The Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler at the deadline and Draymond Green declared the Warriors are going to win the title. Zena Keita and Marcus Thompson discuss what the ceiling of the Warriors is, and if they have enough to actually get through the West. They discuss the top end talent of Jimmy, Curry and Draymond and if the young players on the roster can help get them where they need to go.Host: Zena KeitaWith: Marcus ThompsonExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Ua2qrEe7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are Draymond Green's championship claims?
Good morning and welcome to a special edition of the NBA Daily. I'm your host, Zena Kata, and I'm joined by one of my favorite people in the world, Marcus Thompson. And I don't know if you guys heard over the weekend, but a particular player from a particular team that Marcus and I are very well acquainted with had some choice words about the future of that team.
Marcus, did you hear these words that I'm referring to?
Yeah, I really miss what Brandon Pajewski said. What did he say? Yeah.
It wasn't Brandon. It wasn't Brandon. But if anything, it's Brandon's mentor, the guy that he looks up to and wants to be like. Draymond Green, always known to be a bold figurehead for the Warriors, made some really big claims as he was part of the TNT. Big claims. Part of the TNT broadcast.
Like the biggest claims ever.
Well, Steph Curry, you know, alluded to how big they were, too, in his post All-Star Game press conference. But Draymond, I'll go ahead and read the quote. But at some point, as he's explaining where he thinks the Warriors are going to be, he said, I'm sorry. I said, I think we're going to win a championship. But I lied. We are going to win the championship. Boom.
Now, of course, he was referencing where the Warriors stand since Jimmy Butler, Jimmy Butler, the third, joined the Warriors. They've been three and one since they closed out a road stint with a win against the Houston Rockets before they went into All-Star weekend. Three and one looks good.
Definitely looks a lot better than the ability that, you know, the Warriors had to be able to have a lot of wins stacked up. Still haven't been able to get three in a row. But it's been a while since they got three in a row, but they look good.
So Marcus, I want to ask you, first and foremost, if you're Steph Curry and you hear your teammate Draymond Green on national television before the All-Star game, make a claim like we're going to win the championship. What's going through your mind?
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Chapter 2: How has Jimmy Butler changed the Warriors' dynamics?
Draymond Green said that they were trying to figure it out and they were never figuring it out. And since Butler joined them, they're walking into every game thinking and believing that they're going to win that game. And for me and speaking to people around the organization and also just speaking to people that are consistently watching the Warriors, some people still think that they need size.
You know, some sort of a move maybe on the buyout market, et cetera, to get some size inside. We knew that the whole Vucevic situation did not pan out. But just Jimmy Butler alone and his ability to come in and change the dynamic of the Warriors offense has got them believing that they're going to win every single game.
When you think about the West, how valid do you think that claim is that they can come in against a Denver offense? without size against Jokic, against Dallas, which, I mean, yes, they've lost their size, but Dallas still was able to pull out a win against them. How feasible is this in the West right now?
I think the West makes it unfeasible. I understand what Draymond's saying. You got Steph Curry, you got Draymond, you got Jimmy Butler. They can win any series. Like, they can do it. But that ain't how you win a championship, right? You gotta win four of them things.
Right.
So, to me, that's the part that's tough. Like, if they somehow... You know, like, I mean, they're just like every other team. They need things to fall right. You know what I'm saying? Yep. So, they need a first round that, you know, is amenable to them. Like, if they gotta go through Jokic and Anthony Davis and, you know... Like, that's tough.
But I do feel like if you just look up and they make the West Finals... Yeah, I see it.
Yeah, absolutely.
I see it at that point. We've seen Jimmy Butler do less. We've seen Steph Curry do it with less, right? That's true. With a compromised Klay Thompson and the best of Andrew Wiggins. We've seen Jimmy Butler get to the finals, you know what I'm saying, with Gabe Vincent as the point guard, right? Like, good players, but not that kind. But that was in the East, too, where...
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Chapter 3: Can the Warriors compete in the Western Conference?
This is Josh Gibson, you know what I'm saying? Like, I got more home runs than Babe Ruth. Like, this is like, you know, the old stories we used to hear, like, they become... I mean, Jimmy is already low-key that, right? Like, he's already kind of this, like, folklorist figure that...
