171 Comments

This is not about anything I have written the last few weeks. But it gives me hope that Golden State is at least considering backing out of the first round and/or trading Poole and/or Kuminga. I love Kuminga but apparently he was hanging his head and whining about playing time. In other words he was acting as though it was all about him. Which is how Poole acts all the time. However talented these cats may be, you cannot have 10 or 20 percent of your roster acting as if they mattered more than the group. It doesn't work. It will never work. Solve those problems by admitting less is more. This roster needs a talented and athletic and focused 3/4 player who can go 15 or 20 minutes a night and also handle the spot start. The core and culture is championship level. The Joker is a freak. An unhappy freak, but oh well. Subtract Curry and The Joker and LeBron and Giannis and Tatum from their rosters. Is there a more talented and experienced and competitive roster than the Warriors? I think not. The backcourt is the strength of this team with Steph and Klay and Donte and G2 and the troubled child Poole. That is the deepest set of guards in the league. They need to play three at all times to keep the floor spread in the new no post player NBA. If they add a good 3/4 then you have Looney and Dray and Wiggins and Kuminga and the incoming 3/4. That core can win again given health and focus and a little luck. The vets need to play mins early and get off to a good start. Winning is a habit. So is wandering around the court being clueless. JaMichael is too slow athletically and processing info. The hardest thing to do as a person or a franchise is to play through or walk through a bad stretch. Last year was awful. Wiggins absence was huge. Poole acted the fool. I have moral and philosophical and ethical problems with the draft. But the truth is the draft is no longer the answer unless you are in the first 5 or 6 picks. You can find kids to plug and play but the draft is a stupid way to do it. Given the financial payout. Especially the diluted first round. All these kids coming in without college and one and dones, and bored sophomores dilute the first round. It isn't like the past where there would be busts in the first round, but 10 or 12 or 15 kids would be useful NBA players and some would be stars. But even back in the day that was a 50% hit rate. And a 50% lose rate. You can find good players in the second round or you can identify useful free agent types and draft them in the second round to make sure that you get them. The few snatches of useful babble online and in the press seem to indicate that the Warriors are continuing to think outside the box and trust their scouting folks and their developmental coaching process. Someone needs to have a come to Jesus conversation with Poole and JK. Poole needs to shut up and stop dribbling. He hit so many catch and shoot jumpers a year ago. And that opened up his drive. He would catch defenders running at him and upfake or pump fake or Euro step off the catch. He also needs to stop being a swinging door defensively. JK needs to attach himself to Dray. Shut up and understand that every rebound he pulls down is the equivalent of a made three pointer. Looney and Dray get it. Rebound the damn ball and feed the shooters. Donte has games with zero or two or three points and is high single digits in rebounds and assists and being an annoying defensive presence. GP2 is a 2/3 in reality and the best on ball defender regarding opposing 1/2's. If they can salvage Poole and JK or get a plug and play vet or rookie, this group is good enough to win now.

Expand full comment

I think the "come to jesus moment" also has to include Dray and Klay taking team friendly contracts, when the time comes!

Expand full comment

> However talented these cats may be, you cannot have 10 or 20 percent of your roster acting as if they mattered more than the group. It doesn't work.

1, Klay. 2, Dray. 3, Steph. They didn't act like it was all about them in 2015. But after the "VINDICATION" tour title, they sure are acting like that now. So, I agree. You can't have 20% of your team (or 100% of its leaders) acting like it is all about them. Rather than trade them, as you suggest, I hope someone has a come to Jesus discussion with each of them. Alas, the two people who could do it--Mike Brown and Bob Myers--have left the building.

Expand full comment

Draymond might be hot and cold but didn’t he come off the bench in the playoffs willingly this year?

What did Curry do to make it all about himself again?

Klay: you have a point. He needs to get back to realizing that his superpowers weren’t just shooting but also fitting into the team dynamics so well.

Expand full comment
Jun 18, 2023·edited Jun 18, 2023

I think the punch kinda settles the issue with Dray. He didn't punch JP because JP wasn't running the play right. He punched him because he felt threatened by a young, talented, player on his own team. But if you need more proof, how about saying he doesn't get out of bed in March. This is not what a leader says with young teammates for whom the regular season is very important for getting the reps needed to be ready for the playoffs. But for Dray it was all about him and HIS needs (to not be shown up when he got beat by another team in March), team needs be damned.

