Julius Randle had 24 points and 11 to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a win over the Warriors. Dave DuFour, Zena Keita, and Marcus Thompson react to the Wolves win, the absence of Playoff Jimmy Butler, and Jonathan Kuminga’s opportunity.Host: Dave DuFourWith: Zena Keita & Marcus ThompsonExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson Moody Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What were the key takeaways from the Timberwolves' win against the Warriors?
Not much of a game for the Warriors. You know, no Steph Curry is kind of how we expected it to go. Timberwolves win 117-93. Marcus, did you learn anything from this game?
I learned you disrespected a run that cut it to seven. Like, come on. Yeah. What? You didn't see Jonathan Kamenga dunk on Rudy Gobert? I did see him dunk on Rudy Gobert. Nah. They were cooked. This offense is just really, really impotent. And... They have to find some way to get some buckets, right?
Chapter 2: How does the absence of Steph Curry affect the Warriors?
Oddly enough, it's probably going to be with two of their, you know, kind of, they're going to have to dust off a couple of guys that they kind of thought were, you know, out of the mix in Jonathan Kaminga and Trey Jackson-Davis. But it just shows just like how Steph is the solar system. Because with him not in there, like everything changes. Even the players that work, that look pretty good.
You're like, oh, no, he's a good player. Just simply not as good without Steph. So they've got to rethink this whole thing. This is Jimmy's team now. What does it take for Jimmy to be good? And that's probably going to be different players.
Chapter 3: What role does Jimmy Butler play in the Warriors' strategy?
Yeah, I think that that was like the main focus I had tonight. And I mentioned this on my social media. And I know a lot of people had comments around this. And you asked this question to Jimmy in the postgame presser about the weight and the expectation around playoff Jimmy. But I think that everyone thinks of playoff Jimmy and they only think of points produced.
They think about the 50 point game. They think about the three triple doubles in his playoff career, the 20 double doubles. But.
What it seems that the Warriors need right now out of Jimmy isn't tons of point production as much as it is better decision making within the offensive flow of the half court, clock management, understanding communication about what he's about to do and how that might open up things for other teammates.
When you ask him that question of the expectation of playoff Jimmy, one, what does that expectation look like to you observing him? And then two, what do you think Jimmy, because his response felt as if he's like, I play hard basketball, I play basketball the right way. It felt as if it was kind of flippant in terms of the concept of playoff Jimmy.
Chapter 4: What is expected from 'Playoff Jimmy' for the Warriors to succeed?
But what does playoff Jimmy mean to you and what he needs to do for this team right now?
I mean, I guess the reputation of the folklore that it's become is doing whatever it takes to win. And, like, if it's scoring 40, if it's locking a guy up, if it's rebounding, like, he will, like, you know, this is hyperbolic, but he will die on the court, right? Like, we remember the picture of him in the bubble, yeah, looking like that Popeye's meme, right? Yeah.
Like, you know, I had to fight all my life that that kind of the problem is I think he might have to score 40. I think that's what this is going to require. And he's, you know, he's been playing a lot. They've been playing like playoff basketball for two months now. Right. You can see like it's. Like it's taking a toll. He said tonight his, you know, tailbone is still it's not fully healed.
He can still feel it. And then on top of that, like the way like he's Steph now. So they're guarding him. They've got Jade McDaniel, like who's a really good defender. They got Rudy behind him. Like they're ready for his little moves. They know what he's going to do. So he's, it's just, it's difficult for him. But to me, I was just asking about, he could play a really good game, right?
24 points, nine assists, rebounds, couple steals. And they're not going to win. Right. And it was like, where's playoff Jimmy, right? And like, that's what I'm like, yo, do you, The reputation that you have is, I will will this team to win. I will will a team of unsigned draft picks and G-leaguers to win.
He's in Minnesota where the whole storyline was, give me the third string and I'm going to cook your starters and talk trash the whole time. So to me, I was more like... Like now it's obviously a great reputation to have. Like you're basically like Mel Gibson and Braveheart, like a basketball, right? It's like, you know, you're John Snow of the league. He's William Wallace, actually. Yeah.
But now they kind of like need you to do that on call, like on cue. So it's like, how is that? And he's saying he can't do it if it gets to that. But increasingly, it looks like he and that's a different like Warriors basketball is. If it's not Steph getting 30, it's the terror of Steph getting 30 that opens other people up.
