Dub Nation HQ Comments of the Week & Open Thread

this week took a month

The coming week’s schedule

Our very tentative rough plan includes

• Flexibly following the Free Agency Moratorium from Mon through Thu, discussing any announced signings in detail

• Gamethreads for Summer League on Wed and Thu

• Moses Moody microscout and Jonathan Kuminga macroscout (E1P talk through of a whole Kuminga game), depending on how fast I edit video

• Olympics news

• Las Vegas Summer League start

Post-Draft Hangover & Scouting Reports

Quite a few great comments from the Draft itself were quoted in this article’s body. This is a sampling of comments on this article.

• Nate P (12 ♡):

  When I first watched Moody’s highlight film, one thing I assumed from watching his footwork was that this dude is HELLA disciplined and someone who really cares about every detail… it’s nice to see Musselman confirm that:

  “I don’t make them watch. It’s just kind of running. But Moses was always locked into that,” Musselman says. “Not talking to anyone, not joking around, just looking at the film the whole meal. And I’m telling you, it was every meal. Eyes glued to the screen. The only other guy I’ve been around that’s done that is Cody Martin (at Nevada). He’s just wired like a vet. If you walked into a practice or a film session and watched Moses, saw his habits, you would say this is a fifth-year grad transfer.”

  https://theathletic.com/2720704/2021/07/29/moses-moody-goes-to-the-golden-state-warriors-heres-what-theyre-getting/?source=dailyemail

  I dunno … given the tools he’s coming in with, that was the soft skill that really made him stand out among the players projected to be available to us at 7 & 14. Really, REALLY happy about picking him up at 14 and hope that mindset translates into success.

• Loonhands (9 ♡):

  Welcome to the Dubs, JK and MM! That draft shook out lucky for us.

  Reviewing Kuminga's scouting report vid above, he has two consistent strengths that ought to help the Dubs sooner rather than later:

  + Baseline drive then inside pass to set up a post scorer: JK's speed and strength muscling in and then setting up Wiseman for an easy flush!

  + Strong drives to basket as PNR finisher: Loon or JTA screen for JK on the perimeter, JK barrels in like a mini-Giannis for an inside slam!

  Kuminga's got plenty to work on, but this inside game ought to help our 2nd unit scoring and spacing before long.

  I've got no reason to doubt the choir of scouts that ranked Kuminga as having a #1 ceiling this draft. Makes sense, given he's only been playing in the US for five years.

  Also got to root for JK because he's made it to the Bay from the Congo, easily one of the countries most fucked by US/European intervention (e.g. helping assassinate their legit elected independence leader Lumumba, RIP to a real one), would love to see him be a star in 3 years. Won't be shocked if there's a trade, but I'm hoping our vet crew and new devt coaches help Kuminga feel right at home, and on the path to bball domination.

• Goofus (8 ♡):

  In one game near the end of this (presumably*) massively successful season, I’d like to see Kerr give Wiggins a night off and start a lineup of:

  Steph-Lee-Klay-Draymond-Looney, and then hockey sub-in…

  Poole-Moody-JTA-Kuminga-Wiseman

  They could sell shirts with all 10 players with the caption “How do you like OUR process?” or holding joints with caption, “Home grown, bitches!”

• Egon Brainparts (8 ♡):

  I feel like moving away from the Congo at 13 and not seeing your parents in 5 years has got to be seen as a suggestion of some resilience to adversity at the very least. Maybe I'm just buying post-draft pieces though.

• Arash (7 ♡):

  Fun fact guys! I have a friend within the organization, and apparently we're going to be incorporating aspects of SWARM within our defense in order to maximize our length/athleticism which manifested itself in great opponent field goal percentages!!

• Duby Dub Dubs (7 ♡):

  It's something of an infamous story actually, we tend to not bag on the FO much here, but the Smiley thing is as much about how they signed him as it is about his disappointing performance.

  Smiley was the first draft project from Kirk Lacob, son of the owner - who has generally seemed to be perfectly fine. But they hired a 22 year old with no relevant experience and plugged him in as an assistant GM who then championed hard for an unheralded 16 year old from out of nowhere.

  So the story goes that Kirk was tagging along with an overseas scouting expedition when they went to take a look at Smiley as a favor to a friend on a day off. Smiley wasn't on anyone's draft radar, it was reportedly "come see if he could eventually be good" - and Lacob really, really liked what he saw that day.

  > Still an unknown to Europe’s top clubs at that point, Smailagic hadn’t played at any level higher than Serbia’s third division, in which he dominated his shorter, less athletic peers. Yet in August 2018, Lacob told Smailagic’s agent that the Warriors were interested in making his client the youngest player in the history of the G League

  [https://www.sfchronicle.com/warriors/article/Warriors-prospect-Alen-Smailagic-brings-talents-14491294.php]

  So they brought him over as the youngest player ever in the G League, stashed him there for a year before burning 2 draft picks to move up and grab him.

  And then, we all know the career. As someone else points out, two big injuries right as the last two seasons opened, which is a bummer for a guy that needs camp and development time.

  So the angst around this guy is because he really hasn't developed, even though the team has stuck with him; but it's also very much a criticism of a FO miss that was part of the early learning curve for the new team owner's son.

• hammystyle (5 ♡):

  I’m still blown away the Lakers traded for Westbrook. It’s so dumb! They didn’t have that much shooting to begin with and they just traded away the two guys who made the most 3’s on the team last year and who are probably their best defensive wings.

  For a guy who can’t shoot or defend, and who’s offense is basically a lower efficiency version of what LeBron does.

  It makes a lot of sense to get a lead playmaker who can carry the offense during the regular season to save LeBron. But I think if LeBron takes over in the playoffs they’ll be very easy to defend. Westbrook is useless off the ball. You almost have to commit to letting Westbrook be the lead guy just to have LeBron’s spacing.

  It’s honestly one of the most bizarre moves I’ve seen a title favorite make. It makes them much worse, IMO. Maybe they have a lot of confidence in THT’s development or the ability to get a couple decent wings in the free agent market.

• Doc (5 ♡):

  Team other than Dubs you’re most excited to watch next year? For me it’s the Rockets. Feels so strange to write that after rooting against them for so many years, and hating their style (read “Harden”). But man, with this draft haul, it’s going to be entertaining watching that team develop. Can Sengun play old school center in the modern NBA? Green do something Jordanish at the rim? Garuba shut down league’s best?

• Willy White Shoes (5 ♡):

  With all the twists, sturm n drang, and the overall hi caliber quality of this draft, it's gonna be a hoot to revisit regularly.

  Starting Aug 8 w/ summer league!

  Besides our picks, so many to follow: Wagner, the SAS pick, etc... and I know just the guys to do it... ;)

• Peter Hood (4 ♡):

  Ok, now it's time to put old trades in perspective. Russell for Wiggins and MIN top 3 protected 1st round pick that conveyed this year in the form of one Jonathon Kuminga. We all know Wiggs' contract was a bad one, but it served 2 critical roles.

  A. it maintained the 4th Superstar salary slot, whether or not it would be occupied by an improving Wiggs or used in a future trade scenario &

  B. it's the price that the Warriors had to pay to secure another lottery pick after their 7 year draft drought (2013-2019).

  A definitive "How do you like me now?" moment for Bob & Co.