September 30, 2025 • 22 mins
Jason reacts to Jonathan Kuminga finally signing a deal with the Golden State Warriors, a two-year, $48.5 million contract with a team option. Kuminga will now get to officially rejoin Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green for this NBA season and the Dubs will get to make their Al Horford, DeAnthony Melton, and Gary Payton II signings official.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. We finally have a resolution
to the Jonathan cominga contract saga. He has agreed to
(00:26):
a two year deal with a team option. It's different
than what was originally discussed, at least in the reporting
that I had seen. I had seen that the debate
was between a two plus one with a team option
or two plus one with a player option. But it
looks like it's going to be a one plus one
with a player option. We're gonna give my opinion on that,
as well as some of the other reported signings that
(00:46):
have taken place over the course of the last few
days for the Warriors when I think about them in
the big picture as well. Then we'll get out of
here for the day. Just quick and easy one. You
guys are the trip before we started to subscribe to
hoops and YouTube channel so you don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, nder score JCNLT
so you guys don't make show announcements. Don't forget about
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Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave your
(01:06):
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We have our first mail bag coming up here in
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mail bag, so you guys can get your questions in there.
(01:28):
All right, let's talk some basketball. So two years, forty
eight and a half million team option. The way that
sham Sarani reported it is that it's designed to be
tradeable and to make it so that either the Warriors
or whoever Jonathan's next team is has the ability to
essentially rip up that second year in to renegotiate the contract.
(01:49):
I think that that team option is mainly more of
like a team control type of way of looking at
this in terms of passing the buck to next summer.
So if you think of it like this, when you
draft a player, you have their restricted free agent rights, right,
you get through your rookie contract, you go into free agency,
they go to some other team, and they get to
(02:10):
some deal, you have the right to match. If the
Warriors were not able to achieve that team option or
control after this season, then essentially Jonathan Kaminga could walk
for nothing next summer. And so the Warriors wanted that
team option, so that essentially, if they get into negotiations
next summer and they still can't work something out, or
(02:31):
if the team that trades for Jonathan Kaminga gets into
the negotiations with Jonathan Kaminga and they can't work something out,
they at least have the leverage of that team option.
Well we're at least getting you for one additional year.
So looks like a win for the Warriors in that regard,
but at the same time, a nice salary number for
Jonathan Kaminga, a player who, again, like I understand that
(02:52):
he has a ton of potential, but it hasn't really
come to fruition with the Warriors. Not entirely his fault.
It's a bad kind of situation for him in a
lot of ways, which we'll talk more about in a minute.
But to get twenty five million for this season. That's
a nice paybump for a young player, gets another opportunity
to demonstrate whether or not he is worth that deal
that he wants, and it is super tradable if you're
(03:14):
looking for a high upside forward. Getting him at twenty
five million, with the ability to let him walk or
to negotiate a lower deal in the future, or at
least have some team control going into next summer, that
makes him a much more tradable deal. Then let's say
it's a two plus one with a player option at
seventy five million, and now all of a sudden, it's
(03:35):
like we trade for Kaminga. It doesn't really pan out
the way we were hoping. Now we're on the hook
to give this guy an additional fifty million over the
next couple of years, which then could be very difficult
to trade on the second end of that deal. Right,
So win for the Warriors. Nice paybump for Jonathan Minga.
Now we're moving on to this season. Now in the
short term, it's on Jonathan Kaminga to earn a way
(03:58):
into the rotation. I think there's an interesting angle here,
which is how much will the Warriors just choose to
lean on Jonathan just as an attempt to juice his
trade value. But you could also take that the opposite
direction and say that it's more of a mistique if
he's less involved, and you could have a team sit
there being like, oh, he's being under utilized. We'll get
more out of him. I'll be really curious to see
(04:20):
how much he cracks the rotation depending on that specific
strategy point from the Warriors, But in terms of basketball,
Jonathan Kaminga can force his way on the floor by
earning Steve Kerrz trust in forcing his way into a
rotation that for years has needed offensive pop. Right. So,
(04:40):
one of the big kind of like points of contention
over the last couple of years between people who are
big believers in Jonathan Kaminga and people within the Warriors
and people that follow the Warriors that are not into
him in this particular context is the basketball fit. Right.
