FIRST TAKE | WOJ update on GS Warriors ready to trade for Lauri Markkanen & extend Steph Curry

FIRST TAKE | WOJ update on GS Warriors ready to trade for Lauri Markkanen & extend Steph Curry

an and Kevin are with you developing story from the NBA after losing Klay Thompson the Warriors are not prepared to see the other Splash brother walk GM Mike dunby said today that Steph Curry will be a warrior for Life his deal is set to expire after the 2526 season but he is eligible to extend it by a year this summer on the scene at summer league in Las Vegas is our Warriors reporter Kendra Andrews Kendra what more can you tell us about their plans to make Steph a warrior for life yeah Han dun leevy wants to get Steph locked in and in order to do so he said look Steph can have pretty much anything he wants they want to get him on that extension but those contracts right now aren’t booming just because of where we’re at in the NBA schedule it was the draft free agency here we are at Summer League Steph is in Abu Dhabi with Team USA and the Olympics but the hope is that as summer continues those conversations will pick back up their number one priority the top of the Warriors to-do list is to take advantage of the rest of Stephen Curry’s Prime so dun leevy said every move they’re making right now is with that in mind get him the best support pieces they can but in order to support him they have to have him right so they want to get him locked up for Beyond the end of his contract they feel that he has a lot left in the tank yeah and he’s going to make nearly 56 million next season as it stands now he’s going to have to go on without a splash brother Clay Thompson what did dun Ley say about whether the Warriors will make another move in free agency this summer Kendra yeah something to monitor Hannah but don’t expect anything to happen right away right now the market is a little bit quiet it’s not moving very much and because of that dun leevy said we have to go forward as if this group of 14 guys right now is the group we’re going to be heading into camp with and with that group they’re young core Jonathan kaminga Moses Moody Brandon Pensky Trace Jackson Davis they’re going to be relied on heavily several of those guys were in and out of the starting lineup last season and kaminga and Moody are two guys that dun Ley said he also wants to find a extensions for this summer for psky and Jackson Davis they’re here in Las Vegas participating in summer league trying to get more reps uh progress their game War to be ready to contribute in a really big way without Klay Thompson there is a starting job open and all four of those guys will be competing for that spot interest how active would you describe your current trade talks and uh you know search to to keep you know improving this roster yeah I mean I think like the free agency stuff is kind of calmed down we’re at 14 guys up against the first apron so adding in that regard right now would be tough but you’re always looking around the league to get better um talking with teams exploring stuff um you know I like our team but there’s also some things that we can look at to improve it and we’ll continue to do that leading up to Camp into the season if this is the roster entering the season how good like how good do you think they can be well I think a little bit like last year um going into I thought we had a better team than the prior year you know I feel the same way but like what does that mean last year our record was better we didn’t make the playoffs so um you know I think we can be better we should be better but a lot goes into it health chemistry all that but you know I feel really good about where we’re at I think our team does too our coaching staff um so we’ll see the guys yeah I mean I think with all those guys um first and foremost just good basketball players um you know they have certain skill sets that we were looking for buddy with the shooting um the Anthony with his shooting in his defense um and then Kyle was a guy just recognized as a really good player he ended up being on the board a couple days in I was like man if we an opportunity to get a player like this grab him and he was all in on board and I think when you add good basketball players to to a mix um I think we have confidence in them being able to figure it out Steve we them in with what we already have we just felt at the end of the day to grab three guys that are like experienced can play know how to play can play both ends um got to do it you did add Buddy but obviously you lost playay uh shooting was something you guys did ID going into the summer I mean how do you feel about the shooting on this team and and do you see a weakness on this team yeah I mean I think from the shooting standpoint anybody really helps with losing clay um but on top of it I think there’s room for others to step up um and that’s where in terms of like volume and accuracy we guys shootting three more and that that can be internal certainly with Moses with wigs with BP JK all those guys I think can make shots and they’ll have to you know we’ll have to improve our three-point shooting as a team I would have said with Clay back