Game 1 Wemby (+Castle/Harper) had DubNation spooked
[capsheet/roster for ‘26-27 + Dunleavy transcript]
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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