- 2 days ago
Willard and Dibs take calls from Warriors fans and wonder if there's a pathway for the Warriors being competitive this season.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00When I told you that royalty was on the line and I wasn't lying,
00:04Phil Mo Mike joins the show right here on Willard and Dibs.
00:07Phil Mo, what you doing?
00:09Oh, man.
00:10I can't even say what I'm doing.
00:13That's all right.
00:14I'm up there.
00:15I'm up there, baby.
00:16I'm up there.
00:17But anyway.
00:19Nice job.
00:21Nah, but on some real talk, man, like, I'm really harping on this.
00:27Like, we got to realize, bro.
00:30We got to have a moment of realization.
00:33And the caller just said, like, who was that, BPA?
00:37He was like, yeah, man, like, this is just dumb and, you know,
00:44we have nothing to look for.
00:45I'm a Warrior fan, bro.
00:48I keep repeating it.
00:50If Steph move on, I love Steph to death.
00:54Like, seriously, Steph is more like Jordan than LeBron to me.
01:00Seriously.
01:02But my point is, the Warriors got to do what the Warriors got to do.
01:07If they can't do what they can do, they can't do what they can do.
01:11You can't look at Dunleavy and say, hey, man, you didn't do anything.
01:15What was he supposed to do?
01:18Literally.
01:20Also, I want to talk about trade.
01:22I can't remember the player or the year.
01:25But the Warriors waited a trade exception or some type of piece where they can add a player
01:31and it won't hit the luxury tax and we let it go through.
01:36And it didn't.
01:37I thought it was like we didn't use it.
01:39It didn't kill us.
01:40And so, like, I just want to point to that.
01:43I can't remember.
01:43Man, I can't remember the situation.
01:45But it was like 2011 or 12.
01:48We had like a trade exception and we could have used it, but we never used it.
01:52It didn't hurt us.
01:53It actually helped us because I think we were able to trade off of a piece to get somebody else.
01:58With that being said, man, just have hope.
02:01Understand that Lakers really cares.
02:04He was there when we was whack as hell, bro.
02:07Like, it ain't like if he wants to win.
02:10I'm not mad at an owner that wants to win.
02:14He'll bring in the pieces, the necessary pieces.
02:17Mike's definitely hands were strong.
02:19He couldn't do nothing.
02:20What could he do?
02:21Google up there talking yesterday.
02:22I agree with you, Mark.
02:24And he was like, well, they did.
02:27They shouldn't have gave Draymond.
02:28Draymond did what they were supposed to do.
02:30They spitting back.
02:31They trying to play chess, not checkers.
02:34So they tried to make a play.
02:35They couldn't make a play.
02:37Draymond, work on your jumper.
02:38And let's see what the season's like.
02:40We don't know what the season's going to be.
02:41Who knows if Hives get better, Geek Santos get better.
02:46You feel me?
02:47Don't talk about Moody.
02:48He may not even come back next year.
02:50But Jimmy can come back, be insurrected.
02:52So let's see what the season do.
02:54Don't put doom on the season before it happens, man.
02:58Phil Mo, you're speaking truth.
03:00And I know it's like a lot of people, thank you so much.
03:03A lot of people don't want to hear it.
03:05I just think that for me, at least, I can wrap my head around the disappointment of literally
03:12no new signings.
03:15There's the axle, but there's no new signings.
03:18I don't like it, but I get it.
03:21And I think, Phil Mo, that's kind of what you're saying.
03:23But to me, we do have to find a middle ground.
03:27And there is an expiration date to this.
03:30If this feels too timelines-ish to you, I apologize for that.
03:34That's not what I'm trying to say.
03:37But Joe Lacob and the Warriors, Mike Donleavy, they're in a spot, but you don't get to fully
03:43just stay in that spot.
03:45I'm not an all-in for Steph guy, but I am a some-in for Steph guy.
03:51And this feels kind of none-in for Steph so far this offseason.
03:55And if that's circumstantial, fine.
