Dub Nation HQ Comments of the Week & Open Thread

these two weeks have been packed

Free Agency Watch, Day 1: The (completely ig…

Discuss the chaos here

• vignette17 (12 ♡):

  Otto will only be 28 next year, has basically the same career rebounding rate as KD, shoots 40% from 3P land, and basically a 2-1 career AST-TO ratio. This move might very well be enough to save the offseason.

• Sleepy Freud (8 ♡):

  OPJ: Just turned 28

  Legit 6’-8” with a 7’-1” wingspan

  40% career three point shooter on high volume

  80% career FT shooter

  9.0 rebounds per 36 last season

  3.3 ast / 1.5 tov per 36 last season

  Versatile defender

  Big net plus on the floor (+4.4) throughout his career

  We’re talking a no-brainer max player … if healthy. But even with the serious “if healthy” caveat, getting him on a vet min is an absolute home run.

Free Agency Watch, Day 2: Otto Porter Jr sig…

OPJ is a budding star... if he can stay healthy.

• Peter Hood (9 ♡):

  You pocket the TPMLE for mid season. Even if you can get a trade exception for Oubre, you pocket that as well. Because these guys haven't played together, we can only assume what our needs are going to be by the trade deadline. What if Poole is injured and out for the year? What if Kuminga or Wiseman are suddenly great? And we still have to rehab Klay and Wise. Spend the first half of the season getting reps in, getting to know who they are as a team, who is capable of doing what, who is injured, who is not, then you go to your pocket and pull out the TPMLE & Trade Exception like a couple of no limit credit cards and go shopping for what you need. I think they focus on Oubre now and try to get a S/T and take a pass on the remaining FA market.

• GlueAndBold (9 ♡):

  If we got rid of either Looney or Moody to get Ingles I might just throw myself out the window. And I think Ingles is awesome.

• Goofus (7 ♡):

  5 minutes of Bjelly highlights! 

• Yeah yeah, everyone looks good in highlight packages, but it’s fun to look variety of things a player demonstrates. Observations:

  - I don’t think we’ll be at risk of him stepping on the line putting up 3-pointer in the conference finals like Durant. Crazy range! Most of his 3-pointers are from 3+ feet behind the line.

  - His release is really quick and it looks like he can put up a good shot no matter where his feet are positioned

  - He’s really a threat from the top of the 3-point line. Because of his shooting, he has a lot of guys running at him saying “Oh shit!” when he catches it there, but look at some of this nifty passes and slippery moves. Guys are so sure he’s gonna shoot that just him catching is like a pump fake and guys go flying by. Without needing any apparent killer moves, he just adjusts and often finds an open lane or an open man.

  - Based on the above, it looks like he’d absolutely feast in the Draymond/Bogut/Zaza playmaking role on offense.

  - Looks like a very aware defender and isn’t scared to put the ball on the floor.

  I still want Chriss, but we’re officially in business with Bjelly.

Free Agency Watch, Day 3: Otto Porter Jr and…

Two big shooters.

• sabrinasez (23 ♡):

  You guys are killin' it, DNHQ.

  That's it. That's the comment.

• Eric Apricot (19 ♡):

  Farewell Paschall. A rare bright light in the crappy 19-20 season. Reunited with his BFF Donovan Mitchell

• Sleepy Freud (13 ♡):

  He's blocked at the 4 by Draymond, JTA, Wiggins, Porter, and Kuminga

  And at the 5 by Draymond, Wiseman, Looney, and Chriss (or equiv. FA).

  He's not nearly as good or as well-suited to Kerrball as any of those guys, except possibly Kuminga, who's six years younger than him, with miles more upside that he's gonna minutes to grow into

  Just a matter of a roster crunch. Au revoir, monsieur Paschall.

• hammystyle (10 ♡):

  Go back two years and the Warriors had to basically rebuild an entire rotation around the core. They spent a lot of minutes the last couple seasons trying to find guys that could be very cheap, solid rotation guys or better. I think successfully, they've got Lee, JTA and Poole (who can be better).

  But the labwork is over. I think one of the conversations that probably was had with Steph, Klay, Dray is we are going to keep our lottery guys unless it's the right deal. But otherwise there's no scholarships left for guys who don't know their role on a winning team yet. They need the roster filled with proven vets or those truly high upside guys.

  You can sell them that Kuminga could be the next Kawhi, and that's great for them either in a couple years or as a nearer term trade asset. You can't sell them that Smiley is the next Bjelica. Just go get Bjelica.

