Warriors Radio Analyst & NBA Veteran Tom Tolbert Joins The Show Before Game 2 Of NBA Playoffs

 Warriors Radio Analyst & NBA Veteran Tom Tolbert Joins The Show Before Game 2 Of NBA Playoffs

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
N Be a veteran, longtime successful Bay Area talk show host.
You saw him on television with NBC and ESPN, and
now he's a part of the Warriors Radio Network. Tom
Tolbert with us here on the Matt Thomas Show. Ross, Tom,
thanks for coming. I hope you've enjoyed our city so far.
How you enjoying these days off in between games?

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Too many?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
You got that right, too.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
Many days off and they really stretched the first round out,
But that was cool. Got a chance to get out
and get a walk in. Yesterday I actually walked to
a movie theater and then watched the movie and walked back.
So I saw a movie and got my steps in.
So I'll get answered.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
What did you see? My ask?

Speaker 2 (00:39):
I say, I saw Warfare and you pretty.

Speaker 3 (00:42):
Intense thumbs up or thumbs down.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Thumbs up for me, but it was it was intense,
like it looked like it was pretty portrayal, So yeah,
it was. It was good though. I was gonna go
see that or Sinners and Centers was too. I was
like two hours and thirty minutes or seven, but I'll
go through that when I get back home. So yeah,
I've just been getting out walking. There's been some you know,

(01:08):
nice neighborhoods and good restaurants that I've eaten that so far.
So yeah, now I've had a good time since been here.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
It's great to have you with us on the show
for the very first time.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Tom.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Let me ask you about Steph because he was held
in check when we saw you guys a few weeks ago,
one for ten against the Warriors and Samisco one three
point basket. I don't think he carried that over into
Game one. I think it was the playoffs that wouldn't
have mattered who he played. But some of the freaky shots,
and you have been witnessed to so many of them,

(01:37):
how does he still do it at this age? How
does he still catch and shoot in rhythm thirty five footers?

Speaker 2 (01:44):
He's Steph. I mean, there's really no other way to
put it. It's just he's one of one when it
comes to that kind of stuff. I mean, he had
he had three shots in the second half of Game
one that were just absurd. Of course, the one over
Green where he's falling at a bounds, drifting right and
drills that one. Then he drilled the probably thirty five

(02:07):
footer from the right side, and then he drilled one
with a shot clock was on out where the ball
was in his hands, and nano second just like flipped
it up there and that thing went as well. And
nothing really surprises me with him. And I've always said
with Steph that he makes the extraordinary like ordinary. I've

(02:28):
seen it so many times over and over and over again,
and I guess I'm a little jaded, just I don't
get all that base by what he does. I mean,
those three shots were pretty wild, even though this one's
you know, raised my voice a little bit so, but
that's just who he is. I mean, he does it,
and he does it over and over and over again.

(02:49):
So I just kind of shake my head and go,
that's Steph. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Unfortunately, I've called so many on the other side of that,
I have the exact same opinion.

Speaker 3 (02:58):
Tom Toberwether's here in front of a Warrior Radio.

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Tom, when you found out that Jimmy Butler interest in
Golden State, your initial thought, and I would have to assume,
even though he has been really good, Jimmy has as
a playoff guy. He's had his issues in a variety
of places over the years that you're thinking, how long
is this honeymoon? Affair going to go well. So far,

(03:21):
it's gone very very well for him wearing Golden State gear.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Yeah, I mean, because they were interested in Durant. Then
Durant made it clear he didn't want to come here,
and then they kind of shifted their focus to Butler.
So I don't even think the Warriors knew what they
were getting exactly with Jimmy Butler. And when I found
out about it, my initial thought was, Nah, you know, okay,
I mean, jim Butler's a good player, how's he going

(03:48):
to get in here? You know, he doesn't really stretch
the court, doesn't give him another guy to shoot, and
then you watch him play every day. And that's the
thing I always try to impart on people we like.
It's it's so funny when you like MVP voting and
all that kind of stuff, Like, you really never know
how good a guy is until you see him every day.

