Saw a clip of JK in a spar session on Instagram. I can't believe it's come to this. He is going to fight Steve Kerr and MDJ for a new contract. Al Horford will be officiating this match.
This thang is going until a few days before training camp. I think it'll heat up by mid September and somebody will cave even if it's just a little bit.
Ayesha Curry thought Steph was just going to be a high school basketball coach: “I didn’t know he was going to end up playing basketball — he said he wanted to be a high school basketball coach.”
Has there been discussion of a roster with Horford/DeMelton (my nickname for him bc my brain just does that)/GPII and no JK, or with/without JK? Like, we don’t have to let Joe/Kuminga hold up EVERYTHING, right? I want to look forward, we have a great team. I’m especially excited about DeMelton coming back. Do people see him playing with Jimmy? What are we looking at here?
Also, if they sign Horford and Melton now, that money is committed, and they lose some flexibility in negotiating with JK. So it sort of works both ways. What the other guys get paid also could limit what they can pay JK. At least that's how I understand it.
Will never get tired of listening to Steve Kerr talk about Steph, the Warriors, the NBA, or anything else, basketball-related or not. He's truly one of the all time great basketball minds and I'm glad I'm able to recognize that while he is still here.
I like him, that was a nice demolition of Whyte, probly a future champ. David Haye is smoking something strong though if he wants to feed Moses to Usyk. Give him someone like AJ or Kabayel first, see how he does.
The 2019-2020 Warriors feel even more far removed than the KD warriors or just straight up not from our timeline. Ky Bowman, Glenn Robinson ll, Omari Spellman, Marquese Chriss, Willie Cauley-Stein, Alec Burks... WTF!?
I remember when he said he was going to work on his shot after his first year. Came back, exact same grossly exaggerated jump/leg kick. Let's just say I was a little disappointed.
Hey, he improved his 3P% from 28.7 all the way to 33.3% in his 2nd year. Wowie! I looked it up and was surprised to see that in his 3rd and final NBA season, at Utah, he shot 37% from 3 in 58 games, 12.7 mpg. Of course that's just on 1.9 attempts. He's playing in Pistoia, Italy (Tuscany) now.
Gotta see how it ends to say that. Nothing has happened yet but when you look back on an offseason down the line you aren't going to remember when the transactions are made, you are just going to remember the transactions and if they were good or not.
When Richard becomes the greatest 2nd round pick in franchise history, ahead of Draymond Green, we will remember this off-season fondly. "We didn't know what we had or what was about to unfold..."
2017 they got Nick Young and Omri Casspi and I was excited for that, though I hated losing Javale and David West. 2018 felt good getting DMC. 2022, I was excited for Saric and Donte though I hated losing GPII and Otto.
Yeah but getting DMC ended up feeling better than it turned out to be, and we drafted Jacob Evans in 2018.
As for 2017, Casspi turned out to be fool's gold. He didn't even try to shoot the 3s we expected, although he did turn out to be a pretty good cutter and rebounded some. He got waived before the end of the season. As for Nick Young, he had his moments but I never wanted him on the Warriors. But then I don't care for mindless gunners who can't do much else. He played four games with DEN the next year and was out of the league, and good riddance.
Since there is no real news to talk about, I want to ask everyone about some fake news.
Suppose the Warriors sign Kuminga, Horford, and Melton, as has been widely reported as likely. That would bring their roster up to 12 players (if you don't include Rowe).
What 2 or 3 other players (as 2 or 3 two way players) would you most like to see them fill up their roster with?
GPII
Malcolm Brogdon
Seth Curry
Kevin Knox
Will Richard
Alex Toohey
Jackson Rowe
Taran Armstrong
Braxton Key
Marquis Bolden
LJ Cryer
Coleman Hawkins
Chance McMillian
Amir Coffey
Alec Burks
Precious Achiuwa
Russell Westbrook
Ben Simmons
Trey Lyles
Thomas Bryant
Delano Banton
Bones Hyland
Damion Lee
Lonnie Walker
PJ Tucker
Shake Milton
Pat Spencer
Malik Beasley
Am I forgetting anybody potentially useful whom the Warriors can sign without making a trade?
