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00:00Have the Warriors become too Steph-centric?
00:04And I know the answer's no.
00:06Believe me, I am hashtag everything for Steph.
00:10But I noticed something yesterday.
00:11Can you take a listen to what Steve Kerr said after this basketball game?
00:15I want to talk something out with you.
00:16This is first just kind of post-game, his overall recap of what happened.
00:21Well, they made a couple threes, got it back to 12-13, whatever it was,
00:25and we never really were quite in the game.
00:28I thought we did a lot of things well offensively, got a lot of good looks.
00:32It just was a night where shots didn't go down.
00:34I think we've got to be a lot better defensively.
00:36Some game plan mistakes early, a lot of fouling at the beginning of the third quarter,
00:41got us in trouble.
00:42And what I'm most interested in right now is can we prepare ourselves for the plan?
00:48I mean, we're going to be in the plan.
00:49We know that, and one way or the other.
00:51So we've got to prepare.
00:52We have to be prepared for when we get guys back, when Steph's back and Moses.
00:56And now, if we're prepared when they get back, we can do some damage.
01:00We can go on a run.
01:02We can't have game plan mistakes.
01:03We've got to build better habits.
01:05You know, boxing out, taking care of the ball in transition,
01:08being more efficient in transition, that sort of thing.
01:11Our guys are playing hard.
01:12I'm really proud of them.
01:13Like I said, shots didn't go tonight.
01:14But what I'm most interested in is our process.
01:17And I thought it was lacking in some areas tonight,
01:20and we've got to tighten some things up.
01:22That whole thing is so interesting to me because here's Steve Kerr
01:27literally talking about the Golden State Warriors the same way
01:30I hear youth basketball coaches talk to their team.
01:33We're reminding people to box out.
01:35We're reminding people about preparation.
01:37And I know a lot of people will say, hey, whose job is the preparation?
01:41Sure.
01:42Like some of what Steve Kerr is saying is in a backwards way,
01:46he's pointing the finger at himself.
01:47How on earth can the Golden State Warriors not be ready to play
01:53and not be prepared?
01:55I don't care if you lose to Boston.
01:57They're better than you.
01:58They're better than you.
02:00My concern in this moment is these players who are playing basketball right now
02:05have been so force-fed with the idea of, well,
02:09we might have a chance to be decent when Steph gets back.
02:14Are they being robbed of their confidence?
02:17Because I don't hold them responsible for you better go on the road and beat Boston.
02:24I don't think that they're manned in a way to do that.
02:27But I do think that they're NBA players, and for many of them,
02:31this is the opportunity of a lifetime.
02:35There are Warriors playing on a nightly basis right now
02:37that should not or would not be playing.
02:39But with all of these injuries, you are getting the opportunity of a lifetime.
02:45You don't need to have the most talent, but my God, you need to be ready.
02:51And I just don't know if their confidence has been zapped
02:55because constantly this whole organization is like,
02:59well, you know, we don't have Steph,
03:01so we're just sort of like Biden time until he's back.
03:04What I heard him say is game plan mistakes,
03:07where I don't think it's not that they didn't lay out what the game plan was.
03:12The players didn't go out, and maybe it's the younger players,
03:15but they didn't go out there and execute what the game plan would be.
03:18So if you're scouting Boston and you're like, okay, Boston's good.
03:22You know, Tatum's coming back.
03:23And, you know, Jalen Brown's having an MVP kind of year.
03:26So here's what we want to do defensively against those guys.
03:29Here's what we want to do offensively.
03:31And you lay out the game plan.
03:32Again, that doesn't mean that they're not prepared.
03:34If they go out there and they don't execute it,
03:36it might just be that they didn't do what they were supposed to do,
03:39what they were coached up to do.
03:40I'm not trying to excuse Steve Kerr and his part in this,
03:43but what I heard him say was more about the game plan.
03:47Like, we lay out a plan, and you have to be able to take that and apply it
03:51and be more consistent and be better than you were
03:54because that game, that thing got away early,
03:57and I'm just looking at the box goal right now.
