Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00I tell you what, I miscalculated something.
00:03Oh, you know what that is, right?
00:04Yeah, I do.
00:05It's a miscalculation sensation.
00:07I really did.
00:08Let's get it started.
00:09This is not, I'm not here to say I was wrong about the Jimmy Butler trade.
00:14I'm here to say that there was something I didn't really recognize in the moment.
00:20And I do think it leads us to today's conversation, and we always want to hear from you.
00:26So whether that's on our text line, the YouTube chat, Twitter, or Instagram, or of course,
00:33if you want to directly weigh in on the conversation on the radio, 888-957-9570 is the number.
00:40To me, Warrior Basketball feels like it's back.
00:43And I know that some may say, because as you even so eloquently said about an hour ago,
00:49it never left.
00:50Where's it been?
00:51I'd argue that the feeling that we have right now, as far as regular season fandom, it has
00:58not been rivaled in three years.
01:00And that was my miscalculation.
01:02When we sat there together at Splash a couple of weeks ago, reacting to and breaking down
01:09the Jimmy Butler trade, my mind was on basketball.
01:13My mind was on contracts.
01:16These things are all real, and I still think that they will play themselves out.
01:19I don't think we have any firm answers on that yet, but I very much underestimated what
01:26that move and a couple of wins would do for this fan base.
01:31And I smell it.
01:32I see it.
01:33I feel it.
01:34It's everywhere.
01:35It's in our numbers.
01:36It's in conversations with friends, out on the street, on my phone.
01:42There is an excitement about regular season basketball as we head into tonight and head
01:46into the weekend that I haven't felt in about three years with this franchise, and that
01:53I have to give credit to the trade itself, and I didn't see it having that immediate
01:59of an impact that way.
02:00Well, and the impact, I think, is in the fact that the Western Conference is kind of wide
02:04open and the Warriors have work to do, and you all want everyone to maximize the Steph
02:09Curry window, and so here we are, and Steph Curry's got a chance to, with Draymond and
02:14now Jimmy Butler, and with Kaminga coming back, it feels like they're in a spot where
02:18they could climb, and so there's more excitement than even last year where, you know, we talked
02:24about it yesterday.
02:25They were just a game better at this point last year, but it felt like you had Grumpy
02:29Clay and you had, you know, Draymond coming back after a suspension, and, you know, what
02:35was Kaminga's role, and, you know, Wiggins, he was trying to become the player that he
02:40was a couple of years prior.
02:41It felt like last year there were more questions than there are this year, which is, you've
02:45got Jimmy, you've got Steph, you've got Draymond, you have a big three, you've got Kaminga coming
02:49back, and the younger guys are playing well, and the West is a little bit wobbly.
02:55It feels more now like you've got a chance to make some headway as opposed to last year
03:00when you were in a better spot record-wise, but I think the conference overall was better,
03:06and your team last year was a little bit more unstable.
03:08I might acknowledge all of that, but I actually see it as a little bit different in terms
03:13of why we're here.
03:14I think it's because the Golden State Warriors finally explained to their fan base with their
03:19actions who they are and what they're doing.
03:22It has honestly felt for two years like their straddling offense, and now if you go up to
03:28any Warrior fan, and you know this, if you go up to any Warrior fan and you use the phrase
03:32two timelines, you're going to get a gas face.
03:36You're going to get people going, hey, enough of that.
03:40And I get why, because while two timelines might feel like a good idea on paper, you
03:47might be able to look at the history of the league and find a spot, San Antonio Spurs,
03:52where you feel like that kind of worked, I don't think it's ever really how you can set
03:57out to live your life as an NBA franchise.
04:00You can't every year be like, we're going to be awesome now, and we're going to be awesome
04:06in five years, just watch us, we've cracked the code that no one else has.
04:10You can do that, but inevitably, you're just going to tick everybody off, because that's
04:15too hard.
04:17It's too hard to conduct yourselves that way.
04:20And so that's what I really think that I miscalculated, which is the fact that the Jimmy Butler trade,
04:26it honestly could have been anyone.
04:28It could have been Kevin Durant, it could have been a lot of other names, but what the
04:32Jimmy Butler trade signaled to the fans is, yes, once and for all, we are about now.
04:41We're about now.
04:42It's like a boy band.
04:43Yes.
04:44One Direction.
04:45There you go.
04:46Yep.
04:47Perfect.
04:48And you said it earlier, and I was trying to think about my favorite One Direction song,
04:49and I'm like, I don't know, the first thing about One Direction, I know that one of their
04:53members passed away earlier this year, tragically, but beyond that, I was thinking about One
04:59Direction.
