Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr., who spent a year as teammates with Paul George in Indiana in 2010/11, “led the charge” in the team’s efforts to acquire the star forward from the Clippers in June before George declined his player option and became a free agent this summer, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.
As Slater outlines, Dunleavy got Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, and head coach Steve Kerr involved in the recruitment of George, who was on board with the idea of picking up his player option and getting traded to Golden State. However, the Clippers decided they’d be better off not taking on significant salary in a trade with the Warriors.
“Paul George wanted to come here,” Green said. “So shout out to Mike. The Clippers just wouldn’t do (an opt-in and trade).”
There’s still some “fading frustration” within the organization about the failed pursuit of George, according to Slater, who says the Warriors may argue the Clippers underestimated their chances of losing the forward for nothing in free agency.
While Golden State’s subsequent pursuit of Jazz forward Lauri Markkanen was viewed as a Plan B after missing out on George, Slater says it was actually part of Plan A and that the Warriors initially wanted to land both players.
“The conversation was always about that possibility,” Green said. “You get both of those guys, you make a huge splash. But the Clippers weren’t really willing to play ball. Then (Jazz CEO) Danny Ainge was being Danny Ainge.”
The Warriors had hoped they’d be able to acquire George while preserving enough assets to meet Ainge’s asking price for Markkanen, Slater explains. They still talked to Utah about Markkanen after striking out on PG13, but at that point Dunleavy felt it wasn’t the right move for the team to go all-in for the Jazz forward.
“Mike is very sensible,” Kerr said. “He just said to me, ‘It doesn’t make sense to sell your entire future for a team that you think can be pretty good, but isn’t awesome, right?’ Especially at this stage with the ages of our stars.”
Here’s more out of Golden State:
- The Warriors also spoke to the Timberwolves about a possible Karl-Anthony Towns trade before he was dealt from Minnesota to New York, league sources tell Slater. However, the Wolves targeted a specific Knicks package that the Warriors couldn’t replicate.
- Despite striking out on top trade targets this summer, the Warriors are high on the players they added – Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield, and De’Anthony Melton – and are more bullish than outsiders about their chances this season. According to Slater, the Warriors’ internal models have them in the top six in the West and there has been talk within the organization that 50-plus wins should be the expectation.
- Still, that doesn’t mean the Warriors won’t continue to keep an eye out for a chance to acquire an impact player who could help take them to the next level. “We’re sitting about as good as we could, subject to the point that we didn’t catch the big fish that we were going after,” team owner Joe Lacob told Slater. “But that doesn’t mean we won’t. It just means we didn’t yet.”
- Dunleavy told reporters on Tuesday that the Warriors aren’t concerned about not having reached an agreement on a contract extension for Jonathan Kuminga before Monday’s deadline, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN (Twitter link). “Not much has changed in regards to our hopes for his future with this team,” Dunleavy said. “Sometimes these things get done, sometimes they don’t. … Hope to get something done in the offseason.”
Wait, Steph, PG13, Markkanen, Green isn’t awesome? Pretty hard to get that done and George injury history and all noted. PG still plays high level both ends, keeping him on the courts another issue.
The Kerr quote was about giving up a ton for Markkanen after missing out on George.
Luke , perhaps you should edit the article to reflect the clarification you just made?
The article does indeed read as if Kerr is referencing the both George and Markkanen, as opposed to just Markkanen.
Even if they got PG and Lauri… They’d of traded their depth for stars and have no bench…
With Draymond and PG on that roster they’d need all the depth they could get…
And Steph and Lauri ain’t exactly 82 game players either…
What depth. Unproven players. Curry is still elite. Ask David J.
I think they assumed that PG tells the Clips hes out and its something or nothing so they get Moody and CP3s salary with Loon and a couple less valuable draft assets. You then pivot and deal for Lauri with draft assets plus Podz or something. You then can attract the ring chasers to fill out the roster because you did this all ahead of FA.
Exactly Chapman. Well said and spelled out perfectly.
Agree, it’s all in while Steph is still balling. Trying compete for a chip now while also playing for the future has worked when exactly?
What is your issue with Draymond? Without him, the Warriors don’t win.
> What is your issue with Draymond? Without him,
> the Warriors don’t win.
We need Draymond to win AND we need him to stay out of trouble. He is only one transgression away, on-court or off, from a massive suspension. And that could destroy our season.
Draymond himself said he knows “he’s past 3 strikes” and that the next suspension will be devastating. We’d hoped that his therapy would improve the outlook. But, the bad judgement and lack of self-awareness shown in this article isn’t making the team sleep easier.
Bizarre. The scheme assumes, first, that the Clips would give up George for basically nothing (which we know is wrong), and, then, that Ainge would happily give up Markkanen for the assets the Dubs had left over.
More bizarre: Draymond leaking all this. Sure, it helps his podcasts’ ratings, but the team sure as hell didn’t give him permission, and it doesn’t help the morale of the young players (esp Kuminga and Podz) to read in the media that they were offered up, especially when Lakob has been telling the media that they weren’t.
