Outlook on Warriors Young Guys

1:00nd welcome to light years. Sam's Fendiari here. Got my guy Tommy across from us. Buddy football is back. We are so back Sam. We are so back. Look, I'm going to talk too much football here because that's not what you guys listen. But we're recording this right after the Wednesday night NFL opener. Man, we are back. Camp is three weeks away. Maybe less, less actually. It's less. We are. And more than anything, you know, the World Cup was amazing. But we are beyond that. We hit a little sleepy spell in August. And now we are back in the sports calendar. And I am hyped. Can I just say that Drake May is absolutely terrible. The fact that he almost scammed. And this is outside of me being a rams in. The fact they almost scammed an MVP from Matt Stafford last year was insane. There's like real smart football people who were trying to convince us he was the MVP. Just pathetic. He's not a good quarterback. I mean, he's not bad, but middle of the pack is how I would define him.

2:04He's not. I don't think he's special. I think they hit a lucky schedule run or a lucky playoff run. But you know what? It happens. Good for them. Good for them that way. Reality is going to hit there. That said, if you want to join us for a little fun, guys. I just want to throw this plug out there right now before we get going. We are running a survivor. Two survivors with our guy she'd at Warriors World on splash sports. Link is in the bio. Link is in the description of wherever you're listening to this. Guys join us. Survivor's fun. I'll be in there. Tommy will be in there. And you'll be in there. A bunch of your favorite goons will be in there. It'd be good time, guys. We're running two of them at classic NFL survivor. You pick one team a week. Can't pick twice. Last man standing takes all the money. And then we're going to run a touchdown survivor, which is kind of a cool variation of it. Same concept, but you're picking players. And if the pick a player is going to score a touchdown every week, you get they don't score.

3:06You're out. But the caveat is you can't pick them twice. Guys, it's fun. Look, I would invite you all to my fantasy football league if I could, but we can't have a billion person fantasy football league. We can have a billion person survivor. So join us. It's a good time. And what's better about it? We're going to give away Warriors World hats to random entrance. So you have a chance to win something even if you don't win the contest itself. It's going to be a good time. Tommy, who are you feeling for week one, both on the team side and the player side? Well, you said I'm going to be in there. Actually, I had the Patriots week one. So I'm not. No, I'm kidding. I have a, I have the Ravens. Ravens over the cold. That's. I'm leaning, I'm leaning chargers week one. Okay. I like that. Week one is like, look, I'm a terrible golfer. But like the goal is just to get on the, get on the fairway. Just drive it straight on the fairway. You have every game to pick from the tough decisions are coming later down the line. So think it don't, don't let the ego get into him. Be like, neither is it going to be the Rams. They might.

4:08They also might not. That's also just the most toss up match up of the week. Don't touch it. There's a lot of those this week, though. There's a lot of toss up this week. And I don't want to take the Ravens week one. But kind of had to because I feel like that was the most sure thing that I could see. Yeah. Yeah. I'm with you there. All right. Let's get to some Warriors talk here. Let's do it. Everyone, please get in there. We might even do other giveaways in it. So join it. We'll have some fun with it. Come on. Join the community. Enjoy it. This episode, I want to focus on the young guys. Cause like, let's be real. We know the pressure that's on Steph Curry this season. We've talked about it. We're going to continue to talk about it. It is what it is. This season will go with Steph's health and his ability to maintain a high level. And then we also know like the expectations on Dremond, Poison, but I really think the swing, the swing factor on this will be the four young guys. Are they more impactful? Are there leaps taken? Do they make a bigger impact or not?

5:11I they don't have the most young talent in the league or anything. But I don't hate their young players. But the reality is we're talking about. Yeah, I mean, I think you put it perfectly. Like it's definitely not the most young talent, but at the same time, I like all of like all these guys are going to be NBA players for I think a good amount of years, probably double digits years. You know, so it's about like you said, if they can, if one of these guys can find an extra level that nobody saw coming, it can literally change the entire season. Or just look, man, part of the Warriors issues during the whole two timeline saga has been wanting to swing for home runs instead of just hit a just put in the ball and play. Hit the ball hard, hit a line drive, maybe get a double out of it. And that's kind of how I consider these players. There's no one here that I would bet money on becomes a superstar or an all star.

