The fact that Buddy Hield’s Instagram handle is “buddylove” should clue you in on his personality a little bit. While walking outside the gym at BYU-Hawaii yesterday, he yelled, “More fire, more fire!!” Here’s the IG Reels version, below is the long-form, plus the behind-the-scenes long forms of the previous three days:
I couldn’t even understand what he was saying at first and had to ask one of the people on IG based in the Bahamas, “10thyearseniors”, who has covered the Bahamian National Team on which Hield has played and Warriors assistant Chris DeMarco has been the head coach of. It turns out, according to a search I did on Perplexity:
Bahamians are known for saying “More fire!” This phrase is often used as a rallying cry at political events, particularly by the Free National Movement (FNM), where attendees respond enthusiastically when a speaker calls out “FNM” with “More fire!”. The expression symbolizes passion and energy in their cultural and political discourse.
Here are the rest of my notes from this past week. Please note, I do have a ton of transcripts and quotes, but didn’t want to overwhelm you so idk how I’m gonna do it but I’ll figure out how to show them in separate posts. The interviews uploaded on our YouTube channel usually have those transcripts in the Comments, plus our Discord server has everything else. As such, this Substack platform contains a fraction of the content I’ve been producing, so it’s only a matter of time before I figure out the right balance — and more details on the Discord server coming soon, I promise:
• The Warriors actually flew on the team plane of the New England Patriots, who were in the Bay Area to face the San Francisco 49ers, to Hawaii. The team is staying at the Ritz-Carlton Oahu Turtle Bay. Day One practice was at Kahuku High & Intermediate School, a 10-minute bus ride from the Ritz. Day Two and the remainder were at the George Q. Cannon Activities Center at BYU-Hawaii, a 15-minute bus ride from the Ritz. Day Two was also highlighted by a youth camp the Warriors’ assistants led. Day 3 will be a closed practice and Day 4 will be an open one (no details on that yet).
• On Day 1, Stephen Curry gave Anthony Slater a fist bump after Slater asked a nuanced question about the 2-guard competition that referenced Klay Thompson as the “perfect” complement to Curry.
• At the end of Day 1, Gui Santos was icing his right ankle, but it looked like a minor issue as he was able to walk on it.
• On Day 2, Eric Housen screamed, “Last bus!” during Draymond Green’s interview. Shaun Livingston, who now works for Andre Iguodala at the NBPA, albeit Livingston told me at USA training camp in Vegas that he gets to work remotely from Las Vegas (his wife’s hometown where they moved recently), used to be in charge of that. The NBPA is based in New York City.
• Green praised Quinten Post and his seeking contact on both ends of the floor, saying that is not a common trait in the NBA.
• While social media has been driving the narrative early in the week as a fundamental disagreement with Steve Kerr on thinking Jonathan Kuminga is a 3 rather than a 4, Draymond’s detailed explanation of that — coupled with Marcus Thompson’s follow-up question of the modern position-less NBA — seems more an indictment on the entire NBA not knowing how to play the 4 properly, than any internal disagreement between Kerr and Green. Also, if people really wanted to get emo on social media as they have done with Klay the last few days, Draymond is basically saying JK doesn’t know how to play the 4 and be in an uproar about that, but alas it’s not their soup de jour. 🤷🏻♂️
• The team talking about Thompson, whether it’s Dray or Steve or Steph, has been night and day compared to social media, whether that’s Draymond talking about Klay’s buddy-buddy-ness with Kyrie Irving or a “specific skill set” in the NBA. When Dray talked about Kuminga at the 3 or the 4, he referenced a comparison of Kevin Durant, whereby Durant is seven feet tall but not thought of as a center, and can’t play the 5. But Draymond also was aware enough to add that that was not a knock on KD, whereby Klay in interviews with the media, including the controversial one with Tristan Jass over the summer, might not in the moment think of adding things like that, which then leads social media to wildly speculate that he’s intentionally taking shots at his former team.
