[videos/transcripts/notes/quotes]
Photo: @edgarmolina
It wasn’t too long ago, November 1st to be exact, when we learned that our squad called those last-second catch-and-shoots byKyle Anderson “hand grenades”. Back then, we didn’t have a guy we could dump the ball to when the proverbial shit hit the fan, other than oneWardell Stephen Curry, of course. And so we honored those who fell on those hand grenades and Kyle was ourSteve Rogers at the time.
But we have a guy, now.
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Let me allowDraymond Greento explain it:
I always tell the guys, when all else fails, just shot clock get to six, when you got nothing, throw him the ball. He'll figure it out and he did that tonight, all night. It was beautiful.
Draymond is referring to, obviously,Jimmy Butler.
Here’s a TikTok/Reel of the last jump-stop Jimmy made in the lane before spraying the ball toBrandin Podziemski for the dagger three up top:
Hhh
I have said this many times on the livechats, but I just love how low to the ground Butler gets on his drives.Steve Kerr lauds his jump-stop ability. Jimmy driving baseline to the hoop reminds me ofMichael Jordan: lower that strong shoulder, “pierce the paint” as Green recently said on the podium, and there’s little a defender can do about it, especially if the defender is smaller, such as the case withGary Trent, Jr. the other night. Of course, MJ had a super-human extra dimension otherwise knows as vertical space, but you don’t even really need that to make effective fundamental basketball plays.
Here’s the full behind-the-scenes video compilation of what I like to call, in Curry’s absence, “The Jimmy Game”:
The cool thing is, as I mentioned on theWatch Party livestream, this is just the beginning. There have only been 17 games played by the Golden State Warriors with Jimmy Butler active.
Green actually prefaced the above quote as follows: “Guys are still figuring out where he wants you on the court when he has the ball here or when he has the ball there, where he wants you on the court and so we're still figuring all of that stuff out, but we know what he's capable of.”
So, we’re not even quite there yet. After all, the Denver Nuggets used their elite help defense and lengthy wings to stop a few of Jimmy’s drives.
And to get you even more excited for the future, my co-hostDean “of Positivity” Chambers, the one who screamed, “He’s Jimmy Butler!” when news broke out back in December that Butler and the Miami Heat were going through a divorce and we Warriors fans were considering the options, added Tuesday night late postgame, “I haven’t seen him try 110% yet… he hasn’t had to.”
That’s right. We haven’t seen Jimmy roar to 50 points yet, which we know he can do. We might not ever, given the dynamics with a court-bending gravity guy like Steph. And, yeah, that’s pretty exciting. The rest of 2024-25 and two more seasons after that with Steph, Dray and Jimmy guaranteed to be on this roster? Wow.
And then you start getting ahead of yourself and you start daydreaming about how maybe they all take a pay cut as free agents in the summer of 2027 to allow the Warriors to sign some flashy young free agent at that time, to join Podz,Jonathan Kuminga andMoses Moody in the starting lineup with maybe the three of them coming off the bench or something — idk, I’m just saying the next two seasons on paper and with 17 games of eye test so far…
Videos and transcripts from Tuesday night’s victory over the Milwaukee Bucks below. Hopefully you already know that all transcripts are in the Comments section of every video interview we post on the YouTube channel:
00:00 Yes. Yeah. It's always, though.
00:06 DRAYMOND GREEN: Brandin was mentioning that you were telling guys, "Don't help off of your guys, give me Giannis. We're gonna get beat. Giannis is gonna do it one-on-one." What kind of focus did you have just on strictly that matchup in this game?
00:24 I was when you're going against one of the greats, you gotta be locked in, so I came into this game with a mentality to try to stop him. I didn't want guys to overhelp because if he goes off and he get 40 and we stop everybody else, we still got a great chance of winning the game. So I just didn't want them getting overhelping too much and all of those guys like Taurean Prince or Brook Lopez, who got it going there for a minute, Kuz. I didn't want them guys to end up kind of taking them home because we're overly focused on Giannis and so just was trying to tell the guys, be there early, but don't stay there. Be there early and then start exiting out to your guy, I'll get back. And we struggled there with it in the third quarter, but we were great the first two quarters and we were great the fourth quarter, so we ended up figuring it out again, which was great.