03:58Next offseason, it's not.
04:00You don't get the same excuses next offseason that you had this time.
04:05Jimmy tore his ACL.
04:07Our hands are tied.
04:08What do you want us to do?
04:09Well, next year, you are free as a bird.
04:12And so there has to be some aggression next offseason, assuming that Steph Curry is still
04:19going to be on the team.
04:20Right, and even before that, I'd like to see some aggression at the trade deadline if
04:25that's, you know, you're in a spot where you might be able to add something to take
04:29you from a nine seed to a seven seed or a six seed.
04:33We don't know how the year is going to play out.
04:35And I like what Phil Mo Mike was saying about the proactive negativity.
04:40Let's just go ahead and see what the year is going to be before we start to skew to the
04:44negative because you never know.
04:46And I think about the last two seasons of the Giants and the Niners, respectively, where
04:51the Giants this year, the over under was 80 and a half.
04:54And I was saying, oh, my God, that's that's too easy.
04:57That's an easy over for me.
04:59And I didn't bet it.
05:00And as you look now, it's like, oh, my God, that thing became disastrous.
05:05And then last year, the Niners, where you've got your QB who gets hurt, you get Mikel Williams
05:11who gets hurt, Bosa gets hurt, Fred gets hurt.
05:13It's like we need our backup quarterback for how long, like turf toe?
05:17This thing could linger all year.
05:18And then it's, oh, win, win.
05:20You beat the Rams on Thursday night.
05:22And so we all were ready to, like, pack it up on the Niners.
05:25And you go 12 and five and you beat Philly on the road in the playoffs.
05:29So I'm with you, Philmo, like, let's just see how this looks, even if it's a run it back.
05:35I don't love that.
05:36I'm kind of with you where this is not what I signed up for in the offseason, but things
05:41could be better.
05:42Well, I'm sure there are surprises around the corner.
05:44I don't know what they are.
05:45Maybe Yaxo Lendeborg is going to win Rookie of the Year.
05:47I don't know.
05:49I have no idea.
05:50So, yeah, like, I'm not going to not show up for the season.
05:54Um, but I think it's fair as a fan to take some time and be disappointed with the fact
05:59that the Warriors didn't add any new players.
06:02That's, that's, that's tough pill.
06:04That's tough.
06:04Yeah, it's tough.
06:05But at the same time, playing off of what Philmo Mike said, I don't know where you had
06:10the financial room to really do much of anything.
06:13And I guess you could, all right, Draymond, you opt out.
06:16Well, now you're screwed.
06:18Shouldn't have done that.
06:18No, of course, of course not.
06:20Of course not.
06:21I'm just playing with that.
06:22But if you look at where they are and you and Grandy ran the numbers and you're what
06:268 million short of the second apron and you can't go beyond it, you're hard capped.
06:31And so you need three players and you have 8 million.
06:34I guess you could have just waited on Chris Tapp's poor Zingas and you given him 19 million
06:39this year, you could have saved that money.
06:42And I don't know.
06:43It feels to me like all the things that you could have done, none of it adds up to an
06:48impactful player or an impactful move.
06:50Maybe, maybe not.
06:51I don't know.
06:52You know what I mean?
06:52Like, I get where you're coming from.
06:55But the whole, the whole motto going into the offseason was we're going to have to get
06:59creative.
07:01It doesn't feel like they got creative.
07:03It does not feel like they got creative at all.
07:06You're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGM, ZFM and HD1, San Francisco and Odyssey Sports Station
07:12in the home of the Golden State Warriors and Valkyries.
07:14Always live on the free Odyssey app.
07:16Coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios.
07:18Mark Spears, ESPN in 15 minutes to talk more hoops.
07:22Our coverage on 95.7 The Game is presented by Xfinity.
07:25Score the most reliable Wi-Fi.
07:27One price.
07:28Five years guaranteed.
07:29Xfinity.
07:30Imagine that.
07:31Next up, let's go to Matt in Oakland.