anyway we had to right with clay and Steph there’s just a high volume of Threes those guys produce and then everybody else was a little bit lower like to get that up with everybody else being a little bit more even um and just being more more threats from outside but I think we can we can do that but at the same time we’ll always look to improve and that more with Buddy like what did kind talks with kaminga and Moody you know how soon do you expect that to yeah I mean that stuff will pick up I mean we want those guys here we believe in them we drafted them and so um you know our Focus will always be about retaining our guys I it’s been really important in the past whether it’s dating back to Steph and clay and Draymond but moving forward with you know even even a guy like Jordan P who we extended I mean he’s not here with us now but it was important for us to extend him and it’ll be important for us to try and get deals done with JK and Moses step extension eligible as well right have there ever been any discussions there yeah I mean we’ll we’ll talk about that too I mean that guy kind of whatever he wants um so we’ll get through all that stuff it’s been uh it’s been a Sprint here getting through the draft of free agency and summer league and all that but uh all that stuff will get figured out and I think stuff will be uh you know I think say pretty conf he’ll be aw marinan is the biggest name on the trade market if he’s on the market and I do believe despite the skepticism around the league oh here’s Danny Danny’s doing his thing you give us 19 first round picks and 45 swaps and yeah we’ll move Danny’s got a price he knows what the price is in the end it won’t be I mean I was going to say it won’t be ridiculous it probably would be ridiculous but there’s a price where he’ll move L Market in because the Jazz know we can’t just do this thing every year where we pick 10 we know who the next two drafts are what the guy who’s the headliner of the 2026 draft I believe just transferred to a high school in Utah right in their backyard um they know there’s a price there some there’s also a possibility that they bump him up on August 6th and extend him and say well we think he has more trade value on this extension especially if we can wink wink get it below the max I don’t know that that will be palatable maybe it will marinin likes it in Utah he also wants to win like at some point he wants to win and he’s watching them in summer league he knows the roster he knows what’s coming so here’s the question if you’re the Warriors what’s the price for marketing what what is the deal for Markin that leaves enough in the cupboard where you can look at your team and think the price we have paid in future assets in youth in picks is worth it because Markin in his 27 so he’s going to be here a long time and B we have enough to actually make a deep playoff run right now and so I I would put it like this well I let me I’ll just phrase that question to you open-ended you go ahead uh educated speculation I think P jimsky would have to be in the deal obviously you’re talking about a ton of picks um I don’t know I don’t know how much the Jazz would press on kaminga I I I do think like if PJ’s got not in the deal there there wouldn’t be a deal so psky and three to four Warriors first round picks and swaps unprotected betting against the Warriors going forward with Steph aging and marinan as the guy and Draymond aging as well and as I’ve said the Lakers picks I you know people just say well two first round picks do what like if they’re unprotected those picks from an old team I don’t care that they’re in a big Market that’s got free agency interests before like those are valuable pieces I put it like this I the question that’s for me is but all the discussion about the Golden State Warriors in the offseason has been about Klay Thompson leaving and going to your Dallas Mavericks you’re homebased team and obviously I’ve done that already it’s it’s an emotional earthquake of a move for a legendary player like this to leave a legendary team like that Chris Paul leaves and that’s one discussion and then on the other end of the discussion is well should the Warriors trade for Lowry Markin and as they tried to trade for Paul George and a sort of when now move undiscussed is like the players who are actually on the Warriors team so let’s start there and just do briefly like if there is no Markin in it if there is no whatever move like that what exactly is this team here’s the here’s the roster we we have Curry psky Wiggins kaminga green a couple of centers and Trace Jackson Davis and cavon Looney a solid bench of if they are the bench guys the the Anthony Melton great signing on a one-year deal by the way a one-year the rare one-year deal that unlike Dante Dean chenzo is a big enough salary that they could reassign him with non bird rights uh buddy hee is on board Moses Moody is still here Kyle Anderson comes in on a sign and trade he that sort of Steve Kerr readen react screen make random little plays gp2 is still here um if if and you have to start with like what’s the starting lineup of this team like that’s that’s a fun place to kind of start