Jimmy Butler exclusive: Pat Spencer changes Warriors vibes in back-to-back wins | Dubs Talk | NBCSBA

Oh baby, oh baby, oh baby. A lot to talk about here as the Warriors go 2-1 on this road trip, 3-gamer of course, which started in Philadelphia on Thursday. They end with a sweep of back-to-back, their second sweep of a back-to-back this season. They beat Cleveland and then roll the Bulls, and they'll have 4 full days off. We welcome everybody to the Dubstalk Podcast with the one and only Warriors Insider, 2-time Emmy Award-winning and Hall of Famer Monty Poole. I am Bonte Hill, and as always, the Dubstock Podcast is always brought to you by Mancini Sleep World. The year-end clearance is on now at Mancini Sleep World. Shop sleepworld.com. That is sleepworld.com again. Beauty Queen mattresses starting at only $299, Monty.

Queen?

Pretty cheap queen, baby. Beauty rest too. Casper mattresses starting at $495, Plus you get, can get 0% financing, including on Tempur-Pedic, starting at only $29 a month. All right, let's get down to the get down. We got Jimmy Butler, who you and Rosmathai sat down with, but let's get our quick thoughts here on this road trip. And it was the road trip that has made Pat Spencer into something here in the Bay Area. Pat Spencer, what a performance for him over his last 4 games, averaging over 16 points a game. Shooting over 50 from the 3-point line. He's getting the team in the offense. He's playing 0.5 basketball. And all of a sudden, the vibe, which I believe started after halftime against Philadelphia.

Mm-hmm.

I think that's where Steve Kerr finally realized saying, you know what, I found something here. I found something with Pat Spencer. I found a little something with Guy Santos. I found a way how to utilize Quinton Post, who's playing better basketball. All of a sudden, the Warriors come home with a 13-12 record. And remember, Stephen Curry, Did not even travel with the squad on this East Coast swing. So good news for the Golden State Warriors, and the vibes are a lot better heading back home.

Yeah, it's one of those road trips where you learn a little something about your team and the coaching staff. And Steve admitted basically after the Cleveland game that, you know, the coach, as he said, the coach realized that Pat is that MF, you know. And the thing is, is that we watched Pat kind of bring the team back against OKC. Now, did we ever think they were gonna win? We thought they had a chance. And they did. They had a chance to take that game, a home game. And OKC was, you know, they got, they were, as they say in boxing, you know, they were staggering, you know.

Staggered, no doubt.

But, and then Steve brings Pods in, about a little less than 4 minutes left.

Yep.

And he takes out Pat for Pods. And Pods, next 2 possessions, Pods misses a 3. And next one he commits a turnover, and next thing you know, Thunder's back up by 11. So, but against Philadelphia, he let Pat finish the game.

No doubt.

12 minutes in the fourth quarter.

All 12 minutes in the fourth.

And Pat rewarded him with some damn good basketball.

And it continued in Cleveland, Monty.

Yeah, yeah.

15 of his 19 points in Cleveland came in the second half.

Yeah.

12 of those 19 came in the fourth quarter.

Yeah.

And he threw up the money sign, hit some big threes. But it's just, you know, the first 2 games on this road trip, they score a combined 22 points in the first quarter.

Mm-hmm.

12 in Philadelphia, or excuse me, 10 in Philadelphia, 12 in Cleveland.

Mm-hmm.

Tonight they get Chicago. They dropped 38.

Yeah.

And Pat Spencer started back-to-back games, but tonight more so, they matched the pace of Chicago. —And a minute 57 seconds into the game, they had already scored 11.

Yeah.

Quentin Post is getting wide open threes. Pat Spencer's getting 2 feet in the paint.

Yeah.

So when Steph does come back, we know who the backup point guard is right now.

We have to.

We have— it's got to be Pat Spencer.

Yeah. Who else?

Yeah, it's got to be. It's got to be Pat Spencer. Then you welcome in De'Anthony Melton. His first 2 games of the season coming back from a torn ACL. What is he going to look like? Well, he's picked up right where he left off from back on November 11th when they beat the Dallas Mavericks at Chase Center. He only played 6 games last season, but he's picked up where he left off and he's hitting the 3. He's defending his defense on Tyrese Maxey on the final possession. He forced Maxey into a tough shot.

Yeah.

You just tip your cap to VJ Edgecomb for making a heads up play and utilizing his athleticism. But Melton's back and now Steve Kerr starting to form a rotation here, Monte, where we see 10 players play in the first quarter. And 10 players played in the first quarter and not one of them was Jonathan Kaminga. Okay.

We'll get there. Yeah. Yeah. Before we get to JK.

Let's talk about Belfort.

Let's look at what's happened on this road trip. And I say that because, you know, Pat Spencer's gotten a lot of the love.

Yep.

Deservedly so, man. He's balling. I think Pat Spencer, one, is something that this team gives this team something it needs. He got that bulldog mentality, man. He brings it to you. And you know, he might be a little bit, a little bit pompous. He believes in himself. Yeah. He's arrogant. And so far, and so far he's backing him up, backing it up, okay? I think too that the way Pat Spencer is playing right now has been good for Brandon Podziński to see. To watch because Brandon's problem has been he gets— he doesn't get the team in its offense as well as he should.

Yep.

Pat does.

Yep.

