We hadn’t even gotten to the first timeout (at 6m27 of q1) yet, and sure enough, someone in our Watch Party (game notes here in the Description/Comments) commented that it was time to deploy a new starting lineup.
You know what? The refractory period for emotions is probably the toughest thing to master as a modern human being.
Now, I think one Wardell Stephen Curry was lucky enough to have it programmed into his brain at an early age. I can just imagine his dad, former Hornet and Raptor Dell Curry, on the drives back home in Charlotte or Toronto, after Steph just spent practice playing around with Larry Johnson and Muggsy Bogues or, say, having a shooting contest against Vince Carter — reminding young Steph of how lucky he was and therefore instilling the responsibility of always playing this game that he loves with joy.
It’s anyone’s guess, but I think that’s why Steph is the way he is, why it seems like gratitude is a part of his DNA. You can see a hint of this foundational appreciation when he recently told kid reporter Jazzy that his all-time five consists of his dad, his brother Seth Curry, the aforementioned “Grandmama” LJ, and Reggie Miller and Steve Nash:
But for the rest of us, it’s about shortening that refractory period, that window when we let our emotions run wild in response to the environment. That harkens back to the cave man, who had to have a short refractory period as they first learned how to survive on this planet. If there’s a saber-toothed tiger lurking around the corner, the cave man had better damn well react to that as quickly as possible.
There’s no time to contemplate the reasons his brain is telling him to run and hide, you just gotta do it, otherwise you might die a grisly death. And so those fight-or-flight instincts are ingrained into our genetic makeup, through thousands of years of evolution.
And, of course, NBA basketball is still our modern day form of Roman gladiators, so there’s a resounding competitive aspect to our enjoyment of the game and I don’t blame our commenter, let’s call him “Mentality” because that’s what his handle seemed to spell out, for feeling the way he felt.
But I did challenge him back, in the moment. “You’re hitting the panic button, already?” I said. I met force with force, which isn’t always the best solution.
I continued with one more harsh bit of parenting: “We win a game by 30, then go down in the first quarter by 9, which is nothing in the NBA, like three possessions, and you’re giving up on the starters? After all, that’s what our deep bench is for, to obliterate opposing 2nd and 3rd units, be a backstop to the starters when needed.”
And so in the path of evolution of “fandom”, the way things have trended here at LetsGoWarriors, if I don’t have the time — if I physically cannot have a heart-to-heart, like, if there’s a teaching moment for, say, Draymond Green on the court, he’s gonna yell at a teammate, instead of what he might do at practice. On a closed, less urgent platform, Green is probably gonna approach a guy, take a few minutes with his arm around him, and explain the hoop lesson right when the opportunity presents itself.
So, sometimes I meet force with force and try to turn the tables. I’m learning how to be better at this, but in the moment, usually I present the alternative to reacting negatively to your environment by reacting positively. Like, flip the silver lining into a silver forefront and make negativity the lining. Like Steph often says, “Flip it on its head.” In that way, people often think I’m too “kumbaya”. But there’s actually layers to it. It’s not a brainwashing. It’s just evolution into a more complex organism, quite frankly.
Alas, the evolution of man is incomplete without the logical part to balance out the emotional part. No matter how much positive energy there might be in the room, negative vibes will always be present if there isn’t some mathematics that can be solved, something that helps you connect the dots and gives you a final resolution, a future intent, an actionable item, or an introduction to a new approach to wire your neurons into, perhaps.
Because your brain is risk-averse and wants you to scowl at everything just in case it’s a threat, you need that reasoned reassurance that any happy feelings that are introduced are justified. And by “threat”, I mean the average fan wants to protect what he knows: wins and losses and championships are directly related to happiness (at least, temporary happiness, but I suspect I’ll touch on this many times in the future). So anything that diverts from “championship caliber”, they’re going to sow doubt, complain, criticize, judge.
