"It is important to note that this method does not attempt to find players who were similar in style of play. Rather, it attempts to find players whose careers were similar in terms of quality and shape"
I'm so Warriors-myopic that I hadn't even considered that Kyrie left Boston. That is hilarious.
The crazy thing is, I don't think those guys really care. I mean, sure, they wish they were in the finals, but they left because they wanted out. They wanted to be in a situation where they could be the 'man' (the men?) and rule the roost. They wanted to play with close friends (mostly each other but some others). And they got exactly what they wanted. No, it hasn't turned up any championships (I am shocked -- shocked I tell you!) but that's a nit to someone who wants everything to revolve around them.
But the conversation triggered me in the worst way.
The Warriors are here specifically because Wiseman never set foot on the court this year. Please don’t force those of us who haven’t drunk the cool aid to imagine the disaster that the Warriors narrowly averted with Wiseman’s setback.
I always feel conflicted when Daniel talks because I feel we have the same ultimate belief that the Warriors will be awesome, I think we were both very onboard with the Wiggins trade immediately, and we both tend to believe the Warriors have a chance to win it all (although I may have been the only one who thought the Warriors had a chance to win it all last year if they didn’t play Wiseman, traded Oubre, and made a run at Tucker), but we have almost completely opposite views on talent evaluation to the point where I accidentally insulted his all time Warriors drafted team because I thought it was ironically drafted (for which I have to apologize Daniel, for undervaluing peak Baron Davis- my mind immediately jumped to a juxtaposition of fat Baron Davis and Gilbert Arenas for some reason when I initially read your lineup.)
When it comes to the front office- The greatest talent evaluator on earth cannot identify generational center talent without high level college or beyond film. And the Warriors chose to use their most important asset on a player who’s skillset doesn’t fit in the current coach’s system (you know the system that has led to all these playoff wins.) That’s not a good decision making process.
Even if Wiseman becomes great (he’ll only be insulated from double teams if he learns how to pass, because if he has no court vision, it doesn’t matter how good the shooters around him are, teams can double with impunity) that’s a sign of how good the coaches are at overcoming challenges to help players progress.
All I saw in the pre-draft videos of Wiseman was a tall fast guy with a weak core and sub par footwork; what we learned in the NBA is that he has zero passing instincts which led to charges wasting fast breaks, and he wants to be an inefficient Durant (who the Warriors are stylistically better off without) so badly that he was calling Durant for advice on how to play with Steph rather than listening to the coaches about what the team actually needs out of him.
The FO isn’t perfect, but they are excellent. You can support the team without slurping the front office by unconditionally supporting their poor process during covid. In fact they need to hear it so they can adjust and do better like they did this year. A+!
Let’s encourage the front office in the areas they have done well and discourage them from repeating mistakes:
More Dre, OPJ and Bjelica, less Oubre.
More Looney less Wiseman
More Poole and GP2 (&Moody?)
Less Choizza
More Steph asking what will make the team great and promising we will get there together.
Less I want to be great at the cost of the team, and don’t put me in a box.
More F’ing Giants lineups like Steph, Klay, Dre, Green, and Looney leveraging everything they have to win through adversity and end Harden’s prime.
-Combined regular season wins of the three Warrior playoff opponents: 156
-Combined RS point differential of the three Warrior playoff opponents: +11.3
-Combined regular season wins of the three Celtic playoff opponents: 148
-Combined RS point differential of the three Celtic playoff opponents: +8.6
STARS:
-Jokic and Doncic were First Team All-NBA, Morant was Second Team All-NBA. Jokic was also the MVP.
-Giannis was First Team All-NBA (third in MVP voting), KD was Second Team All-NBA.
SPECIFIC (PERHAPS BIASED) CONTEXT:
-KD and Irving were 11-6 in their 17 regular season games together (although upon a brief scan I wouldn't say it was the toughest schedule).
-Bucks without Middleton were 7-9 this season (although some of these were probably without Giannis and Holiday and others too). Bucks were also 10-3 with Brook Lopez though, to be fair.
-Heat had a ton of injuries all season, perhaps should have had a better record...but also were pretty beat up in their series too. 9-7 without Herro for instance, although I'm sure they had other guys missing in those games too.
-Not much to say about the Nuggets...22-9 with Cousins though if that is worth mentioning (probably isn't).
-Grizzlies without Morant were 20-5 this season (and probably more like 20-2 if you ignore games where a lot of guys sat).
-Mavericks had the second best record in the NBA after January 1st, Porzingis only played in 8 of those games.
CONCLUSION:
I'm of course preaching to the choir hear but...the hardest road?
