The Matt Thomas Show with Ross - Warriors Radio Analyst & NBA Veteran Tom Tolbert Joins The Show Before Game 2 Of NBA Playoffs

Episode Date: April 23, 2025

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

NBA veteran, long-time 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. Hope you've enjoyed our city so far. How are you enjoying these days off in between games? Too many.

You got that right. Too many days off. Boy, 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 all good.

What did you see, my ask? I saw warfare. It's pretty intense. Thumbs up or thumbs down? Thumbs up for me. But it was intense. Like it looked like it was pretty a portrayal. So, yeah, it was good, though.

I was going to go see that or sinners. And sinners was too long. I was like two hours and 30 minutes or something, but I'll go through that when I get back home. So, yeah, I've just been getting out walking. There have been some, you know, nice neighborhoods and good restaurants that I've eaten at so far. So, yeah, I've had a good time since I've been here.

It's great to have you with us on the show for the very first time. Tom, let me ask you about Steph because he was held in check when we saw you guys a few weeks ago, one for 10 against the Warriors in San Francisco, one three-point basket. I don't think he carried that over into game one. I think it was a playoffs. It couldn't have been, it wouldn't have mattered who he played. But some of the freakish shots, and you have been witness to so many of them, how does he still do it at this age?

How does he still catch and shoot in rhythm 35 footers? He's Steph. I mean, there's really no other way to put it. He's one of one when it comes to that kind of stuff. I mean, he hit three shots in the second half of game one that were just absurd. of course the one over Jalen Green where he's falling out of bounds, drifting right, and drills that one. Then he drilled the probably 35-footer from the right side. And then he drilled one where the shot clock was running out, where the ball was in his hands a nanosecond,

just like flipped it up there. And that thing went as well. And that thing really surprises me with him. And I've always said with Step that he makes the extraordinary, like ordinary. I've seen it so many times over and over and over again that I guess I'm a little jaded just I don't get all that bays by what he does I mean those three shots were pretty wild even those ones

you know raise 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 so I just kind of shake my head and go that stuff yeah unfortunately I've called so many on the other side of that I have the exact same opinion. Tom Toberwood is here from Warriors Radio. Tom, when you

found out the 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, it's gone very, very well for him wearing Golden State gear. Yeah, I mean, Because they were interested in Durant, and 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, Dean Butler's a good player. How's he going to fit in here? You know, he doesn't really stretch the court, doesn't give him another guy, he can shoot. And then you watch him play every day.

And that's the thing I always try to impart on people. Like, it's so funny when you need MVP voting and all that kind of stuff. I'm like, you really never know how good a guy is until you see him every day. You know, you don't know his 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 Draymond-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 often than not. And he didn't really have to stretch the court. Like he doesn't shoot. 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 it just now I get it. Like I watch him plans. It's like, now I get it. And he's really good, too. Like, I mean, the tangible stuff, he's still really good at that. But under Igadala is probably the best in the league at that, where he'd have eight points, four rebounds, four assists, and be a plus-18 consistently.

Because plus minus can be one. You know, that could be an aberration once every now and again, or maybe if you add it up a weekly. But when it's his career, like, that's who Igadala was. And I see a lot of them in 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 i gotta be honest ross with you as well here tom and just curious your observations game number one things that you saw maybe offensively defensively rotations and anything that surprised you and that you're keeping an eye on for game two well look i mean

Jaylen Green and Van Bleed are going to shoot the ball better. And that's just, and law of averages. Jalen Green, Jalen Green, I think the Warriors did a great job at keeping him to his left, didn't let him get to his right. And I think for him,

he was kind of stuck in between. Should I just shoot 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 had 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. The playoffs are different. Playoffs are a different feel, and there's a little more pressure to each possession when it comes to the playoffs.

You get up to a slow start sometimes. It's kind of tough to dig yourself out of that hole, and I'm sure he felt the pressure. And then, like, let's be honest, Van Bleda doesn't have well all season. I mean, he's under 40 from 2, or overall, I should say, and shoots around 35 from 3. But, you know, he's going to shoot it better. I have no doubt about that. Offensively on the glass, they killed the Warriors, killed them. And I think they beat them up pretty good this year, too.

I want to say in the five games they played previously. They averaged 17 second chance points. The Warriors averaged 10. And the Warriors are pretty good offensive rebating, too. But the Rock is 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 they a team that 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 the outside? They were, excuse me, they were seven for 37 outside the paint in game one. You can't win that way.

It just, I mean, 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 outfits of glass. But defensively, they played fine. I mean, they got into them defensively. The Warriors, I think, only assisted on 55% of their field goals in game one,

and they led the league in that stat. They assisted on 71% of their field goals in the regular season. So the Rocks did a really good job of making them go one-on-one. Steph hit some crazy shot. Jimmy hit that crazy shot from the left side, about a 20-footer toward 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.

They just have to hit a few more shots. And if you don't, you're just not going to win. But I suspect they will. But can they hit them consistently enough throughout the course of the seven-game series to give them a chance to win? We'll see. Tom Tolbert with us here on a Sports Talk 790. You mentioned the boards, and it seemed like that's where the Rockets' advantage was,

was down low with Alpern-Shingon and Stephen Adams doing their thing. Do you think Steve Kerr kind of just lets that ride, or do you think we see a little more Kavanaugh-Luni or Quentin Post? Well, that's a good question because, boy, Adams, wow. He'd be my number one pick if I needed somebody at a foxhole from the NBA. Not that right. He scares me, big time, big time. He was just tossing dudes around.

I mean, that guy is, I mean, he is insanely strong. But, you know, him and Shangoon, I thought a lot of the problem, though, wasn't just him. It was the warriors 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, Jr., Ethan, I mean, they got some guys that can 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 ball.

Because 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, 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 this year. offensive rebound a 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've got to go and try to get something in the open

court. Speaking of the open court, the worst is a good job of that, keeping the rockets out of transition, because they're really good at that as well. But, yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know if he's going to play. Like, they won game one, so I'm thinking, you know, you don't. don't change a whole lot. But yeah, you'd like to limit their

offensive class, and I think what he would like to do is maybe take advantage of that double big lineup on the offense event. Try to involve them in some more pick and rolls. Although I thought Shingoon and

Adams did a good job on the pick and rolls, they stayed with Steph reasonably well, enough time for the point guard to get over. Then the rotations were pretty good. The problem the wars have sometimes that Dreyman's not set in the pick and roll than Jimmy and Dremont

are your spacers and they're not really spacers. They're not really guys you put in the corner to space the floor. They're kind of in the dunker spot. 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 worries to do some of those things. But, you know, if the worst can take advantage of it on offense, then maybe they can force, you may, to take them off the court. If not, then they're just going to, you know, the Rockets may 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 adjustments.

There's never these wild adjustments, right, from game one to game two, because even if you're the Rockets, you don't want to change a lot of stuff. I mean, you won 52 games this year. You don't want to panic because the players are like, what are we doing? When 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 worries still have to get to four. So can you do what you do and just do it a little bit better? We'll see. God, it feels like to me to try to dump down our industry, Tom, the Rock has just got to hit shots. I mean, there's really no other way around it. The back court 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. Thanks for the time. We really appreciate it.