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00:00Alright, so who do you want?
00:02If the Warriors do get themselves to a spot where they're going to make a trade, who do
00:05you want?
00:06I guess the only one I would want would be Giannis.
00:10Not Jimmy Butler.
00:11And I'm with Tim Kawakami, who joined us yesterday and said the same thing.
00:14And beyond that, Brandon Ingram is a no.
00:18And I mean, whoever else might be available, it's a no for me.
00:23Here's the difficulty of the spot the Warriors are in.
00:28It's not just two things.
00:29It's sort of almost like a triangle.
00:32You know, so you could stand Pat and you could say, we're going to go with what we got, we're
00:41going to throw a lot of different things at you and we'll be a really good defensive team.
00:45But a lot of people in their NBA sensibilities go, okay, I like that.
00:49I don't know if that's really going to put you in the favorites chair.
00:53You might go somewhere, probably not terribly far.
00:57How does that idea sit with Steph Curry?
00:59Probably not great.
01:01Then there's the next obvious answer, everyone goes, well, Giannis, Giannis, okay.
01:06But do you understand even just in terms of salary, you're talking about gutting the team?
01:12Oh yeah.
01:13Gutting the team.
01:15So there is...
01:16It's Wiggins and probably at least three more guys.
01:19Maybe four more.
01:20It's Kaminga and it's Looney and it's GP2.
01:24It might be pods also.
01:27You cannot take any more money back in your direction than what you're giving up.
01:33It's not just your trade machine salary swap.
01:36The Warriors are up against the apron, less than a million dollars to go.
01:41And they're hard capped.
01:42They're hard capped.
01:43They're not allowed to go over it.
01:44So you would have to cover Giannis's, I think, what is it, 48 this year?
01:48You'd have to cover that with what's going out and probably give up draft picks as well.
01:54So you could do that and then you're very, very top heavy and fancy.
01:58Oh, you'd be fancy at the top.
02:02But now you lose your strength in numbers and your depth and your defense and all of
02:07those things.
02:09Is there someone else?
02:11Not Butler, not Giannis.
02:14Just that simple like two or three for one where you get a piece.
02:20A piece that makes you go from really good to great.
02:24Is that out there?
02:25Maybe.
02:26I mean, we don't know who's out there, but you're talking about a guy who's making between
02:30$25 and $30 million.
02:32Probably.
02:33It depends on how the deal is structured.
02:35Just for just for conversation's sake, let me throw out a name at you and see how this
02:40grabs you.
02:41And I would imagine most of our listeners are going to go, wait, who?
02:44Because he's still a young player.
02:47Turns out, though, he's with the Brooklyn Nets and he is in the exact same position
02:51that Jonathan Kaminga is, which is that he's a fourth year player and they wanted to talk
02:56extension.
02:57They decided not to do it.
02:59So he has gone into this season and sort of prove it mode could be a restricted free agent
03:03at the end of the year.
03:04Is he in the Brooklyn Nets plans going forward?
03:09I don't know.
03:10His name is Cam Thomas and he is a guard.
03:13He is a two guard and he is a scorer.
03:16He's scoring 23 a night right now.
03:18This is somebody who can create his own shot.
03:21Now, a couple of problems, and they're not small problems.
03:24Number one, he only makes $4 million this year.
03:27So what on earth could you offer them that would make them say, yeah, we'd like to give
03:31up on on Cam Thomas and all that needs to be returned is $4 million.
03:37Now, could you add in another contract that maybe they want to send toward you and that
03:42way they could get a Kaminga and a Wiggins off of your roster or something like that?
03:48That's number one.
03:49But number two is Cam Thomas is, shall we say, not known for his defense.
03:58Sure.
03:59Yeah.
04:00Work in progress is the the latest phrase that I was given.
04:03And last year he was objectively awful on on the defensive end of the ball.
04:09And he's still a very young player.
04:12And it makes me think of of, you know, the commentary that we had from the Warriors just
04:16recently with regard to Jonathan Kaminga, where was it Ron Adams?
04:20Was that who it was?
04:21Was it Ron Adams who came on and was like, you know, Jonathan is a young player, wants
04:26a contract.
04:27And and so he forgot about the defensive side of the ball for a little while, but now he's
04:32moving it back to center.
04:33Could they do that with with Cam Thomas?
04:36The only reason I bring his name up is if you scan the league for the second score,
04:41somebody who can legitimately give you 20 a night to just not that many people who are
04:45going to be available at all this year.
04:47Agreed.
04:48And right now, Cam is averaging, I think you mentioned it, twenty four a night.
04:51Yeah, almost like almost twenty three point eight right now.
04:54And he's the guy who can absolutely fill it up.
04:56Not a really efficient score.
04:59Thirty six percent from three.
05:01Not great from two.
05:02He can shoot free throws, though, which is something to keep in mind.
05:05But if you're Brooklyn and you want to make a deal like this, you're going to want to
05:10attach something to it.
05:12And I'm looking at Brooklyn and I look at Ben Simmons making forty million.
05:15Yeah, I'm Brooklyn.
05:17I'm saying, OK, you want you want Cam Thomas.
05:20Guess what?
05:21You get to have with it.
