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00:00Hooray. Oh, it's so good. Oh my god, it's so good. It's a capsule in time. And now Mac
00:05Jones is on the Niners. Nick knew all along that Kyle Shanahan couldn't quit one McCorkle
00:11Jones. Nick, good morning, buddy. How you doing? Oh, guys, it's great to hear y'all's
00:17voices, and it's just never going to not make me laugh. Oh, man. I love it. Kelly Oubre.
00:25888-957-9570. Man, you know what's making us laugh this morning? We're living in the
00:29all these different angles and what-ifs, and the amount of history that's taken place
00:34between the Warriors and Timberwolves. It's actually kind of crazy. So when you first
00:39saw that this is going to be the matchup, what was your first thought? Was it Rudy
00:44Gobert and Draymond Green? Was it the Jimmy Butler history with Minnesota? Was it
00:50Anthony Edwards and Steve Kerr and the infamous workout? When you first saw it, it was going
00:55to be T-Wolves, Dubs. What went to your mind, Nick?
01:00Spadone, the first thing in my head was, I don't care how many people pick Minnesota. I'm
01:07not betting against Steph Curry. I'm just not doing it. And I know there are a lot of angles
01:13and the soap opera is there. And certainly with Jimmy going back to Minneapolis, you know,
01:20they're going to be all over him and they just cannot stand Draymond. There's a lot of fun
01:26stuff for fans to get into. But truly, my first thought was, all these people are saying that
01:32Minnesota is just going to roll through the Warriors. And I watched that second half the
01:38other night in Houston. And I thought, Steph is still Steph. And we know what Jimmy can do.
01:44And certainly we know what motivated Draymond can be. I'm just not going to pick against Steph
01:53in this spot. And if they do indeed lose and they have to make changes, okay. But that dude
02:00is still the baddest dude on the block.
02:02Wow. I mean, I'm a little taken back because I'm, look, I'm trying to give respect to Minnesota
02:07and just watching the Warrior team. Maybe I'm too caught up in the moment. I feel like, again,
02:11that's not my official prediction, but like, what do I like this morning? Like, I like
02:15Timberwolves in six. You know what I mean? Cause like the rested, they're younger, but hearing
02:22you say that, like, is that more of a, I know it's the Steph Curry. Cause there's obviously
02:26the Steph Curry angle, but is there something on Minnesota that, that like scares you that
02:30he can exploit? Is it something specific that you're pointing to?
02:34Joe, you know what? It's just knowing the, the gravitational pull of that dude on the floor.
02:44And when you watch Houston, I mean that defensively, they were just all over him most of the time
02:52when they were doubling him. And then they took that second guy off and here comes Steph. And he
02:58started hitting a bunch of shots on paper, Minnesota should win this series. They are longer. They are
03:06younger. They are definitely more rested. As you mentioned, and Edwards looks pretty damn awesome
03:14and getting even better. And you would think that they just have too much length and depth
03:22to, Oh, they, they would overwhelm a Warriors group or, you know, how many guys does Kerr actually
03:30trust going into this series to play? I know you all talk about it all the time, but when you watch
03:36the end of that rocket series, you go, I don't know. I mean, but Jim and Booty were missing all kinds
03:43of open shots. Will that be the same in this series? They had no rest. You got to figure they're going
03:49to be exhausted. All of that is to say they still have Steph Curry. And when you have that dude playing
03:56at the level he's still at, I just find it really, really difficult to bet against them, especially
04:05given how many people think that Minnesota is just going to topple the Warriors at this point.
04:12All right. So before I get to the Minnesota specific portion of his career with Jimmy Butler,
04:17you go way back with Jimmy. I know you covered the bulls for a period of time. You covered
04:23Minnesota for a period of time. You've obviously were covering the Warriors, covered the Brooklyn
04:27Nets. And I know you were down in South beach at one time. How, how long does you and the Jimmy
04:32relationship go back? And are you as surprised as we all were that it's been this fruitful?
04:40Here's the craziest part of this whole story, Joe. The night Jimmy got drafted by the bulls,
04:46we were at the Birdo center, which was their old practice facility. And one of the producers at my
04:52old radio station at ESPN 1000 in Chicago, they had Jimmy's number. So Jimmy gets drafted by the bulls.
