Warriors Beat Dallas, Bad Moody news and more

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Tommy, man, so we're recording this right after the Dallas game.

I was feeling pretty good.

It's going to be a nice little win.

Look, at the end of the day, the season is what it is, but it would have been nice to

feel it out.

And then Moses Moody, Hertz's knee in.

I mean, have you ever seen a plea like that?

Like I'm just going to put it out there.

Transition steel, no one around him goes for a generic Duncan transition and the knee

just buckles when he go, it looks awful.

I don't know how else to put it.

I just feel awful for Moses, man, I had been having a great season, especially kind of

the second half of the year.

Really, all season outside of one month, he's been damn good.

Obviously, coming back today after missing 10 games from the wrist injury, and he puts

spectacular night.

And then he just, I know we were texting.

He was going to be like the thing we started talking about, how like you could feel his

presence.

He's officially reached a status where you feel his impact when he's there and when he's

not there.

And so for the game to end like that, and like quickly, they already won the game at

that point.

It was just brutal, man.

Yeah, it was, I mean, that was essentially going to seal the game that way, you know what

I mean, he drips flag for what the third or fourth time in the second half.

I mean, he was just pounding, you know, the potential rookie of the year in Cooper flag.

And he just goes up for a Duncan and it looks like, you know, we don't want to speculate

here.

So, you know, this is don't take our word for on exactly what happened, but it looks

like the need probably popped out, you know, just from the visual, they obviously had to

get the stretcher out and mobilize it.

You know, you just, you just hope that it's like almost just a clean dislocation, they're

able to pop it back in.

And there's no other damage to leg events or anything, but you don't know.

You know, like I said, this is all very speculative, but just for his sake, I mean, he's done

for the year.

That's for sure.

But you just hope he can, you know, yeah, no, totally, but you know, you just hope it's

not so bad that it eliminates a lot of next year for him too, but who knows at this point

it's all up in the air.

Yeah.

I mean, I think, look, when people are listening to this, we might have a full diagnosis.

I don't want to spend too much time being a Twitter doctor.

It's just futile.

At this point, we're just like reacting to it with raw emotion at this point, but, yeah,

I mean, if it was a clean dislocation, which is what it looked like, you know, surface

level.

It's not the worst thing on earth that's some months.

It cuts into his off season, but he's ready to go for next year.

If it's what everyone thought it was immediately, which is like some sort of tear, well, that's

a different story.

That's just like your screwed for it.

But like all of that aside, just blows because Moses is, he's really come into his own

in the second half to see it.

Like this season has not been what anyone wanted with the injuries and everything

falling apart the way it has.

But if you were looking at silver lining, someone like Moses Moody going from, okay, he's

okay.

There's something there to know.

This is a in your top seven rotation on any team caliber player.

Like that was a big deal.

Like I was reaching a point with him where I'm just kind of like, all right, this is a piece

you got to hold on to.

This is, you know, you hope they make better moves in the off season, but they developed

him.

They developed him.

He's a brilliant D wing.

The defense tonight, by the way, on Cooper Flagg might have been the most impressive

defense he's played all year.

Oh my God.

He's just, he's been so good for really since January 1st on.

He had a horrendous December.

I lost faith.

I apologize, guys.

But he, you know, he, since then he's been just awesome.

And so, you know, fingers crossed that it is scarier looking than reality, because if

there's one person among the young guys on his team, like you want to root for, he's the

easiest one.

Yeah.

Never complains, works his ass off.

And now he's worked himself into being an awesome player at age 23, you know, hopefully

it doesn't get to you real.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, it sucks for this team that he goes up, but I'm also just for him, you know, like

you said, really, really coming into his own kind of, you know, coming through on like

a lot of what the predictions were kind of for him, pre draft, right?

Like this was it.

Go ahead.

23 points tonight.

Yeah.

I mean, you know, just like that three three bounce three assists, three steals two

blocks, five stocks overall, like that's a part that like when I know he's really feeling

himself is, you know, he can shoot the ball, and you know, he's going to compete hard,

but he's getting his hands on everything that I'm sort of like, damn, this is a fucking

player right here.

Yep.

Exactly.

And like you said, you could just, you could really feel him, you know what I mean?

And you could just see his confidence growing like he came out tonight with this kind of

like a, like an F you attitude, you know, like I think especially to start that second

half, he was really just all over the place.

And I mean, that in the most complimentary way possible, he just, it felt like he was

involved in almost every big play, um, just so to see him go out like this.

It just sucks.

And like you said, so easy to root for, you know, has no enemies anywhere that by all accounts

like one of the nicest guys in the world, it just, it sucks for anybody, but man, it's

really just tough to see a guy who's really like grinded and gone through a lot of ups and

downs in terms of playing time and then being in the rotation, being out of the rotation,

but felt like he really had a, it truly, truly established himself over the last couple

months and for it to end like this, for a season end like this is just, it's just really

sad, man.

Like I don't really have any other prevailing emotions outside of that.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm just, I'm hoping, I'm hoping it's scarier than the reality of it.

I don't know if I believe that, but I'm going to, I'm going to go with that mindset until

we get something else, what a bummer, man.

Like the season, the season is cursed.

I think I made a man's with the fact that like, look, they're going to lottery it is what

it is a couple of weeks ago.

And this is literally the only thing I wanted to avoid the rest of the way, there's no serious

injuries.

