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00:00I don't know what the exact calculus of all of this is,
00:04but the phrase that keeps popping into my mind is Draymond in spurts.
00:11I don't know exactly how that looks,
00:14but I would like for the Warriors to lean into that.
00:18And if there is a way to sort of work with him on the idea
00:26that it's not about the career arc coming to an end,
00:33it's simply about this moment in time, the way the NBA plays,
00:38and by the way, your roster.
00:41If you quietly look at what the Warriors have done
00:45through a totally different lens, I know all of us want to do
00:47Kaminga emotion, Porzingis injuries.
00:50These are the only things that we talked about at the trade deadline.
00:53They got rid of two of their guys who are unreliable from three.
01:01And then they got rid of someone who's supposed to be reliable from three,
01:05but wasn't.
01:06That's who they got rid of, those three guys.
01:09And they brought in Kristaps Porzingis,
01:12who is a very high-level three-point shooter,
01:16and seven-foot-three, and often unavailable.
01:20So that's his bugaboo, his Achilles heel.
01:24But I think, like, they are trying to remove from their roster
01:31people who can't shoot threes,
01:32because I literally don't know if there's room for them anymore in the NBA.
01:36Well, and they shoot more threes, the Warriors do,
01:38than any other team in the association.
01:40So, yeah, it makes sense if you're going to be that team,
01:4345 threes a game,
01:44you want to have the people who are out there in your uniform
01:47able to shoot the three.
01:49And Draymond's not great at shooting the three,
01:51but unfortunately, you've got him under contract for another year plus.
01:55And if you want to be this good defensive team,
01:58you need him to be out there playing defense.
01:59So it's a little bit of a catch-22 for them,
02:02because you need him out there on one end,
02:04and on the other end, you'd rather have him not shoot the three.
02:07And when Jimmy comes back, he's not good at shooting the three either.
02:11Although his percentage was good this year.
02:13It was pretty good.
02:14But he doesn't shoot more than, like, a three or two a game.
02:17So, I mean, it becomes a little thing with the percentage.
02:20The thing about Draymond is he's shooting more threes this year
02:23than ever before, and his percentage is flat.
02:25It's flat, but it's been his whole career.
02:27So that actually has more of a negative effect,
02:30because he's doing it more often.
02:31And that's where Porzingis would be great in theory.
02:35Yeah, you can play your 7-3, and you can shoot the three.
02:38He's played one game.
02:39And Seth Curry, like, boy,
02:41we were excited to have him be the 11th or the 12th man.
02:44He played, what, once or twice?
02:46I think twice.
02:47He doesn't play, and Steph doesn't play.
02:48And so what you're left with is, you know, a bunch of guys.
02:51And thank God for Moses Moody, who's actually having a great year,
02:55especially shooting the ball.
02:56But you're still playing the same way that you want to play,
02:59and consistently you don't have the same guys.
03:02Moses Moody is playing well?
03:05Yeah.
03:06It's almost.
03:07So wait a minute.
03:08Well, no, that's not allowed.
03:09It's not?
03:10Nope.
03:10Not with the Warriors.
03:11What do you mean?
03:12Well, if Moses Moody is playing well as a starter,
03:16well, then that would mean that the Warriors developed a young player?
03:23No, he developed on his own.
03:25Oh.
03:26I mean, Kerr tried to keep him down as long as he could,
03:28but now he's got no bodies.
03:30So this one's a Moody, it's a Moody development.
03:33Not a Kerr.
03:34Not a Kerr.
03:35And don't even come at me with Guy Santos,
03:37because you know who developed Guy?
03:40You know who, right?
03:43Leandro Barbosa.
03:44Oh, that's right.
03:45We're going to be a championship.
03:46Kerr tried to keep him down, too.
03:49Don't give him credit for that.
03:50And don't even start with Will Richard, the pride of Florida.
03:54Well, he hasn't even had time to develop yet.
03:56No, but once he does.
03:57He was already ready-made when he got here.
03:59That's right.
03:59You saw the tourney last year.
04:00He was amazing.
04:02That's not on Kerr either.
04:03Well, can I introduce this?
04:04Let's have this conversation.
04:09This one's a little tougher, because I don't want to,
04:12like they beat Memphis.
04:13Okay.
04:14But again, I do want to, at some point,
04:17almost like Marty Supreme, let me get this one back to you.
