Joe Lacob: "I did not expect, if you were to ask me 5-10 years ago, would [Steph & Draymond] be playing, and playing at this level with this level of health at 37 for Steph and 35 for Draymond, I definitely would not have predicted that. I would've gone with the odds and said probably not likely."
Random OT stuff on the last weekend before REAL NBA BASKETBALL(TM):
- Ange gets sacked after going losing 6 out of 8 games for Forest and winning 0; Palace starting to drop points (crazy game, though - Bournemouth is playing really well); Sunderland might break the promoted team curse?; Man CIty back into the top 4; Liverpool would actually drop out of the top 4 if they somehow lose to United tomorrow and Tottenham wins
- Giants might hire a (very successful) college manager (Tony Vitello); despite the fact that I hate the Seahawks, the Mariners (and the Sonics) have had some of my favorite non-Bay Area teams
- Every single Cal football home game is absolutely bonkers (and most of the road games, actually); Vanderbilt is having amazing season so far, even though they do have a loss to Alabama
- Niners are still somehow in a tie for 3rd in the NFC 1/3 of the way through the season; both the Eagles and Niners are leading their divisions with a negative point differential; I still think the Niners should continue to try and buy at the deadline, even with the insane injuries - it's early, but even though the NFC West looks pretty strong, the non-divisional schedule has quite a few winnable games
Flacco’s performance on Thursday just complicated the 49ers’ trade options haha. A DE, or now MLB *sniff,* will be falling out of the sky, the league is so unpredictable. Whatever decision they make, I hope it turns out to be the right one.
Hey, did anyone else watch the YouTube video of Steph with pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau? Steph was amazing - just reinforcing what a superb athlete (not just shooter) he is:
Posted it earlier. People underestimate just how good everybody is on the PGA tour but I actually think that when Steph retires from basketball if he worked on his chipping and putting with the same intensity that he does on basketball, he could make the cut in some minor PGA tour events.
You know Youtube also provides a transcript, right? Turn on Closed Captioning, then go down to the video description, expand it fully, and click on Show Transcript.
Sorry for beating a dead horse, Eric. I'll stop. I have NO EXPECTATION that you or anyone at DubNation will or should manually do your own transcripts. Part of my ongoing campaign (with at least 3 other Sustack subscription/podcasters) is to get Substack to do more for its content providers.
I'm glad to hear that you've tried and sorry that it hasn't made a difference.
One of my Substack providers moved to Patreon because of the "enshittification" of Substack. I frankly don't know if that will be any better.
I did a whole prototype of valkyrienation.org on Ghost, but the commenting infrastructure isn’t there yet. If I had infinite time, I’d adapt the old Vox commenting system to Ghost, but…
I think Will Richard is showing early signs of some day -- maybe in a few years -- being able to break into the coveted status of a young Warrior player who is "showing signs" with very inconsistent performances, some eye-popping moments yet a lot of disappointments even in garbage time, ultimately becoming a player that Kerr can hesitate about and everyone can argue whether we should have picked him. Too good to dismiss outright, to lousy to play meaningful minutes, ripe for lots of trade discussions.
It's all right there for him, that lineup spot between 9-14 depending on who is injured. I just hope he just enjoys this proud moment and doesn't try to rush through it.
Beg to differ about that, TBH. A lot of JK's 'public relations' issues are because what's holding him back is BBIQ as much as anything else.
Richard plays pretty smart. He's going to have good games and bad games, but in general, he's going to follow the team concept and execute it pretty well. He's not going to face the same criticism for his shortcomings as a player that JK does.
Whether he's got enough game to succeed? Who knows? He has to be able to shoot, and the jury's going to be out on that for a couple of years.
I'm lost. My post was not about JK, or at least not just him. This is a ton of guys in my mind over the decade, like Ian Clark. Brandon Rush, Quinn Cook, McCaw, Damian Jones, Jordan Bell, McKinnie, JTA, Moody, JK. Obviously they all are different in many ways.
But what they have in common is that mid level status.
So I'm not quite sure what JK's public relations has to do with it, I guess I didn't make it clear.
What I meant was a sort of quirky acknowledgment of that odd status that happens on this team over the decade. There's Steph Draymond and Klay at the top. Then there's at the far other end guys who barely make the team like Chiozza.