Not enough of those at this point, you know, so just a bummer, just a total and epic bummer.

Like I want to talk about other aspects of this game, but it feels so pointless.

You know what I mean?

Like, it just doesn't feel worth the energy at this point.

Like that persingus, I know persingus was awesome.

I thought he played really well.

I, I'm really liking what I'm seeing with him.

Yeah.

And I was kind of like, I want to get into like the quick decision making on the passing

by the way, like get it to him in the post.

He had a couple skip passes, he had one to Moses Moody that comes to mind where he gets

it on the right block, a little like a little farther out, he had a smaller guy on him.

They send help and he skips across the way to Moses, the type of thing only a guy who's

over seven foot could do because he gets see over the defense, worries don't have many

guys who see over the defense in general.

And you know, pass on point, shot hit goes in, I'm just, I'm watching this.

I'm like, you know what, they have worked to do in the off season, but if they've got

his illness under control, man, they got something here.

They really do got something here because like the skill level is, like he just, I've always

thought he was going to be a perfect fit for the warrior system, but watch him play right

now.

Like it just reiterates that, that entire mindset.

And so, you know, I want to get excited about that, but it's hard, it's hard in context

of how we saw the game ads.

Yeah, I don't know exactly.

I mean, it feels, it's just one of those injuries where like, you know, you can tell even

the guys on the floor like, all right, and let's just wrap this thing up as quick as possible.

Like the last minute of that game or so, like you could tell Dallas didn't even really,

you know, and obviously that's the opponent.

You can tell they really didn't even have the fight anymore.

It's like, let's just get the hell out of here.

No, it was clearly one of those injury moments where everybody was in shock, like you

saw the look on everybody's face.

So the look on Moses's face when he went down, you know, like he, he was in pure shock.

Like he could not believe what had happened to his knee, see, you know, step with his head

in his hands, Steve just looked despondent down the line, you know, and yeah, again, it

does feel difficult to talk about anything else, but like you said, KP looked great.

Like I'm loving what I'm seeing from LJ Cryer.

Like that feels like a real find.

And somebody that could, they could potentially add to the roster this off season, just

as a bench guy with some scoring pop.

There is good stuff to take away from tonight, but it all just feels futile at this point.

Yeah, yeah, just a bummer, man, just a total bummer.

There's like we've done so many of these shows the last couple of years.

You know, I mean, you could tell on the last few I'm ready to get to the off season,

right?

Did it to fucking, you know, roster band over the draft?

And, you know, it's my favorite time of year where I talk, where I talk myself into

at least 15 prospects being way better than they will be year one.

You know, it's my sweet spot.

But, you know, it was tonight's game was one of those ones where I was like, you know,

let's just let the boys get a win.

It's not going to, it's not going to affect the tank or the playoffs.

It doesn't really matter.

I just wanted them.

It's good for morale.

Like you can't lose 10 in a row at a certain point, you just need to feel a W here and

there.

And so for it to end that way, it just kind of sucks, man, it sucks.

Like, I guess I'll give a couple other game thoughts on this.

The pods played pretty well.

Yeah.

He's, you know, and I want to throw this out there, Danny Emmerman, the SF standard had

a nice piece on him, which I thought was totally fair.

You know, pods relishing the opportunity to show he can do more, but also like the returns

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Been great with him scaling up at the same time.

Yep.

And it is what it is.

Like I kind of believe in pods in the sense of, I think he's more likely to accept reality

that like, Hey, maybe I'm not, maybe I'm not James Harden.

Maybe, maybe I should just accept my life as being a rotation player.

Pretty good.

And then be able to pay pretty well, have a nice 15 year career, making, you know, eight figures

every year, doing that, you know, that's kind of how, that's kind of how I see it playing out for him.

Maybe not, but that that's kind of how it goes to your point LJ Cryer.

He needs to find his way on the roster next year, even if it is on a two way, just having a dude

with legitimate off the dribble scoring juice.

Yeah.

Even if they're flawed and limited, and like we see what the league thinks of guys like Cam Thomas,

that's fine.

I'm not saying go out there and give a guy 10 million to do this, but if you found a guy who can do it,

and he's not going to have a huge market, like why would you not give him a two way?

Because next year I can promise you Steph's not playing 80 games, you know, you're going to have 15 to 20

games where you just want to have him in uniform to give you that second unit scoring punch.

And it might be a night where he goes for 20, like he's very capable.

Like in some ways, doesn't that feel like that's the direction the league's going with like these,

like traditional six men, like Louis Williams types, like no one really wants to commit much to them,

because they have limited futility in terms of your rotation.

But if you can get one on a cheap deal or on two way, like obviously you want to have them.

There's a lot of games in the season.

There were so many games in the first half of the season before Steph got hurt,

where I would have been nice to have an LJ Cryer just to go to to give you a scoring punch.

Even if they only play 12 minutes, even if it's just kind of like, you know what,

I just need you out there for five minutes and a second quarter to just bring some energy and change

the momentum of this game, get some shots up.

Yeah, I mean, I think you're right in the general point here of

this is the way the league is going with these guys and I think what the recognition has been is that like,

and I don't mean this in a bad way, they're kind of a dumb, it doesn't.

You can find there are a lot of guys who are, you know, six, one to six, four,

who can really put the ball in the bucket, but are super, super limited in other ways.

