Logan Murdock
Appearances
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I'm doing good, man. It's a thrill to work with you as well. I think we've met like once. I've always been a fan of your work. And like it was just when I got the DM yesterday, it was such an honor to be on your show, bro. So I've been listening for a long time since I was a young whippersnapper. So, you know, young whippersnapper.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, it depends on what they do with the supporting cast and what they do with Kaminga. Now, all fines at this point point to the fact that Kaminga is probably going to be gone in a sign-in trade. That's something I've been hearing. That's something The Athletic has reported. That has come to an impasse.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And so whatever they get for Kaminga and whatever they do in the offseason, maybe they flip a lot of those young guys that were ineffective throughout the playoffs into another piece of coming off the bench, maybe a veteran piece, and they flipped that up. But it really depends on that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I know Giannis was the big prize and has felt like the big prize over the last few years and something that the Warriors brass has openly wanted a chance and a crack at it at him. But that's probably not realistic at this point. They don't even have a package that even competes with the Houstons and the Oklahoma cities and the San Antonio's of the world.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So by, you know, just, just sheer unluckiness, they, they have to probably build around the margins. Right. And, and, and build a, a suitable bench for next season because you're going to have Curry next year. He's 37 right now. He's going to turn 38 next March. You have Jimmy, who was a little older than two feet of Draymond, who's 35 right now and looks every bit of 35.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So regardless, it's going to be tough. I remember when I, when, when the trade went down, I said that, If they get to the second round, that's a win for this season considering where they were in January. They got to that point. They could have sniffed around and maybe get to the Western Conference Finals. That would have been a great season for the Warriors.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Just bad luck going into the postseason. If they get
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
some really good players around the margins they could you know be sniff around 50 wins and if health permits maybe get to the same conclusion that they got this season which isn't a bad thing but like when you look at the postseason record of the warriors over the last decade losing in the second round just doesn't make sense it just it doesn't it doesn't uh compute because i think uh
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
other than the play-in games, they've only lost early in the second round going into the series, I think one time, and that was against the Lakers in 2023. And it's just really foreign to see them lose this much. But if you were to tell any normal, rational NBA fan that, hey, you're going to go to the second round with this roster, it's pretty good.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So we'll see what happens, but they need to build around the margins because that's really all they can do at this point. based on the assets that they have, and just the landscape right now in the trade market.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't know if there may be necessarily a better spot, but maybe a more interesting spot. I know there was a deal in place to send Draymond to Memphis, and then the return on that would have been interesting. It's so interesting that Stephen Adams was the catalyst to almost beating him in the first round because in that trade, Stephen Adams would have came back to Golden State.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And along with Dylan Brooks, I heard as well – Tyus Jones and a couple other people. But the reason why that deal fell through is because Tyus Jones went to got rerouted to Washington and it no longer made the deal work because that's something they want. They really wanted to back up point guard. And so that would have been interesting. Right. You would have kept Jordan Poole.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
You would have you would have had you would have had Dylan Brooks, which would have which would have been had its own bit of entertainment. So they could have went that route. Right. Or they could have traded Kaminga two or three years earlier because it wasn't like they didn't identify these, their reservations from Kaminga, um, this year in the last two weeks. Right.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like they, they, uh, the front office, um, and particularly the coaching staff were at odds with how they felt about Kaminga right when they drafted him. Right. And the coaching, a lot of people on the staff didn't really want him. And, and, uh, that was a lake of pool. So like if you, maybe you trade Kaminga, um, or, uh,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I forget what the package was, but there was a deal in place to send Jordan Poole to Phoenix for Chris Paul. So that's just a different domino effect. But I think if you think about what they could have gotten potentially early on for Draymond the year after that punch, what that could have done with that Memphis package, That's something that's intriguing.