05:00And you're right.
05:01And just hearing you say the phrase two timelines had me a little triggered.
05:05It's a shiver up your neck, doesn't it?
05:06And it reminds me of like, and it feels like six years ago, and I know that it was more
05:10like 18 months ago when they finally moved Wiseman, and that's when the two timelines
05:17for me officially kind of died, because two timelines was Wiseman, Wiggins, Moody, Kaminga,
05:24and whatever else would come, which turned out to be Pods and TJD.
05:27And if you had all six of those guys, you could still like beat the drum about two timelines,
05:32but you wouldn't have a lot of what you have now.
05:35And so just hearing you say two timelines reminded me of like, not only how foolish
05:41that was, because it was foolish.
05:43And if Wiseman turned out to be, I don't know, Wenbinyama, then yeah, okay, it's not
05:48so foolish.
05:49But the whole idea of two timelines even then was like, whoa, it's a long shot.
05:54And now hearing you even say the phrase makes me think like, oh my God, is that what we
05:58were doing?
05:59That's what we were doing.
06:00That's what we were doing.
06:01Yes.
06:02And now we laugh at it.
06:03And that's what I'm getting at.
06:05Like I don't really care tonight if 35, 35 and 37 years old is realistic.
06:14I don't care.
06:15I don't care what I want to do tonight.
06:19And this is actually what I really feel maybe, I don't want to say for the first time, but
06:25I think we're about to get to a stretch with these last 27 games where warrior basketball
06:32games, regular season warrior basketball games are appointment viewing.
06:37And they haven't been, let's be honest with ourselves, they haven't, they haven't.
06:43Two years ago, if they were on the road, you could already chalk it up as a loss.
06:47That was a loss.
06:48Last year, you got Draymond suspension and you're battling to get into a play in tournament
06:54that you sort of really knew you weren't going to win.
06:58But right now we sit here with a true fork in the road.
07:02You really don't know which way it's going to go.
07:06There's optimism for some, a little bit less for others.
07:09But the bottom line is the warriors picked a path and whether you have questions about
07:15the Jimmy Butler trade, I still do or not.
07:19Or if you think, man, that was a perfect thing they could have done.
07:21Looks like it's going to fit like a glove.
07:23Wherever your opinion is there, you still end up in the same boat, which is that it's
07:28seven o'clock tonight.
07:30Appointment viewing.
07:31The warriors are in Sacramento, which is a nice opponent, but it's not a great one.
07:37You're not playing OKC, you're not playing the Lakers, you're playing Sacramento.
07:41It's the up the road rival.
07:43They're still adorable.
07:44They're the nine seed.
07:45You're the 10 seed.
07:46You have the same record, whatever, all of that.
07:48But I don't know, man, like I wonder if we put that out to everybody, A, are you on board
07:55that warrior games the rest of the way are appointment viewing and B, when was the last
07:58time you felt that way?
08:00Because truly for me, I think it was.
08:03I think it was three years ago.
08:05Yeah, I feel like last year there was a lot of times late in the year where it was appointment
08:11viewing because you wanted to see if they could get up to wherever they could get up.
08:15But there were other things that I think were dragging down the whole vibe.
08:18And part of it was the clay question and cominga and good Lord, will you please play Moses
08:24Moody and Chris Paul?
08:25I mean, really, are we doing this?
08:27And so I do think that last year was appointment viewing, but it was more conflicted this year
08:33to your point.
08:34And I do agree with your overarching statement about one direction.
08:37It's like, yeah, Steph Draymond, Jimmy Butler, two and a half years.
08:42You've got them.
08:43GP to come on.
08:44Who knows?
08:45Pods, cominga.
08:46Yeah, pods will be here, but cominga will he sign and all the rest of it?
08:50Will T.J.D. ever be allowed to play basketball again?
08:53You've got buddy, but good Lord, can we please trade him?
08:56All the other things that might bring it down.
08:58I do think that what you have now is Steph Draymond, Jimmy Butler, two and a half years.
09:06Let's go.
09:07Right.
09:08Like tonight is about winning the game.
09:09I don't want, I don't care what your opinion is about the Warriors, but I don't think anybody
09:13can do that.
09:14You know what?
09:15They just could play the young guys more.
09:17I don't care who you play, win, win the game.
09:20We got a game tonight and it is one of 27 and they are massively important.
09:29They are massively important.
09:30So you can like the direction.
09:32You don't have to like the direction, but as you said, there's one direction.