Steve Kerr has just closed the doors to the locker room in Utah, per ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk, as I write this. But I’ve been sitting on this all day, so I’ll go ahead and hit submit… The veto of all vetoes. Kevin Durant has rejected a return to our Warriors. I had spent all morning writing the piece attached below, really a chronology of many trade scenarios over the past month, starting with our Jimmy Butler one. The revelation of why Phoenix would ever part with KD was worth it.
It was fun to envision K back in the blue-and-gold. I’m not mad that he passed on it. It’s his prerogative, not mine or any fan’s. And I think it’s really no more than him having already checked that box off of seeing what it’s like to play in the Warriors system, at its peak in 2016-17. I remember him and his buddy Randy Williams talking about when they stepped foot at the facility atop the Oakland Marriott. Maybe I should do a video compendium of that, if I have time.
So not every bit of news has to make you feel down. Last night was sweet, thinking back to the time when Durant joined the Warriors. Thank you to the GSW brass who nearly made this happen. Being high-vibrational is absolutely wonderful. Still love this game.
The rest of my original article is still relevant, so I hope you read on, because I actually talk about a lot of other factors involved in many possible trade scenarios leading up to this point. Let me know if I missed anything in the comments.
So… Shams Charania just reported that KD has “no desire” to return to the Warriors:
I was still holding out optimism because KD doesn’t really have ultimate control over the situation from a transactional point of view, but that quickly disappeared as Hall-of-Famer Marc Spears on ESPN then said he got a text that the KD-Warriors deal is dead. “What?? No. I don’t want to go back there,” was apparently Durant’s response to hearing of a possible reunion with the Warriors.
And then Marc Stein tweeted:
The Warriors have now shifted their trade focus to acquiring Jimmy Butler, after abandoning the pursuit of Kevin Durant. Durant’s strong reservations about a Warriors return, first reported here, sent them in a new direction.
Long-time Bulls beatwriter KC Johnson then added:
Warriors focus has shifted from Kevin Durant to Jimmy Butler, per multiple reports. If Butler pursuit fails, Nikola Vucevic (and since-traded Zach LaVine) had been on Warriors radar. But as of now, I’m told Warriors aren’t sure they’d pursue Vucevic at Bulls asking price.
It behooves Chicago to have a high asking price, although that could change as we approach the 11th hour. Vucevic still has one year remaining on his $20 million/year contract, so there’s no threat of him leaving the Bulls for nothing. They are in rebuilding mode and “Vooch” is performing well this season (although Quinten Post outplayed him in their head-to-head), so of course you canvas the market to see if you can land a first-round pick rather than one or more second-rounders (the Dubs only have two of those left).
If you’re the Warriors, you probably should keep those first-rounders for obtaining guys well above the Vucevic pay grade, even more so if you’ve got another player who does many of the things Vooch does in (Post).
Obtaining the Vucevic contract to then turn around this summer and add that to a Wiggs contract to be shopped around ($45-ish million, combined) would be kinda cool — the only problem is, would Vooch’s value hold up on the open market? As we saw last summer with Andrew Wiggins, you can’t be moved in a deal if you’re a depressed asset. Luckily, Vucevic is putting up numbers this season.
As for KD closing the door, Sam Amick and Anthony Slater of The Athletic chimed in on why the Warriors moved on from Durant: https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/live-blogs/nba-trade-deadline-luka-davis-trade/TCQ1VIMH3cPt/UnnXzOXf18x6/
The Warriors were willing to part with a substantial package to chase down Durant and, if the Suns agreed, could’ve done so without his consent. It might’ve happened if Durant was semi-open or neutral to another partnership with the franchise he once helped win two titles. But Durant was cold to the idea of rejoining the Warriors and, having dealt with an unhappy Durant before, the Warriors are opting against a repeat.
Also, I’m going to grossly speculate that Durant spent last night thinking about the Warriors. According to Kleiman (I think told to a local New York outlet back in 2019, perhaps the NY Post, I can’t remember and don’t have time to dig around?), that’s how KD decided on leaving the Warriors. He set a night to think about and informed all parties once the decision was made. So, in a way, good on him to let Golden State know with ample time left before the deadline.
