ESPN SC | Woj: Warriors are attempting to include Andrew Wiggins in trade offer for Lauri Markkanen

ESPN SC | Woj: Warriors are attempting to include Andrew Wiggins in trade offer for Lauri Markkanen

back to that rumor mill because that is a name that’s been out there before the Demar D rozan deal went down we heard the Kings potentially Golden State it seems like the trade talks have cooled off for now does it stay that way in your opinion do you think it’s going to pick back up where does he ultimately land in your opinion and and if there is a move when does it happen listen if we’ve learned anything from Danny age it’s not a matter of if it’s a matter of when but he’s going to try to get everything he can from the team that he is going to trade with we saw that with the Donovan Mitchell situation the Knicks were to give a whole lot up for Donovan Mitchell but Danny a wanted more he got more from Cleveland in his mind I don’t think he did but whatever different story that’s of the past but bringing it back to Lori listen I absolutely love his game I mean he averages points per game almost eight and a half rebounds shoots almost 50% from the floor almost 40% from the three has drastically gotten better since he first began his career he’s only 27 years old so I do think that there is a high market for him I like him in OKC I think he would be a perfect with that young team that they have he’s a skilled shooter he’s a rebounder he brings so many different um assets to a team he has so many different depths of his game so many bags to his game rather I should say um like I said it’s a matter of if he gets um when he gets traded not necessarily if I think he’s too much of an asset for what they’re trying to do in Utah which is I think rebuild Utah is weird they’ve always kind of gotten close not close enough and now they’ve gotten rid of Donovan Mitchell and a lot of other people pieces they just haven’t really been able to figure out their groove they’re not quite a rebuild they’re somewhere in the weird Middle where there’s are there are pieces that you can go ahead and figure out what to do with but there are pieces that you need to add and in order to add you have to trade so all that to say Danny age will trade Lori Markin in but he is going to try to get the house the kitchen sink the garage all the dogs and maybe you know a future grandkid in the mix that’s just how he does business so that that’s what he’s waiting on yeah I I I would like to see Lori Markin and maybe even find a home with golden state if they can figure out I think Wiggins needs a a new home uh so if they can figure out yeah you’re pairing him with Steph Curry and obviously Draymond Green you lost a lot of shooting um with Klay Thompson I know they made the trade for uh buddy heel uh but I I think you know in this situation DeAnthony Milton was a nice pickup for Golden State signing a one-year deal but I would I believe that if he can find his way to Golden State uh not sure if golden state has enough trade assets to send back and probably got to get a a third team involved he would be a a nice fit next to uh Steph car GNA get the house the kitchen sink a dogids and the grand kid Dan wants it all the whole family nothing so for Buddy hee the idea has obviously that he can fill a Klay Thompson esque role as a movement shooter Off the Bench right and that makes some sense because buddy heeld is the poor man’s version of Klay Thompson Indiana used him a little differently he said a lot of on ball screens for Tyrese halberton like ghost screens that was one of the most common actions before before the Pacers made all their trades it was like Miles Turner pick and pop with Halle Burton buddy heel ghost screens those are like the two primary actions that they ran the most and so uh buddy heeld got a lot of reps that registered as like uh ball uh pick and roll roll man reps because technically he’s setting the ball screen and rolling but he’s popping to the to the three-point line but that technically is like an offscreen movement shooter type of role and then he did do a lot of work and movement shooting situations coming off of off ball screens as well with the Pacers now uh and obviously very small sample size with the Sixers but he did some work in that department as well now to be clear Klay Thompson is better than buddy heeld in every way Klay got 1.1 points per shot attempt on offscreen plays buddy heeld got 0.89 on much lower volume clay converted spot ups at 1.08 points per play buddy was at 1.01 Klay ran 208 ball screens and got over a point per possession buddy ran uh 89 of them and got 0.89 points per possession Kay ran 58 isos and got 61 points that’s 1 05 points per possession buddy ran 18 and got 10 that’s 0.56 points per possession Clay’s bigger he’s got a better ability to get to his spots to be an on ball Creator Clay is a substantially better defensive player the one thing I’d say that this at this point that buddy does better is he’s just a little bit more active on the glass because he’s faster so we can get to some of those like like long rebound type of situations and he rebounded at a higher rate last year than Klay Thompson but Klay Thompson’s a better player than buddy heel that said buddy can reasonably fill that role at a heavily discounted price and that’s why this move makes a lot of sense he is a very natural fit within the Warriors offense again when we talk about the Warriors offense it’s five out with a combination of like screening passing fulcrums and moving movement Shooters right the screening passing fuls these are all the guys over the years like Draymond Green like cavon Looney like Andrew bit in the early years uh Andre godala did a lot of this as well you know these are guys that like weren’t necessarily Dead Eye three-point Shooters but guys that could just be really smart basketball players that knew how to make