Apricot's Rooting Guide: (6) MIN vs (1) OKC; plus open thread

conference finalists duel after their foes flame out with injuries, part 2

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

Western Conference Finals

Minnesota Timberwolves

Ex-Warriors

• Donte DiVincenzo. Hard working, two-way role player with GSW who has become a 3 point sharpshooter in NYK and then had a bumpy year in MIN. GSW couldn’t come close to matching his contract, which is good for GSW’s reputation for having players play for cheap and reviving their careers.

Friends

• None.

Unrequited Love

• Parts of Dub Nation have always pined to acquire Naz Reid.

• Leonard Miller was coveted in the 2023 DNHQ Draft Tourney.

Warriors Villains

• Rudy Gobert

  • did bait Draymond Green into his idiotic chokehold resulting in a 5 game suspension.

  • has beat out Draymond Green as Defensive Player of the Year three times despite sometimes being played off the court in the playoffs.

  • And he did almost infect all those reporters with COVID with the reckless mic touching.

  • And The French Rejection did face off against the Warriors in the 2017 Playoffs, but even though the series was closer than the score, the Jazz never truly threatened. Also Steph did this to him:

• Rudy also took a shot at Draymond after Dray’s preseason punch, which Dray was happy to send back after Gobzilla’s own self-control issue.

https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/1645204104312942593?s=20

• There’s even more recent petty stuff in Gobert drama world, which I’ll let you search yourself if you need more drama.

Petty Rivalries

• Mike Conley was a key player in the Grit and Grind Memphis Grizzlies that faced GSW in the 2015 title run. But Mike seems like an upright, hard working, talented player. It’s not his fault that trolls used his face injury to de-legitimize Steph Curry and the entire 2015 championship.

• MIN was one of the stops on Jimmy Butler’s trail of franchise-leaving dramas.

Team Grudges

• QUITE THE OPPOSITE. MIN has done more for the Golden State Warriors than any other franchise, more than GSW themselves.

  • Drafting two point guards at #5 and #6 in 2009 ahead of Stephen Curry is enough to make then-GM David Kahn an Honorary Warrior for Life.

  • But also the 2020 trade of D’Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins and the #7 pick (Jonathan Kuminga) which led to the 2022 Championship, should make MIN the second team of every observant citizen of Dub Nation.

Oklahoma City Thunder

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• None.

Unrequited Love

• Jalen Williams was the runner-up in our 2022 Apricot Draft Tournament, barely losing. There wasn’t a good chance that he’d drop to #28, but OKC took no chances by grabbing him unexpectedly high at #12.

• Parts of Dub Nation really wanted to acquire Isaiah Joe.

• They snarfed up my darlings from the 2024 Apricot Draft Tournament, Dillon Jones (#7 final vote) and Branden Carlson (#10).

Warriors Villains

• The whole OKC franchise, which was born out of oil fracking moguls defrauding Seattle out of their Supersonics team.

• Also, the OKC fans were the ones going nuts in the KD GSW days with the dancing cupcakes (which were actually kind of cute) and other spurned vengeance.

Petty Rivalries

• They’ve all barely been in the league, no time to build up rivalries…

Team Grudges

• OKC was the best team in the early GSW dynasty and an outstanding foil to bring out the best from Game 6 Klay Thompson and Steph Curry. Also thanks to OKC for alienating Kevin Durant, and hosting Russell Westbrook's peak petulant stat-padding seasons. But now OKC went through a long rebuild and collected a zillion draft picks, so who can really be too mad today. The current group of players seem likable enough.

• And yet, I admit I find it tiring to hear how OKC did the rebuild right and everyone else is a bunch of idiots. Yes, they put themselves in great position by hitting on draft picks (but missing on plenty of others) and ripping desperate teams off for picks in trading their stars (so many picks… and yet, we’re still waiting for them to cash in big). So, plenty of respect, but people overrate the rebuild. They had three straight years of missing the playoffs, preceded by four straight years of losing in the first round.