So, the Plan is to Start JK & Podz...

[Romulus]

It's now being reported that the Warriors were never close to getting a LM trade completed and in fact, have a very specific plan: start Podz & JK.

Your starting 5:

Curry
Podz
JK
Wiggins
Draymond

What a perfect plan for success, don't you agree? Starting two developing, unproven young guys means you need a coach who's known for developing young guys, someone with great patience. And that's Steve Kerr, right? He's going to stick to this plan for how long? A week? Two weeks tops before he desperately inserts someone else?

How many wins for this team? I guess you have to factor in the Draymond affect. Can Draymond go an entire season without punching a teammate, slapping or choking or kneeing someone in the nuts and getting suspended for how many games? 20? 30? More?

Difficult to know.

Whatever. Joe Lacob has doomed this year's team before it even gets started. No shooting, no second option, no size. Just lean on those great draft picks and show everyone how lightyears ahead of everyone else this FO is.

Can't wait for it all to unfold -- and for Curry to ask to get the hell out.

[Dubs 707]

I mean this is a good thing we're finally accepting that the run is over and it's time to develop pur future players.

Push come to shove this will improve their trade value. Win win situation if you ask me!!

[Dubs 707]

Are you a fan of the team or the player?

[cladden]

I mean this is a good thing we're finally accepting that the run is over and it's time to develop pur future players.

Push come to shove this will improve their trade value. Win win situation if you ask me!!

[floppymoose]

Are you a fan of the team or the player?

Yes

[superunknown]

Are you a fan of the team or the player?

the point is not being a fan of the team or the player (although in this particular instance someone could argue that at the moment steph is basically the team ) but the fact that this team currently constructed with no further moves it's a treadmill team.
the run is over? ok. blow it up then. trade curry and dray for as much picks and assets as you can get and start the rebuilt now. but this "middle-ground" strategy - not to blow it up not to flip the youngsters/picks for improvement - is the last thing a serious organization should do. it's a stupid strategy and will get you nowhere in the near future.
either you try everything you can to give steph a last shot to at least compete for a championship (and the west has not improved compared to last season, rather the top dog DEN has further weakened like the LAC and teams like PHO o LAK are no getting any younger, there are many good teams but no real juggernaut) or you blow it up now. you don't drag it for another 1-2 perhaps 3 years, for what?

[Romulus]

Are you a fan of the team or the player?

the point is not being a fan of the team or the player (although in this particular instance someone could argue that at the moment steph is basically the team ) but the fact that this team currently constructed with no further moves it's a treadmill team.
the run is over? ok. blow it up then. trade curry and dray for as much picks and assets as you can get and start the rebuilt now. but this "middle-ground" strategy - not to blow it up not to flip the youngsters/picks for improvement - is the last thing a serious organization should do. it's a stupid strategy and will get you nowhere in the near future.
either you try everything you can to give steph a last shot to at least compete for a championship (and the west has not improved compared to last season, rather the top dog DEN has further weakened like the LAC and teams like PHO o LAK are no getting any younger, there are many good teams but no real juggernaut) or you blow it up now. you don't drag it for another 1-2 perhaps 3 years, for what?

This. You made the points for me.

It's not for me to choose a direction; but rather, it's for the FO to choose a direction. If you think Draymond & Steph are still good enough to give you a chance to win a title, you should go all in and be willing to trade the young guys and draft picks to make it happen. In that instance, the LM trade (and giving up Podz) was a no-brainer. If you don't believe in that scenario (which apparently they don't), then you should trade both Steph & Draymond and rebuild. Trying to do what they're doing is not going to work and it's going to blow up in their faces. The two-time-line approach has been an absolute failure and will continue to be if that truly is their "plan."

And on top of it all, Steve Kerr is absolutely the LAST guy you want developing young talent.

[Dubs 707]

Sooo sell the future for a maybe. Let's trade JK and pods with any amount of picks that Danny wants to get bounced out in the second round of the playoffs. Now we have Lauri and no future....

[SinceGatlingWasARookie]

It's now being reported that the Warriors were never close to getting a LM trade completed and in fact, have a very specific plan: start Podz & JK.

