From Coffee Culture to the Golden State Warriors: Mastery, Trends & the Art of the Blend

In this episode, I retell my conversation with Jared Truby one that I  lost to a recording error but the ideas, the flavors, and the lessons were too good to let disappear. So here it is: a narrative reconstruction of everything we discussed, from experimental ferments to Steph Curry’s gravitational genius, from culture-building to trend-chasing, and the art of staying relevant in your craft.

☕ Part 1 — The Cup That Started It All

Jared talks about tasting every roast weekly, why relationships define Cat & Cloud, and the rise of “pink champagne” ferments reshaping flavor boundaries.

🏀 Part 2 — NBA Trends & the Warriors’ Identity Crisis

Scoring is at a 60-year high. The Warriors once led the revolution… but can they evolve again? We talk Warriors, Thunder, and how trendsetters become time capsules unless they reinvent.

🔥 Part 3 — Jimmy Butler’s Big Face Coffee

A San Francisco pop-up becomes a case study in branding, intentionality, and culture — and why Jimmy Butler’s coffee obsession mirrors his evolution into a Warrior.

💛 Part 4 — Culture, Comfort & Cracks in the Foundation

Cat & Cloud and the Warriors share one thing: intentional culture. But as the Draymond–Poole incident showed, culture must be maintained daily.

🌟 Part 5 — Kuminga, Growth, & What Mastery Really Requires

Talent vs. fit. Potential vs. patience. Coffee apprentices vs. young NBA stars. Why growth is equal parts confidence and humility.

🖼️ Part 6 — The Western Conference Canvas

Jokić’s historic dominance, Wembanyama’s creativity window, and whether the Warriors are No. 3 in the West… if health and chemistry hold.

👟 Part 7 — Shoes, Identity & One Final Blend

Curry traction stories, Jimmy Butler’s JB4s, and Jared comparing Steph to a rare Panamanian green-tip Gesha — elegant, balanced, and endlessly surprising.

Whether in roasting beans or running an offense, the art is in the blend — mastery, timing, culture, and curiosity.

If you enjoy conversations that mix coffee, basketball, culture, and craft, hit subscribe, and share the episode with someone who’d vibe with it.

☕️ Helpful Links

Cat & Cloud Coffee

https://catandcloud.com

NBA Stats – League Leaders & Trends

https://stats.nba.com

Cat & Cloud Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cat-cloud-podcast/id1127136431

🎙️ About Me

Episodes explore the crossroads of basketball history, craft, culture, and the stories that define icons. Whether it’s hardwood, hip-hop, sneakers, or specialty coffee it’s all about the journey toward mastery.

Transcript

All right, we're gonna try this again because I kind of messed up actually. No, I really messed up recording with Jared Truby. He's one of the founders of Cat and Cloud Coffee in Santa Cruz, California. And man, we had such a great conversation and I just couldn't let it disappear into the audio mistakes, that I, that I made.

So here's the next best thing. You're gonna get the story, the flavor, the lessons that I drew from our conversation, everything we talked about, coffee culture, and basketball. Retold as best I can.

Part one, the cup that started it all. I just got off the phone with Jared and he was talking about Rosalia Martinez, their Guatemalan producer whose coffee had the perfect mix of sweet berries, creamy chocolate, and black tea finish. He was proud of it, but more than that, it reminded me why I love talking to people who love what they do.

Jared's also always been about coffee. And about the relationships that they foster in their cafes at their roastery and with the producers of the coffee. And that's something that I've really enjoyed about learning about the industry, something that I love that gives me, , a way to travel the world even though I don't travel as much as I used to.

It just is a fun way to learn about different parts of the world. And I love starting our conversation there. Jared's been in coffee. For nine years now at Cat and Cloud. He even said that he tastes every coffee that they roast every single week. Think about that. He's the owner and the co-founder. He still cups everything weekly and not just the coffee, but everybody's tasting it.

It's the way he stays alive in the craft. It's how he stays curious. And one of the things that we hit on is this new world that's come around the ferments and the way that they're shocking the coffee cherries. And they've got one coming out that I'm definitely gonna, check out. He called it the pink champagne ferment.

Uh, experimental Sparkly, aromatic. It's definitely a trend that's popped up and it's something to watch if you enjoy the really like. Almost shocking flavor that you can get from certain coffees. It's certainly something that, that I would encourage someone to put on, put on order. And we talked a a little bit in that vein about trying to stay away from just chasing trends.

Well, you always want to see what's out there so you don't miss the next evolution. You also don't want to be too far off on the edge because I think that it can alienate people and they, they've always been about bringing people into the specialty coffee space and, and I, and I love that. And that's basketball too.

I. Part two, we talked about staying ahead of the curb and the NBA trends. Decide who survives scoring is up. We are scoring more right now than at any time since the 1960s. Think about that. That is 50, 60 years ago, and the game didn't even have a three point line then, so it was played completely differently.