And you don't want to be paying those guys a lot of money because you can't find them on a two way,

like, like, Cryer, but and the other part, the other part of that that I just want to piggyback is like

when you draft them high or you give them money, there's expectations

that they're going to have an outsized role, which is really what Cam Thomas' issue is.

Cam Thomas, it for those who aren't aware, got waived today, which is kind of,

when you consider like the hype around him and what he was looking for in the summer to reach

this point where he gets waived twice, and now he's looking at veteran minimums, like,

that's a reality check, buddy, you know, from 24 points per game to this, that's a reality check.

But yeah, no, the general point is the difference between him and LJ Cryer

is not that big.

Cryer's better shooter, I'll tell you that much.

Is he from three, yeah, absolutely.

Cryer's like a 40% plus guy from three, and he actually, you know, he comes from

play or college basketball at Houston, and Calvin Samson makes it upend.

He will not play if you don't depend, and so he's always going to be limited by this size,

but like, he tries on that, and he tries to, he generally tries to make the right play,

and like, a guy like Cam Thomas doesn't, you know, Cam is just there to score to get buckets,

and he really doesn't want to do anything else.

Isn't that a mindset thing, though, because like, I still think Cam's more talented,

than LJ Cryer, I think Cam could be a 40% shooter from three.

If, if he dialed back some of the shots he took, like, he can shoot the ball.

Let's be honest, he can really shoot the ball.

He just thinks he's, he just thinks he's on the same level as Devon Booker and Shay,

and those guys, and wants to take those type of shots when he shouldn't, and someone like LJ Cryer,

you know, he's, he's happy to do whatever standalone league, you know what I'm saying?

Steve Kerr tells him, don't do that, he will not do that, you know, it's a different mentality,

and I think that's really when it comes down to, I think this is one of the most interesting trends

in the league right now, to me, where teams are so regimented in terms of, these are,

we're gonna have two or three guys who have the freedom to do whatever they want,

and outside of that, if you do not fit into a role,

fuck off, you know, like that's kind of, like, I'm seeing, I'm seeing some commentary that

Anthony Melton is a little overrated, which, you know, you can, now I'm doing the thing,

I hate more than anything, which is, you know, responding to Twitter, which is bad podcasting,

I apologize everyone, but I was thinking about it, it's mostly because he's being tasked with a

primary shot creation role, which is not his role, and the reality is,

Cam Thomas would be better on this Warriors team at getting pure buckets than Anthony Melton.

Sure, he would, he would average 25 on this Warriors team, would they win a single more game

than they're winning now? Probably not, but he gets, he gets points up, he would certainly get to,

like, on this, no staff, no Jimmy team, he's averaging mid-twenties.

Easy. Not even a question.

But is he good enough to play that role on a team who's trying to win?

The answer's no, we all know the answer's no, and which one of those players do you think

is able to fit better in a true role next to a star or secondary star?

The answer's obviously, Anthony Melton, that dude's an amazing complimentary player,

and that's kind of the difference in the league for me these days, which is

they're no longer interested in just pure talent and pure talent in the old school sense,

it's just shot creation and bucket getting, right? You talk to an old head and then it's like,

oh, he's just more talented than him, and it's like, yeah, if you're playing pickup or one out of one,

but if you're playing in an actual game, he's more talented at one skill, he's not more talented

at everything that goes into basketball, and that's kind of where teams are at these days,

which is if you are not truly good enough to be one of the top two options on a playoff caliber team,

I would rather have the Will Richard, the Gees Santos, and obviously the DeAnthei Melton,

who's going to get paid to play this role. You just have to look at the thunder, to be honest

with you, the thunder just surround their stars with these dudes left and right, and I don't see

this trend changing because I think every team has gotten smarter, and I think every team realizes,

like, look, man, there's only so many shot attempts, having eight guys who can get their own shot

off the bounce sounds cool until you put them all together, and well, there's only one ball,

you know? If the ball's not in Cam Thomas's hand, what is he doing? Whereas, you know, you put

like Will Richard or Melton next to someone who's going to be a little more ball dominant,

they'll find ways to impact the game more positively. So, I don't know where I went with that

long roundabout thing, but like, I do think it's cool that the Warriors have found LJ Cryer,

who fits an immediate need, which is like, they've gone probably too far the other direction,

like, especially if you need to get a bucket, you know? But they also don't need to be the team

who decides to overreact to it and go give $30 million to Jordan Poole, the disrespect short.

I think what you're basically saying is Kevin Durant's team building philosophy from 2019 to 2025

was wrong. That's just good. Yeah. You're getting much of guys who can score like, it doesn't,

it doesn't really work. And you like the Larry, the Larry David of basketball, just he built a spike

team. He built everything, everything in his basketball team building philosophy is built

around the idea of sticking it to people who disagree with him. Yep, we're sticking it to

people's philosophy, I guess. Which I can, on some level respect, I can respect the pettiness,

but yes, it's not going to work. Sorry. No, definitely not. All right. Probably some more stuff to

get to, but I'm first, we've got to talk about our guys at prize picks. Well, your podcast,

we are brought to you by prize picks. Prize picks make makes every dunk every time and every board

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real money all season long on prize picks. Really fun. First week at a March madness. I thought,

you know, not a ton of upsets per save, but, um, you know, March Madness is ruined. No upsets.

