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00:00What is the most exciting part about this two game debut?
00:06Well, how would you answer that?
00:08Because I want to answer,
00:10I think it's an exciting sort of like point,
00:14but the answer is not exciting.
00:17The exciting thing is the vibe, right?
00:20The looks on the faces of the Warriors
00:23winning two games in a row on the road.
00:25But the answer is very, very boring to me
00:29with regard to what's different and why this works.
00:33What the Warriors now have is that in the fourth quarter
00:37or even the third quarter
00:39and things are starting to get stagnant.
00:41You know what that is, Dibs?
00:42It's a stagnation sensation.
00:44When that happens, and Warrior fans, you know,
00:47it happens almost every close game
00:50where there's a period of stagnation,
00:52whether it's the non-Steph minutes
00:54or whether it's the,
00:55we're going to throw three people at Steph
00:57and you don't have anybody else that can do anything.
01:00You suddenly now have someone that goes,
01:02give me the ball, I'll go get us a couple of free throws.
01:05That's your answer.
01:06That has completely, and again, it's two basketball games
01:10and I said six quarters a minute ago
01:12because I'm not giving you the first half in Chicago.
01:14You sucked, you still sucked,
01:17but six quarters have now looked passable.
01:20Put aside that the competition was weak, whatever.
01:23You got games on the road, you got to win them.
01:25They have, they get credit for it.
01:28To me, that's the difference, is when the Warriors stop,
01:32he can go, give me the ball,
01:34I'll get you a couple of free throws,
01:36take a breath, probably get a couple points,
01:39maybe only one, usually two,
01:41and recalibrate what you're doing.
01:45That, for the moment, has changed Warrior basketball.
01:48For me, it's about just one word and it's muscle
01:52and Jimmy Butler's got muscle and I love Steph Curry,
01:55but he's not a physical player
01:57and we've all cried for more than 10 years
01:59about Steph doesn't get any calls.
02:01Okay, Draymond Green is not a guy
02:03who finishes at the basket.
02:05Andrew Wiggins, he's dunked on some people,
02:08but he is not necessarily a muscly guy.
02:12Kevin Durant.
02:13He was the best they had.
02:14Kevin Durant is the slim reaper,
02:16so he's not necessarily a muscly guy
02:19and you go across the roster and TJD, Slender,
02:23Pods is young, Kaminga will go over you, not through you.
02:27What you have now is a guy when the ball is loose
02:31and he's involved, he's going to get the ball
02:33and if you go up for a shot contested at the rim,
02:37he's gonna go through you.
02:38He's a guy who will go through your chest
02:40and for the first time in a long time,
02:43I do think you've got a guy who is really strong,
02:47muscly, and like you said,
02:49a guy who can get to the foul line anytime he wants.
02:51Well, and Grandy brought this up earlier.
02:53Grandy, I liked what you said.
02:55Listen to this.
02:56Yeah, I didn't.
02:57No, I did.
02:58You didn't even know.
02:58What am I gonna say?
02:59You don't even know what I'm gonna refer to.
03:01I'm normally gonna be anti-Grandy, but go ahead.
03:04It's my default.
03:06It's really a what if.
03:07I don't even know if it's a point yet.
03:09I hate Mark Grandy.
03:10It's a concept and I'm open to it.
03:15Everyone was worried about Jimmy's attitude, right?
03:21What if it was exactly what they needed?
03:26I don't know that yet.
03:28I don't know that yet, but I'm open to it.
03:31I'm open to it, especially in a small sample.
03:35What if Jimmy's presence, his aura, his attitude,
03:41I mean, I don't know what's going on in the locker room.
03:43They all look happy.
03:45Well, Steve Kerr, four o'clock.
03:48We'll try to dig on that
03:50as far as what's happening in the locker room
03:52because today is, what's today, Tuesday?
03:55Last Wednesday, they all looked like they were gonna cry.
03:58That was six days ago.
04:01Six days ago, oh my God,
04:03Steve called everybody into the locker room
04:05in Salt Lake City and everybody came out
04:07with their heads hanging down low
04:09and then they went out and gacked a basketball game
04:12to the worst team I've ever seen.
