.

As is usually the case after each February deadline, as well as each Draft at the end of June, free agency period in July, and start of the season in October on or around Media Day, Dunleavy made himself available to reporters, this time obviously on the heels of the trade for Kristaps Porzingis, who was also made available to media at the pregame podium.

The full transcripts, including Steve Kerr’s usual mandatory head coach’s pregame, are all below.

Nick Friedell of The Athletic first brought up the topic of Draymond Green, about four minutes and seven questions in:

Obviously, Draymond’s been pretty open about the fact that he — at least he knew his name was in conversations. Do you think his relationship with the organization has changed at all because of the fact that he realizes for the first time he’s not an untouchable here?

DUNLEAVY: Yeah, I mean, I’d walk that back a little bit. His name was not in conversations other than the ones where teams call me and ask about him, which they do every year, so nothing’s new there. I mean, the idea that he stayed with the Warriors past the deadline was greatly exaggerated. It was never a possibility of him not being here — remotely close to be honest. And I’ve conveyed that to him. I think he knows that, but when stuff comes up in the media, I think it feels different for the players and I think that’s the first time it happened for Draymond. So he’s dealing with it in a certain way, but the reality is, nothing was close and nothing was considered and Draymond was not being shopped or talked about in deals. So it’s a little bit misleading and we’re kind of picking up the pieces here, but I think he’s in a great spot and so are we, moving forward.

EMERMAN: If you said nothing was close regarding Draymond’s — I’d assume nothing was close in your pursuit of Giannis (Antetokuonmpo). How, what would give you confidence —

DUNLEAVY: Wait, why is that?

EMERMAN: Because he would have to be in the deal, or Jimmy (Butler).

DUNLEAVY: Okay, well, you’re putting words in my mouth. So, that’s an unbelievable assumption.

EMERMAN: So was Jimmy, then, on the table?

DUNLEAVY: No, no, no. We’re not doing that. I’m not talking — I’m not going down the roster talking about who’s in trades and who’s not. We don’t do that.

To Dunleavy’s credit, as well as all the reporters in the room, the interview seemed to progress normally after that.

By the way, these are all fair questions. Leading up to the deadline, the likes of Shams Charania of ESPN, Jake Fischer and Marc Stein of The Stein Line, Sam Amick of The Athletic and Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints had all been reporting that the Warriors were one of the teams pursing Antetokuonmpo. It really all started with Charania saying on ESPN in January 28th that Giannis was “ready to move to a new team”.

Emerman is absolutely correct. To salary match for Antetokuonmpo, you would have to send out Butler, who makes exactly the same amount as Giannis at $54.1 million, or aggregate the salaries of the next two highest-paid players, Green at $25.9 million and Jonathan Kuminga at $22.5 million. You would actually need at least one more player, obviously, but Draymond and JK must be in the deal, mathematically and based on the remaining contract values, if it’s not Jimmy in the deal.

Any other aggregation or combinations of salaries less than that, you would have too many players going out — NBA teams obviously can only have a maximum of fifteen total players on the roster with NBA contracts. You can’t just send out, say, six players to the Bucks just because those six add up to Giannis’ $54.1 million. Again, the mathematical conclusion is that either Jimmy or Draymond must be in any trade for Giannis.

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What I’m about to say was covered on our Discord already, but more so in microblog fashion. I also alluded to it during the first thirteen minutes of our watch party livestream the night of the trade deadline:

But as proudly organized as our Discord server is, sometimes rumors and news get so convoluted, that I do have to spell them out or rehash the sequence of events. This website is a good platform for that.

When you couple what Dunleavy said at the podium with what Draymond recently said on his podcast, at first blush you would think MDJ is just flat-out lying:

But if you listen closely, Green actually said Dunleavy told him he had not talked to Milwaukee about the players in the deal, only the Draft picks.

Therefore, if MDJ had not talked to the Bucks about any players, then he never shopped Dray’s name.

The other important piece of intel was brought forth by Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. I’ll dive into more detail behind the paywall, but you can look that up by searching our “Dunleavy-Lacob” text channel on our Discord, or just Google what she reported.