And I killed the March madness. I'm like, from, I'm enjoying it. I promise you. Yeah,

it does. Everyone likes and everyone likes an upset until you get an eight seed versus seven seed

in the elite eight. And it's like, you don't really want to watch out your full issue, dude.

Until St. Peter's, until St. Peter's is like in the final four, whatever the lead I heard,

whatever they did a couple years ago, this image is going to get throttled by 40. You know,

so like, what is that sister Jean? No, sister Jean was loyal at Chicago. That's right. That's

right. Yeah. Yeah. But that being said, a couple of things I'm looking at for this Thursday's

game. So beginning of the sweet 16, I like Bennett starts more than 28 points. Rebound assist.

And Darius A cup more than 34 points. Rebound assist. A cup is so fun to watch, man.

Got me. I don't know what kind of NBA player he's going to be, but he is, he is certainly fun to

watch. I'm out on a cuff. Are you really? Well, I guess, I guess we can. No, no, not really.

I'm just being, just me contrarian about him. Oh, we can definitely talk about that more.

We're going to have time to talk about that. That's for sure. For the next couple of

ones. The app is really easy to use to create a lineup. All you have to do is pick more or less

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By the way, are you still alive in our survivor contest? I am. I got one entry left. I got one entry

left. So we, we got 300 entries. Very, you know, shout out, shout out to lighters.

Yeah, that was awesome, guys. We're down to 135. So we haven't, you know, more than 50%

have been eliminated, but we haven't hit that real nadir yet. I think it's going this weekend.

To be honest, I have one, I have one entry left. Who you taking? Dave five. Do you know?

I know. I haven't really looked, but I will say this. It's been, it's been really fun. It's a,

it's a fun different way to do this. And you, and you just got to be pretty locked in on like,

I think how teams look, you know what I mean? And, but I've noticed even just kind of the,

the round two games, the, the strategy got a little bit more.

Just kind of tougher. Yeah, it's like, okay, you know, I have, you know, you can still alive,

but I want to take them yet. So maybe I got to take a four of five. And now I'm like, yeah,

you know what I mean? So it just made it really fun. I think the deeper you get into the tournament,

the more fun it's going to get. No, I grew through there. That's kind of,

that's kind of where I'm at with it. I'm leaning Nebraska.

For day four, but I haven't, I've not made my final decision. I got another two days to waffle,

get anxiety, switch out my choices. But to your point, no, I'm hitting that point where I'm like,

do I go with the Houston? Yeah. I can't do it because I think I think they might get some

final four. I need to hold on to them. You know, it's just, it's, it's fun. I don't know.

And I'm enjoying it. Anyway, um, let's talk, uh, let's talk Mav is real quick here on top of

the Warriors game. So Cooper flag. What do you, what do you think of Cooper flag? So rookie?

I mean, I, I love Cooper. I was, I couldn't have been higher on him going back to his high school days.

Um, I've been, they just think of tonight. I mean, oh, my, it's just, it's damn good. He can do

everything. Um, I, I think I have been maybe a bit surprised by him not being more impactful

defensively, not to be that he's been bad, but kind of the calling card coming out of high

school was like, okay, this guy is going to be able to do everything offensively, but really

makes his, his mark is defensively. He was like, and all that you I be else up in high school,

he was like, eight. The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now,

the NBA's heating up, March Manus is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline,

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Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.

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future is happening fast and it's way too fun to miss. Stalks a game. Like a genuine

defensive disruptor on the level of like, all defensive one. I haven't really seen that

on that side. Yeah, you know, and I just haven't really seen in college, you know, the same thing,

but I just haven't seen that yet on a night's night based on a defensive and some of that maybe

is just being rookie is carrying a huge offensive load. The hope would be that he can, you know,

as you get more offensive talent around him, he can, you know, kind of spread his wings on the

defensive end, but I mean, I think this guy's the limit for him. Like, I think he's a guy who can

easily be a top 10 top five player with the next five years or so. Like, he's got it all, man,

so he's got the mentality. Yeah, I agree with you. I feel very confident he's going to be an

awesome player in a multi-time all-star NBA. I have two questions for you regarding this.

One, do you, where do you rank him among the top prospects of this draft?

Like, it was very popular. Let's call it like November, December, to be like, he wouldn't go top five in

this draft. Like, that's BS. Sorry, no, that's BS. Everyone's got a little too excited off of,

like, early Miami, you know, what is it? Miami Invitational, like, Summit type stuff. I get it.

My second question for you is, let's just say the warriors get the dream scenario and

jump up to top three pick. Sure. Do you think it's possible for them to compete in the playoffs

with a one and done player on the roster, getting heavy rotation minutes?

Yeah, I'll take all of that. And this is in context of how you rate these guys relative to

Cooper Fly. Because I guess my question for you is, you know, do you think Cooper Fly could play

on a playoffs team in a legitimate role? Oh, yeah, absolutely. He'd be awesome on a fully

healthy warrior team. He would be so additive. So I just from every aspect, so I can just,

I'm happy to just like you, you slot him into like Gees Santos' role and he's been phenomenal,

but, but like, that's kind of, and he need to have some more creation,

responsibilities, I think, but you just slot him into that kind of role and just the talent differences

is obviously so massive. I mean, I, I think younger or as young as everybody in this draft class,

I want to say he was originally in their class and he reclassified up to go to Duke a year early.