(04:08):
You know, you don't know as flaws, you don't know
his strengths, and there may be a lot of things
that don't show up in the box score that make
the player who he is. Well, that's Jimmy Butler. Jimmy
Butler is like having another Draymon like character on the
team in that they get the game, they're ahead of
the chains mentally, they make the right play way more

(04:29):
often than not. And he didn't really have to stretch
to the court. Like he doesn't shoot. He's he's shot
decently like recently, but it only shoots me one or
two threes a game. But he gets to the free
throw line. You watch him make the right pass, You
watch him switch off at the right moment on defense,
he gets the ball ahead when he rebounds it like

(04:50):
it just now, I get it. Like I watch him
plays like now I get it. And he's really good too,
Like in the tangible stuff, he's still really good at that.
But under Egodala is probably the best in the league
at that where he'd have eight point four rebounds, four
assists and be a plus eighteen consistently because plus minus

(05:11):
gonna be one. You know, that could be an aberration once,
you know, once every now and again, or maybe if
you added a weekly, But when it's his career, like
that's who Igadala was, and I see a lot of
Jimmy Butler, Like there's a lot of stuff that you
don't see in the box score that shows up and
helps you win basketball games. He's been he's been really good,
a lot better than I thought it was gonna be.

(05:31):
I gotta be honest.

Speaker 4 (05:32):
Ross with you as well here Tom, and just curious
your observations game number one, things that you saw maybe
offensively different defensively rotations and anything that surprised you and
that you're keeping an eye on for Game two.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
Well, look, I mean, Jalen Green and Van Bleed are
gonna shoot the ball better, and that's just and law
of averages. Jalen Green, Jalen Green, Worris did a great
job of keeping him to his left then let him
get to his right, and I think for him, he
was kind of stuck in between he tried to shoot

(06:08):
it or try to get all the way to the rim.
And when he tried to get all the way to
the rim, I think the Warriors did a really good
job of collapsing on him and forcing tough shots. And then,
you know, sometimes you get in your own head a
little bit, and the playoffs are different, playoffs are a
different feel, and there's a little more pressure to each
position when it comes to the playoffs, so you get
up to a slow start. Sometimes it's kind of tough

(06:29):
to dig himself out of that hole, and I'm sure
he felt the pressure. And then, like, let's be honest,
Van Vliet's had it well all season. I mean she's
in for forty from two or overall, I should say,
and shoots around thirty five from three. But you know
he's gonna shoot it better. I have no doubt about that. Offensively,

(06:50):
on the glass that killed the Warriors killed him, and
I think they beat him up pretty good this year too.
I want to say, in the five games they played previously,
they averaged seventeen second can dance points to where the
average ten, and they were they're pretty good offensive rebnnything too,
but the Rockets just dominated that game. So the question
for me, and I've had this with the Rockets all
season long, is do they shoot it well enough? Are

(07:12):
they team they can shoot it well enough that once
they get to the playoffs and teams can really lock
down on them and really formulate a game plan on them,
because that's not something you really do during that regular season.
Are they going to be able to hit enough shots
from outside? They were oh excuse me, they were seven
for thirty seven outside the paint in Game one. You

(07:33):
can't win that way, you just you can't. Nobody can.
So they're going to have to shoot it better and
they're going to have to continue to do what they
do on the oufensive glass. But defensively they played fine.
I mean they got into them defensively. The Warriors I think,
only assisted on fifty five percent of their field goals
in Game one, and they led the league in that stat.

(07:55):
They have just sted on seventy one percent of their
field goals in the regular season. So the Rockets did
a really good job of make him go one on
one step hit some crazy shot. Jimmy hit that crazy
shot from the left left side about a twenty foot
or towards the end of the shot clock in the
first half. So their defense was fine and they played hard.
It wasn't like they didn't play hard. They played hard.