There have been these stretches, whether it be the tail
end of the Houston Rocket series after Steph Curry pulls
(05:01):
his hamstring, or it's you know, a year and a
half ago in the middle of the regular season when
he ripped off whatever it was like six or seven
straight twenty plus point games. There have been these stretches
where Jonathan Kaminga has demonstrated the ability through higher usage
to score the basketball at least that volume. Right, But
that is very different than the concept of playing winning
(05:21):
basketball on the Golden State Warriors. Those are two very
different concepts. They lost that series to the Houston Rockets. Right,
there is an ultimate goal that this Warriors team has
built on a old Steph Curry, an old Jimmy Butler,
an old Draymond Green, an old Al Horford, which is,
we're trying to get the Larry O'Brian right now. And
(05:43):
that changes the calculus for Steve Kerr in terms of
him putting together lineups, putting together rotations, and so why
hasn't Jonathan Kaminga fit on the Warriors? And it simply
comes down to Jonathan Kaminga is a young scoring four
who is learning how to become a more efficient scorer
(06:04):
in a higher volume role, who is learning how to
handle as he goes higher and higher on the opponent's
scouting report, as things get tougher, as they start to
dig down on his post ups and start to bring
double teams to as we can, and all that sort
of thing. All that sort of stuff. He's learning how
to do that, and there is potential for Jonathan Kaminga
in the future to be an All Star in this
(06:24):
league as a scoring forward, but he is not that
yet and what the Warriors need from him right now
on offense is quick decisions knocking down open shots. Okay,
you got a mismatch because of a ball screen with
Steph or because of the team we're playing, or tossing
it down to you. You attack quickly, You are decisive,
(06:44):
You read the help that comes in front of you.
You may you don't stop the ball, but rather you
make quick decisions in the Warrior system. This is why
all of these guys like Brandon Pajemski have just kind
of slotted in and played well. Or whether it's Gie
Santo's or it's you know, Pat's, any of these like
random dudes that have gotten more trust from Steve Kerr
(07:05):
than Jonathan Kaminga has. It's literally because Steve wants dudes
to make quick decisions in the offense. This is a
five out motion. Everyone's involved. We're working to get Steph
Curry shots. We're either looking to get Steph Curry a
shot or a wide open three or a dunk. That's
basically the offense, and so they're looking for guys that
can quickly make decisions in that flow, and that is
(07:26):
something that Jonathan has struggled with over the years. So
an early part of this season goal for him to
achieve a spot in the rotation is making quick decisions
in the offense, knocking down his open spot, up threes,
beating mismatches in the posts quickly and decisively. That's how
he can earn his way onto the four, and then
on the defensive end of the four. Jonathan's always been
(07:48):
a pretty solid on ball weapon. He's got good length
and good activity. He moves his feet well and it's
kind of like a singular focus for him. That is
something that he's thrived in. But off ball he can
be a nightmare. Sometimes you lose a sight of man
and ball. He can lose relocating shooters, he can lose crashers.
He is somebody that Steve Kerr does not trust on
the defensive end of the floor. So another part of
(08:09):
earning that trust and earning a bigger spot in the
rotation is his off ball awareness, keeping track of man
and ball, being in the right spots in the game plan,
making sure that you're accounting for your man in defensive
rebounding situations. Those are the kinds of things that Steve
Kerr is paying very close attention to. So again, we'll
see how much the Golden State Warriors just choose to
play Jonathan in terms of juicing his trade value. But
(08:32):
if it is strictly a basketball proposition in a front
court that already has Jimmy Butler, Andreimond Green, and Al Horford,
and they're probably going to play one of the other
young centers quite a bit. And Steve Kerr is a
guy that likes to play three guard lineups. Gary Payton
is a guy that in many cases operates as a
three or four on the floor in their lineups defensively
(08:52):
and as a rebounder. Jonathan's going to have to earn
that trust through what he's doing on both ends of
the floor. Or like we just broke down in the
long term, and I talked about this when we were
doing a little update on the kaminga situation about a
week ago. I know that you weren't huge fans of
the Monk deal, the Kings deal. You know, I've seen
(09:14):
enough from Warriors fans that they don't seem to be
big believers in it. Obviously, the Warriors brass wasn't a
big believer in it because they didn't take the deal.
But I don't think that they're gonna get anything substantially better.
I don't think that this story ends with a trade
in January where Johnathan Kaming is bringing back like a
really nice, high upside young player on a rookie contract
(09:36):
and another really useful role player and multiple draft picks
Like I don't think that's happening, not unless Jonathan has
some sort of massive breakout, which if he did, the
Warriors would then be inclined to keep him if you
were to succeed in a winning context alongside this particular
Golden State Warriors team. And so the most likely scenario.
(09:56):
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or Virginia. Is that Jonathan is in and out of
(11:29):
the rotation like usually is, or if he maintains a
rotation spot, it's a smaller rotation spot. That his output
is inconsistent because his skill set doesn't really fit this
Golden State Warriors team super well. That it continues to
be more or less the same frustrating experience for Kaminga
and for the Warriors and for their fans as it
was for the last couple of years, and it ends
in a trade in January that is something like the
(11:51):
Monk deal, a protected first round pick, some sort of
large contract that you're kind of iffy on whether or
not it's really that good of a contract, but maybe
he's just a better fit for what you're trying to
do than John and the Kaminga is I think that
is more or less the best that you're going to do,
and so in the long run, I wouldn't be, you know,
holding out hope for some sort of fantastic return. I
(12:13):
don't think that's gonna be the case. Now. Looking at
the Warriors this season, we've had some reported signings that
came in over the last couple of days. In our
season preview, we kind of already addressed some of these,
but I want to go over them again briefly. Al
Horford multi year contract. Good for Al, good for the Warriors.