07:33Hi, Matt.
07:34Thanks for calling us.
07:35What's up?
07:37Hey, what's up, Dibs and Mark?
07:41Good to see.
07:42Good to hear from y'all.
07:43Hey, I just wanted to get on BPA.
07:46BPA was totally out of line, man, to say that the Warriors gave up, saying that they're not trying.
07:51Look, this team is strapped.
07:52You got four championships out of there.
07:55Should have been five.
07:56Could have been six.
07:57I don't know.
07:58But we got four championships here in the Bay Area, and we hadn't had any in 40 years.
08:04So they were strapped.
08:06They made a move for Jimmy Butler.
08:08I'm a season ticket holder.
08:10You know, nobody, I'm invested in the Warriors, but they couldn't do anything, and I'm not with making a move
08:17just for the sake of making a move.
08:19I would have liked to have got, I would have liked to have got the guy from Boston at the
08:24trade deadline last year, but, you know, I probably would have gave up those picks back then.
08:29But, you know, they want their picks.
08:31They want to build another team.
08:33Give them that slack.
08:35They gave you four championships.
08:36Who else got four championships like that other than the Spurs and the Bulls?
08:42You know, come on, man.
08:43Nobody's getting championships just because they put a quarter in a vending machine.
08:49Matt, that's fair.
08:50I guess the rebuttal to that, and it's not that I disagree with you because I don't, but I think
08:57where fans get stuck is you're kind of talking about what's already happened,
09:00and I hope that most people, Matt, thank you, will acknowledge that.
09:05We talked about that earlier.
09:07The resume for this group is untouchable.
09:10They've taken us on a ride that no one else has gotten to experience in recent memory, and certainly we've
09:16never experienced as Warrior fans.
09:19So that resume is untouchable.
09:21The legacy is intact, but you arrive at now, and you sort of are in a conundrum about what to
09:28do with the presence of Steph Curry.
09:31Like, this would be easy if he just decided to retire, but he doesn't want to do that, and he
09:37keeps playing really good basketball,
09:39and so we got you four championships, and we want to get ready for what's next.
09:43You know, normal world would be a completely perfect thing to say.
09:49The fly in the ointment is you've got a 38-to-be-39-year-old superstar who still kind of
09:55plays like a superstar when he plays.
09:57And what do you do about that?
09:59Because it just doesn't feel like nothing is the right answer.
10:03Not everything, but not nothing.
10:06Right, but the something, so it's not nothing, so it's something,
10:09and I just wonder what that something actually can be, short of, hey, who wants Jimmy Butler
10:16and 30 games of a guy making $57 million, and you could probably shop him, and I believe that they
10:23have,
10:23but if you don't have a taker, trades are hard, as we know, and so now you're in a spot
10:28where
10:28I don't know what you can do that is an actual something other than, I mean, you could trade Draymond
10:35Green,
10:35you could trade other players, and you could trade picks, and you could try to do something crazy.
10:41There was a different way to do the finances, I believe.
10:45You know what I mean?
10:46Like, I wasn't asking for LeBron or a superstar.
10:50I wasn't demanding that.
10:51I was trying to listen to what the Warriors said about their situation and follow their lead.
10:57Their words were, we need more people who can play back-to-backs.
11:00I was looking for some youth, and there was some cheap youth on the market.
11:05Right.
11:05They didn't get any of them.
11:06But the cheap youth might have prevented you from being in the LeBron sweepstakes,
11:11considering, I don't know if they knew that he would sign for $4 million a year.
11:15Ah, see, yeah, so I don't think it prevented that.
11:18I don't know what they knew.
11:19Draymond Green alone allowed the flexibility for LeBron.
11:22And that's why he opted out.
11:24That's why he opted out, yes.
11:25If they knew that LeBron was going to take $4 million, then Draymond probably wouldn't have opted out,
11:30because they could pay LeBron $4 million with Draymond making $27 million.
11:34Understood.
11:35Understood, but they wanted to be ready with even more, which is great.