Pat does. And Steve said after the game in Philadelphia— no, after the game in Cleveland— that even if we don't get a good shot, I feel good about every possession when Pat's out there, you know. And that's what you want because he's not dribbling in the traffic and then going, oh my God, what am I going to do now? He's not doing that. And that's what Brandon was doing too much of. And the third thing about Pat is that he has no fear. Whether it's the first quarter or whether it's 30 seconds left in the game. He will take the shot. He will do what he has to do. The only thing that you don't like about, that I didn't like about Pat during this road trip was, yeah, those two inbound passes were kind of shaky. That first one was really shaky. The second one was kind of shaky.

Getting to Philadelphia. Yeah. Buddy Hill and D'Anthony Melton. Yeah, it's like a receiver and a tight end or receiver and another receiver running a route into the same spot. Yeah, Buddy and Melton end up in the same spot. I think it was intended for Buddy there. Yeah. And just two guys run into each other. You bring in two defenders, they get an easy steal. So I saw the vision there. Yeah. Tonight against Chicago, four turnovers didn't kill the Warriors. Yeah, but he's been efficient. Yeah. Again, he's playing 0.5 basketball. Yeah. Everybody's touching it. And and the ball's not sticking. To your point, Potts comes off the bench, he dropped 21, 8, and 7. By far Potts' best game in the last few weeks.

Yeah.

So he was able to play off the ball because we saw Spencer and Pat and Pudzinski on the floor at the same time.

Yeah.

So to see them on the floor at the same time where Pat's handling the ball, he'll give it off to Pudzinski. Pudzinski, hey, make a move here.

Yes.

He was much more decisive. Also, you can't forget about Jimmy Butler making a return.

Yeah.

After missing 2 games with the left knee soreness, but allowing Paz to play off that basketball, I think helped big time. Yeah. Pudzinski's, and Pudzinski understands now, Pat's coming for minutes.

Yeah.

So you better bring your game every single night or Steve Kerr will make the determination that you will not play much.

Yeah, I think Brandon also realizes now that he doesn't have to do the things he thought he had to do. Even though he didn't really have to do them ever. You know, you're, know your role, know your role. You don't have to put together the team, carry the team. That's not your job. You have players around you that can do that. Now, you mentioned Melton earlier. The thing about DeAnthony is that he, you don't see him make the ugly mistake.

Yep.

You know, like, whoa, what the heck? You know, you don't see that from him. And he gives you something on defense. We have talked how many times this season about the Warriors' point of attack defense?

Ad nauseam.

Yeah, so, so now you have a guy who coming off ACL looks pretty dang good right now. You're managing his minutes. He's not playing back-to-backs, but he's a guy who can give you that when he's out there. He can play really good defense against the best players in this league, because Tyrese Maxey is not a joke.

No, no.

I mean, he's as quick as they come.

Yep.

And he can pull up and hit the 3. So if you can stick with Maxey in a crunch time moment, that tells you something about what Melton can do. So yeah, how long will it be? I think it'll be a matter of time before he's in the starting lineup.

I'm with you because they've had what, 12, 13 different starting lineups. Yeah, yeah. —far this season.

Yeah.

And that's been the case in what, 8 straight games? 7 straight games, excuse me, different lineups. So at some point, Steve Kerr, I know he wants to, this coaching staff wants to, and these players want to know their roles. Let's get a natural rotation. Yeah. But this is what Steve does. Game-by-game basis, he may say, QP, you're going to come off the bench. We're going to go small with Draymond Green at the 5.

Yep.

Hey, QP, you're going to start. Draymond Green slides to the 4, Jimmy at the 3. Maybe it's Melton at the 2. Hey, Will Richard, you're starting tonight. So the This is how Steve Kerr operates. That's why I don't get fixated. You know, a lot of people get fixated on who's starting and who's not. I always get fixated on who's playing 20+ minutes on this roster. And who's finishing. And who's finishing. Because the first 5 under Steve Kerr, haven't we learned over the last decade that doesn't really matter with Steve Kerr?

Yeah, I mean, you look at Brandon Podziński off the bench tonight, played more minutes than anybody. He led the team in minutes.

We've seen that a few times this year with Brandon Podziński.

So if Brandon's going well, he deserves those minutes. If he's not going well, then pull his butt off the floor. You know, so, and tonight he was going well, 21, 8, and 7. Yep. You take that.

You take that all day long.

You take that. Led the team in scoring.

No doubt.

And he was efficient with it. So, but yeah, the Melton thing is going to be, got to be a permanent thing when he's fully healthy. Now, you mentioned Jimmy's return.

Yep.

And I think tonight's game was influenced a little bit by what happened last night. Yep. Because the way that one, the way they won that game last night after losing the game in Philadelphia to come back and win a game in Cleveland, which had been beating their butt for the last couple of years.

The last couple of years swept them.

Yes.

It swept them.

I mean, it wasn't even close. Yeah, they didn't just sweep them. They were blown out. They demolished them. And so, and I thought, okay, the Warriors got a chance because Jared Allen's out. So they don't have the Twin Towers. They got Mobley out there. And the Warriors found something because Pat was in their face. Pat was coming for them. And so, they win that game and they won it without Steph, without Draymond, without Jimmy, without Al. How can that not be inspirational? And so they come into Chicago at 1 AM or whatever the hell time it was. They flew from Cleveland last night. Yeah. And to get to Chicago, first of all, that plane flight had to be the shortest ever because they had so much fun on it.

Right.

And then you go out there and you play, it's a back-to-back, but you watch that first quarter, which team looked the freshest?

The Warriors.

They were—

38 points.

38 points. They made their first 3 or 4 shots. They made 9 of their first 12 shots.

Yep.

Quentin Post.

They had 3s, money.

Quentin Post out there shooting a 3, boom.

Yep.

Boom, boom.

Yep.

And it became contagious.