With Kuminga, Horford, and Melton signed, what do you think is the Warriors' biggest need?
Will Richard will make it to the regular roster. He is dynamic. I’m too tired to deeply analyze this list - the weather is very hot here! - so I’ll say Toohey and Armstrong on 2-ways. Bummed we couldn’t snag Plowden.
Curry wanted Avery Bradley over GP2 as well, I'd rather have Dunleavy making the picks tbh
EDIT: Will say though, I realized that they can get a bit more creative with GP2's salary since they have the Bird rights so I could definitely see him getting re-signed
Backup PG is the biggest hole by far. You absolutely go after Brogdon. After that I probably take a swing on Simmons, ball handling and POA defense with size would be a boon for us.
Is it, though? I feel like we have close to enough primary ballhandling between Steph, Dray, Jimmy, Podz, and Melton, plus Horford who’s an ace playmaker, and GP2 who can at least dribble the ball up well enough not to get into trouble.
One of the biggest benefits of the Wiggs/Jimmy swap is that Jimmy’s ability to be a legit floor general minimized or obviated the need to waste a rotation spot on a traditional PG in the Wanamaker/Chiozza/Schröder/Joseph mold — the type of guy who has *always* fit poorly on the Kerr/Curry Warriors. And I think Horford’s and Melton’s ability to run the offense from the 5 and 2 spots further minimizes that need.
Also: I fully expect Podz to take another leap from where he is now as a playmaker and floor general.
We’re a pretty small and unathletic roster as it is — I’d rather use the last two spots on guys with size and/or athleticism than on a slow, ball-dominant 6-4 PG like Brogdon.
Maybe we give the spot I have tabbed for GP2 to Brogdon, but honestly, I’d rather have GP2.
That’s a good point about why we don’t need an extra point guard. I suspect the compromise will be an Australian point Guard in a two way slot - unless a point guard -another Australian-replaces Kuminga, midseason
If we did sign both Seth and GP2, plus Horford, Melton, and JK, that's 14 regular roster spots, which is what the Dubs usually carry at the start of the season. That would make Toohey, Richard, and presumably Armstrong the two-ways. It might not go that way of course.
They could fill all 15 regular spots to fit in, say, Richard. Then maybe Rowe gets the last 2-way, although I can't say I'm enthusiastic about that.
But I think most of that long list is pretty likely off the table. Although if Westbrook were available on a vet min, just to make us all crazy after all the nasty things we've said about him... but nah!
We might have enough creation when Steph and Jimmy are healthy, but during an 82 game season, we need someone to ease their burden. Brogdon can score 20 pts/36 min. That would be 4th on the team behind Steph, Jimmy, and JK. We just saw what happens when you're missing Steph. We need more scoring. And for vet min, Brogdon's about as good as it gets.
I really like GPII's fit on the Dubs and he's still a positive player, but with Melton and Podz plus now even Horford as really good secondary players who don't score a ton, GPII's more of a luxury to me.
Brogdon’s almost 33, though, and hasn’t really scored efficiently since his Boston days two-plus years ago (.560 and .544 TS the last two seasons). If he can’t get back to his old .570+ efficiency, give me GP2’s 15 pts per 36 on .650 TS (plus high level defense and athletic slashing) over Brogdon’s 20 pts per 36 on .550 TS (plus solid. ball-pounding floor generalship).
Between Steph, Jimmy, Podz, Melton, Dray, and Horford, I think we could manage pretty well if one of them is hurt or needs a night off. Two of them … yeah, it gets iffier. But I’m not sure that means we have a “big hole” at backup PG.
The Steve kerr interview is really amazing. It always takes me a while to open things that I figure I’ll need to listen to for a while, but this is really worth listening to. Steve is of course a basketball. Genius both in his basketball smarts and then how he ties it to players real world experience.
You know what's a cure for boredom? ... be your own MDJ.
What is your desired plan to fill out the rest of the roster?
If it's a trade target, then at least make it realistic in terms of salary matching. I'm OK with crazy trade targets as long as it's not something that is obviously against the rules (you know, Giannis for JK, straight up), and there is some semblance of equality (including picks helps here).
