The volume.
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eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to hoops tonight here at the Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week.
I have a very special guest coming on the show today, someone that, especially early on when I really wanted to get into this industry, someone that I looked up to, someone that I respected a great deal, and most importantly, one of the smartest basketball minds that I know, someone that I lean on a lot when I'm picking people's brains around the NBA. Mister Sam's Fondiari, co host of
the Light Years podcast, covers the Warriors. Him and Andy do an amazing job covering the Warriors on a daily basis. We're gonna have him in today to break down everything from this incredibly bizarre first third of the season. So, Sam, this is where I want to start today. So last night, obviously the story was the young guys. Tray Jackson Davis, Jonathanmane got thought, Moses mood he played really well. Pozamski before he got hurt, was playing really well as well.
And we can look in the bigger picture and see some clear data that demonstrates that's the direction that the
Warriors have needed to go for a while. If we look at, according to Cleaning the Glass, the best plus minus guys on the Warriors Trayce Jackson Davis, the Warriors are twenty two points better with him, Pozamski nine points better, CP three eight points better, Gary Payton six points better, another young athlete, Jonathan Kamen, six points better, and then the bottom four guys are Wiggins minus seventeen, Looney minus ten,
Draymond minus nine, and Clay minus four. So it's been one of those things where it's obvious that the young guys are the direction that Steve Kerni needs to go within the context of the regular season. That said, Sam, you've been covering a dynasty. You know firmly what it takes to succeed in the NBA.
Playoffs.
How much of this do you think is just a regular season solution versus guys that you think can hold down a spot in a playoff rotation.
I think it's probably a mix of both. You are correct and saying like, if you're looking to count on a bunch of guys under the age of twenty three in the playoffs, typically that doesn't work. You can usually get away with one or two in your rotation. But I mean, if you look at the Warriors right now,
they should be starting three guys on rookie deals. They should be starting Tray Jackson Davis, they are starting Kuminga, and they are starting Pajemski, And just realistically speaking, that's that would be unprecedented to make a deep playoff run. With that, you kind of nailed it. The most interesting part of the Warriors struggles in the early part of the season. And I think we have enough sample size, like we're a third of the way through the season
to say it it's not actually the older guys. It's not Chris Paul like he's been steady in a backup point guard role. He is who he is. But it's been generally positive play. It hasn't even been Clay, who's
kind of come alive the last month. It's been the two guys who you would assume would be the most consistent contributors, the two guys who are twenty seven to twenty eight years old, theoretically in their prime, the guys that they were thinking they could lean on, Wiggins and Looney, And I don't know what to make of either of them, Like why they're struggling so much. It's confounding, Like Steve
Kurrz given them a lot of rope. There have been calls to change the lineup well before the last four games, and I get it. You need Wiggins to play well. You're not going to just bend him in mid November because he can't hit a shot, but you know we're approaching Christmas. And even after he had a really good game coming off of the bench, just a no show against Boston, a team he tormented less than a year and a half ago in the finals, and a matchup
that's generally favorable to him. So like, I don't really know what to say. All I know is like he's playing really bad, and Looney you can throw in the mix there too.
I have an insane Andrew Wiggins stat for you. So in twenty five games this year, and I believe last night was one of them, Andrew Wiggins has logged nine single digit scoring games in one hundred and ninety three Warriors games. Over the previous four years, he had nine total single digit scoring games.
I mean, I mean that matches, That matches the eye test. It's like it's not one particular thing that he's doing. He's obviously not shooting the ball. Well, you just don't feel him out there in anyway in like I don't know seventy five percent of the game. So I'll have a random game where you're like, that's the Wiggins. I remember, that's the guy who was so instrumental in the twenty twenty two playoffs. But most games are more like last
night against Boston. Can't hit a shot, floats in and out of the game, and I honestly think the shot probably has a psychological effect on it, Like when he doesn't see it going in, then he starts missing layups, which is even more bizarre. Then he starts floating on defense, and it's just one of those things where it's like it's it's not logical. It's like it's not like he's a malcontent or he's not trying. It's just bad.
