I have been following the Golden States Warriors for the past few years, and have been silently rooting for them. I used to be more of a football guy, but the NBA being in an opposite timezone than where I am interestingly made it an easier watch. I can’t really stay up at night or wake up super early to watch European football. Instead, I’ve been enjoying my morning time watching NBA matches, especially during the play-offs. And Steph Curry, being the unquestionably greatest shooters of all time made it easy to root for GSW.

I’m not ashamed to admit that I mostly just follow the NBA for the storyline. I play the sport a little (in video games) and know the rules a little bit, but am not advanced enough to appreciate the little tactics and counter-tactics they’re doing. So instead I’m drawn by the interesting personalities and crazy little stories from the NBA.

For some of my favorite stories, take a pick: My Dad’s Friendship With Charles Barkley, Kevin Durant’s You The Real MVP moment, Nikola Jokic winning the title and just wanted to come back to his horses, Steph Curry’s Double Bang in Oklahoma City, Klay’s 60 points in 11 dribbles.

GSW’s storyline is particularly riveting this season. Off to a great first start after losing Klay (the other half of the Splash Duo with Steph), then on a deep slump, and things got interested again once they traded for Jimmy Butler.

Jimmy is a character of his own, with many crazy stories like beating the first team with third stringers while in Minnesota:

But one thing that’s clear is that Jimmy is a dawg. He’s very intelligent when it comes to the game, carried his teams to the finals twice, and seemingly has an extra gear he can go in once it’s play-off time. He’s almost like an anime character coming to life.

And then comes Buddy Hield.

Buddy Hield is a great athlete and great shooter. But he’s been struggling with adapting to Warrior’s system. It’s understandable: GSW has a relatively more complex game plans compared to other teams, orchestrated by the unquestionably greatest defender of his era: Draymond Green. On the offensive side, there’s Steph Curry with his greatness, too. GSW’s system for the most part is set to accommodate and release these two, and it’s not easy.

When Jimmy Butler joined GSW, people were unsure at first, but the result speaks for itself. It turns out when you mix two championship veterans with another dude with high IQ and strong competitive spirit, the team immediately becomes better. The three of them seems like they’re in the same frequency.

But one thing that Jimmy brings is that he’s a great floor raiser: your role players play so much better with him around, like his legendary training session in Minnesota. Maybe it’s how he communicates with them. Maybe it’s how he makes people want to rally around him. Some people just have that kind of capability in them, and Jimmy has it. And Jimmy doesn’t waste time to get closer to Buddy Hield.

You see, Buddy Hield is supposed to be the second scoring option for GSW when Steph is out or being cold. But he’s been struggling adapting to the system. Jimmy saw this right away and immediately worked on fixing this by… teasing Buddy a lot.

Whenever he’d have a post-game interview, for instance, you could hear Jimmy joking around and trolling Buddy Hield. He’d say that Buddy can’t even spell the word “connector”. For some people this might be offensive, but Jimmy seems to intuitively understand that some people won’t listen to you if you’re being all serious and intellectual about it, and instead prefer to receive ideas and criticism via jokes and lighthearted jabs instead.

And this seems to be working! Buddy Hield’s performance has been great so far during the play-offs. He’s hustling on the defense and shooting at a great rate. The great thing about Jimmy’s method of trolling and almost becoming like a bickering sibling with Buddy is that it now opens up the avenue for Buddy to troll back:

Buddy has been said to be a good locker room presence. He seems to always be positive and supportive even though he’s not always the best at GSW’s type of game. And with Jimmy becoming a bickering duo with him, it seems to bring a new dynamic and confidence in Buddy’s game. Buddy was the reason GSW eliminated Houston in Game 7: 33 points, nine made three pointers.

He knows now that he’s got someone looking over him and helping him adapt, translating the game and situation that might not be intuitive to him. Even if that someone trolls him a lot, but he’s a brother now.

And that’s why I’m really enjoying the Jimmy and Buddy storyline now. They deserve a championship together.