The Warriors are in the midst of a resurgence, with a 7-1 start to the season, having just dispatched the defending champion Boston Celtics.
The vibes are excellent, and they just improved with the return of Warriors Plus/Minus, hosted by Audacy.
Tim Kawakami, Marcus Thompson and Anthony Slater discussed where the Warriors are at, and how appealing they are to other teams. Thompson thinks the way the Warriors roster is set up makes them a palatable destination.
"I do feel like, even though they haven't gotten a big fish, this is the path to the big fish, right?" Thompson said. "They're shaped to be a good regular season team. They play hard, they play defense, they shoot 3s, they shoot it well, they've got the clutch Player of the Year. They've got Draymond Green, who could attack just about every frontcourt matchup, and Wiggins, who can handle just about any backcourt matchup, like they're kind of positioned to win."
Slater said the Warriors look "a whole lot better to the outside world than they did a month ago," and that could open up possibilities if it continues to look that way.
Kawakami said he goes "back and forth" on whether the Warriors would be willing to ship off Kuminga, and asked his co-hosts their view.
Marcus Thompson brought up the fear within the Warriors that if Kuminga gets traded, the Warriors will lose their only pillar for the future.
"I do feel like there's a sentiment in the Warriors where it's like, it's gonna hurt if he's on another team and he turns into a superstar and you're without Steph in three years," Thompson said. "So that thing is like, do you want to just make the relationship work enough to where you win, he looks good and say, this is going to be your franchise [player]. I don't know if Kuminga wants to wait for that. I know some of his people don't want to wait for that."
Kawakami said he wasn't sure what player would make sense beyond Giannis Antetokounmpo, but Slater was blunt about where the fit is between Kuminga and the Warriors.
"To me, the timelines, they're not matching up," Slater said. "Like, it's year four for Jonathan Kuminga. It's year four. It's not year two anymore... I'm saying, come January, February. It just might make sense for both sides."
LISTEN to the full podcast above.