Yeah, Mentally, I think a big part of it is the fact that his shot is not falling is starting to manifest in other areas of his game. Like this is a guy that during the championship run I thought was firmly one of the top four or five best perimeter defenders in basketball, like without a doubt, like this dude is the first guy I've ever seen in a playoff series.
Legit make Luca uncomfortable.
Like like that that's a huge claim to fame in that specific case. And like it's not just the athletic engagement that fades, it also starts to affect his decision making. Like you see last night, it's like he smokes that wide open layup on the right side of the rim to start, and then it's like a couple possessions later, he just early in the clock takes a pull up fifteen foot or that's contested and you're like ugh, like that's that's not the kind of shot that's going to
get you out of a slump. And you know that's the thing is like a lot of times when it comes to to these types of struggles. The best thing you can do is be more focused and be more deliberate about doing your job. And it almost seems like as his offense is fading, he's just going further off the reservation in the sense that he's losing his focus.
And you know that's the concerning part, because you know, a lot of a lot of Warriors fans are like, oh, they need to change the starting line they need to change the starting lineup, and we all agree that that's the direction they needed to go. But from curse perspective, it's always more complicated than that. And you know, coaches are supposed to be more measured, They're supposed to be able to kind of withstand some of the up and down nature of the emotions of an NBA season and
games as well. And like, I'm kind of okay with him being late to that party rather than early to that party. And to his credit, he made the shift. And Jonathan Kamina I saw you posted this morning the numbers the difference between Jonathan Kaminga and how well he plays when he's with the starters versus when he comes off the bench. So let me ask you this, do
you think that Andrew Wiggins off the bench. Is going to send him further down that path or do you think this is going to kind of motivate him to be more engaged and to try to work his way back into that lineup.
It's hard to say, because if we record this pod before the Boston game, I'd say, oh, see, it worked. He was against Portland, probably his best all round game of the Sea. You just felt him. He hit his shots, you felt him defensively, you felt him rebounding the ball. It looked like the best version of Wiggins. And after I watched a him, I was like, Oh, it's only a matter of time before Steve puts him back in
the starting lineup. Stroke of genius, blah blah blah. And then he just comes out and does this the next game. So I don't know, but I don't think they have a choice because you read those splits the plus minuses at the beginning of the show, Clay has great splits and Steph has great splits. Since they took Wiggins out of the starting lineup, like it was pretty much all Wiggins tearing them down, And if you go into like the plus minus data from earlier in the season, this
was true too. It's too easy to say, like he's the you know, the only problem with the team they have. They have issues all over the place. But like it's hard to argue that, like it's not happening. Every time he was inserting the lineup, they were playing playing worse. He can't. He wasn't hitting shots, he wasn't really defending. There's no impact there.
Clay's actually a great exam of He's going through the same thing Andrew Wiggins is in a lot of ways, except for his approach is like he's just more focused. You can tell his shot selection is improved over the last few games. Just in general, he's approaching it like I'm just going to find a way to do as much as I can to help winning, and the shots
will fall, you know what I mean. And that's the thing is like he missed a bunch of clean looks in ot but over the course of most of the second half, I thought he just played a really smart game, taking the right shots. He generated a lot of open role opportunities for Trace Jackson Davis. I thought it was a great Klay Thompson stretch here over the course the last couple of weeks.
So Steve Kirk, I was gonna say, to the Clay point, they've been playing faster part of their slow start, or really just terrible November, if you want to, if you want to kind of really hone in on it was they were like one of the bottom teams in pace, which is just the opposite which you associate the Warriors. But some of that was the Draymond suspension, trying to
figure out how to use Chris Paul. He's a naturally more methodical player, but Clay was the one who I think it affected the most because you know, he's a movement shooter. He moves off of screens. He's not a half court player. He's not a you know, dribble dribble, dribble, get my shot guy. Like, if he does that, he tends to be inefficient. And since they made the lineup change and everything, they look more like the Warriors, just
in terms of style of play, pace and everything. And if he's open, it's the numbers tend to be favorable for him.