Mine is actually pretty simple: I like JK and want to keep him.
1. Sign JK for 3 years, $20 mil/yr.
2. Sign Horford to a 1 yr TPMLE
3. Sign GP2 and Melton to 1 yr mins.
That gets us to ~$201 million and 13 roster spots filled. Sign the best big shooting wing available on a min contract for roster spot 14.
If that's Rowe, so be it. I don't think Seth is a good fit (we're too small already).
That's still at about $203 mil, which leaves a little wiggle room to sign another min player mid-season without going over the 2nd apron level ($207 mil, per Perks' spreadsheet.
For the offseason, I'm pretty similar. Sign JK for 2 yrs/45 guaranteed. Sign Horford. Sign Melton. Sign Brogdon. Sign one of GPII/Seth. If Kevin Love (or Vooch) is bought out, sign him. That's 14-15.
The only real reason the Dubs have gone with 14 in recent years is crazy luxury tax (no longer an issue) and avoiding the apron (hopefully easily doable this year depending on JK's contract). I think they can go 15 and I think both Richard and Toohey are two way guys. So you can sign vets to the capacity.
The biggest missing puzzle piece is a big wing who can win you regular season games. That describes JK in an ideal world, but I think it's time to move on as soon as you can in the season. But there are just no good wings left. Worst case if there are no buyouts, I'd go small and take Seth as a 15th man. I'd look for Wiggins, Jrue, or Khris Middleton midseason for JK.
Leaving #15 open also saves a couple of million bucks (vet min), which especially helps if they're trying to stay below the 2nd apron. If they sign a 15th player later, the salary will be prorated.
Seeing this typed out is incredible content - thank you. I love this stuff.
"The squeaky wheel gets the oil...And so you cannot be the punching bag, and you have to let people know that you matter. And so he used you as an example on the great Bulls teams. Big egos...Sometimes they took you for granted. And so, in a very calculated way, once a year, you'd be practicing and there'd be a foul and it wouldn't be called, and you would just go ballistic...And everyone's like, holy crap, this guy is psycho. You can't mess with [him]. And then you'd be cool, and then you'd be fine."
I think this quote is super important and just pure life advice for those of us who are more laid back and low maintenance. The most successful people do have to cause some problems because without causing some problems, issues never get confronted. You can't swing that pendulum too much of course. Cause the problem too much, you're the problem child. But not enough is just as problematic. And it's not nearly as obvious.
Saw a clip of JK in a spar session on Instagram. I can't believe it's come to this. He is going to fight Steve Kerr and MDJ for a new contract. Al Horford will be officiating this match.
It was all a big misunderstanding when Kerr told JK he should practice “boxing out”.
I heard a rumor that Draymond was teaching JK how to deal with mouthy young guards.
Or he's looking to change sports.
Has he considered lacrosse?
This thang is going until a few days before training camp. I think it'll heat up by mid September and somebody will cave even if it's just a little bit.
Guess we won't get our usual summer propaganda about how the team is practicing together and is uniting for a championship run for another month.
r/nba
•
3 hr. ago
MrBuckBuck
Ayesha Curry thought Steph was just going to be a high school basketball coach: “I didn’t know he was going to end up playing basketball — he said he wanted to be a high school basketball coach.”
Has there been discussion of a roster with Horford/DeMelton (my nickname for him bc my brain just does that)/GPII and no JK, or with/without JK? Like, we don’t have to let Joe/Kuminga hold up EVERYTHING, right? I want to look forward, we have a great team. I’m especially excited about DeMelton coming back. Do people see him playing with Jimmy? What are we looking at here?
Also, if they sign Horford and Melton now, that money is committed, and they lose some flexibility in negotiating with JK. So it sort of works both ways. What the other guys get paid also could limit what they can pay JK. At least that's how I understand it.
Will never get tired of listening to Steve Kerr talk about Steph, the Warriors, the NBA, or anything else, basketball-related or not. He's truly one of the all time great basketball minds and I'm glad I'm able to recognize that while he is still here.
