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00:00Now, back to Willard and Dibbs.
00:02Take it away, Mark.
00:03Okay, Steph.
00:04I don't really want to take anything away from you.
00:07You can't take it away from him.
00:09Nope.
00:10I mean, unless, of course, it's during the non-Steph minutes, which Jimmy is now in charge
00:15of.
00:16Right.
00:17Doing just fine.
00:19You know, we left here on Friday talking about how regular season Warrior Games had not felt
00:25like this much of an appointment in three years.
00:30And I would like to circle back to that and then push that even more forward.
00:37Listen to me now, okay?
00:38And then we're going straight to the phones.
00:41Tomorrow night is Tuesday and Charlotte is in town.
00:48It's literally the way you joke about regular season basketball when you say it.
00:53It's what Draymond used to joke about.
00:55Some Tuesday and Charlotte is in town.
00:58I can't get up for Tuesday and Charlotte.
01:01I can't wait.
01:02Yeah.
01:03I can't wait for Tuesday and Charlotte is in town.
01:10That's how you know that the Warriors are cooking right now.
01:13And it is.
01:14It's so much bigger than a five and one record.
01:16And so, you know, I'm ready.
01:18I am now ready.
01:19Oh, yeah.
01:20I am ready to say I was wrong about this trade.
01:23And it's not because any of my thoughts about next year and beyond are different than they
01:27were that day.
01:29It's that I can see that this energy shift is so much more pronounced than I ever could
01:36have thought possible.
01:38And that in and of itself, even if this just goes to the first round and then whatever
01:43next year, they just come back a year older and all of that, I still would green check
01:49this deal.
01:50My God.
01:52This is such an about face.
01:54It's incredible.
01:55It's been profound.
01:56And all you have to do is look at the ticket resale market.
01:58And I just looked at tomorrow's games.
02:01Bucks at Rockets.
02:03Tickets as low as six dollars.
02:06Sons of Grizzlies.
02:07Tickets as low as four dollars.
02:10Spurs at Pelicans.
02:12Tickets as low as two dollars.
02:16You can get into that game for two dollars.
02:20Hornets at Warriors.
02:21Tickets as low as sixty nine dollars.
02:25So and the the Laker Maverick tickets as low as one seventy three.
02:29That's a little bit of a different vibe.
02:31That's crazy.
02:32Yeah.
02:33The only way that would be crazier is if it was in Dallas.
02:34It's in L.A. right.
02:36But Luka versus the Mavericks.
02:37Yes.
02:38That's coming on.
02:39That's coming tomorrow night.
02:40You got a two a four and a six and the six dollars is Giannis at Houston.
02:46The Giannis Shangoon matchup game.
02:48It is to get two teams that are fighting right now.
02:51Spurs at Pelicans.
02:52Tickets as low as two dollars.
02:53Yeah.
02:54Well, that team's got to move.
02:55I mean.
02:56I mean, those two teams are they're playing out the strength.
02:59Right.
03:00Lost their people.
03:01You know what I mean?
03:02Yeah.
03:03Yeah.
03:04Like Wembanyama.
03:05What not.
03:06To your point, though, about like Hornets Warriors.
03:07The Hornets are 14 and 41.
03:09But you can't get in there for under 70 bucks because this thing is humming.
03:13Yeah.
03:14Yeah.
03:15All right.
03:16So let's hear from you.
03:17Who wants to do this with us?
03:18OK.
03:19I like six games.
03:21But but I'm here.
03:22And and the takes that I had a couple of weeks ago were at least partially off.
03:28For sure.
03:29This thing is really, really kicking into high gear quick.
03:33Chris in San Jose.
03:34Thank you for calling.
03:35Weatherden Dibbs.
03:36What's up?
03:37Hey, what's up, gentlemen?
03:38Good afternoon, Mark.
03:39Good afternoon, Dibbers.
03:40Hello.
03:41Yeah.
03:42I mean, I was.
03:43Hello.
03:44I was one of those guys who, you know, not trying to you know, I try to be optimistic.
03:47But when I looked at the move initially, and I still think this way to some extent,
03:51you know, we we threw around the word lateral.
03:53It's a lateral move.
03:54It's a lateral move.
03:56While I do kind of see that in terms of the player, you know, we like your guys's analogy
04:00between dogs and cats.
04:02You know, if Wiggins was a cat, Butler is an absolute dog.
04:05So he's infused some energy here over the last few weeks.
04:08I just, you know, and again, not to be such a pessimist, but you look at who we play.
04:13You know, you beat the Bucs without Giannis.
