Speaker 1: They're tuned into Heat Check.
Speaker 2: But just a quick on this episode of the Heat Check,
Speaker 2: we answer a very important question, what is happening with
Speaker 2: our dubs? Our dubs are in pre fall right now,
Speaker 2: and I need to know what is going on folks.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it's a Golden State episode. We break down everything.
Speaker 2: Not only do we get into my opinions, but we
Speaker 2: also are joined by two special guests, The light Years Boys,
Speaker 2: two of the hottest podcasters on these blue wire streets.
Speaker 2: I think they're honestly probably the best follow on Twitter
Speaker 2: for a team duo, like somebody that covers an NBA team.
Speaker 2: Their engagements through the roof. They're funny as fuck. They're
Speaker 2: not afraid to say what truth it is, and so we.
Speaker 3: Get to the truth. What's happening with our dubs?
Speaker 2: So much to get into Nick drop that beat by
Speaker 2: now you probably know you probably know the truth about
Speaker 2: what's going on with the Golden State Warriors. But if
Speaker 2: you're living under a rock right now, Warriors as we
Speaker 2: sit are six and nine. It's bad and oh and
Speaker 2: eight on the road, oh and eight on the road,
Speaker 2: losing to teams like the Detroit Pistons, like the Orlando
Speaker 2: Magic like the Charlotte Hornets without LaMelo, the worst start
Speaker 2: ever in history for any defending champion ever, that's a stat.
Speaker 3: So what's going on?
Speaker 2: Well, well, things are not going as well as they thought.
Speaker 2: Things started about as bad as possible before the season
Speaker 2: even began.
Speaker 3: As we all know.
Speaker 2: If you don't know this, I don't know, you must
Speaker 2: not be following the game.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 2: The Warriors got involved with what Steve Kerr called the
Speaker 2: greatest crisis in his time with the team, The punch
Speaker 2: heart around the world. Draymond Green cold cocked Jordan Poole
Speaker 2: and knocked him smooth a fuck out, and then the
Speaker 2: video was leaked, and then that was even worse. The
Speaker 2: Warriors had to go into full crisis mode. Draymond is
Speaker 2: going to be suspended. They're finding in somebody who's they're
Speaker 2: running an investigation, who's the one who leaked the video
Speaker 2: and sold it to DMZ? And you know what, nothing's
Speaker 2: really ever been good since. Like Jordan Poole, the guy
Speaker 2: who got cold cocked, he hasn't been the same. He's
Speaker 2: not starting. He was six Man of the Year of Canada.
Speaker 2: He hasn't been good. The whole season has been one
Speaker 2: long crisis after crisis. But it all comes to a
Speaker 2: head last night, two nights ago, because you're probably listening
Speaker 2: to this on Friday, absolute ass whooping by the Phoenix
Speaker 2: Suns one thirty to one nineteen, and what's stepf do
Speaker 2: on that night? Check's notes had fifty.
Speaker 3: Put up fifty points a fifty.
Speaker 2: Nugget piece, and you know what, he didn't seem happy.
Speaker 2: Think of that a historic night for Steph and the
Speaker 2: team basically still.
Speaker 3: Got blown out.
Speaker 2: Before last night, Steph had fifty or more ten times
Speaker 2: in his career. Think about that, actually, for just one second.
Speaker 2: Steph Curry has had fifty points or more ten.
Speaker 3: Times or more. That's crazy.
Speaker 2: They've only lost twice in those ten times. This is
Speaker 2: the bottom line about this loss. If Steph Curry puts
Speaker 2: up thirty a normal thirty point night, which is what
Speaker 2: he's averaging right now, this team loses by thirty one points.
Speaker 2: Pretty much how the game felt not close. Mikal Bridges
Speaker 2: absolutely sunned Klay Thompson on the bench, splashing a three
Speaker 2: and then throwing the three fingers in Clay's face to
Speaker 2: essentially Clay for throwing up four for four rings just
Speaker 2: like three more points and you guys face.
Speaker 3: I'd say it's rock.
Speaker 2: Bottom right now for our dubs. Right now, our dubs
Speaker 2: are in peril. We need to support them, and we
Speaker 2: need to identify what's going wrong, and we need to
Speaker 2: really sort of analyze and diagnose how it gets better.