Also in the report, he's going to be starting games.
That's interesting on several levels. Jackson and I were just
(12:33):
talking before this recording. We both agree that this is
probably their best five anyway. Al at the five, Jimmy
at the three, Draymond at the four, Steph at the one.
You know, POD's moody d Anthony Melton. Whoever ends up
being as that like go to number two when the
time comes, that's gonna end up being their best five.
This is a group that's probably gonna do a lot
of switching with those three. It's gonna be a lot
(12:55):
of communication, a lot of high IQ defensive playmaking, reading
play before they happen, getting in front of them. Al
Horford has always been an extremely gifted switch big. It's
something that he's succeeded at throughout his career. He's very
good at guarding bigger bully ball players on the perimeter
by just giving ground, forcing them into long contested jump shots.
(13:16):
He keeps his chest in front when they attack, and
he forces them to make tougher hooks and tougher short
turnarounds and things along those lines. Obviously he's older now well.
One of the things that Jackson and I were talking
about before we started. He started last year in Boston
kept his minutes right around twenty seven minutes per game,
and so just because you start him doesn't necessarily mean
you're gonna wear him into the ground. It's leaning into
(13:38):
a lineup that you'll ultimately go down with. And every
game that I'll plays right like it's in most cases
you're gonna be going down with him. In closing situations,
you want to continue to get as much reps, as
many reps as possible with al with the starters, I
think it makes sense to basically play him four shifts
a half. Play him to start the game, play him
(13:59):
to end the first half, play him to start the
second half, play him to end the game. I think
that's an easy way to keep him in that twenty
four twenty six minute range. It allows you to keep
most of his minutes alongside the starters so that you
can continue to build out the chemistry for the lineup
that you're gonna lean on when you get to the postseason.
And I just think he's an awesome basketball fit. Is
(14:20):
a basketball fan, and as a fan of Steph Curry,
and as a fan of the way the Warriors play basketball,
I'm very excited to watch Al Horford play with his team.
I think he is the quintessential stretch five, high IQ
quick decision maker that Golden State's been hunting for years
that they haven't been able to find. I think it's
going to be just super fun to get to see
that a guy that can shoot closer to the way
(14:41):
Quinton Post shoots the ball, but that can read and
react with the best of him. This is a player
that was playing really high level drive and kick basketball
the last few years in Boston. We were watching the
twenty twenty four finals and he's ripping baseline out of
the corner and like throwing awesome whip passes to the
opposite corner, making high level reads. He's a guy that
can dribble, pass, and shoot at the center position. That
(15:04):
is going to be a really fun thing to watch
with the Golden State Warriors, and then again, just one
of the most high IQ switching bigs in the league
still at this point in his career, and so him
Jimmy Draymond, They're going to be really really fun to
watch defensively in that front court. The Anthony Melton prototypical
Warriors guards, so much so that when he got hurt
last year, it kind of felt like a given he'd
(15:26):
eventually work his way back to Golden State, knowing that
he wouldn't be able to play at any point the
remainder of that season. What I like about him is
he provides kind of a higher floor option than some
of the other options the Warriors have at that position,
whether it's Gary Payton that can bring obviously defense and activity,
baseline cutting read four on three reads in the middle
of the floor, but he's a guy that can be
(15:47):
an inconsistent shooter a Brandon Pajemski, a guy that's a
great rebounder, a guy that brings some of that read
and reacts skill in some higher level scoring chops. He
scored the ball really well towards the tail end of
the season, but very inconsistent offensive player, and his perimeter
quickness sometimes can leave a little bit to be desired
in higher level matchups when he's guarding on the perimeter,
right de Anthony Melton, I don't necessarily think he'll start
(16:10):
or though, who knows, maybe his knees doing great. Maybe
maybe he gets into camp, kicks everybody's ass and he
ends up starting. But he just gives Steve Kerr like
the this is the guy who's pretty good at everything,
high floor veteran option. It's just another option to have
for that fifth starter in those groups that would not
be the least bit surprised if we saw some situations
this year where the Warriors were closing games with Stephan
(16:31):
de Anthony as well as Jimmy Draymond and Al Horford.
Gary Payton, there's you know, I was very disappointed to
see when he was signed. It there is some conflicting
sentiments surrounding Gary Payton and whether or not he still
has the ability to compete at a super high level
with this team. I'm just a huge believer in Gary Payton.
I think he's an awesome fit with the Warriors. I
still think that, Yeah, even though he may be not
(16:53):
the same athlete he was when he was twenty seven
years old. I still think he's a very useful rotation
player in the NBA, and because of the way this
roster's put together, you're not necessarily depending on him. I
think he just does a ton of dirty work. I
think he's got I think that it's a continuity play too.