I think there’s a better way to be a so-called fan of the team. Or maybe I’ll leave alone the term “fan”, derived from “fanatic”. Maybe what we’re talking about here is “insider”. I think fans can become insiders if I’m giving them inside information all the time. But of course, the word insider implies you have “sources”. I know people in the Warriors organization, but my business does not traffic in source-based stuff. I wouldn’t want Shams Charania’s job; he’s like the genie in Aladdin. And I respect him for it. He actually loved the fact that I caught him on our livestream from Vegas dapping up LeBron James…
…So if I call myself an “insider”, it’s going to be a hard-sell to a lot of people who readily equate that to “sources”. There must be a different word out there. Someone suggest a different label on the next livestream, please!
Anyways, for the average fan to have a more enriching experience rooting for their team, for him to embrace the LetsGoWarriors vibe, he needs to have facts — and usually that means the behind-the-scenes accounts, which is the essence of LGW — to process what’s happening in front of them and to understand how it relates to the shared goal of all (most*) of the NBA and the Warriors: making the playoffs and, ultimately, winning the championship.
[* – My co-host Dean Chambers and I wondered, why the heck do the Jazz not run any plays with Lauri Markkanen as the fulcrum? Is it an agreement between Will Hardy and Danny Ainge or maybe even owner Ryan Smith who was, reportedly by Monty Metoyer and his brother Jake Metoyer of The Monty Show, more interest in his new NHL hockey team — see the morning shootaround video, second question here that has a reference to the hockey team…
…) — that they will tank this season, with perhaps the side effect of the team playing better team ball in preparing for a real playoff run in 2025-26? I mean, if this Utah squad were tasked with saving the Earth by winning their next game, their strategy cannot be what we saw last night!]
As I could not sabotage my own play-by-play analysis of the Warriors-Jazz game happening in real-time, Dean and I tried to calm Mentality down a bit by recognizing that the starting lineup just hasn’t had time to click yet. After all, think about it. What’s a starting rotation, the first six or seven minutes after tipoff?
I made an analogy to my men’s rec league team. The established, more talented veterans wouldn’t, for example, suddenly abandon what they know on paper is the best starting lineup of incumbents, only after a couple Wednesday nights at the Japantown JCCCNC gym. You’d be sowing the seeds for a mutiny, or at the very least dividing the locker room.
I even gave in a bit to Mentality and said that if the starters continued to struggle out of the gate for five consecutive games, let’s go with, I would indeed make a change to the starting lineup on his behalf, even though I’d probably be stubborn about it and in real life only make the change after nine games. So there’s a part of me that agrees with Mentality, sure. But my training over time on my refractory period added with deep knowledge and experience, tells me not to jump the gun, not to hit that proverbial panic button — clicks be damned! Seriously! (I’m never gonna sell out to outrage-based journalism.)
I then solicited Mentality’s proposed solution to his angst: Who would start that’s not already starting? His answer: Buddy Hield, which is obvious. I mean, look at the numbers. There’s Mentality’s factual basis to backup his (immediate) emotional response. Andrew Wiggins would have to come off the bench.
This exercise of proposing a solution got Mentality to lean more towards the side of reasoning rather than an unbridled emotional response. I’m cool with a back-and-forth with people willing to reason, to hear me out.
That’s like when casuals slam their fist on the table and go, “We need a big man!” Umm, hold on for a sec. Look at our salary cap table. How the heck are we gonna even get, say, a Nick Richards when we’ve got three guys taking up the bulk of the cap sheet, plus $9 million going to the incumbent smaller 5, Kevon Looney, another $9 million to the incumbent smaller 4, Gary Payton II, and only veteran’s minimums available for said “big man”? Btw Richards makes $5 million (i.e., not a vet min) and his contract lasts through 2025-26, I hope you were wondering.
So when faced with the initial jolt from a fan, I always ask as politely as I can for them to suggest a fact-based solution. It also establishes the playing field: I am open to discourse as long as each statement is backed up by a well-reasoned path towards resolution.
For Mentality, I tried to reinforce the notion that Wiggins is the fulcrum of the Warriors’ salary cap sheet, as well as Jonathan Kuminga (video/analysis forthcoming) next after Wiggs. I tried to give Mentality this explanation, what I would deem is a fact-based reason, for needing those two in the starting lineup, for near-term salary cap sheet optionality:
But that only goes so far in the moment.