Yep.

And so, I think that the vibes from Saturday night carried into Sunday.

No doubt.

And they also knew that they had not one, but two days off. So let's give it all we got, guys. And so you saw that, I thought the energy, the Warriors looked like the team that had been off for a day. And they just kept bringing it, kept bringing it. When it got close, When the Bulls tried to make a run and they did make a nice little run.

17-1 run.

Yeah, they made a nice run there. And Jimmy was like, okay, timeout. We ain't having this tonight.

Think about that.

Yeah.

17-1 run by the Bulls. Yeah. And then the Warriors followed it up with a 22, 21-2 run of their own.

Yeah.

Jimmy made 2 threes during that run.

They were up 24, the Warriors were. And then the Bulls got back to within 8. And then Jimmy said, okay, Let me— give me a couple of minutes here. Jimmy played 5 minutes in the, in the fourth quarter. He was plus 16.

Yeah.

In 5 minutes. That's hard to do. It is hard to do. But he was plus 16. So yeah, Jimmy turned it around and then he took a seat.

They send the Bulls to their seventh straight loss. They started the season 5-0. Now they're struggling. They're 9-14.

Yeah.

That first quarter you mentioned, they made 8 threes in that first quarter. So most threes they made in a single quarter all season long. They made over 23, 22 made threes. Yep. They're 3-0 when they make 20 or more threes this season. But more importantly, defensively, their rating is starting to go up.

They've held—

they held every team on this road trip to under 100 points. Yeah. How about that? They go on the road. Yep. They've been food on the road when it comes to defense. We talked about their home road splits. They hold Cleveland under 100. They hold the Bulls to 91 and they held Philadelphia to under 100 points. And when you give yourself a chance to win like that, Or you play defense like that and you limit a team, you're going to be in a lot of basketball games to go ahead and win it. By the way, in that Cleveland game, they shot under 40% from the floor. It was the first time they won in that case in 37 games. They lost 36 consecutive games when they shot under 40%, but they do that against Cleveland. So look, the elephant in the room before we get to Jimmy Butler— Yeah. Is Jonathan Kuminga. As I mentioned, Steve Kerr went 10 deep in the first quarter and I noticed, whoa, Okay, there's Guy Santos, there's D'Anthony Melton, there is Brendan Pajimski. Oh wait, where's JK? And Jonathan Kamenga tonight got a DNP, CD, did not play, coach's decision. And well, let's hear from Steve Kerr. He was asked about Jonathan Kamenga. Here's what Steve Kerr had to say about JK not playing.

Kuminga out of the rotation tonight for the first time this year. It's not his first time in this position.

How do you hope he processes it?

I'm sorry?

How do you hope he processes not playing tonight, getting DNP'd?

Just got to keep going, just like everybody else who's in this position. And it happens to everybody, you know, pretty much other than the stars, you know. Guys come in and out of the rotation depending on, you know, who's available, how the team's playing. Really wanted to get Gee. I think the way the way Gee has played the last couple of nights, after what he did down the stretch last year, you see the impact he makes with his energy. And then obviously getting Meld back, you know, we've got— and Pat's emergence. I mean, we've got a lot of mouths to feed, and tonight this is what we decided to do.

Follow-up on that. Why was it tonight?

Why was it this game that you decided to Just because of the way our team looks and, and, you know, Jimmy came back tonight. JK started last night. They play the same position. I like the group in the last couple of nights, the bench group, Guy, Pat, Melt, and Philly. We got a lot of bodies. And so with Jimmy coming back tonight, it made sense to play the other guys because they complement him really well.

A lot of miles to feed. He likes the way Guy Santos is playing. Jimmy Butler is back. That Cleveland game, and this is where I'm at with J.K., Manny.

Uh-oh. Should we start a fire right now?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. We talk about opportunities and taking advantage of your opportunities. We're watching Pat Spencer take advantage of his opportunity.

Yes.

J.K. started that Cleveland game.

Yes.

Went 1 of 10. Now he did grab 7 rebounds. That was a highlight. He got on the glass, but the 1 of 10 was an ugly, ugly 1 of 10. And offensively, we discussed this ad nauseam in the newsroom at the Gatehouse at Chase Center. When he's dribbling the ball on the perimeter.

Yeah.

His handle's not tight.

No.

His, his handles are not tight. And he gets himself into trouble where he doesn't play point-five basketball. The ball sticks in his hands and he doesn't blow by anybody off his dribble. He doesn't dribble, drive, penetrate, doesn't create for others right now. And so I don't know what's happened. Ever since the bilateral knee tendonitis, he fell out of the starting lineup, but he is not here right now.

Yeah.

And I don't blame Steve Kerr for not playing him. I do not. You have to win games right now, Monty. You're in the Western Conference. You fell under .500. You're now 13-12. You're 25 games in now and Melton's back. Seth is here. Steph is on the way back. Draymond just got some rest. It is what it is at this point. And so we watch Gui Santos. Wow. Two straight games. Wow. He's playing the way he's cutting to the basket. He's getting down on the floor. He's rebounding. He's screening. Moses Moody playing 0.5 basketball. Will Richard. Wow. Look at this rookie. I don't even look at plus minus, but damn, he was a +36 tonight against Chicago in 24 minutes. An efficient 4 of 6. Dante Kaminga got a DMP. And as much time we spent on him. It's easy to see why he got that DNP. And I mean, it's inevitable. Divorce is going to happen at some point. I think the question is, what type of value can you get for him? And look, he'll get another opportunity to play, but I don't know if that's coming soon. You got Minnesota, you got Portland, you got Phoenix. I— Monte, ah, it is what it is.