6:11And our guys, I think will be really good players and you never know, good players exceed every year. Every there is a guy who you're like, huh, I didn't think he had it in him. I knew who's good, but I didn't think you he had that that extra gear. And I think my working theory and I think you probably agree with me on this is it's easier for a guy who's just a good basketball player to randomly like take that extra step and be 5% better than you thought they were. Then like the mystery box where you're banking on all these things coming together, but it's never shown. And 100% I was I was talking to somebody about this the other day about yaksal. And they're like, well, I don't you know, I don't know what the ceiling is with the axle like how's he ever really going to score in the NBA like he doesn't have that much of a bag his handles not that good. He's not the quickest. He's kind of like stiff laterally, but it's like he just kind of figures out how to put up numbers and be in pack. I don't know what the exact thing is for him, but like I'm not going to put a cap on it because we saw it in summer league. If you watch with Michigan, you saw it.

7:15He just kind of knows what to do when he's on the floor. And I think that's kind of the key thing with all these guys we're going to talk about tonight. They all just kind of know what to do. And it's it's nebulous. It's undefined. It's kind of subjective. But they really just all know how to play basketball. Yeah. But let's start there. I think the were a few weeks out from camp, but one of the bigger camp stories is going to be who starts a small forward. There's obviously a gaping hole with the Jimmy injury and the Moses injury. And honestly, Steve Kerr gave us a quote a week ago on this. He goes, we added some good players. Yaxel, Georgian, I believe Brandon Williams can help us. The biggest thing we're figuring out is who's going to start and what the rotations will look like. Can you actually play the three with Dremond at the four and porzingus or all at the five. What would that look like? At this point, it's pretty clear the starting small forward is going to be a competition between the Axel, Gis Santos, and I'll throw a well-itred into there too.

8:21I think all three of those guys are going to be who Steve looks at to start at the three. So let's start there. Start their question here. Does Yaxel start at the three? What does he need to do to start at the three? I mean, keep shooting the three ball like you did at Michigan last year and like you did in summer league. You know, summer league is obviously a really small sample, but he shot it really well. And I thought even relative to, let's say four to five months before at Michigan, it looked better. You know, and people are questioning whether you can play the three. And I do understand why people would question that. But he played the three at Michigan with two non-shooting bigs with Morris Johnson and a dimara. Dre is obviously a non-shooter. Basically a non-scorer offensive player at this point. But if you can put up like a shooting a space five, as Steve would like to call it, next to him, porzingus is the most boomer term. Porzingus are hoarford at the five. Like I kind of referenced earlier.

9:22I do think Yaxel smirened up the figure out. And that is how come I would like to see. Because at the end of the day, like, if this team is going to make the playoffs and like make even just a fun, we believe we're on like we talked about last week. It's a lot of it is going to come down to Yaxel and it's not a pressure shouldn't be on him because he's a rookie. But if you can kind of not only be good, but be better than expected, it's going to change the C1 against Steve. So here's here's what I think for him to start the three Steve's looking for multiple things. The first one is quick decision making and I do believe Yaxel can match Gis Santos at that. Yep. I don't think that's going to be a limitation. The second one is shooting. I see nothing that indicates Yaxel is a worse shooter than Gis Santos. I think he's a little bit better, but it's it's marginal. Yeah. He doesn't really put it in at a higher clip than the Axel to date, but you know, he's NBA proven Yaxel.

10:22It's summer league in college. The third one is defensive versatility. And I think that's actually the biggest one that's going to determine this because if you were to take anything away from summer league positive from Yaxel, it is the decision making speed. The shooting is a little better and I thought it would be the playmaking all this stuff. If I was to say negative about it, it's he looked really slow laterally. He did not work defensively. He did not look impactful defensively the way he didn't college. The questions were raised there. And I think that is going to be the biggest thing that Steve is trying to figure out. He doesn't have a perfect solution to position. I think both of them are probably natural force in the NBA. But this is the roster they have. I mean, the plus side to playing bigger guys at the three is like, hey, they finally have positional size across the board. They're going to play a little different than they've been used to, but you know, they now have those options. I actually think Guy and Yaxel bring the same thing that way where it's like these guys are plus rebounders for wings.

11:28They're not going to be on Drogadolid offensively. They're not going to be Clay Thompson defensively. Like they're not going to guard the point of attack and move laterally the way that like we associate with the dynasty warriors teams. But can they make up for it by just being bigger and closing every possession? Correct. And just like having more ground coverage, just being able to cover more ground because they're bigger. And I think the difference defensively comes down to like you can definitely be like a little bit spastic. He can be a hack. But he doesn't really particularly off ball. He doesn't really miss assignment. Like I think his floor is a defensive player right now at this moment is higher than the axles. Yaxel can be even even at Michigan, but specifically in summer league, he can just kind of be an airhead defensively. But the ceiling, if you can get him to lock in is much higher than guise. So again, I'd rather. Give that some runway. Then just doing I guess the normal Steve Kerr thing and just being safe. And I think that's the most interesting question about this because if you're going to ask me, I think they both play at substantial amount of minutes.