I didn’t mean to bury the lede for readers, but lo and behold in the postgame, the great Anthony Slater of The Athletic asked Draymond in the postgame the question about the starters, which got this response, which revealed some more facts — behind-the-scenes! — that we’ve not been privy to, full transcript at the bottom, per usual:
Well, (the starting lineup) can for sure work. We’ve won each game by 35 points. So that, that helps. And then the second half, that unit has been dominant. Both — I think that unit is still learning how to play. We didn’t have Wiggs all training camp. And then, obviously, sometimes I’m on Steph’s team, most of the times I’m not, in training camp. You’re just kind of trying to even things out so you have great practices. Now this lineup is getting a chance to get some minutes together. And I think what you’ll start to see is we’ll be able to settle in more offensively. We’re coming out in that first quarter and everybody’s just trying to get to it. Go, go, go. Because we want to do — you want that, we want that lineup to do well so bad. And so everybody’s kind of coming out, pressing. Then once we settle down that lineup, it takes over, our size, our athleticism. We’re getting out and running, we’re attacking the rim, getting kick-out threes and the game has changed the force in the third quarter. So we just gotta do a better job and that’s probably on me, to make sure that when we’re coming out, we’re getting into good stuff and everybody’s settled down. We move the ball around, we get good looks and I think last game, we got good looks They just didn’t go in this game, I hoisted a three to start the game, Wiggs hoisted a three, JK hoisted a three, then JK shot a floater and I turned the ball over and that’s just too much, we gotta get settled in and I have no doubt that we will.
I love the fact that Dray said, “That’s on me.” It makes you imagine a scene from the huddle where he’s hyping up his teammates or even calming them down. I wonder if part of him saying that was during the reflection part of where he listed off the Wiggs and JK misses, and himself, and then he thought to himself, “Oh, hey, I gotta make everybody more accountable for their choices out of the gate.”
And kudos to Slater for adding, in his question to Green, the fact that despite the slow starts, the Warriors’ starters have indeed dominated the last two third quarters in the two wins.
Man, to be in that huddle, that’s like a bucket-list thing — I don’t really do “bucket lists” because I’ve come to realize that life itself is beautiful, but in a manner of speaking, hearing and feeling Draymond be a leader, wow, that’s gotta be quite the human experience!
Dray, if you’re reading this, let me give you some advice that will one day make you a lot of money (not now, but in the distant future): Have somebody record your interactions in a huddle. If the NBA or the Warriors balk at that from a business perspective, have it done from somebody (🙋🏻♂️) at practice.
Someday, all those elements of leadership, they will be worth gold. Now, there’s a likelihood Joe Lacob will want to retain your energy and IQ in the locker room even after you retire, maybe as a consultant. So I suspect you’ll still be around for years and years. But all this stuff happening while you are still a player and running up and down the court with the fellas, man, that shit belongs in a section of the Hall of Fame!!! (And you should own that content, aka #NewMedia)
Entire transcript below, except for Buddy Hield of which I am going to do a separate post on soon/later/someday. If you are dying for the Hield transcript, just check the Comments section of each interview video:
03:50 DRAYMOND GREEN: What was key defensively tonight?
03:55 Well, I think we did a good job of getting — Steph did a good job of getting to Keyonte George early. He’s given us trouble since he’s been in this league and he got off to a good start hitting a couple of threes. I thought he did a good job there. And then I think we did a good job on Markkanen. He’s the head of the snake and to make 4-for-17, 1-for-5 from three, to make him take the tough shots that we made him take the first half, it kind of got them out of sorts and allowed our defense to take over the game.
04:22 This depth that you guys have at the point-of-attack now defensively, so like, the versatility, what does that change for you with your response?
