If anyone else needs ways to procrastinate on a monday, watch steph's highlights from last night and just watch how the player(s) defending him react every time... I love watching CJ shrug at the blazers bench like "what do you want me to do with this?" hahaha
Was watching Kerr struggle to respond to why Steph gets overlooked, and I realized that we should pity folks who don't get Steph (and Draymond) because they are two of the most unique players in history and neither one fits into the conventional NBA superstar box. What kind of player is under 6'5" and can score like Steph? What kind of player who can score like Steph is as efficient as Steph? Nobody. What kind of player can score a single point and yet be the second best player on a team (and tied first in importance when it comes to winning)? How easy is it for NBA fans with decades looking at freak giants (and Michael Jordan) conditioned to see excellence that way to overlook Steph and Dray?
We're exceptionally blessed to have both of them playing together and nights like tonight are part of the payoff.
Wife and I were talking about that last night. It sounds kind of cheesy, but we agreed how fortunate we’ve been to get to watch Curry since he arrived.
At start of 2021/decade, at the Pantheon of NBA GOAT Scorers, Wilt and Kobe were cheering on Stephen Curry last night, as he reminded us the GOAT SHOOTER is also one of the GOAT SCORERS WITHIN a TEAM system; unselfish play revolutionized game/dominated last decade.
Kudos to Steve Kerr and staff for all the adjustments, including higher PnR, giving everyone room to operate. Kudos to Dray/Team for giving back. Kudos to the GREAT Dame Lillard, Oakland's Own, for demonstrative respect.
Curry on the season now: 34.7 pts on .636 true shooting. Turns out five-game samples are not worth bunching undies over. Who knew.
He did however tank his FT% with that one brick. He’s now at 98.0% from the stripe on the season, a fairly alarming drop-off from last season’s 100.0%.
I was and still am somewhat on the fence on whether it would have made more sense to try to extract Covington from Minnesota (along with I suppose Dieng) in the DLo deal in place of Wiggins. Covington's D and ability to be Klay-lite on catch-and-shoot 3s is very appealing; and he was killer for stretches in last year's playoffs. At the same time ... you watch a game like last night's and see how many more things Wiggins can do on the floor than RoCo, even if he does them all imperfectly: handle, pass, post-up, drive, create shots for himself and others, guard 1-4, e.g. Covington does his 3-and-D things well, but is fairly hopeless when asked to anything beyond that (e.g, execute a straight line dribble to the rim on a fastbreak without randomly picking up the ball, lol). Wiggins is just a whole different caliber of athlete and baller.
Throw in the fact that Wiggins is 25 where Covington is 30, and the fact that Wiggins' contract preserves the max salary slot we lost with KD, and I think we probably made the right call. (Not sure if the Minny first rounder would have come in a RoCo/Dieng deal, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it would have). But ask me again after the next bad Wiggins game... ;-P
Personally, I suspect that the Minnesota first rounder was only on the table because they were taking on the Wiggins contract.
I'd prefer Covington if Klay was healthy but I think Wiggins is probably better for a pretty offensively challenged team to take some of the load off Curry and to lead the second unit. And he does fit the uptempo approach pretty well.
Plus, don't look now (seriously, it's meaningless, don't look now) but Wiggins is outshooting Covington from three this season.
If you aren't Lacob or Guber and having to write the checks, I don't see how you can be all that dissatisfied with Wiggins. He is at least a useful player that fills a need and, as you said, it preserves the salary slot and gains a 1st round pick. If the basketball gods hadn't put Klay Thompson on the shelf for another year, being a useful player would have been enough for the Warriors to be in the championship hunt.
Covington has shown next to nothing this year. Portland fans are starting to get nervous about the blazers giving up 2 first rounders to (hopefully ) plug the gaping hole they had at the wing.
If they are wanting more offense from him and their other new starter, then Dame & C.J. are going to have to learn how to pass. Never a strong suit for them in the last 3 years. And Stotts never seems to be interested in changing the offense at all. I check out box scores and the one from last night looks just like the others I've seen for Portland so far this season. The guards take 21 to 25 shots a night. Sometimes they're hot - at least one - sometimes neither are. I don't think I've seen Covington have more than 5 or 6 shots in a game so far. His O is not going to improve with that small sample size.
