Discord Digest: Oubre stuff, trade deadline, what does Lacob & Light Years really mean?
Discord Digest: Oubre stuff, trade deadline, what does Lacob & Light Years really mean?
Plus fun tidbits like Klay, Curry fam, Curry8, J.Lin BTS from our Discord server
I guess I should’ve posted this before the trade deadline, but then again we had plenty of Kelly Oubre-related discussion for you to swim in here (as a plea for keeping Oubre in terms of needing him for the playoffs) and here (our first pre-trade deadline thread where people could make predictions and educated guesses).
Below is a copy/paste from my Oubre thoughts as it related to how the Warriors are architecting this squad (Light Years reference!) on our Discord server. If you want immediate access to it, you can start by joining our Patreon. If you are already a subscriber to this website, you can email me at rich@letsgowarriors.com and I’ll add you, but just be patient because I’m really, really backed up on the emails. Everything I put on the Discord is my own extra time, so consider it a “beta” project. I am also very particular of the membership. Let me put it this way: if you’re a zealous Twitter, Instagram, YouTube or other social media commenter (other than on this site, which I don’t even count as social media per se), you’re probably not a good fit for my small community of erudite DubNation’ites on there. My generalization (sorry, I know I could be wrong with some of you) is as follows: 95% of the people who comment on social media have something negative to say and use social media commenting as an anonymous and rent-free outlet to project their anger about something else — kinda like road rage — and so I’m in no hurry to scale it. Letting 100 people in tonight probably will result in me banning 95 of them anyways, at least right now. Hopefully that changes soon as I emerge it from “beta”. I don’t have a timeline on that, either. It’s a passion project.
But before we dive into erudite Oubre analysis as it pertains to why the Warriors did not trade him, let’s take a look at some other stuff I shared on Discord that is literally not found anywhere else on any Warriors social media account:
When Klay’s trainer came up to the Bay to visit him and what they were gonna do (yes, it is bay-related lol).
Juan Toscano-Anderson signing his shoes for a fan who showed up with a placard cheering for him.
Video of Rocco retrieving a stick (he took his time lol).
Where Smiley went on the Warriors’ day off.
Behind-the-scenes pics of Jordan Poole working out.
What Jeremy Lin admitted.
Multiple photos of Seth and the Currys reconnecting at Chase Center.
Oubre and Damion Lee pregame ritual.
A fire custom design of Curry8 honoring Oakland, but with the authentic The Town version, and the story behind that.
Also, I should mention that I did not post anything from morning shootaround in Sacramento today, so maybe this makes up foe that. We were supposed to have Draymond Green (must-see TV), but were told he was getting treatment, so we had Nico Mannion instead and only two questions were asked (notes are on our Discord), none by the beatwriters, probably because we were at the trade deadline and there was too much else going on. So without further adieu, here is my…
…OUBRE RANT (3/23):
I just don’t think there is any team out there that can offer a guy better than Oubre for Oubre, which is what this is all about, isn’t it? Doesn’t even have to be the same position, I’ll offer that up, meaning if this isn’t a wing-for-wing deal then it has to be a big-name guard (because it’s definitely not a big-name center).
Yeah, I’m just not gonna go do the work to look up all NBA contracts within 25% of Oubre’s. I got better things to do right now.
The other 29 GMs aren’t dumb esp in this day and age. Like, tell me who out there has a guy who might be able to turn into Oubre at his peak, but hasn’t demonstrated it yet, that we’d be willing to sacrifice our 2021 playoff experience for the young guys for, through to the end of 2022 training camp? That guy has to be as good as Oubre at his best on Day One of training camp, plus has to be within similar salary range.
Is there a guy like that plus a situation where his team has an extra (2nd round?) pick they can get rid of right now, plus the team needs Oubre now for the playoff push?
I mean, I would love to see this rabbit that gets pulled out of the hat. Still could happen, but any Oubre deal will end up being like *wow* for me.
I mean, a deal involving Iguodala? That would be No. 1 on my list if I were Bob, right? Would Miami give him up? Do they think Oubre is an upgrade? What else does Miami have to throw in there?
Gabe replied: “Andre would be cool for like nostalgia, but he's got like 1 year left of being playable at this rate and his offense has totally degraded to nothing. I'd love to see him retire here but I'm not giving up Oubre for him”
24 HOURS LATER:
The more I think about this, the more I have concluded that we are just not trading any of our first round picks coming up. Watch the dominoes fall, as follows:
One of the meanings of Lacob thinking the Warriors are “light years” ahead is because they can now get away with overpaying players. It would be hard to do this by building from scratch. Not only do you have to draft successfully but you also have to get lucky, as was the case with Steph’s ankle and him being paid only $12M/year for a stretch, two seasons of which yielded MVP trophies. There was also a cap spike when Kevin Durant joined, as mentioned by Gabe. Also please remember the roster gymnastics and draft picks given up that happened for Iguodala.
So you have these “salary slots”, which I think is a bad term because it gets casual fans thinking they are slots every NBA team gets.
