DNHQ Rooting Guide: (3) Minnesota vs. (6) Phoenix; plus open thread

two slightly icky teams

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

Minnesota Timberwolves

Ex-Warriors

• None.

Friends

• None. Except everyone likes Anthony Edwards.

Unrequited Love

• Parts of Dub Nation really wanted to acquire Naz Reid.

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

• Wendell Moore Jr was the #3 finisher in the 2022 DNHQ Draft Tournament.

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

Petty Rivalries

• Kyle Anderson was on the annoying 2022 Grizzlies, but frankly compared to everyone else on that team, he seemed well-adjusted. And his recent fight with Rudy Gobert seems to have raised his reputation a bit in some circles.

• 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 use his face injury to de-legitimize Steph Curry and the entire 2015 championship.

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 the recent trade of D’Angelo Russell for Andrew Wiggins and the #7 pick (Jonathan Kuminga) should make MIN the second team of every observant citizen of Dub Nation.

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Phoenix Suns

Ex-Warriors

• Damion Lee. Husband of Steph Curry’s sister. Honorary Warrior For Life!

• Kevin Durant. Honorary Warrior, but not quite Honorary Warrior For Life in the last election. Generally positive feelings from many but not all fans in Dub Nation.

Friends

• Robert Sarver was known as one of the cheapest and most unpleasant owners in the NBA. From a basketball perspective, this has been bad for PHX and good for everyone else playing against PHX. Unfortunately, he’s been replaced by a big spending new owner.

Warriors Villains

• Jusuf Nurkić, flopper and cheap shotter, baited Draymond into the 2023 accidental reckless punch which led to his indefinite suspension.

• Grayson Allen rose to fame in college as a talent who couldn’t stop cheap shooting opponents. Then for two seasons he was a merely annoying foil until he hit big shots in the MEM-GSW Play-In overtime. Then he re-torpedoed his reputation with his wild flagrant foul taking out Alex Caruso for weeks.

Petty Rivalries

• Devin Booker seems to have developed his Flop Force powers and gets a bit more annoying each year.

• Eric Gordon was an important player for the James Harden Houston Rockets which almost took out the KD era Warriors.

Team Grudges

• I don’t think there’s a rivalry yet, as PHX and GSW haven’t played in the playoffs. There is natural attention from PHX’s success and recent assembly of the Booker-KD-Beal Big Three.

• Before that, PHX has been horrible from the 2010 last gasp of the Seven Seconds Or Less Suns through 2019. When you’re horrible, you get a zillion high draft picks and now they’ve drafted themselves into being a promising team. It also means there’s no way to develop a team rivalry since PHX has been irrelevant for so long and then has managed to crash out of the playoffs before GSW could face them.

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