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00:0095.7 the game up here on the River Islands guest line isn't it time for you to discover
00:03the islands River Islands in Lathrop Anthony good morning are you in Minnesota currently
00:12yes I'm in the uh it's a nice setup where it's like uh the the target center where the Warriors
00:18are shooting around this morning and probably about an hour uh they open uh and then across
00:22the street is the Wolves facility and the Wolves are are opening in about 15 minutes literally
00:28right when I got off the phone with y'all and uh I can hit both shoot arounds because they're
00:32across the street from each other there you go I'm shocked you're not the Mall of America that
00:36place is sweet they got like it's like thousands and thousands of different stores they have a
00:40roller coaster in there yeah well I can't make the venture out there that's like out towards the
00:47airport I've always heard it's a very underrated Minneapolis St. Paul that whole that whole city
00:52vibe there is very underrated the last season of Love is Blind there stunk yeah continue it did by
00:57the way I actually my wife maybe watched that one it did um but it's this is the first time I feel
01:02like the average temperature when I've been in the city has been like two degrees high previously to
01:07this trip has been like 20 it's always January or February when I'm here so it's nice to get this
01:12is the first time in this dynasty era they've had a playoff series here it's like 75 degrees I'm
01:16probably going to do a twins game uh Wednesday night so twins Orioles so I'm excited to explore the
01:22city where it's actually warm maybe because red hot buddy healed touchdown am I right Anthony that
01:28was a horrible joke I'm sorry uh but no seriously buddy healed that game game seven since we've
01:33talked to you we haven't really had a chance to react to that obviously we'll get into this
01:36but that game and all the the game seven nonsense oh they're gonna win are they not gonna win
01:42just the fatigue factor with this team after that grueling pound of flesh taken from them and the
01:48rockets and tip your caps to them right uh just an incredible performance from some of these young
01:53guys but ultimately the experience factor was just too much for them to overcome I believe in that
01:58series and now it's a quick turnaround what's the fatigue factor tonight and how is it going to play
02:03into this game in game one in Minneapolis tonight at 6 30 local time here yeah we'll see um we will see
02:11tonight uh I didn't look too bad for the nuggets last night um I do my sense my read and from what
02:18I'm hearing it's not going to be like a heavy minutes type game I think Steve Kerr is going to be
02:21a lot more careful with you know uh I wouldn't expect like 41 42 minutes for some of the main guys
02:27uh but the you know I will give me one second yeah it's upstairs it's upstairs sorry I'm in the
02:34facility I'm trying to direct the media people wow yeah uh but the I the one thing I'd say to me
02:42like a lot of people want to talk fatigue and obviously that will be a factor Minnesota's more
02:46rested I think it's the prep is a bigger issue you know they've barely been able to talk about
02:50the wolves I think you're kind of like installing right now at shoot around whereas if you think
02:53about the last series they have like three days four days prior they were installing their game
02:58plan against the rockets and they spent like practices and days absorbing it and you know
03:02kind of drilling it well they're just basically talking about the wolves for the first time now
03:07and obviously Minnesota didn't necessarily know their matchup but I can guarantee you Chris Finch
03:11was watching that rocket series looking at the email udoka zone you know looking at oh wow all
03:16right Fred Van Vliet's garden dream on green that's an interesting concept and and we'll probably use
03:20some of the stuff that the rockets did well and probably avoid some of the stuff that the rockets
03:24didn't do well uh and that to me is the bigger advantage for for Minnesota just more time to like
03:28think about the series well obviously closing is is extremely important but it does feel like for the
03:33warriors the whole rocket series the first quarter was just oh it was painstaking almost um and you can
03:41kind of get a feel for what warrior team you were getting that night based on just what it looked like
03:46in the first quarter so let's let's break down the first quarter are they going to start staff pods
03:51buddy butler and drag i don't know it's a good question you know steve's keeping it pretty close to
03:56the vest um that would seem to be especially because of the lack of prep time you know maybe you just roll
04:02with what work clearly worked in game seven you mentioned it buddy heels really hot right now
04:06um so you probably go with that with you know various subs i do think it's going to be like i
04:12was saying a wider rotation i think this is more a feel-out game for the warriors try maybe a bunch of
04:17guys a bunch of lineup combinations um not overplay your veterans so it may not matter like necessarily
04:23who's starting game one um because i think he's going to try a bunch of stuff i'm more curious who
04:28might be starting game two after they see this matchup on the floor a little bit yeah you know gp
04:32two hopefully he'll be back we don't know um moses moody who knows where he's at like i'm with you i
04:38think there's going to be a lot of combinations that are going to play right now just to see what's
04:42working and what's not and to also give some of the older guys a blow um using that rhetoric and you
04:48kind of alluded to it i talked about in the first hour let's say anthony edwards is guarding buddy
04:52healed uh let's say conley's guarding pods steph would have mcdaniels on him i'm assuming randall on