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I don't know if they would have been better or worse. Right. But I think that that would have been intriguing and maybe they would have assets to go and get somebody else. Another thing though, that like, that's interesting about the warriors is that they, they tend to sit on their hands a lot more than teams that are of their level in terms of contention or wanting to contend. Right.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like they are very, very patient. Whereas this is a, feels like this is a, a league now where you kind of have to make a decision, especially with the apron and the second apron, you have to just go with your gut in a lot of ways. And it requires you to reinvent yourself on a year by year basis, right? We talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers this year and how good they were during the season.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And now we're talking about, maybe we have to, you know,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
tweak around the margins and same with the Boston even before the Tatum injury this is a league where um after the last CBA where there's gonna be a lot more movement and I think that the Warriors in this case have kind of bucked that trend and um tried to have as much uh continuity as possible and I think it's bitten them in the butt a little bit in terms of flexibility because I know the Draymond or what if they don't even sign Draymond to that you know that
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
that extension, which has kind of been a debilitating as well. But I do think that, uh, going back to your question, you know, maybe if they make that deal with Memphis or, um, maybe Durant says this year, you know what? I want to come back. That could have been interesting as well.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Cause, uh, but the Warriors are in a weird space right now because there's a lot of what ifs that could have happened. And you don't really want to have that in the twilight of a guy like Steph's career. So, We'll see what happens, but there's a lot of what-ifs and what could have happened as opposed to what should have happened.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Oh, I wanted to add one other one real quick, Zach, like getting, uh, trading Jordan pool for essentially nothing. Like you got, you traded him for Chris Paul and I know it was a salary dump at the point in time, but you, that was just a missed opportunity, I believe right there.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
right and i don't know what the marketplace was but i think that's another one that that maybe was a miss like they couldn't they couldn't get anything they got an aging point guard who they also tried to trade and got nothing for so i think that was also a big miss as well yeah pool has had to put it politely a very up and down uh career with the washington wizards back up this year but did they needed him to win the title in 2022 um yeah
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But what do you remember about it? I mean, I remember just thinking, like, one, when I first heard about the Paul George thing, it was like, there's no way the Clippers are going to trade him in division. Like, that wasn't something that I thought was going to happen. And then...
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Then once that we saw that there were actually talks and they were going to happen, then the Clippers were going to try to take everything that the Warriors, every asset that the Warriors had in their cupboards. And, you know, and so there was, it was a non-starter. It wasn't close in that regard in general. And to be honest,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
If you look at those trades in hindsight, the Warriors pretty much dodged a bullet. I don't think that if what happens with Paul George this season happens when he's with Golden State, the season is a disaster. An executive used that exact phrase with me yesterday. Yeah, it would be a disaster if whatever happened in Philly. Then they would be stuck with that contract and be really pissed off.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I mean, I think... Getting Butler, which, you know, in hindsight, it worked out. But that was something that the Warriors begrudgingly did. They were trying to get Durant. And if you talk to anybody within the front office or on the staff or anywhere near the Warriors in, like, say, December, January, that nobody wanted Jimmy Butler. That's just a fact.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it was one of those things where the Durant thing fell through. And... It was like, well, we have to get a subtype of star for Steph. We can't just let him be as depressed as he was in January all season. And so they made the trade and made a good trade at that. But all intents and purposes, I would say this is a successful Warriors season because of what could have been.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And they really doused a lot of bullets for what didn't happen. And I think that that... Based on the circumstance, they should be happy with what transpired this season because it could have went really, really bad. It could have went bad.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
That was a Danny Ainge-like dangle, right? And again, Danny Ainge was going to try to take everything from the Warriors anyway for that asset. So that's something that... you know, the Warriors have always been up front with is maybe not the two-timeline thing, but like, hey, we want to keep our assets well into the future, and we don't want to be a team that is really messed up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Once Steph leaves at the time, Clay leaves, and Draymond leaves, we want to be able to get back into the fold relatively quickly. And that's also something Joe Lacob wants. Like, he doesn't want to lose at any point, and he wants to keep contending. One of the things that you hear about