01:23 How would you describe what Jimmy does, can do offensively when he decides to kind of ratchet it up?
01:29 Well, he is who he is. He's incredible offensively. He commands so much attention and, for us, that's great because he's allowing everybody else to get to spots where they're comfortable and either get layups or open jump shots, so when he's being that aggressive, which obviously we needed him to be that aggressive tonight with Steph out, one of the toughest matchups in the NBA and we've seen that for years on end now.
02:03 How much of that aggression out of Jimmy is kind of like a preview of what it could look like in the games that really matter, Playoff Jimmy and everything?
02:11 Yeah, I have zero doubt that it won't look like that. I think it'll look just like that and it'll continue to get better. Jimmy, he's still figuring out his spots. Guys are still figuring out where he wants you on the court when he has the ball here or when he has the ball there, where he wants you on the court and so we're still figuring all of that stuff out, but we know what he's capable of and I always tell the guys, when all else fails, just shot clock get to six, when you got nothing, throw him the ball. He'll figure it out and he did that tonight, all night. It was beautiful.
02:45 It's award season, getting towards it. Do you think you have a Defensive Player of the Year case this year?
02:51 I think, obviously, we keep winning and close this year out strong, most definitely. I don't know, I look around the league, I don't see many players impacting the game on the defensive end the way I do. I don't see many players completely throwing off an entire team's offense the way I do. So, 1,000%, especially with Wemby going down, seemed like he had it won and, now, it's right there. So, 1,000,000% I have a case and I'll continue to build that case for these next 13 games, but tonight, I think was a prime example of that.
03:38 We've talked about Jimmy getting used to this offense with Steph. Obviously, things have gone a certain way for many years, but on defense, you run the show, clearly. Has it been an easy adjustment, you think, just to drop into this? It seems like you guys, certainly in that fourth quarter, you were really tied together with the help, the show, the help, all the backside being protected. What's that been like?
03:59 It's so easy to add him in because he is like me. He thinks like me. He sees the floor like me or better. I'm not gonna sit here and act like, "Oh man, I'm the world's greatest." And he's not. There are certain things that he see better than me and so to have a guy like that, you add him into the fold, for me, it makes me all the more comfortable to know that I can be aggressive, that I could take some chances and know that at the end of the day, there's gonna be Jimmy on the backside to cover up any mistakes that anyone makes. And so that's usually me in that position, covering up for mistakes, but when it allows me to — you think of an offensive player, right? You're gonna give a guy who's incredible offense, you're gonna give them a little more freedom than you may give others. They're probably gonna take a little more chances or a shot that maybe other guys wouldn't take. I think that's me on the defensive end. I may do something that's unorthodox. I may do something that's not quite how we schemed it, but it's something that I saw could work. And every now and then you take those chances that don't work and you can get burned. With Jimmy on the backside, he covers it up. He'll see me guard and he'll plug that spot and so it's been extremely easy and very comforting for me adding him to the fold and he makes the game a lot easier for all of us on both sides of the ball.
05:27 He said the same thing about you, how it's fun to be more aggressive.
05:33 That's a good partnership.
05:35 Yeah, I was gonna say that because he did say that and he also said that, obviously, he always had a great appreciation for your defense, but that you sometimes are like five plays ahead of everybody on defense. A lot of guys do that on offense. When you hear a guy like Jimmy talk, come to you, talk to you about that, talk about you like that and how important you are to the defense, like Tim said, he said that you let him do what you just said you're doing. So what does that mean for you guys going down the stretch here that you guys have that kind of symbiotic relationship on defense?
06:04 I think it means well for this team, that's for sure, which is why it's no surprise to me that we're, what, before last night, I don't know what, after last night, but we were No. 2 defense in the league since he's been here, by a few ticks. That's no surprise to me when you speak like that, but it's great, man, to have a guy like that, that feels the same way that I feel about him, that he feels about me. That's kind of a match made in heaven, but I'm extremely appreciative of him speaking to me that way because, like I said, he is someone that's smart as hell that I respect his basketball IQ. And so I'm thankful that he sees me in that light. You always want to be respected by your peers and for him to say I'm five — but I don't know if I'm that far ahead, but I appreciate it.