04:59butler you go with that bigger body kind of like what miami did against butler that would have go
05:05bear on draymond and he would sag off him so that he could be the help defender do you think that's
05:11the route they go with with go bear if the starting lineup stays the same or do you think that he plays
05:17on one of those other guys and they put conley the smaller defender like houston did on draymond
05:23yeah i kind of think they might do what houston did and maybe it's not right away uh but the main
05:28reason you do that you know it sounds great to say just sag off draymond uh but then draymond just
05:33does a dho with steph curry and he's curling off and he's wipeout screening whoever's guarding steph
05:38and rudy gobert's eight feet away and steph just curls into a three right that's the dho game that
05:42that draymond and even looney have mastered over the years to kill teams that put you know their bigs
05:48on them and have them sag off so uh that's why houston put van vliet because van vliet is quick
05:54he can press up a little bit and you just don't want van vliet in the screening action you know
05:57you're not trying to get van vliet switched on to steph necessarily so uh you know something like
06:02a divincenzo on draymond at times in this series uh uh you know conley you know he's still kind of
06:07he's more of a target than van vliet right van vliet they keep they were calling him basically like a
06:11fire hydrant in that last series like he's sturdy uh and he's into you defensively he's got great hands
06:17you see him strip jimmy butler in the post i'm not sure many you know guards are stripping jimmy
06:21butler in the post so uh that's the one thing i would say about this minnesota's got a lot of
06:26length they got mcdaniels who i'm sure is going to get a lot of the staff assignment but houston
06:29to me has better defensive personnel like throughout the rotation um that maybe bothers them more but
06:37you know back to your original question um i think the worries wouldn't mind if gobert's on
06:41draymond because i again i think you would see them them you know attack like a lot of high
06:46steph curry picking roles right with with draymond green that's what steve kerr said frustrated to
06:51draymond about the last series they couldn't run the steph draymond picking roles and they almost
06:55had to plant him in the corner and i think if you put gobert on him you bring draymond back into the
06:59action it's interesting okay they haven't played him in months i mean the warriors are a completely
07:04different team so yeah there are some things that you can carry over and then there's a lot of stuff
07:10you can't obviously jimmy butler's the big one you know jk's health and and where he's at with the
07:15team versus where he was earlier and quentin post of the new factors obviously jimmy's gonna be a big
07:23one um where do all these pieces fit into how this is a different matchup in the playoffs versus the
07:29regular season well the jimmy butler storyline is gonna add some spice to this like this this fan
07:35base like does not like him um and you know because of how it went down in his brief tenure here and
07:41and you know i don't know that that like necessarily impacts the game but it's it's it's interesting and
07:46i think jimmy's gonna be fired up uh for this game um you know and he's just better than the options
07:52they had previously although you know i mean you guys remember wiggins was always good against
07:56minnesota right um this is he liked playing his former team uh but those matchups uh like i remember
08:03one where they had no power forward they started g santos at power forward because draymond was out
08:07kamingo was out kyle anderson was out and they still beat the wolves um the one thing i would say
08:11though about those matchups warriors going three and one minnesota completely turned their season
08:16around really at the same time the warriors did uh i think they went 17 and four down the stretch
08:20they were obviously great in the first round so it's just like kind of kind of a different more
08:24locked in team um but you know and you mentioned quitting post i'm curious to see him in the series
08:29because theoretically he could really help you again as a stretch five as he did plenty in the last
08:34couple months but he kind of got played off the floor a little in that houston series i think you
08:37try him early you try almost everybody early in this series um but you know you just wonder where
08:43his head's at after you know what happened late in the houston series talking with anthony slater our
08:4895.7 the game warriors insider and covers the team for the athletic he is in minnesota right now as me
08:53covering this series and you know you touch on a little bit but just comparing and contrasting if you
08:58will anthony you know what the rockets and their challenges presenting to the warriors and what now
09:03the minnesota timberwolves will do to try to exploit some of their um you know of weaknesses if you
09:10will so just offensive and defensively the different challenges compared from what the rockets did
09:14and what the minnesota timberwolves will now try to do i think the main one is anthony edwards versus
09:20jalen green this is a far different uh perimeter star scorer that you're facing right there was they
09:26didn't feel like they had a double jalen green they were fine i remember even in game one that uh you
09:30know the rockets tried to attack steph curry with jalen green on switches and the words were like
09:34fine go ahead and like steph curry stopped them multiple times and you know he made doke had to
09:38go away from that uh besides his 38 point game in the first round jalen green like was in single digits
09:43and like five in the next six didn't do much at all uh you have to scheme up very different from
