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00:00Pajemski, baseline, shoots a shot, going two for one, falling out of bounds, just sick.
00:06A sick shot by Pajemski, and it's 37-24.
00:11Bay Area, it's Brandon Pajemski. You're listening to Willard and Dibs on 95.7 The Game.
00:17What up, Paz?
00:18Dude, sick.
00:19Dude.
00:20There's a, like, of all his field goals, two or three of them were like, okay, all right, heat check.
00:25You go ahead and just throw that ass up.
00:28Are you enjoying Paj's heat check more, or are you enjoying what appears to our eyes
00:34to be eight traveling violations at once that's not, with his Manu Ginobili Eurostep,
00:42seemingly his ability to drive the hole, and then suddenly have his legs be moving in slow motion
00:47while defenders fly by him so that he can lay the ball in?
00:51What's more fun to you?
00:52Well, I do like the Eurostep, and it's like the turtle step is what it is.
00:57And it's not a travel.
00:59For those of you who are-
01:00It's not. You're right.
01:00It's really not.
01:01If you want to be an aficionado of the association and you understand the rules, just because the
01:07move took 3.9 seconds, you might have called three in the key more than you would have called
01:13traveling because that was not a travel.
01:16You're allowed to do what he did, which is stop, step, step, and then slowly-
01:22And then half step.
01:23And then half step, but on the half step, on the half shell, you're putting it up and that's legal in it.
01:29And then he did some sort of a celebration.
01:31It was almost like a namaste, like he put his hands together.
01:34Whatever.
01:34Yeah, and I was wondering, and I asked the YouTube audience earlier before Stiney shamed
01:39me into not being on there anymore, but I was wondering what that was because we know
01:44the night-night, and we know when it's an and-one, and Draymond does the flex move and all that.
01:50I just didn't know what the pod's celebration was in that moment.
01:53We're going to have to ask him next time he comes on.
01:55And it was you, right, a couple weeks ago that was like proposing celebrations to him?
02:01Yep.
02:01And what was it you were trying to-
02:03I was asking him if he thought about hitting him with the night-night.
02:06Oh, okay.
02:06Because like Draymond's now doing it, and so Steph's doing it, and he hit a shot that was
02:10night-night worthy, and he said basically, no, I'm going to leave that to them.
02:14And then last night when he did that Euro, the Euro slug step, the snail step, as I call it,
02:21he did hit a certain like celebration.
02:23I thought it was like a namaste yoga pose, Grant.
02:26Well, oftentimes players hit the Euro, and then they like run up the court, and they
02:30hit the Euro like a phantom Euro up the court.
02:33And what I saw, maybe I'm wrong, what I saw is he just hit his phantom D-cell move, where
02:39he like started to move and then just stopped and stood there, and then kept going again,
02:43like the way he scored the basket.
02:45Like a D-cell celebration.
02:46Whatever it is.
02:47Yeah, he's got a very unique thing going on.
02:51Yeah.
02:51He's got a very unique thing going on, and it's awesome.
02:56This guy is a player.
02:59Now, what can he do in the playoffs?
03:02We're going to go to the phones.
03:03We're going to go to our Engaging Dub Nation Twitter poll here in just a second.
03:07But here's the thing, man.
03:09I don't think this is like all young players.
03:14You know, we do this a lot, and I think that it's fair.
03:17I don't know what he's going to do in the playoffs, and I'm not saying suddenly that he needs to
03:21average 18 or 19 a night in the playoffs.
03:24I think there will be nights where Brandon Pajemski is your second leading scorer.
03:28There might be nights where he's your fourth leading scorer.
03:31You know, you asked me in the other room, and this is, I guess, kind of catty corner to
03:34the conversation that we had yesterday.
03:37Like, who's your number two scorer?
03:38Well, still Jimmy Butler.
03:39He's going to average the second amount of points for the Warriors over a long haul.
03:44But there are nights where it can be Brandon.
03:47There are nights where it could be Kaminga.
03:50Who knows?
03:50Moody might put something together for a night.
03:54Man, I went to a game.
03:56Grandy, was that the Pistons game where Draymond had 18 in the first half?
04:00Or the Raptors game?
04:01It was the Raptors game.
