© Dale Zanine | 2020 Jan 20
Even if the NBA resumes to close out the 2019-20 campaign, it is exceedingly likely that the Golden State Warriors have played their last game until next season.
In that spirit, Warriors beat writer Anthony Slater hopped on with Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the offseason, starting with why he thinks Golden State should target former Memphis center James Wiseman should they get the No. 1 pick.
“As far as who I would see fit, I’m a little bit on the Wiseman camp,” Slater said. “Maybe there’s some mystery because we saw him play like 20 minutes before he dipped out of NCAA basketball. That’s clearly the biggest hole. I know the modern center is devalued in the NBA, but they’re paying massive money for their point guard, shooting guard, small forward and power forward next year.
“Let’s say Wiseman is going to become a version of DeAndre Jordan. I know that’s not a sexy outcome for a number one overall pick, but is there anybody else in the draft that everyone is sure is going to become a star? I kind of see Dion Waiters in Anthony Edwards a little bit. In a bad draft if you see a center you kind of think you can plug and play, I would like that as an option.”
As far as free agency is concerned, Slater likes three veteran big men as great fits assuming the salary cap allows Golden State to add this offseason.
“I don’t think Toronto is going to bring (Marc) Gasol and (Serge) Ibaka back. If you kind of follow the people around that organization it kind of seems like they are going to pick one of the two. I think those are the two most perfect fits because even if they are going to take minor pay cuts, you can kind of negotiate with them like ‘Hey, you still want to have a chance to win or do you want to chase $12 million in Atlanta on a non-playoff team? Would you take the mid-level exception to still chase titles?’ Since they have the taste of a ring now.
“Gasol is perfect in a Steve Kerr-type system. High post, David West-style passing into the back cuts, good, smart defender. Ibaka to me would fill the perfect shot blocking but can also space the floor-type role. The guy can shoot threes, and with Draymond’s shot where it is, with Eric Paschall being a big rotation piece next season but also not having a reliable three-point shot, they’d love to get a center in here who can shoot the three. That’s why they tried Dragan Bender even though it didn’t really work. To me stretch-five is huge.
“We’ll see how willing they are to spend money, but Kelly Olynyk, the Miami Heat might just give over his contract with that trade exception. It’s a lot of money, particularly when we’re talking about tax dollars, but he shoots like 38 percent from three on pretty high volume.”
Listen to the full interview below.