There are multiple pieces of this that are very interesting. The warriors years ago were the trend, and I really hit on this idea before the season started of two teams, one in the east, one in the west that are interesting bellwethers. They're not the best teams because I think sometimes the best teams have such a mixture of talent and such a specific identity that they can buck any trend.

For example, the Oklahoma City Thunder aren't a great shooting team, which would seem weird in this day and age, but they have this transcendent star and their defense is absolutely unbelievable. So the two teams I had the idea on were the Warriors and and Philadelphia. They're more in the middle and could swing either way.

You've got two young guys that are leading Philadelphia. And buoyed by the older guys. And on the opposite end, you've got the warriors who are still led by this older transcendent star and Steph Curry buoyed by some of the younger guys, but they're still trying to find something, for them. When they started though, they clearly broke open this new era with shooting spacing and they took what Steve Nash and the Phoenix Sun started and turned it from an idea into a movement, and then everybody copied them of, of course, right, three point revolution pace and space. Positionless lineups. You could call Steph Curry a point guard, but he really does the point guard thing. AKA sets up other people by.

The defense to him rather than with the ball in his hands always distributing to other people. It's, it's a very different way to do it, but has a somewhat the same effect. J. But like Jared said about coffee, once the rest of the world catches up to you, you can either evolve again or fade into nostalgia.

You don't wanna be the last coffee shop still clinging to the same roast while everyone else has changed their palettes. And you don't wanna be the last team living off the mid-range in twos when everyone else is playing chess at 27 feet. Part three, we talked about Big Face Coffee, Jimmy Butler and the San Francisco popup.

They went and checked out Big Face Coffee in San Francisco. Jimmy Butler did this really cool popup shop as a part of his larger brand. He's got a standalone shop in Miami where he was before he moved to Golden State. But obviously this guy is crazy about the the coffee culture. And Jared went to the popup in San Francisco as a limited run shop.

It was tucked into this old delicatessen on Valencia Street. He was super interested in just. How they set it up, it was definitely Instagram first, service second, but loved the touches they had that big face branded olive oil sandwiches and the storytelling baked into that space. So just, not about coffee, but about the brand and about creating a soul with that brand. And, and that's so Jimmy Butler, like, that's what I loved about what he was saying. 'cause Jimmy Butler starts this in the bubble, , as an idea, charging 20 bucks a cup.

Not because he had to, but because he believed that the experience that he was delivering was worth it. And it's. You know, he can do that because he's got that other income. But it also sometimes takes people taking , a big chance. He certainly could have been laughed out of the room,, or people thought he was ridiculous, but he stuck to it and is actually developed into, into a real coffee identity now that he is a, a warrior and literally on the roster, he is blending in with them into something that is already.

Legendary. And then he, it's clear that he fit from the beginning. He's didn't come in to take over. He came in to be a piece, and he even has his new shoes out, the JB fours, and Steph has worn the Batman version and he's worn the Robin version. Version. And for a guy that has been an alpha his entire career, it shows an understanding of how transcendent Steph Curry is, and it shows how much he wants to win.

He's always been about winning. While he has had a tumultuous exit to some of the places that he's been at, when he's got there, he's always been about winning and will contribute to that, at least at the start.

Part four was culture and comfort. One of the things I've always loved about both Cat and Cloud and the Warriors is identity, a sense of who they are and a willingness to keep working on it. Cat and Cloud has this belief system that's evolved over time. They care about people, they serve them well. They build their culture intentionally.

When we taste their coffee, you can. Taste that consistency. There is something comforting in it. And they also then push the boundaries for those who are interested in that too. And the Warriors, same deal. Steph Curry is the embodiment of comfort and that bleeding edge, the awe that comes in with it. You know exactly what he's gonna do, and somehow still he pushes the boundaries and blows your mind every time he does it just a little bit differently.

That's culture. It's routine turned into art, predictability made magical. And the scary thing, that kind of culture can break fast when the alignment slips. And we joked about that with the Draymond Jordan pool moment, and that was a crack that reminded us that culture isn't permanent. It's maintained every single day.

Part five. We talked about growth and the young core. We pivoted to talking about the young guys, which in the time between us talking and me finally getting around to recording my thoughts on this, Jonathan Minga has really slipped. Once again, he had that brief moment where I was like. Well, maybe he really is gonna figure out and now it feels like they're just waiting till one day after he's eligible to be traded to get him out of there.

He just never has been the right fit for their system. For the culture. He's a little bit too, me first. He's a little bit too much of a need. The ball in his hands guy for a team that's predicated on passing and movement, and you could tell that one of the things I enjoyed about this was that. Even though Jared's a real fan of the Warriors, he's also a realist.