Well, you know, you know what's interesting too about the starting lineup in particular, is like I do think that a big part of what made the loony Draymond front court no longer functional in the regular season is the decline of Andrew Wiggins and the fact that Clay was not playing as well as he had been.
It became to like.
Because what was happening is because we again we all saw that same lineup just crush everybody the previous year and literally win the title the year before. And again that that doesn't mean just because it won't work against the Lakers doesn't mean it shouldn't work against the vast majority of the teams you play over the course of
the regular season. And I thought a big part of it is like once the offensive shot creation kind of dipped below that whatever that mandatory minimum was to be able to make that work, it just it just stopped functioning. And that's where it became a problem.
And to your point, yeah, I mean they were reliant on three guys being forty percent three point shooters, two of which being Stephan Clay were like two best of all times. So yeah, if Wiggins is not hitting shot and is a non shooter, then I mean, yeah, that's three guys who are just non offensive threats, and of course it doesn't work.
Right, And the misses have been ugly with Wiggins as of late two. It's flat, it's long, it's not it. It just looks like he's chucking shots up. At this point, it seems a little bit like a lost cause. So I wanted to talk a little bit big picture. So sixteenth in offense, eighteenth in defense to this point, eighteenth in net rating. They are three and one since they
changed the starting lineup. They've really struggled defensively in those games, but obviously Draymond Green being out is going to play a role there. They are thirteen and fourteen, one game back of the ten.
See.
I do think it's important to mention, and this is something I've been hammering on the entire year. Sham's reported yesterday or two days ago that Draymond's going to be out basically the rest of this week and then two more weeks after that, and then potentially longer.
But let's just say through.
The next two and a half weeks for as a minimum. If that was the case, he'd miss nine more games. They play Washington and Portland, then they go to Denver, Then they play Miami, Dallas, Orlando, Detroit, Toronto. All those
games are at home except for the Denver game. Again, they played one of the toughest early schedules that you saw around the league, and I would argue, even without Draymond, it's more likely than not that they're above five hundred in that stretch with all those games at home and
again some of these lesser teams. So like a lot of this is actually shaped out, considering how horrific it looked, and especially on the heels of this recent three game winning streak, there's actually like a light at the end of the tunnel here. I think Draymond could return to the lineup and then be close to five hundred or over five hundred. So my question for you is, do you believe this team is worth investing in?
I do. I think if you were to look at this team, they're about a five hundred team right now, thirteen and fourteen. They could easily be fifteen and twelve. But whatever, they're a five hundred team you insert Draymon. They're more or less the team they were last year. To me, Wiggins has fallen off, but Kuminga has gotten better. They're sitting in my mind as next second tier. They're
not a contender. They're one piece away. It feels like in general, and you know what if you have one of the handful of players who's capable of being the best player in the title team, and Steph very much still is capable of doing that, and you're, let's say, one player away. I think you have to go for it.
I really do. Doesn't mean you make a trade just for the sake of it, But if the right opportunity comes up, like they really do feel one player, uh, maybe he's a second or a third option, honestly, maybe someone who just replaces the production that Wiggins gave you two years ago, then I think they have a puncher's chance against against the contenders, against the Denver, against the Lakers, against whoever comes out of the East. So I think
they have to look at it that way. And that's why, in my opinion, this stretch is really important, because if they come out of it on the other side, you know, sitting in that six to eight range in the playoffs, really just being kind of in the mix, which is even as the ten right now, just looking at the standings, they are a whopping two games out of the sixth seed or three games, like they're right, they're right, right, It's not it's not that big deal, that big a deal.