You done?

I can keep going. I can keep going. I can keep going.

That leave any meat on the bones right there? Okay, nothing you said is out of pocket, okay? Right. And you know, you mentioned how he's not beating anybody off the dribble, 'cause his handle won't let him. He doesn't even trust his handle now. He knows, he knows that his handle's not there. I mean, I'm looking at that Philadelphia game, and he had Andre Drummond JK's in the corner and Drummond is defending him. Yeah. He pulled up and took a 3. He just took a 3. I'm thinking, if you can't run past Andre Drummond and get your dunk, what are you doing? And so that's a poor decision. But was it because he didn't trust his dribble to get to the hoop?

Mm-hmm.

Because you got to— I mean, Andre Drummond is one of the slowest guys in the league. 6'11", great rebounder, but he ain't going to stop anybody on defense. And J.K. basically just said, no, I'll just take this 3 because he's playing a little bit off me. J.K., as the best athlete on the team, should be better than that.

Yep.

And he should be able to get around this guy and get his dunk. Didn't do it. And so that's another thing that if you're a coach or a veteran, you're like, if you can't get around Andre Drummond, who you gonna get around?

Yeah.

In this whole league. And so, They're looking at him going, all the things that we think he should do because of his athleticism, if he's not going to do them, how is he going to help us? He's supposed to be the guy, the athlete on this team, and he can't get past Andre Drummond on the perimeter.

Lonnie, I mean, the first 5, 6 games, he looked like he turned the corner.

Yeah, yeah, it did look—

And then they got blown out in Oklahoma City, November 11th. Got blown out in Oklahoma City, and Steve Kerr mentioned the next game, hey, we're gonna have drastic changes to the lineup. They had that back-to-back in Oklahoma City and San Antonio, and J.K. was out of the starting lineup. And he looked sluggish, looked tentative in that first half. Now, then he misses 7 straight games with bilateral knee tendonitis. Whoever the guy was from the first 5, 6 games, he's long gone.

We haven't seen him.

He's long gone.

Dude, since he's been back, he's shooting 25% from the field. There you go. It's only 3 games. I think it's small sample size. It's a small sample size. But it's 25%.

But look at the visual.

Yeah. It's not just the statistics.

What does your eye see?

Yeah. It's, he's not giving you what you need to get from Jonathan Kuminga.

Nope.

I mean, and we were promised basically by his turner, by his agent, Aaron Turner, you know, when he got the contract, okay, you're gonna watch Jonathan Kuminga ball out. He had a good start playing the best basketball of his career. I thought he was seeing the floor. He was the— And right now he looks tentative. You know, again, he's not on the injury report.

Nope.

So it wasn't like, well, he was sore.

No, she just said, I got mouths to feed.

The only other player, the only other player who was on, who didn't play was Seth Curry, who was on the injury report, who we know is dealing with a sore toe.

Right.

So I think Seth might have played, but Steve saw the team take off early and thought, why push him out there if we don't need him? Yep. But he never looked at J.K. because the team was rolling the bulls from the start. So we have today as we speak, it is the 7th. When this podcast goes out, it'll be the 8th.

Yep.

We have roughly 40 days before you can trade Jonathan Kuminga. And I keep going back to this thing. Keep in mind that even at the beginning of the season, they both knew what was up.

Yep.

J.K. knew the Warriors wanted to move him. Yep. The Warriors knew J.K. was ready to move. And so that doesn't go away. It stays in the back of your head even when you're playing well. But the problem now is that to get something of value, J.K. has to at least look good. And right now, he's— who wants him?

Well, you know what it is? Who wants him? I think there— I always had this philosophy, there's always a sucker in the NBA. And there's gonna be an organization out there.

All you need is one.

All you need is one. —and there would be somebody that says, you know what, we can get the best out of J.K. He's 23 years old, team-friendly deal. He's not breaking the bank. We got a team option. Let's bite the bullet. Because what you don't want to do, or if you're the Warriors, what you don't want to happen, and whether you get a star player back, a average player back, if you get size, whatever it is that you get back for that salary slot. What you don't want him to do, and I think he's been good about this, I really do. I don't, I think people have a bad read on him in the perception in terms of, oh, he's got an attitude, he's sulking. I don't think he's done that at all in this locker room whatsoever. No, no, no. He's been a very good teammate. But the more he doesn't play, the more he doesn't play, all of a sudden the camera's panned to him. What's his body language look like? Where's he at? Is he sitting at the end of the bench? What's happening here? Is he all bought in? Whatever the case may be. What you don't want it to do is turn rotten. But as long as they win, right, the vibes will be good. And, and J.K.'s a good kid. I want to get that out there. He's a really good kid. He's been a really good teammate. But January 15th, I think they're all circling that date. Yeah. The Warriors. Yeah. John Kaminga. Yeah. His agent, Aaron Turner. His camp. Yeah. Saying, what can we do? Because this marriage obviously isn't working.

Yeah. And even I will give J.K. some credit. I don't know if you know, but tonight Even in this game, as they were winning this game against Chicago, when there were timeouts and the Warriors were rolling, J.K. was off the bench dapping up his teammates and stuff. Yeah, yeah. So he wasn't sitting off in the corner like some guy that like, I don't wanna be here.

Right.

He wasn't doing that. But we've seen a little bit of this before. And I'm gonna go back a couple, I guess it's 4 years now, 5 years, when the Warriors brought in Kelly Oubre. And it was pretty clear early on that he wasn't a good fit. They tried it and tried it and tried it, and they, you know, they were— he'd be in the rotation, then he'd be out of the rotation. It never really worked out, so he was only here a year.