Celtics have a three-day break before the NBA Finals. Will that be enough for the team to heal up and energize themselves before the series begins this Thursday? I'm thinking that all of the miles they have travelled during the vs. Bucks and the vs. Heat series might affect the way they're gonna play in the series. They're probably gonna look good in the first three quarters, but I think they're gonna look worn out in the 4th quarter, just like how the Grizzlies were like in games 4 and 6 of the series.
I mean, the Celtics travelled from and to Boston a total of nine times over the past three weeks. That's definitely gonna affect the way they're gonna play.
Healthy R Williams would be a different story but I don't think his current self can keep up with us. I give it a game or two until it turns into a Theiss/Horford series IMO
I love how Ainge tells people he built this Celtics team with the Warriors in mind… it’s nonsense said to convince Celtics fans that he’s smart… just like his repeatedly saying he had the second best trade offer, lol.
They built the Celtics the best they could with the players available.
I actually kind of like that there's no weak link for Steph and Co to just hunt. I think our offense flows best when it's just concentrating on screening and cutting for open shots rather than trying to find a specific matchup advantage.
The downside is that if these guys aren't crisp on their passes that the Celtics defense is going to eat them alive.
This has some serious Rumble in the Jungle vibes for me:
- '63-'67 Ali and the '15-'19 Dubs: Both joyful out of nowhere upstarts playing unorthodox styles, winning championships and raising the profile of the game to new levels.
- Ali title stripped and Dubs injuries/KD departure: Both signal a long time out of Title contention.
- Ali losing to Frazier and Dubs getting knocked out of Play In: Both on the comeback trail.
- Ali up against Foreman and Dubs vs Celtics: Both vs physical juggernauts the bookmakers and pundits pick to win against our battle hardened spiritual warriors.
Very curious to see if their defense will disrupt us more than the ja-less grizz. They were keeping us to like 40% shooting with a boat load of turnovers. I can't see it being worse than that
Happy Birthday, Moody!
FYI: On www.basketball-reference.com the highest "Similarity" comparisons for our great Trinity:
Stephen Curry = Dwayne Wade
Draymond Green = Gordan Hayward
Klay Thompson = Baron Davis
"It is important to note that this method does not attempt to find players who were similar in style of play. Rather, it attempts to find players whose careers were similar in terms of quality and shape"
I'm so Warriors-myopic that I hadn't even considered that Kyrie left Boston. That is hilarious.
The crazy thing is, I don't think those guys really care. I mean, sure, they wish they were in the finals, but they left because they wanted out. They wanted to be in a situation where they could be the 'man' (the men?) and rule the roost. They wanted to play with close friends (mostly each other but some others). And they got exactly what they wanted. No, it hasn't turned up any championships (I am shocked -- shocked I tell you!) but that's a nit to someone who wants everything to revolve around them.
Ya’ll are awesome!
The passion for the team comes through clearly!
But the conversation triggered me in the worst way.
The Warriors are here specifically because Wiseman never set foot on the court this year. Please don’t force those of us who haven’t drunk the cool aid to imagine the disaster that the Warriors narrowly averted with Wiseman’s setback.
I always feel conflicted when Daniel talks because I feel we have the same ultimate belief that the Warriors will be awesome, I think we were both very onboard with the Wiggins trade immediately, and we both tend to believe the Warriors have a chance to win it all (although I may have been the only one who thought the Warriors had a chance to win it all last year if they didn’t play Wiseman, traded Oubre, and made a run at Tucker), but we have almost completely opposite views on talent evaluation to the point where I accidentally insulted his all time Warriors drafted team because I thought it was ironically drafted (for which I have to apologize Daniel, for undervaluing peak Baron Davis- my mind immediately jumped to a juxtaposition of fat Baron Davis and Gilbert Arenas for some reason when I initially read your lineup.)
When it comes to the front office- The greatest talent evaluator on earth cannot identify generational center talent without high level college or beyond film. And the Warriors chose to use their most important asset on a player who’s skillset doesn’t fit in the current coach’s system (you know the system that has led to all these playoff wins.) That’s not a good decision making process.
Even if Wiseman becomes great (he’ll only be insulated from double teams if he learns how to pass, because if he has no court vision, it doesn’t matter how good the shooters around him are, teams can double with impunity) that’s a sign of how good the coaches are at overcoming challenges to help players progress.
All I saw in the pre-draft videos of Wiseman was a tall fast guy with a weak core and sub par footwork; what we learned in the NBA is that he has zero passing instincts which led to charges wasting fast breaks, and he wants to be an inefficient Durant (who the Warriors are stylistically better off without) so badly that he was calling Durant for advice on how to play with Steph rather than listening to the coaches about what the team actually needs out of him.
The FO isn’t perfect, but they are excellent. You can support the team without slurping the front office by unconditionally supporting their poor process during covid. In fact they need to hear it so they can adjust and do better like they did this year. A+!
Let’s encourage the front office in the areas they have done well and discourage them from repeating mistakes:
More Dre, OPJ and Bjelica, less Oubre.
