Matt George, Locked on Kings – No Reason For Kings To Budge In Warriors Negotiations

Matt George, Locked on Kings – No Reason For Kings To Budge In Warriors Negotiations

Let’s bring in Matt George. Maybe Matt George gets a talk show social and maybe maybe he gets, you know, brings it back, revitalizes the the talk show era. Probably not. Probably not. I mean, look, I host a solo show for 30 minutes. I I’m I’m happy to bring different people on to talk to and it’s nice to talk to another human being every once in a while, but I don’t have the charisma that uh that Well, I mean, I could I could give things away like Oprah, I guess, but I can’t be footing the bill for that. I wouldn’t say you don’t have the charisma. You’ve done the many faces of Matt George like Mfo on here. Yeah. Yeah, I think he does. He’s selling himself short a little bit. I I mean, there’s a reason why the bits only last a couple minutes and not a not a full show. I I can only carry it so far. I was running out when I did my DLO impression. I was running out of material quick. Well, Matt, uh Matt George, ABC10. Um you came in right on time because we got alerted to a tweet or report from Brett Seagull talking about the Kings in pursuit or still pursuit. Nothing’s really changed. It feels like of Jonathan Kaminga talking about the offer being Sarge, Devin Carter, and a conditional first round pick a protected first round pick and how the Warriors are looking for Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis. And it’s like like all right, you could look for that, but it feels like the Warriors and I know the Bay Area people hate when we we talk like this, but we’re just we’re literally just looking at the situation. They don’t have many plays in this situation. Kaminga doesn’t want to be there. They don’t want to pay. They just met, I think, last week in Los last week in Las Vegas and basically reiterated on both sides how they feel about each other. It feels like this Sacramento deal might still be the best thing that they could they could do with Jonathan Kaminga. Well, our our our boy Bonte found me at Niners training camp yesterday and made sure to to to give me to give me an earful about that. Love, Bonte. Um, yeah. I mean, not it’s it’s it’s nothing new, right? Like Shams put it out there today that that the Kaminga’s not like in any kind of hurry to resign with the Warriors. The Warriors aren’t happy with the concrete offers that they’ve gotten, which is one from the Kings and one from from the Suns. And I I’ve seen like Warrior circles talking about other offers and other potential like teams that could be interested in other rumors. Like I don’t know if it’s wishful thinking or not. I’m not from the perspective of the Warriors. I’m from the perspective of the Sacramento Kings. And that perspective hasn’t changed, right? It’s like if there’s any slight movement, it’s the willingness to make it a heavily protected first instead of a second rounder. Um, but we’re I mean, I think the protection the protections would be steep to a a level where we would expect them almost to turn into second rounders type thing. very similar to like the first round pick that the Kings sent. Can’t remember on what deal it was, but the Kings sent out a first that is almost guaranteed to be a like a second rounder or two or maybe it’s a second rounder that’s almost guaranteed to not convey the one they got from Charlotte or something like that this year. Well, that Yeah, that’s the one that they acquire. Yeah, they got the Charlotte pick this year that everybody knew was not going to to convey and it was going to turn to two second rounders. Regardless, like the Kings situation has not changed, right? I’m I’m glad Clutch Points putting it out there. Brett’s a good dude. Um Shams is is putting it out there. It’s all the same thing that I said weeks ago. It’s Sarich, it’s Carter, and it’s some sort of draft compensation. The Warriors are not interested in Malik Monk. One, because they don’t think they feel they could he fits and they could use him. And two, because his contract, specifically the fourth year of his contract, which is a $22 million player option, I believe, is not exciting or enticing to a lot of teams with how tight money is right now. So, Monk is not on the table. Keon Ellis and Keegan Murray are absolutely not on the table like from from what I understand. In fact, when I asked about that, I I got laughter in response. So, like that’s not the case though. like the Warriors can want it just as much as I want a million dollars for walking into my my work. It’s it’s not going to happen. Um and so we’re in the same spot, right? Like the Kings, this is what we got. You don’t have to accept it. You can take another offer, find something better. You can pay Jonathan Kaminga and work it out later. Whatever you want to do, but this is this is what we’re making available to you. Take it or leave it. And nothing’s changed. It’s all kind of just the same waiting game. Do you think the Kings um how do I