04:14Okay, six nights later, we all look really happy
04:19and I can't tell you,
04:22I mean, I would be surprised if they're faking it.
04:25So like, yeah, I wanna dig on that,
04:28what's happening behind the scenes,
04:29but the part that we can see,
04:32that kind of attitude and that presence that he brings,
04:36that fear that he puts into defenses,
04:38that intimidation factor, if you will,
04:41it looks like something that they really needed
04:44because Draymond has it, but he can't score.
04:47So you needed it from somebody
04:49who has the ball in their hands.
04:50Right, and he has the ball in his hands
04:52and he got to the foul line a bunch
04:54and he shot 15 free throws
04:56and he is number 10 in the league on the year
05:00in a small sample in free throws per game.
05:02He gets to the line and he will get in the mix
05:06and offensively, defensively, he's got that toughness
05:08that the Warriors have not had.
05:10And I think about Charles Barkley
05:13and what he said about a jump shooting team
05:15will never win the title and yeah, you're wrong.
05:17And you look at this team
05:19and this team is mostly a finesse team
05:21without Jimmy Butler.
05:22You've got younger players
05:24who aren't necessarily mix it up kind of guys
05:27and now you have Jimmy Butler, a guy who will mix it up.
05:30And we know from his time in Chicago
05:33and his time in Minnesota and in Miami,
05:36he's a guy who is not shy about getting into confrontations
05:41and you saw it already in two games.
05:43I just want to pass this along
05:45because it is breaking a little bit
05:46with regard to one of the Warriors Western Conference foes.
05:50The Los Angeles Lakers are first up on the buyout market.
05:54They went and just got about 15 minutes ago,
05:55they got Alex Len, who is the big guy
05:58who was let go from the Sacramento Kings
05:59and when I say big guy, I mean big, big guy.
06:02He's a humongous human being.
06:04And remember they had that Mark Williams deal
06:07that got rescinded when he did not pass his physical
06:10and Dalton Connect awkwardly goes back
06:12to the Lakers and all of that.
06:15Well, the Lakers went out and got Alex Len.
06:18So that whole moment in time that the Warriors had
06:21where they're like, hey, maybe we could play the Lakers
06:23without a big man, that's over.
06:26I don't know what kind of presence he will end up having,
06:29but Lakers look like a top four team
06:31in the West to me right now.
06:34Agreed and I don't think that Alex Len
06:36is the kind of big that's gonna make you think like,
06:38oh boy, they just have a new rim protector.
06:41He's a little bit more like a Quentin Post
06:44as far as I can remember.
06:45Alex Len, he's a guy who, he doesn't play a ton
06:49and I'm looking at-
06:49He doesn't play a ton,
06:50but I don't think he plays like Quentin.
06:52He's not like a three point shooter.
06:53Right, but he's not a guy who I think you're gonna fear
06:56when going to the basket.
06:58Throughout the totality of his career,
07:01he's playing 17 minutes a game
07:03and he's averaging less than one block a game.
07:06He's just kind of a big body who doesn't do much for you.
07:11And for me, if I'm looking at a seven footer,
07:14I'd much rather have Quentin Post than Alex Len.
07:16Oh, I'm fine with that.
07:17Yeah, again, it's just a body,
07:18but the point is that the Lakers,
07:20you trade Anthony Davis, you try to get Mark Williams,
07:23you end up not having him.
07:25They were a little naked.
07:27They were a little naked as far as-
07:29Inafraid.
07:30Right, and they just waved Christian Wood,
07:31who's been hurt for the majority of the year.
07:33I think they were a little naked around the rim,
07:35so now there's certain matchups
07:37where they can put a seven footer out there.
07:39But yeah, you're not wrong.
07:41He's not a game changer, but he's a body.
07:44He's a body that they needed.
07:45Yeah, big body.
07:46Anyway.
07:47Big body who doesn't block shots or really rebound.
07:50And he hasn't rebounded since 2018 with Phoenix.
07:53It's been a long run of him not being playable
07:56by teams that aren't very good.
07:58So yeah, I mean, they got Alex Len.
