The Thunder will send Lindy Waters to the Warriors in exchange for the 52nd pick in today’s draft, sources tell Jake Fischer of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link).
Oklahoma City holds a $2.2MM non-guaranteed team option on Waters that must be exercised before the deal can be completed. Golden State views Waters as a potential rotation player and plans to guarantee his salary, keeping him on the roster, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
The 26-year-old shooting guard spent the past three years with OKC, mostly on two-way contracts before receiving a standard deal in February. He appeared in 38 games this season, averaging 3.6 points and 1.1 rebounds per game in 7.4 minutes per night.
The Thunder don’t have any other second-round picks, and there’s a belief that they might want to trade up even further, Fischer adds (Twitter link). Oklahoma City traded into the late first round Wednesday night, acquiring the 26th pick from New York to draft Dillon Jones.
OKC could be targeting San Francisco forward/center Jonathan Mogbo in the second round, speculates Rylan Stiles of Inside the Thunder. The team needs to find a replacement for two-way big man Olivier Sarr, who is expected to miss all of next season after suffering an Achilles injury in the G League Finals.
Warriors stop acquiring shooting guards challenge: impossible difficulty
They needed a 3 pt shooter off the bench. The guys stats look very good as a 3pt expert. I guess what they saw available in the draft wasn’t that good.
I think GSW needs defense more than 3 point shooters off the bench who do not play defense. Just my thought.
I have no idea how his defense is. He did shoot over 41% from 3 pt land in the G league. The list of players they were looking to draft wasn’t impressive. I think most will not get drafted and could be picked up after the draft.
Another guy I hope gets a real chance.
I’m a Warriors fan and have never heard of this dude, can you sum up what you think his ceiling is in a sentence or two?
His ceiling is the roof
The roof of a trailer.
I’ve never heard of this dude, can you sum him up for me? I know nothing about basketball.
There, I fixed your comment for you.
@Highwaymenace
That’s funny, because I know a trillion times more than you about basketball. Have a mute, never talking to trolls like you again!
Waters showed elite 3pt shooting touch in the G-league and college, and he has a +3 wingspan relative to his height, so the hope is he’ll be a 3 and D guy. He has shown some ability as a cutter and he can score for himself, but not much. The hope is for him to basically become a more accurate Moses Moody, probably.
Granted, he’s already going to be 27 next month. So he’s probably not changing in any way.
have a mute because your feelings got hurt? grow a pair.
Actually, that’s a good point. Thanks for reminding me that I can mute you, Davey/Marty/whoever else!
Pretty obvious it’s the guy that spent years posting about his seething hatred of Steve Kerr, while making all Warriors fans look like childish homers in the process. Not sure how many times a guy needs to make a new account, but you can’t escape writing style and baked in bias.
This guy does well when he gets minutes. He can score.
Dunleavy you need to go. Wtf?!
So far better than Myers. All Myers did was take credit for a team he inherited and a player he was gifted in Durant.
What it more says is that OKC is going after free agents to fill the few holes they have on the team. I am wondering this means they are go all out for Harkenstein?
The following guys are already under contract….shai, Caruso, Jalen, Jaylin, Chet, Dort, Topic pick 12, Dillon Jones pick 26, Kenrich Williams, Ousmane Dieing, and Cason Wallace. That is 11 guys. Isaiah Joe and Andrew Wiggins have team options that have already been picked up, or will be. That brings the roster total to 13. Keyontae Johnson was a 2nd rounder last year. Maybe they cut him? They could trade two guys for one, or flip a guy for a future pick. There isn’t much room left to add guys, without subtracting someone.
They are also 50 million under the cap so they have wiggle room. They are in a real good situation. Kaynote is not under contract so they can let him go with no hit to cap.