11:38I mean, I support that.
11:39That was a no harm, no foul, right?
11:41Draymond opts out, okay, it didn't work.
11:43Here's the deal that you were going to opt into, and we move on.
11:47Like, that's fine.
11:48But the flexibility was provided that they could have brought in some people.
11:56Again, there's two concerns I have, and it's the age, and it's the how do you score the basketball when
12:03Steph is not playing.
12:04And those concerns I was hoping would be kind of addressed, and they weren't.
12:10They haven't totally been addressed, but if you look at the roster, you've got, you know, between Yaxle, Pods, Gee,
12:18Melton, Bassie, and Richard.
12:20That is six guys under 30.
12:22Now, like, Bassie is bottom of the roster, and that's not even counting LJ Cryer, who's also kind of further
12:27down there.
12:28So they're younger people who can play basketball.
12:30They're not top-end rotation guys.
12:33Pods is, Gee is, Yaxle, I believe, will be.
12:37So they did kind of address it in that way, but not in the way that many people wanted.
12:42And the other piece is, and I guess this could still be a thing, where you signed Chris Stapps Porzingis
12:48early.
12:48You just extended him, essentially, as one of your own.
12:52So now he is tradable, and he's making 19 this year, and it's a player option for next year.
12:57So he could still be a piece that's being dangled out there.
13:02So the Warriors aren't done.
13:04I'm more Philmo Mike than I am Brian and Palo Alto BPA, where I'm not totally shutting the door on
13:11this offseason because it's only July.
13:14Well, I told you this earlier in the week.
13:16Yeah, if they sign DeMar DeRozan tomorrow, I don't think that's some sort of, like, earth-shattering move,
13:22but it changes my perspective on the offseason just because it is a more viable answer
13:27to how do you get a bucket when Steph's not on the floor.
13:30It's a more viable answer.
13:32You get a bucket, you know?
13:34Maybe Yoxo will turn into a bucket getter, but we've watched this problem already exist,
13:40and it didn't get addressed.
13:42Was it hard to address it?
13:44I'm sure it was.
13:46Lots of jobs are hard.
13:47Doesn't mean that you're excused from doing them.
13:53So that's all.
13:54Like, I want to try to acknowledge the difficulty of the situation,
13:57but also acknowledge the disappointment of the fans when you go into an offseason
14:02and you're literally the only team in the NBA who didn't bring in any new names.
14:05Right.
14:05Of the 30, 29 of them brought in somebody, not counting the draft.
14:09And many of those had winning records last year.
14:12Right.
14:13Which you also did not.
14:15Dylan in Modesto.
14:16Hi, Dylan.
14:17Thanks for calling, man.
14:21Dylan.
14:25And God.
14:26All right.
14:26Let's go to Jonathan, 880.
14:28Hi, Jonathan.
14:29Thanks for calling.
14:31I'm going to be honest.
14:33I'm hitting the Caldecott right now, but I'm headed towards the 925 side,
14:37so I think I may still have you guys.
14:39But if I lose you guys, I'm not like Dylan.
14:41I'm not ignoring y'all.
14:42I'm going through the Caldecott.
14:43All right.
14:44Bear with me.
14:45But I just wanted to talk about, and I'm a real Warriors fan, and I'm a real Giants fan,
14:51and I'm allowed to be upset.
14:52Our last championship was 2022, and we have done nothing but fall apart since.
14:57Same thing with the Giants.
14:58Last time we won, we did win three and five.
15:01However, what have they done since then?
15:03And I think fans are allowed to have frustration.
15:05And I think, to be honest, I think that Dunleavy has been getting a lot of free room,
15:14and I think Joe Lacob and Bob Myers are proof of this.
15:18When Bob Myers was leaving, I was convinced that Bob Myers wasn't leaving due to issues
15:23inside the Warriors, but that he was moving on in his career and adventures and things like that.