And, it's the closing ranks against the young guard, reflected in (as reported in the news) that they didn't think they could trust JK. Also reflected in Curry's frustrations when Poole takes an open shot as the shot clock winds down (so much he once threw his mouthpiece) but lack of frustration when Klay shoots the team completely out of games. Also reflected in Curry's obvious frustration when Wiseman doesn't set the 10th pick of the possession with the gusto Steph wanted. Also reflected in Steph saying the three of them are a package deal, team needs be damned.

Come on, we should have known this is how it would go down, and that Steph is not some bystander to this. They don't call him the Baby-Faced Assassin for nothing. He's as stone-cold hearted about getting what he wants for him and those he sees as his crew as Lebron is. Steph's just smart enough to realize he'll have a better rep and be more effective if he makes his moves behind the scenes instead of doing something so stupid as have a television special to announce you are leaving a rabid fan base in Cleveland (for example) to go sit on a beach in Miami.

Expand full comment

So where should Wemby rank in real-life trade value? I think behind Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Steph, Tatum, Embiid and Booker. Although I also can't imagine the Suns trading KD for him, the Heat trading Butler or the Nuggets trading Murray.

Expand full comment

Favor in that he’s just starting his rookie-scale contract and he moves ahead of some of these maxed guy….maybe all of them.

If I was awarded an expansion franchise and could pick anyone as my cornerstone, I’d probably take Wemby.

Expand full comment

I meant real-life, not hypothetical, meaning which guys would not be traded for him. Like, an expansion team surely takes him over Steph, but the Warriors would never do that.

Expand full comment

Bill Simmon's trade value rankings, updated this Friday, maybe not to be taken too seriously, but good for a quick reality check regarding trade ideas: https://nbarankings.theringer.com/trade-value

Expand full comment

Austin Reaves over Scottie Barnes. Lololololololol.

Expand full comment

Reaves makes 1/8th what Barnes makes. He’s right.

Expand full comment

Reaves is a free agent who will be paid considerably more than Barnes. There's no world in which Toronto trades Barnes for Reaves.

Expand full comment

Just saw Iggy at the US Open today. No pics, but he acknowledged me :) Stood right next to him during Rory's 8th hole!!!!

Expand full comment

I’m mildly surprised he didn’t get a pic of you.

Expand full comment

I sometimes get this romanticized feeling listening to all our discussions of being in the Roman Senate during our Joelius Caesar Era and all the speculations and drama that is unfolding in this current Dynasty run 🤓 D•N•H•Q!

Expand full comment

Rome fell as all dynastys do.

Expand full comment

Wasn't built in a day. Will see if it falls by a Dray...

Expand full comment

Imaging us all in togas makes me uncomfortable.

Expand full comment

Is Iguodala retired?

Expand full comment

We hope so.

Expand full comment

4 More Years!!!! Maybe we can get another few games out of him.

Expand full comment

You gonna give people PTSD. Don't even ask that question. 🙂

Expand full comment

Is that like DNHQSD?

Expand full comment
Removed (Banned)Jun 18, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment
Jun 18, 2023·edited Jun 18, 2023

LOL. Thanks for starting my day off with a good laugh.

Expand full comment

Comment of the Day!

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

Suns only offering CP3 and Shamet for now?

[Edit: Miami starting offer might also be Lowry + Oladipo + picks? Or, more likely, Lowry + Robinson + picks]

- "[Chiang] The timing element of a Bradley Beal trade is interesting. The Heat only needs to come within 125 percent of Beal’s salary if it completes the trade by the end of June. That will change to 110 percent for first or second apron teams, which the Heat will be, starting on July 1."

So this is why they supposedly want the deal done ASAP (by the draft) ?

- Players with a no-trade clause (NBA history - is this true?):

Carmelo Anthony

Kobe Bryant

Tim Duncan

Kevin Garnett

LeBron James

Dirk Nowitzki

David Robinson

John Stockton

Dwyane Wade

Bradley Beal

Expand full comment

Woof. If true, that probably settles the question as to whether the NTC travels.

Expand full comment

Not sure. It may have transferred in the past, but the new CBA may have changed that. Anyone know for sure?