03:59Now Jalen Brown goes eight for nine in the first quarter.
04:02No, he was dominant.
04:03He was dominant.
04:04And so I don't know if the game plan was don't let him be so dominant
04:07or, you know, more complicated than that.
04:09Like, maybe we want to double him here,
04:11or maybe we want to, you know,
04:12not switch out on this pick and roll in this situation.
04:15But that's what I heard him say.
04:17Well, Steve wouldn't have said it that way if he didn't feel like,
04:20and this is where I always get,
04:21I get tripped up on coaches versus players and players versus coaches
04:26because people want to blame this side or they want to blame that side.
04:29And it's like all a coach can do is put a player in that player's best position to succeed.
04:36And then after that, you're a parent.
04:40You're telling them what you tell them.
04:42You're suggesting, hey, this is what we should do.
04:45And then if they go out there and they don't do it,
04:48well, you know, what are you going to do?
04:51And so I think this is intricate because, again, I'm with you.
04:55I'm not going to sit here and require the Warriors to be talented enough right now
05:01to go win at Boston on the road.
05:05But if some of these players are getting the opportunity of life,
05:09either they're playing and they wouldn't normally be playing
05:12or they're playing a lot and they wouldn't normally be playing a lot.
05:16It's both.
05:16Whichever it is, wouldn't you approach that with,
05:21I'm going to be perfect with the game plan.
05:24I might not be tall enough, fast enough, jump high enough.
05:28I might not be good enough to stay with Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum.
05:33But, man, I'm going to be prepared.
05:37I'm going to execute the game plan.
05:39This hit me, by the way, because this is the kind of ball player that I was in high school.
05:44I can't, like, I've got no good vertical leap.
05:47I do, I cannot, yes, I got white man's disease.
05:51But I knew where the hell I was supposed to be.
05:54And I put every, I was, they called me floor burn.
05:58I was, the preparation and the execution of what was trying to be done,
06:04that was perfect.
06:07The rest of it, not always.
06:09The rest of it, not always.
06:10Because there were better players than me.
06:12And it's not as easy as, like, I know the plan,
06:14and therefore I'm going to be perfect in the game plan.
06:17Sometimes life comes at you fast, and, you know,
06:19you've got Tatum out there who's starting to get his legs under him.
06:23And if he goes by Porzingis on the exterior,
06:26now Draymond's going to help, and you've got to help the helper,
06:29and maybe you sag off your man, and it's pass, pass,
06:31and now they have an open three, and it's Jalen Brown who's left alone.
06:34And maybe the defensive coverage was,
06:36all right, you don't help off of Brown.
06:38Let somebody else help off of him, or we just give up a Tatum too.
06:42I don't know, like, if it's those little things,
06:45but defensively, when you're going up against a better team,
06:48you absolutely have to be completely buttoned up,
06:51or you're going to get gashed for an eight of nine.
06:53I mean, real quick, so, like, I'm assistant coaching
06:56with Jude's Little League team for the second year in a row,
07:00and the lead coach, he actually brought this up this year,
07:05and he was referring to last year, and it reminded me of a scenario,
07:09and I think it might have even been his son,
07:11but let me just throw a scenario out there.
07:14In Little League, you get a lot of dropped third strikes, right?
07:17Okay, because not everybody, they're right,
07:20they're still learning how to catch and all that stuff.
07:22So you get a lot of dropped third strikes.
07:24Well, I think there was a situation where his son was the catcher,
07:27and there was a dropped third strike, and he did everything right.
07:30He went and got the ball, he turned, he was on it, he threw to first,
07:35he threw high.
07:36Ball goes into right field.
07:39And he would, you know, like, he had one of those trigger moments,
07:44and I walked over to him, just real subtle, and I whispered to him,
07:48physical mistake, and then walked away, and it calmed him right down,
07:53because to me, that is completely different than dropped third strike,
07:57and I just like, meh, wallygag, I didn't even think about the fact
08:01that I need to go get the ball and throw it to first.