04:15You beat you barely beat Houston without their second best player in Jabari Smith.
04:19So you play who you play, but we really haven't played like a quality opponent yet with Jimmy.
04:26I think that Lakers game was the game before Jimmy came over.
04:29So you know, while while he has infused some life, I still kind of think, you know, it
04:35is somewhat of a lateral move in terms of do I think that we are going to win the championship?
04:40No, I don't think so.
04:43But I do think we have a little bit of life here now.
04:45You know, you got Curry playing well again, he's getting one-on-ones, not 2v1 every time
04:51down the court.
04:52So it's a positive move in the right direction.
04:55I'm going to give it, you know, another month, you know, it plays out.
04:58I know we don't have the strongest strength of schedule down the way.
05:01We got some some patsies, so to speak.
05:04But yeah, we got the new life, looking forward to it.
05:06And I'm not ready to say I was completely wrong, because I still don't think they're
05:11going to win a title.
05:12But hey, we got, as Guru was saying, we got to ask you, baby, you'll have a great rest
05:16of your day.
05:17All right, Chris.
05:18Thanks.
05:19I like I'll say this.
05:20I think it's a hard nut to crack to say lateral move, because I didn't think they'd win a
05:24title before and I still don't.
05:26Well, like that's that's not really that's not really a fair way to look at it.
05:30Like, yes, objectively, they're still very, very unlikely to win a championship.
05:36How about if we ask it this way?
05:38Are they more likely now than they were then?
05:42Who on earth would answer?
05:43No, of course they are.
05:45Or even as we put it a few weeks ago, look to me, I'm never going to be a championship
05:51robust person.
05:53I think there's value in the Warriors dancing.
05:58Get into the playoffs and see what happens.
06:00Do you get to the second round?
06:02Do you get to the third round?
06:03Those things are way better than missing it entirely like they did last year.
06:08And again, all we can do is look at things as they are in this moment.
06:12But if you look at the standings right now, look at people's schedules, look where the
06:15injuries are.
06:16Sure.
06:17The Warriors could get an injury tomorrow night.
06:18But as we all sit here right now, you've got a hard time even believing that the Warriors
06:25are going to be anything below six.
06:27Like six looks I mean, they're a game and a half behind the Clippers.
06:31Looks doable.
06:32It looks very doable.
06:33It looks doable.
06:34I almost favor them right now to be the six of the group that's going for it.
06:37It's funny you say that because I ran this by you at least a week ago, might have been
06:42longer about the NBA championship odds, according to FanDuel, and the Warriors were at 65 to
06:48one.
06:49Right now they're 45 to one.
06:51So in just...
06:53What are some of those other teams they're battling?
06:54What's Minnesota?
06:55What's the Clippers?
06:56I'll run it down for you.
06:57But just over the course of maybe 10 days, they went from 65 to one to 45 to one.
07:02And of the Western Conference teams, Oklahoma City is two to one.
07:07They're the favorite to win the whole thing.
07:09Denver 13 to one, Lakers 20 to one, Memphis 35 to one, then the Warriors.
07:17And then the Clippers, then Dallas.
07:20Minnesota's 130 to one.
07:21I don't know what's going on there, man.
07:22I'm telling you.
07:23Did you watch them last night?
07:24No, I missed it.
07:25They had a late game against Oklahoma City and they were down by 20 before they even
07:30got warm seats.
07:32Then they erased it in the second quarter to take a lead by halftime.
07:35And then they went ahead and went out there and lost the basketball game and had stories
07:38come out today about how Nas Reed once stopped out at the end of the year to be a free agent.
07:42There you go.
07:43I'm just like, you have so much talent on that team.
07:47And it is just so misused and not coming together.
07:53I wonder what Anthony Edwards' future is.
07:55I just...
07:56I don't know, man.
07:58That team is so good looking.
08:01The team photo.
08:02It's so good looking.
08:04And they just don't do it.
08:07I can't figure them out.
08:10They should be so much better than they are.
08:11I'm just looking at the ESPN win probability because I didn't watch the game and it goes
08:16from OKC is up 47-31, 50-31, 97% chance of winning.
08:26And then you get to Minnesota took a lead, 71-65.
08:31Now Minnesota is favored to win.
08:33All the way down to Minnesota up by four with about 17 minutes to go.
08:38And then, whoop, whoop, OKC flipped it all the way back and then Minnesota actually flipped
08:44it back again.
08:45This whole thing is like the Dow Jones over a tumultuous day in the stock market.
08:51Yeah.
