Dub Nation HQ Comments of the Week & Open Thread

Less than 2.5 weeks until training camp opens!

Honorary Warriors For Life? Vote on Kent Bazemore…

Relax, this is just for reminiscing.

• belilaugh (5 ♡): 

  Bazemore ruined it for me by ditching Curry for less money to go to the Lakers. And the current roster has a clear need for a player like Bazemore, he probably would have started. Leaving under those circumstances for that money to that team has severed any goodwill I had for him. If you would have asked me a year ago it would have been one of the easiest HWFLs of the series.

  I definitely root for Cook to play well whenever I see him so I guess that's a yes for me.

• The Sword Of The Morning (4 ♡): 

  It's mostly cause he joined our biggest competitors in the West for no real tangible reason. We offered him more money and more years (which is something he wanted a lot), yet he still left. I think most fans would have accepted it if he accepted a 3 years 15 million offer from Detroit, but to join the freakin' Lakers on a vet min? You're not gonna get a lot of love after that.

• DrumRollGyro (4 ♡): 

  Baze def stabbed his folk legend status in the lower spine by turn coating to be LeGM’s ball boy. For LESS $.

  Sigh. I’d say no to both though I like both.

• Doc (3 ♡): 

  Neither as WFL. Didn’t do enough to deserve the honor. Baze - I’d root against because seems like he snubbed us for the hated Lakers. So answer is “poorly.” Cook I’d want to see play well because I liked him as a player, good attitude, and I’m rooting for him to make a comeback.

• g8tgod (2 ♡): 

  I like both guys and wish them well. In at least one definition of Warriors for Life, that apparently qualifies.

  That said, I wouldn't consider either guy a Warrior for life by my own internal sense of what that would mean. Cook just never did enough to be a Warrior for life. And Bazemore might have qualified for me, but this last episode really stung. It's not just that he went to another team. It's that he turned down more money and years to play for the Lakers, saying that he wanted to play for a championship. That was just a bit too much for me. Why not say you've loved your time in the Bay but have a chance to compete for a starting job in LA? I could have lived with that. But the way he did it felt like a dis -- like your ex- leaving you for another guy and explaining why by saying that she just really wanted to be in a relationship that had a chance to lead to marriage. You'd feel like she was never serious about you -- and that's bound to leave a bad taste.

• Five Alarm Freddy (2 ♡): 

  Surprised Baze is not getting the love I had thought he would. Are people only judging him by his most recent stint? His first time around he was the one creating the joy that we have all been blessed with during this run. He was the heart before Draymond. He helped to create the Steph we know of today, back when he was just viewed as a glass ankled, no defense, gimmick shooter who Nike thought was named Steven. I will always be grateful to him for creating joy where there was none.
  

'21 Season E1P Review: James Wiseman's baby …

Very very large baby steps

• Captain Jack (15 ♡): 

  I

  am so

  freaking excited

  for the

  start of

  the season.

• Duby Dub Dubs (11 ♡): 

  Loooove this! 

  Wiseman is such an interesting player. I know he had a rough rookie season (on a lot of levels), but his flashes of excellence showed just often enough for even my cold dead skeptical heart to get excited. 

• Sleepy Freud (7 ♡): 

  Sort of on topic: I had half-forgotten about David Thorpe’s theory that 2020 was a “one player draft”…. What’s remarkable to me is not just the assertion but the detailed scouting with which he builds the case. I think there’s about 98% chance he’s wrong (not that Wiseman will be a good player, but that he’ll be soooo good as to be head and shoulders above anyone in his draft class). But that 2% is pretty exciting…

This is a one player draft

• stopnpop (3 ♡): 

  > Wiseman gives them the ticket to the next phase of the game

  I think he's onto something here. I was looking at Play Type data over the long weekend. Overall in the league, there are clearly some plays that are more efficient than others. Two of the more efficient sources of scoring are PnR Roll Man and Putbacks.

  The Dubs are not good in either category. Kuminga fell to them by chance but you can see how both players could potentially address those two areas.

  https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRLyMQrtp3lFZEdX6txlUJEMYlpu6YbORhmfwKWtb_UospTf99hjZpOus6VKBBwoaYi9v-oOyUH8JCj/pub

• Duby Dub Dubs (3 ♡): 

  One of the big mid-season changes they made was to modify the play calls for Wiseman to amplify exactly this stuff. 

  Eventually, we want Wiseman to be more than a rim runner, but there's a whole lot of room between "just a rim runner" and trying to treat him like Bogut as a passing big in the high post. But like soooo much of life, it's way more complicated than that. Those Spurs passing highlights, combined with his perimeter skills are something that I'm glad the team is working on, long term.

Explain One Play: Jonathan Kuminga, the defensive stopper…

a Labor Day present: video deep dive into one of JFK's G-League games

• Five Alarm Freddy (15 ♡): 

  What a great Labor Day surprise! I had this playing while I was doing the dishes and my wife walked in and said “Are you doing a guided meditation?”

  I said “yes I am”.

• invo.k.shen (8 ♡): 

  Love to see it!! The communication on defense is great.

• Arash (6 ♡): 

  Honestly, what impressed me the most about Kuminga was his rapid improvement throughout Summer League. The concerns regarding his shot selection and passing entering the tournament were rapidly mitigated as his efficiency/vision were amply demonstrated in his last two games.

  Iggy will be the perfect mentor for Kuminga, showing him how an athletic wing with a questionable jump shot can make a huge impact in the game through excellent defense, passing, finishing inside. 

  As for Moody, I honestly believe that he can become a high level player in the league depending on three things. 

  1) Can he fully leverage his athleticism, being a gym rat to wrench every last bit of explosiveness he can from his body. He's going to need it everything since he lacks quickness. Improving his core strength is important since he'll need needs to dislodge opposing defenders quite often to create space. 

  2) Can he improve his handle? Given his lack of explosive athleticism, Moody needs a very good handle in order to break defenders off the dribble. The handle doesn't need to be fance, it just needs to be tight and functional, with no wasted movement. Look at Brandon Ingram for example. 

  3) Can he hit contested jump shots? Given his lack of athleticism/handle, he's going to need to demonstrate the ability to hit contested shots. If anyones got stats on how he performed with contested jump shots in college, that would be great!!

• Eric Apricot (5 ♡): 

  Thanks, more than one person has requested a full playback of the play. 

  The main issue is that the NBA files a copyright claim at any video that contains such a playback. I would argue that what I’m doing is a pure example of “fair use” exception in copyright law, where you can play something to analyze it. But I don’t want to spend millions in legal fees to convince the NBA. 

  (Also, I’m not positive most people would want the full playback since that would extend the running time noticeably…)

• g8tgod (5 ♡): 

  As always, superior work. Thank you, Eric.

• DFiB (4 ♡): 

  With Wiseman, let's remember that he had 3 college games of post-HS experience before showing up on opening night. No summer league, no training camp, no pre-season... nobody should have been surprised he showed up and couldn't get stuff together and got picked on relentlessly.

  Kuminga has a ~15 games in G League, a full summer league, and training camp/preseason to look forward to. Notably, his G League & summer league teams had thrown together groups, so here's to hoping that getting some practice time with the stalwarts as switching partners will clean up a bunch of those screw ups (and hopefully same applies to Wiseman).

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