He talked about the raw power he saw in Minga, but also he recognized the impatience, the desire to be something more before he was ready, before he had fully his, his skills had fully caught up with his talent. And he even talked about what he sees sometimes in coffee apprentices, baristas, who can't wait to innovate, but haven't yet mastered the fundamentals.

You need that spark that belief in yourself, but you also need the humility to know when you're still learning the grind, when. You still need to fit in before you fit out to borrow LeBron's, saying, and that's such a warrior thing. Steph has had to grow into his leadership. Draymond had to learn when to bark, when to breathe.

Sometimes he still doesn't know Minga, just the next in that lineage, but I'm not sure he is ever going to gonna get there at the, at this point. Part seven. We talked about the western canvas. We zoomed out and talked about the whole Western conference. Of course, Nicole Yoic came up and we geeked out on his passing.

I, I saw the stat this week and hopefully everyone else saw this. He's the first player ever, ever, not will not Jordan, nobody to lead for a decade in four different Stati, the four major statistical categories scoring. Rebounding assists. Just he's, he is a wild player. Like to be the shape that he is and look the way he does and to dominate the way he does is just absolutely incredible.

And we both, got onto his passing then more specifically and miss some of that across the league. There is a. Consistency with which everyone moves the ball. But there is this hyperfocus, which is important when you're gonna have the scoring that we have, but there's a hyperfocus on efficiency. So some of the exciting passing, which could also be characterized as careless that Jason Williams brought to the league.

Maybe has drifted a little bit because those are, are more turnover prone as well, and Yoic somehow is still able to do that and, and be efficient. It's just different. He is definitely, again, gravitational a conductor and , has the ability to play point guard at the center position because of the way he brings people to him and moves the ball.

Unfortunately in the time between that we also had, we Bama get injured, but we certainly enjoyed talking about him and the other worldly start that he had. Definitely something that we were speculating about. Like, how do you stop this guy? Jared had a pretty sharp take at this. He felt that teams haven't had the time or incentive quite yet to figure him out because he's been in and out so much currently out again, but thinks that it'll come, that it always has. But right now he's in a pure kind of creative space that he just gets to do what he wants and related it back to business too. That every great idea has that brief, glorious window before imitation, dulls it or catches up with it. But that's the moment that you have to maximize. And that's what I hope that when Bama comes back healthy and is able to have a fantastic season, because inevitably people will try to scheme against him more.

I worry that guys that big just don't last very long. So just the opportunity to see him out there, to make a run at it, I think would be incredible.

So where does Golden State actually stand? Jared's take was number three in the west. Whew. I pushed hard on that. Of course, I've got a little more time on my belt, but my argument was too old, too fragile, too many unknowns. But they had gone at that time, 27 and eight since Butler's trade. So there's something, if they can peak again and be healthy at the right time, they certainly could.

At least make another upset in the playoffs. They're definitely a good basketball team, but not the dynasty or dynastic like they were something humbler or more human. They can still win if the breaks fall right, but definitely older and they're gonna need health and chemistry, luck to sprinkle in there to really make a, make a run at it.

We get got into a little bit about just side conversations here as we wrapped up Anthony Davis and his bilateral tendinopathy. I had no idea what that meant, but definitely it was the most dramatic way to ever say that someone was sore. I don't know how hurt he is, but he's been out and now he's on the trade trade block too.

We also talked a little bit about some of our favorite shoes. It's definitely again, brought up Butler's leanings and the way of Wade and Curry, who now is a free agent, which is interesting. And we, we laughed about the curry shoes 'cause they're, they have this, if no one's played in them, they actually, the soles of them have, they're made of the same things that make, they make diapers out of it and they just make it more dense, and put it on the bottom of the shoes and it.

Stops so hard. I still remember playing in a pickup game and running into someone 'cause I tripped. 'cause the traction was too good and the guy gave me the, broke it off me and he said he had face planted it in the same shoes. So. Great grip, but,, be, be ready, for those. And then we closed, wrapping up one word in the Warriors this year.

He said Excellent little Bill and Ted flavor, but, he meant it and delivered it with, , Jared Truby humor. When I asked him to compare Steph to coffee, he didn't hesitate. He said, green tip, GE chef from the mountains of Panama. Rare and distinct, perfect balance of clarity, comfort, and brilliance. You can drink it a hundred times and still be amazed every single time. That's the warriors, that's cat and cloud and that's anyone chasing mastery in their craft. So yeah. Not the episode I plan, but I turned it into something. A conversation about taste, timing, and trust about finding culture and fighting to protect it.

If you made it this far, do yourself a favor. Grab a bag of cat and cloud coffee, watch some basketball. It's feast week after all, college or pros, it doesn't matter to me. And remember whether it's roasting beans or running an offense, the art is in the blend.