08:03Mental mistake versus physical mistake.
08:06Physical mistake we can deal with.
08:09You're not a perfectly refined athlete yet.
08:11You tried to throw it to first, and you threw it high.
08:14Well, even these guys are not perfectly refined, to your point.
08:16Correct, but what sounds to me like what Steve is talking about
08:19is the mental side.
08:20And that's where I would find concern, especially at the NBA level.
08:25You have a Hall of Fame coach sitting here talking about let's box out?
08:30Are you kidding me?
08:33Okay.
08:34Right.
08:35Like, these are things that should just be there.
08:38They should.
08:38You should never have to remind an NBA player to box out.
08:41But you've got 82 games, and you're not going to be perfect in all 82.
08:45Of course.
08:46And it might be a night where, collectively, two or three guys did just that.
08:50Like, you know, two or three instances where you didn't box out,
08:53and you gave up an offensive rebound and a put back.
08:56And, you know, stopping Boston once is hard enough,
08:59let alone twice on the same possession or three times.
09:01That's where it becomes frustrating where, you know, you get the stop,
09:06and then you don't box out.
09:07You give up the offensive rebound, and it's a kick out.
09:09It's a three.
09:10And so instead of, like, momentum, we stopped them.
09:13Now they get three more points, and it's because of something small like that.
09:17And, you know, too often this team this year, they dig first quarter holes.
09:21And so, you know, again, yesterday, you dig that hole, and now you're down 10,
09:26you're down 12, you're down 13, and you're fighting uphill without your cheat code,
09:31Steph Curry, who can, you know, whop, whop, whop.
09:33He can hit three in a row, and now 13 becomes four because he's, you know, the heat torch.
09:38Well, yeah, they're not very good.
09:40I don't have any issue with that.
09:42That's obvious.
09:43They, like, my gosh, just on the bench alone, there's, I mean, it's almost more than half
09:51of what's on the bench right now is headed to the Hall of Fame.
09:56Oh, guys who aren't playing, yeah.
09:57I mean, Steph Curry's not playing.
09:58Jimmy Butler's not playing.
09:59Al Horford's not playing.
10:01And then you start to throw in others like Moses Moody and Seth Curry,
10:04and just all of this.
10:05Like, you have an actual NBA team, but not right now.
10:09And so then to hear things about preparation and game plan just sort of grabbed my ear.
10:16And I wonder if they've been fed so much with the idea of, hey, y'all just got to hang
10:25in there.
10:26He even said to us, how did he say it a couple weeks ago, pick off a couple of games
10:30until Steph gets back.
10:32I just think it'd be hard if you're a warrior right now to walk into an arena with any sort
10:40of swagger
10:40because you've sort of been told you're going to be hard-pressed to win any games until your golden savior
10:48comes back.
10:49And I get it.
10:50I completely get it.
10:52But that's an easy trap to fall into.
10:53I'd love, and maybe I'm asking for too much, I'd love for Guy Santos and Brandon Pajemski and Pat Spencer.
11:01I'd love for them.
11:03They say they do.
11:04I want them to walk into the arena and be like, we are an NBA team.
11:09And we can go do this tonight.
11:11We're allowed to.
11:13You're allowed to go win.
11:14I'm sure they have that level of confidence, but when the first quarter goes the way it did
11:18and Brown goes for 19 on 8 of 9 and immediately you're down 13, it takes a little bit of
11:24the wind out of your sails,
11:25especially when you mention what you did about how many Hall of Famers you don't have.
11:30And so when you go to the bench and it's a lacrosse goat and it's a second-round pick, a
11:35second-round pick,
11:36Leons, Yurt Saban, and Nate Williams, you're not going to be able to come from a big deficit with that
11:42sort of weaponry.
11:43Totally, totally.
11:44I was just thinking today about how challenging this must be, though, for all of the players.
11:51It sort of takes a special kind of thing to work your way through your entire life of basketball,
11:58get to the most elite of the elite.