Where in the article does it say that Kuminga and Podz were offered up?
Giants74 , Is this good enough?
1) the article cites Kerr quoting Dunleavy:
“He just said to me, ‘It doesn’t make sense to sell your entire future for a team that you think can be pretty good, but isn’t awesome, right?’ “
2) can you think of a way to acquire both Markkanen and George, 2 top-20 players, without trading away Steph and Dray, that would not involve offering up our other valued assets?
You didn’t read the article. It never mentions any names that the Warriors were willing to give up. The whole plan was based on George’s threat to opt-out. The Warriors were trying low-ball the Clippers, and they didn’t take it seriously. So, he opted out. The Clippers got nothing. He signed with the Sixers. Once that happened, they were no longer interested in Markkanen.
Giants74, if you read beyond the first sentence of a post, you would save yourself a lot of time.
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2) can you think of a way to acquire both Markkanen and George, 2 top-20 players, without trading away Steph and Dray, that would not involve offering up our other valued assets?
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Why cant Dray shut the heck up?? Let Dunleavy do his job. He’s trying to stay relevant and also emphasizing to youngsters that it’s HIS team(and Curry of course). He’s trying so hard to make people forget how he single-handedly ruined Warriors season 2 consecutive years. Finally, I guess he’s still reminding everybody a big trade can still happen esp since Kuminga didnt sign(flexible).
MIchol, you nailed it. Just so we don’t forget, Draymond’s the guy driving the organization’s personnel decisions.
It was time for a reminder because it had been 3 months since Draymond announced on the Teague podcast that he’d interceded at the last moment to block Dunleavy from trading away our young players for a star. Draymond informed us that he has only the organization’s long-term interests in mind, and never his own.
Umm…Dunleavy went to Draymond with the plan.
Giants74 , at least there’s one person (you) that believes Draymond has ultimate authority on roster construction and has the authority to release confidential info about legally privileged transactions.
Forgive the rest of us for our skepticism.
I prefer the Steph+Depth lineup to the “3 superstars and no depth” trend that currently is failing several teams. While the first unit isnt as good as the Wolves, Thunder or Nuggets in the West, GSW’s 2nd, 3rd and 4th units destroy everyone elses.
Doesn’t Danny Ainge realize he’s supposed to be the developmental team for the “top” teams???
The whole Warriors pursuit of Markkanen felt like a half attempt the whole time.
Could tell they didn’t really want to do what it takes to complete the trade. Just needed to make it look like they tried, and blame Ainge, for when it inevitably fails.
Ainge being Ainge….what, good at his job.
Benboy , I agree, but I think 2 things can be true:
1. The deal was doomed from the start given that the Warriors were unwilling to give up Podziemski and/or Kuminga, at least 1 of which the Jazz coveted.
2 The package the Warriors offered met the standard for this kind of deal. It reportedly included 2 unrestricted FRP’s, 2 seconds, and 2 swaps, along with Wiggins and Moody. It was described as better than the package Indiana used to acquire Siakam. That said, only Utah’s evaluation of the package matters.
But that’s what I mean. If they really wanted Markkanen then they they would give at least something better then their hand me downs. That package wouldn’t come close to replacing Markkanen’s value to the Jazz.
As for their record, that’s the plan regardless if Markkanen plays or not. At least, I hope the Jazz finally tank. Lol
You are right. They were only interested in Markkanen if they could land George. When that didn’t happen, they immediately lost interest. They pivoted to getting Kyle Anderson.
Yes exactly. Lauri Markkanen is a good player but he doesn’t move the needle enough. Look at the Jazz, they’ll lose almost 50 games this year with Markkanen as the star.
The full article is pretty interesting look into Dunleavy’s thinking. He had a plan on how to make the whole thing work without costing the Warriors a lot. It was kind of a thought experiment. Kudos for to Dunleavy for trying to make it work.
I mean I would have hated the trade if they gave Ainge what he wanted, and I dont think he was interested in negotiating since he knew if he extended Lauri he could get that package for him next summer with 4 years of control.
It was always going to be a hard deal to make since while Lauri was on a very valuable one year deal you couldnt extend him and would have to wait till next summer to lock him up and hope he doesnt change his mind in the inbetween. Ainge knew he wanted to extend so for him it was always going to be selling lots of team control from their perspective.
Chapman , good analysis. But I wish everybody would stop treating Danny Ainge as a genius.
Ainge dumped a winning roster on the promise they’d be better in a short number of years. In year 3 of its rebuild, they look years from relevancy.
To me singing Kuminga would be as bad as the 49ers signing Aiyuk. Trade him ASAP
How about Purdy, everybody cant wait to pay him $300m+, lol.
Or trade Payton for cash and a 2nd. Sign Bismack Biyombo along with Moses Brown or John Butler(to a two way contract)
Offer Payton and a 2nd for Drummond and cash