The Athletic NBA Daily
Can the Warriors be fixed? w Marcus Thompson | Morning Shoot Around
21 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the current situation of the Golden State Warriors?
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to the NBA Daily, the morning shoot-around. Here, the little live stream we do on Wednesdays on YouTube. Here is Espera Henney, Zena Keita, and our guy, Marcus Thompson, who is super into figure skating now, if you've been following him over at The Athletic in a way that I haven't. Marcus, talk to me about figure skating. Get me into figure skating.
Sell me on watching the Olympic figure skating.
Imagine.
imagine this picture this for a moment Steph Curry dribbling down the court the lane opens let's go with Ja because it's more reasonable Ja Morant driving down the middle of the court and he takes off from the free throw line and he does four revolutions in the air before dunking That's figure skating, baby.
They're dunking in figure skating now?
They're jumping on skates. So the big guy, the guy you will never miss come February. The guy, you know how when Olympics happen, then there's this one athlete or two athletes, so you just, they're everywhere all of a sudden. That guy's going to be Ilya Malinin, who is better known by his nickname of the quad god. Now, I got first assigned figure skating last year.
And my first foray into figure skating was in March. It was after Jimmy Butler's return to Miami because after that game, I flew straight to Boston for the world championships. Now, before that, I didn't do any research. I know what's happening. I was busy. It was trade deadline season. I didn't have anything. I have time for it.
So I was like, I'll start paying attention when I go to Boston, get to Boston. I see this guy that's known as quad guy. First thing I do is look at his legs like this little skinny dude. I was just unimpressed by his thighs, right?
So he doesn't actually have quads.
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Chapter 2: What impact does Jimmy Butler's absence have on the Warriors?
He gets frustrated because he knows my leash is short. That's his psychology as a player. And on top of that, if I would criticize Steve Kerr about anything, I have a hard time because Steve Kerr, number one, he always ends up right. I've gone against him a gazillion times. At the end of the year, he's hosting a trophy.
Chapter 3: What adjustments do the Warriors need to make moving forward?
Talk about what was that? So that dude, I'm telling you, he just it's insane to me.
Chapter 4: How is Jonathan Kuminga performing in recent games?
But it's difficult for a young player to watch other people make the same mistakes and don't get pulled. And that's the part that they didn't address. Well, Steph doesn't become Steph.
If Steph's treated like this, Steph Curry does not become Steph Curry.
We watched Steph throw a behind-the-back pass out of bounds. He was getting yanked for AC Law with his second year. He was getting yanked. Keith Smart was like, I'm sitting him. But that was ā at the time, that was seen as harmful. It was like, no, just lose the game with Steph. Like, why are you putting in A.C. Law? Like, he needs the clutch minute.
So I do think there's a psychology part that got missed because you're watching other players make the same mistake. You're like ā Wait, I get pulled for that, right?
And can I just add a bow on this? Can I just add one little bow on this? And you have to understand, and I'm not even saying this from like a caping perspective. This is true for all young players. But particularly this, I mean, I listened to your show this morning with S. There was a conversation around Jalen Green being parsley to chicken or rosemary to chicken.
Some sort of ingredient.
Some sort of ingredient to chicken. But like you look at all of these guys. They came out of the G League Ignite world. Yeah. OK. There was a psychological aspect of it, too. Y'all are the best. Y'all are playing against grown men.
That program is a failure in that sense.
You are the you are the pinnacle of what NBA development is. We are putting you in a special group. The way you're going to be raised in this in this network of NBA is going to be different than everyone else coming in. Don't. So these guys didn't have a Tom Izzo. They didn't have a Coach K. They didn't have these guys that will sometimes tear you down, build you back up, but build you back up.
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