Apricot's Rooting Guide: (3) NYK vs. (4) IND; plus open thread

conference finalists duel after their foes flame out with injuries

See the master index at Apricot’s Rooting Guide For Other Teams.

Eastern Conference Finals

New York Knicks

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• Tom Thibodeau. NYK head coach, spent a year sabbatical between jobs studying Steve Kerr and helping a little bit behind the scenes with GSW.

Unrequited Loves

• Mitchell Robinson might be the closest, as Dub Nation pines endlessly for a big defender.

Warriors Villains 

• None?

Petty Rivalries

• Karl-Anthony Towns? Famous antagonist to Jimmy Butler and more recently Draymond Green.

Team Grudges

• Amazingly little to say about this historic franchise. Madison Square Garden was a great location for Steph Curry’s 54-point coming out party. It was also a great site for hearing Knick fans wail when GSW drafted Steph one spot ahead of the NYK pick. Finally, Steph broke Ray Allen’s career 3s record at MSG.

• Now, NYK rarely plays GSW and the game never has real playoff implications. NYK has been so irrelevant for so long that it is a blessing. If they ever harnessed their regional wealth and media influence, they could become a second power hub like the Lakers.

• As it is, they remain merely blah… EXCEPT. In 2025, they’ve caught lightning in a bottle and the players are refusing to be injured by Thibodeau’s no-substitutions policy. And they actually outlasted BOS health wise to reach the ECF.

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Indiana Pacers

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• None.

Unrequited Love

• Tyrese Haliburton is famously Dub Nation HQ's choice in the 2020 Draft. No really, this isn’t some 20-20-hindsight yapping, we did a whole pre-draft tournament and the group vote was for Haliburton.
  
  I wrote: Tyrese Haliburton just seems like the most Warriors player in the draft, with his high character, shooting, defensive effort and smart playmaking, and his weakness of poor shot creation seems less urgent in Kerr’s motion O and with Steph Curry passing to you. This season revealed that without Steph and Klay Thompson, the Warriors were the worst shooting team in the league, so Dub Nation is pining for players who can hit an open shot.
  
  I had Haliburton as my 1A with Okongwu, but I also wrote: Haliburton over Edwards. Edwards could be the next Oladipo, but Oladipo look a long time to become Dipo and Steph isn’t getting younger. The Haliburton dream is that his flaws (not explosive creator) aren’t relevant in Kerrball.
  
  Before we get too high on ourselves, I note that Haliburton beat Wiseman in our semifinals by only 1 vote.

• Myles Turner is on the all-time list of Dub Nation Unrequited Love. He’s been mock traded endlessly as a tough shot blocking big who can hit a three. It’s part of the DNA of Dub Nation to be endlessly pining for a great big man and being endlessly disappointed.

• Obi Toppin, Aaron Nesmith, Ben Sheppard and Andrew Nembhard are all sleeper draft crushes at DNHQ.

• Pascal Siakam was a target of GSW trade interest at the 2024 Trade Deadline.

Warriors Villains

• None

Petty Rivalries

• Pascal Siakam. Key player on the TOR team that beat GSW in the 2019 Finals. Has not to my knowledge done anything particularly objectionable, but he’ll always be associated with the Dynasty going down in a fireball of injuries.

• Pacers have been thoroughly off the GSW radar for a while now except maybe when Monta Ellis landed there, except to serve as foils for highlights.

Team Grudges

• There was a hint of friction after the 2021 Draft when Indiana sources claimed that GSW was crushed when IND drafted Chris Duarte one spot ahead of GSW’s pick (which ended up being Moses Moody), and that GSW was phoning IND with tears in their eyes to trade for CD. If this is the best I can dredge up, it’s been a pretty drama-free relationship.