DNHQ Rooting Guide: (2) New York vs. (7) Philadelphia; plus open thread

The Embiid-Hartenstein battle continues

See the master index at Dub Nation HQ Rooting Guide For Other Teams.

New York Knicks

Ex-Warriors

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

• Alec Burks. Nice guy who helped out during the 2019-20 Lost Season.

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

• Isaiah Hartenstein has been a longtime target of Dub Nation.

Warriors Villains 

• None?

Petty Rivalries

• None

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.

• 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.

Philadelphia 76ers

Ex-Warriors

• Jeff Dowtin was on a two-way with the Warriors but never locked in a place with the big club. He landed on his feet with PHI.

Friends

• At one time, Joel Embiid, but he’s been downgraded to Petty Rivalry.

Unrequited Love

• Dewayne Dedmon has been the big man dream for years in some corners of Dub Nation.

• Robert Covington has also been a statistics darling and target for years.

• Nicolas Batum has been a GSW free agent target for years now. But he snubbed GSW for a better chance at a ring with LAC in 2021-22. How did that work out?

Warriors Villains

• Daryl Morey. The GM of the greatest rival to the Dynasty Warriors, the Houston Rockets. He pushed the league towards a caricature of analytics ball with all threes and layups, oversaw the ultra-effective lawyerball of Harden’s isos and foul baiting, and shared spreadsheets and complaints about how the Rockets technically should have won. But also lost with grace (plus or minus the spreadsheets) and had the guts to challenge the champions instead of whining about it non-stop in the press.
  
  Morey then went on to pilot PHI and acquired Harden and then quickly alienated him. Normally, Dub Nation should support the unforced error of maiming of a rival, but really, the Eastern Conference has to present some kind of internal competition, otherwise the Eastern finalist will continue to have a big rest/stress advantage over the West.

Petty Rivalries

• Joel Embiid. On the one hand, he is an elite flopper and seems to be adding crotch kicks to his repertoire. DNHQ was annoyed that Embiid’s actions from Game 3 were punished much less than Draymond’s Trust Fall Onto Sabonis. On the other hand, he is a public fan of Steph Curry.

• De’Anthony Melton was a member of the annoying 2022 Grizzlies. But he seemed to be relatively mature in that crew.

• Cameron Payne was a role player for the KD OKC team that almost took out GSW in 2016.

Team Grudges

• 76ers have stunk for so long during the process that there hasn’t been meaningful conflict to cause grudges. And historically there’s been little to speak of.

• However, the 76ers famously followed The Process to intentionally lose for years to stock up on high draft picks. This is, depending on your point of view, somewhere between an insanely clever life hack to take advantage of the rules and an insult to the game, the fans, and a glib title for being a giant corporate welfare cheat.