Your starting 5:

Curry
Podz
JK
Wiggins
Draymond

What a perfect plan for success, don't you agree? Starting two developing, unproven young guys means you need a coach who's known for developing young guys, someone with great patience. And that's Steve Kerr, right? He's going to stick to this plan for how long? A week? Two weeks tops before he desperately inserts someone else?

I am not that negative on Kerr

You can play Kuminga 30 minutes a game without moving Wiggins out of his small forward starting job.
If Kuminga rebounded better than he does I would call Kuminga a power forward. Dray playing a bunch of center will work OK with Anderson playing and Kuminga playing 15 minutes per game at PF and another 15 minutes a game at SF.

Can Kuminga defend off guards? Kuminga a a guard may hurt 3point shooting but playing Hield or Waters the back up sf minutes would fix that.

[Romulus]

Sooo sell the future for a maybe. Let's trade JK and pods with any amount of picks that Danny wants to get bounced out in the second round of the playoffs. Now we have Lauri and no future....

First of all, Ainge only wants Podz, not JK. So you keep JK. You have JK & Lauri -- who is 27 and just entering his prime -- for years to come. Those are two great building blocks for the next 5-7 years, AFTER Steph is gone. Getting Lauri is a building block to your future AND your present.

So stop acting like you have no future with a Lauri trade. Getting Lauri is much better than getting Paul George because of age. It's malpractice for this FO not to make this trade.

[superunknown]

Sooo sell the future for a maybe. Let's trade JK and pods with any amount of picks that Danny wants to get bounced out in the second round of the playoffs. Now we have Lauri and no future....

First of all, Ainge only wants Podz, not JK. So you keep JK. You have JK & Lauri -- who is 27 and just entering his prime -- for years to come. Those are two great building blocks for the next 5-7 years, AFTER Steph is gone. Getting Lauri is a building block to your future AND your present.

So stop acting like you have no future with a Lauri trade. Getting Lauri is much better than getting Paul George because of age. It's malpractice for this FO not to make this trade.

more than anything else all this "future" people talking about. future is also wiseman. future is also pervis ellison. there is no guarantee that X player will become an all-tar or that X pick will give you a superstar.

[B-King]

Curious to see the source of the reporting and how close to fruition the rumor is. Podz to me seems a lock/fit to take over for the second unit pg and crunch time 3rd guard. Him starting at the off guard when we added Melton and Hield seems rather odd.

[Romulus]

Curious to see the source of the reporting and how close to fruition the rumor is. Podz to me seems a lock/fit to take over for the second unit pg and crunch time 3rd guard. Him starting at the off guard when we added Melton and Hield seems rather odd.

Yeah; would much prefer Melton start next to Steph. He's their best defensive option and he CAN make a 3.

[watch1958]

Curious to see the source of the reporting and how close to fruition the rumor is. Podz to me seems a lock/fit to take over for the second unit pg and crunch time 3rd guard. Him starting at the off guard when we added Melton and Hield seems rather odd.

Not sure if anyone knows what the plan is.

That was the team’s most used 5 man squad last season, and Kerr can be predictable that way.

[cdubbz]

I think many of us fans need to realize that not many superstars end their careers on top competing for Championships. David Robinson, Tim Duncan come to mind.

Dirk finished his career on 33 win Mavericks team. His last 3 seasons the Mavericks didn't win over 33 games.
Kobe's last 3 seasons the Lakers didn't win over 30 games

Steph is much better than Kobe & Dirk at 36 years old, but Warriors what MDJ is doing now is better for the future.

[Onus]

I think many of us fans need to realize that not many superstars end their careers on top competing for Championships. David Robinson, Tim Duncan come to mind.

Dirk finished his career on 33 win Mavericks team. His last 3 seasons the Mavericks didn't win over 33 games.
Kobe's last 3 seasons the Lakers didn't win over 30 games

Steph is much better than Kobe & Dirk at 36 years old, but Warriors what MDJ is doing now is better for the future.

What future? They are continuing with this 2 time line thing which just doesn't work. Their free agency signings point to winning now. Their unwillingness to trade podz or jk says they want to play for the future. Pick a timeline.