09:48anthony edwards this is just a better offense because you have just a true star scorer to deal with
09:53and the warriors you know again houston's defense i would i think houston's defense is going to be
09:59what's harder for the warriors to score on than minnesota's will be but minnesota's gonna be way
10:04tougher to stop the warriors held the rockets like 89 points in game seven 85 points in game one
10:09you even had dream on a step talking post game that they're like hey just hold them under 90 and
10:13we're fine i'm not sure you can say that about minnesota mostly because of edwards but also you know
10:17naz reed can get super hot from three dante di vincenzo can get hot from three julius
10:22rand was playing some of the best basketball of his career he's shooting over 40 from three
10:25like there's just so much better in my opinion like offensive personnel uh that's gonna test what
10:31has been a really good you know tied in locked in warriors defense uh and and to me the biggest part
10:37of that is just like anthony edwards like that is just something completely different for them to deal
10:41with yeah there's no doubt and he's he's a superstar i mean that's what he is and yeah he's amazing um
10:47there's no doubt about it and i know that the warriors are dealing with certain injuries they'll never
10:51talk about it jimmy obviously at times can look compromised steph the the thumb i'm assuming those
10:57guys are all good any update on gp2 because i want to get into this article that you wrote but
11:02just like a health bill what's the deal with the warriors who's available who might not be available
11:07yeah um gary payton's the only one that might not he's questionable uh he was really like really
11:13sick uh day of game seven they said he flew on the plane yesterday with like a mask in the back
11:18uh they're shooting around right now we should probably have a better answer on that one when
11:22we go out to the court like i said in about an hour um you know look steph's gonna have the thumb
11:26wrapped is what it is he's not using as an excuse i honestly even privately he's like kind of
11:31shoe shoeing that away like looks like it's it doesn't look great but he's shooting fine you know i
11:37like no like i i don't think that's that's that much of a concern honestly butler to me is looking
11:42better each game you know i you know physically moving a little bit better so i think it's about at the
11:47point that that tailbone injury in a regular season would have been fine enough for him to play
11:51so uh i think i think they're actually entering this series relatively fine you know from a health
11:57situation we'll see fatigue wise because it's gonna be every other day but uh i don't worry too much
12:01about that factor right now i love it no i love that no i read an article in the athletic that you
12:05had i don't know if it posted this morning or late last night but i read it and it was uh it was a
12:10deep dive on like hey the jimmy butler angle the andrew wiggins angle how he was a player um on
12:16minnesota traded to the warriors because of the d'angelo russell acquisition during kevin durant
12:20leaving obviously there's a dante di vincenzo angle um but it was the anthony edwards draft in 2020 and
12:27it was james wiseman and you had put in there that like hey there were sources and i'm paraphrasing here
12:32saying that it wasn't just joe lacob it was bob myers it was steve kerr and the veterans all
12:40co-signing on them going after james wiseman and i don't want to dispute that at all i think it's
12:45pretty set in stone and i feel like the owners probably got a disproportionate amount of the
12:49blame and maybe even bob myers on that i want to know what the lesson learned was throughout that
12:55scenario for the organization because it does feel like their draft philosophy has been altered a
13:00little and maybe that's just the difference between dunleavy and bob myers but what do you
13:05think the organization learned over that couple year stretch during the draft that has kind of
13:10changed in these last few years yeah well i think first there was the tantalizing aspect of getting
13:17getting a seven footer who could stretch the four and protect the rim and that it was something that
13:21they've been lacking and it was you know it was it was going away from what they had done previously
13:26but in a way at the time considering as you know they were refreshing at the time completely they just
13:32had the worst record in the league the idea then was to go get something different to to kind of get
13:37this next wave of warriors athleticism and you know having a center of the future and you know
13:43like considering what they thought wiseman was going to be and i'm not just talking about joe lake of
13:48there was you know you can go back and find quotes of draymond green talking about like this guy is going
13:51to be the future or steve kerr mentioned david robinson right um like you know like they thought he
13:58was going to be something he wasn't now as far as like what they maybe learned from the miss
14:01uh i think that from the process if you will they should have well that was a covid year um i think
14:09maybe the that they you know what mike dunley has done different is he's drafted more warriors type
14:15players leaned into what they do well right the iq stuff the field stuff that they like to say
14:20connectivity type players passers playmakers um you know like less raw towns we could say
14:27um that's to me what they've gone against but i think look the 2022 title shocked everybody
14:33internally and externally like in a lot of ways and at the time they were drafting for long-term
14:39potential you know home run type prospects because they thought they were rebuilding
14:43um and then suddenly they weren't and that's part of why i think they shifted their draft philosophy