As long as they stay in the mix. I think there's a lot of pressure on management to do something. If they obviously go into free fall losing at home to Detroit and some of these games, well then they've given management easy out to reset and not go for it. Yeah.
It's one of those things where I think when you were looking at the Draymond suspension originally, and you were looking at the schedule and you're like, man, Clippers, Nets or Celtics are like, man, they could drop three of these four and suddenly be three games out of the plane and be staring down a you know, a three
week stretch without Draymond. It's crazy how just those three wins kind of changes the perspective of everything, and in a lot of ways, it kind of reminds me of the Lakers last year, where it was like you just got to get to February somehow, and like if they can, if they can reconfigure, then you can make your run.
Now that's go ahead. Yeah, that's how that's That's kind of how I felt about it the whole year. They kind of do feel like last year's Lakers in the sense of you have a giant expiring who doesn't really fit your roster and Chris Paul. Although Chris Paul, to be fair, has he's been I don't think you could have asked more for this. You know, he's been a pro, he's played that role well. He's just not what they in general. And they have some assets. They have young guys.
All those young guys actually are playing well. And then they do have some picks they can move. They don't have all their picks, they have some. Yeah, to your point, it's kind of like the Lakers get you stay in the mix and see what's available to deadline. Yeah, Like it's actually.
Kind of interesting because I was talking about this on my show last night, Like, you know, you look at this lineup and they're like closing the game with Trace Jackson Davis and Jonathan Kminga and and you look at it and you go like, there's no way this is
what they're gonna roll out there in April. But like it kind of reminds me of the Lakers stretch last year where it's like there's these it's like when Anthony Davis got hurt and it's like this weird Lebron Dennis Schroeder, Russell Westbrook just driving kick party that they had for like a month, and they just hovered around five hundred to just give themselves a chance, you know what I mean, And like that's kind of the way I look at it.
Like they're gonna be big underdogs against Denver, big underdogs against probably Orlando, don't get me wrong, Like Dallas probably will be a favorite as well against them. Like they're gonna they're gonna drop some of these games just from a simple talent standpoint. But if they can just like hang in there and linger around five hundred. Now, the question is because one of the things that I've talked about is, like I actually view Jonathan Kaminga is one
of the most enticing young players around the league. And so what becomes tricky is you've got this group of young players Jonathan Kamingo, Moses Moody, Trace Jackson Davis, and Brandon Pitzemski, and essentially, if you are going to try you and I have talked about this on other platforms in over text as well, this idea of like who what archetype should the player should they target? And so I want to kind of approach this from two fronts.
So let's start with the archetype what type of player do you think rounds out a core five with Golden State, That could be the group you go down with in the Western Conference Finals.
It's got to be a front court player, and it needs to be a two way front court player. For the most part, there's some leeway there. But like we go back to the Draymon and Looney thing, doesn't work anymore. Okay, they honestly got more mileage out of it than I think anyone thought they could. But the reality is you need to stagger those guys, and the way Loony's playing like he might not be in the rotation of the playoffs. I kind of think I'll come around in some capacity.
Mainly it's a different conversation they need. You can go back and watch the Lakers series. If they had another four or five, they beat the Lakers, but the Lakers knew they had no one to put at that combo. Made it easy for Anthony Davis to just wreak havoc on them, and they just couldn't score enough. That's what it comes down to. So I'm not saying it's easy to find that guy, but like we've seen the names floated, Pascal Siakam Lowry markin In potentially available at the deadline.
They're not perfect fits, but both of those guys would significantly raise the ceiling of this team, and those are the type of players they should be pursuing.
Yeah, it's interesting because like last year, that was literally what they were doing. It's like, let's try Gary Payton, Let's try Jamichael Green.
They were just trying this movie.