Everything looked hunky-dory from behind-the-scenes footage from the Suns game last Friday. After the final buzzer, Durant left the floor alongside Draymond Green and, during the game, even verbally sparred with Gary Payton, Sr. from courtside — maybe he didn’t want to come back here due to GP1? I’m kidding. If anything, the back-and-forth with Gary would’ve been a fun reason to come back to the Bay:
On the basketball side, Golden State is a very touchy-feely, relationship-driven culture, with Steve Kerr checking in on the regular with every guy up and down the roster. This is in stark contrast, for example, to the “run through a wall” Miami HEAT culture — I’ll even capitalize their nickname out of respect for that and what they like to do on all of their press material.
So, I get it, moving on from KD even though, if they really wanted to and the Suns really wanted to, they could’ve still done the deal.
The fact that the Warriors don’t want someone who doesn’t want to be here suggests to me that Jimmy told the media last week he didn’t want an extension with the Dubs just to try to (unsuccessfully) steer himself to Phoenix, first and foremost. He had originally listed the Warriors as a preferred landing spot at the beginning of the drama, over a month ago.
And maybe now that that Phoenix avenue has been cut off by, firstly, Bradley Beal’s refusal to waive his no-trade clause and, now, KD not wanting it to happen, either, maybe Jimmy will warm back up to the Warriors in the next 24 hours?
My original article still had the question mark firmly planted on Miami, so it remains to be seen what they want. Is there desire to get rid of Butler completely enough to get a deal done? Or is that need not necessarily weighing too heavily?
But from Durant’s angle, I offer you my exchange with my co-host Dean “of Positivity” Chambers:
DC: Any idea why KD wouldn’t want a Warriors reunion?
Me: Idk, maybe stars don’t wanna play in the Kerr-Steph-Dray system anymore? I understand it from a baller AAU perspective.
You wouldn’t want to play with them now? I don’t understand why guys aren’t beating down Steph’s door like they do for LeBron, you know?
Well that’s an emotional reaction, not a logical one. Go get Austin Reaves [explained in the original version of this article]. I think he’ll bring back the dyad feel of the offense, could open up possibilities once you start winning games again.
Yeah it is an emotional reaction, but I hope not an over-reaction. Just hurts that KD would turn us down. I don’t understand why guys don’t want to play here. You said you did from an AAU perspective; what do you mean by that?
When I was 20-ish and a two-way weapon (in the tight-knit amateur Asian-American community circles up and down California), I didn’t want to play in a system unless the ball exclusively got to me. Like, I literally closed off any opportunities to play with the vaunted San Francisco Associates because I wanted to touch the ball, too.
Back then, everyone just set screens for Conant Chi and, especially in Chi’s absence when he was busy playing pro ball in Taiwan, Michi Langfeldt. After that, it was post-up Henry Hong and Rick Ito. There was a pecking order, but I wanted to be the No. 1 or No. 2 on any team. I don’t want to sound like I was some awesome free agent type, because I would have had to come up through the ranks and filled in when guys were missing for tournaments or just be 8th man off the bench, but I was friends with one of their regular albeit slightly lower-division dudes, Stan Kong, so there was definitely a path.
He was also friends with my roommate Brian Yang, who ironically ended up being a bit player for the infamous LA Alpine Striders. While Yang won many championships with them, he was a cog in the machine and played a niche bench role for them. But, you know, he had niche skills.
I wasn’t that guy. I was working on moves, learning how to get to my spots, all traditional get-a-bucket stuff. There weren’t many teams available to me, unlike in Filipino leagues that are more wide open, so I formed my own Japanese-Chinese teams which actually messed up my game because I spent too much energy on being GM and on-court coach. I couldn’t work on my game. But it all turned out okay, I’m here now doing what I want to do.
So anyways, sorry for the nostalgic rant, but the most “system”-like environment I wanted to play with was the “my-turn-your-turn” style. And I got that with a lower division team where I was the 2 and a superb physical post-up guy, Kirby Gong, was the 4. But we could never find good guards to feed us the ball and my ego couldn’t help itself. I wanted to take down the Associates as well as Alpine, no matter how ridiculous the odds and boisterous the claims.
That’s just how it is. Modern-day gladiator. What it’s like to be a baller. The NBA is the pinnacle of that. GSW plays a European style, so that’s the beauty of it but also the ugly underbelly.
As for that Reaves pursuit [again, you’ll have to scroll down for the details — you can convince the Lakers a to do it if you grossly overpay], the latest and greatest is that he looked really happy with Luka Doncic and LeBron James at practice today (via Lakers social media):
So… now what?