06:58 He also said that you would hate it if a five-year-old scored on you.
07:03 Well, one million percent. I hate when anybody score on me, or I hate when my man score on someone else. I'll be losing my mind.
07:10 Draymond, pre-Jimmy — I'm not, not to disparage any of your teammates — but pre-Jimmy, if on a normal night, if you're facing Giannis and you don't have Jimmy back there, are you having to do more not just on Giannis, but are you worried about other things and trying to shore up the defense in other areas that you don't have to worry about now?
07:30 I just think trust is earned in anything and he's quickly earned that trust and so it does allow you to focus on things that you're like, "Ah man, I know, I don't have to get there, Jimmy's there," and, like you said, it's no disrespect to any of our teammates, but some people are better at some things than others. That's just the world we live in. That's the game we play and Jimmy's great at seeing the play weak-side from seeing the whole floor and identifying a problem. I always say, if there's a fire on defense, I'm gonna go put the fire out. I'm not just gonna sit there and watch it and Jimmy's the same way. And that type of aggressiveness, that type of attention to detail, it's hard to score on that when a guy sees a problem and they just go address it right away. So oftentimes you see guys on the defense side of the ball, they see a problem and they just sit there and look at it. And you're like, "Yo, go!" Like, it's a problem, you know it's a problem and Jimmy doesn't. He see a problem, he goes. I see a problem, I go. And so it really allows you to focus and lock in on that matchup, 100%.
08:45 You said that with Jimmy you're able to take more risks on defense, take chances. I was wondering tonight, was there a moment, especially in that fourth quarter, where you were able to kind of take a chance on defense that maybe you wouldn't have been able to take if Jimmy went on the floor?
08:58 I think just picking him up full court. I picked Giannis up full court for most of the game. Anytime he got the ball, I was there to pick him up and that right there, every time I picked him up, Jimmy said, "Yo, keep going, go pick him up, I'ma be in the gap if he get by you. You just run to my man if he get by you," and so again, with that type of communication, it's very comforting as a defender to be that far off the floor and knowing that you have someone back there that has your help because it's daunting to be that far up the floor with Giannis Antetokounmpo with the ball coming downhill. It's a tall task and so just to know that you have that help back there, if you do get beat, it allows you to play with that aggressiveness to be able to pick him up and stop his momentum.
09:45 On the Defensive Player of the Year, you've won one, Kevin Garnett won one, Tim Duncan won none.
09:53 Crazy. They can have mine. He should have seven of them.
09:57 It's hard to go year by year, right? But historically, that doesn't seem right. Why do you think the voters have had maybe a hard time with that award?
10:06 Because I think the voters look at stat numbers and — I don't want to oversell myself because I have so much respect for Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett — but I do think I'm that great defensively and if you don't watch the game, you can miss it and I think if you just go look at the stats, it don't always tell the story. And so for a player like KG, for a player like Tim Duncan, myself, it ain't all about the blocks. It's not all about the steals. What are you covering? And I think, like myself, they cover for everybody and when you can cover for everybody, sometimes you can get a lot of steals and there's guys covering for you. Because you're getting a lot of steals, you're probably taking a lot of risk. We cover for people and I think that's why I have one and they have one, because you — I mean, you got some people that has a vote on the East Coast, they'll probably see us play four times a year and if you look at the stats, you're gonna be like, "Oh, Draymond average one steal and a block. Nah, those numbers don't jump off the page at you, but you're gonna watch me play and then you're gonna ask the opposing coach, what did I do to their offense? It's a different story. Same for Timmy D, same for KG. And so I think when you look at it, the award is widely based off statistics and those statistics don't always tell the story. Some guys get the stats and get picked on. Some guys get the stats and can be a liability to their defense. They take too many chances, the defense break down. We don't do that. Sometimes we get punished for it, but — championships, championship, championships. All three of us got, so I'm sure, just like myself, they'd much rather have those than more Defensive Player of the Years. But I want another one and I ain't retired yet, so shout out to them OGs, they are incredible, great. But I still got a chance.
00:00 What went on in that 16-0 run you took, you made end of third quarter, beginning of the fourth? What flipped there for you?