It was like, who's gonna be this guy we can use? Yeah, and there was always one flaw in one of those players that made it just just not work. And it's like there aren't enough Jamichael Green and pop threes that he could make to justify all of the other elements of the game, right, And you know, I Siakam is the guy that I keep coming back to because that one hundred percent agree Like Stephan Clay. I'm going down with Stephan Clay. Like I'm sorry, I'm going down with
Stephan Clay. Whether or not it's Wiggins or Kaminga at the three, that's that's a decision for another day, and we're going to talk about that here in just a second. But to me, it's Draymond at the five, Stephan Clay at the one, two, and then one of those athletic forwards,
and then another type of player in that archetype. And that's why I keep coming back to Siakam because one of the things that the Warriors have always been very good at is like even when Steph Curry gets ends up on switches, They're able to scram him out of it or to or they'll try to hedge and recover to keep him out of the switches, or even when he gets on the switch, they provide excellent backside help and give him a job that he can do pressing
up and like Clay Thompson holds up excellent on switches, whoever that forward is, Wiggins or Kaminga would hold up Draymond the pascal Siakam. That to me is where I might exactly and I start to look at that group of five as like, Okay, this is something where if I'm Denver and I'm sitting game planning for the series, I'm like, shit, what do we do about this? Like
this is gonna be somewhat of a problem. So but here's where it gets complicated because that Wiggans Kaminga piece there is going to be the challenge because if I'm Toronto. I'm like, sure, yeah, you can have Pascal, but Jonathan's coming, you know what I mean? Like, that's what they're gonna say.
So out of the Jonathan Kaminga, Moses Moody, Trace Jackson, Davis, Brandon Pazemski crew, who do you view in that crew as like indispensable versus like I would be willing to trade for an upgrade for a short window run with Steph.
Okay, this is gonna be fun. Brandon Pajemski is the only one I really struggle to trade, just given the fact that he's a twenty year old rookie and clearly better than all the other players, even though he doesn't play the position you want. He's a he's a combo guard. He's got good size for a point guard, litle undersize for it two. But you just watch him play, he actually represents a potential building block for them in a lot of different ways, the passing, the shooting, the defense.
He's like a weird hybrid of Jalen Brunson and Caruso at times, very interesting player. I would it would hurt to trade him, is where I'm at with it, And would I would be tempted to say no, Kuminga would be number two. I would be willing to part with him if you got a Pascal Siakam or a lowry market in because essentially they'd be taking his spot at power forward in general. And the assumption would be if
you're making that trade, you're keeping said player. You're not trading for a you know, when you're a three month rental of Siakam and then letting him walk. So it would hurt because at some point Kumingo will be a better player than Siakam, but if you're thinking about the next three years, he won't be. You know, he just won't be. And then Moses Moody, he's a good player, but he just he's just kind of always the odd
man out. He's I don't want to say he's a placeable three and DP player because every team needs those guys, but be willing to give him up if needed to entice a team. I just don't know that he's enough
of a sweetener to pull off a deal. To your point, anyone wanting to make a trade with the Warriors is going to want future draft picks where they're betting against the war You know, they're betting that Steph will eventually get old and they don't have anything else, and then they want Kuminga because he's the most obvious, Like I could see this guy being like Jalen Brown level All Star one day. I could see him being a guy that you know, we can build around. Like he's not
going to be your first option. He's not going to be Kawhi Leonard, which some people thought like there was a chance he could be coming out of the draft, But he is an effective two way wing and he can never have too many of those.
Yeah, I think he has the highest potential out of that group, but I also think he's very clearly the guy that has the more bizarre basketball fit within the Warriors system in terms of just like their five outread and react stuff Like he, to me, is going to be a very good player for a long time in the NBA for somebody. And like some of this with with fans like you gotta you almost gotta like understand uh, because a lot of them will be like, we can't
afford to give up Kamingo. We can't afford to give up Kamingo. That's like I totally get that. You don't think the Clippers when they gave away shay Yo just Alexander were like that dude's gonna go be amazing for Okay, See they knew it, of course they did. They had him in building for all those years. They saw his work ethic, they saw what he was doing, you know.