[GQ Hot Dog]

Were Klay and CP3 central in getting us to 46 wins last season? Isn't our personnel better than last season? It's obvious there's reason for optimism, so why is the prevailing mood around here full of anxiety?

[jg77]

Were Klay and CP3 central in getting us to 46 wins last season? Isn't our personnel better than last season? It's obvious there's reason for optimism, so why is the prevailing mood around here full of anxiety?

I don't think so. Games are played on the floor and not on paper...so this addition by subtraction is great in theory but I have hard time believing we're better than last season.

[vvoland]

I think many of us fans need to realize that not many superstars end their careers on top competing for Championships. David Robinson, Tim Duncan come to mind.

Dirk finished his career on 33 win Mavericks team. His last 3 seasons the Mavericks didn't win over 33 games.
Kobe's last 3 seasons the Lakers didn't win over 30 games

Steph is much better than Kobe & Dirk at 36 years old, but Warriors what MDJ is doing now is better for the future.

What future? They are continuing with this 2 time line thing which just doesn't work. Their free agency signings point to winning now. Their unwillingness to trade podz or jk says they want to play for the future. Pick a timeline.

I think they've clearly pivoted.

They're now drafting NBA ready players like podz, tjd, and post. Older prospects with at least one NBA level skill at draft time.

They're signing winning vets with playoffs experience instead of helping players rehab value. Part of that is the ability to do so instead of playing in the TPMLE and minimums space. That's a choice - letting CP3 expire and using the Klay deal to bring in Anderson/Hield while keeping the NTPMLE open.

They're putting some responsibility on Podz, JK and TJD, sure but that's not the Wiseman/JK/Moody trio in 21-22. Instead, they brought in 3 starting level role players and are pushing JK and Podz to beat good players for big minutes. We'll see if Kerr and the players are up to it but this isn't the same old two timeline thing. We probably won't know what the dubs were actually willing to offer for PG and Lauri but it certainly seems like those offers were substantial. It's not like they're just sitting back and locking further into last year's team. Even without another move, they're probably turning over like half of a 10 man rotation from what started last year.

They seem willing to trade Podz and JK, just not eager to do so and that makes sense. Hitting on draft picks is hard. Trading the ones you hit on is also hard, for different reasons.

If they weren't willing to trade JK, he'd probably be extended by now and all of the reporting was he was included in the PG and Lauri trade talks. The only thing I've read points to the Jazz and Clippers not wanting a package back that had JK. Since we don't know what else was in there to make the money match, I don't really know what the clipps turned down.

Knowing a bit of Ainge's history in Boston, I didn't expect him to trade Lauri for anything less that 4 FRPs - I'll pass. Watch him sign a max and get shut down for 50+ games so they can have a 14% chance at Flagg.

Podz is more questionable but I certainly haven't heard that he was untouchable. He's not getting traded WITH 4 picks for Lauri and I certainly agree with that. That's despite being significantly lower than public opinion on both Podz and the value of future picks.

[cdubbz]

I think many of us fans need to realize that not many superstars end their careers on top competing for Championships. David Robinson, Tim Duncan come to mind.

Dirk finished his career on 33 win Mavericks team. His last 3 seasons the Mavericks didn't win over 33 games.
Kobe's last 3 seasons the Lakers didn't win over 30 games

Steph is much better than Kobe & Dirk at 36 years old, but Warriors what MDJ is doing now is better for the future.

What future? They are continuing with this 2 time line thing which just doesn't work. Their free agency signings point to winning now. Their unwillingness to trade podz or jk says they want to play for the future. Pick a timeline.

You don't have to go full tank or full championship if you're the Warriors. Podz, JK + 2025-2029 own draft picks. Giving up podz + 2-3 of those picks is pointless imo for Lauri a ONE time All-Star. Save the assets for Giannis or another superstar.

The fact is Warriors are not 1 move away from competing for a title. Thunder & Wolves have the next 2 years at the least. Rockets & Spurs are building something up quickly. Kings, Nuggets, Mavs, Pelicans, Lakers, are all better than the Warriors even with Lauri.

MDJ is showing patience and there is no doubt in my mind it's going to help the Warriors in the long run.