Tim Kawakami

SAN FRANCISCO — Three more wins. If you’re looking for an appropriately calibrated target for this wildly uncalibrated season, I’m offering up a simple one right here. Count them down: Beat the in Sacramento on Tuesday, just like the Warriors memorably pulled off in a do-or-die Game 7 in the first round last season; then go back on the road and qualify for the first round by beating the loser of the 7-8 game between the and ; and finally, the Warriors can conclude this season somewhat honorab…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — There was no goodbye, if anybody was looking or listening for it. There was nothing to say. At the disappointing end of this hectic season on Tuesday night, stopped for a few seconds on his way off the Golden 1 Center floor and silently scanned a few sections of the crowd with a somber look on his face. Advertisement He didn’t scowl. He didn’t drop his head. He just looked around, quietly absorbed the scene, nodded his head once or twice and walked into the locker room. Th…

SAN FRANCISCO — There is the Warriors’ urgency and there is also the Warriors’ legacy, and these two very significant things are getting more and more separated from each other with every passing day. The dire urgency is to vault back from this season’s Play-In embarrassment, to get back into the playoffs, to contend with , and for the championship, to justify the massive payroll commitment and to keep doing it like the did from 2014 to just a few years ago. Advertisement The urgency is to ge…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — John Lynch sent out some interesting flares about the San Francisco 49ers’ thought process and plans at his pre-draft presser on Monday, which either were fired off for distraction or could’ve been relatively honest hints from somebody who mostly hates to fib, even during a period when the whole league likes to lie. Advertisement Obviously, the 49ers’ general manager wasn’t offering up all of his strategy to the public. They have a lot of phone calls to make and take. We’ll…

Yeah, this time it’s very different for the , for the players and especially for Steve Kerr, sitting at home and watching the best teams crash into each other on television. Golden State has missed the playoffs three times in the past five seasons — wrapped around the 2022 championship run and last year’s loss in the second round — but last week’s splattering Play-In loss to the had a lot more finality to it than the other exits. It’s a different kind of time for the league, now full of young a…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Think of as the guy the drafted to replace Deebo Samuel. Or . Eventually. One or the other. But probably not right away. Just whenever it becomes necessary, and yes, it will become necessary at some point. Got it? It’s complicated! On a relatively muddled night for the 49ers’ present and future at the wide-receiver position, things did not get much clearer when the 49ers , a receiver out of Florida, who wasn’t projected to go that high and certainly doesn’t seem to be as…

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — All Kyle Shanahan and John Lynch need to do now is figure out how to win a Super Bowl after several excruciating near-misses while also refreshing the San Francisco 49ers’ roster and making sure their long-term payroll is as efficient as possible. Should be easy. No problem, right? Advertisement Well, actually … there are lots of tricky situations brewing at HQ and only so much Lynch and Shanahan can do about them. Mostly, this is just the natural order of building a roste…

The thought hit me early last week, stuck with me through the San Francisco Giants’ solid homestand and remained present enough in my mind that I decided to go ahead and ask about it. Gee, a team that’s struggling to score runs but is built around consistently high-quality starting pitching and a thoughtful young catcher who ties a lot of this together … that has to feel a little familiar and more than a little encouraging for a franchise, doesn’t it, Buster? Advertisement “Yeah, I’m seeing th…

The offseason started much earlier than usual around these parts, which amps up the stress levels and adds to the certainty that these next few months could be more interesting for the and their fans than the 83 games we just witnessed and likely more significant for the team’s long-term future. Advertisement Which, no surprise, meant that I received a lot of good and challenging questions about the Warriors for Part 1 of this mailbag cycle. I’ll put questions and answers about the 49ers’ own o…

It’s rookie minicamp and OTAs month in the Bay Area sports universe! Yes, May’s feeling a bit slower than usual in these parts with the Warriors’ season already doused, the Sharks long gone, the not exactly percolating and the A’s showing signs of life but still (theoretically) on their way to Las Vegas by way of Sacramento by way of many discarded fans. Advertisement We’ll all make due, mostly with talk, at least at the start of Part 2 of my May mailbag, which also will get into the Giants, J…