And like like Ingram or or like Ingram for Anthony Damis, Ingram was very clearly going to be a good player. But you know, you kind of have to do that deal.
Right timeline and fit and like that's my thing is, like it's really this simple. You mentioned Steph being at that level still one hundred percent agree twenty eight points per game, sixty five percent through shooting that When you have that in house and you have the guy that can stare Jason Tatum in the face and out execute him down the stretch of a big game, When you have a guy at that caliber, it's just such a
rare thing to have around the league. And every team that wins the title, if you hoist the trophy, you
got one of those guys. It's like an extreme rarity if you don't, right and even then it's like we're looking at the Spurs with like Duncan, who used to be that guy right, So, like you have to have that guy that's the foundational piece, you also have the means with which to put next to him a legitimate number two like Pascal Siakam, which then all of a sudden slots all these other guys into very achievable roles.
And so the way you have to look at it is it's like, is Kaminga going to be better than Pascal Siakim in two three years?
Probably?
Yeah, Like probably, Like there's that's that's certainly something that he can do. And I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if.
That's some point he will one day Siakam will be thirty four and he'll be twenty five. Math just tends to work out in his favorite that exactly.
But you know, it's just a simple question of like, like to Toronto, they're in a different timeline. They're thinking Scottie Barnes, they're thinking, Okay, what if we add another small, another big athletic forward next to Scotty Barnes. We'll see what he's got. Let's see what if there's a fit
there Siakam. We might have to extend on this long term deal may not fit the timeline as well, or you're the Golden State and it's like Jonathan Comica can be really good, but Steph's thirty five, Clay is starting to see some signs of slowing down. We gotta do something here to try to reconfigure this thing. It's it's just a no brainer that, like you might have to consider a swap or you get rid of one of
those guys. To the fit point, Pozemski, I one hundred percent agree with you, because, like I look at him as a guy that's like such an obvious natural fit in the Warriors system. You mentioned his strength, it's an important piece, Like he's just if.
He's gonna actually be that good of a point of attack defender, which like he's blowing me away as a rookie. I'm not saying you want him guarding Jamal Murray or someone in a playoff series per se, But like, if he's this good, now, imagine what he could be in a year's time. That also allows you to slot Clay at small forwards significantly easier where he's he's kind of better guarding strength and quickness anyway at this stage of his career.
So that slotting piece is the big one there. And like that's where if you get a Siakam and like let's say, let's say you do one of the other things too, is like we have to factor in that if you trade Jonathan Kaminga and you bring in Pascal Siakam, that may very well end up freeing up rotation minutes for Wiggins to have a larger berth for him to
try to figure things out. Because right now, like I look at Siakim as a guy who could also lay the same role that Sarich is playing on this team, like as essentially an anchor front court player for their bench units too. And like in general, when you start to build lineups, you can keep a Poziemski in point of attack roles that are achievable for him with his level of athleticism. I'm one hundred percent with you on that one. And again, Moody, Like, Moody's obviously one of
the more expendable appearing players in that group. It's just to your point, he's not a sweetener. There's no team around the league that's like, man, I need Moses Moody on my roster. They're like, oh, yeah, if we took him in a deal, we'd be happy.
With you men. Yeah, yeah, exactly exactly. You're be hoping maybe if you throw him in you don't have to include an extra pick, right, so then you're not as worried about when everyone gets old or something to that effect. Yeah, I mean, the more you talk through it, like it's obvious. The other thing Siakam has working do is benefit as he's twenty nine. So really, if you feel confident for the next three years he can be productive for you, that's probably the max amount of time you're going to
get out of Steph and Clay. I mean, Steph could just continue to defy the odds, but you kind of have to take these in like two to three year increments at this stage, right makes sense. He's younger, he can carry more of a load for you and help you preserve Steph because end of the day, when you get to like serious playoff basketball, you're gonna need like the best version of Steph to show off. Well.
