golden state warriors thread

the funny thing about the money ball nba era with all the high variance hoisting where over matched teams have a prayer is dunks are still dunks baby, shots that you shoot 99% on are very low variance, start letting teams get to the rim and you could play a hundred series and never win

stats guy: a bounce here and bounce there can swing a series between what are ultimately teams with razor thin edges

me: the famous basketball rim is soul death for defense

the jazz are basically a very nice sports car you only can drive in good conditions and they have an additional problem which is that there are almost no improvement candidates on their roster. donovan mitchell has been having basically the same season for a couple years now.

mitchell could still improve or just have a great year and theyd still need to solve the gobert problem which is unsolvable

prob the best approach to the gobert problem is to surround him with great dynamic defenders but unfortunately the jazz are very far from that

mitchell doesn't need to have better years than he's having for them to get high seeds. they're made to punish bad teams and collect regular season wins. and it could still work for a playoff run too with some health, matchup luck, a mitchell hot streak, etc. but they haven't made it easy on themselves by going all-in on very specific ways of playing offense and defense.

if they were to somehow draw four rounds of opponents decimated by injuries it wouldnt even count imo, much like the lakers bubble championship

ben simmons for conley/ingles works in the machine

i think ultimately we can look at this through the lens of karma, having one of your main guys not be able to do anything good with the basketball summons cursed vibes

the celtics were spared this hex via bill russell being a great outlet passer, and from all that happening in the beforetime

also he started the corona virus xp

otm

simmons and gobert offense is a nightmare concept

the jazz *do* have a player in mitchell who can score against loaded up playoff defenses making crazy contested shots and can get to the rim/foul line. that's not nothing... he shot 43% on 11.5 threes per game last playoffs. the issue to me is that he's still not better at that than steph or booker, so even at the high end they get trumped by the dubs and suns, and those other teams are better constructed and more malleable than the jazz. they're in a tier below the suns and dubs for me who are prob in a tier below the east teams

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32994009/perfect-fit-us-golden-state-warriors-reclamation-former-no-1-pick-andrew-wiggins

Thanks for posting that :)

klay back 2moro

After 941 days away from game, Warriors’ Klay Thompson announces he will make season debut Sunday against the Cavaliers in the Bay Area. https://t.co/3M9nORJXcL

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 8, 2022

bless

I didn't find out til today that he actually uses his boat to get to and from Chase Center.

Clearing my schedule. Also, got more dubs tix for 1/20 (a friend's school had a block for a fundraiser)! Looking forward to some balling.

The most underrated klay moment by far

pic.twitter.com/ancICb1OHl

— Jared Gross (@jaredmgross) January 8, 2022

lmao

nice article on Klay & getting through rehab ... hyped to see him play again

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/warriors/article/He-never-gave-up-How-Klay-Thompson-endured-16760192.php

fyi
https://12ft.io/proxy?q=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sfchronicle.com%2Fsports%2Fwarriors%2Farticle%2FHe-never-gave-up-How-Klay-Thompson-endured-16760192.php

Welcome back Klay. He didn’t look too rusty. In fact looked pretty damn good. Dunks, 3s, defense…

Yah looked pretty sharp. Didn’t look to pass once lol

"they pay me to shoot"

Apparently Kerr drew up that first play for Klay to kick it out but he took the shot anyway.

of course haha

dubs going through a tough stretch and got the bucks n bulls up next. need dray back asap and/or curry to snap out of it.

klay looks pretty good all thing considered. Iggy looks considerably more cooked since coming back from injury. GP2 should probably be playing 30 minutes per game honestly.

but perspective if you woulda said to me last year that 40 games into the season they'd be 30-10 with klay just coming back i'd take that any day.

idk feel like it could be a good time to ease back work klay in get guys rest, and maybe if they lose some games management will make a trade

in fact i think kerr and the team should engage in a conspiracy of losing for this purpose

thye should def take it easy. they proved theyre still a contender and now just need to get right for the playoffs and get dray/klay/curry used to playing together again

yeah theyve had their foot on the gas all season

they should still try to get one of indys guys for wiseman tho

wiseman has to show something first he has pretty much zero value rn. and if he does show something then joey lightyears isnt trading him no way in hell

i would trade for wiseman

big rob? sounds good

lol rob would be nice for the warriors

Yes

Think Steph might need a meditation retreat. Vow of silence for a week type thing.

they were saying this is his 11th worst slump/stretch. probably just feels worse than it is.

steph for MPJ who says no

MPJ and crypto stuff

Haha throw some doge coin in

dray out at least a couple weeks with a back/calf thing. dubs need to dump chioza and find a big on a two way asap

he does things this team has never had

Jonathan Kuminga last 5 games (24.6 mpg):

16.8 pts
48% fg
33% 3pt
6.6 rebs
1.2 ast
.6 stl
.8 blk
1.4 to

— Grant Liffmann (@GrantLiffmann) January 19, 2022

put him on my fantasy team two days ago, don't fail me now

I know it was lolpistons but it was thrilling seeing him and Steph working on their two-man game last night.

Having Iggy and JTA on the court and Kuminga on the bench at the end of the 4th and OT is malpractice. Kerr was outcoached by Carlisle all night.