golden state warriors thread

The Golden State Warriors will win the NBA playoffs

If Klay he could get into the 20 min / game mindset he could also go harder on defense. It’s been sad to see the slippage there post injuries

Time was Klay was clearly in the top 20 NBA players. He's not that now, but he's got some productive years in him as a rotation player. His defense has slipped more noticeably than his shooting. He used to be able to defend like a sonofabitch when he was called on for that.

Yah he was the guy who would guard the star/quick PGs but now he’s too slow but doing well against taller 4s and some wings. There was an adjustment period but they’re all settling into their roles now.

maybe 20 min/game sells him short. He can still light it some nights but other games have been rough. Gather folks don’t think he’s ready to move to 6th man gunner role just yet.

He still brings too much to move to the bench. That may come in the next 12-18 months tho… but who’s coming for his position? Podz still too young and unproven, moody can’t find consistent playing time still. Podz seems like the guy but that’s likely another season or two away and he’s gotta continue to rise pretty steadily.

Really loved how Klay mostly just let the game come to him last night. He's still so great at catch and shoot. Hopefully when CP3 comes back he can set him up for more of those than he's been getting. I'm a little worried about CP3 slowing the game down when they've been doing so well playing with pace but he really unlocks a lot for Trayce, Klay and especially Dario, who hasn't looked the same with CP3 gone.

Yeah last night was how I want to see him play more on a regular basis. Only took 7 3pt shots. My comment above about him being a negative player when missing shots was also a bit of an observation into his mindset - when he starts bricking, his defense gets worse and he forces bad shots to try and get out of his slump. He starts beating up on himself and he was indeed getting outplayed by the back half of the bench.

If he can just keep a positive mindset, stay in the flow of the game, and focus on areas he can control when the shots aren't falling, like defense, screening and cutting - he's a great role player.

That said, I disagree that he brings too much to come off the bench, he could be our next Iggy.

He’s not a connector/do-it-all like iggy. And also he’s playing a lot with the bench anyway. He usually checks out after 4-5 minutes then comes back in with the 2nd unit.

Idk how many more heartbreakers I can take this season

Unreal

This is the sixth loss this season for the Warriors after leading by at least 15 points -- blew a 22-point lead against the Clippers earlier this year. Only the Spurs have more.

— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) February 15, 2024

Just when you thought they'd moved beyond this

Seems like Kerr and Klay are determined to prove their critics right.

yeah last night was one where kerr shoulda looked elsewhere earlier and shoulda gone defense over offense when the lead started to slip a bit. podz missing those two flagrant free throws really killed the momentum and swung it the other way.

just saw the klay intentional foul down 3 with 37 seconds left…

not good, he had been sitting and clearly not paying attention to time/score.

Brandin Podziemski is starting in Klay Thompson’s place tonight in Utah. Thompson not currently listed on injury report, so appears to be coming off the bench. The lineup: Steph Curry, Podziemski, Andrew Wiggins, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green.

— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 16, 2024

hmmm

Lacob sez he wants to get entirely out of the luxury tax sooner than later:

The Warriors are carrying a $206 million base payroll this season, with another $100 million or so in projected luxury tax penalties thanks to repeater rates after their frequent trips past the tax line. They’re also well into the dreaded second apron, which removes a lot of tools to add players.

But next season, things could change without a major talent subtraction. The Warriors have about $140 million in payroll commitments to nine players, not counting the expiring deals of Klay and CP3, and, Lacob said, they’re aiming to get out of the tax completely next July. That would give them $31 million in wiggle room before the projected $171 million luxury-tax line to try to re-sign Klay and/or CP3 and add anybody else. They could also increase the space if they do something like off-loading Kevon Looney’s $7.6 million contract for next season, which is only partially guaranteed.

“Our Plan 1, or 1A, is actually we’d like to be out of the tax, and we think that we have a way to do that,” Lacob said. “That kind of is the plan, not just under the second apron. I’ll tell you why that’s important, because the truth is that we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four, below the tax line, in order to get this repeater thing off our books. We don’t want to be a repeater. It’s just so prohibitive, not to say we wouldn’t do it if we had to, but you’ve gotta look at what the downside is to doing that.

