Great E1P, as always. So delightful to see JTA and Looney excelling in these 2 man game moves with JP - and JP capitalizing. Could easily have not worked so the abundance of these plays gives me a lot of confidence in the growth of the team.
It seemed pretty obvious that zero points from the floor in the last 3+ minutes meant that the Dubs were pretty gassed from their extended playing time. But exhaustion cut both ways and the guys held on. Looney is going to need a night off soon!
Looney be underrated. I wonder what will happen when Wiseman comes back. Not the first few games -- the actual pattern when they are both healthy and settled. I'm not sold on either one.
I'm not sure there will be a "settled" answer this season. We'll have to see how much Wiseman grows into his role, and there may be phases where Loon is more on top of his game and times when Wise makes a leap or struggles to work something new into his game.
Player grades on the celebrations! Hilarious. I think you're generous to upgrade Draymond's hip shuffle thing to B-tier, definitely no higher than C+. Agreed Porter's salute the clutch thing was A-tier. And what a shot worth celebrating! It looked great in game but it looks even cooler with the way you pause the action to show the instant the shot blocker is still attempting to swat away the ball on the left side of the basket, when actually it's no longer there because Poole is about to put that sweet one high on the glass on the opposite side!
I love the way the "zigzag relocate with out-of-bounds acrobatics" play worked, and there were a couple others in this game too where guys looked like they'd made a mistake and lost the ball, but actually came up with it again and coolly continued to play with the usual principles. It's amazing how effective simple screens and backcuts can be when the defense is distracted by what looks like an error. Dribbled the ball off your knee? Don't worry, that's normal, just pick it up and you can make the pass to the cutter while the defender is trying to decide if he should dive for a steal. Kind of the same principle as air balls go to the offense, maybe.
Also: I learned from this E1P that "causing friendly fire screens" is yet another one of the Curry skills that Poole has been studying. Who knew!
1. On the play that lead to the amazing JTA out of bounds save, you mention right before that you don't know if Poole was trying to pass to Looney or JTA. I think that that was the exact problem: Poole didn't know, either. Amazing play by JTA because he had to shuffle his feet quickly to get the best jump, and then passed it usefully; and then it's classic Warrior offense in that Wiggins, Looney and Poole don't get caught up in the delight of the play, but just do what they always do: Poole relocates to the open three, Wiggins keeps the ball moving, Looney sets a screen. Basically what they would have done if JTA had not been auditioning for CIrque du Soleil.
2. Poole looked so comfortable in the game and in the breakdown. Clearly he needs to drive more and shoot only open threes. And clearly he'll be better as a sixth man leading the scoring, assuming we get there soon. [Please, Zeus and Odin and Alla Y'all, can we get Klay back healthy soon?] But I think in the starter role, one of Poole's problems is that he's too much in his head regarding the Dubs offense. Should I make the extra pass? What action are we running? Do I DHO to Steph and set a screen? Am I ever allowed to shoot if Steph is on the court and arguably could get open? Anyone would be a little hesitant in such circumstances and I think it's messing with him. If he were out there with starters for the rest of the year he'd learn the timing, but maybe Kerr needs to say to him: "You have a Dubs-offense exemption five times a game. If you get a pick, get a lane, just freelance drive as you think best."
3. You mentioned that Looney (I think at score: 96-96) stops before setting a moving screen, but as the play continues he keeps moving. His man doesn't lock up with him, so there's no call, but more globally, I have a question about moving screens, perhaps meriting a breakdown some day when there's nothing else going on. It seems to me that the no-moving-screen rule is experiencing the same evolution over the decades as the no-carry rule. If you watch 60's video, they really meant no carrying. Then it changed with every decade, and by the time Iverson came around it was "You can only carry if it looks sick." To a strict interpretation, most players carry every single game. So: an evolution in the way it's called. The same is true for moving screens. I think you're supposed to stand there like the Statue of Liberty, solid and true. But there's always a little lean, a hip, a shoulder, a grab. Does it not seem to others that there's been a sea change in calling moving screens?
I agree that definitely illegal screens have not been called by the rule letter for a long time now.
You’re supposed to give the defender for unseen screens enough space to avoid the screen (= 1 normal step if stationary); you can not move INTO or to the side (but moving along in their travel direction is legal!!). These are not at all called consistently.