12:34Dremond is not playing over 30 minutes again. No. And realistically, he'll play less center of minutes than we've seen over the last few years, but a few of those minutes are at the center. So you're really talking about 20 plus minutes at the four and a full 48 minutes at the small forward positions. You're talking about 70 minutes right there. Some of those minutes are going to go to Will Richards. Some of those are going to go to three guard lineups with Melton and and pods together. And I actually think that can be a very effective combo. And I think that's a very good example of how you can get the results and pods. It's like all things. It's like you want that to be four to five minutes in the second four to five minutes or the third, not 40 minutes because you don't trust anyone else all game, which has been the issue they run into the last few years. All of that is to say, I think there's a solid 50 to 60 minutes to be had for the axle and key in general. So I'm not sure it matters who starts, but it matters to players. I actually think both these guys are probably more mentally suited to be able to deal with the Steve Kerr-Opadoop and like some games are starting some games, you're not. But like, look, even a guy like pods, who's wired to deal with it probably better than most young players, struggled with it.

13:50Oh, yeah, it's just it's it's it's not easy, man. It's not easy to not know your role knight in that. I mean, you know, we've talked about this before, but you know, it steves his biggest influence is Phil Jackson, for sure, who, you know, he's getting a statue in front of the staple center. I'll never call it crypto in front of the staple center. But a trademark of both those guys is they are very tough on young players, you know, even like the most mentally strong kind of you earn it. Yeah, it's like I don't get how talented you are. You are the guy at the bottom of the tunnel pull until you're in it. Yeah, and I think with everything that not like he's been through a lot, but I think he's suited for coming off the bench, you know, like he's used to that, like he's always just come in, bring as much energy that I can, whether it's two minutes or 25 minutes. I don't know if Yaxel's wired for that yet. I think he could get there because everything that we've heard about and seen about him, he's very receptive to coaching, you know, and I don't doubt he could do that.

14:51I do think he is better suited for just like playing that energizer bunny bench rule than Yaxel is right now. Yeah, I mean, I'd like to see Steve protect Yaxel just a little bit here, but he hasn't protect any young, even like, look, the fan base allows to say he plays favorites with pods. He ropes pods around so much. Like he ropes every young player around the only players he doesn't rope around are like staff and establish veterans. It's just it's an old school mentality. It is what it is. And the irony is if you came in with a young new age coach, they actually tend to be even more like experimental with lineups, then see for like they tend to be more like everyone plays and lineups get mixed in that and XYZ. So I just think that's also just part of it. Like that's one of those things that fans love to latch onto when things are not going well because they want a clear reason instead of just the reality of, I don't know, man, you might just have a middle of the road roster.

15:57The lowest hanging fruit is always criticizing the coach. It is the lowest hangover. Offensive coordinator called the wrong plan third down, but you know, it's like people have been, you know, I'm definitely higher on pods and most. And I think you are too. But people have been so mad at him because you can't do this or you can't do the can't create his own shot well enough can't whatever. Not athletic enough. He's not never going to be that guy. So yeah, that might all be true. But it's kind of the front office's fault for not putting better players ahead of him in the pecking order. You're asking pods to do more than these should. You know, and so that's when it comes back to it at the end of the day. I'll never blame players for being overcast as long as they're like the process is correct. I got some, I got some yaks old questions for you. Let's go here. Okay. So I looked this up. And I share the results with you. So I'm not going to quiz you. The rookie who played the most minutes per game under Steve Kerr is Eric Paskell 27.6 minutes per game. That was obviously a throw away tank season step broke his hand the fourth game. No clay.

16:59We all know how that season went. The rookie who then played the next most minutes per game was pods in 2023, 2024, 26.6 minutes per game. Do we think Yaxxel Lendaburg will play more minutes per game than pods played in the 2023, 2024 season. And my second question for you is why I'm going to give the cop out answer. I think it's be right around there. I think it'll be right around 26 to 28 minutes a game. I honestly hope it's more because for sure until Jimmy comes back like I want Steve to just kind of just give Yaxxel runway. Like why not? You know, but I think it could I if I was going to lean a certain way, it would be slightly more just because it's such a position of need at this point. And I really do like it's a good number, dude.