Yeah, could just be lack of conditioning with the abbreviated offseason, but he looked surprisingly old and slow last night. There is point where aging “big wings” like KD and LeBron have a tough time chasing smalls around the perimeter and actually work better defensively as 4s. You wonder if/when RoCo will hit that point; and when he does his defensive value diminishes considerably. I thought the same thing watching Otto Porter the last time I saw him lumbering around. The line between 3 and 4 defensively can be thin.
Whatever else one might say about Wiggins and Oubre (“the Trash Brothers” as the adorable Celtics fans on my Red Sox board call them) they both have a rare combo of lateral quickness and length/strength that allow them to guard anyone 1-4 without ever being physically overmatched. Defensive awareness and IQ is another question, but they both have the physical tools to be ridiculously good defenders.
Oh, I remember it last season as well. The most promising thing about his brief stint here, IMO. Blocks and steals all day. Looked like a different player on that end from the passive guy I remembered in Minnesota.
One interesting thing about Wiggins: for all his statistical flaws (mediocre at best efficiency, rebounding, passing, block and steal numbers) he’s actually been at worst a mild positive on the floor every season he’s been in the league except his rookie campaign: -1.8 net points per 100 possessions as a rook, followed by +6.7, +3.1, +4.1, +1.6, +1.8, +9.3 (this season). Makes you wonder if his D has actually always been a bit better than advertised.
By contrast, here are DLo’s year-by-year net plus-minus numbers: -5.2, -4.7, -4.9, +0.7, -2.4, -42.2. Yes ... you read that last number correctly. 175-minute sample, but that is still absolutely insane.
Anyone cool with flipping Wiggins and a high pick in next year’s stacked draft for DLo? :-)
Seems like the baseball matchups might be a big advantage for the Warriors this year since it gives them a chance to make intentional adjustments and see them pay off right away. Oubre knew he had to fight over screens and it showed. Wiseman did way better against drives. They went to Paschall more often while he was out there. And Steph and Draymond came through in a big way.
That’s going to give positive reinforcement to the new guys and hopefully speed up that learning curve.
I was very encouraged to see the play of both JW & Paschall tonight. Both contributed a lot to this win. Of course, it helps to have Steph drop 62, but the Warriors looked like a team in this game.
I'm not happy that Chriss got injured, but it seems like the Warriors stumbled onto a surprisingly effective second unit by putting Paschall at the smallball center and Wiggins at smallball PF. Tonight they were +1 in the Curry-less minutes, which is a lot better than people were expecting for the Curry-less minutes this season. We'll see if it continues.
Currently, Kerr is letting Oubre overlap with the Curry minutes. I thought Oubre was going to help the second unit once Draymond was healthy, but I realized tonight that Oubre playing with Curry allows Oubre to guard the point guard and Curry to take it easier defensively.
I think small ball C is a good role for Paschall, but I'm just hoping he can microwave scoring enough to make up what he gives up on D and rebounding. Breaking even in his minutes would be a huge help.
Definitely, but given the limitations of the roster, they were always going to be at a disadvantage in some capacity without Curry playing. But with this unit, they also will have the advantage of speed and athleticism in the frontcourt on most nights. Paschall is surrounded by four guys who can shoot in Wanamaker/Bazemore/Lee/Wiggins so it puts more pressure on the opposing backup center to keep up with him. They have lengthy, active perimeter defenders who can play a Nellieball style swarming defense to try and speed the opponent up and create turnovers.
But yeah, too soon to say if it'll work, a lot depends on how well Wiggins and Paschall can lead an offense. I like the theory of it though.
This game is a great argument for the baseball-style series in the schedule this season. The Warriors adjusted, Steph adjusted, the players were motivated, lots of guys played at a high level... lots of great basketball.
Best games we've seen yet this season from Bazemore, Paschall, Draymond, probably Wiggins, maybe Oubre, and... oh yeah, that #30 guy. You can see the growth from Wiseman, too. Lee and JTA, Looney, and Wanamaker did fine. Lots of things to be happy for.