the right reads as they’re operating in space that knew how to keep flowing into the next action to try to get their movement Shooters opportunities and then accentuating those guys were these movement Shooters and over the years that’s been a bunch of different guys obviously it’s been Stephen Klay it’s been KD it’s been Jordan pool it’s been you know uh some other on ball guys like LeAndre Barbosa and and sha Livingston right but at the end of the day it’s like offensive threats coming off of screens and guys who can set screens and then capitalize on attention devoted to the guys coming off of those screens Kyle Anderson fits magically into that type of role we’re going to talk about him in just a couple of minutes but Kyle Anderson is just another guy that’s a very good decision maker screen and roll guy who operates out of the middle of the floor and then you’ve got buddy heeld is another a movement shooter and that buddy heeld by the way also just brings three-point volume he took seven three-point attempts per game last year combined in the two destinations and shot 39% on them so it just kind of adds that influx of threo volume to try to replace some of what Klay Thompson brings to the table now as I said like these guys have their issues but I like these additions because neither guys should be in their core fiveman lineup when you look at these views or these moves through the lens of being like Fringe like outside of the starting lineup guys who are like your seventh or eighth man when you look at them through that context they actually make a ton of sense like buddy heeld has his issues he’s not an efficient on ball Creator he’s at his best when he’s being set up with an advantage Klay Thompson was a better on ball Creator than buddy heeld obviously but he’s undersized he’s a mediocre athlete but he’s perfectly f fine as a rotational benchu guard and he is a very natural fit within the offense which should allow you to maximize what you get out of Buddy heeld Kyle Anderson has his issues smart defenses dare Kyle Anderson to score the basketball and he can struggle with that he’s a bad jump shooter he’s a mediocre mid-range pull-up jump shooter he’s okay like just barely over 40% in like hook def floater range that like kind of short range area he shoots just 52% on layups so like yeah he’s got his issues but he’s an excellent Defender with a lot of Versatility he was actually the best defender guarding Luca in the Western Conference finals last year he’s a really smart playmaker he’s actually one of the best assist to turnover guys in the league 4.2 assists to just 1.2 turnovers last year really good decision maker in the middle of the floor he’s a quality rotation piece these are guys that as long as you don’t need to close games with them they can really help you and on nights when buddy heeld has it going and maybe the Anthony Melton isn’t uh playing as well buddy heeld is an option there but you don’t need to go that route these are guys that you’re not depending on for massive roles you’re depending on them in bench rolls and within that context I really like it so the Warriors this summer already have bolstered their rotation with a quality starter and DeAnthony Melton in my opinion provided that he’s healthy in two good rotation pieces and I’ve talked about this extensively but I love the Anthony Melton’s game if he’s healthy he’s your starting two guard and so then you start to look at their best lineups and you go okay Steph Curry top 10 player in the league DeAnthony Melton Bonafide really good highlevel starter at the two guard Andrew Wiggins Bonafide really high level starter at the three and Draymond Green who’s one of the best defensive players in the league that’s a good core four to have in terms of your core lineups now the question is who’s that fifth guy now in the short term it’s probably kaminga right but Steve cerr has been on the record that he doesn’t love the idea of kaminga and Wiggins playing together they’re two inconsistent Shooters they don’t have a lot of feel for the game from those two spots and that’s really that’s the most important thing when we talk about kaminga is like the fit is a little clunky in Golden State because this is a five out offense where read and react in quick decision-making quick quality decisionmaking is vitally important and that’s one of kinga’s biggest weaknesses right now why I love the Kyle Anderson fit say what you want about him he’s an excellent decision maker who will operate well in five out as we look at as I talked about through the Warriors history that type of player has been so very important right so this is where the Lorry marketing rumors come in because kaminga is that fifth guy to me is the odd man out he’s the one guy that like is going to cause that lineup to fail reaching the level on both ends of the floor that it needs to reach now to be clear before we go any further on Lori the Warriors might just not have enough to get Lori marinin like if a team like the San Antonio Spurs decides that they really want to put their best offer together they’d probably win that bidding war so the question is should the Warriors consider including Jonathan kaminga in a potential deal for Lori Marinet and I think the answer is very clearly yes and so I’m going to make the case for that now I have three reasons why three reasons why I think the Warriors should include Jonathan kaminga in a deal for L if that’s what it takes number one Jonathan kaminga has Allstar upside but he does not appear to have Superstar upside I’m a big believer in Jonathan kaminga he’s like a truly Transcendent athlete talked about this a lot last year but nobody can keep him in front when he makes quick lateral moves out of the high post when he’s attacking with a triple threat or even out of the post like that was why that was why he was so successful in the post last year