Mm-hmm.

Now, J.K., um, he's never really been a fit. They were hoping at some point they could bridge the gap between how they play and how he plays and maybe somewhere meet in the middle.

Mm-hmm.

But In the early part of this season, you thought maybe because he was seeing the floor, he was making smart passes. You know, it's like, okay, he's starting to do things he didn't do a couple of years ago. And now he doesn't look like he's fully engaged and his decision-making is still bad and his handle has not gotten better. No. So when we see those videos of him working out in the offseason, you have to consider who he's working out against.

Right. Yeah. I don't think if I— hopefully nobody took those highlight videos in the summer. Who is like, I never take— I don't take those seriously anyway. But even in the Philadelphia game where he did get in trouble dribbling, you mentioned Andre Drummond play. There were times in that game when he cut, he got rewarded.

Yeah.

And he got a bucket.

Yeah.

Like the coaching, coaching staff has to implement this. And I don't know if it's— he's just going rogue and saying, I'm just going to play on the perimeter and dribble. But playing in that dunker spot, cutting and slashing to the basket. That's when he's at his best. That was, that's what we saw in the Minnesota series.

Yeah.

Cutting, playing in the dunker, slashing to the basket. I don't know where this Kaminga came from. Maybe I've been blind to it where he gets on the perimeter and this dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble. Guys are cutting. He doesn't know when to pass or what. And so now he's lost the feel. That's the biggest thing.

The feel of the game. Yeah.

That's not there right now.

Yeah.

Maybe it's never been there.

The thing about cutting, I mean, the Warriors have a few guys in this roster that know how and when to cut, can read the floor, read the defense. Gary Payton II is good at that.

Yep.

You know, I mean, he's 6'2" and how many times do you see him behind the defense finding a way to get to the cup?

Yep.

He understands the timing of it all. That's the most important part of this, of cutting, is the timing of it all. You've gotta cut at the right time. If you cut a second early or a second late, it won't work. It's gotta be the right time. You gotta see it and feel it, and J.K. doesn't have that feel. That's one thing that he came into the league, didn't have the feel for the game, and he's gotten a little better, but it's still not where you want it to be for him to maximize what he does best, which will be cutting to the rim and slashing. And so, uh, these next 40 or so days gonna be very interesting.

Very interesting.

You know, and if you're the Warriors, you want him to be good because that inflates his value. And if he's not good, you're like, what are we going to get for him? You know? So it's going to be— I do believe he will get more opportunities. Yeah. I don't think it's shut down. He's either—

No, no, no.

But opportunities because they need him to be— they need to show him off.

I don't know when that's going to happen. Well, he was good in the playoffs against Minnesota, so maybe when they play Minnesota. Yeah, but they— he played only because Steph Curry was hurt. Let's be real. He only played because Steph got hurt. They needed some offense. Let's not forget about that. Now, he played really well in that series. Yeah. But now with Guy and D'Anthony and Pat Spencer, and now you're going to get Stephen Curry back. Who the hell knows who's going to play?

I wouldn't be surprised.

He's going to play against Minnesota Friday?

I wouldn't be surprised if he played, if he got an opportunity to play against the Timberwolves on Friday at Chase. I wouldn't be surprised. I just don't think he'll start.

No, it's not— starting's done.

And I think the leash will be short.

Starting's done. But no, seriously.

I think the leash will be short, but I think he'll get a chance. I wouldn't be surprised if he gets a chance.

He brought in Guy Santos in the first quarter. Well, why would Steve change that formula?

Gee gives the team what it needs. He's all energy all the time. He got 7 rebounds.

Exactly.

You know, he only had 4 points.

So when is he gonna play, Monty?

No. You know what I'm saying? But—

He will play. I'm not—

John McCammon is better suited to play against the Timberwolves than Gee Santos. No doubt. That's what I'm saying. That's why I think there's a chance he could play.

We'll see. We'll see. But look, it's obvious Steve Kerr's gotta do what he's gotta do to try to win basketball games. That's what happens in the NBA. And you're in the Western Conference, you do not want to fall too far behind those top 6 teams. So you got to win and balance how you play some of these youngsters here. All right.

Right now they're behind the Phoenix Suns.

Yeah, exactly. You got Phoenix coming up in the, uh, twice in a week. So anyway, Jimmy Butler sat down with Roz Mathai and you. That was a lot of fun.

Yeah, it was.

Let the fans listen to it right now. Here's Jimmy Butler with Monte Poole and Roz Mathai.

Tomball, Texas.

Mm-hmm.

How does someone go from Tomball, Texas, not really recruited outta high school, junior college, undrafted, how do you turn that into what you've become? That's what I wanna know.

I was drafted.

I mean, not, not—

I was drafted.

Not, not undrafted, unrecruited.

Unrecruited, okay.

Yeah, unrecruited.

Underrecruited.

Yeah, yeah.

Underrecruited.

How do you turn that into what you've become?

A lot of hard work, a lot of discipline, and a lot of luck, honestly. I would say luck because I was put in some incredible positions. Luck because I ran across some great individuals and people that helped me throughout life, in life, in basketball, in school. But then just put my head down and through thick and thin, it was like, we gotta make it, we don't have any other choice. So that's how I go from Tomball, Texas to Tyler Junior College to Marquette to the Golden State Warriors number 10.

But that work ethic had to start somewhere. I mean, whether you learned it, whether you saw somebody else, an example, or what, where'd that come from?