put this? Do how do you think they look at Jonathan Kaminga? Do you think it gets to a point where yes, they’re negotiating? Yes, they understand they’re not trying to bid against themselves and all this other stuff, but they’re it might get to a point where look, I know we don’t want to do that, but we we really want to take this chance on Jonathan Kaminga. Let’s up the deal where we need to to make sure we get the deal done. Do you think they feel that strongly about Jonathan Kaminga or is it more so, hey, if it works out, like if we have a deal that works for us, then we’ll we’d love to have him here, but we’re not going to overexert oursel to try to get him. I believe there are members of the Kings organization that really do want him and think that he’s available and this is the best chance that they’re going to get to acquire a young talent like that. Um, and they’re encouraging the Kings to remain aggressive. But I think Scott Perry is at the end of that with the final say saying we’re not going to do anything silly in order to to bring him here. I think I I mean I’ve said personally I think Jonathan Kaminga is a good project at a right time for the Sacramento Kings. They need depth at his position. He’s got athleticism that this team lacks. He’s not old that and this team has a lot of kind of older. So I think now is the right time to where for the next season to two seasons. The Kings are in my opinion going to kind of be treading water as a average team in the west, a playin team in the west. Now is the time where you can give the patience to a Jonathan Kaminga where he can work on some things and and and continue to develop his game and grow in Sacramento where he doesn’t have to be maximized right away like he does in Golden State because they’re on a Steph Curry retirement window, right? And they’re trying to maximize that as much as they possibly can because they’re on a clock. The Kings kind of aren’t on a clock right now. They’re the Kings are more waiting for the clock to reset. So, I think Kaminga is a good project at a right time for Sacramento, but it’s not such a it’s not like a first or second overall pick to where they can choose what project they can have. So, they’re going to trade a lot to get that first or second round pick. They’re they’re trading for a player that we have at least enough context to know there are some issues. There are there is some upside and they also know the Warrior circumstance. So, they’re not going to jump and go the extra mile to give Golden State the out. Why would they do that? Why would any organization do that? And I think Golden State understands that, too. So, that’s where we are. We’re just at a kind of a a standstill stalemate. Yeah. Well, before we kind of talked it out and see Jesse, this is a good thing that we talked it out. That’s all we were doing. Yeah. We didn’t make a definitive answer. We talked it out and came to a conclusion. We were right. Because over the weekend I saw I was, you know, running around North Carolina, so I wasn’t super locked in, but I thought I saw something where, you know, Keon Ellis and it was like, hey, the Warriors, you know, want Keon Ellis in a deal or something like that. And I’m not going to lie, I thought about it. I thought about I want Keon Ellis here. Like I want him. This is this is a guy I want in Sacramento and I want to build with him. But I also feel like maybe some of those people in the organization that this is a a heck of an opportunity that you might not always get here with a guy like Kaminga. And I kind of don’t want to pass that up. So I always I struggled with the thought of, you know, would I move on from a guy like Keon Ellis to make sure I take this opportunity? After we talked through it and talked about the situations, um, no, you don’t do that. You you you stay pat and and you do what you have to do. But is that something that it would even cross your mind about, you know, potentially uh including Keon Ellis in a deal for for a guy like Aminga? The only way I would, if I were the Kings, include Keon in the conversation is if I felt by not or by picking up his option this off season that I potentially burned a bridge. And I like I I’ve been told Keon and his camp are not happy. Why would they be to pick up that qualifying offer to where he’s going to make less money than a a vast majority of the talent on the Kings roster that he’s going to be playing ahead of, right? Everybody wants to get paid and paid what they’re worth and Keon Ellis is not paid what he’s worth by NBA standards. Um, so if the Kings feel that, man, we we made this decision because we felt we had to financially this off seasonason to give ourselves the flexibility to get out go and get Shruder or whatever other moves they made. And we can argue that was to make any time. But regardless, they made that move. And if they feel like that burned a bridge to is not going to want to play ball going forward, then yes, can you turn Keon Ellis into something like Jonathan Kaminga before he