04:02Yeah, the night Steph got hurt.
04:0518 points in the first half.
04:06So, like, I don't really care who it comes from, but I see this.
04:14I don't want to use the word sustainable, but I see this as believable.
04:19How about that?
04:20That's fair.
04:21I see this as believable that a player who played a lot of college basketball and has
04:26gotten a lot of minutes in the last two years and clearly fits what the Warriors are doing,
04:33I see it as believable that, yes, what we're watching Brandon do right now continues into
04:39the postseason.
04:40It absolutely can.
04:41And I don't want to, like, portray this as flukish because you look at an 11-game stretch
04:47when he's shooting 52% from three.
04:49He's 42 for 81, which is almost four threes made per game.
04:55And at the start of the year, he was really, really bad at shooting the three.
05:00In the middle of the year, he was okay.
05:03Okayed is slightly better than okay.
05:05He was league average.
05:06And in the last 11 games, he's been absolutely banana land.
05:10So, when you look at the totality of Brandon Pajemski as an NBA player, and he's now played
05:16135 games, which is a good, solid sample, he's shooting 38% from three.
05:21Earlier this year, he was 20, then it was 34, and of late, it's been 52.
05:26So, is he 20, 34, or 52?
05:30You know what he is?
05:31He's a 38% from three shooter for his career.
05:35So, for me, to expect him to go like this in the playoffs for a long stretch doesn't seem
05:41plausible, but...
05:42But I'd take 40.
05:44I'll take 40.
05:44I do think that 40 is something that you can look at.
05:47Absolutely.
05:47And, you know, what he was earlier in the year, and for whatever reason, I don't even
05:51know if he can, like, put words to it, but he started out 0 for 4, 1 for 5, 0 for 5.
05:57So, you're 1 for 14 through three games, and then he had a 0 for 3, he had a 1 for 6, he
06:03had a 0 for 5.
06:04He was really, really struggling from three.
06:08And then, middle of the year, he got better.
06:10Then, Jimmy came, and, you know, since Jimmy came and he got healthy, the last 11 games
06:15have been almost historic.
06:18And you mentioned it, he leads the league since February...
06:22March 18th.
06:22March 18th.
06:2311 games.
06:23This 11-game stretch, he has more three-pointers made than any human that wears a basketball
06:28uniform.
06:29Right.
06:29So, is it flukish?
06:32Maybe.
06:32But I do think that his middle ground is what he's been his whole career, which is
06:3738%.
06:38And if he shoots six or seven threes a game, and you shoot 38%, that right there is 9 or
06:4510 points.
06:45I tell you what, man, it's pretty exciting.
06:47I do have this development from the league as well.
06:51Since we were talking about the Luka thing earlier, the league has notified the Los Angeles
06:56Lakers that the second technical foul on Luka Doncic, which kicked him out of a 1-point
07:02game that they then lost by 16, has been rescinded.
07:07Yeah.
07:08Good job, NBA.
07:09Yeah.
07:09So, that's the league saying, whoops, our bad.
07:13However, again, the Lakers, I believe, led by one on a basket by Luka when that technical
07:19was called, and then they went on to get outscored by 17 the rest of the way.
07:23Yeah, you hate to see it, Mark.
07:24Certainly, you hate to see it for those of us that laid the 9.5.
07:28Boy, what a bummer.
07:30What a bummer.
07:31Oh, you had OKC, and you laid the 9.5?
07:33Totally.
07:34Wow.
07:35And at that moment, that was, what, late third or early fourth?
07:38It was early fourth.
07:38Yeah.
07:39Yeah, they went in, I think, about tied.
07:41They went into the fourth quarter, and then, yeah, OKC won by 16 points.
07:45Right.
07:45And this is a lesson for all you kids out there.
07:48When you put yourself in that much peril, first of all, he already had a tech.
07:54He did.
07:55And I don't know what the tech was for.
07:56I didn't watch the entire game.
07:58For being Luka.
07:59So you already got a tech for palms up, arguing, flopping, complaining, crying.
08:04So now, your margin for error is non-existent.
08:08And so if you want to trash talk a fan in the direction of an official, you're putting
08:12yourself in peril.
08:14That's why I said what I said earlier.