More Looney less Wiseman
More Poole and GP2 (&Moody?)
Less Choizza
More Steph asking what will make the team great and promising we will get there together.
Less I want to be great at the cost of the team, and don’t put me in a box.
More F’ing Giants lineups like Steph, Klay, Dre, Green, and Looney leveraging everything they have to win through adversity and end Harden’s prime.
More F’ing titles please!
GENERAL:
-Combined regular season wins of the three Warrior playoff opponents: 156
-Combined RS point differential of the three Warrior playoff opponents: +11.3
-Combined regular season wins of the three Celtic playoff opponents: 148
-Combined RS point differential of the three Celtic playoff opponents: +8.6
STARS:
-Jokic and Doncic were First Team All-NBA, Morant was Second Team All-NBA. Jokic was also the MVP.
-Giannis was First Team All-NBA (third in MVP voting), KD was Second Team All-NBA.
SPECIFIC (PERHAPS BIASED) CONTEXT:
-KD and Irving were 11-6 in their 17 regular season games together (although upon a brief scan I wouldn't say it was the toughest schedule).
-Bucks without Middleton were 7-9 this season (although some of these were probably without Giannis and Holiday and others too). Bucks were also 10-3 with Brook Lopez though, to be fair.
-Heat had a ton of injuries all season, perhaps should have had a better record...but also were pretty beat up in their series too. 9-7 without Herro for instance, although I'm sure they had other guys missing in those games too.
-Not much to say about the Nuggets...22-9 with Cousins though if that is worth mentioning (probably isn't).
-Grizzlies without Morant were 20-5 this season (and probably more like 20-2 if you ignore games where a lot of guys sat).
-Mavericks had the second best record in the NBA after January 1st, Porzingis only played in 8 of those games.
CONCLUSION:
I'm of course preaching to the choir hear but...the hardest road?
Celtics have a three-day break before the NBA Finals. Will that be enough for the team to heal up and energize themselves before the series begins this Thursday? I'm thinking that all of the miles they have travelled during the vs. Bucks and the vs. Heat series might affect the way they're gonna play in the series. They're probably gonna look good in the first three quarters, but I think they're gonna look worn out in the 4th quarter, just like how the Grizzlies were like in games 4 and 6 of the series.
I mean, the Celtics travelled from and to Boston a total of nine times over the past three weeks. That's definitely gonna affect the way they're gonna play.
Today is the last day I can say "Moses Moody is only 19!" so I'm getting in one more time.
I see Cs fans thinking that Theis might be able to stay in the floor a little. Can he defend in space or nah?
I really really really really really want steph to go fucking crazy and have a historic finals like giannis did last year that would be so perfect
Healthy R Williams would be a different story but I don't think his current self can keep up with us. I give it a game or two until it turns into a Theiss/Horford series IMO
I love how Ainge tells people he built this Celtics team with the Warriors in mind… it’s nonsense said to convince Celtics fans that he’s smart… just like his repeatedly saying he had the second best trade offer, lol.
They built the Celtics the best they could with the players available.
I loved the podcast — thank you! Boston scares me a little more than a little with the recklessness and physicality you mentioned, Daniel.
I actually kind of like that there's no weak link for Steph and Co to just hunt. I think our offense flows best when it's just concentrating on screening and cutting for open shots rather than trying to find a specific matchup advantage.
The downside is that if these guys aren't crisp on their passes that the Celtics defense is going to eat them alive.
This has some serious Rumble in the Jungle vibes for me:
- '63-'67 Ali and the '15-'19 Dubs: Both joyful out of nowhere upstarts playing unorthodox styles, winning championships and raising the profile of the game to new levels.
- Ali title stripped and Dubs injuries/KD departure: Both signal a long time out of Title contention.
- Ali losing to Frazier and Dubs getting knocked out of Play In: Both on the comeback trail.
- Ali up against Foreman and Dubs vs Celtics: Both vs physical juggernauts the bookmakers and pundits pick to win against our battle hardened spiritual warriors.
Dub Nation Bomaye!!!
Very curious to see if their defense will disrupt us more than the ja-less grizz. They were keeping us to like 40% shooting with a boat load of turnovers. I can't see it being worse than that
Top Field Goal Percentage Against (Playoffs, min 125 DFGA)
Player DFGM DFGA DFG%
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Derrick White 54 147 35.7%
Stephen Curry 57 152 37.5%
Draymond Green 98 256 38.3%
Jrue Holiday 64 166 38.6%
Jaren Jackson Jr 60 153 39.2%
Al Horford 138 344 40.1%
Bam Adebayo 83 207 40.1%
Deandre Ayton 87 215 40.5%
Gabe Vincent 64 158 40.5%
Chris Paul 62 150 41.3%