00:08 STEVE KERR: I thought Jimmy's three-point play at the end of the quarter was a big one, getting fouled and knocking down the three free throws and then we felt good about that lineup that we played. It's been a great lineup for us and they really made a nice push, qP hit the big three from the corner and there's a good flow with that group and good two-way lineup, so they made a great run on that. Then we were able to hold them off.
00:44 Steve, between Jimmy's sort of rescue mission almost and Draymond's defense on Giannis, I mean, which of those things do you think led this victory here?
00:54 Well, either one is worth the headline. I mean, Draymond, that defense tonight on Giannis was incredible, to hold him to five field goals. Draymond showed why he's still one of the great defenders in the world and why he's so important to winning, night after night. I thought it wasn't just the defense, it was the leadership. It was the energy. It was such a professional effort by our guys coming off of last night's loss, to respond the way they did, to put together a victory against a great team, in a game we really needed, but Jimmy played the whole fourth and just took over the game. We ran every play through him down the stretch and that's a big-time weapon to have.
01:44 Jimmy's kind of been been hinting that he could kind of break that out when needed. I mean, do you even have to have a conversation with him going into a game like this or does he just know?
01:56 No, he just knows. He's been telling you guys, I know, when it's time he'll do it. Tonight. It was time. Last night in the comeback, he kind of took over and so he just does whatever is necessary and I think it's a good game for us to play, actually, without Steph because it sort of forces the rest of the team to play a game without him and to play through Jimmy and to see what we've got. So like I said, I thought it was a big-time win. Brandin played a huge role in it, such an important stretch, down the stretch, knocking down those threes and offensive rebound and you see what he means to our team, his anticipation play after play at both ends. He just feels the game and that's huge.
02:50 To follow on that, how quickly did you notice his comfort tonight, Brandin?
02:54 Yeah, I mean, he looked strong and I think sometimes if you have a midseason injury, it keeps you out a week or two, you come back really strong because you're already in really good shape, but you get a little bit of a rest and you come back with a lot of force and energy and you could see it from him, right away, so it's great to see and hopefully we're able to sustain the health and we can wrap up his minutes and yeah, it was fun to watch him play tonight.
03:27 You mentioned Post with that group to start the fourth, looked like a little bit of a high-wire act with him, some turnovers, but he hit some good shots. Is it just a matter of hanging in there for him in a game like this?
03:39 Well, he gives us the spacing that we need for Jimmy to drive, for Draymond to drive. He's not just a spot-up shooter. He's tough, he's physical, so I believe in Quinten and I think we're better when he's out on the floor for those reasons, so he had some big shots for us tonight. He had a couple turnovers, but he's still learning the NBA and feeling his way through things, but I love how confident he is and he's helped us win a lot of games this year.
04:13 Steve, what do you think happened in the third quarter?
04:16 Milwaukee happened. It's a it's a hell of a team with Dame and Giannis and they missed a lot of shots in the first half, and we said at halftime they're gonna make some shots and they did. They made them in the third quarter, but it's tough coming from down 14, and you make a run like that, it takes a lot out of you and so we kind of expected the run. And then we responded really well in the fourth.
04:43 Steve, Draymond has nine blocks, five steals the last two games. Just how would you describe the way he took on the challenge of Giannis tonight?
04:51 He's the best defender I've ever seen. I mean, you see the pick-and-roll with Dame if he's in it. He kind of does this fake blitz thing with his speed, his anticipation. He forces Dame back out towards half court and he's able to get back the speed and recovery. Draymond is just stunning and then the brain that goes with it. If he's on the weak side, he's constantly coming over to help and he's one of the great defenders of all-time and he's still doing it at a high level.
05:28 Coach, especially on the heels of last night, did you sense maybe a heightened level of focus at the beginning of this game? And how does a win like this potentially help you just wipe away the taste of yesterday?
05:40 Yeah, that's the whole point in the NBA. I mean, everybody goes through tough stretches, tough games. I think I mentioned this pregame, Denver was coming off a loss at home to Washington, right? Last night. So they come in here, they're the team just based on human emotion. They took it to us last night, so we were the team tonight that was embarrassed by our previous performance and we responded and that's what good teams do and it's a human nature league. Every team's got amazing basketball players and it often comes down to which team is more focused, more determined, more locked in last night. That was Denver. I thought tonight that was us for most of the game.