Expand full comment

Because they have so many undrafted players, I forgot that Miami has a 200+ mil payroll even before the potential extensions (with cap holds). So everything that applies to us applies to them, especially if they get Beal.

Expand full comment

Good riddance Dray! So tired of your BS. BTW, Warriors can win w/o you, no matter what Kerr says. Your value is so overstated. So squeeze the FO for more $$, trash talk on your podcast, sell yourself, but it's time for GSW to make changes. And I believe some GM out there will give you what you want. But of course what GSW get back in return is the determining factor. I hope the new GM with no ties to Dray is taking calls.

Expand full comment

If Dray wants to leave, the Warriors could get zero in return.

But I don’t think he wants to leave.

Expand full comment

I think there are less teams that he would want to play for that could absorb his contract outright than teams that would opt for a sign and trade so they could move some salary off their own books. But, yes, it is possible we walks and we get nothing in return. Except a ton of salary relief that could put them one step closer to cap flexibility, the TPMLE, thus opening the door to all kinds of options.

Expand full comment

In order to leave Dray either has to retire, or he has to find the intersection of:

A) Team(s) willing to pay him more than the Dubs are.

B) Team(s) willing to look the other way when he does something destructive (like punch the team's budding new franchise player).

My sense is that category A may have some teams. Yet my sense is that the intersection of A and B is a null set, but he won't find that out until he does something destructive and learns that, unlike with the Dubs, he has no positive team-specific history (or in Disembodied's terms, no benefactor) to make the team ignore his transgression.

Expand full comment

I think A is more the issue than B. Teams put up with a lot if it means winning.

Expand full comment
Removed (Banned)Jun 18, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

My point is that other teams might figure he's no angel but won't punch teammates in the future, and if he can help them win — and he probably can — they'll tolerate getting T'd up and being too intense at times. It's not like he's gotten arrested, committed domestic violence, or waved guns around on Instagram.

Expand full comment

Who says he is gone? Dubs still have his bird rights to offer whatever.

Expand full comment

The Dubs plan is to lower Green's salary not enter a bidding war. Anything can happen, but if there is a team interested in Draymond, he is probably a goner.

Expand full comment

This take is 🔥. If he does leave, I hope fans recognize they witnessed one of the best defensive players ever who was also the key to unlocking steph.

Expand full comment

true- but I think last season his "nonsense baggage" likely exceeded his "on-court" value

Expand full comment

Yes

Expand full comment

I would have liked to have been able to squeeze my last place of employment for more money if I could have but I opted out in early May and they never countered with a new offer sheet so here I am unemployed and looking for another gig.

Expand full comment

Good luck with whatever comes next. That's tough.

Expand full comment

Thanks! It happens. Im a stay at home dad now and just put in about 1500 dollars worth of home repairs for less than 100 dollarrs worth of parts and my labor.

Expand full comment

Time well spent!

Expand full comment

Hopefully this means your in a good place if you were able to walk away! Could be wrong but you never know 🤷

Expand full comment

Yeah had the prescribed savings for in an emergency and the biggest insurance policy: my wife makes a whole heck of alot more money than I do. My job was vacation money

Expand full comment

I'm glad y'all are okay!

Expand full comment

So sorry to hear it. Very stressful. Good luck!

Expand full comment

Not to be mean, but I think you may have overvalued yourself. It's always embarrassing when they don't counteroffer. If you were only sixteen, 6'11", super athletic and a Bball wizard, you might be in Dray's spot one day. Just a thought.

Expand full comment

They weren’t lol. Its a federal govt gig. The opt out was “I no longer have the confidence in working under my team’s (new) supervisor. Please switch my role”. Section Boss: No. Me: I opt out. section Boss: you are welcome to come in this week and turn in your computer and company card. Me: Ok

Expand full comment

I'm confused. If Dray were to walk, as you seem to suggest, why would the Warriors get anything 'back in return'? It doesn't even get them under the second apron, so still no MLE, I think.