08:01Good for you, you know?
08:02Yeah, no.
08:03It's great.
08:04He's their 11th man, I guess.
08:05Yeah, but he'll be out there a little bit.
08:07Yeah, he's a career five,
08:08five and a half rebound per game guy in limited minutes.
08:11So anyway, the buyout market is something
08:14that the Warriors may explore too, except for not today,
08:18because if you listen to Warrior fans,
08:19we don't need anything anymore.
08:21No. All set.
08:22Yeah, we gonna be champions.
08:24We gonna be championship.
08:25Well, I do wonder, like what is, in eight quarters,
08:30what is the most exciting part about Jimmy Butler
08:35to you Warrior fans?
08:37888-957-9570.
08:39We'll go to the phones really soon.
08:40I wanna point to this.
08:42January 21st.
08:44So 10 plus 11.
08:46This is 21.
08:47This is three weeks ago, I think, to the day, okay?
08:51January 21st.
08:53Listen to what Steve Kerr said to us
08:57about the issues that they, as a team,
09:00were having offensively.
09:01Yeah, it's a killer.
09:02And when you play a team like Boston,
09:04you know, the defending champs,
09:06they've got guys who can get to the rim
09:08and get easy points.
09:10And so, look, we've been on the other end of this too.
09:13You know, for years, we got a lot of layups
09:16and we could create layups out of our offense,
09:20but we could also play out of pace.
09:22And we had guys who could get to the rim occasionally.
09:26But some of it is personnel.
09:28And then some of it is you have to figure out
09:30what are some of the things we can do better as a team
09:34to generate some easier baskets.
09:36And, you know, those are all the things
09:38we talk about every day as a staff.
09:40Okay, maybe that was a little sign of things to come
09:44because what they're talking about analytically
09:46in the background with the Warriors is we don't get layups
09:49and we can't get to the free throw line.
09:51Look, Jimmy's not gonna go play 40 minutes
09:54and Jimmy's not gonna be able to necessarily do this
09:58every single time.
09:59But if you want, let's go to numbers are numbers.
10:04And sometimes they're my numbers.
10:05Numbers are numbers and numbers are numbers.
10:08These are numbers now.
10:11Jimmy Butler has played two games as a Warrior.
10:14He has shot 28 free throw attempts.
10:17No Warrior has done that in a two game stretch
10:21in eight years.
10:22And the last time it happened,
10:23the man's name was Kevin Durant.
10:25That is a banger.
10:28That's a banger if you ask me.
10:30That's changing the game.
10:34You ask me so far what I've seen
10:36that is exciting about Jimmy Butler,
10:38I'm gonna point to that.
10:39Yeah, and it's not only the free throws,
10:41it's the way he plays, which is with a physicality.
10:45And if you look at his career,
10:46he's averaging almost seven free throws a game.
10:48And this year it's seven free throws a game.
10:51And I know he's averaging 14 free throw attempts a game
10:53in two games with the Golden State Warriors.
10:55But already, if you look at the league stats, Mark,
10:58the Warriors are going up from dead last
11:01in free throw attempts to maybe fifth or sixth to last.
11:05But what you have now is a guy who plays
11:07with that physicality and that aggressiveness.
11:10And you mentioned Draymond Green.
11:11He plays that way, but on offense,
11:14he doesn't go to the rim and draw a lot of fouls
11:16because that's not his game.
11:18And outside of that, Andrew Wiggins could have done that
11:21at times, but he didn't.
11:23And Steph Curry, when he goes to the rim,
11:26a lot of times it's trying to get the basket
11:29without getting the contact.
11:30And now you have a guy who's gonna go in
11:32and go into your chest and get to the foul line.
11:34Yeah, I mean, Wiggins did a much better job of it this year,
11:38but it's just different.
11:39It's a different style.
11:40He's not as tough or physical of a finisher around the rim
11:45as Butler is, and that's getting him at least so far
11:47to the free throw line more.
11:49To me, that's something that wins basketball games.
11:52And by the way, he's somebody who largely
11:53is knocking those free throws down.
11:55Wiggins did a good job of that this year too.