that’s why he drew so many fouls cuz he was getting Defenders out of position he’s an intriguing Defender with a lot of upside I like him a little better on the ball than off the ball right now I think he’ll have multiple Seasons as an NBA player where he averages over 20 points per game and I think that he’ll probably make an All-Star team at some point but he has not shown what what Jonathan kaminga is clearly not shown to this point is that multifaceted dominance that you typically see from foundational Superstars right around this point in their career years you see flashes of it and we did not see that with kaminga in my opinion Jonathan kaminga is absolute ceiling like the best player he could be would be what Jaylen Brown has become and that is a huge compliment Jaylen Brown just won a finals MVP but Jaylen Brown is somewhere around the 15th best player in the NBA that would be an absolute monstrous success story for Jonathan kaminga I think it’s more likely than not that he doesn’t get to that level but that is his upside Jaylen Brown is not the franchise Cornerstone that the guys at the top of the league are the guys like Shay ildis Alexander jannis ananana kmo Joan elid Luca donic nicoa yic Jonathan kaminga has no shot at cracking that tier right and so with that being the case like I don’t view him as like a can’t miss type of asset number two Lori marinan is also not that type of guy he’s also not a Cornerstone type of talent but he’s much further along in his development than kaminga and he’s a much better natural basketball fit with the Warriors Lor Markin is not going to be a top 10 guy he’s not going to enter into conversations with LCA donic and Joel embiid and those guys at the top of the league but he’s much further along he averag 25 points and eight rebounds per game in his last two seasons with the Utah Jazz 49% from the field 40% from three 89% from the line 64% true shooting percentage 25 and8 on 64% true shooting you would be thrilled if Jonathan kaminga became that Lori marinan is already that and I know it’s not a perfect player comp they’re very different types of players but in terms of value to a franchise you Aspire that Jonathan kaminga might be able to become as valuable around the league or as good as as Lorie marinan has been as as an NBA player the last two seasons that would be a quality outcome for Jonathan and so you’re just getting someone that fits more within the timeline and then he’s a beautiful fit within the Warriors offense he’s an excellent spot up guy he converted spot-up possessions at 1.10 points per possession last year good movement shooter he shot 45% coming off of screens last year that’s 1.11 points per shot he’s a great cutter he’s a great pick and pop big in ball screens with Steph Curry that would be a deadly he’s a high level read and react player in five out he is just a much more natural basketball fit with the Warriors than Jonathan kaminga and then the third reason why you’d have to include him you have Steph Curry on your team and you’re not planning on trading him so stop focusing on what some of these young players can be and give Steph as much support as you can because you owe that to him and Lori allows you to do both Lori allows you to give real genuine support to Steph Curry in the short term while also having an asset for the long term of the franchise he’s 27 years old he’s got a lot of great basketball left in him if to be clear if I actually thought that Jonathan kaminga could become a foundational franchise Cornerstone type of prospect then I wouldn’t even consider having this conversation but he’s not like if he’s not like a perennial MVP vote getter then then it doesn’t make sense and again I understand from a different perspective if you don’t have Steph Curry on the roster you don’t trade like for instance if you’re the Utah Jazz and you’re looking for your franchise Cornerstone and you have kaminga and you want Lori Markin in that doesn’t make any sense because Lori Markin is not that guy either you’re better off betting on kinga’s upside and maintaining whatever other assets that you have the Warriors have Steph Curry the Warriors have Draymond Green the Warriors have a certain obligation to try to make this work and and and and that to me is is where you have to consider this type of deal here’s my last note on it before we move on Lori gives you a clear five to start and end games with Stephy Anthony Melton Andrew Wiggins Draymond Green and Jonathan kaminga clunky not enough shooting not enough high IQ players on the wing Steph DeAnthony Melton Andrew Wiggins Lorie Markin in and Draymond Green plenty of shooting plenty of guys that know how to play read and react five out basketball in the perimeter that five has the upside of a championship team I wouldn’t put him at the top of that tier but like I’d put him up in the rest of the Western Conference at least i’ put him up there with you know every team that’s below that Denver OKC Boston tier they’re just as good as all those teams if they get Lori Markin in and then Anything Could Happen who knows maybe Steph does get back to MVP level next year and you become a championship Contender maybe you do have the ability to make a smaller move on the margins at the deadline to push yourself up another level but Lori marinin is the only guy that can put you into that conversation if you keep Jonathan kaminga and you go with Stephy Anthony Melton Andrew Wiggins kaminga and Draymond you’re playing team so I mean here’s the thing it’s possible that Lori Markin is just outside of Golden State’s price range but if you have to include kaminga to make a deal like that [Music] happen [Music] for Fore [Music] w [Music] for for for e for [Music] spee for [Applause] [Music] e e e e [Music] e e e e [Music] you

ESPN SC | Woj: Warriors are attempting to include Andrew Wiggins in trade offer for Lauri Markkanen