Expand full comment

You're right. Makes sense. Didn't realize he had a player option for next season. Yea, he's in the driver's seat. But a three year extension? The Repeater tax is gonna kill the Warriors.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

It sorta sounds like they're saying the W's should do a sign and trade or something? Which makes about as much sense as expecting Dray to sign a tp-MLE level contract for 3 years. I could be wrong in what they're trying to communicate though beyond their dislike of Dray

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

"as of July 2024, teams above the second apron CAN sign-and-trade players OUT, but cannot use that outgoing salary in trade matching. Teams over the 1st apron already restricted from acquiring players via S&T" -- @EricPincus

So, it looks like this restriction goes into effect next offseason. Warriors would only be able to send that player to a team with space or a TPE.

Expand full comment

Unless the rule has changed, a team acquiring a S&T player is hard capped, which reduces the number of potential trading partners.

Also, Draymond would need an incentive to agree to a S&T, which means $$$. Then you're trading a more expensive older player with a multiyear deal AND the team he goes to is hard capped.

So I don't see S&T as a likely scenario. I think we sign Draymond and keep him or he walks and we get nothing.

Expand full comment

Correct, the team receiving a S&T player is hard capped. I don't think that the Warriors are planning on trading him, at least right now. If he does opt out, it is to re-sign with the Warriors or to go somewhere for less money (I don't think any championship level teams have cap space for what we could offer).

Expand full comment

Yeah. Even if it were theoretically possible I don't think anyone interested could actually pull it off.

Expand full comment

If Dray knew he was leaving, he might do an opt-in before the trade, so either the Warriors could get something back, or, like KD, to free up some salary for his new team.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

For it looks like the Heat don't want to include Herro, which probably would put the Suns in front for now if they included Ayton. In a weird coincidence, the Suns' CEO is the son of Beal's agent.

[Edit: maybe because Miami is waiting for Lillard?]

Expand full comment

IMO Beals best fit would be in Miami with JB and Bam. He can come in and cover them for their offensive limitations and they can cover him on the other end. You trade anyone not named those two for him.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023Liked by Eric Apricot

r/NBA ends their boycott almost immediately after Eric, I mean Shams, breaks the first real transfer rumor of the off-season.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

Hypothetically, what's the best package you would give up for Zion, who at this point is either Curry circa 2011, Anthony Davis, or post-injury Grant Hill (health-wise)?

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

[ Ignoring equal salary trade issues ]

You can't give up anything significant (starters + Moody). If Kuminga really did tell the Dubs that he's not going to re-sign, then maybe Kuminga and a 1st. Or if you're sure Poole and Draymond can't coexist, then maybe Poole and a 1st.

But, I'd hate the deal. Chances are you're just giving Celebrini another Iguodala to deal with.

Expand full comment

Kuminga is under contract until the end of '24-'25 with a club option for that year, and then he's RFA so the Warriors can match. All he can do is say he's unhappy and wants out but he has no choice with respect to signing. He can't be UFA until after 2025-'26.

Expand full comment
Jun 18, 2023·edited Jun 18, 2023

I'm aware, but he can just sign a one year deal from someone else, and be out at the end of the year (5 total years). I was a little sloppy with how I phrased it.

Expand full comment
Jun 18, 2023·edited Jun 18, 2023

Yes, in 2026 he can sign whatever he can get. Or in 2025 if the Dubs don't want to match. But the issue of his minutes would presumably be resolved long before that. Of course he can just say he is so unhappy he will mope and maybe punch a teammate unless he's traded. That could work!

Expand full comment

Or his agent can subtly indicate that they'll strongly discourage any of their clients from signing with the Dubs if the Dubs wanna "Al Davis"* a yet ANOTHER player who has skill, potential, and wants to play.

Al Davis told his coaches to de-emphasize Marcus Allen as punishment for some imagined transgression, which lowered his production the last half of his career.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

Yeah, supposing we traded Poole + Kuminga, it's probably:

40% chance that he's wrecked physically already, and we lose Poole and JK for nothing

35% chance he's going to come back diminished to the point where he's lost a lot of what made him a potential superstar

15% chance that he's like AD (only plays like 50% of the time, is insanely effective 15% of the time, and is somewhat effective 35% of the time)

10% chance that he turns it around completely (including losing weight, etc) and everyone in the league starts complaining that the Warriors are a superteam again.

Some GM's (Portland, if Dame is down for it?) might take those odds, but not a new one in the Warriors' position.

Expand full comment

Even if he's healthy he has serious playoff questions as a guy with shooting and defensive deficiencies who heavily favors going left. Sounds kinda Sabonis-y when I write it out.

