- 1 minute ago
Monte Poole, who covers the Warriors for NBC Sports Bay Area, to talk about the Warriors' 5-3 record to start the season.
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00:00We're going to bring in someone who's covered the Warriors closer and longer than just about anyone and had a
00:06great article about it today, about the fact, and this is something we've been playing with a lot, the Warriors
00:11feel like Draymond, at least to a degree, is somewhat intentional about these moments to fire everyone up, while I
00:19think a lot of the fan base thinks this is just somebody who becomes unhinged.
00:24Let's talk about it, and then we'll get back to your calls. Joining us now on the River Islands guest
00:28line from NBC Sports Bay Area is none other than the great Monty Poole. Monty, good evening, man. Thank you,
00:34and how are you?
00:36Doing well. What's up, guys?
00:37Well, we're hanging out, talking this out, because so many people, as you know, whenever this happens, it's like, oh
00:43my gosh, the antics, we're done with Draymond Green. Why don't they move on from him?
00:48Why do the Warriors not see Draymond the same way the fan base does?
00:56Well, if you ask anybody in the building, they will tell you, you ask them the question, how many championships
01:02do you guys win without Draymond?
01:03And the answer is, either none or maybe one.
01:07You know, they understand his value to their defense, and people always talk about those Warriors as being, oh my
01:15gosh, Steph and Klay and then Durant and then the shooting, shooting, shooting.
01:19But they were always a top-tier defense, too.
01:23And Draymond is like the quarterback of that defense, or if you want to say middle linebacker, or a catcher
01:28in baseball.
01:29He's the guy who organizes things, who sets things up, who gets guys in the right positions.
01:36Every assistant coach and head coach that I've talked to that has played against the Warriors over the years, that's
01:41the first thing they play to about playing the Warriors.
01:43You've got to play for Draymond's defense, because he is as good as anybody they've ever seen at blowing up
01:49an offensive set.
01:50And so, Frank Vogel just came to the Warriors this year, and I talked to him about what he wants
01:54to do with the defense, and I asked him how does Draymond figure into it.
01:57He goes, he's the big part of it. He's the main part of it, because I know when we were
02:01playing the Warriors, whether I was at Orlando or Indiana or L.A. or Phoenix,
02:06he said Draymond was the guy that we worried about on defense, because we knew what he could do to
02:09our offense.
02:11And so I hope to use him the same way here, because he's got a knack for it.
02:15And so, I get it. You know, sometimes the antics do get old.
02:18I mean, the Jordan Poole thing was inexcusable.
02:20You know, there were some things that happened, and just, you know, my goodness, how much can they take?
02:24And, but Steve Kerr and Steph Curry and Joel Acob, they kind of stood by him every time.
02:34So, yeah, does it get old? Yes.
02:37But as Steph would say, it's part of the Draymond package, you know.
02:41And Steph would also say that on a personal level, he knows what Draymond really is all about.
02:47And so I think, yeah, in the instance last night, you know, was it calculated?
02:52It's possible. I don't think it was at first.
02:56I think he was retaliating the first time, and then he retaliated again.
03:02You know, so the first time when he threw Malawak to the floor, you know, you look at a replay,
03:06you saw Malawak push Draymond to the floor.
03:09Draymond gets up, grabs him, and pushes him to the floor.
03:12And then here comes Dylan Brooks.
03:14And so I don't think Draymond's going to let Dylan Brooks, quote-unquote, punk him.
03:19So Dylan Brooks comes into the mix for no good reason other than the fact that he's Dylan Brooks.
03:23And so now you have these guys grabbing each other by the jersey.
03:27Second technical foul for Draymond.
03:29First for Dylan Brooks.
03:30Draymond walks off the court.
03:31Dylan Brooks starts laughing and giggling because in his mind, he goes,
03:35I did what I had to do.
03:36I got the guy out of the game.
03:38But the Warriors found a way, and they've done this before.
03:43When Draymond leaves, they understand that, okay, we've got to play better defense
03:48because he's not there to save us.
03:50He's not there to, like, when somebody blows by us, he's not there to get in the way
03:54to play a help side defense or whatever we need to do to make sure the guy doesn't have a
03:58free run to the bucket.