06:35 What are you seeing with Kuminga through — I think he's been back four games?
06:39 Yeah, he's still trying to find some rhythm, but it's a long absence, so he's coming in, he's playing hard, he's playing with energy, he's getting us to the foul line. He's doing some good things and he'll continue to find his groove as he goes.
06:57 Aside from Draymond, who had a great game, were there any other help-side defenders or just other defenders that kind of also helped guard Giannis on his drives and just with him trying to get to the basket?
07:07 I thought the whole team was was there. Giannis didn't get much at the rim. JK had a great challenge where he fouled him at the rim, but you foul him and you make him earn the free throws. Gary's defense was incredible tonight. Both he and Moses kind of took turns on Dame and pressured him and forced him into some tough shots and so it was an excellent defensive performance tonight. Thank you guys.
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07:34 Quinten, how would you describe the work Draymond did defensively on Giannis tonight?
07:46 QUINTEN POST: Yeah, I mean, Hall-of-Famer and probably one of the most unique defenders this league has ever seen, with a mixture of anticipation, physicality, size, lateral quickness, so nah, he just anchors our defense and he did an amazing job today.
08:06 You hit that big three in the corner during the run to get back, to get the lead. What's it like, you hit shots, you're a shooter, but in that moment, everyone's looking at you, you've got famous teammates kind of anticipating you to take the shot. What's that moment like?
08:23 Honestly, I wasn't thinking about any type of moment. I don't know. I don't even remember when the shot, when in the game that shot was. It was somewhere in the second half, I think, but yeah, at that point the shot clock is running down. Jimmy throws you the ball and you better shoot it. Like, that's, I think, that's all there is to it.
08:43 You've been a little bit banged up the past couple weeks. How have you been able to maintain confidence even though you haven't been feeling 100%?
08:52 Yeah, I mean, it's just part of being a rookie. You kind of have to play through these things and I have been through these things in college. And I always feel like, if there's some type of effort that you can give and be there for the team, it's always better to just suit up than to sit out, so that's all.
09:15 You had a couple of turnovers there and then came out and Steph had a long talk with you. You don't have to (say) exactly what was said, but what's being communicated there when Steph's talking to you like that?
09:24 I don't think it was about the turnovers, more defensively. When they're trying to — they were trying to get me into the action, trying to pick on me and Steph said I've been dealing with this for 16 years, so you just kind of keep your head cool and do the best of your ability and whatever you do on the floor, do it with some type of aggression. And then things will usually end up right. Thank you guys.
00:00 You've been saying when it's your time, we're all gonna see it, we're gonna know it. Was a little bit of your time tonight?
00:05 JIMMY BUTLER: Maybe a little bit, but I'm glad that we won. That's all I really care about. You pass the ball when guys are open. I got to shoot a little bit more tonight, but as long as it all leads to a W, I'm good with whatever role I get to play.
00:21 How big was that sequence late third where, I mean, it seemed like you guys had lost control of the game, but then I think it was a run that ended with your three free throws.
00:28 I don't ever think that you lose control of the game. I think that this is a game of runs and I think us as a unit, as a team, have to know that more than anybody, especially with 30 out there, like he can get us back in the game in two, three possessions, so teams are gonna make shots, teams are gonna miss shots. You stay the course, knowing that the end result is gonna be that the Warriors win.
00:53 Throughout the course of the game, how do you gauge what a game requires from you, like, what's that process like?
00:59 I mean, I've been playing in this league for, what, 14-something years now, so I can tell. I know when I need to get my guys involved. I know when somebody has it going. I know when somebody needs to shoot the ball and I think that's my job out there, get the ball where it needs to go when I need to score, be able to do that, when I need to get to the free throw line, be able to do that, get some stops and whatever the team asks me to do, that's what I gotta do. I think I've got a good feel of that because I've been doing it for a long time.
01:28 You've been in this league a long time. You know what Draymond is defensively, but up close, teammate, watching him on a night like tonight, do you get any greater appreciation?