Welp, the path to Zion Williamson looks closed, per Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints: https://clutchpoints.com/warriors-news-kevin-durant-trade-talks-done
Golden State has held conversations with the New Orleans Pelicans about both Ingram and Zion Williamson, sources said. The Pelicans are not expected to trade Williamson before the trade deadline.
As I’ll explain more the further you read below 🤷🏻♂️ 😂 I think we’ve entered an era where it’s better to go ahead and acquire higher-valued assets and wheel-and-deal them as needed each trade deadline.
As such, if Brandon Ingram is all that’s left that a team is willing to trade — and btw you can see a list of players ranked by salary on bkref.com — then go get him and figure it out later. Although I’d argue that JK getting downhill is more valuable than any move BI has in his bag. Kuminga’s salary will blossom into $30-40 million this summer, so it doesn’t make sense to trade him at his rookie scale number this season of $7-ish million.
Again, read on to see some other foundational knowledge as it pertains to trade scenarios and draft picks and so on and so forth…
The article formerly known as “Why KD to the Dubs makes sense”
On Monday night during our Magic-Warriors livestream (click here for the next one), one of our regulars in the chat hinted that Rich Kleiman sitting courtside at the previous game Friday night, next to Joe Lacob — as reported by Anthony Slater of The Athletic — might mean the Warriors were pursuing Kevin Durant.
At the time, I brushed it off. After all, it would behoove Lacob to sit next to anybody worth schmoozing with, for potential future business. I’ve always maintained that Lacob wants the Warriors to be mentioned in every big-name rumor; it’s just good marketing tactics.
Anyways, flashing back to Kleiman-Lacob courtside, surely Suns owner Matt Ishbia wouldn’t be crazy enough to part with a guy still performing at an All-Star level, still producing at his career average of 27 points per game and 40% from the arc, even though he turned 36 in September?
So, just because Kleiman was in town with his business partner playing that night, didn’t necessarily mean anything. It was just Joe being Joe. Well, turns out I was wrong.
Granted, the Phoenix Suns are barely ahead of Golden State in the standings, but how could they possibly improve their roster by trading away Durant? After all, they just acquired three first-round picks (net two) from the Utah Jazz, presumably in an effort to get Jimmy Butler.
Kendrick Perkins even told Richard Jefferson on the Road Trippin’ podcast back on January 9th:
From my sources… the Suns have a 2-year, $121 million extension waiting on Jimmy… Kevin Durant wants Jimmy Butler, and if he does get Jimmy Butler… they’ll both gonna sign contract extensions.
But then, half a day after coming to the conclusion on the Magic-Warriors livechat that there was no way the Warriors could pry KD from Ishbia, this intriguing tweet from a credible journalist (for the Mavs, go figure) hit the timeline:
Multiple league sources have told me there is increasing belief that Kevin Durant lands with the Golden State Warriors. Plenty has to happen, but the Warriors’ pursuit of this trade has been aggressive. Just figured I’d mention this as something to watch as the deadline looms. (Grant Afseth, DAL beatwriter, https://x.com/grantafseth/status/1886866094964588687?s=46)
So I started to wonder what the value proposition could be for the Suns to actually part with Durant. For the Warriors, obviously KD was their first home run swing, and not, say, Zion Williamson.
My co-host Dean “of Positivity” Chambers had, for a long time, coveted Butler, always reverently thumb-typing the spelling of his first name as “Jimi” in every back-and-forth text message. We even did a whole livestream a month ago, dedicated to the pros and cons, with our audience divided in half, due to historical “toxicity” of Jimmy’s past departures:
We even followed that up with a three-team scenario that landed both Zach LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. Dean cited the toughness of Jimmy, including five-time All-Defense selections and leading the Heat to the ECF not once, but twice, something other potential targets at the time — Williamson, LaVine, Brandon Ingram, Kyle Kuzma, the list goes on and on — don’t hold a candle to.
I kept saying, let’s wait until Jonathan Kuminga gets back and see if he can continue the momentum of those last two games before landing on his ankle, before making any major roster moves. I even said we only needed to be two or three games over .500 at that point. Alas, Kuminga isn’t coming back before the trade deadline tomorrow. So I was on the fence about Jimmy or any other big move.
Speaking of which, I should mention that I don’t think Myles Turner is available. The Pacers need him with all the rest of their big men injured, and they can probably stay under the luxury tax next season quite easily by simply moving the contracts of either TJ McConnell or Obi Toppin, so long as the new contract for Turner is fair ($20 million-ish, compared to the $25 million comparable that is Jarrett Allen). Credit to cap expert Yossi Gozlan for this tidbit.