04:00And so the defense got better.
04:02They played their best defense when Draymond left.
04:04And so, you know, I don't, Draymond wasn't there after the game to be asked about this,
04:09but it's altogether possible that, yeah, you know, that's partly calculated.
04:13But I just think in this case, he was not going to let the first guy, Malawak, you know,
04:20throw him to the floor without anything happening on his part.
04:23And the second part, he's not going to let Dylan Brooks run on his face and just stand there.
04:27That's what Draymond is.
04:28So two technical fouls.
04:30He's gone.
04:31Warriors find a way to win.
04:32Yeah, and it was an impressive performance by Charles Bassi and others after Draymond Green went out.
04:38I wonder, Monty, watching the game as closely as you do, if you see slippage on defense from Draymond Green
04:44or on offense,
04:45or is it really just a case that he's playing differently on offense?
04:50Yeah, his offense, you know, that before the season started, there was just talk about,
04:54well, we need Draymond to be, you know, make some corner threes and sort of be almost a three and
04:59D guy.
05:00And that has not materialized because the Warriors were going to play five out.
05:04That was a big, that was a thing.
05:06They're going to change their offense.
05:07We're going to play more five out.
05:09But what happened is that kind of died early when Chris Tapps Porzingis went down, when he never showed up.
05:14Porzingis is the second most important person on that roster toward playing a five out offense.
05:20You have to have a stretch five that people respect.
05:23And when he was unfair, it's like, okay, what do we do now?
05:28And Al Horford, you know, is going to play 20 minutes a night at most.
05:31They're going to play back-to-backs.
05:32So you got Bassi and Ike behind Draymond.
05:35And Draymond, every four years in a row, Steve Curran said, you know, I really want to, like, reduce Draymond's
05:40time at the five.
05:41And every year, Draymond's at the five.
05:46So, and Draymond's not a stretch five.
05:48So Horford's their only stretch five, and he's a part-time player.
05:52So that five-out offense has not materialized as Steve Curran visualized.
05:57And I don't know that it will with the current roster because Ike and Bassi are both guys.
06:03Bassi has a nice little shooting touch, but it's all, you know, in the painted area.
06:06He's midi in painted area.
06:08You don't want to see him shooting threes unless you absolutely have to.
06:12And so, I mean, I'm not saying he can't make them.
06:15I'm saying that that's not his really his cup of tea.
06:19So that sort of meant Draymond is back at the five, playing in the paint on defense.
06:26And on offense, he's still trying to figure his way out of what to do because initially it was, Draymond,
06:32you know,
06:32we want to take some of the playmaking load off of you and, you know, have you just, you know,
06:38make some threes
06:38and make defenses, make enough threes so the defenses begin to respect you.
06:42Because Draymond has done that.
06:43Last year, he shot better than 40% on corner threes.
06:46And so, but that just hasn't happened.
06:49You know, Draymond hasn't scored 20 points in the season, I don't think yet.
06:52So, so they have to live with Draymond's offense, or defense rather, and that's a big part of what they
06:59do.
06:59They have a chance to win games.
07:01And offensively, you know, there's been, you know, turnovers have been a little bit better, I think, on the whole.
07:08There have been a couple of bad ones, but for the most part, you know, there's been a couple of
07:12games where he was really clean with the ball.
07:15So, yeah, I think when you look at what they have at the five, Bassey's, I think, a keeper.
07:22I mean, I keep describing him as a more athletic Kaman Looney, and in the sense that he does the
07:27dirty work, he rebounds in traffic, he can protect the rim.
07:32You saw what he did to Walker Kessler the other night at the rim.
07:36So, he's a keeper.
07:38He's not a, you know, he's not a top-line starter or an all-star or anything.
07:41But, again, neither was Looney.
07:43But Looney had a role on this team, and they won championships with him playing that role.
07:47And I think that Bassey is that kind of guy.
07:49EK is a rookie, so you're still trying to figure things out, but he's promising.
07:54Monty Poole, NBC Sports Barrier is with us on Withered and Dibs 95-7, the game.
07:58Let's expand that out for the whole season.
