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00:00I'm going to grab the low-hanging apple from the tree, and I don't do it because it's the low-hanging apple.
00:09I find this somewhat interesting here.
00:13It's changed a little bit in the last hour because it sounds like the Warriors feel like Jimmy's going to give it a go.
00:24Okay?
00:25Now, can he stay in there?
00:27Does he wake up and have it stiffen up a little bit?
00:30What have you?
00:31But when you watch this stuff a lot like we do, I think Steve Kerr, he showed the cards about an hour ago when he essentially said Jimmy is tough, Jimmy can play through everything, there's a cautious optimism to it with regard to them thinking that Jimmy Butler's going to give it a go.
00:55And they're not going to say that publicly.
00:57If they don't think it's going to be true, because they're going to commit the cardinal sin if they're wrong, and that is over-promising and under-delivering.
01:07And they never do that.
01:09The dibs, think how many times Steve has come on with us, and they know damn well that Pods or Kaminga or somebody's going to be ready to go in 48 hours for their next game, but he won't say it on the show.
01:19Well, he's going to be listed as questionable, and I'll leave that to the training staff, and we'll figure that out on game day.
01:25So for him, a day ahead of time, to say what he said today to you means what?
01:31It means that he's got a better chance than I thought of actually playing, because I was texting friends earlier today, and they were asking me about Jimmy Butler and what do I think?
01:41And I was just, matter of fact, saying, well, I think he's going to be out.
01:44I don't think that he will play.
01:46And then Steve Kerr said what he said, which is, you know, Jimmy's making good progress, and we're going to go ahead and monitor it, and we're going to give it a go, and he'll be questionable.
01:54And so the more you hear from Jimmy Butler and his agent through Mark Spears yesterday, and then Steve Kerr today, which was, you know, yesterday was pray for the bear.
02:06And then today was, well, you know, we kind of like where we're at.
02:10So I do think that he will play now.
02:12Here are the quotes.
02:14Steve Kerr says he is, quote, relatively optimistic about Jimmy Butler playing tomorrow.
02:19Quote, I think there's a chance he plays.
02:22Now, that's not definitive, but again, I'm going based on the fact that they chose to say this to a microphone today.
02:31I think there's a chance that he plays.
02:33And they're, quote, relatively optimistic.
02:36Nothing definitive.
02:37It's not firm.
02:38I think they're not saying that unless they believe it's well above 50-50 that Jimmy Butler's going to give it a try.
02:45However, I will say this.
02:47I will say this.
02:48If he doesn't play, or if he's got to leave early, tomorrow night does have a chance to be the most important Warriors game in Jonathan Kaminga's Warriors career.
03:02Yeah, it could be.
03:02This is different now than what game two would be, because this one has a warning sign.
03:09This one has a lead up.
03:11This one is at your home building.
03:14It's now, there's warning.
03:17There's lead up to it.
03:18And there's a very, very clear need for ISO offense.
03:25And there's nobody other than Jimmy Butler who can provide that for the Warriors, except for maybe the guy who has become just the daily and weekly Bay Area lightning rod of sports over the last month and a half.
03:40And so, here we are.
03:41And if Jimmy does not play, I believe this immediately becomes, or if he leaves early, this immediately becomes the most important game in Jonathan Kaminga's Warriors career.
03:53Because the opportunity would be there for him to finally go out there and switch the tone of this.
04:00If he were to go out there and score over 20 points and give offense.
04:05Or even, like, 16.
04:06Well, whatever the number is.
04:07On, like, six of nine.
04:08You know, something efficient.
04:10Exactly.
04:10Have an effect on a victory.
04:11Yep.
04:11On a playoff victory.
04:13I think it changes everything, right?
04:15I think it changes everything.
04:17It literally could.
04:18It could be something that sways the needle a little bit with regard to whether or not he's going to be a Warrior after this year.