Big fan of Lindy Waters the last 3 years. Had him high on my list for FAs for the Heat last year, and this year, if he were available…plays 1-3, can shoot, playmaker, has good length at those positions, can block some shots, knows how to play
I wonder about a couple of players there, like Moody and Quinones, and probably even Payton, and possibly even Pod…most of those guys are probably fine, but there could be scenarios where they’re moved, as the next few weeks goes forward
Thanks for this, and yeah I agree Podz and Moody -might- be on the trading pile, as their value is pretty high, if you know ball, you know both are likely going to be in this league for a while. Moody is actually one of my faves out of the bunch, I think his ceiling is Kawhi the way he is both an elite scorer and defender when he’s allowed to play, I loved when Moody made the starting lineup, I really want to see what 30+ MPG looks like from him.
Podz is a lesser talented Russell Westbrook imo. I’d sell high on him, as his best position is clearly PG, and we have Curry, so he’s not as clean a fit at SG like Moody is.
Curry should not be playing PG anymore. Did you see how worn out he was at the end of the season? Podz needs to become the PG.
*unserious person alert*
Here’s a mute for you too, sunshine! No time 4 worthless haters!
Podz contract is goldmine. He surprised everyone with his play and played very well in tandem with Curry. He struggled a bit at season end because he was banged up taking all those charge fouls and also hitting a rookie wall. He’s a definitely a keeper.
If “he played well” why did GSW give up 40 points a quarter on defense all the time when he was out there? He is defensively a stat collector and nothing more. His “rebounds” are just deflections (luck), not going bodies on anyone. I have faith he will be a PG in this league for a long time, maybe not a starter though. He only cracked 20+ points 4 times and never touched 30, even Moody has a 30+ point game already.
I’d rather see a lot of Kuminga-Green-Moody-Curry lineups next year than anything, hopefully adding PG13 to that group…
“He is defensively a stat collector and nothing more.”
Very well said…I have been saying this a hundred different ways, but this sums it up best. He did the same at Santa Clara…I would always just say stat hog.
I was upset that he was getting playing time ahead of Moody, Kuminga early in the season but Kerr preferred his ball handling skills. Podz can shoot lights out … pass as well as any and earned his stripes.
I agree about Pods value being high right now…imo, high as it ever will be. Even though he is amazing at drawing charges, his defense is likely worst on the team with him having such short arms. Would be great to use him to get someone that could help this team get to around a 6th seed.
Couldn’t agree more, out of the “next generation” guys (Kuminga, Moody, TJD, Podz), Podz is the one I would move to sweeten the deal. Moody and Podz had the same Win Shares/48, but Moody has flashed more brilliance than Podz imo
I see GSW’s “trading block” guys are Wiggins, GP2, CP3 and Looney. Adding Podz to any combo of those guys sure does sweeten the deal if GSW is trying to add an elite level talent.
They could have been there thosbyear…they were like 4 games out, and Draymond missed lile e5 games…the issues are overstated. They were 1-2 players away, like most teams
GSW also lost 12 games by a single bucket, people talk like they were a bad team, but if they won all those games, thats good enough to go from 10th to 1st place. I know its “what if” type stuff, but the narrative that “GSW is a horrible team now” is baseless.
My frustration with the team last season is that in my opinion Podz should have gotten almost no playing time last year, and all of his minutes should have gone to Moody and Kuminga instead. If they had done that, they would have made up the “1-2 players away” part. Giving the playing time to a guy who ran up losses when he entered the top 5 MPG group, shows me that player is the problem, not the team.
We get it, homer, you think you know a lot more than you do. Using words like “faves” exposes you.
I don’t really agree with that. Golden State isn’t a “horrible” team. But most of their close losses were a result of bad process leading to bad results. Curry is still elite, Draymond is still a quality defender, but they had so many games where they either had guys like Wiggins and Klay playing too much and they were shooting the Warriors out of close games, or were too lacking on defense to stop comebacks. Depending on Moody and Kuminga more would have been wise, but over those two, not Podz. They were sub-.500 in close games for a reason, and that reason wasn’t bad luck.