As suggested in this article’s thumbnail, that all has to do with Jaren Jackson, Jr.

Please note, Jackson, Jr.’s salary is only $35 million this year. That could have been salary-matched (and then some) with Kuminga’s $22.5 million, plus Moses Moody’s $11.6 million or Buddy Hield at $9.2 million, plus, say, Brandin Podziemski’s $3.7 million. Obviously, discussing Draymond in a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies could be avoided in a deal for JJJ.

Also as I’ve reported, this was not the first go-round for the Dubs inquiring about Jackson, Jr.:

Given the above paragraphs, it is actually rather easy to come to the conclusion that Draymond was never talked about in any other trade talk not pertaining to Giannis.

We the fan base as well as media can make the reasonable conclusion that trading out Dray for anyone other than Giannis probably does not make sense for the team to do, and probably would get vetoed by one Wardell Stephen Curry, anyways.

Certain publicly available reports can confirm that the Bucks never actually seriously engaged in any Giannis trade talks with any team.

Therefore, what Dunleavy said on the podium and what Green said on his podcast, plus the math of the Shelburne report can lead to Draymond’s name never being mentioned in any deal for Giannis or any other deal, namely, JJJ.

I will break down these tidbits of information behind the paywall, below. It will not get into specifics, as I was sworn to secrecy, so I won’t reveal the deepest parts.

Still, why was Dunleavy so defensive about this? Like, who really cares if Draymond’s feelings were hurt? After all, he ended up not going anywhere and Dray even said it himself, it’s part of the business. Why was Dunleavy nitpicking?

I think it’s just that the Warriors organization prides itself on integrity, sometimes and perhaps in this case, to a fault. Maybe Mike’s conversation with Draymond couldn’t go too far into explicit details, for whatever reason. Organizations might keep things on a need-to-know basis to protect their own strategies, while still maintaining that integrity. So, Mike left Dray just some tidbits and nothing more: he told him he talked to the Bucks about Draft picks and nothing more. Dray was left to put two and two together on his own.

The approach has the same walk and talk like, ohhh… Silicon Valley venture capital firms, let’s say? We all know that’s where Lacob hails from and the most likely the type of corporate culture he infused into the franchise upon arrival.

Also, note that the Q&A started to derail when Emerman made the assumption that “nothing was close” in Golden State’s pursuit of Giannis. Part of the corporate culture might be to always make it seem like Golden State is closely involved in any talks. That’s usually how VC firms like to be portrayed in the eyes of both entrepreneurs and, perhaps more importantly, each firm’s limited partners who contribute to their respective nine-, ten-, or sometimes eleven-figure funds.

Perhaps that is why Dunleavy shot down Emerman’s logic of the Warriors not being close to a deal for Giannis if Draymond was not discussed. Perhaps the definition of “nothing was close” is in question here.

Back to the “integrity” front that I suggested above, we all know how brutally honest Kerr can be, for example. And we have often watched postgame interviews during our watch party coverage where, once in a blue moon and usually during a losing streak, things might get a little testy with Steve on the podium. That’s when I usually tell the audience that he should just stonewall a reporter à la Gregg Popovich — reputation, openness, or approachability be damned.

Sometimes the stonewall technique is the best way, although it doesn’t get you any praise from audience members. And I should say, a good venture capitalist never burns a bridge, so their corporate culture is less likely to ever stonewall. It kinda all makes sense, how this unfolded.

Finally, overall, sometimes people in the Golden State organization can try to be too perfect. That often backfires. Why? Well, that’s outside the scope of this discussion, but to put it bluntly, it’s the all-consuming need for control.

Dunleavy probably should have just leaned into “no comment” territory or borrowed from Steve’s infamous saying that private conversations are private, too bad.

Because by now, Warriors X/Twitter have blown this out of proportion and they have already branded Mike a liar. On an app that started as the darling adjunct of the NBA and morphed over a decade into an outrage amplification machine, this is inevitably a bad look that reinforces all the negativity that the front office, particularly Lacob, has taken over the past week.