05:01Immediately they're calling Jimmy. The bulls are trying to get him on the phone, figure out logistics,
05:09get them on a conference call with the media in Chicago. Well, he, he already picked up for our
05:15producer in Chicago. So Jimmy's on the radio, uh, doing an interview with me and a couple of friends
05:23of mine at the station. And he's in tears because he's so emotional about his journey, what got him
05:31there, being able to get into a team. At that point, Derek Rose was at the peak of his powers.
05:37That was a young up and coming group. He was so excited. So literally I have known Jimmy Butler since the
05:45second he got drafted in the NBA. And I've been with him. I had the major drip.
05:50No, that's the, no, that's the, yeah, exactly. Please. Thank you for acknowledging it.
05:55I'm going to call you a Super Mario brother. There's so much plumbing problems going on with
05:58these drips.
05:58I mean, just absolutely drip, drip, drip, drip, but it's also the truth. And I would tell you this
06:03about Jimmy having, having watched all these years and all these different places. If you want to talk
06:10about somebody who will raise the level of his own game when his team needs him to the most,
06:18that is Jimmy Butler. So Joe, you were asking like, well, what's the difference? And the matchups
06:24don't look really great in the size and the length of Minnesota. I don't know. I mean, who are you
06:32playing besides Looney and how long are you playing Looney? All the same questions the three of us have
06:37asked forever. The reason I still think the Warriors could do this is not just because of Steph and his
06:44greatness. It's because I have watched Jimmy Butler at all these different stops as he continued
06:50to get better and better and better and more confident. And that's the huge key. Be able to
06:57deliver when his team needed it the most. And I think he's up to the challenge right now. And it's
07:03why I've always believed guys that not only can the Warriors still do some damage this year and we'll
07:10see what happens in this series. I think the window is still open for them next year because
07:16they'll be able to retool the roster around Jimmy Moore given that he's only been there still a few
07:23months since after that deal. Odyssey Sports NBA insider Nick Ferdel joining us here on the morning
07:28roast and insider calls are brought to you by Hyundai. Hyundai helps protect you and your family on the
07:31road. We put your safety first and everything else second. So it's interesting you say that Nick
07:36it's because it goes back to Steph Curry and you're not betting against that guy. I understand
07:39that. Is it crazy to say though that the Warriors might not have the best player overall in this
07:47series? Oh, now that that is a juicy one. That's just a don't. And Edwards is awesome. His time is
07:57coming. It may be here right now. And, and that will probably be as, as far as storylines of this
08:05series, is there a little, a little bit of a torch pass possibility if he comes out and just dominates.
08:12But as we start this series, if you ask me, which guy would I want more right now for this series?
08:21Give me Steph Curry. Ant Edwards is the guy you'd want to build around. He, he's the guy that so
08:29many people in the league would take right now over anybody because of his age, his talent,
08:36the ability to continue to get better and better right now in this moment. Give me Steph. He's done
08:43it. His teammates know he can carry them when he needs to. He's next to Jimmy, which seems to give
08:51the entire team a lift. And he just got a gigantic performance from Buddy Heald of all people.
08:59So Buddy's going to walk into this series going, okay, I can do this. And if the Warriors get some
09:06help and Steph is still Steph, that's where I think this can happen for Golden State.
09:11You know, it's so interesting. Like obviously Johnny Flynn and Ricky Rubio get taken in front of Steph
09:18Curry. You don't take one, you take two point guards. It's one of the all-time gaffes, right?
09:22And now Anthony Slater puts out an article this morning kind of referencing the 2020 draft. And I
09:29remember you were covering the team at that time and the world was paused and the season was on hold
09:35and the Warriors were going nowhere. And so for like five, I don't know, five, six months,
09:40this entire station, all we did was talk 2020 draft, 2020 draft, 2020 draft. And now all this
09:46information is leaking out. And I remember going back in time, all of the people that were skeptical
09:52on Anthony Edwards, oh, he might want to be a rapper. Well, I know there's, there's questions
09:56about his shot. No, I'm serious.
09:58No, he didn't love basketball. Remember that was another one.
10:00I like watching the NFL more than I like watching basketball. People got mad at him.