Similarly from a transactional standpoint, Cam Johnson does not make sense. He is a great shooter and defender, although what Wiggins gives up to Cam in terms of three-point shooting, Cam gives up the ability to get downhill in comparison to Wiggs. You would need Andrew’s salary to do this trade and then, as you are the buyer and Brooklyn is the seller, you must attach a first-round pick that a rebuilding team seeks. That’s completely not worth doing the deal. If there were a way to get Johnson without giving up Wiggins (or Kuminga), I’m all ears.
And to the “Need a Big Man” Brigade every time we lose to a team with a traditional non-shooting center, your suggestion of a bruising center must come with the prerequisite that he can shoot. If you’re seeking a $10 million-level center like Jonas Valanciunas (traded to Sacramento today), then spend that energy and extra assets on someone like Vucevic. Most rim protectors of the Nic Claxton ilk cannot be had at the veteran’s minimum level, let alone the Looney salary level. So… stop it!
I should also mention that Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net hopped onto live and thought De’Aaron Fox would be a justifiable pursuit considering his age and bridging the next era after Steph retires. But we all knew that a trade between rivals — it’s a rivalry so long as Vivek Ranadive and the Warriors’ current ownership group are owners of their respective teams — of that magnitude would be a long shot.
And Eric G. doesn’t usually think rumored names are worth it, either due to age or the fact that trading out the contract of our point-of-attack defender, Andrew Wiggins, was the only way to get a star in. He noted that the issue with Klay Thompson wasn’t his offense, it was his defense, as he could no longer guard 1s, 2s and 3s and, with one Wardell Stephen Curry already undersized on that end of the court, that just wasn’t sustainable.
Since that discussion, Butler has been suspended twice, which has resulted in recent polls on our live chats indicating that our little cult of loyal-yet-appreciative DubNation zealots wants to stay away from Jimmy.
After Luka Doncic got traded for Anthony Davis, I had been thinking that none of the presumed available elite All-Star-level players were within reach, unless you consider Williamson or Ingram “elite”. The thought of LeBron James was the only home run swing I could come up with, even suggested by my good friend and Laker fan since birth and also a fellow ex-Asian American tournament GM and coach with whom I trade war stories with, Mark Sapinoso. In fact, it was actually Mark who suggested LeBron while we chatted in awe of the NBA that night, with the Luka-AD bomb having dropped.
But then the next day, Chris Haynes reported that James expected to remain with the Lakers through the February 6th trade deadline. So then instead of that home run, Eric G. suggested hitting a double: go after Austin Reaves as your de facto young Klay-like offensive 2-guard to help jolt this mediocre roster, that sorely needs JK healthy and attacking downhill with the ball. Restore the Steve Kerr ecosystem back to a dyad. Here was my proposal on YouTube:
With Reaves’ salary below $13 million and locked in for multiple years, the faster NBA pace maybe making his deficiencies on defense a little less glaring (this is my optimism, not necessarily Eric G.’s), go ahead and spend maybe a Lottery-protected first-round pick — probably 2025, I’ll explain why, below, and Mark did prefer Top-10-protected — knowing you’ll reap some future salary cap flexibility with AR’s relatively manageable contract.
Mark told me that the Lakers would gladly accept that offer (again, only Top-10-protected, though), which might even include Kevon Looney and salary filler to make the numbers work. After all, the Lakers are now in dire need of a serviceable center.
And then we as Warriors fans pray that Luka paired with LeBron doesn’t work and James becomes available during the summer. Another storybook summer team-up with Steph, who says no?
But then the murmurs of KD started and there was even this tweet the evening before Afseth’s, which I didn’t see:
The Warriors are indeed serious about reuniting with Kevin Durant, sources told SI. And with efforts to acquire Jimmy Butler stalled rival execs believe the Suns are strongly considering Durant deals before the deadline. (Chris Mannix)
The reason why I didn’t see it: SportsIllustrated is no longer the brand it was before, although Mannix remains a quality NBA reporter. And then more tweets rolled in as February 4th took shape.