Often times the outrage on that app spills over into mainstream media. Even readers of mainstream media who have no Xitter accounts end up consuming the same news in almost the same way, just in an article that has aggregated the content and re-exuded emotion of said tweets.

Not that any of the GSW parties involved could have planned for this. Recently, I have gotten the sense that the organization has accepted the fact that Xitter has gone rogue.

We are merely observing creatures of habit.

As I’ve been alluding to in a previous Substack post or two, a lot of stuff during trade deadline is Ouroboros-like.

🤷‍♂️

Meanwhile, here are the entire pregame video interviews with captions and transcripts. Again, bonus inside info containing the calculus of how, despite the damage to his image, Dunleavy actually did not lie – for paid subscribers behind the paywall down below, after the end of the transcripts. 👇

00:00 STEVE KERR, PREGAME GSW-LAL: Yeah. Yeah, I saw him (Kristaps Porzingis) at the hotel last night and had a good chat and he’s excited. We’re excited. And he got a workout in today with Rick (Celebrini). And yeah, so we’ll — let’s see where it goes from here.

00:16 You sense that he’s close?

00:18 I’m sorry?

00:18 You sense that he’s close to getting ready to —

00:20 Yeah, I think the plan is he’ll be in the Bay all of All-Star Break and he’ll play after the break.

00:28 You’d already ruled out of the these next two, though?

00:30 Yes.

00:30 Okay.

00:31 Yeah.

00:33 How happy are you to have Pat Spencer assigned to the contract for the rest of the season?

00:37 Yeah, yeah, thrilled to have Pat. The impact he has on our team, whether he is playing or not, is pretty profound, just his competitiveness and support for the group. And then you see what happens when we give him real opportunities to play. He comes through every time, so I’m really, really excited to have him full time and it’s very meaningful for him. He’s put a lot of work in over the years.

01:04 Do you expect Steph to play next game or is he still (inaudible)?

01:08 I think he’s doubtful for — obviously, he won’t play tonight. I would say doubtful for the next one, but we’ll see.

01:18 Does it makes sense, with All-Star coming up, that maybe — ?

01:20 Yeah, I mean, that’s what Rick is for. That’s what we lean on him for, so I think there’s a good chance that he doesn’t play till after the Break, but we’re just gonna take it day-by-day, but Tuesday, he’s doubtful.

01:38 When preparing for this Lakers team, just what stands out?

01:41 Well, they’re a really good offensive team. They’re good in transition. They get fouled you. You can’t show your hands to (Austin) Reaves or he’s gonna draw fouls. LeBron (James) can still get on a straight line, drive to the rim and tear the rim off the backboard, so they’re having a really good season, well-coached. They’re tough to guard and we have to push the ball against them. We’ve gotta get some transition, try to get some easy hoops especially without Steph and Jimmy.

02:22 Hey Steve, Draymond has made it clear that he just wants a chance and he wants his team to have a chance. Do you think with the way this roster is currently constructed, do you like those chances?

02:30 I think we have a chance to make a run here. I’ve said this multiple times, but having Al (Horford) and Melt (De’Anthony Melton) has changed our team quite a bit, so we’re a lot better than we were a year ago before we got Jimmy, just because of those two guys, I think, and obviously losing Jimmy was a killer, but we have depth. We have a good vibe. We got guys who play hard play together and, if we’re healthy, then I think we can we can do some damage.

03:06 Steve, you sort of had a smile on your face when you mentioned LeBron can still tear the rim off and I’m wondering, you’ve probably seen that tweet from 2015 where it says this won’t go on much longer and I’m wondering if you can relate to that from a coaching perspective, just the years and years of continually preparing to come up against him along the way.

03:24 What was the 2015 reference?

03:26 Well, I can’t — it was a tweet. I can’t exactly use some of the language that was in it, but it was essentially along the lines of, LeBron is 30, this won’t go on much longer. And obviously it’s gone on much longer.

03:34 Whose tweet was it?

03:35 Some random —

03:36 Oh, so some rando.

03:38 Just a fan.