17:59It's because it's like it's not like 32 or I'm like, wow, I bet the under safe, you know, mid to high 20s is where he should be. It's like Alabama at Georgia. They're both they're one and two in the country and the line is minus one and a half. It's like I don't know where to go with it. Again, I hope he plays more like like I would love to see him play 30 minutes a game, but at the end of the day, Steve is, you know, the strength and numbers thing like nobody. I mean, who's going to play 30 minutes a game on this roster this year? Maybe Steph, but I doubt even he does maybe 31 or 32. I'm not going to be locked to play 30 minutes a game. Okay, that's fair. Yeah, he's the only one serious. He's probably will play more minutes and step as mad as that might make some people. I mean, he'll play more games for sure. All right. Well, in theory, let's not get too dark. Here's some barns played 25.4 minutes per game is a rookie. Mark Jackson, obviously.

19:02Yeah, but it was also a different worry team. You know, like no, no, in good all that was their first year rising. He was a top 10 pick. Although, yaks all 11 pick, you know, kind of similar. Does yaks all see more than 25 minutes per game? I think it'll be more impactful than rookie Harrison Martin. He was not bad though. No, he was he was good, but I think people talk about like the limited ceiling with the oxal lot, which I think is fair and some respects because he is 23 or 24 years old. But you've read a. Ethan's book Victory Machine. Yes. And and we're cherry was talking about like Harrison Bard's feet and it just looks like he's kind of like stuck in mud. That's you could see it within like 10 to 20 games. That's how Harrison was. I don't really see that with the actual I do see the stiff hips, but I do think that just the feel for the game and just the processing and so much better.

20:02I just think it'll be more impactful than HB was is rookie. Yeah, if I had a if I had a take on yaks all I feel more confident. He'll average five assists per game in the NBA. Then he will average 15 points per game. And to be clear, I think he's capable of doing both, but if you're just to ask me, is it more likely that he slides into being a. Many dry mom's like matrix style like a Josh heart, where you're like some games. It's some games. It's 18 some games. It's seven averages out to 12.6 or something like that. But like the passing and the rebounding really pops or that the shot becomes a little more consistent. And there's this extra burst on offense to be clear. I think both are in the cards. I would just say the more likely scenario is the first one. Absolutely, absolutely. I would I would set the points line a little bit higher maybe 18. So I think he can get to 15 per week easily just because the size. Yeah, but it says him in the field. Yeah, I mean, if he just if he just runs the floor and play smart, he'll walk into 12.

21:07Yeah, yeah. And it's like, can you just hit a couple shots? Yep. And it gets his feet, he gets in the his feet in the paint so easily. Like I don't know how he does it, but he always ends up with two feet in the paint somehow. And that is one of the easiest ways to score, especially his size. I mean, it is kind of it's been a minute since the Warriors have had a guy who has that feel and has that knack for cutting and just being the right spaces with plus positional size. Because like GP2 does that. He does. GP2 6 1, you know, like, yeah, you can pause does that pod 64, you know, like go down the line. He does it, but he's 69 with the 74 wingspan. There are just like easy baskets that come from that, you know. Yeah, I mean, I think we have the baseline cutter stuff down from basically day one. Like the first tic tic to from step to dread a yawks hole. I'm very excited about that. But shout out 2021, 2022 GP2 special special.

22:09I'll put one other number in here. Clay Thompson average 24.4 minutes per game is a rookie. So 24 for clay, 26 for pods, 25 for Harrison Barnes. Those are all really impactful rookie numbers, but also to me, it like puts into context, like I can promise you at some point, the axle is going to hit the doghouse. Oh, it might be early on, but it'll just be like, and also like the second part of it is the part that no one ever talks about like 82 is a fucking lot of games when they're coming from 30 some like there's just going to be a period of time where you're like, wow, he just looks like his feet are stuck in some that he looks tired. This is he has not played three and four nights where you get on an airplane every night after playing 15 games the previous month and going on and on. And you know, the coaching staff response to it will be we're going to scale him back and a breather make him a little hungrier, let him rest a little bit like that's going to happen to it's a long season 100%.

23:13I mean, think about how excited we all were about will Richard to start last season, I think it was warranted like he looks really good, but he's talked about it in interviews this obviously is how he I mean the rookie wall, it sounds like cliche, but it's the real thing. And also, the actual being who he is, he's going to get the Steve's doghouse, like just kind of the personality, how like he's he's got a big personality and like Steve likes that, but those guys are always kind of quickest to get in Steve's doghouse kind of like pods wasn't aware. Even like me get into certain sense, but I do the thing that I trust about yaks also far from what I know is I think he has the ability to bounce back from that and he's not going to like just spiral, you know, I think that's the thing that I'm not most excited about, but it's something where I'm like, all right, he might go in the doghouse, but he'll figure it out. I got one last question for you, so here's some barn started every game is a rookie clay started 29 games is a rookie pod started 28. Does yaks will start more games than clay Thompson's 29.