“Overpaid slot” (reason why):
Steph (draft/injury)
Klay (draft)
Dray (draft)
Wiggins (trade, also via KD FA because of Steph contract + cap spike and later via D’Angelo Russell, ofc)
Oubre (Iguodala TPE, see above)
How many other teams have 5 roster spots where we can grossly overpay (ie circumvent the salary cap) to keep?
It follows that the following contracts are “dirt cheap”: Wiseman (rookie scale), Poole (rookie scale), Paschall (rookie scale), Nico (rookie scale).
We’ve got the MIN pick coming in 2021 or 2022 plus our own pretty high one (due to 2021 W-L record). That’s at least two more quality players at rookie scale rates.
So to balance all that salary that we’re circumventing the salary cap with, you need as many rookie scale rates as you can. Plus you’d hope that MLE hits, which it didn’t this year (Wanamaker).
So, we’re definitely not trading the MIN pick and we’re probably not trading our own pick for 2021. And we’re probably keeping Oubre because we do have a good bevy of over-performing rookie scale contracts to balance that out.
YESTERDAY LATE AFTERNOON:
TheAthletic’s Anthony Slater says GSW gives indications that they want to keep Oubre, but his sources around the league say GSW is making tons of phone calls.
My read is this: Oubre is potentially about to cost the Warriors like $20M this summer. So you better damn turn over every rock out there and make sure you didn’t miss anything. I call it due diligence and it’s exactly what VCs like Lacob do on a daily basis. And so it is part of Lacob’s culture that’s brought into basketball. And it’s good. But it also can be overblown a bit.
One really interesting thing Slater brought up, again which makes him the KD of reporters, is Oubre could sign and then we trade him to, say, NYK or BKN and we get a trade exception of similar Iguodala size (pause lol) back, thereby retaining that salary cap exception that has been tied with this Oubre slot the whole time.
I say, just pay him, and be reasonably certain Chase will sell out with concerts every night for an eternity after vaccines have conquered COVID.
Sure, Oubre could walk this summer and take the money. I just don’t know that there are any other guys out there right now that a team looking for a rental has for us. We just have to hope he stays and I think Lacob and Myers will do their best.
DISCORD MEMBERS REACTIONS:
C: “He also said he wanted a home when he was talking to Kerith (Burke) too.”
DT: “But players need to go for money when they are young....they can ring chase after securing their financial futures”
C: “I don’t think oubre is like that tbh. He doesn’t seem like that at all. Not a ego guy. Being with Steph and dray and Klay is way worth any amount he could get lol but maybe I’m biased”
MJ: “I feel Oubre really loves theWarriors and enjoy being here. Maybe he was trying his best last night to prove the FO that he’s the right piece for 12-20 mil 6th option next year. Just pay him as much as warriors can, they’ve earned so much from previous seasons. All in or nothing now, maybe they can’t win championship again but at least compete and enjoy while it lasts”
DT: “I think it comes down to taking 20 mil to be a 7th man here vs 24 mil to be a top 2 option and starter on another team (ie: ORL/NYK/MEM)”
C: “I mean it could. But oubre doesn’t seem like the guy that cares if he’s the 6th man or starter. Which he’s said before also.”
…and then a reaction to some number-crunching…
MJ: “Hilarious amount of money”
Me: “But... you know what else is a hilarious amount of money? Gate receipts from a concert or game at Chase Center. We’ll be fine, everybody. We are very very lucky to have Lacob as our Mr. Burns. The ability to overpay guys and pay the tax that’s supposed to prevent the first thing, is the essence of #LightYears. Nobody could’ve dreamed of a third franchise to have that kind of power alongside LA and NYC. Luckily NYK is still struggling, but that window could be closing.”
MJ: “Hahaha i know Lacob has earned big amount of money! But the amount of taxes have never be seen in nba before”
Me: “The NBA has never had an arena like Chase though. It is literally the Number One arena on Planet Earth. So I’ma look at it that way. I’ve always been about glass half full.
Come to think of it we’re lucky Lacob came from a VC background. They deal with big figures like this all the time. Totally not intimidated by paying big dollar figures. No Mark Davises here lol.”
EPILOGUE:
I know this was a super-long post, but I believe I have covered every angle of this trade deadline from an overall Warriors strategy standpoint, i.e., the culture and how they’ve architected the team. It fits what I think I know about Kerr/Myers/Lacob over the course of the last 7-8 years, especially the culture, being at the practice facility on a daily basis (during non-pandemic times).
All I ask is that in the comments below, please keep things erudite. It’s fine to disagree, just don’t say anything personal. If you’d prefer to not only disagree, but throw in a little extra pissing contest or what have you, there are plenty of places for that on other platforms. I would like to see this website as well as the Discord server become a sanctuary. I’ve actually gotten a lot of head nods from the older folks in DubNation who were here at least by 2013.
/end
The more I read/think about the tax and payroll, the more I understand that I really don't understand what we're willing/able to pay :)
Great post, loved reading your thoughts! My problem is just how much they're counting on hypotheticals. The FO is counting on Klay returning to his old self, on drafting good players and on these rookies making an impact right away. I'm just not sure if that's good enough to build a contending team. Would like to hear more of your thoughts on that. Great job, keep up the good work!