14:48again because it was like they were once again trying to supplement the steph curry era where in a lot
14:52of ways it seemed like at the time 2020 2021 they were shifting towards the future talking to anthony
14:59slater here on the morning row spedoni and shasky with you previewing game one tonight between the
15:05minnesota timberwolves and golden state warriors covers that starts at 5 30 and tip off 6 30 right
15:10here on 95 7 the game all right anthony um i don't know if this is trying to pay attention to or not but
15:16it is i'm gonna bring it up trend may be strong but it's happened uh all three road teams other than
15:21the warriors haven't played tonight have won game one um so and obviously most of them didn't have
15:27i think only the nuggets right nuggets what and it's saturday so they had a couple more days
15:31than the one no it'll be the same so no it's the same what the warriors were dealing with right okay
15:35so thank you um shout out math so is this the game the warriors should be focused on and try to steal
15:42game one and try to get home court back to chase center or is that too much of a task given the age
15:49of their big three or do you say you go all in if it's like a 10 point game i don't know like
15:54i'm just curious to see if they view this game the way like they viewed game five or something
16:01because it did feel like to me last series game five they felt like in the first couple minutes
16:06like they're up three one we don't have it and then just then the rockets just took over and it
16:11was a blowout ever since i'm not saying that's gonna happen tonight but if it it feels like it could
16:15happen i guess is what i'm saying yeah i mean i think you want to uh not pun it completely uh like
16:21i said i i expect minute totals to be lessened under the 40s for the main guys um i you know i think
16:28it'll be a little bit more of an experimental game i think even if you lose the game tonight you need to
16:32you need to get some answers on this matchup you know you need to find out what type of players work
16:37what type of players don't who chris you know what you know uh like strategies chris finch is using
16:43they've figured out pretty early in the last series hey they're putting sangoon on moses moody
16:47they got to figure out how to get sangoon off moses moody okay put buddy healed in the starting
16:51lineup and i know that was a uh criticized move at times but it probably won them the series in a lot
16:57of ways you know kind of getting buddy healed and they figured that out early in the series so even
17:01if you lose tonight figure some of the stuff out that minnesota's doing and to do that you have to
17:05play hard you have to play focus you have to put some of your game plan and your lineups out there
17:08that you want to test uh as far as like can they win yes it's sports i think they're at a
17:14disadvantage if you were to say which of the first two games are they more likely to win i'd say game
17:19two i think they'd load up more for game two um but as last night once again proved like sometimes we
17:25overrate or over talk about the you know rest this that like it's going to be two teams on the floor
17:30in a charged up environment tonight and the warriors are very capable of winning this game i'm not
17:35favoring them i wouldn't pick them tonight because of some of the issues that they're dealing with but
17:39they certainly they could win the game all right uh two-party here for you because this is what we've
17:43been talking about for most of the morning it's the sports talk radio aspect of course but we love
17:47talking about it the national media everyone uh who do you think uh of these teams has the best
17:53player the best individual player overall and who do you think is the better team from top to bottom
17:59heading into tonight uh um i mean like you know steph still steph i trust him a bunch in the
18:06playoffs i mean this is clearly anthony edwards playoffs right now to like kind of make his
18:09claim on where he's going in the league uh and if he if he just romps through the series he'll have
18:14taken out lebron luca and then taken down steph and jimmy butler so um things are trending in anthony
18:20edwards direction but it's hard for me not to pick steph curry in a series considering all i've seen and
18:24what he still is as far as team i mean minnesota i think enters the series trusting more of its
18:30rotations uh they they seem to be deeper with offensive options you know naz reed was six man
18:36of the year last year don't say di vincenzo we've seen what he can do you know in a high usage bench
18:40role um julius randall the way he's playing uh but you know it's not over the top there you will
18:46see in the series but it doesn't seem like the minnesota's depth is going to crush the warriors but
18:51you'd have to say they look like the deeper team right now all right anthony uh we appreciate your
18:55time real quick who wins how many games come on series prediction i'm putting you on the spot
19:00uh wolves in seven seems like um probably you know although i will say this on this series um it's it's
19:09it's every other day right through five which is going to be a bit tougher on the warriors especially
19:13with you know the plane rides and the series they're coming off if it gets to six even if it's three two
19:18wolves they get a three-day break before game six uh and that to me potentially favors the warrior so
19:24you know i'm i'd probably say like a wolves in seven type pick but uh if this gets deep in the
19:31series and the warriors get a you know in minnesota in a game seven that's a scary proposition for
19:36minnesota i think hey slice appreciate the time man good luck covering the game tonight in the series
19:40and we'll talk to you again soon see you buddy all right yeah rfls there he goes that is anthony
19:45slater who is in minnesota right now for warriors t wolves