01:37 Hell yeah. I think you gotta respect the hell out of what he does and it's so hard to do, to shoot the ball, I don't know, four times maybe, if that, and then just lock in on defense every single possession down. He get mad when anybody scores, not just a guy that he's guarding. You don't find that too often. He's won at this level. He is a Hall-of-Famer for a reason. Damn, I just respect what he brings to this squad, what he brings to this locker room and how he affects winning in every single way and when it's his night to score, he scores, but every single night he's going, he's gonna guard somebody.
02:19 Is there a specific part of his defense that you maybe have gained a greater appreciation?
02:25 He just knows everybody that he's going up against, whether they're the star player, the third option or the first guy off the bench. It doesn't matter. He's locked in and he's never wanting you to help, which sometimes he does get beaten. He'll still get mad if you help, but he's just locked in like that.
02:45 Could you feel his laser focus matching up against Giannis tonight, knowing he was gonna have that kind of superstar matchup?
02:51 He always like that. It's not just Giannis. He don't give a damn who he's going up against. If he was going up against a damn five-year-old, he would hate for that individual to score on him and he wouldn't want anybody to help him. It's like, "This is my matchup, this is on me. I gotta be able to get a stop."
03:09 Is some of his competitiveness a little craziness?
03:12 No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's what you want. All the greats are — they put whatever words you want to put on — the competitors, the craziness, the overdoing this and that, that's just a winning mentality. And I want to be around that in all aspects of life.
03:29 How much of that three-point play at the end of the quarter was calculated?
03:34 I've been watching Steph highlights. I've been going on YouTube and watching him do his things. Now that he's on my team, when he's out, I get to play a little bit like him.
03:44 You talked about how seamless it's been, you picking up playing offense with Steph, but has it been seamless picking up defense with Draymond?
03:50 Yeah. The way he moves, it's easy. I get to gamble a lot more for steals when you're talking about the defensive side of the ball. Obviously, the offensive side, two, three, four, maybe all five people are gonna run with Steph, but on the defensive side of the ball, Dray's always talking, always telling people to go switch it up, matchups on the fly. Like, it's incredible and it's like he's — like how people are five steps ahead on the offensive side of the ball, he is that on offense, too, but he's damn sure that on defense.
04:20 Anytime we ask you about your stats or what you're doing to win, you bring it back to team. Like, it doesn't matter just as long as we're winning. Even going back to maybe your rookie season when you were a young player, did you still have that feeling or was it something you've grown into as you've matured in the league?
04:34 I think I've matured a lot and I was young in the league, it was always score, score, score. Show everybody that you belong in this league. I know that I belong in this league, now. I'm comfortable with who I am as a player, so now it's always about my guys, whatever y'all need me to do. Dray's the same way, Steph's the same way. Like, all of us that have been in the league for a little bit, it's only about winning at this point in time in our career and for them, it always has been. Not the same for me, but now more than ever.
05:05 Does this win make last night a little easier to get away, to rinse away?
05:08 It's better. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but it is over with. But I want to win them all. We want to win them all, but now we're starting to stack them again, so we got one in a row.
05:20 Do you have a favorite Steph highlight that you've seen on YouTube recently?
05:25 Probably his dunks 'cause he don't get to many of them. Anytime my man gets a dunk, I'm a fan.
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05:34 Brandin, you had two really big threes in the last few minutes of the game. In between those threes, you also had the defensive rebound that hooked up Gary's shot on the other side. How good did you feel within the flow of the offense in your first game back?
05:48 BRANDIN PODZIEMSKI: From a performance standpoint, pretty good. I can tell I'm not 100% kind of defensively because it's like a nervous feeling when you come back from something with your back. Every movement you make kind of goes through your back, so just being able to trust myself with different movements that I'm accustomed to making is something I was trying to get, but teammates did a good job of setting me up for two open shots. I didn't have to move much.
06:15 Can you feel when Jimmy starts to kind of crank up the aggression offensively?
06:21 I think so. I think there's just understanding, like, you see him get to the line a couple of times where he makes a few shots that we just give him a space or give him his matchup that he wants and just kind of let things play out from there. I think it works because he's such a willing passer and so as soon as another man comes to help the initial defender, he always just makes the simple play and that's why some of the games you see him score like four points or six points. It's because teams are throwing two at him. He's just making the simple play over and over again and I think that's what makes him a great player because he could have shot the ball 20, 25 times tonight if he wanted to, but to have 10 assists, it's pretty good.