03:40 Yeah, well that guy obviously didn’t know what he was talking about, so yeah, I mean, coaching him in the Paris Olympics was just a really good look in inside why he is who he is, the work he puts in, the engagement in every practice, every shootaround, the internal leadership. He was just incredible to work with and way more fun to work with than against, for sure.

04:14 Coach, in the back. Knowing what you know about KP and his health, are you gonna be more conservative or kind of like liberal to see how many minutes he’s playing or just kind of figuring out day-by-day?

04:26 Yeah, this is the whole point of having a really experienced performance staff who will make all those determinations and today was about Rick and Kristaps getting together for the first time, getting on the court, really having a good conversation, so we will leave all of that stuff to to Rick and obviously we wouldn’t have made the trade if we didn’t think there was a chance he could be healthy and playing a lot for us.

–

04:56 MIKE DUNLEAVY, JR.: I’ll let you guys ask some questions, but let me just start by saying the trade deadline coming — come and gone and feel good with what we did, adding Kristaps, for sure, adding a second-round pick, doing some stuff for this summer, looking ahead to that, some things that’ll help us, but most importantly, want to thank the guys that we traded, Buddy, JK, Trayce (Jackson-Davis). They all contributed to our franchise in a positive way and we wish those guys well and we’re sorry to see them go, but we’re excited about our addition here, so looking forward to getting KP in the mix and moving forward.

05:29 You mentioned right there, doing stuff that better preps you for the summer. What, how would you say this deadline set you up for the summer?

05:35 I mean, it’s slight. This is, that’s not, that wasn’t the main intention of the deal. We love the player in Kristaps, so we think he can help us with some of the stuff on court. I’d say his rim protection, his ability to score or get fouled, take care of the ball, all things that we’re looking to improve, particularly after losing Jimmy. So that, that was the main thing, but I think just adding a second-round pick for us, knowing the financials on that, what that means this summer and in free agency with what we’re able to do with the second-round pick, just some other slight little things, but again, not the main meat and potatoes, what we’re trying to get done.

06:08 How confident are you that Kristaps Porzingis can stay healthy? He’s only played in very few games the last few years. Just how much of a factor was that when you made this decision?

06:17 Yeah, I mean, we feel good about it. We looked into it pretty in depth and, yeah, I mean, we believe in our medical staff. There’s no guarantees. There’s no certainty, but with kind of where he’s at right now, where he’s been, we feel good about it. And on the other end of it, in terms of what we’re sending out, we’re sending out a player in a similar boat who struggled to stay on the floor, so I think from our standpoint, we recognize the risk medically, but it’s a risk we’re willing to take.

06:47 Have you spoken to Rick about how that first workout went this morning?

06:51 Yeah, I was there. It was good. Yeah, it was good. It went well. It was good.

06:58 You got one roster spot left for for the buyout market. How are you sort of viewing that roster spot right now?

07:05 Yeah, I mean, I think we like the flexibility. I think an underappreciated thing in this league is roster spots, are availability of those. And so yeah, we’re at 14. We converted Pat, which we’re really excited about. That was certainly a thing at the deadline we wanted to be mindful of, to free up a spot to do that, so we have and we’ve got one more to play with and I think from my end, just kind of take a look at things, see over the coming weeks with needs we have, health-wise, what we’re looking at that’ll all play into what we may do and we’ll scour the buyout market and see what’s available.

07:36 You had a high-profile pursuit where you were putting your first-round picks on the table for. Would you say you were willing, or what was the threshold to pivot off that and use your first-round picks otherwise in trades you were talking about?

07:50 I mean, I feel like I answer this every trade cycle. We’re willing to do whatever it takes to improve this team. Whether it’s young players, first-round picks, we always have been, we always will be, as long as we’re into this win-now window, which it was pointed out to me today that over the last calendar year we had the 4th-best record in the NBA since Jimmy got traded til when he got hurt, so despite the idea that we’re not in the mix, we’re fading, all this stuff, the reality is, up until Jimmy got hurt, we were pretty good and I think we’re trending in the right direction. Now, we’ve had to pivot a little bit. I think adding Kristaps can help, but this group is kind of what it is.