And in the middle there's the Mid Guys of Confusing Status. They make for good conversation around here because of that indeterminate status. Like, no one ever says bench Steph, so he's not that interesting. And no one ever says start Chiozza. So the mid guys therefore seem most likely to provoke debate.
I think Will Richard will get the same kind of pass as guys like Ian Clark, Quinn Cook, McKinnie, and JTA (all undrafted) because of his status as a very late draft pick. We're just glad he can contribute; if he becomes more, it's all gravy.
McCaw, Bell, Paschall, (all picked in the 1/3 of the 2nd round) and especially Jones and Poole (late 1st rounders) had a bit more pressure, being drafted higher; we hoped that they would be rotation pieces. When they surpassed expectations (as McCaw and Poole did), we were thrilled.
I would say that Moody and JK have the highest expectations as lottery picks; we expect and /need/ those guys to be players--hopefully starters someday and maybe all-stars. JK even had that post-Curry franchise cornerstone idea attached to his name (not looking too good right now, I'll grant).
As for the discussion around someone like Richard, I get what you mean. He's not a sure-fire starter and doesn't look like a deep, deep bench guy. So he's in the middle and could end up staring occasionally or riding the pine. But I doubt he'll ever be doubted by Kerr in the way that Kuminga is. Richard knows where to be and is almost always there; JK is uber-athletic but has been unreliable. Kerr hates that.
Well as you say those guys are all different. Every team has at least one or two elite players, some solid rotation guys, and the rest end-of-roster guys, some of whom manage to be good enough to grab some minutes. Nothing odd about that except we've had more elite players than many recent teams. But historically even that isn't so unusual.
To me, Ian Clark, Quinn Cook, McCaw, McKinnie, Bell, and JTA were not mid-level, they were borderline NBA players that mostly belonged in the G League. Add Damion Lee to that list. Brandon Rush was a mid-level NBA player who had a catastrophic injury. Damian Jones was barely mid-level if you look at his whole career, but he played 8 years in the league, which is more than a lot of the guys you named.
Moody and JK currently are mid-level players who can be solid rotation pieces. I still think they have more potential than any of the players in that group you named. I agree with TRT that JK's BBIQ is his biggest issue but obviously he has elite athleticism.
I think Richard has a lot of potential. I see him as a rotation player in two or three more years, maybe even next year if he can develop his shooting a bit more, although that's optimistic.
The fact that JK has become a strong passer gives me a lot of hope for his BBIQ development. If his preseason passing and court vision are correct indicators of his regular season passing and court vision, that would mean he's learned to pick up enough automatic (kinesthetically processed) awareness of the court to process and make high level assists and reads at his speed of action, especially while going downhill.
He's still got more to work on w.r.t. timing of passes, pass-choice, and also staying aggressive while keeping a passing mindset. However, if this passing bump is real, then he's mastered an extremely important and dare I say, necessary component of playing with high BBIQ. At that point, it's just a matter of time before he can extend it to other needed aspects.
I think my biggest worry was always that he wouldn't be able to master the fast-paced information processing needed for high BBIQ and so his ceiling would always be a Beale like creator that drags their team down as a primary initiator. Now I'm hopeful that his ceiling is an All-Star presence, one that stands a chance at truly elevating their team.
Agree! I don't think he's dumb. Some of the internet commentary about his BBIQ can veer into borderline or abjectly discriminatory territory that goes outside the four lines of the court, which I don't agree with.
I'm not breaking any news that alongside whatever else people want to bring into this, he's had to play catch-up in terms of development: due to his relatively late start in the game; playing for G-league Ignite instead of a year or more of NCAA ball; and while in lower levels of competition, being able to leverage his extreme athletic advantage which meant he wasn't often forced to make heady plays.
Add to that he got drafted at a very young age by a team that has incredible complex read-and-react systems, and it makes sense to me. At 23, he is still maturing physically and mentally, alongside gaining reps and experience in the Warriors system. His recent comments on the game slowing down give me a lot hope. In other players with different developmental pathways, you might see this start to emerge more clearly by year 3.
If he can become an above-average playmaker, with his physical tools and the amount of attention he gets coming downhill, he could become a real multi-dimensional threat. That's always been the hope of the fanbase, but seeing some glimmers of this coming out in preseason is enticing and changes my perception of how far he can really go as a hooper.