Moses Itauma. Your thoughts?
I like him, that was a nice demolition of Whyte, probly a future champ. David Haye is smoking something strong though if he wants to feed Moses to Usyk. Give him someone like AJ or Kabayel first, see how he does.
Trade Kuminga, Joe.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJBleKHjaL4&t=11s
Not an exaggeration to say that Steph inspires nations. One man. His complete dedication to his craft. So powerful.
Crazy to think Wall has retired after 11 seasons, and it seems like forever, but Steph KD and especially LeBron are still going strong.
He didn’t play in ‘19-20, ‘21-22, ‘23-24, and ‘24-25
Great point, 11 seasons over 15 years, which explains why it feels he was in the league longer than 11 seasons.
It feels like he got paid to not play for several of those seasons too, a weird end to a once-all star career.
The 2019-2020 Warriors feel even more far removed than the KD warriors or just straight up not from our timeline. Ky Bowman, Glenn Robinson ll, Omari Spellman, Marquese Chriss, Willie Cauley-Stein, Alec Burks... WTF!?
Dragan Bender! Mychal Mulder! Jacob Evans! Good times!
I was convinced Marquese Chriss was the real deal.
You weren't alone. He had some tools. That leg break really just derailed him (though I'm not sure he had the mental makeup to get there, either).
Don't forget "rising star" Eric Paschall.
That season was just a bad dream. It didn't really happen. Did it? Nah, it was just the result of eating spicy food too late at night.
He was a major part of the very first Warriors' victory in Chase Center... 34 points on his birthday .. and his career high scoring game.
Dude, trigger warning!
I remember when he said he was going to work on his shot after his first year. Came back, exact same grossly exaggerated jump/leg kick. Let's just say I was a little disappointed.
Hey, he improved his 3P% from 28.7 all the way to 33.3% in his 2nd year. Wowie! I looked it up and was surprised to see that in his 3rd and final NBA season, at Utah, he shot 37% from 3 in 58 games, 12.7 mpg. Of course that's just on 1.9 attempts. He's playing in Pistoia, Italy (Tuscany) now.
Good for him. And, the shooting numbers are better than I remembered.
This has to be the second worst off season in the Kerr era. 2019 still the worst.
Gotta see how it ends to say that. Nothing has happened yet but when you look back on an offseason down the line you aren't going to remember when the transactions are made, you are just going to remember the transactions and if they were good or not.
2020 was worse
2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023 were pretty meh-to-bad, too.
Depending on how Kuminga, Horford, Melton, Richard, Toohey et al. work out, this offseason could end up better than average for the Kerr era.
When Richard becomes the greatest 2nd round pick in franchise history, ahead of Draymond Green, we will remember this off-season fondly. "We didn't know what we had or what was about to unfold..."
2017 they got Nick Young and Omri Casspi and I was excited for that, though I hated losing Javale and David West. 2018 felt good getting DMC. 2022, I was excited for Saric and Donte though I hated losing GPII and Otto.
In retrospect, some were rough.
We had David West for the 2nd chip. He retired the year after.
Yeah but getting DMC ended up feeling better than it turned out to be, and we drafted Jacob Evans in 2018.
As for 2017, Casspi turned out to be fool's gold. He didn't even try to shoot the 3s we expected, although he did turn out to be a pretty good cutter and rebounded some. He got waived before the end of the season. As for Nick Young, he had his moments but I never wanted him on the Warriors. But then I don't care for mindless gunners who can't do much else. He played four games with DEN the next year and was out of the league, and good riddance.
Basketball was <1% of the reason...
Since there is no real news to talk about, I want to ask everyone about some fake news.
Suppose the Warriors sign Kuminga, Horford, and Melton, as has been widely reported as likely. That would bring their roster up to 12 players (if you don't include Rowe).
What 2 or 3 other players (as 2 or 3 two way players) would you most like to see them fill up their roster with?
