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00:00Let's go to Drew in San Jose.
00:02Steve Kerr, less than 10, actually less than 15 minutes away.
00:07Hey, Drew, what's going on?
00:09You're on Willard and Debs.
00:10Hey, guys, what's going on?
00:11Can you hear me?
00:12Oh, yeah.
00:13Yeah.
00:14All right.
00:15All right.
00:16Sounds good.
00:17Yeah.
00:18I mean, I just wanted to talk about Jimmy Butler and his history with different teams,
00:25right?
00:26Because I'm getting this notion that we all think that we're getting a new Jimmy Butler.
00:32But my argument is that this has been the Jimmy Butler, at least since his Miami days.
00:39And all I have to do is go back to the playoffs in the bubble, where you had a very, very
00:45young Miami Heat team that he was able to take the finals, and he was able to elevate
00:51Tyler Giro, who was a rookie, Tom Adebayo, who was a third or fourth year guy.
00:56And he was a connector with those guys as well, in an offense that Eric Spoltra ran
01:05that is very, very similar to the movement offense that Steve Kerr runs here.
01:09So I mean, I would make the argument that this is a happy Jimmy Butler, and that we're
01:15getting the best out of him.
01:18And the reason he's, I mean, how he's helping the young guys get along and play, particularly
01:24BP and Moses, is no surprise to me, honestly.
01:29Well, Drew, I think, you know, you can sing the praises of Jimmy's talent all day long,
01:36and I think that that's fair.
01:38And you can talk about him elevating teammates, and that's fair.
01:42I would still argue two things.
01:44A, you just never know how it's going to work with your group, and B, ain't no way
01:50in hell I thought it was going to be this quick, you know what I mean?
01:54No, I absolutely agree with you, and I think, I mean, I think, like, Jimmy's, I think you're
02:00alluding to Jimmy's, like, personality issues, and how that might have translated.
02:05I think, I think, you know, with the Heat, he was mad at the contract that he had gotten,
02:10or the RE that he did not get, for that matter, and with Minnesota, he was particularly mad
02:17at the younger players for not, like, falling in line, right?
02:20And I don't think those two problems exist right now with the Warriors, but could they
02:25exist in one to two years?
02:27Absolutely, they can, but I'm going to ride while the class.
02:30Yeah, see, Drew, thank you, and that's what I am, too, you know what I mean?
02:34Like, you know what's wild?
02:35This is, here's the statement that's wild.
02:39You trade for Jimmy Butler, you still don't even know what this necessarily means for
02:44Jonathan Kaminga's future and his contract, or how he's going to play, or is there now
02:48a new ceiling that's over Jonathan's head?
02:50You don't know any of that yet, and you have signed him to an extension worth, what is
02:57it, 111?
02:58Is that what we decided it is, 111 for two years?
03:01I think 112, yeah.
03:02112, okay?
03:03111, $112 million for two years, and that hadn't even started yet, okay?
03:07That hasn't even started yet, so that could go completely sideways.
03:12He's played 10 basketball games for the Warriors, and I am already willing to sit here and say,
03:19good move.
03:22I don't care what goes wrong the rest of the way.
03:26It is, it was the right move, a good move.
03:32It has rebirthed Steph Curry and Meaningful Basketball, and I can't tell you what that's
03:39worth to this fan base.
03:42I think if you're tapped in at all to what's going on with Warrior Basketball right now,
03:46you know.
03:47You know.
03:48Like, the excitement around this team, the people who are flocking to the arena, to the
03:54television set, to the radio, to our social channels, everything has gone through the
04:00roof.
04:01It's not to see Jimmy play, it's because of what he's created, and it's, to me, the realization
04:08that yes, the hope that Steph Curry wasn't done has been confirmed.
04:13He's not done.
04:14He's not done, and hopefully they're not done, and what this has done for the franchise and
04:20for Joe Lacob, really Mark, is almost assured that next year they're going to go into the
04:24second apron, which is something you can only do one time, you don't want to do it in back-to-back
04:30years, but you mentioned it, you signed him for $112 million, next year Steph gets $59.6,
04:36Jimmy gets $54.1, Draymond's at about $26.
04:41In the total allocations right now, which will be an allocation sensation for Joe Lacob
04:46and company, they're on the hook right now for $170.5 million.