While Podz isn’t a great 1v1 or PoA defender, he’s at least a net neutral defender everywhere else and is a quality rebounder for his size. 7TRB/G over 32 minutes is high for a 2-guard. And the stats back up that he’s a neutral defender. The team’s defensive rating did not change one bit whether he was on the court or not. His defense wasn’t the problem, it was team cohesion and Curry being targeted as always, plus Draymond missing so much time and Looney not being as good as in ’22.
You make some great points. I sit a few rows behind visitors bench at Chase, and what I watched a lot last season were teams tiring the Warriors out. I think Paul George said it in a podcast – “when you play the Warriors, you drive to the basket and make a layup if nobody helps, or you dish it out to the open man for a three if someone comes down to help at the basket”…we just don’t have the speed on defense to counter such a simple plan.
Mike Brown was able to build a solid defense for all those years, and when he left it seemed like they just didn’t have the players on defense anymore, or the strategy was flawed…and the answer is a little of both. As the guy says above, giving up 40 point quarters is a real thing, and it happened a lot.
Anyway, back to the point, I am not blaming Pods for any of this. I wish we had taken Cam Whitmore at #19, and maybe I am still in my feelings about that…but Kerr used Pods way too much, and I believe some of it was to punish players that didn’t work hard in practice…I can see Pods running up and down no matter what, and that’s a beautiful thing…but he was put in a lot of positions where the other team just had a huge advantage shooting over him. I am not sure on this, but I remember hearing on a podcast that he gave up over 45% of threes while he was guarding his man…he just doesn’t have any length with his short arms.
Now, can he help a team?…sure, in small doses…for now, I definitely don’t think he should be playing 30+ minutes every night when you have such a dynamic player as Moses Moody on the bench….and I would have loved more minutes for Lester. Did Pods lose games for the Warriors?…I wouldn’t say that either, as cohesion and Klay’s emotional turmoil really played a bigger role than most NBA fans realize.
**and I just have to say that Pods has lots of fans where I sit, and my opinion is shared by a few, but not everyone.
All good points, but I have to correct one misconception. Opponents with Podz as their closest defender shot 37% on threes. That’s league average for a 2-guard defender, only very slightly above the league average as a whole (Centers typically do the worst, then PGs, then SGs).
Moody is a good player with quality defense, but I wouldn’t have him over Podz when he’s better suited to take over for the shell of Andrew Wiggins or Klay Thompson. His offensive game is less diverse than that of Podz currently.
Honestly, Kerr used Podz pretty well last year. He essentially played the 6th man role the Warriors originally wanted CP3 for, especially while the latter was injured, then took over for Klay when Klay started really struggling as a starter and held things down well enough.
They could have also then rested Steph and Klay going into the playoffs more and been generally much fresher. It also lets the team experiment more with lineups and sort the rotation more.
Perhaps they know they are trading Pods and want someone with three years experience to be able to take over that role? Otherwise we need some length…
Aaron Wiggins not Andrew.
There is a 1:36 short clip on YT – “Lindy Waters III Drops Career-High 25 PTS & 7 3PT vs. Hawks”. This guy can shoot and also finish up a lob. If he has a little defense in him, could be a nice addition.
Podski is going nowhere. He is a great player. I’ll say it again. He is a great player.
Podz is role player. Every minute he takes from Moses Moody is a wasted minute. Moody is a young Shea Gilgous-Alexander and should be playing at least 35 minutes a game.
Moody leaves me wanting. He’s not cut out to be an NBA basketball player of consequence. He’s just a guy. Podski is twice the player Moses Moody is.
Dumb move by Dumbleavy. Kerr and Dumbleavy are the NBA version of Dumb and Dumber.
Ok smart guy who should they have drafted at that pick?
How could I answer that when there is no way to know who will be on the board at that pick? You’re obviously not very smart
From the list of players that will be available none of them stands out as good picks. They can wait and sign somebody after the draft that wasn’t picked since its only 5 places down.
Some players could be Antonio Reeves, Jamal Shead, Keshad Johnson, Jalen Bridges, PJ Hall
2 of them were drafted before Warriors pick and the other 3 went undrafted so they could sign with the Warriors.