05:22Or you could take Bogdanovich, who's making nineteen million, also expiring.
05:27Dennis Schroeder is making thirteen expiring.
05:30If you're Brooklyn, you're looking to get rid of something else with your young player.
05:35And if you're not going to sign Cam Thomas long term, and I don't know if they are,
05:39but they're clearly rebuilding.
05:41They want picks and they want controllable assets.
05:44And they also want to get rid of some of this crap that they have.
05:47Yeah.
05:48Now, here's the thing.
05:49They got some crap.
05:50They got some crap.
05:51Everybody got some crap.
05:52Now they're looking to get rid of.
05:53Now, Ben Simmons is expiring, though.
05:54Yeah.
05:55So, like, I don't know that that actually helps Brooklyn like they want.
05:59They want those expiring large contracts because it gives them flexibility.
06:04So when you see someone dump a contract, it's usually something that they feel is
06:09going to kind of be around their neck for a few more years.
06:12Yeah.
06:13So I was looking at their salaries also.
06:15And there are there are some names and Claxton, you know, but I don't I like I really don't
06:20know.
06:21I don't know who Brooklyn wants.
06:22I don't know if they know yet who they want.
06:24They may want Cam Thomas.
06:25Well, they should.
06:26I mean, maybe if they want to, I don't know if he's I don't know yet if he's a winning
06:30basketball player.
06:32Right.
06:33You don't know if he's going to be a winning basketball player until you have a winning
06:36team around him.
06:37Like, is Jordan Poole a winning basketball player?
06:39I would argue, no.
06:40Well, he's won.
06:41And now you look at Jordan Poole this year and he's taking steps forward toward being
06:46a better player than he was last year.
06:48So can Jordan Poole be a winning basketball player?
06:51Yeah.
06:52He'll never be a winning basketball player if he's your one.
06:55But if he's your three, you can win with Jordan Poole.
06:57That's the point.
06:58He's not the three in Washington.
07:00He is, in theory, kind of the one.
07:01Well, the point would be to keep him to a point where he is the three.
07:05Yeah.
07:06And that's what you want to do.
07:07I don't I don't know.
07:08I don't know if that's what Jordan wants.
07:10I don't know if Washington has the people to sort of push him down the board like that's
07:15the whole thing in the NBA structure that's always difficult.
07:18I think it's why Andrew Wiggins ended up being largely I know he frustrates people, but he's
07:23largely been a wonderful addition for the Golden State Warriors.
07:26Yeah.
07:27Champion.
07:28He won a championship.
07:29Because no one asked him to be a one.
07:32And quite frankly, no one's really asking him to be a two.
07:35He could tuck into a spot where he could play hard on defense.
07:38There wasn't an overwhelming amount that was asked of him on the offensive end.
07:42And when he does have a big scoring night, it feels like this massive bonus for your
07:47team.
07:48But you're really only counting on him for like 15 points.
07:51You're never asking him for 25 or 30.
07:53Right.
07:54If he does it, yay.
07:55But if not, it's OK.
07:57You can still play.
07:59Everybody needs to find that number with their organization.
08:03Are you a one?
08:04Are you a two?
08:05Are you a three?
08:07What's the good fit?
08:08And of course, the problem often is, is nobody sees themselves as a two or three.
08:12They all see themselves as one because they want to be paid like one.
08:16Right.
08:17Right.
08:18Not everybody can handle that.
08:19Most can't.
08:20Yes.
08:21And if you're Cam Thomas and you're looking at what you're doing right now and you basically
08:23are Brooklyn's one and you want to be paid like Brooklyn's one.
08:27I'm sure he'd rather stay there and get paid and let them build around him as opposed to
08:32get traded to, for example, Golden State.
08:35And if he becomes a warrior and it's Steph and Draymond and Wiggins are still here.
08:39Well, now he's not going to be able to make 40 million a year.
08:43Correct.
08:44Correct.
08:45Text lines loving the idea.
08:46A bunch of different texters.
08:49Thank you for listening.
08:50I just sent in the name Robert Williams, the big guy from Portland who was in Boston
08:55before that.
08:56Right.
08:57Right.
08:58Often hurt.
08:59Exactly.
09:00Often hurt.
09:01But the warriors, if I'm out there looking for a player and if we're not going to go
09:03big game hunting, if we're going medium game hunting, find me a big.
09:08Find me somebody who can do what Kavon does, what TJD does, but maybe at a little bit more
09:13productive rate, productive level.
09:16And if I'm going to go out and get a player, I don't need another wing.
09:20We got wings coming out of our wings.
09:23We need a big.
09:24But do any of them offer the ability to say, I can give you 20 a night whenever you need
09:29it?
09:30Whenever you need it.
09:31Probably not.
09:32Snap my fingers, I'll give you 20.
09:33But I don't think any player who's out there is a guy that you want to go out there and
09:36acquire.
09:37You might be right.
09:38Cam Thomas is great.
09:39It's a great name and those are great numbers, but he doesn't come in here and immediately
09:43you don't want him to give you 20 a night.
09:45Probably not.
09:46Right.
09:47I think the exercise is to get to the point of like, this is great.
09:50I'm so glad they're nine and two.
09:52I don't think there's a great trade out there, even though they might need one at some point.