  Paschall is better than Smiley by a long shot, but I'm just not at all surprised. Utah is actually a nice place for him to go develop, but it was a tough fit for him here.

• JMullins23 (10 ♡):

  I think that Kerr/Myers finally saw what a post-KD Dubs team should look like during the last 20 games of last season. And, I don’t think that EP fits that. Nor do I think that EP fits the game that we’re seeing — and Kerr & Co. saw — league-wide during the playoffs. You’ve got to be able to play on the perimeter, both offensively and defensively. The only exceptions to that are rim protectors, and even there you’ve got to be really good if you’re not a capable perimeter player.

Summer League game thread: finally the debut…

really this time

• stopnpop (11 ♡):

  If Kuminga grows even an inch or two, oh man. With the way he already attacks the rim, we might be seeing mini Giannis with an outside shot in 5 years. In terms of physique, he looked like the most mature guy on the floor. I expect him to be bench pressing Wiseman in practice.

  He's also got way more passing ability than I think any draft preview gave him credit for... yes, he has tunnel vision at times and his passes might be off or late but at least you see him trying to make the play.

  Moody was pretty much as advertised. Shot, defended, rebounded well. Used his length to bother opponents. Had trouble creating off the dribble... this will only improve with time as he gets more burst in his first step.

  Oh and something that I hadn't seen mentioned. Remember when Kuminga checked back in and the team got beat off a screen that resulted in a Miami and-1? Kuminga gathered the group together and, I couldn't hear what he said, but his hand gestures seemed to indicate he wanted the team to communicate more on defense.

• DFiB (7 ♡):

  Kuminga was so noticeable… like everywhere all the time. Both good and bad (mostly good). Even when he wasn’t on the floor, it was noticeable that he was absent.

  Moody seemed invisible in a good way. He showed up to move the ball and finish plays.

• bobbita (4 ♡):

  Here's what I thought from the game

  1. Jessup probably won't have a career in the nba. He's 23 and it just looked like everything was too fast and he looked outmatched athletically. I also didn't know he's 23. Thought he was younger.

  2. Kuminga looked good to me. Really good on defense and was active. On offense, he either went black hole or couldn't make good passes but at least he was finishing pretty well inside.

  3. Moody was a little harder to get a read on. He was hustling a lot and made his open shots but looked like he struggled evey time he had to create something. I think even though kuminga is the better player, moody will probably fit better with the team right now due to his ability to make the open shots. If we combined the shooting ability of moody with the slashing ability of kuminga, we would have a really good sf/pf even as a rookie...like hb was ;)

• Sleepy Freud (4 ♡):

  I and anyone else who wanted Franz Wagner over Kuminga is a doofus.

Notes on Summer League, Kuminga and Moody de…

You can put Free Agency news here

• paulteen (14 ♡):

  Steph is transcendent wherever he is, but dray truly unlocks his on court abilities by facilitating Steph’s off the ball movement. We lose dray and we lose 90% of our already-not-great odds of a championship.

• Five Alarm Freddy (11 ♡):

  100% agree with this. Draymond is the oil that keeps the engine running.

• sabrinasez (9 ♡):

  This team isn't ready to be Draymond-less.

• GlueAndBold (8 ♡):

  I honestly can't think of a trade for Simmons that would both work and that I would like. I don't want him on the Dubs. He has no leverage. Let him pout. Dubs have talent and work to do.

• The Sword Of The Morning (8 ♡):

  Trading Draymond to fit Simmons in is like trading Steph to fit Dame in. What's the point of getting the lite version when we have the premium version already?

• Goofus (8 ♡):

  Thinking more about his showing last night, I remembered something Myers shortly after taking Kuminga; that he’d been playing in the G-League, against better competition than the college players and that needed to be considered. In my mind, I think I knew this, but I didn’t notice it being applied much in all the draft analysis and perhaps it’s be more pronounced than we think.

  Since it’s all full-time guys who are bigger, stronger, older and at least pro prospects, the G-league is probably closer to the NBA than college, but we kinda looked at these ignite guys through the same lens as the college prospects. Kuminga might be raw, but didn’t look one bit overwhelmed by the speed and power of the game last night. (Not saying Moody did, but he’s supposed to be more “NBA-ready”.)

  I know people spend time figuring out how to interpret international league performance, but how do we put the performance of these high school-to-GLeague phenoms in the right context?

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