07:01 Being forced to play without Steph tonight, but with Jimmy, what can you guys learn from an experience like that?
07:09 Say that again?
07:10 Yeah, what can you learn from playing a game with Jimmy but without Steph?
07:15 I think it just, it allows everybody to — you understand what Steph brings and, without that, there's a lot of fulfillment that needs to go on and so I think everybody plays a little bit more confident out there, understands that there's gonna be more shots for them and so, like I said, they're both great players, different in their own right and so, game-to-game, if Jimmy's out or Steph's out, you just got to adjust how you play a little bit and that's fine because we have good players.
07:44 Brandin, you've seen a lot of great Draymond games, but how would you describe the way that he took on the challenge tonight of guarding Giannis?
07:51 Yeah, it just goes to show how much of a Hall of Fame defender he is and I think he cements his name in that every single night. I think Giannis, Zion, and Paolo has been his best three performances so far this year and we trust him. I think a little bit in that third quarter, we didn't kind of trusted and we were helping off Kuzma and he made a couple of threes and Draymond was adamant that he has Giannis, he's good, and so I think we were able to take that out in the fourth quarter and let Draymond take him on his own and for Giannis to only make five field goals, as a guy who averaged 20 points in the paint a night, that's really good.
08:32 After not having Jokic last night, do you think that Draymond almost turns it up even more, knowing he's gonna face Giannis tonight?
08:39 I don't know if it's necessarily turning up, but we understood that we were gonna make Giannis and Dame beat us and you saw in that third quarter, we let Kuzma start going and Prince got a three and so I was just, like, if we're gonna lose, it's gonna be Giannis beating me every time and that's pretty much what we did, got the ball out of Dame's hands as much as we could, as well. And ended up working out, only 93 points.
09:04 You mentioned it a little bit there, but you've played with Draymond a couple of years now. Is that kind of one of his bigger pet peeves, when you're over-helping off guys that he has one-on-one?
09:14 I think so. As a player around Draymond, you've got to find a healthy balance of doing what the coaches want, but when you're on the floor, doing what Draymond wants. And so it's just a balance you've got to try to find because we kind of have our initial scouting report, what we're gonna do, and then a lot of times it gets scrapped because Draymond sees something and so you just got to find that balance. And I think we did that tonight.
00:00 Podziemski gonna be game time or is he looking great — ?
00:03 STEVE KERR, PREGAME MIL-GSW: He'll play, yeah.
00:04 Would he be the starter? I assume he'll start.
00:06 Yeah, he'll start for Steph, yeah.
00:09 Was the Steph decision an easy one or was it just — ?
00:13 Yeah, just get him some rest. The last three games, I think he's been tired, but it's more of a mental and emotional fatigue than physically. He's fine, physically. His back was fine last night. He put up a fight last night when I told him I wanted to give him the night off, but he understood. You guys know Steph, when he's emotionally tired, it affects his decision-making and so he's been turning it over the last couple games. He's a little out of sorts, so we've got lots of experience with this, with Steph. We know him well and just needs a night off once in a while and he's, for sure, earned it. I mean, he's just carried us on the road trip and he's been amazing, but the last couple games, I think the fatigue has shown and so give him a night and then he'll be right back out there Thursday.
01:24 It's kind of kind of surprising to hear that it was like more emotional fatigue, just because you guys have been winning so much.
01:33 Yeah.
01:33 What would you say kind of like the cause, the root cause of the emotion?
01:37 It's just who Steph is and how he's built, how he's wired. We're all built differently and so sometimes a long homestand is actually a hard thing for players, like, you get out on the road and lots of time to rest and so sometimes a long homestand can can lead to this, but yeah, we know Steph well. When he gets tired, the way it manifests itself is decision-making. That's clearly shown up the last couple games, so night off.
02:12 And what do you expect out of Podziemski tonight in terms of minutes? Is he gonna be on a restriction at all?
02:18 Yeah, I mean, first game in a couple of weeks, he's not gonna play 35 minutes, but he's also — the injury is healed and, so it's probably 25, somewhere in there.