Keep in mind, Dennis Schroder couldn’t be traded until February 5th, so that might also have been a factor for no Shams Charania bomb actually announcing a deal:
As for latest Bulls trade chatter, everything is fluid but the optimism for more moves that surfaced Monday dried up some on Tuesday. Nikola Vucevic is now prepared to be here past deadline as Warriors have shifted attention to bigger targets, including Kevin Durant. (KC Johnson)
Lots of eyes and ears around the league on the Kevin Durant situation right now. (Zach Lowe)
And this one from a radio host in Phoenix — I’ve come to learn over the years that there are certain long-time radio hosts in each NBA city who do have credible sources:
The KD to Golden State has taken on a life of its own in the last 24 hours. Look I do not know for sure so not reporting. I did talk to several teams today that heard the same thing. One told me “He will most likely end up in Golden State with Butler to Phoenix” Will keep digging. (John Gambadoro, Phoenix 98.7 FM)
Here’s an intriguing one: Mike Dunleavy, Jr. (and Jonnie West) were spotted at LAX taking a Southwest flight. As I couldn’t actually substantiate the clip as being from last night, I didn’t delve any further, but I did see that the original post was on Reddit and that the Filipino dad cheered, “Go get KD!” (or something to that effect), but also mentioned Dunleavy looked really busy and didn’t respond. Consider this some side entertainment that doesn’t really provide any additional trade info:
So here are the value propositions for each side:
• Miami is desperate to part ways with Jimmy. This is obvious and clear. Would they really keep him the rest of the season and have to still deal with him behind-the-scenes? This feels potentially worse than just a PJ Tucker type of situation. But I wonder what the HEAT need besides the Wiggins contract ($26.3 million) which is required to provide most of the weight of getting up to the levels of Butler ($48.8 million) and Durant ($51.2 million). Would draft picks be enough? The Warriors can only trade out two first-rounders due to the Stepien Rule: 2025 and 2027, or 2026 and 2028. This is because the 2030 pick was used in the Jordan Poole deal to Washington for Chris Paul. Golden State also only has two second-round picks left in the cupboard, although they could easily buy one this upcoming Draft, as they’ve done in the past. But then they might have to flip it for a future second-rounder to have that future second-rounder available to trade in a future deal, rather than, you know, actually use that pick. Makes me wonder if there might be some new CBA rules if buying 2nd-round picks becomes a rampant thing. But I digress.
• Phoenix would get “Jimi” and his desire to sign a $60 million per year contract for two more years, per Perk’s tweet from January 9. Seems like Ishbia is willing to blow through the second apron and pay luxury taxes as long as everything is within CBA rules, as he’s a new owner and a new billionaire (as of the sale of his company in 2021). But Bradley Beal is reportedly not waiving his no-trade clause, as his agent recently said that they had “earned” that no-trade clause, so PHX is stuck with Beal. There’s not many ways for Ishbia to improve his roster, especially as a second-apron team. That’s where the Warriors come in. They tell the Suns, hey look, what if you switched out KD for Jimmy and Kuminga? Wouldn’t that be an upgrade? Plus, Kevin is signed only through 2025-26. Everybody knows that with their present course, stuck in the mud around .500, KD would want to wait and look at his options before signing an extension — assuming they are not able to get Butler on their own, due to Beal. Jimmy, on the other hand, will sign the extension asap that keeps him in Phoenix until 2026-27. And Kuminga bridges you to the future.
Aside: I’m not 100% sure of the second apron rules that also land JK in PHX. I would think it’s a complicated maneuver that helps Ishbia rid himself of the Jusuf Nurkic contract ($18.1 million) that nobody seems to want. But in this article I’m touching on a million other things that I’ve been wanting to touch on since our aforementioned Jimmy Butler livestream, and there’s got to be a value proposition of some kind in here for Ishbia.
• Finally, for the Warriors, you bring in a guy who’s been in the Kerr system already, so there’s little to no learning curve. One problem, though, is the loss of Wiggins for point-of-attack defense. I did another poll on the most recent KD talk…
…and the consensus was that Kyle Anderson isn’t quite as good as Gary Payton II for that, but we’ll have to see how Dunleavy would address this issue. We saw GP2 start against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just a few days ago. For a guy like Luka, you could just stick KD on him, so we might be okay. There’s not many guys at a veteran’s minimum that are defensive specialists. For example, Portland’s Matisse Thybulle earns $11 million. Keep in mind, KD is a pretty solid defender himself.
Back to the chemistry part of KD, you can more so get away with a non-scorer aka defensive specialist in the starting unit when you have the Slim Reaper. Maybe the starters are Steph, GP2, KD, Draymond Green and Quinten Post in a playoff series versus OKC.