15:29But, well, after what's gone on and seeing in Philly with Bob Myers, it kind of makes you want to
15:35think,
15:35well, Joe Lacob, what are you doing?
15:38You know, it doesn't make Joe Lacob's job any easier.
15:41I know that.
15:42But also, Joe Lacob has shown nothing to really take spot.
15:47And I know that's a big role to fill over Bob Myers, but Bob did a lot with a lot
15:52less.
15:53And look at what's going on in Philly.
15:54And I'm not saying that we could have exactly what's going on in Philly.
15:58But I even thought that the LeBron James thing, I thought that, oh, great,
16:02here's the Warriors owner's favorite story to use because this whole offseason,
16:06they're going to make it seem like we don't make any moves because we're doing this all for LeBron James.
16:11And I don't even buy it.
16:12I honestly don't.
16:15Well, he was intuitive on that one.
16:17It was a good run.
16:18Yeah.
16:20Got by the call to cut.
16:21Not bad.
16:22See, Jonathan.
16:23Yeah.
16:23Anyway, you see where he was going.
16:26And he might even have a point.
16:28He speaks for many, I believe.
16:29Well, not only that, but his part about, hey, you know, the Warriors kind of,
16:33they danced in this whole LeBron bucket.
16:36And maybe they've known for a while that they weren't getting him.
16:40I don't know that.
16:41You know what I mean?
16:42We were told yesterday that there was some cautious optimism at Summer League.
16:46Anthony Slater then says as soon as he goes to Philly,
16:48oh, the Warriors have felt for weeks like they were kind of on the outside looking in.
16:53And then here's Steve Kerr going, I didn't think we were ever in this thing.
16:56So all of that, is that a bad look?
16:59I don't really take that as the Warriors trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the fans.
17:04It's just reality.
17:06I didn't want them to not try for LeBron.
17:09Like I said, I acknowledge the difficulty of the situation.
17:13The Jimmy Butler thing has changed everything.
17:15That's all true.
17:16But at the same time, you don't have to just forgive the situation across the board.
17:22The Warriors are big, big adults, and they're fully aware that when you win 37 games
17:27and go into a summer and add no one, people are not going to be pleased.
17:31They were well aware of that before this whole thing even started.
17:35I agree with that.
17:36And at the same time, if you're thinking about LeBron as somebody that you believe
17:41early on in the process you can obtain,
17:43then you probably are going to go down that path first and foremost,
17:47and you're not going to use whatever small amount of money you have to sign other people.
17:52The one that does continue to stick out to me is the Chris Stapps Porzingis one
17:57because you signed him early, you re-signed him essentially,
18:00so you would have him as a tradable asset.
18:04And if you didn't do that and you waited until, I don't know, now,
18:08would he be signed by someone else?
18:10Would he be signed to a contract that is smaller, larger, or not signed at all?
18:16So that's something that I continue to dwell on
18:19because Brian Winters yesterday said he's thinking that they're maybe not done
18:25with their offseason, and so that becomes a real piece that could be something they deal.
18:30Maybe offseason, but he also used the phrase eight months.
18:34He's like, let's watch what they do over the next eight months,
18:36so he's kind of looping in the deadline also.
18:39The Chris Stapps thing is interesting.
18:41Would someone else have grabbed him? I don't know.
18:44I like what they did, though, because it's not just tradable.
18:47I want people to understand the Warriors can duck out of that deal after one year
18:51for a very cheap number.
18:53So Chris Stapps got a two-year deal, but it's also kind of an expiring deal.
18:58And so if the POTS thing takes over, the Warriors can get out of that
19:04and add that to their expiring money next year.
19:06Because it's not fully guaranteed.
19:08Yeah, it's like $3 million is all.
19:09Right.
19:10So they can duck out of that, and who knows, maybe Jimmy and Chris Stapps
19:15and Draymond and Steph, maybe they're all gone by the end of next year.
19:20Well, and you mentioned yesterday about, or maybe the day before,
19:23about Moses Moody and the idea that they could potentially,
19:26if he doesn't play this year and he's not recovering very well
19:30from just a terrible injury, they could essentially buy him out
19:34and then have that room as well.