This is an underrated piece of all this stuff, Like
the Warriors have been playing a lot of the same
dudes for a long time. That's a big part of
(17:14):
how you have an advantage matchup to match up in
the postseason when you're just used to playing the same
type of basketball year in and year out. Gary Payton's
a very natural fit there. Now interesting piece from the
report the Warriors only have about two million left in
usable cap space, so Seth Curry is going to be
(17:35):
the guy who gets pinched as a result of this
kaminga deal. However, sham Sharani and his report included that
they will be able to sign a veteran minimum player
on November fifteenth. It wasn't explicitly reported that they would
sign set at that point, but it was conspicuous the
way they lined it up in the report to make
it look as though the Warriors would strongly be looking
at Seth. I think Seth is a great fit within
(17:57):
this Warriors team as well. He brings scoring on the perimeter,
which is something this roster has needed for a long time.
It gives you just like another option to in terms
of Buddy Healed, when Buddy Heeld's having one of those
nights where he's not, you know, hitting shots and his
head's not in it on defense, I saw Buddy and
his presser in on media day talking about how he
shot the ball well all summer long, and obviously shot
(18:18):
the ball super well in the postseason. So maybe Buddy
plays super well and the Warriors look to go a
different direction with that veteran minimum spot. So maybe they
keep it open. But it's been implied that Seth Curry
is the guy they would be looking at on November fifteenth.
I think he's a really natural fit there. Big picture
with the Warriors, you know, there's a lot of talk
about their age, and I think those age concerns are legitimate.
(18:38):
I look at it more as like a just a
big picture playoff concern, Like I have the Warriors as
a second tier contender. I know that not everyone agrees
with me on that. I think they're in that tier.
I have them towards the bottom of that tier. And
the main reason why is just because when you have
Steph who's thirty seven, Jimmy late thirties, you know, Draymond
(18:59):
Taylor of his prime. I'm Al Horford, like, when you
got those four dudes, who are four dudes that are
in your best five lineup, it's just a lot to
ask them to survive an eighty two game season and
for playoff rounds without something happening, especially in the brutally
tough Western Conference. And so with that being the case,
(19:19):
I think they have at least a good amount of
risk in terms of just oh, they get to April
and this guy's hurt, or that guy's not at one
hundred percent, this guy's dealing with back issues, this guy's
dealing with some other type of issue. I look at
it as a big picture concern with their playoff ceiling.
If they're healthy and you're in a second round series
(19:42):
and Steph's healthy and Draymond's healthy, and Jimmy's healthy and
Al's healthy, and the rotation is solid, and they're there
on the floor with you. No one's gonna give a
damn about their age. They're gonna be a huge pain
in the ass to beat, and I view them as
a legitimate puncher's chance team to win the title. But
it's just getting to that point without something happening that
(20:03):
makes it a tough call. That's why I view them
as towards the bottom end of that second tier of contenders.
As far as the regular season goes, I'm actually pretty
bullish on them a couple of reasons. One Steve Current
that front office have always done a really nice job
of just finding dudes in their rotation that can play minutes,
like they had fourteen to fifteen guys last year that
(20:23):
could play. Because they keep finding the Gee Santos's and
the Pat Spencers of the world that just can go
play Warriors basketball successfully. Because they have such a strong
basketball culture from the very top down. It's an organization
that I have a ton of respect for. And then
the second piece of it is in the regular season,
that youthful exuberance, energy, basketball culture, top down continuity. That's
(20:46):
a huge part of how you win games. The Warriors
also have an excellent home court advantage, and so if
somebody misses a good chunk of games, and say Draymond
misses some time, say Al misses some time, even Steph
misses ten fifteen games, Like you feel like you might
be able to go five hundred with Steph out just
based on your aggregate talent, your basketball culture, and winning
your home games. Right, So, like, I'm less worried about
(21:08):
them as a regular season team. I think they're gonna
be able to stay afloat in the standings. I think
they have a good chance to get into that five
or six seed and avoid the play in. It's more
just are they all gonna be healthy and clicking on
all cylinders when they get to April and May. That's
a bigger question mark than some of the younger, younger
teams in the West that are deeper in top end talent.
(21:29):
I think that's what puts them towards the bottom end
of that tier. All right, guys, It's all I have
for today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting us and supporting the show. Again. We're gonna be
continuing our season previews tomorrow. I believe with the Central Division,
I think we're covering an Eastern Conference division. I think
it's the Atlantic Division that we're covering this this Wednesday,
(21:51):
so keep an eye on the feeds. Tomorrow morning, we'll
have five more teams to cover, and then we're hitting
the next twenty teams over the course of the next
week and a half. We will see you guys.
