FIRST TAKE | No team faces more pressure than the Warriors this offseason – Wind tells Stephen A.

FIRST TAKE | No team faces more pressure than the Warriors this offseason – Wind tells Stephen A.

have our second night of coverage three more hours beginning at 7 Eastern 4 Pacific on ESPN players can sign contracts beginning July 6th you know one of the busiest teams in the NBA free agency was the Rockets they picked up Dorian Finny Smith and Clint Capella they also retained a few of their own in Fred Bland Steven Adams and Jabari Smith Jr another team though in the West that was busy was the Denver Nuggets michael Porter Jr was traded to the Nets and in return they got Cam Johnson the Nuggets are also bringing back Bruce Brown who won the title with them back in 2023 what about the Mavericks they got D’Angelo Russell he averaged a career low in points per game in field goal percentage but should get a lot more run in Dallas with Kyrie Irving out to start the year with that torn ACL overall teams have spent $1.42 billion in free agency that is yeah billions with a B that doesn’t even include player options like LeBron James which was above $52 million and so here we are now back with David Wendy and Tim and Wendy you saw all those moves but let’s talk more about some teams that were maybe not as active and that leads me to ask which team is under the most pressure now to make a move in free agency
yeah the Lakers need a starting center in fact the Lakers need a starting center and a backup center quite frankly and so we’ve seen a number of centers come off the board in the first few day few first few hours of free agency and the Lakers were not able to do that now there is no timeline here it’s not like you get penalized if you don’t do a deal immediately they have to have a team in place by the fall um but you know there was a couple of people that you know look like they would be good fits for them that went elsewhere i think the real surprising one was Brook Lopez brook Lopez was a starter uh level player in Milwaukee a core piece of that team for the last seven years still is a very good defensive player and a floor stretcher he’s not the rim runner roller to the basket type player that is you know maybe more ideal for Luca Donuch but certainly a piece that would have helped the Lakers out and he leaves a potential starting job in Milwaukee passes on the Lakers who I do think had some interest in him um where he would have probably been a good chance to be the starter and takes a backup job for just one full year guaranteed with the Clippers so that was interesting um so the Lakers are under some pressure to get that center no matter where LeBron is about his his investment with with what the team is doing no matter where Luca is with his contract they have to have a starting center to be able to play and balance their roster out by the fall and they have known this since uh uh February they did not get it done in the regular season they have not gotten it done in and around the draft they have not gotten it done in the first night of free agency so they’ve got to make sure they get a player and the longer and the whole league knows it and the longer this goes the higher the price will be whether it’s to sign a player or whether it’s in in via trade do
you agree is that the is that the team under the most pressure in the Lakers
i certainly think the Lakers are in a ton under a ton of pressure and I certainly agree with Brian that they need to get a center and frankly have from the moment they traded for Luca Donuch back in January but just to change things up a little bit I’m going to say the Milwaukee Bucks because we have spent months if not the last couple of years talking about what is the future of Giannis Tetakoupo and where is he going to be playing moving forward and for the Milwaukee Bucks who have now lost three years in a row in the first round so now have Damen Lo who’s probably going to miss the whole season with a torn Achilles we’re now looking at a team that so far in free agency has resigned Bobby Portoris ressigned Kevin Porter Jr ressigned Gary Trent and has lost Lopez in free agency and by the way that was a Milwaukee Bucks team including Damen Lill for half of that series that lost in five games to Indiana Pacer to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs that is not a team that is close to being a contending team that is not a team that’s close to being a factor which is what you’d think a guy like Gasten Koopo would want to be at this point in his career so there’s still time for the Bucks left to make moves they still have some flexibility to add salary we’ll see if they go out of center to replace Brook Lopez here over the next 24 hours or so we’ll see if they can make some trades to try to improve this roster but the question of the summer is is Giannis Tennakoupo satisfied and happy with this Buck’s roster if the answer is yes and he wants to stay in Milwaukee that’s awesome good for him he’s deserved he earned he has earned and deserved that right if he wants to play his whole career with the Bucks that’s great if he is looking around and thinking hey do I want to finish my career in Milwaukee do I want to have a chance to compete for a title do I want to have a chance to compete for being one of the elite teams in the conference this Bucks team is not a top four team in the East they have a lot of work to do to get there and if they don’t it’s going to only renew the questions about what Giannis’ future might look like