04:21If Memphis sucks, and they didn't have any of their good players,
04:25but hold on, that's what everyone tells me about the Warriors, too.
04:30The Warriors suck, and they don't have any of their good players.
04:34Why did the Warriors just bebop along, skip through the park to an easy win last night?
04:41Like, what is that?
04:43Or are we watching some young players who are getting a chance and playing within a system
04:51have a little bit of success?
04:53And don't be scared.
04:55Go ahead and put Pods' name in there, too.
04:56He played well last night.
04:58He played well last night.
05:00He did.
05:0219 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, plus 22.
05:07He played well last night.
05:09He almost always plays well.
05:11Not almost always.
05:12He plays well more than he plays poorly,
05:14but people don't want to give him that respect.
05:17That's me.
05:18I mean, that's my opinion.
05:19Yeah.
05:20And that's for whatever reason.
05:21I think that's a fair opinion.
05:23Yeah, and I look at last night, and I think, yeah, you played well,
05:26and a lot of your guys did play well,
05:28but Memphis is terrible, and they're trying not to win.
05:31And so it definitely comes with more than just a grain of salt,
05:35and now you've got back-to-back games against L.A.,
05:38the Lakers and the Clippers.
05:39Now I'll be impressed if you go out there, Pods,
05:43and you have 19, 8, and whatever,
05:46and if you go out there and, you know, Melton plays well
05:48and Gee plays well because now the bar gets raised.
05:51Well, they've set up a scenario where it's just like,
05:53and maybe this is boring, but if their three-pointers are falling,
05:57they're actually a pretty good team.
05:59If they're turning the ball over and their threes aren't going in,
06:02they're god-awful.
06:03Like, they could do something crazy like lose to the Pelicans
06:07if they turn the ball over and don't hit their threes.
06:09But if they don't turn the ball over and hit their threes,
06:12dare I say, it's actually a pretty solid group
06:15because they don't have anybody out there.
06:19That group last night, nobody, nobody, like, has to not shoot the ball.
06:26It's just whoever the open man is, you shoot the ball.
06:30It's honestly like a complete carcass version
06:33of what the Warriors were at their height.
06:36They have tons of assists, this group.
06:38They had 37 assists last night.
06:40I think they had 42 against the Nuggets.
06:43Those are gargantuan numbers.
06:45And that's what happens when you've got players
06:47who have no pecking order, they've got no cachet,
06:51cachet, they're just like keep moving the ball
06:54until someone's open and all of us can shoot.
06:57And so how does it sort of, like, recalibrate
07:00when Steph comes back, Porzingis, whatever,
07:02when you have people where you want to run through them?
07:05Sure, that's going to be different.
07:07And I'm not saying this has staying power or anything like that.
07:10I don't want to, like, lean into this and be like,
07:12let's have a bunch of, like, sevens and eights
07:14and just play with them for the rest of our lives.
07:16But that's, to me, that's why this is working.
07:21And that's why when Draymond's out there,
07:23it suddenly doesn't look the same.
07:25Because he's not, he's not one of these guys.
07:28Yeah, he's not.
07:28I mean, if you look at the year,
07:30they've had 18 games where they shoot 40% from three or better,
07:34and they're 15 and three in those games.
07:36And I do think that this year's team
07:38is very much a byproduct of that.
07:41And you're right, like, you shoot 45 threes a game.
07:43So if they're going in and you make more than 40%,
07:46you're going to win most of the time.
07:48You lost to Portland, you lost to OKC,
07:50and you lost to Portland again.
07:51And that's because Portland and their offense,
07:54I mean, they put up 136 in one game.
07:56They put up 139 in the other one.
07:58So that's where the Draymond piece becomes interesting to me
08:02because if you don't have Draymond,
08:05defensively, you're kind of vulnerable
08:06and you might be a little bit of a mess.
08:08Maybe, maybe.
08:10I mean, that's another fair point.
08:12Although, you know, the Denver thing,
08:14gosh, what a weird game that was.
08:16But, yeah, and that's why I mean Draymond in doses.
08:21It's not as fun as strength in numbers,
08:23but Draymond in doses.
08:24Is that a T-shirt?
08:25Well, it's the hat that I'm going to get, yeah.
08:27Nice.
08:27Draymond in doses because you do still need him.
08:29You do still need him.