And I think he needs to get to 30, 40 to create the terror that opens everything up. Now, the more likelihood based on where he is in his career and in this season, he needs some other people to get going to open it up so he can get to 30 and 40. And maybe he's sitting at 22 and he closes strong. But he's not getting that.
Like, he needs some other guys to get going to, like, oh, open up this lane. And now they can't focus so much on Jimmy. But it might have to be the other way. It might have to be, like, I'm going to bully 40. I think game three has got to be that. And then hopefully Pajemski makes some shots and, you know, other guys make some shots. It's a tough ask for it.
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Chapter 5: How can Jonathan Kuminga make an impact in Steph Curry's absence?
The part that I don't understand about this team that drives me crazy is No, nothing tells you you have to go to the restricted area. They're pressing out so far on the ball, right? So they're passing on the perimeter, like 30 feet out, trying to do dribble handoffs. And then Rudy's at the rim. You know what that means, Zena?
There's a whole wide open space right here. There's a mid-range. There's a mid-range. Get there. That's what it's called. Some people forget.
All right. You're like, they're driving in the middle and then jumping in the air. And it's like, Oh, where do I go now? When you drive in, take the pull up.
That's the part that is fascinating to me is the consistent amount of fundamental basketball rules being broken of passing back into the defense, jumping in the air and mid air making passes. Like it's, it's like you have to get back to the let's jump stop folks or the
Let's pull up before the defense like it's it's it's weird aspects of Warriors basketball that's not being shown or that is being shown. That's like this is so uncharacteristic. And I'll say this, like Chris Mullen made a great point tonight on the Warriors postgame show where he said.
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Chapter 6: What adjustments do the Warriors need to make in their offensive strategy?
if majority of the season i'm paraphrasing but if majority of the season you've played and practiced motion basketball and the last two months you've had to basically learn how to integrate iso that's not what you're known for and he really said for the last decade this is who warriors basketball has been and so you're seeing this weird morph of iso and motion happen without what you're saying marcus the gravity that has even allowed the motion
to be as effective as it is, which is Steph Curry for the last 10 years.
And dudes who just, quite frankly, aren't that good at ISO. I was about to say.
Also, not enough spacing. You got Quentin Post out there, right? If you need all that spacing, you ain't that good at ISO.
If you need that much spacing, you ain't that good at ISO. ISO is like, man, let's put us in a phone booth. I'm getting to the cup. That's how Xena used to do it. Yeah, like...
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Chapter 7: Why is Jonathan Kuminga's performance crucial for the Warriors?
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be back with Marcus. Two seconds.
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Okay, speaking of needing some offense, Jonathan Kuminga got a chance to play. I thought he looked great. I love the aggressiveness. You mentioned that he dunked on Rudy Gobert. I mean, seems to me like some of this run that he didn't get, right, should have been given to him. I mean, he only gets 26 minutes, but I think without Steph, you need Kuminga to do 25 points, right? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, like, like, like Zeno was saying, if you're going to switch to ISO, now Kaminga becomes incredibly valuable because the thing he could do while Steph is out there, like relocating is ISO, right? It's like, right. What you want? What you want? You want Kaminga ISO or you want to hit Steph off this pin there, right?
So now it's just like, yo, you need, because the answer is in the paint, right? The answer is in the paint. The money's in the paint. Somebody's got to get to the paint. This is why, you know, everybody was like, Pat Spencer, because no matter what, Pat Spencer is going to get to the paint. He's going to go. What happens when he gets there, but he's getting to the paint, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So Kamega is one of those guys who can, like, actually get to the paint, especially in certain matchups. So I do think now in this situation – If I'm Jonathan Kamiga, this is where you get your money. This is the mixtape for Restricted Free Agency. It's right here. Now, you just got to craft one of the old stuff. Now, this is the fresh huddle footage. Remember huddle?
Y'all, y'all, you need to get this new huddle playoff mix. I didn't even play football, but yes, I remember huddle. So, like... If he can – here's the crazy part. He don't got to do much. He got to get you one game. He got to get you one game. One good game. Be like, oh, okay. Like he played well tonight. He was like 17 points, right? He did play 26 minutes. This wasn't like –
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