08:26 How did that high-profile pursuit that Anthony (Slater) just mentioned, how did that affect the possibility of making other trades?

08:34 Yeah, I don’t think it did. I mean, because we ended up making a move here to get Kristaps and so, for that reason, I guess it didn’t really affect anything.

08:48 Obviously, Draymond’s been pretty open about the fact that he — at least he knew his name was in conversations. Do you think his relationship with the organization has changed at all because of the fact that he realizes for the first time he’s not an untouchable here?

09:06 Yeah, I mean, I’d walk that back a little bit. His name was not in conversations other than the ones where teams call me and ask about him, which they do every year, so nothing’s new there. I mean, the idea that he stayed with the Warriors past the deadline was greatly exaggerated. It was never a possibility of him not being here — remotely close to be honest. And I’ve conveyed that to him. I think he knows that, but when stuff comes up in the media, I think it feels different for the players and I think that’s the first time it happened for Draymond. So he’s dealing with it in a certain way, but the reality is nothing was close and nothing was considered and Draymond was not being shopped or talked about in deals. So it’s a little bit misleading and we’re kind of picking up the pieces here, but I think he’s in a great spot and so are we, moving forward.

09:58 If you said nothing was close regarding Draymond’s — I’d assume nothing was close in your pursuit of Giannis. How, what would give you confidence —

10:09 Wait, why is that?

10:10 Because he would have to be in the deal, or Jimmy.

10:12 Okay, well, you’re putting words in my mouth.

10:15 Okay.

10:15 So that’s an unbelievable assumption.

10:18 So was Jimmy then on the table?

10:20 No, no, no. We’re not doing that. I’m not talking — I’m not going down the roster talking about who’s in trades and who’s not. We don’t do that.

10:26 How might your package for a star-level talent compare in the summer to what it was at this deadline?

10:35 I mean, we’ve got the goods to make deals. I mean, I think the only way we wouldn’t be in the mix is if we gave out assets, young players, all the things you need to get a great player. We still have all that. I think that’s one of the reasons the KP trade’s really good for us, similar to Jimmy last year. We don’t feel like we gave up a ton and so we still have the — kind of the firepower to move forward and do more deals and that’s what we like about it.

11:02 What — obviously, you won’t have Jimmy the rest of this season. What do you still think this team can accomplish? What are the internal expectations for this team?

11:11 Yeah, I’m interested to see how it goes. I think this addition for us could be really good, similar to the addition to Jimmy, the way he gave us a boost, I think this is similar, maybe not to that level. We certainly took off, but I’d say I’m not sure on our expectations, just because we gotta get healthy. Steph’s been out, we gotta get him back and we gotta get some things right, but I’m anxious and interested. I don’t really have expectations because it’s kind of an unknown for us and in some ways I think it’ll be kind of fun, but I know we’ll be really competitive. I know we’ll fight and we’ll see where the chips fall.

11:49 Mike, on Steph, there’s always a concern he has any kind of anything. Is there any more of a concern for you guys because this specific injury has lingered a little bit more?

12:02 I mean, look, anytime Steph’s missing games or injured, I’m always concerned, but I don’t think this is anything different and we feel comfortable that he’s gonna be okay. But, no, I hate it when he misses games and definitely there’s always a level of concern.

12:18 Steph obviously hasn’t slowed down. He’s still playing at an incredible level. How long do you anticipate him to (inaudible)?

12:26 I don’t know. It’s hard to say. I mean four or five years ago, probably would’ve guessed wrong, right, if you would’ve said he’d still be doing what he’s doing now? So I don’t wanna put a ceiling on it. This guy does everything under the sun to push his longevity out, unbelievably committed to the game and I don’t wanna put a ceiling on the guy, so I’m — as long as he’s still really good, we’re gonna keep being in this boat of trying to have a good team, continuing to get better and it’s a fun pursuit.

12:54 Kristaps is obviously on an expiring contract. How much of a priority was it in the trade market to, I guess, keep your books clean long-term and then how do you view his future potentially?