08:31Boy, it'd be fun if they could all play hockey together
08:33and you could just sub him out
08:34when you went to the offensive end.
08:36Or, when Steph returns,
08:38maybe that does sort of give him some of his powers back
08:42and the Warriors will have a way to do this with him on the floor.
08:47But, I don't know.
08:49The NBA is all about making up injuries right now.
08:53I mean, I've literally seen stories where injuries are coming up,
08:58surgeries are getting scheduled,
08:59and the NBA is sending people in to, like,
09:04you need to legitimize your surgery that you're about to have.
09:06Wow, they're making sure.
09:08Yeah, like show us.
09:09Adam Silver's scrubbing you into a surgery.
09:11Show us your surgery.
09:12Show us.
09:13Prove it.
09:14That'd be weird if you were just about to go under
09:16and you look up and the doctor, the nurse,
09:19the anesthesiologist, and Adam Silver.
09:22Adam Silver, who I've always thought looks a little like Beaker.
09:24So, it would work.
09:25Adam Silver in a doctor's robe is frightening.
09:30Just making sure you get cut on?
09:32Like, it's not Doc Pandia.
09:34That's Dr. Silver.
09:36It's Dr. Silver.
09:37In my surgery, so.
09:38But, if that's what we're doing,
09:40and you've got this lower back thing,
09:45then, I don't know.
09:47Are the Warriors above just being like,
09:49yeah, if Steph's out, Draymond's out?
09:50I don't think they're above it,
09:52but I also think that, you know, Draymond and Steph both want to play.
09:56So, if Draymond's lower back is okay to play,
09:59you're going to play him.
10:00And I also think that they've had the conversation with him
10:03about, you know, where you are in your career
10:06and where we are with what we want to do.
10:08So, when Draymond comes back,
10:10he probably will still start,
10:12but he's probably not going to finish unless he's playing really well.
10:15I mean, I really, it's almost like,
10:17actually, it's funny that we were making bocce noises earlier.
10:20He's the guy to call.
10:22This is somebody who, in the World Series,
10:24has been able to somehow look Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain,
10:27and Pablo Sandoval in the eye
10:29and be like, you're out.
10:32You're out.
10:33We're going to go with a bogey.
10:37Yep.
10:38Like, that is where we're at.
10:42Because I don't believe that it's just about his skills.
10:47And if you are what you say you are,
10:51which is still obsessive about winning,
10:53trying like hell, meaningful basketball,
10:56then maybe that's, maybe that's the thing.
11:00Maybe that is actually the thing.
11:03Instead of worrying about minutes,
11:05instead of worrying about that allocation,
11:08instead of worrying about whether he starts or comes off the bench,
11:12how about if Steph doesn't play, you're out.
11:17Your back hurts.
11:19I'm not kidding at all.
11:21Yeah.
11:22Like, we can all see this.
11:25And it's not just Draymond and getting old.
11:29When Steph's out, this team is better without him
11:34because of the style they need to play.
11:37Not because he's old, because Al's five years older.
11:40Yeah.
11:41But Al can shoot the three.
11:43It's the style.
11:44It reminds me a little bit of the old personal catcher in baseball,
11:48which you don't see as much anymore.
11:49And I'm trying to remember the Braves had a guy
11:52who was their personal catcher forever.
11:55It was Eddie Perez.
11:57Eddie Perez, I think, yeah.
11:59Instead of Javi Lopez or whoever.
12:02He would just pop in every time.
12:04I don't know if it was Maddox or Glavin.
12:06You know, somebody, that's your personal catcher.
12:08And so maybe that is what Draymond becomes here,
12:11where, all right, Steph is out because his knees hurt.
12:14Your back hurts too.
12:15I don't think that we're there.
12:16And I guess if you were good enough
12:19and you were threatening enough, you could do that.
12:21But for me, the whole thing is already about April anyway.
12:24So when Draymond's better and he's able to go out there
12:28and play and run up and down, then play.
12:30Then that's helpful.
12:32That's helpful.
12:33If he chills till then.
12:35Just rest.
12:35Yeah.
12:36Just rest.
12:37When Steph's ready to play, then you play.
12:40Oh, that back.
12:42I bet it's flaring up.
12:44I mean, it's not hard to try to prove.
12:47Guy's played so much basketball.
12:49I mean, it's not hard to try.
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