"A player who sets a screen shall not ... move laterally or toward an opponent being screened, after having assumed a legal position." Yeah, that's the one not being called.
Just some subjective thoughts on Kerr’s end of 4th quarter coaching, last night he seemed passive in the final minutes of what turned out to be a squeaker, I kept waiting for him to wake the bench crew up as their cohesiveness deteriorated on the offensive end, it seems like a lot of folks here have issues with Kerr’s end of game decision making and perhaps a certain passivity or perhaps a kind of fatalism overcomes him or resignation “they’re pros, let them figure it and pull it out”, this contrasts in my mind with how quick he is to call the starting lineup together when games get off to sloppy starts, this Warriors dynasty has been so great at winning close games that perhaps it’s as simple as… if it works……
I think there are two goals: coach the game in progress, a short term goal; and coach the player to learn from the action, more of a long term goal. Phil Jackson was a big advocate of leaving them out there and maybe Kerr picked up on that. I think his mindset in this game was "Let's see what happens" because he didn't have to rest everyone, and he didn't have to play Chiozza extended minutes, etc. I think at the end he wanted them to learn from being out there, because the cost of over-coaching is that the players lose confidence in trying what makes sense, making mistakes, learning from them, etc. It's hard to play with your head looking over your shoulder to see if coach is mad and we've definitely seen some overcoaching coaches in this league.
Great point. And it doesn’t even have to be the coach being mad, if they’re looking to the bench to check what to do they will miss ephemeral opportunities and in general allow defenses to recover/get set.
Great E1P, as always. So delightful to see JTA and Looney excelling in these 2 man game moves with JP - and JP capitalizing. Could easily have not worked so the abundance of these plays gives me a lot of confidence in the growth of the team.
It seemed pretty obvious that zero points from the floor in the last 3+ minutes meant that the Dubs were pretty gassed from their extended playing time. But exhaustion cut both ways and the guys held on. Looney is going to need a night off soon!
Looney be underrated. I wonder what will happen when Wiseman comes back. Not the first few games -- the actual pattern when they are both healthy and settled. I'm not sold on either one.
I'm not sure there will be a "settled" answer this season. We'll have to see how much Wiseman grows into his role, and there may be phases where Loon is more on top of his game and times when Wise makes a leap or struggles to work something new into his game.
Player grades on the celebrations! Hilarious. I think you're generous to upgrade Draymond's hip shuffle thing to B-tier, definitely no higher than C+. Agreed Porter's salute the clutch thing was A-tier. And what a shot worth celebrating! It looked great in game but it looks even cooler with the way you pause the action to show the instant the shot blocker is still attempting to swat away the ball on the left side of the basket, when actually it's no longer there because Poole is about to put that sweet one high on the glass on the opposite side!
I love the way the "zigzag relocate with out-of-bounds acrobatics" play worked, and there were a couple others in this game too where guys looked like they'd made a mistake and lost the ball, but actually came up with it again and coolly continued to play with the usual principles. It's amazing how effective simple screens and backcuts can be when the defense is distracted by what looks like an error. Dribbled the ball off your knee? Don't worry, that's normal, just pick it up and you can make the pass to the cutter while the defender is trying to decide if he should dive for a steal. Kind of the same principle as air balls go to the offense, maybe.
Also: I learned from this E1P that "causing friendly fire screens" is yet another one of the Curry skills that Poole has been studying. Who knew!
Next time Dray barks at Poole, Poole’s gonna say “We don’t need you. We won without you. Leave.”
1. On the play that lead to the amazing JTA out of bounds save, you mention right before that you don't know if Poole was trying to pass to Looney or JTA. I think that that was the exact problem: Poole didn't know, either. Amazing play by JTA because he had to shuffle his feet quickly to get the best jump, and then passed it usefully; and then it's classic Warrior offense in that Wiggins, Looney and Poole don't get caught up in the delight of the play, but just do what they always do: Poole relocates to the open three, Wiggins keeps the ball moving, Looney sets a screen. Basically what they would have done if JTA had not been auditioning for CIrque du Soleil.