I loved the way the team fought for rebounds; Looney & Paschall's boxing out was critical to making that happen, as was other guys going in to scoop it up (Bazemore, Dray, Steph, and Lee notably ). Oubre and Wiggins were waaaay better about not just getting blown by when Lillard or McCollum attacked. It also sure helped that a bunch of Blazers ended up in foul trouble. You could see Curry and Wiggins both hunting for fouls a lot. While it wasn't exactly pretty, and they didn't get the calls nearly all the times they wanted them, the effort paid off in the long run.
I love that Steph's 62 ended with him and Lillard trading long-range bombs rather than just grinding out points at the free-throw line.
There were a couple boneheaded plays that guys are gonna regret, too, of course. Wanamaker and Wiseman both "saving" it to the other team under the basket... Mulder(?) losing it off his foot... oops. On the other side, Lillard crossing up so hard he loses the ball out of bounds in the late 4th... 😬 Wiseman looked like he was fighting pretty hard with Nurkic for position and is probably going to have to learn a little more carefully the boundary where refs won't call a foul on that kind of activity.
Perfect example of why dray will always be underrated. Scoring points is the flashiest thing you can do on the court but dray does quite literally everything else on an elite level.
Your glass 1/2 empty report: Steph's free throw streak was broken and outside of Steph and Lee, nobody can make a 3. How do the Warriors expect to win if Steph only shoots 95% on free throws? Watching the highlights (I missed the actual game) the defense didn't look that bad for a change. Lillard made some absolutely ridiculous shots to keep it close.
Steph’s at 98% from the stripe right now, but totally agreed that it’s a problem. He caught some rim on one of his 18 makes last night as well. If he can’t get back to last season’s 100%, this team could be in trouble.
Had to watch delayed, Wife’s birthday, so I missed the game thread which must have been a hoot. What a game Steph! But I thought there were lots of encouraging signs for this team moving forward too.
I watched first half while attending to something urgent. Was Dray's defense in first half DPOY level? To my distracted mind, seemed like he nullified Nurkic.
Saw some of the best stuff yet out of Wiseman. Soaring rebounds, sound D, lob conversions, some sweet post moves. Even passed up an open 3. He may make us doubters look foolish yet.
This felt so good. Steph benefitted from the whistles and looked feisty. Wigs had nice penetration and like Wiseman and Oubre will benefit from playing with Draymond. Mistakes like Wigs missing a cutback and Kelly taking on the whole team with under 15 seconds on the clock will get ironed out. Give them some time.
Wizards beat the Nets, Bulls beat the Mavericks without Doncic. It feels that no team is safe in the Eastern Conference since anyone can beat anyone over there.
Great win by the whole team but obvious Curry's night. Steph is just getting started. This isn't even the craziest thing we will see from him this year. That is why I can't take anyone seriously who says that the Warriors won't be in the playoffs. They must have forgot who this man is.
Kind of counter intuitive that Curry being aggressive will make other guys sulk. But, at least in this game, seemed everyone was super charged because Steph was Steph.
Steph isn't a Harden type ball-dominant scorer so that might explain it. Even when Curry's going off, almost everyone gets the opportunity to handle and create as Steph plays off-ball so frequently.
If anyone else needs ways to procrastinate on a monday, watch steph's highlights from last night and just watch how the player(s) defending him react every time... I love watching CJ shrug at the blazers bench like "what do you want me to do with this?" hahaha
Always great fun. I've especially enjoyed watching Austin Rivers (Clippers, Rockets) and Raymond Felton (OKC, Clippers) reactions over the years.
Was watching Kerr struggle to respond to why Steph gets overlooked, and I realized that we should pity folks who don't get Steph (and Draymond) because they are two of the most unique players in history and neither one fits into the conventional NBA superstar box. What kind of player is under 6'5" and can score like Steph? What kind of player who can score like Steph is as efficient as Steph? Nobody. What kind of player can score a single point and yet be the second best player on a team (and tied first in importance when it comes to winning)? How easy is it for NBA fans with decades looking at freak giants (and Michael Jordan) conditioned to see excellence that way to overlook Steph and Dray?
We're exceptionally blessed to have both of them playing together and nights like tonight are part of the payoff.
Wife and I were talking about that last night. It sounds kind of cheesy, but we agreed how fortunate we’ve been to get to watch Curry since he arrived.
Other random thoughts #1: RIP Chase Center scoring record of 40 ca. 4:41 left in Q3 last night.