The volume. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight. You're at
the volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. We finally have a resolution
to the Jonathan cominga contract saga. He has agreed to
(00:26):
a two year deal with a team option. It's different
than what was originally discussed, at least in the reporting
that I had seen. I had seen that the debate
was between a two plus one with a team option
or two plus one with a player option. But it
looks like it's going to be a one plus one
with a player option. We're gonna give my opinion on that,
as well as some of the other reported signings that
(00:46):
have taken place over the course of the last few
days for the Warriors when I think about them in
the big picture as well. Then we'll get out of
here for the day. Just quick and easy one. You
guys are the trip before we started to subscribe to
hoops and YouTube channel so you don't miss any more
of our videos. Follow me on Twitter, nder score JCNLT
so you guys don't make show announcements. Don't forget about
a podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast on our
Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave your
(01:06):
rating and a review on that front, Jackson's doing incredible
work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there. And then,
last but not least, if you want to get mailbag
questions into our mail bags, drop them in our full
episodes on YouTube in the comments and we'll get to them.
We have our first mail bag coming up here in
a couple of weeks. We're doing some season previews right now,
but right after our season previews, we're gonna have a
mail bag, so you guys can get your questions in there.
(01:28):
All right, let's talk some basketball. So two years, forty
eight and a half million team option. The way that
sham Sarani reported it is that it's designed to be
tradeable and to make it so that either the Warriors
or whoever Jonathan's next team is has the ability to
essentially rip up that second year in to renegotiate the contract.
(01:49):
I think that that team option is mainly more of
like a team control type of way of looking at
this in terms of passing the buck to next summer.
So if you think of it like this, when you
draft a player, you have their restricted free agent rights, right,
you get through your rookie contract, you go into free agency,
they go to some other team, and they get to
(02:10):
some deal, you have the right to match. If the
Warriors were not able to achieve that team option or
control after this season, then essentially Jonathan Kaminga could walk
for nothing next summer. And so the Warriors wanted that
team option, so that essentially, if they get into negotiations
next summer and they still can't work something out, or
(02:31):
if the team that trades for Jonathan Kaminga gets into
the negotiations with Jonathan Kaminga and they can't work something out,
they at least have the leverage of that team option.
Well we're at least getting you for one additional year.
So looks like a win for the Warriors in that regard,
but at the same time, a nice salary number for
Jonathan Kaminga, a player who, again, like I understand that
(02:52):
he has a ton of potential, but it hasn't really
come to fruition with the Warriors. Not entirely his fault.
It's a bad kind of situation for him in a
lot of ways, which we'll talk more about in a minute.
But to get twenty five million for this season. That's
a nice paybump for a young player, gets another opportunity
to demonstrate whether or not he is worth that deal
that he wants, and it is super tradable if you're
(03:14):
looking for a high upside forward. Getting him at twenty
five million, with the ability to let him walk or
to negotiate a lower deal in the future, or at
least have some team control going into next summer, that
makes him a much more tradable deal. Then let's say
it's a two plus one with a player option at
seventy five million, and now all of a sudden, it's
(03:35):
like we trade for Kaminga. It doesn't really pan out
the way we were hoping. Now we're on the hook
to give this guy an additional fifty million over the
next couple of years, which then could be very difficult
to trade on the second end of that deal. Right,
So win for the Warriors. Nice paybump for Jonathan Minga.
Now we're moving on to this season. Now in the
short term, it's on Jonathan Kaminga to earn a way
(03:58):
into the rotation. I think there's an interesting angle here,
which is how much will the Warriors just choose to
lean on Jonathan just as an attempt to juice his
trade value. But you could also take that the opposite
direction and say that it's more of a mistique if
he's less involved, and you could have a team sit
there being like, oh, he's being under utilized. We'll get
more out of him. I'll be really curious to see
(04:20):
how much he cracks the rotation depending on that specific
strategy point from the Warriors, But in terms of basketball,
Jonathan Kaminga can force his way on the floor by
earning Steve Kerrz trust in forcing his way into a
rotation that for years has needed offensive pop. Right. So,
(04:40):
one of the big kind of like points of contention
over the last couple of years between people who are
big believers in Jonathan Kaminga and people within the Warriors
and people that follow the Warriors that are not into
him in this particular context is the basketball fit. Right.