04:25I think it sways it more in regard to the fan base because I still believe, and I've said this for the better part of a year,
04:32I think that the organization knows what they have in Jonathan Kaminga and what their price point is and whether or not they want him to be a part of it.
04:39And having Jimmy Butler join the team definitely changed it because when Jimmy came and J.K. got healthy,
04:46you realize that Jimmy Butler does 90% of what J.K. can do and what Jonathan Kaminga does doesn't really fit with Draymond and Jimmy Butler.
04:56And you could look at the three-person dynamics and the numbers and the analytics all you want.
05:00And J.K. does his best with Buddy Heald and with Quentin Post and with GP2.
05:10J.K.'s best moments are either with Draymond and Steph, not with Jimmy, or with bench guys.
05:17So J.K. is not going to be able to play.
05:19If Jimmy Butler plays 40 minutes, Jonathan Kaminga is not going to have much of a role.
05:23I agree, yeah.
05:24And I do think that if he does something in Game 3, it's more about the fans than it is about the organization as far as his perception.
05:31Maybe, but I think that's a big deal.
05:33I think that's a big deal.
05:34And I'll agree with what I think the premise of what you're saying is, which is when it comes to stuff like this,
05:42the fans don't really have a say.
05:45It's not like the fans are going to change the way the Warriors think about it.
05:49It's not like they're going to change whether the Warriors want to sign him or how much they think he's worth or any of that stuff.
05:56I do think fan perception can have an effect on the way teams behave, on decisions that they can make.
06:05I think it's one of the reasons that teams do put things out there publicly sometimes a little bit early,
06:11because they do want to dip their toe in the water.
06:14They do want to see what their fan base thinks.
06:16Never forget, this is a business and we are the customers.
06:19And so, I'm not saying like, oh, if the fans all suddenly love JK, the Warriors would just be like,
06:26all right, we'll do $35 million a year if it doesn't make sense for them.
06:29They're not going to do that.
06:31But, like, I just haven't seen many opportunities lately for Jonathan to change the story,
06:39to change the way the Warriors think, to change the way that this has been going.
06:45Tomorrow night threatens to be that.
06:47It sounds like maybe a little bit less than I thought a few hours ago.
06:50Right, right.
06:51But, if Jimmy can't go, or if Jimmy starts, and then Jimmy can't stay, I really think this is the one.
06:59Game two, I know he played a lot, but that's not a fair opportunity.
07:03No.
07:04You're rusty, you didn't know, you weren't in the game plan.
07:07You had no pods, and you were behind it the whole way.
07:10You're thrown in there with Pat Spencer, hey buddy, go play.
07:12Okay, that's different than this would be.
07:15That's different than this would be.
07:16It is, and I just am fascinated by my response on Twitter,
07:21because Lucas, behind the glass, director of sports, put out the tweet on something that I said,
07:26which is, JK earned more minutes with the way he played.
07:30He earned Gee's minutes for game three, and I had about 80 comments,
07:35and 40 of them were, you don't know a ball, you're an imbecile, and 40 were, yeah, he looked good.
07:42I do think that he earned Gee's minutes, and so I think that even off of game two, which he was fine.
07:50I mean, nobody was much better than he was.
07:52They all were patently pretty bad.
07:54Correct.
07:54Like, Pat was good, and like, Quentin was good in the second half, but nobody was really great.
08:00Oh, yeah, nobody was great.
08:02And so I just pointed out that I thought that he played well enough to maybe earn the Gee eight to ten minutes,
08:06and half the audience was like, you're an imbecile, you're a casual, you don't know ball.
08:11And the other half was like, yeah, let JK cook.
08:14Welcome to Twitter.
08:15Oh, I love Twitter.
08:16I know you've been there for years.
08:18Dude, my feed has been bananas ever since I said that the Ahmed Thompson foul was dirty.
08:23I've got people from like 27 different states calling me, like, I'm getting all the consonants.
08:28Wow, did you hear who got called dirty today?
08:31Yep.
08:32Oh, God.