2. Poole looked so comfortable in the game and in the breakdown. Clearly he needs to drive more and shoot only open threes. And clearly he'll be better as a sixth man leading the scoring, assuming we get there soon. [Please, Zeus and Odin and Alla Y'all, can we get Klay back healthy soon?] But I think in the starter role, one of Poole's problems is that he's too much in his head regarding the Dubs offense. Should I make the extra pass? What action are we running? Do I DHO to Steph and set a screen? Am I ever allowed to shoot if Steph is on the court and arguably could get open? Anyone would be a little hesitant in such circumstances and I think it's messing with him. If he were out there with starters for the rest of the year he'd learn the timing, but maybe Kerr needs to say to him: "You have a Dubs-offense exemption five times a game. If you get a pick, get a lane, just freelance drive as you think best."
3. You mentioned that Looney (I think at score: 96-96) stops before setting a moving screen, but as the play continues he keeps moving. His man doesn't lock up with him, so there's no call, but more globally, I have a question about moving screens, perhaps meriting a breakdown some day when there's nothing else going on. It seems to me that the no-moving-screen rule is experiencing the same evolution over the decades as the no-carry rule. If you watch 60's video, they really meant no carrying. Then it changed with every decade, and by the time Iverson came around it was "You can only carry if it looks sick." To a strict interpretation, most players carry every single game. So: an evolution in the way it's called. The same is true for moving screens. I think you're supposed to stand there like the Statue of Liberty, solid and true. But there's always a little lean, a hip, a shoulder, a grab. Does it not seem to others that there's been a sea change in calling moving screens?
I agree that definitely illegal screens have not been called by the rule letter for a long time now.
You’re supposed to give the defender for unseen screens enough space to avoid the screen (= 1 normal step if stationary); you can not move INTO or to the side (but moving along in their travel direction is legal!!). These are not at all called consistently.
The relevant rules are at
https://official.nba.com/rule-no-12-fouls-and-penalties/#byscreening
https://official.nba.com/comments-on-the-rules/
"A player who sets a screen shall not ... move laterally or toward an opponent being screened, after having assumed a legal position." Yeah, that's the one not being called.
Just some subjective thoughts on Kerr’s end of 4th quarter coaching, last night he seemed passive in the final minutes of what turned out to be a squeaker, I kept waiting for him to wake the bench crew up as their cohesiveness deteriorated on the offensive end, it seems like a lot of folks here have issues with Kerr’s end of game decision making and perhaps a certain passivity or perhaps a kind of fatalism overcomes him or resignation “they’re pros, let them figure it and pull it out”, this contrasts in my mind with how quick he is to call the starting lineup together when games get off to sloppy starts, this Warriors dynasty has been so great at winning close games that perhaps it’s as simple as… if it works……
I think there are two goals: coach the game in progress, a short term goal; and coach the player to learn from the action, more of a long term goal. Phil Jackson was a big advocate of leaving them out there and maybe Kerr picked up on that. I think his mindset in this game was "Let's see what happens" because he didn't have to rest everyone, and he didn't have to play Chiozza extended minutes, etc. I think at the end he wanted them to learn from being out there, because the cost of over-coaching is that the players lose confidence in trying what makes sense, making mistakes, learning from them, etc. It's hard to play with your head looking over your shoulder to see if coach is mad and we've definitely seen some overcoaching coaches in this league.
Great point. And it doesn’t even have to be the coach being mad, if they’re looking to the bench to check what to do they will miss ephemeral opportunities and in general allow defenses to recover/get set.
also, if this is a subject that has been previously discussed to death excuse me as I am fairly new to the site
It’s not one we’ve discussed much to my memory. Mark Jackson used to like to say “Figure it out” instead of calling a timeout.
Generally speaking, if Mark Jackson used to like to say something, you'll be hearing it again soon.
E1P request: what do they call this play? Super unique action with JTA and Poole to initiate the set
https://mobile.twitter.com/WorldWideWob/status/1461863003477852162
I wish Wiggins had shot it instead of passing it to Poole, because:
A) Poole didn’t deserve that bucket after that WFT pass, and…
B) That could have been the most awesome assist of JTA’s career.
It's just the Zigzag Relocate but Juan orders a beer mid-play
If you only watch it from the point where JTA is in mid-air avoiding the OOB, it's a BLOB of some sort...
EOP: come for the analysis and insight, stay for the deadpan delivery.
I'm here for the $12 pitchers.
Excellent. He’s quite the magician finishing at the rim.
I'm just glad Poole made a few 3s early on. Those driving lanes don't open up unless there is a credible threat that he can make the jumper.