At start of 2021/decade, at the Pantheon of NBA GOAT Scorers, Wilt and Kobe were cheering on Stephen Curry last night, as he reminded us the GOAT SHOOTER is also one of the GOAT SCORERS WITHIN a TEAM system; unselfish play revolutionized game/dominated last decade.
Kudos to Steve Kerr and staff for all the adjustments, including higher PnR, giving everyone room to operate. Kudos to Dray/Team for giving back. Kudos to the GREAT Dame Lillard, Oakland's Own, for demonstrative respect.
Curry on the season now: 34.7 pts on .636 true shooting. Turns out five-game samples are not worth bunching undies over. Who knew.
He did however tank his FT% with that one brick. He’s now at 98.0% from the stripe on the season, a fairly alarming drop-off from last season’s 100.0%.
Small sample size yet\ -- of course -- but:
MP FG FGA FG% 3P 3PA 3P% 2P 2PA 2P% eFG% FT FTA FT% TS% PTS
A 34.2 10.2 20.2 .504 5.1 11.2 .454 5.1 9.0 .566 .630 4.6 5.1 .669 .908 30.1
B 33.5 10.0 21.8 .458 4.3 12.0 .361 5.7 9.8 .576 .557 8.0 8.2 .636 .980 32.3
So you're saying that Steph needs to take his game up a notch?
Unanimous MVP v current vintage?
Bingo
The .669 TS gave it away for me, lol. It’s sooooo sad that I know that by heart...
(Formatting was so much nicer in the preview view... sigh)
*pts per 36
I was and still am somewhat on the fence on whether it would have made more sense to try to extract Covington from Minnesota (along with I suppose Dieng) in the DLo deal in place of Wiggins. Covington's D and ability to be Klay-lite on catch-and-shoot 3s is very appealing; and he was killer for stretches in last year's playoffs. At the same time ... you watch a game like last night's and see how many more things Wiggins can do on the floor than RoCo, even if he does them all imperfectly: handle, pass, post-up, drive, create shots for himself and others, guard 1-4, e.g. Covington does his 3-and-D things well, but is fairly hopeless when asked to anything beyond that (e.g, execute a straight line dribble to the rim on a fastbreak without randomly picking up the ball, lol). Wiggins is just a whole different caliber of athlete and baller.
Throw in the fact that Wiggins is 25 where Covington is 30, and the fact that Wiggins' contract preserves the max salary slot we lost with KD, and I think we probably made the right call. (Not sure if the Minny first rounder would have come in a RoCo/Dieng deal, but let's assume for the sake of argument that it would have). But ask me again after the next bad Wiggins game... ;-P
Wiggins is a beast. That is all.
He’s no Harry Barnes, tho.
Oh wait, he kind of is, lol. Should be fun to watch the two titans match up tonight. It’ll be like the Ali-Frazier of our age.
Gee I thought Steph-Dame was Ali-Frazier. 😊
Hb will always be my number 1
Personally, I suspect that the Minnesota first rounder was only on the table because they were taking on the Wiggins contract.
I'd prefer Covington if Klay was healthy but I think Wiggins is probably better for a pretty offensively challenged team to take some of the load off Curry and to lead the second unit. And he does fit the uptempo approach pretty well.
Plus, don't look now (seriously, it's meaningless, don't look now) but Wiggins is outshooting Covington from three this season.
If you aren't Lacob or Guber and having to write the checks, I don't see how you can be all that dissatisfied with Wiggins. He is at least a useful player that fills a need and, as you said, it preserves the salary slot and gains a 1st round pick. If the basketball gods hadn't put Klay Thompson on the shelf for another year, being a useful player would have been enough for the Warriors to be in the championship hunt.
Covington has shown next to nothing this year. Portland fans are starting to get nervous about the blazers giving up 2 first rounders to (hopefully ) plug the gaping hole they had at the wing.
If they are wanting more offense from him and their other new starter, then Dame & C.J. are going to have to learn how to pass. Never a strong suit for them in the last 3 years. And Stotts never seems to be interested in changing the offense at all. I check out box scores and the one from last night looks just like the others I've seen for Portland so far this season. The guards take 21 to 25 shots a night. Sometimes they're hot - at least one - sometimes neither are. I don't think I've seen Covington have more than 5 or 6 shots in a game so far. His O is not going to improve with that small sample size.
