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Game thread scheduled to post at 3pm. Please kindly move over there in an orderly manner.

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Jan 13Liked by Eric Apricot

I’m excited for the second of the back-to-back E1Ps tomorrow.

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No Steph implies no E1P.

On the entertaining side, Klay is going to see this game as a green light to shoot with one shoe off, hanging sideways in the air.

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While drifting. Only question is... drifting right?

Or Left?

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If he was Poole, he could go both directions at once.

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Tjd and kuminga were are 2 best defenders last night, looney was getting cooked, wigs was too low-key but the effort was there

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Jan 13·edited Jan 13Author

The whole booing-Krause scandal is definitely giving me all kinds of feelings that I don’t have words for yet.

The end of the Bulls dynasty gives one vision of the future of the Warriors dynasty… Krause tried to do a smart(?!) thing and rebooted the whole team before they could get too old to win. Then the team cratered for six nightmare years without any of their beloved players, followed by a decade of mostly first round exits, and they haven’t gotten back to the finals in almost 3 decades.

Now Pippen and Jordan hate each other, they can’t even have a nostalgic reunion without a scandal.

I want to do in the future a little retrospective on how all the NBA dynasties ended. Even the poster child for a soft dynasty landing, the Spurs, had not so great times to the end. The best that can be said is that they were a great regular season team for a long time and their big three retired on the team, still beloved. But don’t look too close at their disappointing playoff record, try to not think about the bitter bitter ending with Kawhi… and of course SAS are suffering through their fifth straight disaster year though better times are coming.

All the team rules of the NBA are designed for dynasties to end in catastrophe. Let’s see if GSW can land this with dignity and maybe hope for the future.

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It's gonna end how it ends. I'm not worried about wandering in the desert after this run. It's bound to happen, as you point out. I'm not even worried about ignominious last seasons with other teams (If I survived Joe Montana to KC and Ronnie Lott to the Raiders, I can survive anything). I just want to see if this run can last a little longer.

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So we all get to do peyote together in the mojave when the dynasty ends?! 🥳

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Well, it was meant to be a Moses reference, but I'm in for your plan whenever Steph retires ... 😜

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Ozymandias

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Jan 13Liked by Eric Apricot

One additional variable I've been thinking about with regards to our current team is that it's really the first NBA dynasty to rise and fall entirely in the era of extreme social media saturation, and all the toxic scrutiny that comes with it. Obviously the players haven't handled their decline with perfect grace to this point, but even if they did, I wonder if the world would allow them a dignified exit.

There's a tone I catch sometimes in the media surrounding this team—especially surrounding Klay—almost as if people were affronted by their temerity to grow older. As if aging were some sort of a betrayal—of their younger, more dominant selves; of all the rest of us who marveled at them. It's a bit like how Hollywood actresses and pop stars simply aren't granted the right to grow old (though of course it's not as cruel or destructive a phenomenon, and doesn't testify to as meaningful a cultural blight as that particular misogyny). I really hate when I encounter that sort of coverage, but I don't know if it's entirely escapable for this group.

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I think LeBron may have reset the expectations a bit, by bailing out of each super team (MIA and CLE) as they have to pay the bills for their earlier success, so there’s this now common idea that superstars are “owed” a chance at a ring to the end.

But if you look at the dynastic superstars past:

Bird - declined with back problems, retired beloved on BOS at age 35, won 2 playoff series in last 4 years.

Magic - retired with Lakers with lots of false endings, with HIV knocking him out near his prime at 31

Jordan - very bitter ending with Bulls in 98, came back with Wizards nowhere near contention

Kobe - stuck it out on LAL, winning 2 playoff series in his last 7 years, missing the playoffs for the last four.

LeBron is the only one to stay on relevant teams to the end, and that’s because he freely left teams to go to other teams with more stars and resources

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I omitted discussion of the BOS trading of the Big 2/3 to the BRK Russian oligarch since that wasn’t anywhere close to a dynasty, but I acknowledge that trade is the shining North Star of people thinking a dynasty can trade to reload for the next run.

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Jan 13Liked by Eric Apricot

Parker didn’t even retire with them. He played that random season with the Hornets 😂

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Might have been posted already, but Steph is out tonight vs MIL

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...and my interest in the game is now basically zero.

I get why, but...

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maybe NBA TV should flex to the Magic-Thunder game… Chet vs Banchero isn't the *worst* consolation for missing out on Steph vs Dame, I guess

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I'm fine with that. We're not winning tonight's game with this team's current defense.

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Jan 13·edited Jan 13

It’s all good, that’s exactly why we got CP3. Plus Dray can play more as the primary ballhandler, with Moody and GP2 slashing and shooting off ball…

Oh wait.

Paging Ryan Rollins…?

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ummm, too soon?

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Seriously, though, Rollins is available, right? Why not a 10 day considering our lack of PGs. I know W's not known for 2nd go 'rounds with players (Iggy excepted) but this seems to make sense, no?

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Some NBA rule that a team can't sign a player they traded away until a certain time has passed.

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Oops forgot about that and I even read you answer when someone else suggested it a couple days ago. SEE? SEE Warriors what your inept play lately is doing to my mental state?????

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Paging Ryan Rollins at the local Target

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Jan 13·edited Jan 13

CoJo starting? Is this why Robinson got minutes yesterday?

Dray is showing up as “out” on the official injury report, but GTD on the NBA app…

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Noooo… fine.

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Wow. listening to post-game interviews. More wheat for the coaching complaint rumor mill.

JK talked about how he rarely gets time to play together with AW, and that even in practice, they don't get to play on the same team. From one perspective, it makes sense to separate the two during practice, so that both practice teams can scrimmage with an athletic wing. However, we have identified the ability to play these two together as one of the keys to the season. How are the coaches not running them together every chance they get so the two can get reps together?

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That is interesting.

I never even thought of that but it is very obvious now.

How can you expect them to play well together if they never play together?

After watching the Bulls game, I think they are staying pat.

The hope of Wiggins playing like 2022 is more logical than giving him away for probably nothing.

I have changed my opinion and believe they can play together if they Kerr makes the right adjustments. If they get everyone back, they will not be playing that many minutes together anyway unless the new small ball 5 has DG at a 5, JK 4 Wigs 3 , and SC and KT.

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because one of them is gone, no need for them to work out how to play with/off each other if they aren't going to be a "them" in less than a month

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Because they’re incompetent or malicious, clearly.

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Jan 13·edited Jan 13

Both, of course

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So good to see Klay learning new tricks and enjoying it. And apparently Wiggs just needed a haircut. Do we track stats on rebounds by hairstyle?

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On a side note, I must admit that I'm quite disappointed in Devin Vassel's career so far. Offensively, while he's blossomed like I expected and is a functional passer (17 AST %), defensively he's nowhere near what I expected from him coming out, his rebounding is abysmal, and his handle hasn't improved much.

I thought he would be a Jerami Grant type player but unfortunately he's not reached near there but thankfully he's young.

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Isn’t he one of the up and coming offensive weapons in the NBA.

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French curse words in a Bulls game?

That was taureau-ble.

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Just the type of quality punditry we seek here....

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Tjd is so quick to respond

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deletedJan 13
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They’ve done it before and they’ll do it again

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