So he was ranked ahead of all of these guys, basically. In a lot of the EYBL stuff,

the big battles were Cooper versus Cambuser. Um, and Coup, not always outpoid him,

but he got the better of him a lot. Um, I'd still have him, I think I'd still take him first.

Um, I don't, but he's, he's firmly in that kind of top three, top four, like very, very

firmly. He's above like kind of that next tier wherever that drop off is, whether you consider

Peterson or advanced or Boozer is kind of the last guy in that group. Um, but yeah, I mean,

I, I, I think Boozer, like, if the words got Cambuser, I think he said me, he didn't play off the

impact guy. Um, I think I'd say the same for Peterson to bans him a little bit more unsure,

just because of, I think there's going to be a learning curve for him defensively. Um,

and in the playoffs, defense is, is so important, especially knowing game plans and, yeah,

being really kind of just tight with your coverages and rotations and all that stuff.

I'd be more confident in Boozer, in terms of the playoff readiness for next year, I go Boozer

one, Peterson two to bans a three. I don't hate that. I don't hate that. That makes sense to me.

Um, it's a really attractive draft. I'm not sure. I've completely lied to myself that they're

going to get the 2% lottery luck and get in the top three. Yeah. Well, the Warriors didn't

trade a transcendent once in a lifetime franchise player for a back to the Lakers. So you know,

I'm sure we could get a top three pick if we randomly gave the Lakers stack for for Rui Hachimura

in a first, but it's not happening. Sorry, not happening guys. Not happening. We got some people

want to call in and I want to get to them. Didn't hurt from the people in a while. We have it. But

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Plus a free $60 gift. That's good to go Eugene. Eugene, what's up? Oh, what's up, man?

What's up, man? Long break. But same vibes as last time. Man, that was brutal. I didn't catch most

of the game, but I did see a close up of the knee. And that is substation vibes are at an all-time high.

Oh, that's just, it's just tough to see. Especially with mode. Like, mode is just a good dude,

man. Like, yeah, had a good game. I think he's like the only person everyone agrees on.

I mean, like, I've kind of disengaged from the online discourse, which is so toxic and so

agenda-driven these days. Most of this is like the only guy outside of Steph Curry

that everyone's just like rooting for at all times. So it really sucks to listen. Yeah, he's

like an anti-pots in terms of like his PR and stuff. Sure. He knows, like, he's in a mature, don't,

he knows the interviews. He doesn't need to say that he's the alpha with every coat possible. But

so I, you know, I didn't watch the game. The state of the Warriors right now, my brother texted me

for the wolves game. He said, hey, yo, it's close. You got to tune in. And the back of my head,

I was like, we're gonna lose. But, you know, my brother, do I need to tune in? Are you sure I need to

tune in? Exactly. I tuned in. And I got so pissed at the end of the game that I was made at a point

if he ever texted me for a game, I'm not gonna tune in. And today was one of those games,

I tuned in. It is close. It's a great time out, brother. Indeed. Indeed. Knees blowing up

and everything. But I hope, hope music is better. Look, I mean, the only positive, like, this feels

like early on this felt like 2022. And then now it's like worse than 2019. It's just like a horrible

vibe. But some highlights, I love geek. Like, I want it, you know, we can bang on the fun

office for all we want. But I think that deal next year is going to look like. Oh, man,

cool. Especially if we're playoff ready, that deal is going to literally in my winnest

series in terms of cast space. Like, he is not just a, oh, let's throw him out for minutes. Like,

his, his old man, like, YMC game works. It's kind of like Kyle Anderson, like, Prime

Kyle Anderson a little bit. He just, I love to watch it, man. It's just like for a

hooper fan, like, it's just so fun to watch. So I think I'm having fun with that. You guys

kind of talked about it already. But if we get a top three pick, like, do we trade that?

Would you trade that for Cooper flag? I didn't hear what you guys are talking about.

Oh, Cooper flag is a different story. I think I think I would trade any of the picks for

Cooper flag for the movie. But because you're just giving up one year at that. Yeah, it's a lot

more interesting when you talk about, all right, let's say they win the lottery and now you can

trade that plus three other picks for Yannis. Do you do? Because, look, Yannis, awesome. But

he's missed most of this year and he's 31 going on 32. Like, we've actually hit the

nadeaier point where I'm kind of like, I don't know, it's too old. You know, I'm signed with Joe

here. You know, Joe wins, Joe wins the long game. Eventually, we get to a point where like,

always with Joe wanting to go at the young guy. But, um, yeah, for someone, uh, I was thinking about

this. Uh, do you rate the top three tradeability differently? I don't ask you, Tommy,

because I have a very specific feeling on all, all three. And I would have a harder time trading

certain ones than other ones. Sure. Um, I would, I don't think I would, if the worst one in the top

three, I don't think I trade the pick. I think I would make this election. I think once you fall

below three, it's a little bit more, I mean, I don't know, I really like Caleb Wilson too, like,

I, but I think if you fall below three and definitely below four, um, well, they can't fall.