04:52This year's salary cap is $140.5, so you're assuredly, if you bring everyone back, you're
04:58going to be over the salary cap, and if you sign Kaminga to, let's just say $25 million
05:04a year, I don't know what that number will be, but you're going to be up around $200
05:08million, which means, again, Joe Lacob is going to be paying a huge amount of money
05:13in tax penalties, but if you win nine of every ten games, I think he's willing to do that.
05:19I mean, he's basically already said, we're doing it.
05:21Right, we're doing it.
05:22We're doing it.
05:23We love that guy.
05:24We love Kaminga.
05:25We love when you roar up into the sixth seed, and you're nine and one with Jimmy, and things
05:29are looking good, and it looks like these three can work if they stay upright, and Steph's
05:35about to be 37 in a week or so, but Joe Lacob and company have basically said, yeah, we're
05:41doing it.
05:42We're going to go ahead and spend, again, whatever it takes.
05:45So this year was a, we kind of want to get out of the second apron, we want to save money,
05:49and it didn't really work out, and then Joe went to Mike Dunleavy and said, get me a star,
05:55Mike.
05:56This isn't working for me.
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06:08the dealer.
06:09Yeah, Granny, what did you want to throw in here?
06:10Well, you guys are talking about Jimmy's contract in the two years, $112 million, and maybe
06:16it's a little, a lot of money to be paying to another aging veteran guy.
06:21I think the way that you can look at it, and I think the way the Warriors are probably
06:24looking at it, and I think it becomes easier to understand why they would do it.
06:27First of all, the results right now are great, and that makes up for it, as you're talking
06:30about, Willard, who cares about what it's like two years from now.
06:33But they're doing it, they gave the contract, so that now would go well, because Jimmy Butler
06:38wasn't going to be here if they didn't give him the extension, and if for some reason
06:41he was here and didn't have the extension, he wouldn't be playing the way that he's playing,
06:45because that was the exact situation he was in in Miami, and he refused to play, or purposely
06:49tanked everything there.
06:51They're paying him what they're paying him, so that now will be good, and it's working
06:55so far.
06:56Absolutely.
06:57Absolutely.
06:58And then I'd also say this, with regard to whatever goes into the future, and Joe needs
07:01to pay this tax, or this apron, or whatever the hell's going on with their books.
07:08This is why I think, as a Warrior fan, most fans I know love that Joe Lacob is the owner
07:14of their favorite team, because this is the way he sort of looks at life, and I'll take
07:20it down to a way, way, way, way less money sort of an example.
07:24Yeah.
07:25You talking about your kids and ice cream again?
07:27No, but my daughter turned 16 last week.
07:30Okay.
07:31We shouted her out.
07:32Now, the big gift that I got her, I'm not going to say what it was, but there's a little,
07:37for me, a little expensive.
07:40For me.
07:41It's a brand new car.
07:42New.
07:43No, because she's a little behind on getting the license, but a little stretch, right?
07:50What I have is a picture of the smile that it put on her face, lit up the entire essence
07:59of her being, and when you see that as a dad, I don't care what the hell it costs.
08:07Yeah.
08:08I'd basically have paid anything, and I think Joe Lacob looks at a nine and one record with
08:12Jimmy Butler the same way.
08:14I don't care what ... Make a fourth apron.
08:16Sure.
08:17We'll go into it.
08:19Make one up.
08:20Make me wear an apron.
08:21If you're going to win 90% of your games and make everybody in this arena feel this way
08:25and make everybody in the city act this way and make everyone talk about warrior basketball
08:30and have this kind of vibe again, I don't care what that costs.
08:34The answer is yes.
08:36Right, and that's where you go ahead and do that, and I do think that it was born out
08:41of a certain amount of frustration.
08:44We talked about the report where Rich Clyman, Kevin Durant's agent, went right into the
08:50underground secret bar with Joe Lacob at halftime to have cocktails and talk trade because Joe
08:56Lacob was rightfully frustrated with what this team was.
08:59They were flatlining at or near 500, and beyond that, they'd become a little bit boring, even
09:07with the chef.
09:08The chef was frustrated- No doubt.
09:10We were talking about a crisis of confidence, and Draymond was frustrated, and his team
09:15was win two, lose three, win three, lose four.
09:19They were stuck in the mud, and so yeah, whatever apron you want to put us in, I'll do it, and
09:25I just was looking at the number.
09:27Next year, they're estimating that the second apron, which is the restrictive level, it's
09:31going to be $208 million.
09:33Right now, you're at $170 for next year, so that's $38 million that you can spend before
09:38you have to get up to the estimated level.