08:52Oklahoma City is...
08:53That is a really, really good basketball team.
08:57Let's go to Debra in San Leandro.
08:59Hi, Debra.
09:00Debra Collin.
09:01Hey, guys.
09:02How are you doing?
09:03What's up?
09:04I'm calling to say I was wrong, partially, OK?
09:08So, you know, I was the one that said my concern with Jimmy and still is, is his availability,
09:15right?
09:16So if he maintains, they say he's coming in early, he's doing everything he needs to do
09:21physically, he doesn't have to work as hard on this team as he had to on the other team
09:25because they didn't really have a lot of help for him over there.
09:28So maybe he won't sit out as much, but he's definitely changed the whole swagger of the
09:34team.
09:35The analogy of the cat and the dog is perfect.
09:39I love Andrew, but he's too meek, right?
09:43Steph needed another dog.
09:44And to give you an example, I watched when Buddy first came over that first few weeks
09:50and Andrew had planted himself next to Steph in the chair.
09:53Steph always has his seat.
09:54I watched Buddy move him from that seat.
09:57It's no way in heck, Buddy should have moved Andrew from that seat next to Steph.
10:02Now last night, I watched, or the other game, I watched Jimmy move Buddy, Buddy, that's
10:11my seat next to Steph.
10:12So that, you know, that's in a nutshell, the difference in the two, right?
10:17And he has changed the franchise by giving confidence to all the other players in space
10:23and he's allowing Steph not to have to shoot 35 times a night.
10:28Steph was worn out and now he's not.
10:31So I have to say I was wrong because I didn't know it was going to be this quick and I just
10:35hope he remains available.
10:36Debra, it's a great call.
10:38Thank you very much.
10:40This is kind of what I think Debra's talking about and I wonder if anybody sort of believes
10:44in this the same way that I do.
10:46When we talk about sports, this happens a lot.
10:49People will bring up team chemistry.
10:52And I think a lot of people, they blow it off.
10:54They're like, what does that really mean?
10:57Like give me talent over chemistry.
10:59Well, yes, obviously.
11:01You can have a bunch of people who like each other and if they don't have enough talent,
11:05but do not underestimate what I think has been the word in Bay Area sports for the last
11:1112 months, vibes.
11:13Go back to the beginning of the 49ers offseason and the way things just completely, for the
11:19second year in a row, went sideways because of a big name and a big contract.
11:24And all August, what did we keep saying?
11:27Oof, the vibes don't feel good.
11:29But we were hoping against hope, oh, but they got all that talent, got all that talent.
11:34So who cares about vibes?
11:36Well, how are we doing now?
11:38Six and 11.
11:39And then the Warriors came in and they said, we've got good vibes, good vibes.
11:44And then it just kind of like went into no man's land because you couldn't string anything
11:49together.
11:50Oh, 12 and three, the vibes were off the charts.
11:52Sure, of course.
11:53And then you get a couple injuries and then it just hit no man's land.
11:57And all of a sudden, people aren't feeling it anymore.
12:00Like for whatever it's worth, probably not much.
12:04But right now, the San Francisco Giants spring training is overloaded on vibes.
12:11And I don't even know if that'll lead to anything.
12:13But Buster Posey is running the place now, not far behind.
12:16That's vibes.
12:17It's an energy shift.
12:19And what you're watching to me with the Warriors right now, there's a lot of X's and O's involved
12:23in it.
12:24But even more so, it's vibes.
12:26It's just like people can achieve things.
12:29You can move mountains when you wake up every day feeling like you're a foot above the ground.
12:35And that's what they all look like.
12:36The whole team looks like that right now.
12:38They do.
12:39And I do think that that is a testimony to life because I think about this building and
12:46our boss, Matt Nehegan, when he came in.
12:47And it's been now six years.
12:50I want to get it right.
12:51It's been probably six, maybe seven.
12:53And when he came in, the vibes in the building were not great.
12:58And he made some personnel moves over the course of six to nine to 12 months, most of
13:03them behind the scenes, that changed the culture.
13:06And he changed the culture.
13:07And so the vibes here in our building are great.
13:11And it's important that when we show up, the sales staff, the support staff, the engineers,
13:17everybody, if we all like being here and like working here, you're going to show up earlier,
13:21you're going to work harder, you're going to stay later, you're going to care more about
13:25your job.
13:26And that is everything for everybody.
13:27And I do believe that a lot of us in professional sports, we forget that because you look at
13:33basketball reference or you look at your fantasy team and you think, well, they have all these
13:37amazing guys.