His game reminds me a little bit of Pat McCaw. Which is not a bad thing at all - McCaw was a real contributor on what was probably the best team of all time.
Pat McCaw is vastly overrated by Warriors fans. He had some really nice games those first two seasons, some exciting moments where it looked like he could be a rotation player. It was fun while it lasted but that wasn't long. He wasn't really THAT good, he couldn't shoot from distance, and he never developed in the NBA. He's another borderline NBA player who deservedly has spent most of his pro career in the G League, where he still is.
totally. and also fits in terms of what I was describing, that in-between zone for a warrior player, hero one day, out of the league later. It must be so confusing for a player.
I'm not sure since I couldn't watch the games and couldn't find the stats, but it sounds like Draymond Green had kind of a bad preseason, yeah?
Do y'all think it could be a sign he's declining further with age, or is it just a nothingburger? Dray has always been a "better in big games" kind of player and all, so I'm not *too* worried, but if he's gonna be in Bonehead Turnover Mode too often, that's a big setback for the team, right?
I’ve seen several commentators mention his conditioning. I’m guessing whatever strides were made working out with Jimmy were offset by a lot of time with Jimmy’s wine collection.
"When do you lose a step in your 30's? It's when you let yourself get out of shape and then you never recover." TBF, Alc doesn't agree that's what's happening now, but he says there's the danger of it happening.
Agree, and I think Draymond has been open about how it's hard for him to show up at 100% intensity for games that don't matter. This has been a point of critique from Dray-haters ("If Steph is out, Dray don't care/calls in sick/etc") and I wouldn't entirely disagree, but I mean... After going to the Finals five years straight, what did we expect of him in 2019-20? The regulars at my local watering hole barely showed up for those games either 😂
Especially since he's reached greybeard status, I give him a pass for now.
Caveat I didn't watch last night's game, and can't say I've really focused much on Draymond in the games I have watched in preseason.
I feel like with Dray we are at a point where preseason performance isn't very instructive in how his regular season is going to go. Last season he was still one of the most impactful defenders in the game and while his 3p% wasn't as good as the previous year, he still had more ppg than he has had since the 2018 season. For me that's more telling that he isn't washed yet than him not coming into preseason in game shape.
Age. I just don't see why our guys should be immune to it when the whole world, sporting and otherwise, experiences age and its effects. Being good at basketball or being a Warrior or a champ or experienced does not stave off its effects. Steph is immune and LeBron used to be but otherwise it's a thing.
Maybe we should start Curry-Richards-Buddy-Green-Horford and bring Podz off the bench to minimize the risk of re-aggravating his injury.
It might be a crazy month+ until we get everyone healed up and/or signed. Hopefully at least JK and Moody can be back soon (Jimmy we should be extra cautious with).
Even if Podz was healthy I would start Richard. They need somebody out there to guard Reaves. Plus Podz' best position on this team is the backup 1 anyway since Butler is there to handle the shot creation.
If Moody was healthy I could have seen them starting last season's post-Butler starting lineup but his injury (and Melton's unavailability) make me think Richard is the next man up.
Yeah, definitely. GPII might get some minutes at 3 or even 4 positions if all of the 'day-to-day' players are out.
I'd rather see Richard start a game than Spencer, who will probably also have plenty of playing time in the next few weeks, but you're right - Kerr would definitely start Pat over Richard.
Maybe. He definitely gave it a look in preseason, but then that’s what preseason is for. Results were a bit mixed in the final game, could see it going either way.
Regardless, with all the absences, Richard is going to get some real PT.
You are missing Butler, Moody, and Kuminga (not to mention Melton and Seth).
Podz has 6 turnovers and just 1 assist, Draymond adds another 5 turnovers, 3 more players have 2 turnovers each, and 4 more have 1 turnover each.
Horford and Post each hit just 1 of 4 of their three point attempts.
Your rookie starter goes 1-6 from the field in the first half.
The bright spots:
Steph's 20 points and +7 despite all of the above
TJD continues to play well
Pat Spencer had 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
Despite his 5 turnovers, Draymond Green played his best overall game of the preseason.
Will Richard bounced back from his 1- 6 first half to shoot 4-8 in the second half, and his floor game remained impressive throughout the entire preseason.