They're, they're either good top three or they're going to be like 11. So for thought exercise,

it's top three or the, let's call it 10 to 13 range. I'd be willing to trade that, but I think

it, I think if they live in the top three, I think you, I think that these guys are so good

that you have to make the pick. Like I do think all three of these guys could legitimately

be franchise. Wow. Yeah, my camera, my bad guys. Um, I think they could all be like legitimately

franchise changing guys. Um, and I think they're, I think the thing is the floor with all of them

is so high. Like I have a really hard time seeing any of Booser or DeBanza or Peter said not being

multi time all stars, given health and, you know, just a reasonable development track.

I have such a hard time trading any of it. If they end up with like the number two pick,

anything short of a in their prime under the age of 30 clear star, which like they're not going

to get like, yeah, Minnesota wants to trade ant Edwards for the number one pick. I'm in. Guess

what? I don't want to do that. You know, like that's kind of, that's kind of where I'm at with it,

where, whereas with like, if they end up with a 10 to 12 pick, I'm more inclined to just move it,

you know, like Zubach caliber trade. Like if you can move the 11th pick and like some future

first, you put protections on to get a player of Zubach's caliber, I'm like, sure, fuck it, do it.

Do it, you know, because that's a, that might be your third best player immediately and stop

aligned yourself. The 11th pickle probably never be as good as Zubach anyway. You know, you know,

I mean, like, I'm just using as a stand in just because the Clippers trade him and I thought it

was an interesting trade. But like, that's kind of the caliber of player. The words have traditionally

shied away from trading for because they feel like the values not there or it's like too expensive.

We want our assets for Yannis or we want to find porzing it. We want to find a guy with

some sort of illness that we can solve, you know. Hey, look, he looks good, man. I want to, I want to

believe, you know, with celebrating, if celebrating can be like the X factor to fix these things,

I'm in. You know, with the picks, I, my, this is kind of crazy, but if we get the first

to second pick, I would highly want to trade it. If we get the third pick and they don't need to

think and just take the guy on the floor, I say, go, you know, I'm knowing our look. We're going to

get the guy. That is a bust out of those three. You know, so I, it's legit. If it's a third pick,

I'd be more open to it. When I watch booze, I'm just like, man, this guy, even for next year,

would fit in the best out of those three, just for what we need and the scoring, or not,

the, the non scoring can, non like, kind of, you know, all around punch around there.

Simple thoughts, experiment to end and, you know, my guest appearance. We got to see our friend

Kaminga a couple days ago. That was fun to see him get locked up a little bit by our two-way boy.

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Who by the way did not play tonight just to be clear?

What is the question? That's my favorite part of the whole thing. I don't understand why he

doesn't play at this point, Nate Williams every game. On his question though, who makes more career

earnings? Kaminga or pods in your guy's opinion. At the end of their careers, who's going to get

that? That is a great question. This is what the people want. You need to be run, you need to write

our rundown for every show going forward. That's a tough one because I could absolutely see someone

giving Kuminga an oversized contract based upon a half year of good play, but I could also see pods

just earning a steady 15 for 12 years. The numbers are going to go up. The tortoise first

of the hair, which is also kind of like how they play. That's good. Yeah, Mike mentions it in the

chat, but he goes, some Jeremy Grant vibes for Kuminga. That's true. There are. You know what?

You know what? Jeremy Grant's making a lot of fucking money. Oh yeah. All time back. All time

back at her. That's a strong compliment for Kuminga for someone who does not want to play a lot of

team ball. Jeremy at least plays some team ball there, but my opinion, if you have his physical profile,

all you need to do is show it for a season. Yeah. And like there's just not that many six seven

guys with those physical tools who can do that stuff. So like you can always, like there's a lot of

Jeremy grants out there where they got paid. And then I was like, he's not, you know, Deandre Hunter,

different type of player, but yeah, I mean, like 100 mil based off the fact that he's a wing.

Yeah, with pods, I feel like he has to keep this up. And one year he doesn't, he's going to kind of

slowly get his way out of the leap or Kuminga, like you said, you just show a flash here and there,

some a little drama, a big contract. But anyways, hey, good to see you, boy. I know it's been a while,

but hopefully this season will end soon because God, we need it to end. But see you guys.

We're just, we're starting to count down to the draft lottery at this point.

I'll be back for that. I'll be back for that.

It's May 10th. We have

458 days to the draft lottery. I'm just counting. You guys start to count down on the pod now for that sound.

That's just key. Yeah, we should, we should, we should just be a constant ticker on the bottom with days

until the draft lottery. It's like, it's like, it's like what streamers do with like the subcount,

you know, a lot of count up. Good to see you, boy. Appreciate you, man.

Wow, let's keep moving. It's good. It'll be up here.

I owe something good. How are you, man?

I just want to give you a view into my world. Like I said, I'm in South Africa. So it's seven

and a clock. I'm at work. So people that work sometimes don't figure out why I'm in a bad mood

just cause parts, maybe it's an open layout and they don't know what part this. That's always funny for me.