In 20 years, when we're talking about the NBA and people are going to be looking at the numbers and they're going to be looking and nobody's going to... I'm going to be the old dude in the barbershop just getting my little... With the little hair I got left lined up. I'm going to be like, y'all don't know about Jimmy Butler. And they're not going to believe me. But you have to be there to see it.
You know, Jimmy is one of them dudes. Like, y'all ought to see him at the bubble looking like the Popeye's chicken bean when he had nothing left, right? He bent over.
Lean over. Oh, absolutely. No one can forget that. Y'all don't know about playoff Jimmy?
Y'all don't know what playoff Jimmy means? He already one of those type of dudes anyway. So if they get there, I do think, you know, I forgot who said it. It might have been Kendrick Perkins. And they'd be like, nobody's afraid of the Warriors. I disagree with that. I think that is the team you don't want to see.
The last thing, like, if you're Oklahoma City and you should win a championship, the last thing you want to do is, like, have to deal with Steph Draymond and Jimmy Butler. Like that, that's a scary, because even if you beat them, like you're walking out of there bloody, right? There's going to be a chunk. They're taking their chunk of flesh.
Correct.
This is what they do.
Absolutely.
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Chapter 4: What are the challenges the Warriors face in the playoffs?
We believe in you.
Right.
We didn't try everything. We didn't try to get Lori Barker in. Like, we didn't try it at all. Hey, bro, this is your show. Yeah, this is the same guy that could make it who's been benched, who's been, you know, minutes and all that. Like, now this is like, He's free to go beat Jonathan Kaminga. They need him to go beat Jonathan Kaminga. So he should play with the utmost confidence.
The owner, Joe Laker, was talking about, of course we're paying him. Like, yeah, we're paying him.
We're not getting rid of JK. Yeah.
Yeah, they're not getting rid of JK. Like, it's going to take, like, clearly it's going to take like Giannis or something. Like, come on. Clearly. So, like, he should come back feeling good. And to me, what's unique about his, like, the way he's come back is they've been on this, like, get downhill, get downhill, get downhill.
Like, one of the things Jimmy has done has, like, he's made that a thing now. Whereas before Jimmy, they were so content with staying on the perimeter. But just by virtue of Jimmy not doing that, you're seeing pods get downhill. You're seeing Moody go off the dribble, right? You're seeing Draymond do it. And now you got probably the best... on the team at it outside of Jimmy.
It's like just physical getting downhill. I'm curious if that really kind of fuels the new play styles of pushing it, driving, driving, driving, driving. That's, to me, Jimmy Butler's greatest attribute is showing these dudes like, hey, when your shot is off, you can still have a productive game by doing something else, right? And so Kaminga... Like, if he's watching that, you can see.
Kamingo was the best one at it already. Like, he's the guy that's like, I'm off. I'm going to go get six free throws real quick. So now you put them two together, like, it'll be fun. Like, you know, like, again, I think, you know, you're going to have a problem with the size.
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Chapter 5: How does Steph Curry's presence affect the team?
What was the one
was this Chicago where he's driving and he's got, I think he, it was like late in the game and he had a layup and he kicked it out to the corner for the three and Moses Moody missed it. But it was like, it's a lay. It was the game they lost. It was a Dallas game. I think it's like, it's a layup. I feel like he's got the skillset to finish that.
And I do think Jimmy is like showing him like, you know what? Hey, it's money in the paint. I know we all shoot threes, but it's money in the paint.
You can go get a bag in the paint.
Yeah, we're going to eat down here.
Absolutely. It's money in the paint. And you think about what Pods was recruited for. I remember him more so being an acrobatic finisher. Just someone that could get in the paint and be squiggly and just creative in there. So it definitely feels cool to see him...
kind of stay alongside Jimmy Butler in being able to attack and finish really prettily seeing those floaters that he you know is practicing from Steph but then getting into the paint like he's practicing from Jimmy it's like all right cool all the veteran influences starting to trickle down that's where I'm like and you know you you was a big so maybe you understand me like I need to get rid of this floater stuff bro you don't like the floaters I like floaters for people who can float
Okay, I was never a floater girl.
I don't think that's everybody.
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