There have been these stretches, whether it be the tail
end of the Houston Rocket series after Steph Curry pulls
(05:01):
his hamstring, or it's you know, a year and a
half ago in the middle of the regular season when
he ripped off whatever it was like six or seven
straight twenty plus point games. There have been these stretches
where Jonathan Kaminga has demonstrated the ability through higher usage
to score the basketball at least that volume. Right, But
that is very different than the concept of playing winning
(05:21):
basketball on the Golden State Warriors. Those are two very
different concepts. They lost that series to the Houston Rockets. Right,
there is an ultimate goal that this Warriors team has
built on a old Steph Curry, an old Jimmy Butler,
an old Draymond Green, an old Al Horford, which is,
we're trying to get the Larry O'Brian right now. And
(05:43):
that changes the calculus for Steve Kerr in terms of
him putting together lineups, putting together rotations, and so why
hasn't Jonathan Kaminga fit on the Warriors? And it simply
comes down to Jonathan Kaminga is a young scoring four
who is learning how to become a more efficient scorer
(06:04):
in a higher volume role, who is learning how to
handle as he goes higher and higher on the opponent's
scouting report, as things get tougher, as they start to
dig down on his post ups and start to bring
double teams to as we can, and all that sort
of thing. All that sort of stuff. He's learning how
to do that, and there is potential for Jonathan Kaminga
in the future to be an All Star in this
(06:24):
league as a scoring forward, but he is not that
yet and what the Warriors need from him right now
on offense is quick decisions knocking down open shots. Okay,
you got a mismatch because of a ball screen with
Steph or because of the team we're playing, or tossing
it down to you. You attack quickly, You are decisive,
(06:44):
You read the help that comes in front of you.
You may you don't stop the ball, but rather you
make quick decisions in the Warrior system. This is why
all of these guys like Brandon Pajemski have just kind
of slotted in and played well. Or whether it's Gie
Santo's or it's you know, Pat's, any of these like
random dudes that have gotten more trust from Steve Kerr
(07:05):
than Jonathan Kaminga has. It's literally because Steve wants dudes
to make quick decisions in the offense. This is a
five out motion. Everyone's involved. We're working to get Steph
Curry shots. We're either looking to get Steph Curry a
shot or a wide open three or a dunk. That's
basically the offense, and so they're looking for guys that
can quickly make decisions in that flow, and that is
(07:26):
something that Jonathan has struggled with over the years. So
an early part of this season goal for him to
achieve a spot in the rotation is making quick decisions
in the offense, knocking down his open spot, up threes,
beating mismatches in the posts quickly and decisively. That's how
he can earn his way onto the four, and then
on the defensive end of the four. Jonathan's always been
(07:48):
a pretty solid on ball weapon. He's got good length
and good activity. He moves his feet well and it's
kind of like a singular focus for him. That is
something that he's thrived in. But off ball he can
be a nightmare. Sometimes you lose a sight of man
and ball. He can lose relocating shooters, he can lose crashers.
He is somebody that Steve Kerr does not trust on
the defensive end of the floor. So another part of
(08:09):
earning that trust and earning a bigger spot in the
rotation is his off ball awareness, keeping track of man
and ball, being in the right spots in the game plan,
making sure that you're accounting for your man in defensive
rebounding situations. Those are the kinds of things that Steve
Kerr is paying very close attention to. So again, we'll
see how much the Golden State Warriors just choose to
play Jonathan in terms of juicing his trade value. But
(08:32):
if it is strictly a basketball proposition in a front
court that already has Jimmy Butler, Andreimond Green, and Al Horford,
and they're probably going to play one of the other
young centers quite a bit. And Steve Kerr is a
guy that likes to play three guard lineups. Gary Payton
is a guy that in many cases operates as a
three or four on the floor in their lineups defensively
(08:52):
and as a rebounder. Jonathan's going to have to earn
that trust through what he's doing on both ends of
the floor. Or like we just broke down in the
long term, and I talked about this when we were
doing a little update on the kaminga situation about a
week ago. I know that you weren't huge fans of
the Monk deal, the Kings deal. You know, I've seen
(09:14):
enough from Warriors fans that they don't seem to be
big believers in it. Obviously, the Warriors brass wasn't a
big believer in it because they didn't take the deal.
But I don't think that they're gonna get anything substantially better.
I don't think that this story ends with a trade
in January where Johnathan Kaming is bringing back like a
really nice, high upside young player on a rookie contract
(09:36):
and another really useful role player and multiple draft picks
Like I don't think that's happening, not unless Jonathan has
some sort of massive breakout, which if he did, the
Warriors would then be inclined to keep him if you
were to succeed in a winning context alongside this particular
Golden State Warriors team. And so the most likely scenario.
(09:56):
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or Virginia. Is that Jonathan is in and out of
(11:29):
the rotation like usually is, or if he maintains a
rotation spot, it's a smaller rotation spot. That his output
is inconsistent because his skill set doesn't really fit this
Golden State Warriors team super well. That it continues to
be more or less the same frustrating experience for Kaminga
and for the Warriors and for their fans as it
was for the last couple of years, and it ends
in a trade in January that is something like the
(11:51):
Monk deal, a protected first round pick, some sort of
large contract that you're kind of iffy on whether or
not it's really that good of a contract, but maybe
he's just a better fit for what you're trying to
do than John and the Kaminga is I think that
is more or less the best that you're going to do,
and so in the long run, I wouldn't be, you know,
holding out hope for some sort of fantastic return. I
(12:13):
don't think that's gonna be the case. Now. Looking at
the Warriors this season, we've had some reported signings that
came in over the last couple of days. In our
season preview, we kind of already addressed some of these,
but I want to go over them again briefly. Al
Horford multi year contract. Good for Al, good for the Warriors.