But yeah, man, I don't want to hamper on to the, the, the, the, sorry, the front office and things,

but it, it must be so frustrating for staff, man. You know, one year you come back in 2022,

you're waiting for your second best score and clay to come from an ACL and now you're in 2018,

now you're in 2026 and you basically have to do the same thing next year and you're about four

years older and you've got to wait for your second best player to come off an ACL. You've got

Moses going down. You've got another co star that's been traded for that you're dealing with

managing a disease. So it has to be really frustrating for staff. And when you look on the other side,

what frustrates me the most is that the ops have done it, man, the ops on the other side made them,

they made out a good as a 22 team, but they've got a 40-year-old star surrounded by Luca and Reves

who are taking the brunt of the regular season strain. And when you get to the playoffs,

you know, you've got a fresher guy. But so for me, it's like we really need to get someone who can

take the regular season innings away from staff and create if there are third options like, like,

Tray Murphy, someone who can just take the load of these guys so that when you get to the playoffs,

none of these guys want to see them. Yochish doesn't want to see them. They don't want to see

staff. They don't want to see staff in the high pick and roll. They don't want to see the ball

moving behind staff, but we just need to get there. And for the last three years, we've just been

playing this, playing that half a season, we're in 9-10 and it must be frustrating.

Yeah. Appreciate the requirement. Appreciate the choir.

You can see it. I think you can kind of see all that on Steph's face even tonight when he

blows down. You know what I mean? You could really, you could see the, obviously, he's just,

Steph was dejected for Moses, but I think you can just, you can see he's wearing it all right now.

He's like, he just can't believe the direction this has gone. You know, again, it feels like this

is almost a yearly thing. And this has been worse in terms of the injuries, but it just was like a

yearly thing where it's like, we're going through this again. You know, and it just,

it has to be defeating. It feels like they're getting closer when you see like Moses' development

and Guy and these certain things where he's just like, all right, if they just swing one good trade,

they can be in the mix. And then something like this happens and you're just like, man,

they might be a lot farther away than I thought. I mean, it's, it's very frustrating. Oh,

be. Appreciate you, man. Appreciate you. Yeah, it's, and like the Oster Reeves point is

underrated interesting because for all the picks, the Warriors have had, they have not drafted

anyone as good as Oster Reeves. And everything would be just a little easier and more palatable

to add someone that could. Yeah. Good boy. I don't love anything to add to that. Yeah. Yeah.

I don't think, I don't think the Lakers thought he would be this good when they picked him up,

but you know, it happened. It happened. It was a good find. Yeah, he's a good find.

Tatiana, what's up, man? Nothing about this season has been enjoyable,

other than the Denver opener and then the two games against San Antonio, where Step dropped

to 100 points in two games. Man, I know. Those San Antonio games had me believing big time.

Yeah.

Man, I was just talking, I was just talking to a friend of mine and he's not necessarily a sportsman

like I am, but he kind of brought up a point that I wanted probably echo and the pod is like,

this is probably more focused on like the league as a whole rather than just the Warriors in particular,

but we kind of went away from the point of sports, which is just watching the players play

rather than just focusing on the business side of the entire NBA. And there's like a whole

of the factors, whether maybe he goes from billionaires and then we got a whole bunch of

middle-class citizens trying to try to save some dollars for whatever.

And then we got out and silver just trying to change things that don't need to be changed and whatnot,

especially when you try to do expansion drafts. When you have a whole bunch of teams taking

and then you also try to do the NBA Europe thing. It's like so insane. And it's just like

playing to the point. Sure. I just want an NBA cup.

I just want to get back to the point where we could just start focusing on rooting for the team again.

It's like the two-time-wise thing just like ruin my enjoyment for the team. And I'm pretty much

playing media in general. And because whether or not they want to be scared of trying to

have access to certain pieces of information or whatnot, they've done a poor job overall,

explaining things to everyone involved. And that's pretty much why everyone

online because Twitter is a real course. I'm explaining the reasons that's to why things around

the Warriors have happened, whether it may be with Wiseman, Kaminga, Paws, etc. It's like when can we

just start enjoying the team? I think that's what we all want. And it just sucks that Moody is just

the guy that I love from the young guys. And then he just got hurt. And then it got to the point

where it's like I'm really thinking that Judy Butler is my second favorite player ever. Sorry,

Baron, but it's like once Jimmy went down, it's like everything about the team feels solace.

That's probably the worst part about being a fan. It's like having nothing to care about

and being apathetic is like the worst thing about being a fan.

Yeah, that's fair. That's fair, man.

Yeah, I mean, I think it is a good point overall just in the sense of

like a lot of the talk around like local media, even national sometimes about like,

they know, well, the Warriors want to do this or do that. Like they talk about the financials or

like they should need to keep their picture of their future. It's like, no, I just want to watch my

team fucking win basketball games. I don't give a like I don't care about any of this other shit.

Put a good product out there. All of it, like you're saying, touching on like always just

superfluous at some point. All fans care about it at the end of the day. They don't give a fuck if

how much money Joe Lakers making off in the chase center. Good for Joe. We don't give a shit.

Give me a good product to watch. Give me a team that give me a team that can win basketball games

and compete. Well, you have one of the greatest players of all time. I don't, I really genuinely

don't care about anything else as a fan of the Warriors. Appreciate you, Tasha.

I skipped my cup here and called it, even. It's my point. How are we doing? How are we feeling?

We've been better. I hear you, I hear you. One to ask you as this,

we're like a month into the KP experience and I've dealt with the KP experience last two years,

so I feel like it's a good time to kind of reflect and see where we are. How do we feel?

Optimistic, honestly. I mean, I was really worried about the hell stuff, obviously, because I'd

somebody close me and my life is dealt with it, but KP. Yeah, really, really informative episode.