I think it just came from how I grew up. I feel like nothing was ever easy. You always had to figure out a way to be good, to be great at something. Even, you know, when my dad taught me how to play dominoes when I was like 4 or 5 years old, it was just repetition after repetition after repetition until I figured it out. And I found out, how to win. And it was like that throughout high school, whether it was, you know, cards, math. And then it just carried on into basketball, now into the business world. It was always just about putting your head down, figuring out and getting it done.

Did you— what inspires you? Obviously, early on, childhood wasn't perfect.

Yeah.

Is there an anger there? Is there fear there? Is there an opportunity there? What makes you sharp?

It changes for me, you know. At one point in time, what I always say is there's only two things that I think in life that really make you move. And it's either hope or it's fear. You're either scared out of your mind that you don't wanna be something, that you don't wanna go back to a place, which is where I was. Now I'm not scared, I'm hopeful that I can create a better world for everybody. Especially for my kids, and I'm hopeful that they'll never have to worry about anything that I had to worry about. So at that point in time, it was fear. I was like, man, I do not want to go back to that. I'm gonna finish school. I'm gonna get my master's. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do that. Now I just have so much hope, so much optimism to be great for my kids.

Was there a person a book, an experience that you had that turned the corner in your life? Forget basketball. Yeah. In your life.

There was a lot. I, I can never just pick one because then I would feel bad for leaving so many people out, so many experiences out. Like, I never just pick one. There were so many people that helped me along the way, so many books that have— so many people that has just taught me or talked to me in certain times that I'll never just pick one because I was so fortunate to have so many incredible human beings and so many experiences that like guide me. On the way to where I am today.

Is dominoes what got you to enjoy winning? Is that where your first competitive nature thing came in, or was it something else?

Yes, but dominoes was the first thing that got me to enjoy time and realize that time is so important. Time is so expensive. You never can get it back. So when I was playing dominoes, when I'm still playing dominoes to this day, It is to win, but it's also to enjoy the people that you're around, the good times, um, and then it just brings back the memory of when me and my dad used to play, you know, that's how I hold on to my dad's spirit because we were the best team, um, he was the best until his son came and surpassed him, so that's what dominoes is for me.

Are you passing it down?

Yeah, me and my daughter actually beat, and my daughter's 6, so her attention span is getting there. We actually beat my agent and my assistant the last time that we played. Yeah, she's good. She's good when she wants to be. Then she wants to go play with her dolls and bake and do all of that stuff. But when I can get her to lock in for like 20 minutes, we're hell to be reckoned with.

We've seen a lot of guys come through, star athletes, straight up athletes, big time CEOs. Bonnie and I have been in this market for more than 30 years. You're one of the handful of guys that I've seen that's come in immediately and has resonated with this fan base here. What is it about you? What is it about the Bay Area that's just jiving?

Besides the fact that everybody works so hard and are so humble around here, I think is they just want to win. This organization, the fan base, and myself. Um, we, we all just want to win. We don't care how we get there. We don't care what it takes. We just want to win. And I'm always for that. I've always been for that. And I'll do whatever it takes if we can just win.

What makes the Bay Area different than other spots, Miami or Chicago or other spots you've been in?

Because they've—

Away from basketball, the cultural part.

Everybody's like here, like in the present time. You know, you're in Miami, everybody's down there for vacation and then they leave and then they come back, da da da da. But like everybody here in the games cheering, on the streets getting the coffee, walking their dogs, talking to everybody. Everybody's here, they're like living in the moment and they won't let that moment pass them, which is a good thing. So when I get to like walk around, when I go to these malls, when I'm hitting up Allo's, like I get to see people and I get to talk and they're here, they're in the moment. Oh my God, like, how are you? Da da da da da. Love that. I get to go to a coffee shop, sit down and have coffee and we're talking about whatever we're talking about. That's in the moment. That's being here. That's what it is about the Bay Area. Everybody's here.

What was the, kernal of thought that led to Big Face Coffee?

I mean, the story's out, it was just a jive and a hustle at first, right? But then I started to think this coffee thing could be a way that everybody could come together. You can find out what you have in common with somebody instead of all of this unnecessary hate in the world, and you're talking about what you don't have in common. Like if you sit down and you talk, I don't know how many kids we have, we probably got the same, kids are in the same age group, they like the same colors, you watch football, soccer, whatever it is, you'll find out that you actually have more in common with people than not, majority of the time. So then that's when the whole coffee thing took over, created a brand, and now when I go around the world, I have my brand with me, but I stop in and support everybody else as well because I get to meet people.

Mm-hmm. You gonna have a big face?

Here?

Brick and mortar here or something? Oh, of course. Yeah.

Hopefully by February, March, we're in looks. I know for a fact by the end of January, we will have something here, but actual like long-term, long-term, give me to like March, February, March, April, and we'll be in the mix.

So you're already thinking long-term about that, but you're also, I mean, you've got Alo you're working with. You're now part owner of the San Diego Wave soccer team. I want to know how important it— why was it important for you to get in even on the ground floor?

Yeah.

At the ownership level.

Um, because I love what I care about and I care about what I love. And, you know, football, soccer easily is my favorite sport. I wish I was better at it. I'll tell you right now. Um, do I wish I was a little bit shorter, maybe, so I could be a pro. I could be like Neymar. Alo as a brand, incredible brand, incredible people that work for that brand, the ownership, CEO, everything about Alo is me, myself. So I have some incredible brands and people that I get to work with. So I'm just, I'm all in. Like I always say, I'm just fortunate. Like I said at the beginning, to run across these incredible, you know, people, CEOs. Alo, the way that he inspires me to be great and the way they inspired me to go out and give your all every single day, like watching him do that at the business level, I think it's, you know, kind of apples to oranges when you're talking basketball. Him being the apples, I'm being the oranges. Like, he's doing it on a completely different scale, but I get to take bits and pieces from everybody and apply it to my everyday life is important.