Speaker 2: The Light Years boys called it the worst loss of
Speaker 2: the year by far. So what is wrong in Golden State?
Speaker 2: I have five things that I think are wrong. One,
Speaker 2: no depth or veteran role players. Two claim is booboo
Speaker 2: right now. Three they have a bottom three defense in
Speaker 2: the league. Trash defense the thing that the Warriors do
Speaker 2: really well, they suck at. Four young guys that are
Speaker 2: supposed to step up not performing in some ways regressing.
Speaker 3: And five the vibes are bad. It's bad vibe.
Speaker 2: All the things you think of when you think of
Speaker 2: the Warriors, the shimmying the night night, the pretending to
Speaker 2: boo boo on the court, None of those things, yeah
Speaker 2: he does that. None of those things are happening right now.
Speaker 2: Nothing not the three turn around look at the crowd.
Speaker 2: Not a smile, not a wink, not a laugh. So
Speaker 2: first and foremost, let's talk about the no depth, none
Speaker 2: for a team that was rolling twelve deep last year.
Speaker 2: The guys off the bench this season have largely been
Speaker 2: on milk cartons.
Speaker 1: Let's be honest.
Speaker 2: Here are the players off the championship team who are
Speaker 2: no longer with the Warriors. Naman be A Lecha. I
Speaker 2: think Damian Lee, Gary Payton is Second, Otto Porter, Juan Toscano,
Speaker 2: Anderson Jta, Quinn Weatherspoon, and Chris Chiosa. Like, maybe you
Speaker 2: don't think this is like a good role player. Maybe
Speaker 2: this like this doesn't move you. But if this doesn't
Speaker 2: move you, let me introduce you to the role players now,
Speaker 2: because it's really bad. None of those guys, with the
Speaker 2: exception of Gary Payton the second is really known to
Speaker 2: any non Warriors fan. But you take him as a whole,
Speaker 2: and they all play well. They all know their role.
Speaker 2: Damian Lee was really really good. Anno Porter was a
Speaker 2: plus fourteen in the nineteen playoff games last year and
Speaker 2: a plus one ten overall for the playoffs. That's pretty
Speaker 2: good for a guy off the bench. Gary Payton was
Speaker 2: a combined plus thirty five in his final five games
Speaker 2: against the Celtics. Damian Lee spent four years in the
Speaker 2: Warriors system. Toscano Anderson three those guys knew the ropes,
Speaker 2: they knew what Warriors basketball look like. They replaced those
Speaker 2: vets with Jamichael Green and Dante DiVincenzo, two players with
Speaker 2: zero experience playing in the Golden State system. So is
Speaker 2: it a shock that the Warriors are falling apart when
Speaker 2: the second unit is on the floor. And now you've
Speaker 2: got Jordan Poole that has to be the floor general.
Speaker 3: Sorry, they don't call.
Speaker 2: It a pool pool regiment.
Speaker 3: They call it the pool party. You know what I mean.
Speaker 2: They call it the pool party. Pool Jordan Pool wants
Speaker 2: to come in and get buckets. It's not, uh, the
Speaker 2: pool orchestra, you know, it's the pool party. We're getting
Speaker 2: fucking lit, you know what I'm saying. And now Jordan
Speaker 2: Poole has to be the guy that runs this ship.
Speaker 2: I don't They don't call it the pool pilot. No.
Speaker 3: Number two. Clay Clay top is just terrible. Just said bad.
Speaker 3: It's booboo right now. And I hate to say.
Speaker 2: I love Clay Thompson. Clay Thompson grew up in Portland.
Speaker 2: You have a special love for Portland guys. John Hollinger
Speaker 2: said this, and I was like, damn, damn, it's so true,
Speaker 2: and it's such a shot, it's like a it's like
Speaker 2: a knife to the heart. John Hollinger said, quote, I
Speaker 2: didn't think I'd have Klay Thompson turning into Russell Westbrook
Speaker 2: on my bingo card. But here we are. Problem is
Speaker 2: that savage statements kind of true. Is not Clay is
Speaker 2: He is in a slump. He's in a terrible shooting slump.
Speaker 3: He is not himself.
Speaker 2: And this is, let's be honest, it's hurting the Warriors,
Speaker 2: hurting the Warriors in every single facet of the game.
Speaker 2: And he's one of the best shooters of our generation.