I highly recommend people go bad and go watch that. Anyway, keep going. Yeah, I know, but I mean,

KP obviously has world-class health care and it seems like they've gotten it under control

enough. He's played a lot lately and he looks good. I mean, he's not what he was at his peak

necessarily, but he's still a damn good and powerful basketball player. If he can play

even 50 games a season, you know, like, let's say the Warriors Resign him his off season,

if he can play 50 games a year, I think it's a clear win in terms of the trade. Like, he is a

better, more impactful basketball player than Jonathan Camingo. That's especially at this day.

I don't think there's any question about that. So it's literally more just about health. So this is,

it looks like a risk that could pay off, but you never, you know, you never want to count your

eggs before they hatch or whatever with a guy like KP. He's just been so injury prone over the course

of his career. He's just a very, very tall guy and he, you know, he falls a lot. Like, it just looks

unstable sometimes. Doesn't have kind of has high percent of gravity. Like, there are things to

worry about with him, but the player himself, I like the player a lot and I did before the trade,

everything else. The worries were about things unrelated to actually in-game stuff if he's on the floor.

I just want to see what number they can get him back on next year because to me, everything is

about expectation. Persing is that 30 million is going to frustrate you because he's just not going

to be available enough for what you're expecting for a guy making a higher salary. But if they get him

back on a comfortable number, like under 10 million, which I really think is what it's going to end

up being, then you're cool with it. You're cool with, you're cool with what Tommy's saying, which is a

52 games a year, 24 minutes a game guy because he's, he's overqualified talent wise to be that. But

if, if you get him on that number, then it's fine because he's kind of like a nice to have,

not a need to have. So, yeah, it's, if you're getting him on like even just above eight,

so if you get him at like 10 to 12 somewhere below non-tax pyramid love, sorry, tax pyramid level

numbers, like that's only like 10% of the cap. Yeah. Keep your take. Exactly. That's not terrible

in terms of value and like, K.P. was one of my favorite Celtics last couple years, like just a

Von dude. I know there's like long term off the court stuff that people would like to talk about

with him and I understand those things. But K.P. was a great Celtic, really great media interview

and like cares. And genuinely, I think, has had good relationships with teammates. So like,

I get it. The other big picture question I'd be guys in terms of process here is we kind of lead

towards the end of the year. What are you watching for with, you know, three weeks left? Like,

obviously the moody injury hurts, but like, what are you, what are you trying to take away from

the last couple of weeks here? Oh, man. That's a tough one, especially in the wake of the kind of

the most injury because he was one of the guys I was excited to watch the rest of the season. He's

been, as we said, kind of the show. He's been awesome. Like, really outside of one month of

bad play, he's been really damn good this year and you could feel him kind of going on an

upper trajectory with room to grow even more. Like, even the shot was just like, obviously,

the defensive impacts has gone up a level just in terms of the stocks and the disruption,

but you felt like he went from a guy where when he was open, you were hoping he was going to make

it. To now, if he's open, I'm like, oh, it's down. You know, like, excuse me, you could feel that

shift throughout this season and you could even see it in a shot that he's taking more kind of

risky shots, more contested shots, and he's making them at a pretty damn high clip.

I don't know if too much to add to that other than like, I guess pods, pods is really the one

that I want to see how he close up the season. They have to figure out an extension. They got

figure out what he fits into it. You know, like, LJ Cryer, it's been nice. Seeing Will Richard play,

that's been nice. I know what it should be on the rotation, no matter what, but pods is really the

one that I'm curious how it plays out the rest of the way. That's really all I'm watching for

at this point, not much else. That's fair. I mean, I was just looking at a respawn track and like,

it's funny because QP is going to be a restricted free agent, Pat Spencer,

interesting restricted free agent at 29. Do the warriors like dip in and try to do something there?

And then pods, you have to think about until like, I'll cover with the latest.

So like, yeah, they can give a little bit of time on figuring out what they want to do

in terms of pods and like, that contract's going to be so weird. I know you guys talked about it

earlier, but that can be, would you add last quick question for a go? Tell me, how was Vegas, man?

It was a good time. It's always, you know, it's me in four of my closest buddies,

but it's really, you know, like, a couple of married multiple kids, so it's really the one thing

that we get to do every year. Like, the wives know this is unless there's like a true family

emergency, the boys are going on this trip. So it's really more like, like, you know, I think I

posted a video of like where we watch the games at and for anybody that hasn't done it, like,

if you are a true basketball junkie, you should go to Vegas. Where'd you go?

So we stay at the Cosmo and then they do, yeah, they do this thing called Hoops and Hops and they

like deck out an entire ballroom, put up like a hundred screens. They put a little pop-up sportsbook

right outside. So, you know, we all have a, everybody like in the group pulls out a certain amount

of cash and once it's gone, it's gone. So it's more about, and you know, we, it's one of those

things like we started off, we hit like our first four bets and everybody's so fired up and then it's

kind of, it kind of starts going down from there, but like, yeah, it's just, it's an experience, man,

like everybody is just there to enjoy and watch the games. It's a good time. If you love basketball,

it's entirely worth the trip and the money you're going to spend.

Mike, appreciate you, brother. Have a good one.

All right, we're going to end it there. Appreciate everyone. Thank you, everybody.

The Bleacher Report app is your destination for sports. Right now, the NBA is heating up.

March Band is here and MLB is almost back. Every day, there's a new headline, a new highlight,

a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app.

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get real-time scores, breaking news, and highlights all in one place.

Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.