Yeah, could just be lack of conditioning with the abbreviated offseason, but he looked surprisingly old and slow last night. There is point where aging “big wings” like KD and LeBron have a tough time chasing smalls around the perimeter and actually work better defensively as 4s. You wonder if/when RoCo will hit that point; and when he does his defensive value diminishes considerably. I thought the same thing watching Otto Porter the last time I saw him lumbering around. The line between 3 and 4 defensively can be thin.
Whatever else one might say about Wiggins and Oubre (“the Trash Brothers” as the adorable Celtics fans on my Red Sox board call them) they both have a rare combo of lateral quickness and length/strength that allow them to guard anyone 1-4 without ever being physically overmatched. Defensive awareness and IQ is another question, but they both have the physical tools to be ridiculously good defenders.
It takes time to plug a new player into an existing team. I expect he will settle in, given time.
Not sure what the stats say but Wiggins' D is looking aggressive and versatile. Don't remember that showing up last season.
Oh, I remember it last season as well. The most promising thing about his brief stint here, IMO. Blocks and steals all day. Looked like a different player on that end from the passive guy I remembered in Minnesota.
One interesting thing about Wiggins: for all his statistical flaws (mediocre at best efficiency, rebounding, passing, block and steal numbers) he’s actually been at worst a mild positive on the floor every season he’s been in the league except his rookie campaign: -1.8 net points per 100 possessions as a rook, followed by +6.7, +3.1, +4.1, +1.6, +1.8, +9.3 (this season). Makes you wonder if his D has actually always been a bit better than advertised.
...
By contrast, here are DLo’s year-by-year net plus-minus numbers: -5.2, -4.7, -4.9, +0.7, -2.4, -42.2. Yes ... you read that last number correctly. 175-minute sample, but that is still absolutely insane.
Anyone cool with flipping Wiggins and a high pick in next year’s stacked draft for DLo? :-)
It's almost a superpower how D-Lo is able to rack up big negative plus-minus consistently, regardless of his stats
Seems like the baseball matchups might be a big advantage for the Warriors this year since it gives them a chance to make intentional adjustments and see them pay off right away. Oubre knew he had to fight over screens and it showed. Wiseman did way better against drives. They went to Paschall more often while he was out there. And Steph and Draymond came through in a big way.
That’s going to give positive reinforcement to the new guys and hopefully speed up that learning curve.
I was very encouraged to see the play of both JW & Paschall tonight. Both contributed a lot to this win. Of course, it helps to have Steph drop 62, but the Warriors looked like a team in this game.
I'm not happy that Chriss got injured, but it seems like the Warriors stumbled onto a surprisingly effective second unit by putting Paschall at the smallball center and Wiggins at smallball PF. Tonight they were +1 in the Curry-less minutes, which is a lot better than people were expecting for the Curry-less minutes this season. We'll see if it continues.
http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20210103&game=PORGSW
Currently, Kerr is letting Oubre overlap with the Curry minutes. I thought Oubre was going to help the second unit once Draymond was healthy, but I realized tonight that Oubre playing with Curry allows Oubre to guard the point guard and Curry to take it easier defensively.
I think small ball C is a good role for Paschall, but I'm just hoping he can microwave scoring enough to make up what he gives up on D and rebounding. Breaking even in his minutes would be a huge help.
Definitely, but given the limitations of the roster, they were always going to be at a disadvantage in some capacity without Curry playing. But with this unit, they also will have the advantage of speed and athleticism in the frontcourt on most nights. Paschall is surrounded by four guys who can shoot in Wanamaker/Bazemore/Lee/Wiggins so it puts more pressure on the opposing backup center to keep up with him. They have lengthy, active perimeter defenders who can play a Nellieball style swarming defense to try and speed the opponent up and create turnovers.
But yeah, too soon to say if it'll work, a lot depends on how well Wiggins and Paschall can lead an offense. I like the theory of it though.
This game is a great argument for the baseball-style series in the schedule this season. The Warriors adjusted, Steph adjusted, the players were motivated, lots of guys played at a high level... lots of great basketball.