Also in the report, he's going to be starting games.
That's interesting on several levels. Jackson and I were just
(12:33):
talking before this recording. We both agree that this is
probably their best five anyway. Al at the five, Jimmy
at the three, Draymond at the four, Steph at the one.
You know, POD's moody d Anthony Melton. Whoever ends up
being as that like go to number two when the
time comes, that's gonna end up being their best five.
This is a group that's probably gonna do a lot
of switching with those three. It's gonna be a lot
(12:55):
of communication, a lot of high IQ defensive playmaking, reading
play before they happen, getting in front of them. Al
Horford has always been an extremely gifted switch big. It's
something that he's succeeded at throughout his career. He's very
good at guarding bigger bully ball players on the perimeter
by just giving ground, forcing them into long contested jump shots.
(13:16):
He keeps his chest in front when they attack, and
he forces them to make tougher hooks and tougher short
turnarounds and things along those lines. Obviously he's older now well.
One of the things that Jackson and I were talking
about before we started. He started last year in Boston
kept his minutes right around twenty seven minutes per game,
and so just because you start him doesn't necessarily mean
you're gonna wear him into the ground. It's leaning into
(13:38):
a lineup that you'll ultimately go down with. And every
game that I'll plays right like it's in most cases
you're gonna be going down with him. In closing situations,
you want to continue to get as much reps, as
many reps as possible with al with the starters, I
think it makes sense to basically play him four shifts
a half. Play him to start the game, play him
(13:59):
to end the first half, play him to start the
second half, play him to end the game. I think
that's an easy way to keep him in that twenty
four twenty six minute range. It allows you to keep
most of his minutes alongside the starters so that you
can continue to build out the chemistry for the lineup
that you're gonna lean on when you get to the postseason.
And I just think he's an awesome basketball fit. Is
(14:20):
a basketball fan, and as a fan of Steph Curry,
and as a fan of the way the Warriors play basketball,
I'm very excited to watch Al Horford play with his team.
I think he is the quintessential stretch five, high IQ
quick decision maker that Golden State's been hunting for years
that they haven't been able to find. I think it's
going to be just super fun to get to see
that a guy that can shoot closer to the way
(14:41):
Quinton Post shoots the ball, but that can read and
react with the best of him. This is a player
that was playing really high level drive and kick basketball
the last few years in Boston. We were watching the
twenty twenty four finals and he's ripping baseline out of
the corner and like throwing awesome whip passes to the
opposite corner, making high level reads. He's a guy that
can dribble, pass, and shoot at the center position. That
(15:04):
is going to be a really fun thing to watch
with the Golden State Warriors, and then again, just one
of the most high IQ switching bigs in the league
still at this point in his career, and so him
Jimmy Draymond, They're going to be really really fun to
watch defensively in that front court. The Anthony Melton prototypical
Warriors guards, so much so that when he got hurt
last year, it kind of felt like a given he'd
(15:26):
eventually work his way back to Golden State, knowing that
he wouldn't be able to play at any point the
remainder of that season. What I like about him is
he provides kind of a higher floor option than some
of the other options the Warriors have at that position,
whether it's Gary Payton that can bring obviously defense and activity,
baseline cutting read four on three reads in the middle
of the floor, but he's a guy that can be
(15:47):
an inconsistent shooter a Brandon Pajemski, a guy that's a
great rebounder, a guy that brings some of that read
and reacts skill in some higher level scoring chops. He
scored the ball really well towards the tail end of
the season, but very inconsistent offensive player, and his perimeter
quickness sometimes can leave a little bit to be desired
in higher level matchups when he's guarding on the perimeter,
right de Anthony Melton, I don't necessarily think he'll start
(16:10):
or though, who knows, maybe his knees doing great. Maybe
maybe he gets into camp, kicks everybody's ass and he
ends up starting. But he just gives Steve Kerr like
the this is the guy who's pretty good at everything,
high floor veteran option. It's just another option to have
for that fifth starter in those groups that would not
be the least bit surprised if we saw some situations
this year where the Warriors were closing games with Stephan
(16:31):
de Anthony as well as Jimmy Draymond and Al Horford.
Gary Payton, there's you know, I was very disappointed to
see when he was signed. It there is some conflicting
sentiments surrounding Gary Payton and whether or not he still
has the ability to compete at a super high level
with this team. I'm just a huge believer in Gary Payton.
I think he's an awesome fit with the Warriors. I
still think that, Yeah, even though he may be not
(16:53):
the same athlete he was when he was twenty seven
years old. I still think he's a very useful rotation
player in the NBA, and because of the way this
roster's put together, you're not necessarily depending on him. I
think he just does a ton of dirty work. I
think he's got I think that it's a continuity play too.