In the second unit, if you need a bucket badly, just like from 2016-17 through 2018-19, just post Durant up. And don’t forget your new weapon, QP the seven-foot pick-and-pop center, for that spacing. In other words, it shouldn’t be too hard to re-figure out the offense, no matter who is in the rotation with KD on the second unit. Makes me breathe a sigh of relief that there’s Post to make up for some of that offense you lose by sending out Wiggs and JK.
I think Steve has actually done a good job with this lesser roster without De’Anthony Melton and JK, ergo with a big fish like KD and then young guys to surround him. I think Kerr and Terry Stotts can find some master plans integrating KD.
There’s been an ebb and flow of role players; look at the roller coaster rides of Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Lindy Waters and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Oh, I forgot: Schroder, too! Gui Santos and Moses Moody have been more consistent, but they all do have limited ceilings. Kerr has proven he can get rotational players to be complementary, there just hasn’t been that other weapon to be complementary to.
Speaking of which, I think the Melton blueprint — remember, he was a starter with eye-popping numbers in wins number 11 and 12 of those first 15 games, versus OKC and Dallas to boot — was flawlessly executed, but once Melton’s injury happened, it all came crashing down. The fragile “complementary” approach was doomed. And so now, go back to the good ol’ “big fish and figure it out” approach.
Also, I don’t believe Green is in this proposed KD deal. That’s one of the underlying assumptions of this last Finals quest. Beyond his present contract, Steph probably has no more than two more years left after that, which would take you out to 2029-30. Their “shared brain” (Luke Walton voice) on the pick-and-roll in crunch time is basketball poetry, and btw this is one of the reasons managing a cap sheet around their combined $75 million has been tricky ($100 million if you include Wiggins). Also, Curry would never sign off on Green being traded away.
So it makes sense for Phoenix. It makes sense for Golden State. But does it make sense for Miami? We shall see.
I think the deal comes down to the 11th hour because of either Pat Riley or Ishbia blinking at their value propositions. These are not easy decisions, even though I think they are rational ones: get off of Jimmy and take Wiggs and picks, and turn KD into both Butler plus Kuminga. “Who says no?”
Here are some other tidbits from the livestream I did on February 4th about KD, just to cover all bases. Maybe I missed something?
• Audience member: “My concern is it’s championship or bust” — Exactly! You empty the cupboard only for a few people (e.g., LeBron and Giannis Antetokuonmpo come to mind). Emptying the cupboard means everybody except Steph and Dray is available. Receiving team, take your pick. Also every remaining draft pick is also available. “Flinging assets”, Steph called it:
Yes, this guts the future, but as I said before, the goal is to win one championship before Wardell needs a new contract. You have half of season left of 2024-25 and then 2025-26 and 2026-27. After that, maybe you can stretch him out at age 40 and 41 as a Sixth Man. But worrying about things that far off, who cares? Of course, always try to maintain cap sheet fiscal responsibility and do your homework with drafts where you have a pick, but you go for it, you go for it. You can’t half-ass it. Anything you do is rolling the dice. I can see how vying for KD is less of a roll of the dice than any other presently available roll of the dice out there.
• Some kid on Xitter inevitably tweeted that Durant had deleted his Phoenix-related posts, but the replies to the tweet quickly mowed that try of clickbait down, with the poster even admitting he’s hardly ever on IG.
• Marc Stein tweeted during the chat that KD was downgraded to doubtful for the February 5th game at OKC, but I later found a tweet from Phoenix beatwriter Duane Rankin that reported the injury when it happened, during the previous game. KD was limping. Ergo, the injury report is probably legit and not related to the trade talks.
• KD’s odds of landing in Golden State were apparently taken down by Bovada, a major sports betting outfit. I don’t really do the sports betting thing, so I can’t confirm or deny that.
• Zion could be a backup plan, too. The real issue with him is health and weight. The weight part is built into his contract. So it’s not a terrible gamble because when fully healthy, he’s a beast and we’ve seen that in Pelicans-Warriors matchups, even straight up defended by Draymond. But it’s a gamble. There are no easy paths to a championship-worthy roster on paper.