12:00You arrive at the NBA.
12:02By the way, this is the Jonathan Kaminga story.
12:04It really is.
12:06You get to the most elite of the elite.
12:08You are now here.
12:10You've arrived.
12:11You are, whether you're a first-round draft pick, second-round draft pick, or whatever.
12:15You're here.
12:16There's millions of dollars on the line.
12:18No doubt you have the utmost confidence in yourself.
12:21You're an NBA player.
12:23And you arrive.
12:24And the whole tone of the organization is, okay, great.
12:28Now you're here.
12:29Now all we want you to do is help that guy right over there.
12:34Don't ever think about you.
12:37It's not like none of that.
12:39See that guy right there?
12:40Yeah.
12:40He's the center of the universe.
12:42And the whole game plan is just do stuff to help him.
12:48And then he's gone.
12:49And I'm not even saying that that's wrong.
12:51I'm just saying that's hard.
12:52That's got to be hard.
12:53What makes it even harder is, okay, he's gone.
12:56We don't know how long.
12:57It's 10 days.
12:58Okay, it's going to be 10 more.
12:59And it might be 10 more after that.
13:01So we don't know if he's going to be back now or in the immediate future.
13:05So while he's gone, forget what I said.
13:08Go up to the chalkboard and erase everything.
13:10Now it's Guy.
13:12Don't help him.
13:13Help yourself.
13:14And Pat Spencer, you're playing 25 minutes a night.
13:17And Pods, we want you to go out there and cook.
13:19P.S., a lot of fans don't, but we want you to.
13:22And he was one for eight last night.
13:24It didn't really work out.
13:25But the bigger point is everything you said is true.
13:28But when 30 is not on the floor, go ahead and crumple all that up.
13:33And now you guys all have to be those dudes.
13:36Like GP2, we need you to actually score more than a couple of dunks a game.
13:40I mean, who on the roster during this Steph and Jimmy are gone period
13:45has really helped himself?
13:48The first and easiest answer is Guy Santos.
13:51He got a contract.
13:52Yep.
13:53Yep.
13:53Right?
13:53He now has a multimillion dollar contract.
13:56The second and toughest answer, and we should probably block out the phone lines when I say this,
14:00but it's Brendan Pajemski.
14:01Is it?
14:01I think so.
14:02Like last night, it's not a great example because he didn't score the basketball.
14:06But you look at what he did.
14:08He went one for eight from the floor, but still got 10 free throws, six rebounds, five assists,
14:14a couple of turnovers, no big whoop.
14:17But I think that even though he didn't score, he was not like atrocious.
14:22He can do things when he doesn't score that can still help you compete.
14:25I agree with that, but I put it this way.
14:28I think I feel about Brendan Pajemski the same way I did before Steph got hurt.
14:32He's still all of those things, yet he is still very inconsistent.
14:36Yep.
14:36And he is capable of a 25-point night, and he is capable of a stink bomb.
14:41He got a ball last night where there wasn't anybody within seven feet of him,
14:45and he missed everything.
14:46Yep.
14:47He missed everything.
14:48Well, his misses are—
14:49He hit nothing.
14:49We've talked about this where—
14:50Well, that shouldn't be in the NBA.
14:52You shouldn't—like, that shouldn't—I don't know NBA players who are like,
14:55okay, everybody's gone.
14:57Shoot the ball.
14:58You missed everything?
14:59It's a make-or-miss league.
15:01Who was the niner kicker who kicked it so far left that it went into the tunnel?
15:05Was that Jose Cortez?
15:06Wasn't that Chase McLaughlin?
15:08Was it?
15:08I think it was Chase.
15:09It was windy, and it was a snap hook, and that thing—
15:12It almost hit Jennifer Lee Chan.
15:13Jennifer Lee Chan is who it was, in the tunnel.
15:16Like, it still counts as no points, but—
15:19Like, why did you kick it over there?
15:20There's a certain lasting image to stuff like that,
15:23and I think Pods is a victim of that.
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