13:07 Yeah, I mean, I think keeping the books clean is a factor, but at the same time, if a really good player came about that extended out contract-wise that we really liked, we would’ve done that, so I don’t wanna cap it off and say we wouldn’t have and then I think there’s a pathway to bring him back next year. We’re hopeful to have his Bird Rights and things like that, so I think we’ve got options on the table and feel good with what can unfold.

13:31 Has there been any conversation with Steve up to this point about his future or is it still just very fluid?

13:36 Yeah, no, I think at the beginning of the season it was left at that by Steve, that take the year and see how it goes. And I think Steve’s doing a terrific job as always and we’ll address that as the season winds down.

13:48 I know you said nothing was ever even close with Draymond, but how did you think how he reacted to hearing what was in the media?

13:57 Like, I get it because there’s so much stuff out there, way more than when I played, on these rumors and things. There’s so many ways you hear it, so I understand it, but I feel bad for these guys right now with what they have to go through for this particular week. I mean, look, overall, their lives are great. They’re playing basketball. They’re getting paid to do it, but this is a tough period for players, tougher than it’s ever been. So for me, it’s a little bit helpless because I can’t really — I’m not in a position to say, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing that. Like, I just don’t feel right doing that. So because of it, they gotta kind of just deal with it. And when everything’s done, you can kind of clean some stuff up and go through it with guys, but it’s definitely a tough time for us all. But Draymond’s an open book. He’s great. He shared how he’s feeling but it was it was all for naught.

14:51 How do you look back on Kuminga’s five years with y’all and why it didn’t necessarily work the way everybody wanted it to?

14:58 Yeah, I mean, I think Steve kind of said some stuff, his availability recently about it after JK was traded. I think he said some really good things and I’ll leave it at that. We appreciate JK’s contributions. I think a good effort was made on both sides, just it just didn’t work out and wish him well. And I think he’ll do a nice job in Atlanta.

15:18 This summer, how much of a priority could be getting out of the tax, given the type of team-building tools that come with that?

15:29 Yeah, I mean, I think we’re always mindful of it, but at the same time our owner, Joe Lacob, has got a willingness to spend and compete and win, so it just always feels weird and tough to try and duck the tax but there are some team-building factors that come into play that may be worth it. We haven’t really gone down that road, but we’ll always look at it and I’d say, sure, it’s a possibility, but our chips are all-in on winning and usually that comes with spending.

—

15:59 Trade come out of left field to you? How’d you kinda learn about it?

16:03 KRISTAPS PORZINGIS: Yeah, I had no idea. It was a surprise and it was late at night, too, so right before sleep, so it was a surprise to me.

16:13 What’d you think about it?

16:17 Excited as always, you know? Especially once I found out where I’m going, knowing that also Al is here and always liked the fan base here. Pretty strong fan base from the outside and I thought it would be, yeah, that would be exciting opportunity.

16:39 Kristaps, how are you feeling health-wise and how was your workout this morning?

16:42 Mm-hmm. It was a good workout, building slowly back up, because once I start playing, I wanna hit the ground running. That’s my goal. And feeling pretty good, so step by step.

16:54 How do you see your skillset fitting in here in Golden State, shooting, passing, cutting, all of that?

16:59 I think it would be pretty natural. I think I always say that, also, because I feel like I’m the type of player that can fit into any kind of offense. So I expect it to be pretty smooth. We’ll see, we’ll see. Of course, it takes a little bit of time to get adjusted to everybody, to guys, get used to how I like to play and where I like to get the ball, but I think these guys are very experienced. They’ve played at the high level for a long time, so I believe it’ll be easy and I’ll also be able to learn from them.

17:33 Kristaps, the stuff you’ve dealt with health-wise is well documented. Why are you confident that you’ll be able to stay out there and stay on the floor here?

17:43 I don’t know, but I’m confident that I will. I’m confident that I will. It’s just, yeah, I’ll do everything right and I believe I will.

17:58 Obviously, you’re on an expiring contract. How does that kind of affect your on-court play or if it does even affect you at all, knowing that there’s a contract situation up in the air?