• I think with the Luka trade as well as the Fox-LaVine one happening quickly thereafter, we might be seeing an evolution towards trading up for bigger poker chips. Chicago was stuck with LaVine for the longest time, which would go against that theory, but he was injured for a good portion of that tenure and, well, he’s finally gone now and it wasn’t that hard after becoming fully healthy this year. LaVine’s contract was also given the extension before the 2022-23 season, so it’s been 2.5 years since. As I’ve said, the NBA has changed a lot since then and so I look back at his contract as kind of an old contract and not indicative of the modern NBA. These days, pay your guys what the market will bear and grow your Draft picks into bigger poker chips. The Bulls might be seen now as getting fleeced in this Fox-LaVine deal, but they did get rid of the big salary slot to obtain that flexibility. So, wheelin’ and dealin’ in the NBA might be in lock step with the fluidity and pace of the NBA three ball on the court. Lacob should be sitting next to every All-Star’s agent at every game from here on out. It’s the new NBA. Therefore, go turn as many smaller contracts into bigger ones. Not just with Zion, but I support a pursuit of Vucevic ($20 million), should the KD deal not happen. Because then maybe he and Wiggins combined can be turned into a different All-Star-caliber player this summer. Note: this strategy is necessary only while Steph is a Warrior. So go get Zion if you don’t get KD, flip Zion in the summer if need be, and rinse and repeat every trade deadline, as necessary. Thats what you do when you have Steph in this new NBA.
• As for emptying the cupboard and “flinging” first-round picks, keep in mind we gain the 2032 first-rounder the moment the 2025 Draft ends. If we don’t use any picks this trade deadline, with the Stepien Rule, that means we have the ability this summer to finally send out three firsts: 2026, 2028, and 2032. That’s why I can see Dunleavy using the 2025 pick now in a trade, even though this upcoming Draft is “epic”, as described to me by Eric G., and why in my Reaves scenario, I had the 2025 pick involved.
• Along those lines, I’ve taken a stab at somehow re-acquiring the 2030 pick from Washington outright (it’s protected), but I can’t see a way the Wizards would send it back. Maybe if we took on the soon-to-be-bad Corey Kispert contract? Idk, that 2030 pick looks like a lost cause, in and of itself. It’d be nice to pickup a 2030 first-rounder somehow.
• Someone asked if we could get Poole back ($29.7 million and then increasing to $32M then $34M then free agency for 2027-28). I don’t know why you’d do that in the modern NBA as JP, for how deep his bag is, is not a two-way player. So I guess this is really just 2022 Finals nostalgia from a fan. The problem with trying to get Poole is, whenever you’re a buyer, you usually have to give up picks. If you give up a pick, then later you don’t have that pick for that home run swing.
• And so that Poole-CP trade always looks bad to me first and foremost because of the inflexibility of that 2030 pick as it relates to the Stepien Rule. Then you draw the line to the Draymond punch and leaked video — although I should balance things out by saying JP never warmed back up to being a normal teammate to Dray (remember walking away from him on the walk from the court to the bench during a timeout?). So yeah, that one sucks. But I get the roll of the dice with CP3. It was a tough way to learn about the new pace of the NBA, especially considering the franchise had no choice but to choose between Dray and JP. Technically, the Poole contract (home grown to Tyler Herro’s $30 million-ish level) became the Paul contract which became the Melton contract because the Warriors were able to dip under the tax to get Melt at that NTMLE level ($13 million). And this has now become the Schroder contract. GSW turned Poole into Schroder.
• And finally, one viewer said he would let go of his hate for KD should we get him back, but revisiting what happened in 2019 is gonna have to be a separate post. Don’t have hate, guys! Just like you shouldn’t be mad at Dray for being from Saginaw and having an edge to him, don’t be mad at KD for fulfilling an AAU player’s dream of teaming up with his summer workout buddies, and in New York (okay, Brooklyn) of all places, the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, right? So yeah, KD coming back would be a full-circle moment. It’s fun to think about from a legitimate perspective. Enjoy it for the next X number of hours. These exciting opportunities don’t come around much.
Well, I’ve been wanting to write something about our roster and trades and salary cap for at least a month. I think I somehow got all caught up, now. But my struggle of putting all the thoughts down piecemeal or like this long rambling one to catch up, that remains an issue for me. That’s why I try to steer everyone to the YouTube stuff. Btw all of those tweets we track above, they’re all on our Discord server, but I haven’t had time to prep it for public consumption. Apologies.
I’ll leave you with one last video drop. Dray and KD leaving the floor together last Friday followed by Steph and Podziemski’s reactions to the Luka trade from the annual charity poker tournament:
🫶💙💛