13:38Then of course, it's going to be fine.
13:41And your example about the Niners is a good one because Iuke was mad all the way up until
13:46he finally got started and then he got hurt and Trent Williams didn't really want to be
13:51there.
13:52And, you know, Mooney Ward had personal tragedy and so did Trent.
13:54And so some of these things are unavoidable when you've got personal stuff that happens.
14:00But the vibe change here in Golden State has been profound.
14:04I mean, real talk.
14:05I think that Brandon Iuke and the 49ers were mad at each other last offseason.
14:11And I think they still are.
14:12They might be.
14:13I mean, we don't really do.
14:14We don't know what he's going through in the rehab and you know, but I but I do think and
14:18have heard that there are still plenty of people in the 49ers front office who are still
14:23annoyed.
14:24They're still annoyed.
14:25And why wouldn't they be?
14:26You got to sit with what just happened last year all offseason.
14:30That's not all Brandon's fault.
14:32But man, it was Exhibit A into taking the 49ers into a big old bucket of negativity.
14:38And the Niners, I'm not putting it all on Brandon by any stretch.
14:41The team, the front office gets their share of the pie for sure.
14:45I just think that that was a significant piece of it.
14:48And I think for a lot of us, this is what people were worried about with Jimmy Butler
14:53because he did arrive, fair or not, with a label of being a culture killer and a malcontent
15:01because this happened in multiple places.
15:03And guess what?
15:04It might happen here, too.
15:05It might.
15:06But not yet.
15:07And not for a while.
15:10And maybe it won't.
15:11Because the other thing is, too, he signed for two more years after this one and we go,
15:15oh, we got two more years after this.
15:17Two years and 30 games is not that long in the NBA.
15:22If you look at Jimmy Butler's culture killing history, it's never been in the first two
15:26years.
15:27It's after, oh, we're getting to four years and five years and six years and problems
15:32and all of that.
15:33So he's only got to be here for a short period of time before they're probably all going
15:38to walk off into the sunset.
15:39True.
15:40But, and I'll play devil's advocate here and think about, like, the future and what it
15:44might mean because he signed for two years on top of this year.
15:48So you play this year, everything's great, hunky-dory, honeymoon phase, whatever happens,
15:52great.
15:53You get through next year and now he's in the final year of his deal.
15:57And at that point, he might want a new deal.
15:59He might want an extension with just one year left.
16:02And, you know, at that point, either Steph will have, he'll have one year left and he'll
16:06either get extended or not.
16:08And Draymond's got one year left.
16:09He'll get extended or not.
16:11So you get through next year and you will be facing questions about Steph, Draymond
16:16and Jimmy Butler and what each of them want, what the organization wants.
16:21And so for me, it's not as easy as two and a half years and then we worry about it.
16:26It's really just one and a half years because at the end of next year, all these guys are
16:30going to want clarity either way on what they're going to do.
16:33Let's go to our Candlestick Rick.
16:35He's in San Bruno.
16:36Rick, what's going on, man?
16:37What are you doing?
16:38Hey, what's up, fellas?
16:41It's been about a calendar year since I called you guys, but it's good to hear you.
16:44It's good to hear you.
16:45Thank you for calling.
16:46Yeah.
16:47So I want to lay a few points down really quick and I'll let you guys get back to it.
16:52But this is the joyous Jimmy.
16:55The no joy Jimmy is not good because the attitude and effort changes within him.
17:01He doesn't give his full effort.
17:02He's happy right now.
17:04And I believe that will last with Steph and Draymond.
17:07They like each other, man.
17:08You can tell it's sincere.
17:10And you can only get better with Jimmy.
17:12I mean, he makes the young players better.
17:15Steph is feeling good as well as Draymond.
17:17And every role player has continued playing well or started playing better.
17:21Plox is on fire right now.
17:23I don't expect a Western Conference win or anything like that.
17:28But my hopes are much higher than they were before.
17:32And I think we could beat some of these young teams based on merit and pedigree.
17:35When Jimmy has the ball, you kind of trust him like you did at Iguodala.
17:39Almost more.
17:40Thanks, Rick.
17:41Appreciate it, man.
17:42Yeah.
17:43Like, I think that's something that we were pointing to on the crossover a little bit.
17:49When you get to know Jimmy, I don't think anybody, Warrior fan, like there's the only
17:53concern is, well, who is Jimmy?
17:56Nobody's worried about what is Jimmy.
17:58Everybody knows that Jimmy Butler is a great basketball player.
