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What is a fellow thermonuclear or a
efforts I am a damp valley coming at

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you with a little bit of a
somber Hardwar Knocks podcast. The Stephen Curry

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injury is going to be out at
least a few weeks with a left shoulder

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injury that he's suffered in Wednesday's loss
to the Indiana Pacers. Before we dive

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into the implications of this, maybe
how much we should panic or not panic,

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but mostly probably panic. Please remember
too, subscribe to us wherever you're

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listeners who return, but we're also
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to new listeners as well. Join
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Lots of good conversations and tons of fun

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in there all the time. And
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Those are in the YouTube and podcast
description as well. We're at Hardwood Knox

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on Twitter and TikTok at Hardwood Underscore
Knox on Instagram. With that out of

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the way, we get to the
Golden State Warriors and frankly, go ahead

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and smash those Golden State Warriors panic
buttons you've been staring at, maybe even

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nervously fumbing for most of the season. Steph is set to miss a few

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weeks after suffering left shoulder injury against
the Pacers. As I mentioned before,

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he isn't expected to need surgery,
isn't according to sham Shrani of The Athletic,

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and he's going to be reevaluated in
two weeks. The Warriors are now

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free to enter existential risis mode accordingly
and look full blown. Dread is not

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a knee jerk reaction overreaction to Steph's
injury. The absence of a concrete timetable

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beyond these few weeks does little too
sort of diminish fears. The ambiguous wording,

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if anything, and lack of context
is only going to amplify cause for

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alarm. Maybe a few weeks really
does meet a few weeks, as in

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like two or three. We know
that's not how these reevaluations work, but

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for argument's sake, let's say he's
back in that time, great, grand

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wonderful. The Warriors don't have a
few weeks, and that's the thing that

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we need to drive home here.
They sit one game under five hundred at

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the time of this news, clinging
to ten places in the Western Conference and

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what would be the final playing spot. Optimists will note that they are mere

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five games back of the first place
Memphis Grizzlies. Awesome Realists will point out

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that the Doubs are the four and
a half five games in front of the

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fifteenth place San Antonio Spurs. This
is all to say Golden State's margin for

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error does not exist. The NBA
is enjoying thermonuclear af levels of parody right

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now, and the Warriors bird whatever
breathing room they had on juggling slash fumbling

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visions of two timelines and on rest
nights and on off efforts they weren't and

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still aren't actually good enough to have
so any Lue of the Light Years podcast

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had a good tweet on this.
I'm gonna throw it up on the screen

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b anyone watching that I really thought
was salient, He tweeted. Charlotte,

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Detroit, Orlando, Dallas, Indiana, Utah, Indiana again all awful,

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unserious. Els that if the Warriors
had simply won three of the four out

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of the seven, they'd be in
a good place to weather this Steph injury.

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But they've not won, built the
roster to maximize wins, nor two

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has the coaching staff tried to develop
gods to be better than their bad vet

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pickups. Now the Warriors have to
decide whether to make a move soon or

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sit and wait on a season slipping
away quickly. Again, these are just

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not overreactions. Going a few weeks
without Steph in this competitive climate is akin

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to maybe tossing your season away.
The Warriors have barely been able to go

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a few minutes without step Golden State
has outscored opponents by one hundred and forty

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five points in the eight hundred and
ninety four minutes Steph has been on the

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floor. It has lost the five
hundred and three minutes he's been on the

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bench so far by one hundred and
twenty seven points. STEP's overall net sweeting

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net rating swing is still one of
the sixth largest in the league, regardless

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of flying time, and the Warriors
see both their offensive rating and effective field

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goal percentage descend into hopelessness when he's
on the sidelines. They're rating drops by

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seventeen point eight points per one hundred
possessions, again, one of the three

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biggest marks in the league. They're
affective field goal percentage drops by eight point

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three percentage points. That's the second
largest dip in the league. Theoretically,

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this is why you extended Jordan Pool
on a nine figure deal. There is

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no replacing Steph's impact, neither on
nor off the ball, and no team

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in the league is built to withstand
the loss of thirty points and six point

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eight assists on sixty six point eight
true shooting and this three point volume and

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range and defense warping movement. Still, Pool is supposed to represent the pinnacle

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of Golden State's multi timeline project,
the ascending star who's both ready now yet

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not anywhere near his prime. The
idea of his ball hand and his finishing

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and his self creation and his table
setting should be the vehicle through which the

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Warriors navigate steps stint on the shelf
in practice, though Pool's not ready,

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at least he's not playing like he's
ready. This season, career high usage

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has been accompanied by a personal worst
turnover rate and his lowest true shooting percentage

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since he was a rookie. His
three point clip has now dip below thirty

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two percent for the year, and
it's hovered beneath thirty percent for more than

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half the damn season. His fifty
three point four percent clip inside the arc

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is a breath of fresh air,
and he is knocking down sixty seven point

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two percent of his looks within five
feet since November. Does he get to

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the rim that range enough for it
to matter and not really, but there's

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more variants caked into his perimeter game
than ever. Pool posted an effective field

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goal percent of forty eight point three
on pull up jumpers last last season,

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unspectacular but not necessarily dire. That
number has plunged to forty two point four

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this year. Similarly problematic, Pool
has gone from burning thirty seven point nine

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percent of his catching fire triples to
just thirty four point seven percent, and

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he's been even worse than that thirty
four point seven percent clips since been November.

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The caveat to all this, which
is in no way comforting, The

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best version of Pool has never even
qualified as an offensive lifeline independent of Steph.