04:28 It changes a lot because it allows me to kind of play free safety at times. I couldn’t play free safety a bunch tonight because of Lauri Markkanen and I can’t — I just can’t help much. He’s a knockdown shooter. But it allows for our defense to have more length on the backside. A lot of times last year, if they get the ball into the pocket, we were so small on the backside that you were just getting layups or everybody had to swarm the ball and you could kick out threes. And I think this year with having the size that we have when you get to the backside of the defense, there’s still length there. It’s a tougher finish. You have to keep the ball out. We’re flying around. So I think having that size on the ball and so many guys that can guard the way we — the way they can, it allows for myself and Trayce and Loon to play center field more and not — and then also not having guys coming downhill at us every play last year. It was like something (where) every time you looked up, it’s somebody coming downhill. And that hasn’t been the case this year, which is good for our defense.
05:29 You started this really big lineup two games that struggled in the first quarters, recovered in the third quarters. What do you think of that group? And Steve seems pretty committed to it. Can this work?
05:42 Well, it can for sure work. We’ve won each game by 35 points. So that, that helps. And then the second half, that unit has been dominant. Both — I think that unit is still learning how to play. We didn’t have Wiggs all training camp. And then, obviously, sometimes I’m on Steph’s team, most of the times I’m not, in training camp. You’re just kind of trying to even things out so you have great practices. Now this lineup is getting a chance to get some minutes together. And I think what you’ll start to see is we’ll be able to settle in more offensively. We’re coming out in that first quarter and everybody’s just trying to get to it. Go, go, go. Because we want to do — you want that, we want that lineup to do well so bad. And so everybody’s kind of coming out, pressing. Then once we settle down that lineup, it takes over, our size, our athleticism. We’re getting out and running, we’re attacking the rim, getting kick-out threes and the game has changed the force in the third quarter. So we just gotta do a better job and that’s probably on me, to make sure that when we’re coming out, we’re getting into good stuff and everybody’s settled down. We move the ball around, we get good looks and I think last game, we got good looks They just didn’t go in this game, I hoisted a three to start the game, Wiggs hoisted a three, JK hoisted a three, then JK shot a floater and I turned the ball over and that’s just too much, we gotta get settled in and I have no doubt that we will.
07:06 The, like, bench vibes on this team are obviously very good right now, but outside looking in, you won two games by 40, everyone’s gonna have fun through that. How do you make sure, when you do go through some tougher games, maybe guys are pulled from the rotation and you can’t go with a 12-man rotation every game, how do you make sure kind of that, that remains what seems to be obviously very good?
07:28 We’re all for each other. We, at the end of the day, we all have one common goal and that’s to create a special team that can do some special things. The minutes won’t go everybody’s way every night. . I would have loved to play more minutes than I’ve played the last two nights. It’s — it is what it is, so just roll with it. I don’t think — we have great guys in that locker room and that’s credit to Mike Dunleavy and the job that he’s done, putting a great group together. I don’t think you have — you don’t have many whiners in that locker room. And that makes a big difference.
08:07 Buddy Hield is really shooting it right now. How much are you enjoying that?
08:10 I’m enjoying it a lot. It looked like Buddy from Oklahoma again. He’s moving around and finding the shots. But we knew coming in, the one thing we’ve all said coming in is like, we know what Buddy gonna give us. And he’s been doing exactly that. And we gotta make sure we keep doing a good job of finding him.
08:29 We all see him draining threes. What has he brought to the team, off the court?
08:34 Great vibe, man. Just great energy. He is a complete team guy. Buddy’s the guy trying to get everybody together for dinner. Buddy’s the guy trying to get everyone together to hang out, like he is the guy that’s kind of molding this whole thing together behind the scenes. And I think that’s, that’s a beautiful thing. We spoke about that before of how this team has been the same for so long that I don’t need to hang with Steph every day to get to know Steph. I know him well and I don’t need to hang with Loon every day to get to know him. I know him very well, but now there’s so many new guys that you kind of have to change that thinking. And Hawaii’s training camp was a good way to start that off to changing that thinking, and we continued that on, and it’s good for the vibe of this team, and I think we got a great aura going on around this team.
🫶💙💛