18:02But there's definitely an IQ level that goes up for the fans when someone joins your team.
18:07There's always a certain thing or two where you're like, oh, I didn't know that about
18:11him.
18:12Or how does it fit with this particular team?
18:14There's that get to know you phase.
18:16I've always known.
18:17Who doesn't know that Jimmy Butler's a dog, man?
18:19He's a one in the NBA.
18:21Dude, he is a high IQ basketball player.
18:28I mean, this obsession with not turning the ball over.
18:32That's the thing, Mark.
18:33How beautiful.
18:34I've never heard a star talk about that that openly, like obsessed with not turning the
18:42ball over.
18:43I don't hear stars talk about that.
18:45I mean, certainly that's never been a part of Warrior basketball the last year, 10, 12
18:50years.
18:51They've always turned the ball over a lot.
18:54And Jimmy Butler has brought a new dynamic, especially later in their careers.
18:59Yeah, he's turned it over six times in six games, one turnover per game.
19:04And I was looking at the numbers earlier.
19:06They are down two turnovers per game.
19:08And a lot of that is attributed to the fact that Jimmy Butler is on the ball a lot.
19:12And you mentioned it, Mark.
19:13He just does not.
19:14He doesn't want to turn the ball over.
19:16And maybe that'll help permeate into Steph and Draymond.
19:19Because still, when you watch this team, Steph and Draymond have those one or two moments
19:24a game where it's like, ah, you know, they throw a one-arm pass or they throw a reckless
19:29pass or a lazy pass.
19:31Jimmy Butler doesn't have that.
19:32The dude is absolutely Puritan with the basketball.
19:36And so hopefully that will carry over to Steph and Draymond.
19:40And the turnovers continue to go down because when they don't turn it over, you get more
19:44shots.
19:45And when you offensive rebound, you get more shots.
19:47And if this team gets more shots than their opponent, they're going to win most of their
19:51games.
19:52That's the other thing about this.
19:53It's not just Ws.
19:55It's been really pretty basketball.
19:58Really pretty basketball.
19:59McManamal, Fairfield, next up, Willard and Dibbs.
20:02McManamal, hey.
20:03Hey, how we doing, guys?
20:06Hey, I called in last week in regards to the comments Draymond made over All-Star Weekend.
20:15I just want to revisit what I said then.
20:18I said, yeah, absolutely.
20:19He buys in and he believes that they can win the championship.
20:22And I do too.
20:25Furthermore, you know, I also said that he's bringing something, Jimmy Butler is bringing
20:34something to this team that Corey Maggette never could.
20:37And that's the vibes.
20:41I mean, you guys are spot on with that.
20:42The vibes that are coming in, they're high.
20:45I mean...
20:46Well, I think we lost McManamal there at the end.
20:52I'm not sure I understand the Corey Maggette comparison.
20:57I get it that Maggette was brought in as a, at the time, it was a while ago obviously,
21:01but a big name free agent.
21:04But like, by no stretch does that really feel anything like this.
21:10I mean, look, it's too early to say this after six games, but if you want to start playing
21:15around historically with trade deadline acquisitions, hell, you could probably go beyond just basketball.
21:25I don't know how many trade deadline acquisitions have brought about this significant of a change
21:35this quickly.
21:36I mean, in recent memory, I start thinking about things like Christian McCaffrey.
21:40I start thinking about people like Hunter Pence.
21:44This is only six games, but my God, they look like a completely different basketball franchise.
21:50Yeah, they look totally different.
21:52And if you look at, you know, the impact that he's had immediately, and it's a big one.
21:58And I think about going back to the first championship year where a couple of years
22:02prior when they made the Monte Ellis trade, they got Andrew Bogut back onto Golden State
22:09and Andrew Bogut turned out to be a big piece of that first championship team.
22:12And it didn't really bear fruit right away, but it was a veteran big and somebody who
22:18came in and did something for them that they desperately needed.
22:21And this is different because I think that Jimmy Butler is a little later in his career,
22:26although Bogut didn't play too many more years, he had all the injuries.
22:30But when Bogut got acquired, it was that sense of, wow, this is something that they've
22:34always needed.
22:35A big man who can distribute and rim protect and defend inside.
22:40And so that at the moment, it was a big trade.
22:42Everyone was really upset about losing Monte Ellis.
22:45And then the Mullen retirement ceremony thing happened and a little different than the Iguodala
22:50retirement ceremony, similar in the length of ceremony, by the way.
22:56And Rick Barry was at both.
22:58But other than that, not too many commonalities.
23:00That was about it, yeah.