leaves in unrestricted free agency? There’s a route there. But I don’t think that’s the case. I don’t believe the Sacramento Kings and Ke have any kind of worse relationship because of what’s happened. I do believe the Sacramento Kings are more than interested in in finding a long-term resolution with Keon, just like they’re interested in finding a long-term resolution with Keegan Murray. And on the other side, again, the Sacramento Kings and Scott Perry shouldn’t feel like he has to include anything of a value of a Keon Ellis to get the Jonathan Kaminga situation done because he probably feels he can play the long game. So, I don’t think the Kings should and really would ever consider it based off of the Keon circumstance and based off the fact that no one is going to throw is trying to throw the Warriors a bone to help them get of a a messy situation that they themselves created and are struggling to find a way out of. Yeah. No, I feel you. Like you said, we we we mentioned it, we brought it up, then we talked about it, and we was like, “Nah, we don’t need to do that. We don’t need to do that. It’s all good. It’s all good. Uh Matt George, ABC10 here as we wind down DLO and KC for this Thursday. And Matt, you know, a lot of King stuff going on. We we talk Kings literally for a living. We have a good time with that. Um I want to ask you something else. And as I think about the question, I feel like you’re a little younger than me. might be out of the demographic that sees a guy like Hulk Hogan the way myself and DLO see Hulk Hogan. Did you Did you Were you around for yellow and and and red Hulk Hogan? I I wasn’t I was never a Hulk maniac or anything like that. In fact, what’s funny is and I’ve told I don’t know if I’ve told this before. I wasn’t allowed to watch growing up. Like my mom was not a fan of wrestling because I grew up in the What? I said you’re rebelling now. He He sneaking and watch. Uh oh. This is a good free zone. It’s a good one. My connection. Hold on. It’s like the commercial. Is it okay? Am I here? You back. You back now. You back. That was an official Matt George freezo. I don’t think you All right. I’m working on it. I’m working on it. I apologize. All right. I’m going to a different room that usually has better connection. Um, no, I was not a I was not a Hulk maniac. I was not allowed to watch wrestling growing up. And even like Hulk was big when I was like super super young. So, I I’ve seen I’ve seen videos of like Hulk Hogan and then seen his returns and promos that he’s had when he just show up at Wrestlemania for no reason and say like this the silver dome instead of the Super Dome or whatever in New Orleans. Um, I was never really a Hulk Hogan fan or a follower of of Hulk Hogan, but I understand the pioneer he was to wrestling. So, but not a like my my superheroes in wrestling when I was a kid are Undertaker and Shawn Michaels and Triple H and um I guess End of the End of the Run Rock and and and those guys. That was my that was my era of of wrestlers and Dave Batista. Those were my guys growing up. Dave Batista. No doubt. No doubt. So, like we talk about this, me, myself and uh Damian, we talk about this with Jesse sometimes because Jesse’s younger obviously. I think you’re around that age as well, maybe a little older, but we talk about it with Michael Jordan and we’re like, and and how we revere Michael Jordan the way we do, unless you were there, it’s hard to explain how big of a deal Michael Jordan was. like he was I I know everybody has historical context and all this other stuff, but it’s even more you can’t put it into words. You can’t put it into stories how big of a deal Michael Jordan was. Unless you were kind of there. I kind of feel that way about Hulk Hogan. Like unless you were there in 84 through 89 and the Hulk mania and all this other stuff, it was something you kind of had to live through to understand why people like myself or anybody was like, “Oh, there’ll never be anybody bigger than Hulk Hogan.” Like it’s it was just different. And we talked about it earlier like the man I’m able to separate the man from the character that was Hulk Hogan. And yeah, I’m not going to shade the the the character at all that there’s I don’t think that we’ll ever see a bigger wrestler than Hulk Hogan. I don’t not in my lifetime. I I mean I I was not one of those people that experienced what it was like when when Hulkamania was running wild. Like I I just I I didn’t experience it. I didn’t know it. I didn’t get it. Like my my era of the the the superhero or of of wrestling is Cena. So, I I don’t I can’t really speak to it. I can appreciate it. And of course, we’ve gone back on like the WWE Network and stuff like that to watch some of also and I’ve gotten myself in trouble with old head wrestling fans, too. Like, what we’re so spoiled with modern wrestling now and what what these wrestlers can do in terms of the athleticism, the men, the women, doesn’t matter. What they do now is insane. And they, of course, I’ve seen the video on the internet a