Best games we've seen yet this season from Bazemore, Paschall, Draymond, probably Wiggins, maybe Oubre, and... oh yeah, that #30 guy. You can see the growth from Wiseman, too. Lee and JTA, Looney, and Wanamaker did fine. Lots of things to be happy for.
I loved the way the team fought for rebounds; Looney & Paschall's boxing out was critical to making that happen, as was other guys going in to scoop it up (Bazemore, Dray, Steph, and Lee notably ). Oubre and Wiggins were waaaay better about not just getting blown by when Lillard or McCollum attacked. It also sure helped that a bunch of Blazers ended up in foul trouble. You could see Curry and Wiggins both hunting for fouls a lot. While it wasn't exactly pretty, and they didn't get the calls nearly all the times they wanted them, the effort paid off in the long run.
I love that Steph's 62 ended with him and Lillard trading long-range bombs rather than just grinding out points at the free-throw line.
There were a couple boneheaded plays that guys are gonna regret, too, of course. Wanamaker and Wiseman both "saving" it to the other team under the basket... Mulder(?) losing it off his foot... oops. On the other side, Lillard crossing up so hard he loses the ball out of bounds in the late 4th... 😬 Wiseman looked like he was fighting pretty hard with Nurkic for position and is probably going to have to learn a little more carefully the boundary where refs won't call a foul on that kind of activity.
Fun fact: the guy with 62 points had only the 2nd-highest +/- in the game. The highest +/- belongs to the guy with exactly 1 point.
Perfect example of why dray will always be underrated. Scoring points is the flashiest thing you can do on the court but dray does quite literally everything else on an elite level.
Your glass 1/2 empty report: Steph's free throw streak was broken and outside of Steph and Lee, nobody can make a 3. How do the Warriors expect to win if Steph only shoots 95% on free throws? Watching the highlights (I missed the actual game) the defense didn't look that bad for a change. Lillard made some absolutely ridiculous shots to keep it close.
Steph’s at 98% from the stripe right now, but totally agreed that it’s a problem. He caught some rim on one of his 18 makes last night as well. If he can’t get back to last season’s 100%, this team could be in trouble.
Had to watch delayed, Wife’s birthday, so I missed the game thread which must have been a hoot. What a game Steph! But I thought there were lots of encouraging signs for this team moving forward too.
Woooooow!!!
And here we go! Beautiful performance tonight
I watched first half while attending to something urgent. Was Dray's defense in first half DPOY level? To my distracted mind, seemed like he nullified Nurkic.
It's been a while since we've seen, like, actually great defense, hasn't it?
2nd half was better than 1st half
His D was solid, I still think he has another gear though...
This
Saw some of the best stuff yet out of Wiseman. Soaring rebounds, sound D, lob conversions, some sweet post moves. Even passed up an open 3. He may make us doubters look foolish yet.
It’s almost like he could use the massive stride on that spin move to dunk consistently from the post... the high post.
This felt so good. Steph benefitted from the whistles and looked feisty. Wigs had nice penetration and like Wiseman and Oubre will benefit from playing with Draymond. Mistakes like Wigs missing a cutback and Kelly taking on the whole team with under 15 seconds on the clock will get ironed out. Give them some time.
Wizards beat the Nets, Bulls beat the Mavericks without Doncic. It feels that no team is safe in the Eastern Conference since anyone can beat anyone over there.
Same goes for the West, no? The Wolves without KAT may be the only doormat in the whole conference; and with him they’re not bad.
The Mavs have me baffled. I can’t see them struggling for too long.
"without Doncic" certainly give a hint as to why the Mavs lost.
Chicago were missing a couple players too tbf but yes luka is the bigger loss
Great win by the whole team but obvious Curry's night. Steph is just getting started. This isn't even the craziest thing we will see from him this year. That is why I can't take anyone seriously who says that the Warriors won't be in the playoffs. They must have forgot who this man is.
Klay’s 14 threes in a game record is in serious peril.
Kind of counter intuitive that Curry being aggressive will make other guys sulk. But, at least in this game, seemed everyone was super charged because Steph was Steph.
Steph isn't a Harden type ball-dominant scorer so that might explain it. Even when Curry's going off, almost everyone gets the opportunity to handle and create as Steph plays off-ball so frequently.