I initially penciled in because remember at the end of last season kaminga after starting and thriving went back to a bench roll because they wanted to start Draymond and they wanted to start a traditional Center Trace Jackson Davis and they just concluded correctly I think we cannot play kaminga Green and A non-shooting Center at the same time it’s just not enough shooting so I give you two options for for this for this starting five um my a choice is curry psky Wiggins kaminga green at Center we just start Draymond at center right off the bat I do think they are they there is internal hope in Golden state for a Wiggins bounce back season if he’s still on the team and they would like to give him a chance at it then I thought well okay let’s say they want to start a center because Steve wants to start big sometimes and Jackson Davis was really good last year do we just bite the bullet and go Curry psky kaminga green Jackson Davis and do the thing that they would not do last year because I gotta tell you man I I can’t go Curry Wiggins kaminga green and Jackson Davis that’s not enough shooting it’s too it’s too big and kind of bulky of a lineup I got I tell you Tim no matter what I I just think kaminga has to start I I I there are iterations and I I I pulled this question to people all over the league and got different reactions to it moody maybe Moody starts I think Melton is going to get a look as a potential starter maybe they bring kaminga off the no kaminga has got to start and I will say this did you see the Steve Kerr comments yesterday about um uh the the the rumors that kaminga has been bandied about in certain trade discussions yeah basically said everybody but Steph has been I I’ll tell you this right now between the starting lineup conversation we’re having right now which is surely going on within the Warriors between the between the the yo-yo of the kaminga minutes in the role last year and his production and between the trade talks that may or may not be happening about Lowry Markin and which may or may not include kaminga will’ll get there and between kaminga being eligible for an extension right now this is going to come to a head soon and maybe as soon as Las Vegas when everybody gets there like the Warriors front office I don’t know who’s there yet kinga’s agents surely will be there like but but let’s just focus on the team for now I think no matter what kaminga has got to start which means for me I’m starting the Draymond at Center lineup and rolling from there and my bench is some combination of Melton Moody heel gp2 Kyle Anderson I got a lot of I got two centers coming off the bench I got a lot of directions I can go there’s a lot of good players on the team they’ve got 12 proven rotation players no question about that and look obviously the clay thing was an emotional deal uh you know but they didn’t break up the dynasty they it was the dynasty was done and and they’re moving on um and you know the the old two timelines thing the guy who is really hit on that from that has been kaminga um and I think you’ve either got to start him or aggressively look to move them because you know like you said it it was a thing last year and and you know his his Camp made some noise and then you know Steve Curry came out and said you know what yeah I shouldn’t have had him riding the pine while we were losing a close game to the Nuggets after he was playing extremely well and he was in the starting lineup after that um there’s no question he’s a starting caliber player I mean he he really did take a a a leap last year and you know I think there are people uh you know on his side of things would say yeah the leap was he had a bigger role like he’s he’s been capable he had more opportunities so I just don’t think bringing him off of the bench is something that’s going to be a manageable situation moving this is why I mentioned Vegas if they all meet in Vegas and everybody meets in Vegas and the message is hey we’re going to go into training camp it’s gonna be Steve’s decision maybe he comes off the bench maybe he doesn’t like I just don’t think that can fly anymore like I think that could be a radioactive bomb throwing at the kaminga camp especially given the you know he do have an extension in place you know given the this is a guy who has every right to feel like hey I’m a a a nine figure type of player on my next deal it’s going to be hard to do that if I’m playing 26 minutes a game off the bench you know so yes I think he either has to start or you’ve really got to look to get value for him in the trade market I personally would put him in the starting lineup between him and P jimsky you’ve got two really good young players in that group um I think I think pods is starting I I just think they fell in love with his game last year and all the things that he does she shot it well enough I think you can make an argument for Moody I think Melton would get some looks and maybe they both of those guys get looks in the Wiggins spot if that goes south but I think psky goes in ahead of those guys as a potential starter

FIRST TAKE | WOJ update on GS Warriors ready to trade for Lauri Markkanen & extend Steph Curry