24:17When does Jimmy Butler come back? I think I'm a 50 game runaway. Yes, I'll go yes, I think he does start more, I think it's probably mid 30s. Okay, I think I agree, I think I agree with you, I think because there's going to be the second factor of dream on rests veteran rest games in there, so my number for him is I think he starts 40 games. I think he starts and maybe more than that, but I'm going to set 40 is the line. I don't hate it at all. Let your podcast we are about to you by ultra. You know what it's like to wake up and immediately need a nicotine pouch or a cup of coffee just a few human. As I'm getting older, those mornings come more often that's five incorporated incorporated ultra pouches into my daily routine and it's been a light changer. First off, these pouches are completely nicotine free and caffeine free. They use ingredients like alpha GPC for a hands pencil processing and vitamin B6 and B12 for balance energy and mood.

25:21These are truly clean plant powered pouches designed to sharpen your mind and lift your energy all without caffeine or a nicotine crash ultra is the ultimate guilt free pouch delivering instant focus and mental clarity without nicotine or caffeine. New customers can use code light years to get 15% off at take ultra calm. That's take ultra calm for 15% off with code light years after you purchase. They will ask you where you heard about them. Please support our show and tell them you heard from light years. Alright, man. Let's get to. I want to get to will Richard actually. Let's do it. My question for you. So will Richard had a. I would say well above average rookie year given the expectations for who he was coming into it. He started last year 40.2% from three from October until January 1st 27.8% from January on.

26:24Look, we've talked about it. He hit the rookie wall. Coaching staff wants him to get stronger stronger. I always took it as multiple things like there's perimeter defenders that give us stronger like. I mean, I hope he's. This is my expectation because I think he's a. A smart player with like, you know, relatively limited upside. Oh, you know, we saw what was it. I within the first 10 games you scored 30 in Sacramento. I think it's a little bit more scoring upside than he's given credit for. But the end of the day he's not going to be a guy that averages 15 to game. It's eight to 12, whatever. But I would like for him to become a guy that we can rely on to. Stop or not stop but like contest other teams best players. You know what I mean?

27:24And because he does have his best trade is his hands. Like he has the Iga dola like swipe down like pick pocket GP2 same thing. Like he has the. It's a good it's a good call up because he's not the quickest laterally. Like he's not slow, but like he's not exceptional. The way that like. Like some of the okay see like a casson wall or some of those guys like goddamn that guy can. So yeah, exactly. He's more about like like he said timing. Like just instincts instincts is really what I would call it defensively. Yeah. And I think. The key thing with somebody who is. If they're going to make their defensive name on that the instincts and the hands and the timing. There is some experience that comes to that like because you can't just cut people off because they're more athletic or you're quicker. So the. He needs to learn how to harness that like the timing and the instincts and the hands because that's what Iga doll was so good at. Like obviously was super athletic in his younger days, but as he got older, he wasn't like super quick laterally.

28:24He just knew when to swipe at the ball, when to poke at the ball, when to chest somebody up, when to back off. Yeah, that's all experience. Yeah, I agree with you there. Like there's look, he's saying like, oh, he's going to be a little doored or drew holiday like. I hope, but like that's like 100th percentile outcome. It's highly unlikely. But there is a lot he can learn from those guys like just learning when to be physical, when to push, when to when to swipe. And so the skill I'm actually most excited for him is like, can the shop be more consistent? Because I he's not just a standstill shooter. He showed me enough in terms of running off pin downs, off movement decision making. And I really think if he can consistently hit shots, Steve will let him play through more defensive mistakes because he makes it's like what you're talking about with me, Santos. He makes mistakes defensively, but he is in the right place. He makes the right decision.

29:24He sticks to the game plan. And to your broader point, which is for him to be a great defender, he just needs more experience. What's going to get him more experience is being able to be played on the floor offensively. Like it is intertwined. If he's able to shoot around 40% from three, Steve's going to let him play through issues. The issue is when he can't hit a three and he's also not an all world defender. That's how you end up like you kind of forced a hand for the coach at a certain point, right? So for me, and I do think he can shoot, he's been 85% free throw shooter in college. The the form is great. And he's shown it enough. I don't need him to shoot it 40 plus percent like he's Clay Thompson because that's an unrealistic ask. I'm asking him to get closer to like the KCP line. That's like really what I look at it as like that's the perfect line. If you're like because KCP at his peak was 40 plus percent if he was open.