“There’s a Plan 1B, I guess, and 1B is we could go even further than that and we could make big changes if we had to. If this team were to slide all the way down and not do well the end of the year here, you know there’s gonna be big changes. But if we do really well, we might decide to go the other way. So everything’s open, we have to be flexible, I can just tell you that the goal is to not be a lottery team ever. The goal is to be competitive, the goal is to win and ideally, if it’s possible, to win championships or compete for championships.”

https://theathletic.com/5277938/2024/02/15/warriors-joe-lacob-luxury-tax-jonathan-kuminga-steve-kerr/

yeah if youre not gonna contend theres no reason to pay the lux tax, wonder how steph feels about that tho

lacob says a lot of things

Is it too late for Klay to qualify for 6MOY?

Lacob has seen the future and it has no banners to hang.

They can get under the threshold and still compete. They are overpaying for CP3 and Klay by a lot. They don't need to pay Kuminga until the year after next.

https://theathletic.com/5294114/2024/02/23/warriors-clifford-ray-dolphin/

Ray was also told that there was a shot clock: Once he inserted his arm into Spock’s mouth, he had exactly 3 minutes to pull out the bolt. Anything longer would risk suffocating the dolphin.

Wonder if he’ll take the rest of the season off

Andrew Wiggins won't play against the Wizards tonight for personal reasons https://t.co/S7fBA5GdGb

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) February 27, 2024

#MoodySZN

Steve Kerr on Andrew Wiggins: “Wiggs is dealing with a personal matter... We do expect him to be back but we just don’t exactly know when.”

(via @WillardAndDibs)

— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) February 28, 2024

At least the kid will finally get some minutes. Excited to see him start to blossom as a reliable hustle 3 and D guy while they go 8-1 over the next nine games and then get a month of DNPs and occasional garbage time minutes when Wiggs comes back.

Man, this is now the 2nd year in a row Wiggs has got family issues. Was enjoying the fact he was back to playing well.

Hope his fam turns out ok.

was there an actual well-reported story on what’s going on? I can’t remember

Nope. Some stuff about maybe his fathers health last year but the warriors have been super tight lipped about it

One of my favorite wins of the season. A scheduled loss road back to back and they got in at like 6am due to a flight delay or whatever. Raptors are not good and Scottie got hurt but it’s the kinda game they could’ve lost easily.

I wish this was the kind of stuff we always got from mic’d up segments instead of what we usually get. pic.twitter.com/BPHn56X3Sb

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) March 1, 2024

Andrew Wiggins is expected to return to team activities with the Warriors this week after tending to a serious family matter, sources tell me and @anthonyVslater. Wiggins is en route back to the Bay Area today after missing the previous four games. pic.twitter.com/HyxAX56oNd

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) March 5, 2024

someone needs to just spill the beans it’s ridiculous

i dont want to belittle the situation, but what if maybe hes a sims guy

His dad is dying.

where are you getting that from? I’m not questioning his commitment or anything, I would totally respect that — it’s just very odd that there’s this code of silence around the situation, why would his dad being sick be such a secret? everyone’s parents get old! I suspected it was something considerably more harrowing

lol this season is nuts
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GIC2zqNbQAApWy-?format=jpg&name=medium

heh

One night you feel they're losing the play in, next you see them in the WCF or better...

Loved how Kerr pointed out TJD was not a Myers draft pick and after his 3 key blocks in the 3rd Bob eventually confessed "damn why didn't I draft that dude"

Looney and Saric getting squeezed out of the rotation is a good think. they are playing way faster and more athletically. even CP is pushing the pace a little. looney will still be useful in certain matchups but nor more than 10-15 minute any more

It'll be interesting to see how this team plays without Steph. Shame it's too late to tank.

thinking the dubs are locked in for the ten seed.

HOWEVER, they play the mavs three more times (including tonight w no curry) and the lakers two more times. so they kind of control their own destiny a bit. if they pull off the miracle tonight then thye have a shot at fighting for 7-8. need one of those teams to slide a bit too.

time to bring klay back to the starting 5

thinking the dubs are locked in for the ten seed.

Houston's three games behind them

ouch yeah that 5 game win streak has them back in the hunt lol

steph has been playing really bad does not seem dialed in at all

Ankle sprain didn’t help but been pretty ho hum since the break