• I wouldn’t be surprised if Andrew Wiggins doesn’t start at the beginning of preseason — even when he becomes cleared by the training staff for contact — or, heck, even the regular season but does end up a starter, as I alluded to in the previous post on here. Him being sick all week could set him back as Kerr did Durant (who was injured to being USA camp) with the Olympics run. We all know how that ended.
• Kerr’s explanation that runs counter to fandom thinking “win the championship or nothing else matters” and “this is not a zero-sum game” was in response to MT2’s question that formed the thesis of his latest article on The Athletic, and happens to be the basis for LetsGoWarriors. To me, it’s about enjoying the process which Steph actually reminds us at least once a month with something he says on the podium, particularly after a loss.
• No one other than Mike Dunleavy, Jr. or Trayce Jackson-Davis actually thinks he got taller lol. Dunleavy had told Kerith Burke that Jackson-Davis grew an inch, which got a lot of social media attention, back on Media Day. But no one at Media Day has been able to confirm to me that they felt Trayce got taller and Slater certainly didn’t feel it when he asked Kerr, who also was surprised. Trayce said in the interview that he grew… wait for it… “a quarter of an inch”.
…But, in all seriousness, TJD says his knees were hurting so he had a trainer look at them, they measured him anyways, and it turns out he’s 6’9” without shoes on whereby last year he was 6’9” with shoes on — meaning 6’10” with shoes on this year. So we’ll see how his new 6’10” frame translates on the court and if he’s still growing.
• Slater asking, kind of for fun, if Kevon Looney hit a three in scrimmage ultimately revealed that Loon made a game-winner from the corner. Kerr said, “We’re like, that’s it,” making it sound like they purposely ended the scrimmage on that note.
• A reporter (probably based in Hawaii as I’m not familiar with his voice) apparently did some research and found out Brandin Podziemski likes to binge-watch crime shows. The question was if that helps improve his game and he didn’t have an immediate answer for that, but Brandin’s father John Podziemski tells me that BP always had to try and solve the crime before the episode ended. John even added a “😂” at the end of that.
• Trayce said the one drill he likes is the transition drill, citing new key terminology. With Gary Payton II interrupting Kuminga’s interview on Day 1 by asking him how things went and referencing new terminology while doing so, this suggests that perhaps Terry Stotts has had an influence not only in offensive sets, but also with transition elements.
• On Day 1 with kids from Kahuku invited into the gym, Raymond Ridder had to step up in Steph’s bodyguard Yusef Wright’s absence and shoo some of the kids away after they lei’ed him. I’m not sure where Wright was at that moment, but he and their newer bodyguard (I haven’t researched his name) protected Curry on the walk out of George Q. Cannon Activities Center on Day 4, so rest assured, Raymond didn’t have to cover for Yusef all training camp 😆
• Draymond made a David Lee reference when asked how ready he thinks Podziemski is (in reference to BP not having to think he has to replace Klay).
• Podz says he lives close to Trayce, which means they both live about two blocks from Chase Center.
• Our Day 4 footage has Warriors walking from the gym to somewhere else and then back to the gym, sprinkling in a few autographs and selfies with fans along the way. If I had to guess, the “somewhere else” they were walking to was a training room to get treatment, whereby the gym didn’t have enough room for that — remember there were taped lines for the NBA three-point distances inside the gym, so it’s safe to assume it was lacking every single resource an NBA team would need. Kudos to E.Housen, per usual, for designing such logistics.
• Warriors have moved to the Halekulani Hotel in Honolulu the night before the game.
• Steph was spotted at Tikis Bar & Grill. Bodyguards (plural) were seen, so I shall grossly speculate that Curry had his whole family there.
• Warriors had a team dinner at La Mer. GP2 visited nearby Original Grail, a sneakerhead store, as well as some Clippers players.
Below the paywall line are some bts photos and videos that you probably won’t see anywhere else…