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
with Kaminga and why he kept Kaminga for so long without trade is because Joe Laker was scared to death about a post-death era. Like, and,
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
From a basketball standpoint, from a team marketing standpoint, he really wants a guy and to anoint a guy that he thinks is both exciting, that can play basketball, and that can also galvanize a fan base once Steph leaves because he's terrified of the notion that he's not going to have a front-facing guy. Kaminga is at least one of those three things.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
You know, there's a lot of people on staff that are like, with the Warriors that are like, man, we should have got Trey Murphy. Like, it was a lot of people that pushed for Trey Murphy in that draft. So there's a reason I mentioned him. And Kaminga won out, yeah.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
old coming off an injury and really only had one super game that he could summon within him and otherwise sort of faded into the background if he was scared before he's got to be like hiding under his blanket shivering and you're just talking about offensively like defensively jimmy was not like he was great i would say he was great in the back stretch of the regular season defensively they were number one in defensive rating the warriors were once he got post trade but
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Especially after that injury and even times before, you would look at possessions where his footwork wasn't great. He would let guys that normally he would lock up blow past him. He looked old during the last stretch, and he was also dealing with some illness and things like that. That's right.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Exactly. So he was dealing with some issues there, but... I wrote about this on TheRinger.com. It's a great piece. I'm going to mention it soon. Don't worry. Appreciate it. But I mentioned that this is a foreshadow on what it's about to be.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And one of the issues that the Warriors face right now is when they have Steph off the floor, this is an issue that they've faced a long time throughout their run, is when Steph is on the floor or off the floor, they struggle to stay afloat. And a lot of that is because, duh, Steph Curry is the top 10 player, one of the greatest players of all time.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But the offense, whether he's on the floor or not, is catered to him. And there's just not a guy that can run that offense just as effectively as he does. So what you have to do is you need to get players like a Jimmy Butler, like a Kevin Durant, like a Chris Paul, who can play their own style of offense within this set whatever you want to chaos, you want to call it.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And, um, it's hard to find those guys. It's really hard to find those guys, especially in the modern NBA. Um, that is, uh, that is actually, you know, built in the light of Steph Curry, the constant movement, constant shooting, constant three pointers. Um, and those guys just are not existing anymore, but it's really hard to find that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I think that that that's something that, you know, the, the warriors are going to try to figure out as somebody who can, another guy that can, that can hold the floor. Another guy that I think you should look at, um, for the Warriors going forward is Derek White, a guy like that.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And I think that's something that the Warriors are looking at right now because Boston's expected in league circles to have some sort of fire sale, right? Or some sort of maybe reset. We'll see what happens. I mean, a lot of that is predicated on what happens tonight against New York, but... And that's somebody that you should look at as well.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Just somebody that can play defense and also like kind of just settle everyone down, especially when you have a young group like that, you need to settle them down in a non-stuff minute. So that's something to figure out.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Yeah, very, very good. Down the stretch.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And that's probably just what they're going to be. Well, you know, like with OG, that's interesting because they need guys like that on the peripheral in the postseason. And they just don't have those types of guys, the Warriors. And I'm not talking about star players. Like Jimmy will definitely get on the floor. They're tiny. across the board. They're so small.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And that's another thing that I was going to say, man. I know Wiseman didn't work out, but they have done a terrible job building their front court. And that is not good when you consider the fact that they're playing against the Minnesota Timberwolves of the world, the Denver Nuggets of the world. And About to be San Antonio Spurs of the world, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Especially if they get Giannis to pair along with Wimby. You could just forget about it, right? But that's something that they have just been so wing heavy. And God bless him. He's really good. And he's been really successful for them. But their best big is Kevon Looney. Who played point, who played point guard in high school, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like that's the type of, and who was a small forward when he got drafted, right? Then you have, so they don't really have guys that can really bang down in the post. Draymond was playing the five for like four months straight, right? Right? And that's not a 2015 Draymond. That's a 2025 Draymond who's long in the tooth. They got some real stuff they need to figure out.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