08:01And obviously, you don't know what's going to happen with Kristaps' contract,
08:04but what is the Warriors' plan at the big man spot for the whole year?
08:12Well, they are trying to figure out a way to shed Porzingis.
08:17And the bottom line is that every day that goes by, it becomes a little bit easier to do
08:23because he's making $20 million this year and $3 million guaranteed next year.
08:27And so, you know, you get to the all-star break, and his salary is a lot more tradable
08:32because at that point, you owe him $8, $9, $10 million.
08:36Right now, you owe him about $18.5 million.
08:40So, that's the part that makes it hard.
08:43I think they've given up on the possibility of him coming back to play.
08:47He may himself have given up on that possibility.
08:50He's been not around for us.
08:53You know, he's not been around for us.
08:55He's been to the facility a couple times, but for the most part,
08:58there's very little to no communication between him and the team.
09:01He checks in with Dunleavy on occasion or Rick Celebrini.
09:05I mean, Steve Kerr has talked to him two or three times,
09:09but they obviously want to move him.
09:12And it's just hard to do that given his salary and his unavailability.
09:17Right.
09:17And the salary, like you said, if you get to the deadline,
09:20it becomes much more absorbable, I suppose, by another team.
09:24But between now and then, I guess the pressure is off a little bit
09:27because of Yaxa Lendeborg.
09:29Monty, you've been doing this for a long time.
09:31Tim, have you ever seen a rookie in any sport have this sort of a splash,
09:36not only on the court, but at the podium as well?
09:40Yeah, I don't think so, especially one that was picked 11th overall.
09:44You know, I mean, I've seen some rookies come in, first pick overall,
09:47and LeBron, you know, coming in, boom, you know, he's already a star.
09:52Back in the day when the Warriors drafted Chris Weber,
09:54he came in and made an immediate impact, was rookie of the year.
09:57But when you look at the whole package of what Yaxa can do on the offensive end,
10:05he brings a little bit of everything.
10:07You know, he's a passer.
10:09He sees the floor.
10:10He processes the game.
10:11He shoots the three.
10:12He goes in the paint.
10:13He can play bully ball defensively.
10:16He's not bad on ball, off ball.
10:18He's still saving that part out.
10:20But, yeah, when you look at the fact that he is so affable
10:25and so willing to speak his mind, of course, those of us in the media,
10:29we love that.
10:30A guy comes in, you know, a guy comes in and just, you know,
10:33he says what he thinks.
10:35And I won't say he has no filter, but his filter is very small.
10:38And so, you know, I don't know if that will change over time.
10:42I hope it doesn't.
10:44But, yeah, right now he's so refreshing to hear him talk about things
10:48and also to watch him play the game the way he plays the game
10:50because I liked him in college at Michigan.
10:54And I didn't know much about him at UAB,
10:56but I'm impressed by the fact that a guy can go to a junior college
11:00and then go to a D1 college and play the four and five spot
11:05and then go to a Michigan and be moved to the three spot
11:09and excel at every step of the way.
11:12And so I don't know if he can get his defense well enough
11:15to where he can defend wings.
11:18But on the ball, he's not been that bad.
11:20It's just he gets lost sometimes off the ball,
11:23and a lot of rookies do that.
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11:43Okay, Monty, we started our show off today with a question
11:46that I can't wait to ask you.
11:49It's an easy one now, although maybe it's not.
11:52You answer it.
11:53Are the Warriors good?
11:58Good.
11:59Yeah, I would say good, meaning they can be an above 500 team.
12:03So that gets them out of mediocrity.
12:07I think I went into the season thinking, okay,
12:09if they can just sort of tread water until there are reinforcements,
12:14whether it be a trade or maybe they consider Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody
12:18the trade acquisition that midseason,
12:21that they have a chance to make noise.
12:22The key has always been, from the time they got Jimmy
12:25and brought in Al Horford last season,
12:28the key was always going to be, can they get to the playoffs healthy?
12:31Because I think if they get to the playoffs healthy,
12:33they can do some damage.
12:35You've got Steph.
12:36You've got Jimmy.
12:38You've got the Axel.
12:39You know, you've got guys who can play a little bit.
12:41And I like what the bench is doing.