30:26And then like mid 30s if you can test him, but he had the ability to close out a drive if you can test it him. And he had he could hit. He could hit. Someone can test the shots. Does that make sense? Like it wasn't just like no one's around me. I can hit it. Like he can hit an NBA game shot. And that's kind of what I need from War Richard. And he could hit enough like wonderful pull ups. And I think I don't know if I think Wilbert. I think he does have that. But I mean, number one, I think the thing I was most impressed with early on when he was like. We had injuries, wherever we're just playing last season when his back to backs traveling so much. Early on in the season, he was so confident in just taking open shots. I don't want to see that fade. And if I'm going to criticize C for something, he can like run that out of players where it's like they are confident in their ability to shoot. But then he's always doing the kind of find good for great find a good shot to find a great shot. You know what I mean?

31:26And the thing is. Will does have that ability like it some of the interior passes you made last year like some dump off some no looks up like that he's good at that. But it's finding the balance between being aggressive enough with your shot and knowing when to find the next one. And that's a tough line for a lot of young guys to walk. What's it? It's a tough line because you don't want him chucking because you do want him to find staff specifically, but like Chris taps to. But you also don't want him to get to the point where so many young players get with Steve Kerr where it's like 24 minutes. And that's just that's just a function of like. I don't want to be yelled at for taking the wrong shot. So I'm just going to keep kicking it. I'm going to keep taking the extra pass. And that's a I mean, that's honestly why veterans end up playing more because they're going to get more latitude and they have a better feel for that stuff. But I actually don't think that affected Will Richard as much last year and to your point.

32:26I just hope it doesn't. I hope I hope he doesn't. Because there's like a realistic case. Last year he started that you're so hot. And there's something to how you start the year buying you confidence. Like I don't want a world where he goes. I don't know. 25% over the first 10 games, which means nothing to be clear. Like it just happens. But all of a sudden it's like. Now it's like just keep moving the ball. Don't think about your shot because I don't need him in a world where he's not thinking about like his pathway to getting a second contract and like a real one like sticking in the NBA is being a guy who hits three is at volume. Yeah, like you're saying it through the first 10 games if he's 25% then every shot is going to feel like he has a backpack on this folder. Shout out Draymond. But like and we just we don't want to get to that point. You're not Draymond because Draymond is like the. How many guys generationally are able to come along who it's like oh they can't shoot the ball. We have to play in 30 minutes because of that fucking guy.

33:31Like the hot men. It's all right. Yeah. Yeah. And the biggest thing is like if you're open just let it fly. Like just don't worry about it. If some nights it might be two open shots. Other nights it might be 10. But don't hesitate on any of them. That's what we've been frustrated about with pods. Obviously, that's what we've been looking at over the years is even more. A little bit more. mint. So eventually is some nights so let every open one fly in other nights it's like he's pump baking everyone. And I don't think will is like that. I think he's confident enough to not do that. But I between like kind of the experience of understanding how to play defense like how to use his length. I use his timing and just taking every open shot. I think those are the two biggest things from this year. Let's do giri real quick. We talked about ghi earlier. i'm not gonna get into the minutes per game stuff on G. For context, G played 20.5 minutes per game last year, he played 31 minutes per game, post all star break. i think he's probably gonna play in the mid 20s this year. My question for you is a more simple one.

34:32What is the biggest area of improvement for G? And i mean that in like a realistic sense. Like if you if you were drew hamlin working with key sandtas in the off season, if you were lethal shooter, we're gonna be santa's. What is what are you looking at as like the skill that you think would legitimately help him get to the next level, not like, you know, Cooper flag. Did you see that lethal shooter were in fifth mids race? What did I did? I don't want to talk about. Should I bring it up? Number one, I wouldn't be drew hamlin because i'm not gonna work on a bunch of pointless ball handling drills that aren't gonna help. Guy, but i think the biggest. I would love to see Steve Kerr's face if gisa antos came out here and just like three dribble, hezzy out of nowhere. But yeah, it's trying to be kai re. I think the biggest. The thing about gie is like, I really like most of his offensive game.