GPII
Malcolm Brogdon
Seth Curry
Kevin Knox
Will Richard
Alex Toohey
Jackson Rowe
Taran Armstrong
Braxton Key
Marquis Bolden
LJ Cryer
Coleman Hawkins
Chance McMillian
Amir Coffey
Alec Burks
Precious Achiuwa
Russell Westbrook
Ben Simmons
Trey Lyles
Thomas Bryant
Delano Banton
Bones Hyland
Damion Lee
Lonnie Walker
PJ Tucker
Shake Milton
Pat Spencer
Malik Beasley
Am I forgetting anybody potentially useful whom the Warriors can sign without making a trade?
With Kuminga, Horford, and Melton signed, what do you think is the Warriors' biggest need?
Will Richard will make it to the regular roster. He is dynamic. I’m too tired to deeply analyze this list - the weather is very hot here! - so I’ll say Toohey and Armstrong on 2-ways. Bummed we couldn’t snag Plowden.
Seth and GP2, because that’s apparently who Steph wants.
I love GPII, but they would have to find a way to use him in spurts to keep him healthy. His body is betraying him...
Curry wanted Avery Bradley over GP2 as well, I'd rather have Dunleavy making the picks tbh
EDIT: Will say though, I realized that they can get a bit more creative with GP2's salary since they have the Bird rights so I could definitely see him getting re-signed
Backup PG is the biggest hole by far. You absolutely go after Brogdon. After that I probably take a swing on Simmons, ball handling and POA defense with size would be a boon for us.
Backup PG can't be the biggest hole. The Backup PG is almost always the smallest guy on the team. Small guy = small hole.
Is it, though? I feel like we have close to enough primary ballhandling between Steph, Dray, Jimmy, Podz, and Melton, plus Horford who’s an ace playmaker, and GP2 who can at least dribble the ball up well enough not to get into trouble.
One of the biggest benefits of the Wiggs/Jimmy swap is that Jimmy’s ability to be a legit floor general minimized or obviated the need to waste a rotation spot on a traditional PG in the Wanamaker/Chiozza/Schröder/Joseph mold — the type of guy who has *always* fit poorly on the Kerr/Curry Warriors. And I think Horford’s and Melton’s ability to run the offense from the 5 and 2 spots further minimizes that need.
Also: I fully expect Podz to take another leap from where he is now as a playmaker and floor general.
We’re a pretty small and unathletic roster as it is — I’d rather use the last two spots on guys with size and/or athleticism than on a slow, ball-dominant 6-4 PG like Brogdon.
Maybe we give the spot I have tabbed for GP2 to Brogdon, but honestly, I’d rather have GP2.
That’s a good point about why we don’t need an extra point guard. I suspect the compromise will be an Australian point Guard in a two way slot - unless a point guard -another Australian-replaces Kuminga, midseason
If we did sign both Seth and GP2, plus Horford, Melton, and JK, that's 14 regular roster spots, which is what the Dubs usually carry at the start of the season. That would make Toohey, Richard, and presumably Armstrong the two-ways. It might not go that way of course.
They could fill all 15 regular spots to fit in, say, Richard. Then maybe Rowe gets the last 2-way, although I can't say I'm enthusiastic about that.
But I think most of that long list is pretty likely off the table. Although if Westbrook were available on a vet min, just to make us all crazy after all the nasty things we've said about him... but nah!
We might have enough creation when Steph and Jimmy are healthy, but during an 82 game season, we need someone to ease their burden. Brogdon can score 20 pts/36 min. That would be 4th on the team behind Steph, Jimmy, and JK. We just saw what happens when you're missing Steph. We need more scoring. And for vet min, Brogdon's about as good as it gets.
I really like GPII's fit on the Dubs and he's still a positive player, but with Melton and Podz plus now even Horford as really good secondary players who don't score a ton, GPII's more of a luxury to me.
Brogdon’s almost 33, though, and hasn’t really scored efficiently since his Boston days two-plus years ago (.560 and .544 TS the last two seasons). If he can’t get back to his old .570+ efficiency, give me GP2’s 15 pts per 36 on .650 TS (plus high level defense and athletic slashing) over Brogdon’s 20 pts per 36 on .550 TS (plus solid. ball-pounding floor generalship).