(08:15):
They just have to hit a few more shots and
if it don't, you're just not going to win. But
I suspect they will. But can they hit him consistently
and that throughout the course of the seven game series
to give them a chance to win.

Speaker 4 (08:27):
We'll see Tom Tolbert with us here on a Sports
Talk seven to ninety. You mentioned the boards and it
seemed like that's where the Rockets advantage was was down
low with Alprin Shangoon and Steven Adams doing their thing.
Do you think Steve Kerr kind of just lets that
ride or do you think we see a little more
Kevon Looney or Quentin Post.

Speaker 2 (08:46):
Well, that's a good question, because boy Adams, Wow, he'd
be my number one pick if I needed somebody at
Foxhole from the NBA.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
Give me see that right? He scares me big time,
big time, would just talk and dudes are around.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
I mean that guy is I mean, he is insanely strong,
but you know him and Shinhud. I thought a lot
of the problem though, wasn't just him. It was the
worries weren't boxing out the Wings because the Rockets, I
mean they have really athletic wings. I mean, I mean
Thompson doesn't get any more athletic than that Jabari Smith
Junior Easton. I mean, they get some guys who can

(09:23):
get after it on the glass. So the Wings got
to do a better job of at least checking their
players before they go and pursue the balls. A lot
of times they get caught, along with a lot of
other NBA teams get caught ball watching on the perimeter,
and if you do that and the offense is going
to be to the offensive glass. So I don't know
if there's a whole lot they can do about it.
I mean, the Rockets were number one in the league

(09:44):
this year and upensive rebounding percentage, so it's what they do.
You'd like to limit it a little bit, and you'd
like to make them pay the price for crashing the glass.
If you do get the offensive rebound, you got to
go and try to get something in the court. Speaking
of the open court, the worst did a good job
of that keeping the Rockets out of transition because they're

(10:06):
really good at that as well. So but yeah, I mean,
I don't know. I don't know if he's gonna play
like they won Game one, So I'm thinking, you know,
you don't change a whole lot, But yeah, you'd like
to limit their offensive pass and I think what he
who would like to do is maybe take advantage of
that double big lineup on the on the offensive end,

(10:30):
try to involve them in some more pick and rolls.
Although I thought shan Gun and Adams did a good
job on the pick and rolls. They stayed with step
reasonably well enough time for the point guard to get
over and then the rotations are pretty good. The problem
the wars have sometimes Draymond's not setting the pick and roll.
Then Jimmy and Draymond are your spacers, and they're not

(10:53):
really spacers. They're not really guys. You're putting the corner
to space the floor. They're kind of in the dunker spot.
It's so the floor can get a little compacted. Sometimes.
Udo does a real nice job with his defensive strategies too,
like he kind of forces the Words to do some
of those things. But you know, if the Words can
take advantage of it on offense, then maybe they can

(11:15):
force uh, you're made to take them off the court.
It's not then they're just gonna you know, the Rockets
maybe'll go even more too big tonight and just try
to hammer the Warriors into submission on the glass. But
it's always kind of fun to see just a little adjustment.
So there's never these wild adjustments right from game one
to game two, because even if you're the Rockets, you

(11:38):
don't want to change a lot of stuff. I mean,
you want to fix the two games this year. You
don't want to panic because the players are like, what
are we doing? We lost one game. It's not that
big a deal. It always seems like it is, but
it really isn't. You got to get to four the
worst you'll have to get to four? Yeah, So can
you do what you do and just do it a
little bit better? We'll see.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
God, it feels like to me to try to dump
down our industry. Tom the Rocket just got to hit shots.
I mean, there's really no other way around it. The
backcourt has got to hit shots that they're going to
make this a game tonight. Thank you, my friend, for
coming on the show. Enjoy on midday Nap. I'm assuming
you're going to be having here after your show, and
we'll look forward to seeing you and Tim later at
the arena tonight.

Speaker 3 (12:13):
Thanks for the time. We really appreciate it.