35:33Like he knows who he is. He throws some crazy past. He probably turns it over a little bit too much. I'd like to see the turnovers come down. We touched on it earlier. It's just making more sound and I guess responsible decisions defensively. Just not falling so much. Stop hacking so much because he is he's big. He's physically smart. Like he has a lot of good traits for him defensively, but he can get 3000 like a minute and he's going to complain after everyone. Like he has that very kind of like European or South American thing where he's going to complain after every call no matter what it's like he's you know playing in the woke up. You're Mr. Miyagi him you're like you're not trying to reinvent him. You just teach him to. Yeah wax on wax off. But I mean, I he like that's what it is. I mean, this is boring podcasting, but I mostly agree with you. Like I don't see. Any reason to like reinvent his game more. It's about refining it like can you can the shock at a little cleaner. Can you can you work on your physicality defensive without fouling.

36:34He obviously rebounds the ball decision making. I think he's a good decision maker. Like most of it is like can the game slow down so you don't throw the ball away a little bit. I don't need him working on self creation. I like I mean, I guess like it'd be nice for him to figure out how to like attack a close out with you know, I think you're the host up. I really does it. Yeah. But even that's like a refinement thing. Yeah, and I think like honestly, if you just kind of can keep making like small steps. His contract can actually be one of the best in the week. Not that he's like, you know, some incredible player, but got him at three years 15 million. He can be way more impactful than that. If you just keep refining the things that we're talking about. I agree. I agree. All right, let's get to let's get to the pods real quick here. That's the last. The story of pods is slow start. Great second half the last two years. And he's going to go into contract negotiation. I'm going to really talk about it today.

37:35But that is kind of the question. Can you be more consistent? Because second half pods is a 20 plus million dollar a year player. First half pods is probably worth less than the full mid level. And so it's an interesting negotiation because he's so young and betting on the upside and all those sort of things. But let's let's go with this. He averaged 13.8, 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists. Would you bet money? He averages 15, 5 and 5 over the course of the season. Yes. 100% 100%. I don't know about the five assists, but the five rebounds he walks into those. He's that is the most that is the easiest to stand at. That is probably the most underrated part about his game and the defense people things of bad defender. He's actually he's a damn good defender. Like if you just if you actually watch. Yeah, he gets blown by at the point of attacks sometimes like. So does everybody. Yeah, you can't guard carry on an island. Who can.

38:39But he makes a ton of plays defensively. He's I'll say what are the better guard defense guard rebounders in the entire league. Like I truly mean that goes out saying. Yeah, like it truly is. And that's just such an undervalued part. But also like who else is creating this year, man? Who else is going to score it? Like porcelain is going to get his points when he's playing. Yeah, that's always will. Yeah, so it's going to score. But like I don't I don't like I don't like it. Well, I don't I'd rather them kind of give him an extension in a way because I think he can play his way out of it. I'm not saying it's going to happen. But I think there's a world where he's like 18, 6 and 5 this year. I also think he's not getting an extension can be very rough on guys mentally. And I would I don't think the words should overpay him. But if they can sign him an under 20 a year, I think you do it. And you'll be happy with that number because no matter what happens this year, he's going to have a full mid level offer at minimum for someone. So that's 16 a year.

39:48So are you want to give him like 18 because you know he can get 16 last summer. Yes, are you willing to give him 24 25? No. And you're living in that range to meet the swings go on him really is just the scoring ability and it's shooting honestly is the big one. So here's the more interesting number for you. Last year he had 153 3s. That's a little less than two again because he played all 82 games. Can he hit 203s this season? Why that number is significant to me that comes out to about 2.4 a game, which is to say 40% on 6 a game. He has done that for spells. He did that the second half of year two. He did that for most of the second half of year three. And to me, the attempts are honestly a bigger indicator because like let's be honest, if he's putting up six and a half to seven a game, there's not really a tangible difference between hitting 38 to 40% because it's a confident shot and it's going in.

40:55Do you think he can actually get to 203s made this year? Well, I'll say if he gets to 203s, he's getting 30 more year. I'll say that right now. I mean, do you disagree with that? No, and that's the case for extending him early because if he if he if he has a year where he's hitting close to 40% on significant volume, given the fact that he's a great rebounder, a smart playmaker. A guy is going to walk into about 4 assists. Could be more now you're talking about Derek white territory. Right. He would probably get 25 plus and free agency that way. He just hadn't shown enough for me to award it to him ahead of time. No, I agree with that for sure. And I do think I just want to say this one more time. I think the shooting is the single biggest swing skill for him that's going to determine whether he is a big money guy or a guy is going to be floating between the taxpayer and the non taxpayer middle level for his whole career.