Expand full comment

Difference being Sabonis isn't a cannonball with legs of gunpowder, I guess.

Expand full comment

Yeah well, we'll see if the bull in a china shop thing works in the playoffs when guys are willing to take the hits. Or maybe we won't if he never gets healthy.

Expand full comment

Yeah, I'm not particularly hot on his play style

Expand full comment

He is a bowling ball on the court, completely dependent on his body being solid. I don't trust it. Don't want.

Expand full comment
Removed (Banned)Jun 17, 2023
Comment removed
Expand full comment

Throw in a case of Hamm's and I'm in.

Expand full comment

Beal, Booker and KD would be funny. The offensive firepower would be no joke but their defense would be. Id be more worried if they surrounded KD and Book with defensive wings that knows their role like DFS or KCP

Expand full comment

Don't forget the words of Nellie...................

Expand full comment
author

BTW Shams says WAS is in serious talks to trade Beal to either PHX or MIA. https://twitter.com/shamscharania/status/1670126468272209923?s=61&t=P_FoYb59qpl6sz-fj5Z51g

Expand full comment

Not sure if this has been noted already, but it's potentially interesting and consequential with regards to Beal: From Dan Feldman from Dunc'd On Prime, there's some vagueness in the CBA as to whether or not the no-trade clause in Beal's contract would transfer to his new team. The text from the CBA:

'A Player Contract entered into by a player who has eight (8) or more Years of Service in the NBA and who has rendered four (4) or more Years of Service for the Team entering into such Contract may contain a prohibition or limitation of *such Team’s* right to trade such Contract to another NBA Team."

Feldman thinks "such team" refers to the Wizards and only the Wizards. But it's unclear. Surely NBA front offices know whether the no-trade comes along in the deal, and the answer will presumably go a long way toward determining Washington's return.

Expand full comment

"Serious talks" always makes me think of a bunch of depressed people sitting in a room grimly.

Which actually seems to fit if Bradley Beal is on the board.

Expand full comment

It's all on Zoom.

Expand full comment

Both teams can easily fit Beal in salary-wise: Herro (or Lowry, I guess, but no way Washington want him over Herro unless they want to shed salary) + Robinson + Morris, = Beal. Suns can offer either Ayton or CP3.

If the Wizards choose Ayton, they might flip him, or maybe they keep Porzingis and make Daniel Gafford available. Gafford might be worth looking into as a rim protector.

Expand full comment

CP3 can still play but not nearly like he used to, and he's 38 and often injured. The only reason I can think of that the Wiz would trade Beal for CP3 is a salary dump because CP3's contract is not fully guaranteed, and they want to waive him.

Expand full comment

Please let it be PHX. Anything to keep the ball out of KD's hands while not contributing on defense will make them easier to beat.

Expand full comment

CP3 to DC?

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

Durant to DC!! ESPN digging out their old clips/articles.

Expand full comment

Add Donte and DP2 to that core list. My main concern about Dray is his broship with LeBron. Some psychic need to have LBJames approve of him. Which I don't get given how LBJ constantly is disrespectful of Draymond on the court. This whole love your opponent like a brother escapes me.....but lots does in modern culture.

Expand full comment

I was definitely shocked when I first became aware of it. Made me furious. Wanted to just go off and kick someone in the nuts.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023Liked by Eric Apricot

OT: DNHQ got a shout-out at Light Years Podcast yesterday (for whatever worth that is). They called DNHQ a 'newsletter' which is what Substack does. But to me, DNHQ is way-way more. We are a dysfunctional Dubs community who argue all the time but are still all love.

So get it together, Sam/Andy and call it like it is. We are a discussion board masquerading as a newsletter 😃.

Expand full comment
Jun 17, 2023·edited Jun 17, 2023

YOU'RE dysfunctional I'M NOT DYSFUNCTIONAL ASK ALL MY FORMER EMPLOYERS AND EXES

PLUS ALSO!!! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO LIKES TO ARGUE I NEVER ARGUE IT'S YOU

Expand full comment
author

Least dysfunctional Dubs community on the planet!!

Expand full comment

No doubt. But gotta make it sound spicy to bring in more members

Expand full comment

🙄

Expand full comment