Speaker 2: And what his shooters do when they're in a slump,
Speaker 2: they fucking keep shooting.
Speaker 3: That's what they do. Have you seen Russell Westbrook, That's
Speaker 3: what he's doing. And he's not even a shooter. And
Speaker 3: the Warriors.
Speaker 2: Problem with that little mentality is the Warriors are losing
Speaker 2: games because he's chucking from the logo and he's bricking
Speaker 2: and everyone knows, his teammates included, no, that's shit's not
Speaker 2: going in soon.
Speaker 3: As as soon as he lets it fly, everyone starts.
Speaker 2: To look the other way, to go back on defense,
Speaker 2: and not because he's gonna make it, not because he's
Speaker 2: gonna make it.
Speaker 3: He's had exactly one.
Speaker 2: Twenty point scoring game this year. He has had eight
Speaker 2: games with five or more mysteries. He is shooting an
Speaker 2: atrocious thirty five percent from the field, not from three
Speaker 2: from the field this year, and worse, everything is drawing
Speaker 2: the front of the rim. He's got no lift in
Speaker 2: his legs. We'll get into that. But it all came
Speaker 2: to a head last night because not only was Klay
Speaker 2: Thompson two nights ago, not only was he terrible six
Speaker 2: for seventeen from the field, three for nine from three,
Speaker 2: but it was just the teammates looking at him like, dude,
Speaker 2: what the fuck are you doing? Steph just looking resigned,
Speaker 2: like like, Steph, if you look back at the tape,
Speaker 2: because I did this afternoon. He's Steph's just like he's
Speaker 2: got his hands in the air. As soon as Clay
Speaker 2: lets it fy Jordan Poole, he puts his.
Speaker 3: Hand on his head.
Speaker 2: Who does that. He's like, oh no, yes, Draymond shaking
Speaker 2: his head, just ugh, yuck. Three seconds into the shot clock.
Speaker 2: Two seconds into the shot clock, chuck, chuck. Very crucial
Speaker 2: point in time too, in the third quarter, when is
Speaker 2: the last ask mean, riddle, mean this, when is the
Speaker 2: last time you have ever seen Steph Curry look absolutely
Speaker 2: exasperated by Klay Thompson like this fucking guy?
Speaker 3: Never never? Now?
Speaker 2: The answer is now only. So this is and Clay
Speaker 2: Clay wasn't bad in the finals or in the playoffs
Speaker 2: because a lot of people are like, oh, he's never
Speaker 2: gonna be the same again. He's not at full strength.
Speaker 2: That injury really fucked him up. And to that, I say, yes,
Speaker 2: he's not gonna be twenty nineteen Clay again. However, he
Speaker 2: averaged nineteen four.
Speaker 3: And two in the playoffs. It's pretty good.
Speaker 2: He averaged seventeen three and two in the finals. That
Speaker 2: was five months ago. So why is he so bad
Speaker 2: right now? This is what I think happened. I've been
Speaker 2: doing some thinking. I put my thinking cap on and
Speaker 2: trying to get into the Claye Thompson soul. One. I mean,
Speaker 2: he played great, and then you go into an off
Speaker 2: season and you've been partying and celebrating and now you
Speaker 2: need to get back into it. But what happened the
Speaker 2: last time you were in an off season where you
Speaker 2: weren't just rehabbing or rehabbing and rehabbing, because let's be honest,
Speaker 2: Clay Thompson wasn't able to play pickup games last summer.
Speaker 3: No, he wasn't.
Speaker 2: He was in a pt room, stretching out his acl
Speaker 2: doing work on his achilles, doing mobility stuff, doing strength work.
Speaker 2: He wasn't up and down at Lifetime Fitness with Devin Booker. No,
Speaker 2: so this is the first year he was able to
Speaker 2: really do those off season runs that they talk about,
Speaker 2: five on five drills all that stuff. So what does
Speaker 2: he do. He's like, no, I'm good, I'm not gonna
Speaker 2: do that because that's where I pop my achilles last time.
Speaker 3: So he stays away.