But back to my point, they also, if they had OG on their roster, just another guy that can just bang and get like, that can play defense, hit threes, and can just be a dude in the playoffs. They didn't have many dudes in this year's playoffs outside of the starters.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
The funny part about that is going into the postseason, a lot of teams were trying to just pick off Denver because of the coaching situation and the front office situation. And just how impressive they have been since that and through it all has been really a sight to behold. But Denver was the biggest wild card going into this postseason.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So to see them go from where they were to right now has been a sight to behold. But another thing, the Warriors... Their postseason, if you do want to just throw some holes in what they have done, what veteran teams are supposed to do is get out of series early. And that's something that they just couldn't do.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And it really – like that Houston series, me and Roger talked about this on the pod going into that series. We were talking about how no matter what happens in that series – the Warriors are going to get their ass kicked because that's what the Rockets are going to do. They're going to muddy the series. They're going to do a lot of those things.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So it would be imperative for you to get out of this series in five games. The Warriors were on track to do that, and then they played with their food and barely won in seven games after just a lot of emotions going on. And that in turn hurts Steph. Cause he has to, he has to play L size minute, then strains his hamstring and then they're done. Right.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
If they were to like, they would, I feel like they would have had a much, much better chance against Minnesota if they just didn't play with their food against Houston. And that's what you, you can't play with your food when you're in a, when you're a veteran team.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
but they just laid down knowing that in that, uh, in those, when they were up three, one, it just felt like they just laid down the Warriors. They didn't seem like they pulled up a fight until they absolutely had to. And the thing that they, and I agree with you, I really love the Houston Rockets. They were one of my favorite stories, but they didn't have a closer, right?
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
So they could play as hard as they could. As long as the Warriors kept it close, the war in theory, the Warriors could close out those games. And at that point, As the series wore on, they just stepped away from that philosophy, and it felt like they laid down for those, especially in game six, where they needed that game, and they needed that rest, and they just didn't play hard.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I remember that first game in Houston. I was there for the first two games, but the first game in general, the one that they won, you could just see Draymond after the game, just dog tired after guarding both of those guys. And that was just after one game. And to see just the physical toll that the Rockets put on the Warriors was just, it was nuts. It was nuts.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Like, they don't hide it. I'm sure he notices it, too. I mean, it's that. It's the fact that he knows that a lot of those coaches that are like, oh, didn't want him in the Bay Area in the first place, and he knows that every mistake is magnified, and he knows that, like, a lot of people on that staff just doesn't like him, right? And for whatever reason, the fact –
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
A lot of reasons that are out of his control because I think some of them resent him for the fact that Joe Lacob wants him on the team for so long and they can't get rid of him. But you see it. One, it's loud mistakes, but it also speaks to a guy that really feels like he never belonged here in the first place.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
And he also sees other young guys, some guys that were drafted after him, some guys that were drafted with him, that when they mess up, don't get that type of reaction. If Moody messes up, he doesn't get that type of reaction. Pod sometimes gets that reaction when he messes up.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
I would say that, but he still gets to play through his mistakes, whereas Kaminga feels like he doesn't get to play through his mistakes, and it's magnified.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Well, one, the Warriors will be fine. They won four chips in a dynasty, so they're good. But what I want to say is, man, I'm really happy to have you aboard. I know you get this all the time. I listen to the pod with Beck, and he always tries to just say, you're great, you're great. I just want to just, you know, extend those thoughts and also just say I'm happy to have you aboard, bro.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
It's good to have you on.
The Zach Lowe Show
Game 7 Baby! OKC-Denver Breakdown With Andrew Schlecht, and a Warriors Postmortem With Logan Murdock
Thanks so much. Talk to you soon.