thousand times of Hulk slamming Andre the Giant. And it’s like that moment I I can imagine when it happened was unbelievable. But you watch it now and you’re like, he just picked the dude up and then dropped him like that. Like Big Show has gotten that had that happen to him like 17 times over the last few years of his WWE run. So I’m I’m I would call myself almost a spoiled wrestler fan because I didn’t experience the OG days. I didn’t even really experience like ECW. That was probably the reason why ECW was probably the reason why my mom wouldn’t let me watch it. I can believe that. ECW was crazy. That and the Nitro girls maybe. Maybe that’s why they Hey, you put ECW on wrong day and Yeah. No, it’s like what the hell? There was there was a vivid uh rivalry that I remember growing up with back in the day um that that ruined any chance of watching wrestling. Do you remember when Cena and Edge were had their rivalry and and Lita was involved? There was a specific segment that Edge and Lita did. Yeah. That uh that that was that was it. I was cooked. And there were things called Well, I I don’t want to say it. There were matches that the ladies would do in undergarments that that were common as well. It different era different era that uh that mom wasn’t too cool with. Man, you were you were you were shut out from wrestling during that time. I was gone from wrestling at that time. I had already made the right choice at that time. I was like it was like attitude era was over. This was this was ruthless aggression. Wouldn’t you say that’s ruthless aggression when you left? Yeah. Like around I didn’t I wouldn’t tapped in for that one. Um, I I vividly remember, sorry, I I vividly remember one day because I I loved DX, but I loved DX, the Shawn Michaels and Triple H version when they made fun of Mr. McMahon and they they beat up uh they beat up the Spirit Squad. Like that’s the version of DX that I loved. Um, and they’re like they they’re those shirts they were so popular that you could find those shirts in like a Kohl’s or something. And I remember seeing a DX shirt in Kohl’s and I grabbed it. I was like, “Mom, can I can I get this? I love DX.” And she flips it over to the backside and it says their their catchphrase. And I and she said, “Absolutely not. What is this from? I was I was cooked then, too.” Yeah, that’s that’ll that’ll uh that’ll seal the deal right there. You’re not gonna be able to get that shirt. Not gonna be able to get that one. Um Yeah, man. But I Yeah, you were far removed from uh I forget how much older I am than than you. You were far removed. Yeah, you’re old media. Yeah, I’m I’m I’m not even no more. They said they said I’m I’m now um OG, you know. I’m not no more. So, you know, it happens. Real quick, we’ve got about two or three minutes. You said you were at 49ers training camp yesterday. Anything stick out? I know it was the first time um they were on the field, so there wasn’t a lot going on, but did did you were you able to take anything from from the first day of camp? Yeah, I mean, I was wandering around just trying to to shoot and get as much as possible and trying to follow everything. But the one thing that stuck with me is I was I was on one of the sidelines and I’m shooting and all of a sudden I look up and Ricky Pearlaw’s right in front of me. So I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to start shooting Ricky Pearaw.” was working one-on-one with the coach, just kind of running routes, and he looked fast, like he looked good. And then Shanahan takes the podium afterwards and basically says like back in the day, like Ricky Pierall would be a go, like he’d be participating like normal right now. And they said he’s running his routes at full speed and matching or even beating his normal speed times on routes that he did before he got hurt. So, he’s basically back, right? They’re but they’re taking the time because they can right now. They have the mandatory 4 days without pads. So, my takeaway, there’s a lot of stuff, but my takeaway was Ricky Persaw looks quick, he looks healthy, and I mean, I know that receiving room needs desperately to get healthy. I think he’s going to be back very soon, like next week soon. Yeah. Yeah. I I saw I saw some other footage of him as well. It might have been from you. It might have been somewhere else, but he was like running from sideline to sideline full speed, and I was like, he looks fine. And it sounds like after seeing him, it was like, “Oh, yeah. This is probably just precautionary.” Yeah. Just making sure everything’s good. So, you look good. All right, man. Matt, I know you had a busy day. You out there working. He made some time for me, man. So, I appreciate you, big dog. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Sorry about the internet. Chatty house. Make sure you jot down the freeze time whenever it happened. 3:44, they said 3:44. Yeah. Put it on a shirt. Put it on a shirt. Matt George, ABC10, man. I appreciate you, big dog.

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