Speaker 2: There's articles written about Klay Thompson is not doing pickups,
Speaker 2: he's not doing scrimmages, none of that. His training camp
Speaker 2: he comes in late and he's out of shape. I
Speaker 2: mean not out of shape for you and me, but
Speaker 2: out of shape for an NBA player, and his conditioning
Speaker 2: has declined. And thus, when he starts playing games, when
Speaker 2: your conditioning isn't right and your legs don't have lyft
Speaker 2: because you're not strong or you know, endurance, which only
Speaker 2: comes from playing basketball, not from doing anything else, you
Speaker 2: can only do it by playing basketball when that conditioning
Speaker 2: is not up to par and you're playing thirty minutes
Speaker 2: a game. Now you're hitting the front of the room
Speaker 2: in your threes. Now you don't have lyft. Now you're
Speaker 2: not able to sustain a full game and play at
Speaker 2: that level. So now your performance is declining. And now
Speaker 2: what happens me Shannon Sharp, Skit Bayless, Steve all these.
Speaker 3: Pundits are who else?
Speaker 2: Charles Barkley, Clay's not the same, Clay's washed. Something's wrong
Speaker 2: with Clay. I don't know, man, he shouldn't be on
Speaker 2: this team. He's never gonna return back to where he was.
Speaker 2: And Clay's like, dude, I'm still getting back to where
Speaker 2: I'm supposed to be. I didn't play any basketball this offseason.
Speaker 2: You're bad, Clay. But also I get it. That's what
Speaker 2: trauma does, that's how mental anguish works.
Speaker 3: He's got his.
Speaker 2: Own stuff to work out, and then what happens when
Speaker 2: the world comes after him emotionally. It's the first time
Speaker 2: that Clay physically isn't able to do what he wants
Speaker 2: and everyone has expectations that he will, and emotionally that
Speaker 2: shit has a toll. And now he's fighting with Ronnie
Speaker 2: two qu over his rating and he's calling him a clown,
Speaker 2: and he's popping off at Devin Booker getting ejected from games.
Speaker 2: And now he's doing articles with Ramona Shelbourne on his sailboat,
Speaker 2: and now he's doing one on ones with Chris Haynes.
Speaker 2: And now you're like, I think Clay's in his feelings.
Speaker 2: I think Clay. Now he's saying, listen, just remember I
Speaker 2: was a part of those four championships. Never forget that shit.
Speaker 2: I'm still that guy. And it's like, Yo, Clay, nobody
Speaker 2: ever said you weren't a part of those four championships.
Speaker 2: We're just saying you're boo boo right now.
Speaker 3: And I think that.
Speaker 2: Steve Kurz comments show that this theory has some truth
Speaker 2: to it.
Speaker 1: It took a lot of quick shots.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: Clay continues to come down and try to shoot his
Speaker 1: way out of an early season slump every night, and
Speaker 1: he's he's pressing, and he's pressing tonight. And the guy's
Speaker 1: got a lot of weight on his shoulders with the
Speaker 1: injuries and where he feels like he is right now
Speaker 1: where he wants to be, you know, So we have
Speaker 1: to help Clay, help him get out of his own way.
Speaker 3: And when he get out of his own way, get.
Speaker 1: Through his frustration, the game will come to him and
Speaker 1: he'll be He'll be fine, and he's going to play
Speaker 1: at a really high level because he's still got it.
Speaker 1: Clay still got it. But right now he's he's playing
Speaker 1: in a frustrated manner. It's leading to a lot of
Speaker 1: quick shots and he knows that, and we've got to
Speaker 1: help him through that. And we know how much Clay
Speaker 1: has done for this franchise and and our city, the
Speaker 1: Bay Area, So we're going to help him, help him
Speaker 1: through it, and he's going to get there.
Speaker 2: Support Clay, support him. So I don't think that this
Speaker 2: is a long term problem. I think he just needs
Speaker 2: to get back in a condition he eventually will be himself.
Speaker 2: He's never gonna be twenty nineteen Clay again. But that
Speaker 2: pure shot doesn't go away. But in the present, like
Speaker 2: I said, he's had not one but two interviews dropped
Speaker 2: this week, one from Chris Haynes, one from Ramona Shelburne,
Speaker 2: and they feel very email. Honestly, he's trending right now
Speaker 2: on Twitter at this very moment, and Clay returning to
Speaker 2: some version of at least where he was in the
Speaker 2: playoffs last year is absolutely critical, and if he doesn't,
Speaker 2: it's night Night's sleep mask for them.