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Here's where Golden State's offense has ranked
the past three years when Pool plays

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without him. In twenty twenty twenty
one, the OL rating ranked in the

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sixth percentile during those minutes. Last
year it ranked in the forty percentile,

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and this year it ranks in the
second percentile. This is not Pools failure

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alone. More than anything, it
reiterates the immense and immeasurable value of Steph

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this season especially. It's also an
indictment of the front office and its decisions

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to tether too much of the second
unit's livelihood to prospects and unproven Zenja Michael

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Green two of their credit. The
Warriors have discovered some semblance of balance by

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adding Draymond Green to bench heavy year
combos. They've actually outscored opponents by four

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point three points per one hundred possessions
with a top tier defensive rating. By

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the way, when dre headlines deathless
lineups. Jonathan Cominga has also been coming

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along at both ends too. That's
big, It's not a panacea. There's

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a difference between surviving extended stretches against
non starters and turning this set up into

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your entire existence. And that's before
counting for Andrew Wiggins his own absence.

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He hasn't played since December third,
after suffering an a ductor injury more urgently

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than ever. The Warriors now must
look inward and decide once and for all

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whether it's officially time to look outward, if they care at all about this

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season, about respecting steps timeline.
Upon his return, they will make a

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trade. It doesn't necessarily need to
be for a star. They might have

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the AMMO, but that again we've
talked about on this podcast many times.

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The star trade market doesn't seem to
exist right now. Targeting flat out upgrades

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is just is perfectly fine. A
stretchy big who can still move to pair

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with kaminga depth and size on the
wings, and of course another ball handler

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or self starter who doesn't crypt the
spacing. Those would all be essential additions.

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But the Warriors have to commit to
pointing up for them. Maybe that

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involves selling low on James Wiseman,
who got recalled from the G League on

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Thursday, or Moses Moody. Perhaps
it involves flipping a draft pick or draft

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picks plural kaminga should be off limits
of I would say in non star trades,

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though, but surrendering any one of
these chips or some combination of everything

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will Sting parting with Wiseman specifically mandate
level of self awareness. The Warrior's brass

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is not yet indulged. It would
be an admission that, yeah, they

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fucked up in the twenty twenty draft, and then yeah, they fucked up

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all over again over the twenty twenty
two offseason by still not doing something about

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it. That's hard to do under
any circumstances. It's even tougher when you're

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talking about turning a twenty one year
old number two pick into someone like Josh

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Richardson or Kelly Olennock or PJ.
Washington or Mo Bamba or Eric Horn or

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Jay Crowder. It's much less painful
if that someone is on the scale of,

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say Miles Turner, but you're not
getting Miles Turner for Wiseman and Filler

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alone. At this point. There
is of course a chance, the Warriors

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just take the more patient approach.
They could use STEP's absence to double down

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on self exploration and see what they
have without their franchise lifeblood, and hope

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they'll then have enough time upon his
return to put it all together. They

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could also just not fucking care about
what becomes of this season. They own

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their first round pick and aren't exactly
worlds away from top notch odds. Prioritizing

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development for prospects and unknowns and then
rest for the Vets in the name of

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an impromptu gap year is technically on
the table as well. They could then

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recalibrate over the off season with a
better idea of who they are outside Steph

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and another glitzy prospect to pedal or
to groom. This latter scenario would be

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a choice, though, to really
go through another gap year, that would

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be a choice. Clay Thompson turns
thirty three in February, Draymond Green turns

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thirty three in March, and he
hits free agency at seasons and if he

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declines his player option. Steph will
celebrate his thirty fifth birthday in March as

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well. Golden State's core is not
designed to just punt on another year and

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then regroup. That's the dilemma,
the same as it's ever been here.

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The Warriors cannot cater to one timeline
without entirely jeopardizing or damaging the other.

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There might be a right answer,
which would be maximizing STEP's window, but

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there's not an easy one, and
whether Golden State even has a choice anymore

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is an entirely separate manner. And
it's also debatable. There's nothing they can

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do without step to improve their position. Anything the Warriors actually do will be

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meant to buy time and reoptimize the
roster once he's back. And yet,

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how are they supposed to do anything
at all without knowing for sure how long

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the one player they couldn't ever afford
to lose will be sidelined. And if

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we're being bluntly honest, the Warriors
already made their decision. They opted for

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dual agendas, and in doing so, they missed their window to make a

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move, expand their margin for error
and maybe possibly withstand a blow such as

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this, and now without Steph their
season may have just ended because of it.

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I don't know why you would have
hope in this team being able to

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rebound and staying in playoff territory.
Maybe play in territory, but then they're

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just exhausting themselves when Steph comes back
to go on a run, make it

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to the playoffs, just to get
bounced in the second round. I don't

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necessarily know what the answer is,
but I don't know how you can feel

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00:11:56,200 --> 00:11:58,600
good about this situation. That'll do
it here if you made it all the

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00:11:58,600 --> 00:12:01,759
way to the Please remember you hit
that subscribe button on YouTube, or subscribe

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00:12:01,759 --> 00:12:05,759
wherever you're getting your your audio podcast
follow us on all the socials links to

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00:12:05,759 --> 00:12:09,639
that or in the podcast on YouTube
description along with our discord. Until next

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00:12:09,679 --> 00:12:11,799
time, and as always, I
leave you all with the shout out to

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00:12:11,879 --> 00:12:16,000
the one, the only, the
indelible. Maybe the Warriors should trade for

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him, said he can help salvage
which left up their season without Steph Frank Nila Pena