12:44Brandon Williams has been really, really, really good.
12:46A nice change of pace.
12:48DeAnthony Melton wasn't very good last night,
12:50but he's been pretty good too.
12:52He went into last night's game shooting them, I think, 46% from three.
12:57So, I like what they're putting together with what they have.
13:00The question is, can they get into, can they end the year, you know,
13:04four or five games above 500?
13:06I think it's possible.
13:07These next three home games are all winnable.
13:10Miami is kind of struggling right now, but they do have Giannis.
13:12They do have Bam.
13:14They're figuring some things out.
13:15You know, and so they're looking at teams that they have a chance to beat
13:18three more home games.
13:20And it wouldn't shock me if they won all three,
13:22which would mean an eight-game win streak.
13:25It's crazy.
13:26Wow.
13:26But, I mean, they're on a five-game win streak now,
13:29and they didn't do it all last year without a five-game win streak.
13:32So, when you say, are they good?
13:34I think it's safe to say they're good.
13:36They're not great.
13:37And they're not elite.
13:39So, I would say right now they're in the third tier of NBA teams,
13:42which means they're good, which is a cut above mediocre.
13:45Right, and with, you know, injuries to Oklahoma City
13:48and a long season yet to play out,
13:50who knows what might be able to take place in April.
13:52And I wonder about the question Mark asked you about, are they good?
13:56Brandon Pajemski, it's pretty clear now that he is good.
14:00What are you seeing from him that has kind of started to silence
14:03a lot of his critics?
14:05Well, first of all, Brandon's always played hard.
14:07You know, and, you know, he, every now and then,
14:10the one thing he does that I think people kind of wince at
14:12is that sometimes he decides to play one-on-one basketball,
14:16and he's not really built for that.
14:18And he still tries.
14:20He doesn't try as much as he used to.
14:21And it usually gets him in trouble.
14:22And then you see him holding the ball, looking around for help.
14:25So, he's not going to take guys off the dribble
14:28and just get to the hoop.
14:29You know, he's not Brandon Williams, for example.
14:32But the rest of his game, I mean, his defense has kicked up a little bit.
14:36The Warriors still do not have a quote-unquote elite point-of-attack
14:39defender on the roster.
14:41But Brandon, he works at it.
14:43He's gotten better at it.
14:45And his shooting, it seems to start slow in most games
14:48and then comes around as the game goes on.
14:52So, when I saw his contract, I didn't think,
14:55oh, my God, they really overpaid.
14:58It's a mid-range contract that starts next season.
15:03So, when you pay a guy $20 million a year,
15:06you're not expecting an All-Star, are you?
15:09All-Stars makes $50, $60, you know, $70.
15:13And so, in the way the trajectory that Yaxel, that Lindenborg is on,
15:18what do you think his contract is going to look like?
15:20He's got a dwarf what Brandon just got.
15:22And so, Brandon's a manageable contract,
15:26and I don't think he's a top three player on a championship team,
15:29but he can be an important player on a championship team.
15:33Monty Poole, NBC Sports Bay Area.
15:35Hey, before we let you go, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green,
15:41what are the chances they're on the Warriors beyond this year?
15:46Ooh.
15:47I think a lot of that depends on what happens this year.
15:51You know, I think that's something that probably Mike and Joe
15:54have batted around a little bit,
15:57but I think that's something that they want to see how this year plays out
16:00before they make any kind of a commitment.
16:02I know Draymond wants to finish his career here.
16:04I also know that he knows that a trade is possible,
16:08and so is free agency.
16:10And so, in Jimmy's case, same thing.
16:12You know, and Jimmy wants to be here.
16:14And Mike Dunley has said repeatedly that he has no plans to move Jimmy.
16:18But he also said last year that there were no plans to move Draymond
16:22when pretty much we all knew that at least it was discussed.
16:25So, yeah, I just think what happens this year will go far to dictate
16:29what happens with Draymond and Jimmy after the season.
16:34Monty, we love it when you come on.
16:36Thank you so much, my friend.
16:38All right, boys.
16:39Take care.
16:39Okay, you too.
16:40Monty Poole.
16:41Monty Poole.