09:41Now, GP2 is a free agent, Kavon Looney is a free agent, and Kaminga is a restricted
09:47free agent, so can you keep all three of them for under $40 million for next year?
09:53Oh, I don't know that you can keep all three of them.
09:56I don't really know what GP2 and Kavon Looney, I don't know-
09:59Well, he's making nine, and Kavon's making eight.
10:02What's their market?
10:03I think it goes down.
10:04Right.
10:05It goes down.
10:06So, you could give Kaminga 25, and you could give those two 12 combined and end up keeping
10:12all three.
10:13Right, but then you're going to have other roster spots that you need to figure out as
10:17well.
10:18Yeah, I don't know.
10:19I don't know if they'll keep all three, and I don't know that Kaminga's getting 25.
10:22It becomes financial gymnastics in the offseason, and the big piece of that is what you just
10:27said.
10:28Kaminga's got 20 games left in the season.
10:30He's got 19 games left in the season because he's not playing tomorrow.
10:34He might have 18 games left in the season if he doesn't face Detroit, and if he has
10:3918 games left and it's a slow ramp-up, he might have 12 games left in the season plus
10:44playoffs to really show out, and so it's an offseason topic that might be more troubling
10:51for Kaminga than it would have been had he not gotten hurt.
10:54Yeah, I sit here right now having very little sense of what that actual market is because
11:03if we go through this timeline of everybody, you know, Joe Laker was like, we love the
11:07guy.
11:08Of course we're going to keep Jonathan Kaminga, okay, and I believe that.
11:11I really do, but we're also like fresh off of a December where Anthony Slater's like,
11:16Warriors are going into information gathering season with Jonathan Kaminga, and then what's
11:21the information they've got?
11:22Okay, let's think about it.
11:24Since December, what have we gotten?
11:25Well, you've got a major injury, you've got the acquisition of Jimmy Butler, you've got
11:30the team finally being unlocked, and that all happens without him, and now you've got
11:35to get the information of, can he come back from the injury?
11:38Yeah, you also got the information of, oh my God, he's finally fulfilling the promise.
11:43I mean, he was putting up numbers.
11:44Eight games, ten games where he was balling out.
11:46He was putting up numbers, right, but it wasn't necessarily attached with winning yet.
11:50The record wasn't any better in the games that he balled out versus when he wasn't,
11:55so and now you're going to have this like run to the finish line.
11:58Does he fit in?
12:00What does he do with the playoffs?
12:01You want to keep him, and then the biggest thing of them all, which has nothing to do
12:06with the Warriors and nothing to do with Kaminga's stats, who else is out there offering him
12:12anything?
12:13Yep, it's fair.
12:14That's the biggest thing of all that's going to decide what Jonathan Kaminga makes, and
12:17they might.
12:18They might get him for 20.
12:19I don't know.
12:20Yeah.
12:21Maybe it'll be 30.
12:22I don't know.
12:23I would bet it will be less than 30, and I can't help but think about Jalen Green, who
12:27is a young scorer for Houston, and he's averaging 21 a night this year.
12:32He's a good young player.
12:33He's better than Jonathan Kaminga.
12:35He's their one.
12:36Right, and he signed in October three years and $106 million, which is about $34 and change
12:42per year, and he is outplaying that contract by NBA standards, yet that's what he got,
12:50and like you said, Kaminga missing two months.
12:52He's not their one.
12:53He's not their two.
12:55Probably their three, when healthy, and a team that, you know, don't really need him
13:00to be the three every night with other shooters and pods and Moody and the rest, so I do think
13:05his value is going to be more depressed than what Jalen Green got in October.
13:09I agree with you, and again, the big thing is that there are very, very few teams right
13:14now who have cap space.
13:17There are very few teams, even the ones who do, that are probably in a position to go
13:22after Jonathan Kaminga with the kind of deal that not only would he sign, but would get
13:27him off of the Warriors roster, and I don't think there are any teams out there that are
13:32all that motivated to play the game of like, let's up the values so that it makes the Warriors
13:38do this, that, and the other.
13:40Like Brooklyn doesn't care about that.
13:42That's not what their number one goal is going to be.
13:44They're not even in the same conference, so I just think that Kaminga has got a few things
13:50that have landed not in his favor when it comes to this conversation, and that is namely
13:56the lack of another suitor and a very, very poorly timed big time injury.
14:02Those two things have not worked in his favor as far as this contract is concerned.