10:04Not that he wasn't talented. It was just like, is he serious enough? Like we had all these
10:08questions and now Slater puts out an article saying, Hey, it wasn't just Joe Lacob who loved
10:13Wiseman. He did, but there was consensus, Bob Myers, Steve Kerr, and the veteran players
10:20all wanted the Wiseman pick. They wanted the center. They wanted to take that swing for the
10:26future. Are you surprised that information has come out now? Are you surprised at that
10:31thought process going back then? When I tell you all of that, that's been reported from Anthony
10:36Slater. How does that land in your lap?
10:38Joe, the crazy part is I'd add this part to the Edwards conversation too. Remember people thought,
10:45Oh, well, is he really that good if he goes to Georgia and they really don't do anything?
10:50Is he going to be able to lift up an NBA team on his own? So there were so many different thoughts,
10:57but yeah, I mean, everybody seemingly thought in that Warriors organization that Wiseman was the guy
11:05and that he was the guy that you could plug in around the pieces they already had specifically
11:11at that point, Steph and Draymond, and we weren't sure with Clay. He had just gotten hurt again.
11:17And, and they thought that Wiseman was not only going to be a really strong fit around those guys
11:25that he could develop into being that bridge that they needed. And the, the, the truth for the
11:33Warriors in that moment is they just whiffed completely. And it happens all the time in the
11:40NBA. It happens to the best teams, but it happened there in a major, major way. And, and the Edwards
11:47conversation is interesting, uh, as far as revisionist history goes, because people say, Oh, Edwards,
11:53why didn't they think so highly of him at the moment? Well, you know what? It really didn't matter
11:58because Minnesota took him. So the question becomes, you know, would you have wanted Lamello
12:07and Oh, Halliburton, all the different things that come after that domino effect. But in that
12:14moment, absolutely. The Warriors believed that Wiseman was the guy. And if you're looking for
12:21reasons why things didn't play out the way that the organization wanted them to over the last few
12:28years, don't look at it farther than right there, because he was supposed to be the pick that
12:33changed the courts of the future and made everything smoother. As far as the transition
12:40from Steph Draymond clay to the next wave, it didn't happen. They miss and they're still paying
12:47that price because of it. All right. Biggest story in this series. Everyone's talking about it. The
12:51memes are out of control. We know we all know what it is and we're tiptoeing around it. It's dream on
12:56Rudy Gobert. Nick, my mom says to me, are they going to fight like you and your brother again
13:00in the kitchen? Because the chokehold that Draymond had on Draymond, I'm not on Gobert.
13:05My mom said me and my brother would do that in the kitchen all the time with each other fighting
13:09over the last bowl of cereal. Oh, WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes is jealous of that coat, that chokehold
13:14that he put on. Drag him halfway across the court. The game like barely was like what? Nick,
13:20remember it was like 10 seconds or something in the game. I was literally, I was getting out of the
13:23shower, whatever I was doing. And I was like, wait, what the heck is going on right now?
13:27People like benches were separated. It's like, this game just started. So the Draymond Green
13:32aspect in this series is what? Spadone, I'd also throw in as I watched the replay the other night,
13:39because of course everybody's going to be talking about that. I think the underrated part of that
13:44whole clip is Kerr literally telling Draymond, let go. He's looking at him going, this doesn't look so
13:52great. Like, let go of him, Draymond. But as far as any conversation with Draymond goes,
14:00they just have to hope that he's not going to get pushed into an emotional situation. And I'll
14:08give him credit because I'm sitting there watching game seven the other night and he hits those first
14:13two threes. And I mean, Carter hit the, hit the drip for me again, but Slater and I going back for
14:20years, we're always like, Oh boy, Draymond hits that first three and he is screaming at the other
14:27bench. He is sitting there going off. You guys can't touch me. You're going to leave me wide open
14:32guys. Draymond hit those first two shots in game seven. He didn't say a word. He just played. And that is the
14:40best thing that can happen for the Warriors in the next couple of weeks. The Timberwolves are going
14:45to try to bait Draymond like any other team. And he has the history with Gobert and he knows
14:50how important he is, especially for the younger group, especially for Steph right now at this stage
14:57of his career. I know it would be a really, really rough bet to bet on Draymond to keep his head
15:08in the game throughout the next couple of weeks. But I think that with what's at stake and with the
15:15history between the two guys, it's already been in place with Ian Gobert. I think he can actually do
15:21it. And it wouldn't surprise me if he, if he knows going in, if I lose it, it's all over. And I have
15:30no doubt that that's been made clear to him by Kerr and Dunleavy and Steph and all the,
15:35the powers that be. But I think that will be a gigantic key. If Draymond keeps his head in this
15:43series, then they've got a legit chance to do it. All right. You said you rewatched that video and
15:49you saw Kerr in the background saying, let him go. When you watch it again, I want you to see as
15:54Draymond's got the chokehold on Gobert, he does the UFC tucking of the chin to keep someone else from
16:01choking him out. It was incredible, Nick. I swear to God, like I can hear Joe Rogan in my voice.