After starting the game on 40+ turnover pace with 11 in the first quarter, the Warriors had *only* 12 more turnovers over the last 3 quarters. And somehow, the Warriors' defense kept them in contact with the Clippers when they were turning over the ball every other possession.
I noted this elsewhere but let's stop with the missing Butler, Moody, and JK stuff when the Clips were missing Kawhi, Harden, and CP. That's at least a level playing field, and arguably to our advantage.
Yah don't say two timeline fiasco Joe??? 😑😑
r/warriors
•
13h ago
Robotsaur
Joe Lacob: "I did not expect, if you were to ask me 5-10 years ago, would [Steph & Draymond] be playing, and playing at this level with this level of health at 37 for Steph and 35 for Draymond, I definitely would not have predicted that. I would've gone with the odds and said probably not likely."
Bravo for "Fiasco Joe"!
Kings' Domantas Sabonis out at least a week with hamstring strain: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/46639801/kings-domantas-sabonis-hamstring-expected-miss-first-2-games
Finished the video/podcast. Just excellent. Thank you.
Eh, seeing as how I didn’t actually meet any of the new Warriors, I think the title was pure clickbait.
EA/Perks - I appreciate the work that went into organizing this level of detail. It’s impressive.
Ditto.
Shams Charania
Memphis Grizzlies guard Scotty Pippen Jr. will undergo a procedure for a left big toe injury and will be re-evaluated in 12 weeks, sources tell ESPN
Man. Ja out, JJ out, Pippen out. Guess this is their year from hell mark 2…..
Ok, this turf toe epidemic is out of control. That’s the 2ND one for Memphis this year! Time to switch to grass, FedEx forum.
Grassketball!
I don’t usually post shorts but this was fun: https://youtube.com/shorts/ipzV1vLZ8r8?si=xOWlYtbXmKHv_ikE
Random OT stuff on the last weekend before REAL NBA BASKETBALL(TM):
- Ange gets sacked after going losing 6 out of 8 games for Forest and winning 0; Palace starting to drop points (crazy game, though - Bournemouth is playing really well); Sunderland might break the promoted team curse?; Man CIty back into the top 4; Liverpool would actually drop out of the top 4 if they somehow lose to United tomorrow and Tottenham wins
- Giants might hire a (very successful) college manager (Tony Vitello); despite the fact that I hate the Seahawks, the Mariners (and the Sonics) have had some of my favorite non-Bay Area teams
- Every single Cal football home game is absolutely bonkers (and most of the road games, actually); Vanderbilt is having amazing season so far, even though they do have a loss to Alabama
- Niners are still somehow in a tie for 3rd in the NFC 1/3 of the way through the season; both the Eagles and Niners are leading their divisions with a negative point differential; I still think the Niners should continue to try and buy at the deadline, even with the insane injuries - it's early, but even though the NFC West looks pretty strong, the non-divisional schedule has quite a few winnable games
Ange always wins trophies in his second season tho...
Flacco’s performance on Thursday just complicated the 49ers’ trade options haha. A DE, or now MLB *sniff,* will be falling out of the sky, the league is so unpredictable. Whatever decision they make, I hope it turns out to be the right one.
Hey, did anyone else watch the YouTube video of Steph with pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau? Steph was amazing - just reinforcing what a superb athlete (not just shooter) he is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mluOWlA6GGo
Posted it earlier. People underestimate just how good everybody is on the PGA tour but I actually think that when Steph retires from basketball if he worked on his chipping and putting with the same intensity that he does on basketball, he could make the cut in some minor PGA tour events.
I wouldn't be surprised if he plays some senior tour events down the road
Transcript please, and not the dumb Substack AI transcripts. Push Substack for better transcription of podcasts.
You know Youtube also provides a transcript, right? Turn on Closed Captioning, then go down to the video description, expand it fully, and click on Show Transcript.
I love transcripts too, but we’ve discussed this before… it takes me hours and hours of extra work so it will happen later or not at all.
And I have had no luck pushing Substack to do anything despite my complaints in person to their engineers.
Have you tried having an AI transcription service process the video and produce a text transcript for you?
Yes but all of them need hand corrections, particularly around names and basketball/cap terms.