I remember sitting many years ago with Andre Iguodala when he came here, he said, you know what, I'm learning a lot about basketball and about business in my post-NBA life. Is that where you are in your career now?

Yeah, I mean, I've been there, you know. I played with Dre in Miami as well, so he's been preaching and telling me about that. But I've, I've been into that since I don't know how long, just because I was never supposed to be the player that y'all see me today. So I always had to try to think, uh, this basketball thing don't work out, what am I gonna do? Right? So, you know, now all these opportunities just present themselves because of the player that I am and because of passion that I have for so many different things. I'm able to own a piece of a football club. I'm able to own a coffee brand. I'm able to be the face of so many different brands. But the only reason it started was because I wasn't supposed to be nearly as good at basketball as I am today.

Is there a misconception about you, uh, from other places you played? Because I've seen only one thing here, and it's pretty bright.

Yeah.

And hardworking. What— is there something that we missed?

I wouldn't say that there's, there's something that we missed, but I will say that I'm always about winning, at winning at all costs. So when it doesn't stay about winning, and it can become about many different things. If it ain't about winning, I'm telling y'all right now, I'm, I'm not here for it. Like, it's got to be about winning. Everything we do is going to be about winning. If it's about winning, it's about winning it, the championship, I'm all for it. If it's not, and there any other agendas, y'all won't like it because I don't care. I just— I'm literally just here to win. Yeah. That's it. I don't care about anything else.

You said something the other night. You said this team has the chance to do something special, but it has to be done the right way. What gives you that confidence that that can happen?

What we just got through doing. The practice, the work that everybody's putting in afterwards and how they care about doing right. You know what I'm saying? Now, it doesn't always go our way and we make mistakes. That's just the game. That's just human nature. Nobody's perfect. But the intent is what really matters. If you're trying to do right, you're trying everything that you have to win, it's gonna work out more days than not. And I see that amongst our group. You know, I see that in the coaches. Like, they work relentlessly at trying to figure it out, and then we gotta go out there and we gotta actually do it. But they're putting us in all the correct you know, situations. But I can see it in guys' eyes whenever they're talking the game, they're watching the film, and they're working on their game. I want to do this for the next guy, not just for myself. I want to be great. I want to win for the next guy. That's how I know that we can do something special.

You talk about the next guy here. It seems like you're trying to help Jonathan Kaminga a lot. Were you in his spot at one point in your career?

Oh my God. Ah, no, no, let me not lie. No, he was way better than I was at the age that he is. The side, the ceiling. It's all of that. Now what I will say is I've been in his position, as in like starting, not starting, just got a deal, yada yada yada. Um, but he, he wants to be great, so he's asking all the right questions. He's, he's saying what he sees. Yo, I need to learn how to do this. And then that's all you can ask from anybody. Nobody has all the answers. I don't. Steph might actually— Steph might actually have all the answers.

Yeah, he does.

He might. So besides Steph, nobody else has all the answers. And he's coming in, he's asking all these questions because once again, he wants to do right. Whatever you're asking him to do, you want him to play the 5? You think JK wants to play the damn 5? No. But he's gonna ask like, how can I play the 5, be effective, win my minutes, and help us win? That's who JK is, and it's my job to help as often as I can.

When you look around the NBA now, how is it different from when you first came into this league? Oh. 'Cause it seems like it's—

Yeah, I mean, when I first came into the league, rookies didn't play. We played with two bigs. As a guard, don't you dare go down there and try to steal one of the bigs' rebounds. I remember Bulls used to tell me all the time, don't you come down here. I will elbow you. Do not come down here and try to take one of my rebounds. Like, this is my job. This is what I get paid to do. The pace is so much faster. Guys are shooting the ball. The talent, the like, It's, um, it's vastly different. Now, I give credit to those guys back then too. Some super talented guys that could do a lot of things well. But the way that this game is going now, just up and down, so many threes, so many guys crashing the board. Um, it was, it was great to be able to play in like the early 2000s and like the mid-2020s.

Woo!

15 years. That's what it looks like.

You have a reputation as a fitness freak. I mean, is that going back to, again, childhood, just, you know, working at it and working at it and working at it, or how's that?

I've just always been an active, snotty-nosed, bad little kid that I was always just ripping and running. Um, so like, it just always looked like I was in shape, you know. I was— if I wasn't playing basketball, I was playing football or just running around, foot racing in the country barefoot. Yeah, we used to do that back in the day. Um, and now it's the same. I just— I watch what I eat a lot of the times. I watch what I drink. I do drink my wine. I haven't as much. Love coffee, probably a little bit too much. But, um, I'm dialed in on, you know, a different level than I was whenever my body could handle it at 21 years of age, you know, at 36. Tell me about it. Tell me about it. A lot of things are different in a good way. In a good way.

This has got to be the perfect market for you. A, in your basketball career, your business career, and now your wine journey.

Mm-hmm. And coffee. Coffee is legit here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Have you talked to winemakers here? Are you getting relationships yet or is that still to come?

Well, we're going to get to it. Right now we're 11 and 10. So let's get to like 30 and 10 and then we can, you know, go take a trip to snapper or something like that. But yeah, I've been in contact with a couple of different people on a couple different scales, being coffee, being wine. But like I always say, I do want to keep the main thing the main thing. And as much as I love coffee and wine, I really love basketball too.