16:08Look at him. He's tucking the chin. He's tucking the chin. And so that he couldn't get tapped out.
16:12I want you to see that. But I got a bigger question for you. The Jimmy Butler fan fallout in
16:19Minnesota. They've got new ownership, A-Rod. It's going to be unbelievable because I love A-Rod.
16:24He's super charming. There's kind of a new vibe, obviously, with Minnesota. They got rid of Carl
16:29Anthony Towns. They bring in Julius Randle. But the fans, do the fans still despise Jimmy Butler?
16:37And if so, what's it going to feel like in that arena? The answer is yes. It is jilted lover syndrome
16:45deluxe because Jimmy broke up with them. He didn't want to play with Towns. He didn't think
16:53that team could win. I think he really liked Wiggins. But at that time, he wasn't sure if he
17:00was a championship caliber player. And he just quit on that team. He knew he wanted out of there. He
17:07wanted to trade him. It didn't happen initially early in that season. And he did all the things that
17:14he did, which are well-documented. As far as tonight and moving forward in Minnesota,
17:21fans don't forget. And you know, Joe, it's going to get ramped up even more because it's the playoffs.
17:27People are going to have a few pops before walking into Target Center. They're going to be really
17:32pumped up. And I think they're going to boo the hell out of Jimmy. But I would tell you this,
17:37having been around Jimmy from the beginning, there is nothing, nothing that the Minnesota fans,
17:44could do that would make Jimmy Butler happier than if they boo the living you-know-what out of him
17:50because it will make him focus that much more into the situation that he's in. I actually think it'll
17:59take some pressure off the Warriors in general because they're so used to being aided if Jimmy
18:04takes most of that hatred. I think it'll free up a few other guys and they'll say, all right,
18:09we need to be there for him. But absolutely, Minnesota thought that Jimmy was that missing
18:16piece and that if you plug Jimmy next to Towns and Wiggins with Tibbs, that they were going to be
18:22where they are right now. It didn't happen. He left. He left in a way that we really haven't seen that
18:28much of, at least publicly, where he's just like, yep, I'm out of here and had to practice and the whole
18:34line yards. But I think that is a real psychological edge for Jimmy because rare is the time where a
18:44crowd will get on him or a city will get on him and he won't raise the level of his own game and
18:51help everybody else around him.
18:52Nick, my wife very rarely listens and never texts me during the show. Right now, you tell Nick,
19:00I said hi and we miss him. Three exclamation points. She don't even love me that way. Wow.
19:07Jesus. Michelle says, wait a minute, Joe, it's the don't. Hold on now. We know she loves you that
19:14much. That's the only way that she could make it through all these years. Let's square that part
19:22up right now. But tell her I love her back. And at some point here, at some point here in the future,
19:28I hope I'm back around San Francisco and come over to the house and see everybody. But I miss you guys
19:35really bad for sure. I love you, pal. Good stuff, man. We appreciate the time and we'll definitely
19:39talk again in the future in these playoffs and hopefully it does extend it because you feel
19:44like they're going to win this series. Real quick, how many games? I mean, if I'm going to pick the
19:48Warriors, I'm going to take them in seven because like everybody else, I don't think it can go
19:55any less than that if you've got the Warriors rolling. But I do think they can find a way
20:01because you cannot bet against number 30.
20:04There you go. And I'm not betting against Nick Friedle, baby. Nick, thanks, man. We appreciate
20:08the time.
20:09I love you guys. I'll see you later.
20:10There he goes. That was Odyssey NBA, Odyssey Sports NBA Insider, Nick Friedle. Insider Calls
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