okay but so but center seems to be the hot commodity right now between the Lakers obviously and the Bucks and yes keeping your stars happy is another layer to this whole thing do you agree with Tim and Wendy is it the Lakers the Bucks or you got another team well those two teams are definitely under a lot of pressure i think the the thing with those two teams is that I would say that there’s not much out there that can move them into contention right like they can make all the moves that they can try to want try to make but I don’t think there’s something that you can say we wake up they made a trade they got a center they got a little bit of depth and now suddenly they are top four in their respective conferences i think the one team that I think could move into contention that needs to make a sort certain move very quickly is the Golden State Warriors they need to figure out what to do with this Kaminga thing and they need to pretty do it pretty fast like this Steph Curry first of all the two timelines thing has not worked out right and so now Kaminga is the last sort of uh bastion of that move that they have and they need to figure out where they’re going to do with him and what they can build around Stephen Curry for those last couple of years that they can get you know deeper into the playoffs we saw last year they got second round they maybe could have beat Minnesota if Steph Curry was healthy we’ll never know but I think that this Kaminga thing is the missing piece that they can figure out can we get some other guys in there can we get a little bit more depth can we get something to build around him uh it’s been so too much of this will he or won’t he with this guy they need to figure out what how to maximize his value
wendy do you think this coming situation is a big deal with the Warriors right now
it’s a bad year to be a restricted free agent it’s always tough to be a restricted free agent but right now there’s only a couple of teams that at the start of free agency that had money to spend that could offer and those teams have pretty much gone other directions they have not prioritized Kaminga so the only way Kaminga can get a salary that he wants is through a sign in trade which requires the Warriors to cooperate it’s a historic problem it’s particularly pricky prickly this year so the the Warriors themselves as David laid out there are going to try they need to use Kaminga to to get another piece so where I suspect this is headed is the Warriors investing in a contract in Jonathan Kuminga that while they would never admit it at the press conference is specifically designed to be traded later on that they signed him to a deal that they intend to trade they did this rather famously with D’Angelo Russell when Kevin Durant wanted to leave you know they signed Angelo Russell they hugged him they posed for photos with him and they thought about trading him about 15 minutes later and that is something that they may end up with Kaminga the thing about it is is that you want Kaminga to be in a contract that he’s willing to sign that’s representative of what he think his value is and you want his value to remain high and his value has been all over the place because of the the way the Warriors have played with them but the Warriors are a dangerous team when it comes to transactions number one if indeed they get Kaminga into a contract whether it’s a sign and trade now or it’s something that they sign him to now and trade them later they have their draft assets they had they can really spice up a pick with with draft picks and they’re they’re a team that people want to play for the Stars want to play for so they have to be thinking about the future as well as how are they going to necessarily you know compete in October but where they might be able what they might be able to do in January and February because remember people were calling for them to do something last year they waited and they were patient ended up with Jimmy Butler
okay so it sounds like Lakers Warriors Bucks is there any other team we would throw into the pot that’s under pressure right now to do something in free agency are we happy with this list obviously the Kaminga situation is pressing with the Warriors but as Wendy pointed out obviously they went and traded for Jimmy Butler and if they can figure out how to do this they’re a dangerous team anyone else we throw in there warriors Lakers Bucks you’re on the clock
i mean the thing about free
I think that go ahead Wendy
i I the Nuggets are under an interesting spot so they made a big move yesterday we talked about a little bit earlier by trading for Cam Johnson um the Nuggets have got to be sitting there thinking about these last two years they won the title two years ago then they lost to the to the Wolves in in seven games and they lost to the Thunder in seven games this year and they lost to the Thunder in large part because they ran out of players at the end and so they made this deal and this deal brings in a player who a lot of people think is going to be a perfect fit alongside Nikolai Joic um and it opens up a a lot of salary maneuvering room but they’re also very expensive and they’re in the repeater tax right now and every dollar they spend is costing their ownership four or$5 dollars and so they’re going to approach Nicola Yokic with a contract extension in the coming days and they’re going to say “Hey would you like to would you like to take three more years and $25 million to lock yourself up through your prime with us?” And I don’t know what Jokic is going to say and if I’m Yokic and I’m looking at the roster I’m saying “Okay you’ve opened up this money are you did you open up this money to save on luxury tax or did you open up this money to help build out our depth?” They did sign Bruce Brown yesterday and that and he’s a was a key piece on their 2023 team but they have they have maneuverability on their roster right now and they also have no luxury tax bill so which is it going to be is it going to be maneuverability or luxury tax bill when you go to Nicola Joic so there’s there’s I don’t think Yogic is going anywhere to be clear but their owner Josh Kroni openly admitted he’s not sure whether Yic is going to sign this deal because if he waits a year he can get a better contract offer well he also may consider what the team is doing with this roster when he considers whether to sign it now
okay well that would be a perplexing situation if Nicole Yo Joic decides not to sign a a max contract or to stay with the Nuggets but they did make some moves as you just pointed out uh Wendy that the Go ahead what you got well we have some breaking news from Sean Shirania that is very interesting which is the Milwaukee Bucks have signed Miles Turner which is a true stunner of a move on a variety of levels one because Miles Turner goes from the the defending Eastern Conference champion Indiana Pacers to the Milwaukee Bucks two the Milwaukee Bucks did not seem like they had the ability financially to make this kind of a move in the situation they are in so I’m not at the moment because we’re on TV cur I’m very curious to see what the ripple

FIRST TAKE | No team faces more pressure than the Warriors this offseason – Wind tells Stephen A.