One of the things that Siakam brings to the table too, that the Warriors never really had is he brings a guy that you can start using for an alternative method of offensive attack. So what I mean by that is, like, you know, Wiggins was a guy that teams would live with attacking matchups and he'd get his eighteen to twenty two in that, but it wasn't something that they could
like really depend on in late game situations. Now, imagine a situation where has to be guarded by a bigger forward and Steph is guarded by a quicker point of attack defender, and you now open up a two man game there where you can now you know, throw the ball down to the block to Pascal Siakam, and he's been one of the most effective post players in the league this year. Attacking matchups. It gives you just a different look because again you mentioned the Lakers series that
was a big part of it. It wasn't just the fact that they didn't have five man groupings that could thrive around Stephan pick and roll. It was also that it just had to be Steph pick and roll every time. They just they didn't have another action they could run
that could defend dependably generate quality shots. And so to me, like Siakam is that guy to where like I think, I think the Warriors might value him a little higher than some of the other teams out there who might be targeting bigger fish, like a Lori Markinen, like a og Ananobe. I think as someone that some teams will probably view as a better player than Sakam. So like Siakam, I think is an achievable goal as well, and I think that goes a long way towards like making it.
Point what one of the warriors other big issues is shot creation. It's kind of the you know, they move the ball, they get a lot of mileage out of guys who can't create their own shot. Uh and and then you know it inevitably turns into Steph save us offense. It would be nice to have another player who, to your point, you can just you can throw the ball to and just you know, let let him score on the post, let him go one on one from the mid post. The things we see him do with Toronto, Yeah,
I mean he addresses a lot of their needs. Yeah, he's a bad three point shooter. It'd be nice if he could do that too. But if he was a if he did all the things he did and shot forty percent from three, then you're talking about like Kevin Durant White type of stuff, and you can't have it all. I think all overall, more positive as than negatives.
Siakam's also having one of his better defensive seasons in recent years, and he's like a legitimate weapon, a guy that has tons of big game experience.
I think that's that's the part we didn't even really talk about, Like he's a seem less fit to their defense. Oh my god, you can just plug him in. You put him next to Draymond. Wiggins gets back to himself as the small forward Clay that resembles kind of the Dynasty Warriors teams with the switching and the versatility defensively that they've gotten away from just by virtue of the personnel they're playing right.
And again, I would just put Wiggins back into the starting lineup if that happened, and I'd be like, I know that with Steph Clay and Draymond, we're still gonna win a lot of games. And if even if Wiggins isn't playing well and just you're basically taking a bet that he's going to get it together. At that point, I have one last question exactly and then and then trickle down into some other things. So I have one last question for you before we get out of here.
So as you and I both know the just about every fan base out there blames the coach anytime anything goes wrong, and I think we all agree that Steve Kerr has made some mistakes this season. I think I
think they are mistakes of you know, it's funny. I've been watching I've been watching the show on TV called for All Mankind, Like there's there's like these older astronauts and like it spans over decades and like we're to the future now and all the old astronauts are mad at all the young people and they're all like kind of you know, stuck in their ways, kind of get
off my lawn type of people. And I kind of feel like that happens a little bit where you know, you've got Steve Kerr and you've got Klay Thompson going, like I believe in these guys to the end, and you've got and it's just I do think that a big part of this is like they're late to the party, but they're getting to the party. And that's the kind of thing that happens with some of these older guys
that have had a lot of success in the past. Now, what we have been discussing is effectively a reconfiguration of the Warriors, not just in not just in lineup construction, but it also could fundamentally change.
The way they play.
If Pascal siakam comes in, I could see them doing more switching defensively, I could see them I could see them offensively running more heliocentric stuff where they do spam a specific action like a two man game with Stefan Siakamoor. It's a reconfiguration. So my question for you is do you still believe in Steve Kerr as the guy to lead this configuration of the Warriors or reconfiguration of the Warriors?