08:15Luka, shut up.
08:16Exactly.
08:16Just, dude, you're too good for this, offensively.
08:20You don't need to do this after every basket.
08:22Just shut up.
08:24Stop.
08:25Stop.
08:25It's crazy.
08:27Stop.
08:27Stop.
08:28Dub Nation, let's get engaged.
08:29We're on our knee.
08:31Before every game, you can vote in our engaging Dub Nation poll on 95.7 The Game's Twitter
08:35page.
08:36And it's brought to you by Shane Coe, your friend and jeweler, where you'll find the Bay
08:39Area's best selection of unique engagement rings.
08:42And I want you to listen to this part.
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08:49Visit ShaneCoe.com today.
08:50All right, other than the big three of Steph, Draymond, and Jimmy, which warrior do you think
08:56is most important to their playoff success?
09:00Your options today, Moses Moody, Brandon Pajamski, Jonathan Kaminga, or other.
09:09And other obviously means Buddy Heald or GP2 or whatever.
09:13Head to 95.7 The Game's Twitter page.
09:16Vote now.
09:16We'll check in on those results throughout the show.
09:18But again, other than the big three, which warrior is most important to their playoff
09:23success?
09:24Moody, Pods, JK, or other?
09:29Pods.
09:31It's Brandon Pajamski.
09:32It's JK for me.
09:34Really?
09:34Yeah, it's JK for me because I do think that, you know, Pods, what he's done of late certainly
09:41is so impactful and it's been incredible.
09:43I don't know if that will continue.
09:45I do think that JK, if he can play at the level that we have seen, I'm not saying that
09:51he has to have the ha-ha and he doesn't have to cook and all the rest of it, but athleticism,
09:57rebounding, defending, intangibles.
10:00If he does the things that Steve Kerr is kind of looking for from him, then I think that
10:05JK's ceiling, like the Brandon Pajamski ceiling that we've seen the last 11 games is bananas.
10:10I don't know if that can continue, so for me, it's JK.
10:14I'm interested in what you're saying.
10:16I get where you're coming from.
10:17To me, you're looking at, and this is, I'm inflating it a little bit, but Brandon Pajamski
10:22is going to play darn near twice as many minutes.
10:25He's a more important player for the Warriors right now.
10:27Potentially, yeah.
10:28I mean, he has played twice as many.
10:29And I don't think it'll be that much in the playoffs, but it'll be, you know, it'll be 70%
10:35more.
10:36He's going to, like, he's just more important.
10:38He's going to start.
10:39He's going to finish.
10:40He's going to be on the floor a whole lot more.
10:42He's a way better shooter.
10:44This is not me coming down Jonathan's road at all.
10:46I want Jonathan, as I've said for weeks now, focus on rebounding defense in your free throw
10:51shooting.
10:51And my God, you can be very productive and very, very important to this team, and they
10:56need them both.
10:57But Pods, Pods is a core player now.
11:00He is a core player on this team.
11:02And we'll let you hear what they said about him last night, Steve Kerr and others.
11:07But let's get out to the phones.
11:08Coach and Vallejo.
11:09Hey, Coach.
11:10Thanks for calling.
11:10What's up?
11:12Hey, guys.
11:13Thanks for taking my call.
11:15And, you know, I'm with Diaz.
11:17I think Kamingo, for the reason that Diaz said, will be the more important player because
11:21Kamingo can finish through contact.
11:24And in the playoffs, they kind of put the whistles away.
11:27He made a shot the other night where he was absolutely clobbered, and he made a nice
11:30fall-away jump shot.
11:32But also, too, like Diaz was saying, somebody has to guard the point guard on the other
11:39team.
11:40The Warriors, Podjivsky can't do that, okay?
11:43The dribble penetration is going to be a bugaboo for the Warriors because they have
11:47no rim protector.
11:48So that's where Wiggins was very important.
11:51Jimmy Butler cannot guard the point guard.
11:53Right now, the starting lineup, Moses Moody always guards the point guard, if you notice,
11:58to stop dribble penetration.
12:01But I think Kamingo and his athleticism, his speed, and his size is going to be very important
12:07out front.
12:08Hopefully, GP2 is healthy also.