Sorry for beating a dead horse, Eric. I'll stop. I have NO EXPECTATION that you or anyone at DubNation will or should manually do your own transcripts. Part of my ongoing campaign (with at least 3 other Sustack subscription/podcasters) is to get Substack to do more for its content providers.
I'm glad to hear that you've tried and sorry that it hasn't made a difference.
One of my Substack providers moved to Patreon because of the "enshittification" of Substack. I frankly don't know if that will be any better.
I did a whole prototype of valkyrienation.org on Ghost, but the commenting infrastructure isn’t there yet. If I had infinite time, I’d adapt the old Vox commenting system to Ghost, but…
🎶 If I could save time in a bottle… 🎶
The Jimmy/Buddy (Himmy/Hubby) Bromance cont:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBrWoVkXjiw
Al Horford Recaps Warriors Preseason Loss to Clippers | Oct. 17, 2025 | Golden State Warriors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y8BA2L2JWA
I think Will Richard is showing early signs of some day -- maybe in a few years -- being able to break into the coveted status of a young Warrior player who is "showing signs" with very inconsistent performances, some eye-popping moments yet a lot of disappointments even in garbage time, ultimately becoming a player that Kerr can hesitate about and everyone can argue whether we should have picked him. Too good to dismiss outright, to lousy to play meaningful minutes, ripe for lots of trade discussions.
It's all right there for him, that lineup spot between 9-14 depending on who is injured. I just hope he just enjoys this proud moment and doesn't try to rush through it.
Beg to differ about that, TBH. A lot of JK's 'public relations' issues are because what's holding him back is BBIQ as much as anything else.
Richard plays pretty smart. He's going to have good games and bad games, but in general, he's going to follow the team concept and execute it pretty well. He's not going to face the same criticism for his shortcomings as a player that JK does.
Whether he's got enough game to succeed? Who knows? He has to be able to shoot, and the jury's going to be out on that for a couple of years.
I'm lost. My post was not about JK, or at least not just him. This is a ton of guys in my mind over the decade, like Ian Clark. Brandon Rush, Quinn Cook, McCaw, Damian Jones, Jordan Bell, McKinnie, JTA, Moody, JK. Obviously they all are different in many ways.
But what they have in common is that mid level status.
So I'm not quite sure what JK's public relations has to do with it, I guess I didn't make it clear.
What I meant was a sort of quirky acknowledgment of that odd status that happens on this team over the decade. There's Steph Draymond and Klay at the top. Then there's at the far other end guys who barely make the team like Chiozza.
And in the middle there's the Mid Guys of Confusing Status. They make for good conversation around here because of that indeterminate status. Like, no one ever says bench Steph, so he's not that interesting. And no one ever says start Chiozza. So the mid guys therefore seem most likely to provoke debate.
I think Will Richard will get the same kind of pass as guys like Ian Clark, Quinn Cook, McKinnie, and JTA (all undrafted) because of his status as a very late draft pick. We're just glad he can contribute; if he becomes more, it's all gravy.
McCaw, Bell, Paschall, (all picked in the 1/3 of the 2nd round) and especially Jones and Poole (late 1st rounders) had a bit more pressure, being drafted higher; we hoped that they would be rotation pieces. When they surpassed expectations (as McCaw and Poole did), we were thrilled.
I would say that Moody and JK have the highest expectations as lottery picks; we expect and /need/ those guys to be players--hopefully starters someday and maybe all-stars. JK even had that post-Curry franchise cornerstone idea attached to his name (not looking too good right now, I'll grant).
As for the discussion around someone like Richard, I get what you mean. He's not a sure-fire starter and doesn't look like a deep, deep bench guy. So he's in the middle and could end up staring occasionally or riding the pine. But I doubt he'll ever be doubted by Kerr in the way that Kuminga is. Richard knows where to be and is almost always there; JK is uber-athletic but has been unreliable. Kerr hates that.
Richard also has a motor that’s always revved, which Kerr loves.
Well as you say those guys are all different. Every team has at least one or two elite players, some solid rotation guys, and the rest end-of-roster guys, some of whom manage to be good enough to grab some minutes. Nothing odd about that except we've had more elite players than many recent teams. But historically even that isn't so unusual.