I should say yeah. I mean, look, no coaches without their idiosyncrasies that annoy you, right, And part of the struggles this season is like this roster really needs a coach who's better at development, who's more trusting of young guys, Like like the Okac games stick in my mind just because they got beat by ched Ocri hitting game, tying threes twice, Like what are the odds of that? Right? But in both those games I would point to someone
like Mark Dagen. I was just making so many subtle adjustments down the stretch, whereas Steve's very much I trust my guys type of guy, and he doesn't have that type of roster. So yeah, it's been frustrated watching. But that said, if they make a move to add more veterans, he is a veterans coach, He's got it done in the playoffs a handful of times, can't say he hasn't, and he has the buying of his superstar like unquestioned trust.
I think this is always left out of the conversation here, and people are like, why does he run more pick and roll? It's like you think you think Steph's asking him for pick and roll and he's like no, it's like he's it's Steph can do whatever he wants. Steph can launch it from his own free throw line, and Steve won't do anything about it. You know. It's like he's got his unquestioned trust, and I think that's an underrated quality. So yeah, I mean, look, he's a four
time coach. You're not gonna fire him midseason.
Well, not to mention this, the simple fact that like, don't underestimate too just as a competitor, what a trade, like a trade for Siakam could do to re engage him from that standpoint, and I think I still think Steve Kerr is one of the top tier coaches in the league overall. And I think that like to me, you put it perfectly like he's a veteran's coach. So, you know, we mentioned that nine game stretch. Let's say it goes south. Like let's say they just have a
really Portland's playing pretty well. Let's say they lose to Portland somehow, and then they go to Denver and they lose.
Miami beats the Dallas beats them, Orlando beats them, and suddenly we come back to like a three and six stretch and they're, you know, four games out of the ten seed, and it just looks really really bleak, and and it just like and they decide to go another direction, meaning like instead of you know, they start to keep young guys and acquire more young talent, get rid of some of the veterans.
They go that way.
Yeah, it might be worth because one hundred percent agree with you. Like Steve Kurr is a doghouse coach. He's he's a guy that he's so obsessed with winning that particular game that like he means so quick to go away from the young guys.
And he's so he's so veteran heavy Like the game that will stick into my mind is the in season tournament game where Sack came back twenty eight on. That was eighty twenty plus and the only player who was feeling it was Moses Moody And what does he do subs him out to allow Sacramento come all. Those are like the type of things where I'm like, you know, maybe it's time for a new voice. Those are the
type of little things. But to your point, if they're going to lean more into the veterans and just say, you know, we like the kids, but we don't love them. We don't need all of them here. We need to be consumed with this season, next season and what happens after that happens after that. Like you're not going to do better than Steve Kerr, but that adds that type of coach.
Yep, No, I one hundred percent agree. And again like I just think I think you lean on you lean into what your specific strength is, Like your strength in that case would be experience and continuity mixed with a new influx of talent with Siakam, I don't think you mess with that by changing the coach. Well, Sam, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to come hang out today. Is there anything you want to plug before we get out of here?
Just if you want Warriors content, check out light Years pod. We go live after basically every Warriors game feed stays updated and I appreciate it. I was thinking about it. We picked the perfect time to do it. Were kind of texting like when should we do this? And we'd have got a completely different show if we did this a week ago after the Clipper game when Draymond's like, who knows what's going on? It's just it's funny how that works. But it's a long season, right, Well.
Dude, what it was when it was bad shot, run out, Celtics lay up, bad shot, run out Celtics layup, Like there was there's a version of today's show that could have swung just based on what happened.
The game stopped in the third quarter. Literally, yeah, exactly. All right, guys, babe did the Celtics a favor? Not talking about that? Oh god, oh god?
But yeah, Andy and Sam do an incredible job covering the Warriors on a daily basis. I highly encourage you guys to check it out. Sam, again, thanks for coming to hang out as always. I appreciate all of you guys for supporting the show. We'll be back with a couple of film sessions on Thursday and Friday before we head into the weekend. I'll see you guys tomorrow.
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