This is an underrated piece of all this stuff, Like
the Warriors have been playing a lot of the same
dudes for a long time. That's a big part of
(17:14):
how you have an advantage matchup to match up in
the postseason when you're just used to playing the same
type of basketball year in and year out. Gary Payton's
a very natural fit there. Now interesting piece from the
report the Warriors only have about two million left in
usable cap space, so Seth Curry is going to be
(17:35):
the guy who gets pinched as a result of this
kaminga deal. However, sham Sharani and his report included that
they will be able to sign a veteran minimum player
on November fifteenth. It wasn't explicitly reported that they would
sign set at that point, but it was conspicuous the
way they lined it up in the report to make
it look as though the Warriors would strongly be looking
at Seth. I think Seth is a great fit within
(17:57):
this Warriors team as well. He brings scoring on the perimeter,
which is something this roster has needed for a long time.
It gives you just like another option to in terms
of Buddy Healed, when Buddy Heeld's having one of those
nights where he's not, you know, hitting shots and his
head's not in it on defense, I saw Buddy and
his presser in on media day talking about how he
shot the ball well all summer long, and obviously shot
(18:18):
the ball super well in the postseason. So maybe Buddy
plays super well and the Warriors look to go a
different direction with that veteran minimum spot. So maybe they
keep it open. But it's been implied that Seth Curry
is the guy they would be looking at on November fifteenth.
I think he's a really natural fit there. Big picture
with the Warriors, you know, there's a lot of talk
about their age, and I think those age concerns are legitimate.
(18:38):
I look at it more as like a just a
big picture playoff concern, Like I have the Warriors as
a second tier contender. I know that not everyone agrees
with me on that. I think they're in that tier.
I have them towards the bottom of that tier. And
the main reason why is just because when you have
Steph who's thirty seven, Jimmy late thirties, you know, Draymond
(18:59):
Taylor of his prime. I'm Al Horford, like, when you
got those four dudes, who are four dudes that are
in your best five lineup, it's just a lot to
ask them to survive an eighty two game season and
for playoff rounds without something happening, especially in the brutally
tough Western Conference. And so with that being the case,
(19:19):
I think they have at least a good amount of
risk in terms of just oh, they get to April
and this guy's hurt, or that guy's not at one
hundred percent, this guy's dealing with back issues, this guy's
dealing with some other type of issue. I look at
it as a big picture concern with their playoff ceiling.
If they're healthy and you're in a second round series
(19:42):
and Steph's healthy and Draymond's healthy, and Jimmy's healthy and
Al's healthy, and the rotation is solid, and they're there
on the floor with you. No one's gonna give a
damn about their age. They're gonna be a huge pain
in the ass to beat, and I view them as
a legitimate puncher's chance team to win the title. But
it's just getting to that point without something happening that
(20:03):
makes it a tough call. That's why I view them
as towards the bottom end of that second tier of contenders.
As far as the regular season goes, I'm actually pretty
bullish on them a couple of reasons. One Steve Current
that front office have always done a really nice job
of just finding dudes in their rotation that can play minutes,
like they had fourteen to fifteen guys last year that
(20:23):
could play. Because they keep finding the Gee Santos's and
the Pat Spencers of the world that just can go
play Warriors basketball successfully. Because they have such a strong
basketball culture from the very top down. It's an organization
that I have a ton of respect for. And then
the second piece of it is in the regular season,
that youthful exuberance, energy, basketball culture, top down continuity. That's
(20:46):
a huge part of how you win games. The Warriors
also have an excellent home court advantage, and so if
somebody misses a good chunk of games, and say Draymond
misses some time, say Al misses some time, even Steph
misses ten fifteen games, Like you feel like you might
be able to go five hundred with Steph out just
based on your aggregate talent, your basketball culture, and winning
your home games. Right, So, like, I'm less worried about
(21:08):
them as a regular season team. I think they're gonna
be able to stay afloat in the standings. I think
they have a good chance to get into that five
or six seed and avoid the play in. It's more
just are they all gonna be healthy and clicking on
all cylinders when they get to April and May. That's
a bigger question mark than some of the younger, younger
teams in the West that are deeper in top end talent.
(21:29):
I think that's what puts them towards the bottom end
of that tier. All right, guys, It's all I have
for today is always a sincerely appreciate you guys for
supporting us and supporting the show. Again. We're gonna be
continuing our season previews tomorrow. I believe with the Central Division,
I think we're covering an Eastern Conference division. I think
it's the Atlantic Division that we're covering this this Wednesday,
(21:51):
so keep an eye on the feeds. Tomorrow morning, we'll
have five more teams to cover, and then we're hitting
the next twenty teams over the course of the next
week and a half. We will see you guys.
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