To me, Ian Clark, Quinn Cook, McCaw, McKinnie, Bell, and JTA were not mid-level, they were borderline NBA players that mostly belonged in the G League. Add Damion Lee to that list. Brandon Rush was a mid-level NBA player who had a catastrophic injury. Damian Jones was barely mid-level if you look at his whole career, but he played 8 years in the league, which is more than a lot of the guys you named.
Moody and JK currently are mid-level players who can be solid rotation pieces. I still think they have more potential than any of the players in that group you named. I agree with TRT that JK's BBIQ is his biggest issue but obviously he has elite athleticism.
I think Richard has a lot of potential. I see him as a rotation player in two or three more years, maybe even next year if he can develop his shooting a bit more, although that's optimistic.
The fact that JK has become a strong passer gives me a lot of hope for his BBIQ development. If his preseason passing and court vision are correct indicators of his regular season passing and court vision, that would mean he's learned to pick up enough automatic (kinesthetically processed) awareness of the court to process and make high level assists and reads at his speed of action, especially while going downhill.
He's still got more to work on w.r.t. timing of passes, pass-choice, and also staying aggressive while keeping a passing mindset. However, if this passing bump is real, then he's mastered an extremely important and dare I say, necessary component of playing with high BBIQ. At that point, it's just a matter of time before he can extend it to other needed aspects.
I think my biggest worry was always that he wouldn't be able to master the fast-paced information processing needed for high BBIQ and so his ceiling would always be a Beale like creator that drags their team down as a primary initiator. Now I'm hopeful that his ceiling is an All-Star presence, one that stands a chance at truly elevating their team.
Agree! I don't think he's dumb. Some of the internet commentary about his BBIQ can veer into borderline or abjectly discriminatory territory that goes outside the four lines of the court, which I don't agree with.
I'm not breaking any news that alongside whatever else people want to bring into this, he's had to play catch-up in terms of development: due to his relatively late start in the game; playing for G-league Ignite instead of a year or more of NCAA ball; and while in lower levels of competition, being able to leverage his extreme athletic advantage which meant he wasn't often forced to make heady plays.
Add to that he got drafted at a very young age by a team that has incredible complex read-and-react systems, and it makes sense to me. At 23, he is still maturing physically and mentally, alongside gaining reps and experience in the Warriors system. His recent comments on the game slowing down give me a lot hope. In other players with different developmental pathways, you might see this start to emerge more clearly by year 3.
If he can become an above-average playmaker, with his physical tools and the amount of attention he gets coming downhill, he could become a real multi-dimensional threat. That's always been the hope of the fanbase, but seeing some glimmers of this coming out in preseason is enticing and changes my perception of how far he can really go as a hooper.
Ah, OK, I misread your tone. I detected a tinge of sarcasm. Apologies.
I suspect Richard is going to be fine, but he's got to be able to shoot.
His game reminds me a little bit of Pat McCaw. Which is not a bad thing at all - McCaw was a real contributor on what was probably the best team of all time.
Pat McCaw is vastly overrated by Warriors fans. He had some really nice games those first two seasons, some exciting moments where it looked like he could be a rotation player. It was fun while it lasted but that wasn't long. He wasn't really THAT good, he couldn't shoot from distance, and he never developed in the NBA. He's another borderline NBA player who deservedly has spent most of his pro career in the G League, where he still is.
totally. and also fits in terms of what I was describing, that in-between zone for a warrior player, hero one day, out of the league later. It must be so confusing for a player.
I'm not sure since I couldn't watch the games and couldn't find the stats, but it sounds like Draymond Green had kind of a bad preseason, yeah?
Do y'all think it could be a sign he's declining further with age, or is it just a nothingburger? Dray has always been a "better in big games" kind of player and all, so I'm not *too* worried, but if he's gonna be in Bonehead Turnover Mode too often, that's a big setback for the team, right?
I’ve seen several commentators mention his conditioning. I’m guessing whatever strides were made working out with Jimmy were offset by a lot of time with Jimmy’s wine collection.
Alc had a great line in his pattern replay:
"When do you lose a step in your 30's? It's when you let yourself get out of shape and then you never recover." TBF, Alc doesn't agree that's what's happening now, but he says there's the danger of it happening.
Have a feeling players known more for defense don't put out their full effort during the preseason.