Between Steph, Jimmy, Podz, Melton, Dray, and Horford, I think we could manage pretty well if one of them is hurt or needs a night off. Two of them … yeah, it gets iffier. But I’m not sure that means we have a “big hole” at backup PG.
Eric why are you making it harder for us to be mad at Coach Kerr this season? 😉
Don’t worry, people will be mad again soon enough
People have short memories
The Steve kerr interview is really amazing. It always takes me a while to open things that I figure I’ll need to listen to for a while, but this is really worth listening to. Steve is of course a basketball. Genius both in his basketball smarts and then how he ties it to players real world experience.
“Steve is of course a basketball.”
Of course he is😁
I thought he was a bucket.
iPhone dictation and spellcheck often reveal amazing factS
You know what's a cure for boredom? ... be your own MDJ.
What is your desired plan to fill out the rest of the roster?
If it's a trade target, then at least make it realistic in terms of salary matching. I'm OK with crazy trade targets as long as it's not something that is obviously against the rules (you know, Giannis for JK, straight up), and there is some semblance of equality (including picks helps here).
Mine is actually pretty simple: I like JK and want to keep him.
1. Sign JK for 3 years, $20 mil/yr.
2. Sign Horford to a 1 yr TPMLE
3. Sign GP2 and Melton to 1 yr mins.
That gets us to ~$201 million and 13 roster spots filled. Sign the best big shooting wing available on a min contract for roster spot 14.
If that's Rowe, so be it. I don't think Seth is a good fit (we're too small already).
That's still at about $203 mil, which leaves a little wiggle room to sign another min player mid-season without going over the 2nd apron level ($207 mil, per Perks' spreadsheet.
For the offseason, I'm pretty similar. Sign JK for 2 yrs/45 guaranteed. Sign Horford. Sign Melton. Sign Brogdon. Sign one of GPII/Seth. If Kevin Love (or Vooch) is bought out, sign him. That's 14-15.
The only real reason the Dubs have gone with 14 in recent years is crazy luxury tax (no longer an issue) and avoiding the apron (hopefully easily doable this year depending on JK's contract). I think they can go 15 and I think both Richard and Toohey are two way guys. So you can sign vets to the capacity.
The biggest missing puzzle piece is a big wing who can win you regular season games. That describes JK in an ideal world, but I think it's time to move on as soon as you can in the season. But there are just no good wings left. Worst case if there are no buyouts, I'd go small and take Seth as a 15th man. I'd look for Wiggins, Jrue, or Khris Middleton midseason for JK.
I believe there are other reasons the Dubs don't fill roster spot 15.
1. They want to leave a spot free to deal with any roster problems due to injury, without having to cut someone to do it.
2. It gives them more flexibility for in-season trades.
I would be shocked if they fill spot 15, TBH.
Leaving #15 open also saves a couple of million bucks (vet min), which especially helps if they're trying to stay below the 2nd apron. If they sign a 15th player later, the salary will be prorated.
14 is particularly important for buyout, and also, if one of the two-Way merits a promotion to be available for the playoffs.
I'll be my own JK... and sign the freakin contract!
...for $20 mil/yr..
How could you feed your family on that paltry salary?
Seeing this typed out is incredible content - thank you. I love this stuff.
"The squeaky wheel gets the oil...And so you cannot be the punching bag, and you have to let people know that you matter. And so he used you as an example on the great Bulls teams. Big egos...Sometimes they took you for granted. And so, in a very calculated way, once a year, you'd be practicing and there'd be a foul and it wouldn't be called, and you would just go ballistic...And everyone's like, holy crap, this guy is psycho. You can't mess with [him]. And then you'd be cool, and then you'd be fine."
I think this quote is super important and just pure life advice for those of us who are more laid back and low maintenance. The most successful people do have to cause some problems because without causing some problems, issues never get confronted. You can't swing that pendulum too much of course. Cause the problem too much, you're the problem child. But not enough is just as problematic. And it's not nearly as obvious.
It's great advice, and it makes me wonder if guys like Moody or Looney have heard it. Seems like Kerr wasn't fully conscious about doing it himself.