12:11Brandon can shoot the ball.
12:12He's been shooting the ball well.
12:14But guess what?
12:15In the playoffs, that little slow-mo stuff and the ticky-tack fouls and things like that
12:21and standing in the middle of the key trying to get a charge, that's not going to happen
12:25in the playoffs.
12:26So I think that Kamingo will probably be the guy who needs to rise to the occasion, and
12:34that's what I'm hoping for.
12:35But hopefully, the Warriors will do well.
12:37But this is an area where Jimmy Butler do not help them as guarding the point guard out
12:42front.
12:43Well, look, Coach, he's important.
12:45Thank you, Coach.
12:46Appreciate it.
12:47He's very important.
12:48And our listeners who are really P1s and tapped into this, they know Coach and I have
12:55had our moments with Jonathan Kamingo.
12:57When Coach wants to come down my road, though, this is the one thing that I'll tell Coach
13:00next time he calls.
13:02Like, when he wants to come down my road, he calls a different show.
13:05Coach, call us.
13:06Like, don't be afraid.
13:08So you're saying he comes down your road on the midday show?
13:10On Shiny and Goo.
13:11Yes.
13:11But if we're all simpatico, then he'll call us.
13:15Coach, just call us and call them.
13:17Like, it's fine.
13:18We're not going to bite.
13:19We're all just talking Warrior basketball here.
13:23Coach, you tend to think that Jonathan Kamingo is a better finisher than I think he is.
13:27I don't think he's a bad finisher.
13:29I don't think he's, like, a great finisher.
13:31Not yet.
13:31He's not.
13:32He's not.
13:33And it all comes from the same place.
13:36And this is my issue.
13:37And this is why I would pick pods over JK.
13:39Coach has some very valid points there.
13:42Defensively, Jonathan's important.
13:45Athletically, Jonathan is important.
13:47But the bottom line is, is what the Warriors are trying to do strategically on offense.
13:53Brandon knows exactly what to do.
13:56And Jonathan doesn't.
13:58That's what I see.
13:59Jonathan looks hesitant.
14:01The ball hits his hands.
14:03And there's that moment of, like, y'all want me to drive?
14:06Or do you want me to, what do you want me to do?
14:09Okay, now I'm going to try to do it.
14:11I love the kid.
14:12I want him to be more decisive, even if he's wrong.
14:16What I want to go away is that moment where it looks like he's looking around going, what do you all want me to do here?
14:22I don't see that with a lot of other players.
14:24I see it sometimes with Buddy Heald, because that's kind of who Buddy is.
14:29I don't see it with pods.
14:30Pods, Jimmy, Steph, and Draymond.
14:33Our starters, because they know seemingly exactly where the other, they know where everybody's going to be.
14:39And they know exactly what they want everybody to do in a given moment.
14:43And that's why that starting lineup with Moses, who's also happy to find open space and try to knock down threes in that group.
14:51That whole group, that's why they've lost one game as starters.
14:56They are making music.
14:59And Jonathan is still looking for his instrument.
15:01He just is.
15:03He just is.
15:04It doesn't take away from his importance.
15:05But to me, I think if you can get a pods to play like he's playing right now, that would easily be the most important thing for the Warriors in the playoffs.
15:15I also think part of it is what we discussed yesterday, which is the lack of other players who can play pods position, which is backup point guard.
15:24Because Kaminga is alongside Moses and Jimmy and GP2, guys who are good wing players.
15:32So if Kaminga is one of four who can play the wing and pods is one of two who could be a backup point guard, well, then pods import and his minutes are going to be greater just by the very fact that there's more of a paucity at that position.
15:46But I think about Kaminga as an on-ball defender, better than pods, and Kaminga as just an athletic force, better than pods.
15:55Pod's a much better shooter.
15:57I think he's got more big game and more NBA experience.
16:02He's played more minutes in his first two years than Kaminga did his first two years.
16:06For sure.
16:06And he played more college than Kaminga did, which was zero.
16:09So the players, even though one's a two-year player, one's a four-year player, their experience is very much comparable.
16:16And I won't make this about basketball IQ or basketball fit, but what pods is able to do with this team in his role is really impactful.