02:33 Coach, last week you talked about spacing, sorry, spacing being something you guys were focused on. Obviously, without your biggest component in that category tonight, how do you try and adjust without Steph?
02:47 I think when I talk about spacing, it's regardless of skill set, even if you have five non-shooters out on the floor, you need to be spaced and so — I thought last night, we just had a bunch of possessions where it was a game that looked like the 1980s. It's like six guys in the paint and some of that was the game just got jumbled. We were desperate. We were attacking the rim. We were playing lineups that hadn't played together much or if at all this year, based on how the game was going, based on who was playing well. I think we finished the game with JK and Gary along with Jimmy and Draymond. There's no way we've played that lineup before and so we were desperate and we were trying anything, but even when you have a lineup like that or maybe even, I should say, especially when you have a lineup out there, guys have to be spaced 'cause if everyone's crowding the paint, there's no room for passing. So even if they're not lethal shooters, if they're in their spots and we have the floor spaced, we can execute offensively.
04:04 With Brandin back, how do you expect that to affect Moses's role on the team?
04:10 Not in the slightest, yeah. Yeah, Moses is our starting 2-guard and — or small forward, however you want to look at it, depending on whether we go small or big — but Moses, he's our starting wing, put it that way, and that doesn't change.
04:29 Coach, what's it gonna take tonight without Steph, second game of a back-to-back, what will it take for the rest of the roster?
04:35 Same thing it took Denver to win last night. They came off a loss to Washington at home, clearly focused, engaged, a little pissed off. That's what it should look like for us tonight.
04:54 It will be Jimmy's first game playing without Steph. Just what are you looking forward to about seeing him in this spot tonight?
04:59 I haven't given it any thought at all. He's just Jimmy Butler. He's a great player. He plays. Doesn't matter who's out there. Just need him to be himself.
05:08 Seemed like Brandin was shooting really confidently, aggressively before the injury. When can you tell that he's very decisive offensively?
05:16 When can I tell?
05:17 Yeah, like when can you tell that he's feeling it, shot-wise, and decisive with the ball?
05:21 Yeah, I mean, there was a really good rhythm to the game for him the last couple weeks before he got hurt and shooting the ball when he's open, moving it when he's not. He's got a great feel for the game. The game seems to move better for us when he's out there, so that's what I'm looking for.
05:38 Steve. I think Draymond had said this the other day early during when Jimmy came that he'd like to see Jimmy be more aggressive and look for a shot, but I know you love him being the facilitator and everything he does. Do you ever want him to be more aggressive and look for a shot more?
05:52 He was last night and I think the game called for it. I think Jimmy's just one of those players who reads the game, whatever it calls for. He responds accordingly and it's one of the reasons he's a great player. He feels the game. He understands the game, so I'm sure with Steph out, he's — and it's not necessarily looking for his shot as much as it is just attacking and creating stuff and I know that he's gonna be doing that.
06:22 Thank you, sorry. In your day, Steve, could you imagine a player taking a mental or emotional rest day — and I'm saying it's a good thing, now that that's sort of recognized — that that's needed because there's a whole player and part of the brain is part of performance, but what do you think about maybe understanding that these things are needed, especially for a superstar player, even when it looks like things are going well, as Danny (Emerman) was saying, there's winning and that kind of thing, but there is a mental fatigue that's now maybe recognized more than before?
06:52 Yeah, I think in general, we recognize that stuff better than we used to and there's a reason we have people who are keeping an eye on that constantly. And we have a whole performance team that checks in with these guys every single day and they're on the iPad, they're logging all the information, they're asking the guys how they're feeling, physically, mentally, emotionally, the whole deal. And so performance is based on all of those things. It's not just how you're feeling, physically, and so we want these guys to be at their best and in the course of an 82-game season, usually guys are gonna miss some games. And every guy is different and it's up to us to understand what makes each guy tick and why someone might need a night off, why they might not, and so there's a lot of work that goes into this.
07:55 Quinten gonna play tonight?
07:56 Yeah, he should. I mean, he's gonna warm up and if he's — as long as the warm up goes well, we expect him to play. Thanks. Oh, that it? That's it.
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