You said something the other night. You pointed to where the game plan and the scout is, and it was covered, but we all knew what was there. And you said, it's all up there what we have to do to win games. It's up to us to do it. Don't even worry about Steve McNair. Yeah, yeah. It's him. Why did you go there?

Because it's the truth. The truth just sounds crazy sometimes. And people like to, you know, cover up the word truth with liar, too harsh. Yeah, all these other synonyms that they have for the word. It's truth. Like we go through these things every single day in shootarounds and walkthroughs. We write it up there on the board. And then sometimes for some reason we just go out there and we just start doing stuff. Like, I don't know what it is. I can't tell you. I'm a corporate over too, a corporate. Like, I'll just go out there and just be like, you know what, let me try something. I know it don't say it up here on this board. They didn't tell us to do this, but we just be trying stuff. So why not? And then you go back to it and you're like, wow, if we just would've did what was up there on that board, we probably would've won this game. So. Yeah. That's what that was. And I say, because Steve is a leader as well, and when you're a leader, um, you take the bad and you give away the good. It's my fault we lost. It's our fault. I mean, it's our fault that we won. We, we are the reason that we, we win, but I am the reason that we lost. And, you know, all great leaders would probably say that. And I was like, nah, he can't take this one. This one's definitely on us. You know, he takes enough. But, uh, we got to go out there and we got to produce. We gotta do what we're supposed to do.

Seeing you operate on the floor and off the floor, you're a very thoughtful guy. How do you describe yourself? If there's 3 words, how do you describe yourself?

Um, I am a competitor. Fierce. But we'll say fierce competitor, so therefore it's one word. Um, I'm very caring. Like, I do care a lot. You can't always see it because I was taught not to let them see everything, but very, very, very caring. And then, um, I don't know, I think my other word is just dad. Like, I'm like a dad to a lot of these younger players that we have. But then I also got kids, so, you know, I try to do as many things with grace and patience as I can, realizing I do have young kids, and these guys are young in the league. Like, I can only imagine what I would be trying to get my 21, 22, 23-year-old self to do. It's all coming so fast. I've got, like, the world in the palm of my hands. I can reach anybody. I feel like I'm invincible. Like, everybody thinks they're Superman at the age of 23, 24 in the NBA, making X amount of dollars, having X amount of followers, on a plane, da da da da da. Like, grace, patience. Everybody comes around to it.

The last thing I wanted to ask you is, in addition to the banners that are hanging in that arena, what are the things that caught your attention early with this franchise that tell you this place is about winning?

Yeah. That they would do anything and everything for you to just make sure that you can compete at a high level, whatever it is, you know. When you're— when your kids are here, your kids are going to be well, um, taken care of. Like, to make sure— like, my daughter got every allergy known to humankind, probably. And just to make sure that when she's around, all of her allergy needs are like taken care of. Goes a long way for me, goes a long way for anybody. They're always asking, yo, how are your kids? How's your wife? How's your significant other? Yada, yada, yada. Family's good? Like, how's back home? You know, making sure like we got dominoes on the road, Uno cards. Like, it's crazy. But they make sure that you have everything that you need to have the most incredible people throughout this organization. And it's just always a, a good place to come into work. You want to be here. You're smiling. You're having fun. And then whenever you leave, you're like, man, it's a good day today at work. Can't wait to go back tomorrow. That's when I knew. I was like, yo, this place is legit special.

Of course, KNTV's Raj Mathai. I call him the president. He's been in this market for so long. News, sports. Nobody has a strut like Raj. You guys did an excellent job bringing out the best of Jimmy Butler. So that was a fun day. Fun, fun listen.

It was. Jimmy knows how to play the game. He knows how to deal with media. He's always engaging. You know, you see he flashes enough charm to let you know that he has it. He flashes how much his intellect, and he's good about, you know, telling his story, you know, because that was the thing so intriguing about him to me is because this is a dude who, you know, in high school he was a late bloomer.

Yep.

You know, and then he had to go to a junior college, which Very few NBA players go that route.

Oh yeah.

But he did. And so, and now he's on with the Warriors. He's gone through a few teams, burned some bridges, but he's in the Bay now and he loves it. He's just waiting for the winning. He's waiting for the winnings to start happening because it did when he came last year in the trade. This year it's been a bumpy ride and I think if they start winning he'll be fine, but if this thing is gonna be a 500 kind of thing all season, man, Jimmy's going to like, come on, people.

He's going to speak his mind.

This is not why I'm here.

He's going to speak his mind. No doubt about that, man. But that was a lot of fun. Hopefully everybody enjoyed this edition of the Doves Talk podcast. Again, Jimmy Butler on with KNTV, NBC Bay Area's Ross Mathayne, our very own Monte Poole. That was a fun, fun interview right there. But don't forget, Doves Talk podcast always brought to you by Man City Sleep World. The year-end clearance sale is on now at Man City Sleep World. Shop sleepworld.com. That is sleeprow.com. The year-end clearance sale happening right now with some of the biggest savings of the season, including Beautyrest queen mattresses starting at only $299. Go get yourself a new mattress and a new pillow and get a, you know, recliner, a little La-Z-Boy. You can do it all at Mancini's Sleep Row. That is it for us. We're gonna take some time off too, right?

Yeah, we'll take a couple days off.

Couple days off and then we're back at it. Then we're back at it. We're actually going to catch up with the Anthony Melton.

That's right.

That'll be a lot of fun. Coming soon. Stay tuned for that. Coming soon, folks. Have a good night, everybody.