18:08 No, of course, no. Honestly, especially at this stage of my career, I know usually I think there’s even a stat that players play better on their contract year or something, you know? But I don’t play into that too much. I just wanna finish the year strong. It’s been already a little bit up-and-down this season playing out, da da, da. I just want to finish the year really strong on a new team, new chapter, and see where I go from there.

18:37 Given your time with Al Horford in Boston, has he has h talked to you since the trade?

18:43 Yeah, we just talked in the locker room right now. Al Horford you said? Yeah. We just talked to Al in the locker room for a little bit and we’ll have more time to talk and he will be probably who’s gonna help me settle in even more here. Yeah, so it’s good to have somebody like Al that I spent last couple seasons together and to have him here already, but honestly, everybody’s been super-welcoming as always and looking forward to building relationships here and getting to know everybody.

19:16 Knowing what you’re capable of and the type of stuff that you’ve accomplished in the league, how frustrating was it to be so limited recently and do you view this joining a team of Steph, Draymond, as an opportunity for a whole new chapter?

19:30 Yeah, exactly. I think it’s a great, great opportunity to turn a new page. From what I’ve seen and the conversations I’ve had so far with the medical staff here and the people that work here, I have to say I’m very surprised and very optimistic and that I’m in really, really good hands, if not some of the best hands. And I think that will also add to already what I have in my mind, so I look forward to really having a surprisingly good post All-Star Break period.

20:07 Just as a quick follow to that, why were you surprised? What surprised you?

20:13 What surprised me? I don’t know, just we clicked. I think we clicked in the first couple conversations and I already had heard good things, but I think now I just put the pieces together and I was like, okay, I see. I see how these guys are some of the best. So I think it’s just gonna help me to be healthy.

20:35 To kind of follow up on that, too, what was the focus of your first conversation with Steve like at the team hotel and do you have any previous experience with knowing Steph Curry as well, too?

20:45 First conversation with Steve was very quick. We just, I was walking into the hotel, he was going out, so we just had a brief moment, talked a little bit and yeah, and we will have more time to talk and discuss basketball and all that. And Steph, Steph has been — I’ve been a huge fan of Steph for a long time. He knows this. I always try to say what’s up to him after the game and tell that Steph is — just watching him from outside, he’s unreal. So to play alongside somebody like that will be will be really cool and I think it brings the level up for everybody. When you have somebody like that on your team, special special player it just makes everybody greater.

21:32 Are you targeting the first game out of the Break?

21:35 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was — yeah, that’s the goal.

21:39 And do you think — I’m sure these are conversations for a little bit later, but do you think it’ll be kind of like ease in your minutes or are you hoping to like, I mean —

21:46 48 straight.

21:48 48? All right.

21:50 We’ll see, we’ll see. We’ll see what the medical staff, what they think for me, but yeah, as I said, I want to hit the ground running.

21:59 For a long time now, the Warriors have they’ve looked for a center who can protect the rim and also stretch the floor like you can, specifically for the reason of playing with Draymond. How potent do you think that combination can be in the front court?

22:13 Yeah, no, Draymond’s one of, honestly, Draymond’s always been one of the toughest guys for me to play against. So I know who he is and how annoying he is for other guys, you know? So to have him on my side now, it’s gonna be pretty cool and yeah, I think his experience, his knowledge, his edge on the court, it’s something — it’s something that’s gonna be a good mix, I think, and I look forward to sharing the court with him. Good? Thank you.

22:52 So, sorry, but just considering that you’re a veteran now and throughout all the years, what do you think is the one lesson that you think you’ve learned throughout your entire career that can help you kind of better get acclimated to the Warriors and just this next chapter?

23:08 I don’t know. I just don’t like to force anything. Like, the basketball will just, especially the older you get, the — when you’re young, you want to get the points and this and — at the end it just comes natural. When you’re, like, when you’re just playing in a rhythm and trying to be the best teammate and be the best player, it just comes natural. So I think just not forcing it and letting the game and the rhythm and everything find myself. Thank you.

PAYWALL 👇