41:57Yeah, and I always cringe at like, oh, if he makes shots, you know, like because it's just it's such a overused thing. And about like, oh, look, if amen, a man Thompson could like make three to be the best player. And like, yeah, of course he would. But like with pods, it really does come out of making shots. Like, can he because he's not going to be because he's not going to blow by guys. Like, Amen. If almond can hit shots, he's a super max player. He's the best player in the league. Maybe not the best player, but like, you know, a top five top 10 player. But it gets used for guys like, I don't know, can we more our friend Jonathan Kominga. Like, oh, if you can just make shots, then you look at all the other things he can do. But pods actually does do all those other things. He's not theoretical with all the other stuff. He rebounds, he defends. He's a good passer. He's always in the right spot. He's smart. He's tough. Like he already does all that. So if you can just make threes, the ceiling gets so much higher. But I think the biggest thing entering this season with him is just don't come out and be timid. Like, Steph is obviously the number one option. Nobody's ever going to doubt that.

43:03But for the time being, you are the number two creator. Like, porzing is might score more, you know, Horford is like, maybe going to make more threes than you, whatever. But you are the guy who's going to create the second most next step. So just like believe in that and do it. Like flashback to Santa Clara and just be that guy. I actually think he he's the one who benefits the most from Jimmy being out because he had a hard time figuring out how he fits with Steph and Jimmy because the offense ran through those two guys as it should to be clear. Like, no one's going to argue that. But that put him more in a pure off ball role. And you saw the timidness come out because he's a guy who likes to play at the ball his hands just a little bit. And so now he gets to replace Jimmy as a secondary creator here is a guy who the balls is hand as Steph goes off ball. Yeah, I think it's important. Yeah, I think the other thing for him is he figured this out a little bit at the end of last year. I want to see if it's a real thing, the grifting, the free throw stuff. Like he did figure out like, I don't think he has, I don't think he's ever going to have the wiggle of like Austin Reeves or someone who's like the apex case of a guy who just kind of like grew into a 25 point score.

44:23I don't think that's happening. But I do think he can be a little more effective at like, you know, using using his IQ to leverage defenders on him and draw a couple fouls here and there get it to the mid range. I actually like to see him get in the mid range just a little more than he's done in previous years. Because no one on this team does no one on this team does and I like look, I'm not saying like, let's get let's get him the ball at the fucking elbow and let him go to work, you know, but it's just like if you if you get an advantage on a guy and you get to that elbow jumper, take it, take it. Yep, we've seen it like he whole occasionally go to that elbow jumper or like kind of a rip through baseline, one to pull up from the coin like kind of 15 feet on the baseline. Like he'll do it and you can tell he wants to do it, but he hasn't been fully confident in it. And from some of the, you know, it's workout videos. So don't put any stock into it. But he's he's been working on that this summer at like a good amount. I think number one, he's competitive as fuck like we all know that at least anybody who like believes in him knows that number two, he gets he gets called a dumb player all the time, which just isn't true. He just he just gets over his keys sometimes, but I think whatever is and this is the most optimistic version.

45:41I think what's ever possible for him this year, he's going to do. And I think we are actually going to find out kind of what his ceiling is this year because he has the runway at the beginning of the season. And if it happens great like it's it's a boon for everybody, but if it doesn't then he's a, you know, 15 to 20 million dollar player best. I mean, it's like he's a different player, but like Dante, even Chenzone has carved out a great role in this league as a guy who just figured out how to be that off ball shooter playmaker. Every team wants that guy, every team wants to go on their rotation, sometimes they start sometimes in the third guard, but they're valuable piece of rotation. You're happy to give them the mid level exception that 15 is range in general to your point. This is the year we figure out if there's a little more there or if that's just who he is. Yeah, I mean, I think Dante is a good reference point, not because it's like you said, they're not similar players, but it took Dante years and years and different teams to figure out this is actually who I am.

46:46And I'm going to be super confident in that and I'm not going to do anything else. Max Truce talked about this on a whoever's players podcast, this was recently where he's like, I don't have a bag anymore. You know, like I don't I don't dribble. I don't like do anything with the ball. I just spot up in TREAS and I defend and I'm not saying that's what pods should do, but the biggest thing I want to see from pods is being confident in exactly who he is and who he isn't like there's there's a there's a fine line between that and it's it's tough to reach, but I think he should be able to reach it this year. All right, give me your prediction then you didn't tell me is he going to hit 200 threes. No 180. Okay, 200 is a lot man. That's a lot of threes. I mean, if you plays 82, I think he hits it. Okay, dude, I hope so. I hope we're bubbling over him getting 30 million. All right, I think we ended there. Appreciate everyone.

47:46Thanks everybody.