19:36So right now with all those players not counting Steph,
19:39they have $55 million on the books for next year,
19:41which is a good, healthy, big piece of optionality.
19:45Now Steph signs up for $65 million.
19:48That's a lot of that money.
19:49But as it sits right now going into next year,
19:52they do have some maneuverability.
19:55Let's go to Dave in Fresno.
19:57Dave, thanks for calling.
19:59What's up?
20:01Hey, guys, what's up?
20:03Yeah, you guys were discussing with the Warriors, you know,
20:07the fan brought it up that, you know, they won championships,
20:10so they should probably deserve some leeway or this grace period.
20:14I would equate that to, like, your kids used to bring home A's
20:19and all of a sudden they're bringing home F's.
20:21Are we supposed to just accept that because they used to bring home A's?
20:24I've been looking at it that way.
20:26I think, quite frankly, the front office, whether it's the GM or the owner,
20:31has been very underwhelming since maybe 2022.
20:36They haven't done much to improve the team, make the team better.
20:41I know you're going to throw, they got Jimmy.
20:43I mean, I wasn't a fan of that move, so I'm not going to be swayed on that.
20:48And I think with Steph Curry, I know Kobe meant a lot to the Lakers.
20:53I know Michael Jordan meant a lot to the Bulls.
20:56But in my opinion, no player in the history of probably sports
21:00has meant more to a franchise instead of Curry to a Warriors.
21:04And I understand it's not – it's a risky thing to try to risk whatever future
21:10you have for one player.
21:11But he means so much to this franchise.
21:15And the effort I've seen on not just this offseason,
21:18but in prior to offseason's past, just not something – if you're a fan of Steph,
21:25you should appreciate.
21:26And, you know, you say, what can they do?
21:28Well, one thing they could have did is not bring back Draymond.
21:32I mean, if you want to try something fresh, something new,
21:35I wouldn't sign him to $20 million.
21:37You just keep trying to keep the norm going, you know?
21:40Yeah, but he had an option, Dave.
21:42Dave, he had an option.
21:43The Warriors didn't have the option to just –
21:45I know everybody loves to make it this thing that the Warriors could have moved on
21:48from Draymond.
21:49It's just – I don't see that as true, you know?
21:54Yeah, I mean, okay, you might be right.
21:56But, again, I'm just – me, I'm just – I wish they would have done more,
22:00not just this offseason, but in years past.
22:02I just feel like the last several years has been very, very puzzling, frustrating.
22:07And I think it's not just this year our fans are mad.
22:11It's all these past years where it just hasn't been good enough, in my opinion.
22:16Yeah, Dave, thanks.
22:17I hear you.
22:19I think a lot of people hear you.
22:20I will cape up for the org a little bit on that call from this perspective.
22:27To say that they were doing A-level work for a long time
22:31and then starting four years ago it's been nothing but Fs, that's harsh.
22:35Right.
22:36That doesn't feel accurate to me.
22:37I actually had the same retort in mind because –
22:40That's not right.
22:41Since the championship, they went to the playoffs a couple of different times,
22:45two of the four, and so – and they won a series.
22:48Yeah.
22:48Both of those times.
22:49That, to me, feels like those are BB minuses and you miss it.
22:52Those are Cs.
22:53And since 2022, you can't really argue with a draft pick.
22:59I mean, there haven't been that many of them,
23:01but there's none that you can be like, well, that was stupid.
23:05None.
23:06One.
23:07Which?
23:08Pods.
23:09Okay.
23:10Okay.
23:10Second rounders are all in the league.
23:13Pods in a redraft would be a lottery pick, et cetera, et cetera.
23:17I'm not going to call Yaxl a big home run yet,
23:22but early returns seem exciting, at least.
23:25F feels harsh.
23:26I was thinking C+, B minus C+.
23:30Yeah, exactly.
Comments