Agree, and I think Draymond has been open about how it's hard for him to show up at 100% intensity for games that don't matter. This has been a point of critique from Dray-haters ("If Steph is out, Dray don't care/calls in sick/etc") and I wouldn't entirely disagree, but I mean... After going to the Finals five years straight, what did we expect of him in 2019-20? The regulars at my local watering hole barely showed up for those games either 😂
Especially since he's reached greybeard status, I give him a pass for now.
Caveat I didn't watch last night's game, and can't say I've really focused much on Draymond in the games I have watched in preseason.
He came into camp out of shape is the issue I think, hopefully he's not too old to work himself back into shape.
Some percent is likely age-related decline. But I think the much bigger part is preseason.
I feel like with Dray we are at a point where preseason performance isn't very instructive in how his regular season is going to go. Last season he was still one of the most impactful defenders in the game and while his 3p% wasn't as good as the previous year, he still had more ppg than he has had since the 2018 season. For me that's more telling that he isn't washed yet than him not coming into preseason in game shape.
God Speed Danny G 🇵🇷
Looking forward to Parker-Wardley. CSAC are scumbags for signaling they will go against the Ali act
Age. I just don't see why our guys should be immune to it when the whole world, sporting and otherwise, experiences age and its effects. Being good at basketball or being a Warrior or a champ or experienced does not stave off its effects. Steph is immune and LeBron used to be but otherwise it's a thing.
Maybe we should start Curry-Richards-Buddy-Green-Horford and bring Podz off the bench to minimize the risk of re-aggravating his injury.
It might be a crazy month+ until we get everyone healed up and/or signed. Hopefully at least JK and Moody can be back soon (Jimmy we should be extra cautious with).
Even if Podz was healthy I would start Richard. They need somebody out there to guard Reaves. Plus Podz' best position on this team is the backup 1 anyway since Butler is there to handle the shot creation.
If Moody was healthy I could have seen them starting last season's post-Butler starting lineup but his injury (and Melton's unavailability) make me think Richard is the next man up.
I'd be quite surprised if Kerr starts Richard. he likes experience. I would think GPII or Spencer would come first.
Yeah, definitely. GPII might get some minutes at 3 or even 4 positions if all of the 'day-to-day' players are out.
I'd rather see Richard start a game than Spencer, who will probably also have plenty of playing time in the next few weeks, but you're right - Kerr would definitely start Pat over Richard.
> but you're right - Kerr would definitely start Pat over Richard.
Then why didn't Kerr start Spencer over Richard in these last two preseason games?
I'm going out on a limb and saying that Richard is starting opening night.
Maybe. He definitely gave it a look in preseason, but then that’s what preseason is for. Results were a bit mixed in the final game, could see it going either way.
Regardless, with all the absences, Richard is going to get some real PT.
Can't wait for Melton to come back too
Very happy for Melton to take Podz's minutes. That's a good thing for the team.
We have such a deep team this year (on paper), and it's going to be a lot of fun (especially once we have a relatively #fullsquad)
Quick post-mortem on last night's debacle:
It's hard to win a game wihen:
You are missing Butler, Moody, and Kuminga (not to mention Melton and Seth).
Podz has 6 turnovers and just 1 assist, Draymond adds another 5 turnovers, 3 more players have 2 turnovers each, and 4 more have 1 turnover each.
Horford and Post each hit just 1 of 4 of their three point attempts.
Your rookie starter goes 1-6 from the field in the first half.
The bright spots:
Steph's 20 points and +7 despite all of the above
TJD continues to play well
Pat Spencer had 6 assists and 5 rebounds.
Despite his 5 turnovers, Draymond Green played his best overall game of the preseason.
Will Richard bounced back from his 1- 6 first half to shoot 4-8 in the second half, and his floor game remained impressive throughout the entire preseason.
After starting the game on 40+ turnover pace with 11 in the first quarter, the Warriors had *only* 12 more turnovers over the last 3 quarters. And somehow, the Warriors' defense kept them in contact with the Clippers when they were turning over the ball every other possession.
I noted this elsewhere but let's stop with the missing Butler, Moody, and JK stuff when the Clips were missing Kawhi, Harden, and CP. That's at least a level playing field, and arguably to our advantage.
very good summary.
Warriors All-Access | 2025-26 Training Camp | Golden State Warriors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U58Vi5bp_C0