16:26And I do think that JK is still kind of searching for, with Jimmy Butler, how he can best be a part of this team.
16:33You don't have to use the IQ phrase.
16:37Steve Kerr did last night.
16:39Now, this was not a conversation about Jonathan Kaminga at all, but he did label this particular starting lineup as a very, very high IQ group.
16:52Take a listen to some of the things that Steve Kerr said last night about Brandon Pajamski.
16:58It's changed everything, you know, just the last month or so, knocking down the threes, feeling so confident back there.
17:05But the way he can get to the rim, uses Eurostep, the way he runs through the catch against closeouts and breaks the defense down and either scores or finds somebody else for an open shot.
17:17Brandon is generating a ton of offense for us.
17:19So then he was asked, do you believe that pods has officially taken the next step?
17:23I do, yeah.
17:23He's definitely taken a leap the last month, and, you know, it's really coincided with Jimmy's arrival.
17:28The two of them have this great connection.
17:30Brandon solidified his spot as a starter.
17:33You know, I've always felt when you can stack together a lot of high IQ players, the game becomes easier for everyone.
17:41And that's what I'm seeing right now between Jimmy, you know, BP, Draymond, Steph.
17:46It's really fun to watch them all.
17:47Yeah, those four, and that's the label, when you can stack a bunch of high IQ players.
17:53And by the way, I know that becomes like this trigger point this year in talking warrior basketball.
18:00If you call someone high IQ, it means you're calling somebody else dumb if they're not on your list.
18:06I don't want to get into any of that.
18:08I think the Warriors are a high IQ basketball team.
18:11It is one of their biggest weapons.
18:13It is why I would take them to beat the Houston Rockets if that series were ever to happen.
18:18I would take the Warriors because of IQ.
18:21The Rockets have the height.
18:23The Rockets have the athleticism.
18:24They've also got all the 22-year-olds.
18:27And so the Warriors, they play very high IQ basketball.
18:32It's one of the reasons they've won as much as they have the last 12 years.
18:35Yeah, and Pods is also a 22-year-old.
18:38He might be 21.
18:39I don't have his ID in front of me, but I know that he's equally young.
18:44But he plays with a certain amount of poise.
18:46And again, we can praise Pods without making this about Jonathan Kaminga.
18:50And he is 22.
18:51Thank you for that.
18:52And Moses Moody is about the same age.
18:54And Moses played deep into the NCAA tournament at Arkansas.
18:59And then he's come out here.
19:00And now in year three or year four, he's gotten a certain amount of experience as well.
19:04So, yeah, when you talk about younger players playing alongside veterans, what you're looking
19:09for is this sort of a poise.
19:11And what Pods did last night, I think, goes beyond just being confident.
19:17Right now, he is feeling some type of way.
19:19Like a baseball player who sees the ball coming in and it looks like a watermelon.
19:24Right now, Pods, when he gets the basketball, he's thinking, not only am I the best player
19:29on the floor, I might be the best player in the history of the game.
19:32He's the one, actually, who might benefit the least from this week off that everyone's
19:39trying to get.
19:40Like, I actually see that as a potential net negative for Brandon Podjemski because he's
19:45in the flow, man.
19:46He's in the flow and he's 22.
19:48So, I don't want Brandon taking a week off.
19:50He needs to take a week off because the Warriors need a week off.
19:53So, that's fine.
19:55I'm not suggesting that that not, you know, be the case for the Warriors.
19:59Obviously, you want to avoid the play-in tournament.
20:02But I wonder.
20:03I wonder with a week off and then suddenly when you return, it's playoff basketball, the
20:08first of your career.
20:09I wonder how that'll go for Brandon.
20:12Might knock him out of his zone.
20:15It might.
20:16But if you look at what he's done now for the better part of a month, he's been so in
20:20the zone.
20:20We mentioned 52% from three.
20:22And just watching it back right now, all of his field goal attempts, and he's hitting
20:28contested threes, open threes, Euro steps.
20:32He had a couple of step backs from about 18 or 19 feet.
20:35Right now, he's feeling it.
20:36And I don't know if that goes away over six days.
20:38It doesn't feel like it to me.
20:40But you watch him play, and he is absolutely in his feels right now.