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Nov 2, 2023Liked by Daniel Hardee

I love how Daniel finds the grimmiest Kangz troll to get us all fired up 😂

This article was a perfect time to tell the story of how all your stuff was stolen once upon a time ;)

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LOL you remembered??

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CSNBA: Monte Poole interviews Kerr.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EG-jvqYCJEM&list=RDCMUCrGfdyiKjLQXk1vB5xkNv1Q&start_radio=1

I haven't watched this yet.

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His short appearance on 957 the game on willard and Dibs earlier today was pretty good. Couple of interesting points

1. Warriors always a great road team - only twice in his 9 seasons have they been bad. They injury year and last year.

2. Said Draymond will be the first to acknowledge that he has party responsible for the poor chemistry last year

3. It was posted earlier in DNHQ that analytics is saying it is better for teams to crash the offensive boards.

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The most surprising stats so far this season:

In the 159 minutes Steph has been on the court, the Warriors have outscored the opposition by 7 points.

In the 81 minutes Steph has been off the court, the Warriors have outscored the opposition by 37 points.

This has almost nothing to do with offense. When Steph has been off the court so far this season, the Warriors defensive rating has been an incredible 89.6 points allowed per 100 possessions: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/c/curryst01/on-off/2024

More surprising line up stats:

So far this season, the three man lineup of Klay, CP3, and Kuminga is +30 in just 23 minutes of play.

And check out the best 2 man lineups so far: https://www.nba.com/stats/lineups/traditional?GroupQuantity=2&PerMode=Totals&TeamID=1610612744&dir=D&slug=traditional&sort=PLUS_MINUS

The Warriors are +36 in the 77 minutes that Klay and CP3 have shared the court so far this season. Klay and CP3 to with any combination of three out of GPII, Kuminga, Moody, Saric, or TJD has been a pretty potent combination. And in the 47 minutes that GPII and Moody have shared the court, the Warriors have held the opposition to less than 80 points per 100 possessions.

By the way, could somebody tell me how to use a bold font and correctly format a link in a substack comment, please? Thanks!

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I wonder if the Steph stats will change now that Dray is back patrolling on defense? In the first couple of games, the Steph minutes included a heavy dose of Chris Paul, which meant Curry was defending up a position. That and the absence of Green was not going to help his +/- numbers Now that balance has been restored to the force, we'll see what those numbers look like.

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That, and both Wiggins and Klay bringing their games to acceptable levels should help Curry’s +/-.

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I've been saying 'dis shiz. CP and the Wings is such an amazing defensive thing of beauty. The athleticism of GP2, Kuminga, Moody, and you can add in TJD, too just allows for so much amazing smothering. All over the court, the opposing team becomes shot shy and either ends up turning it over or settling for one of the worst shot percentages they could take. CP holds up well, because that trio locks down the perimeter, and CP can still hold his own in a wing post-up. LOL Barnes. Super Dario, I'm not as sure. But it seems his offense seems to make up for it. I guess Klay is a great fit, though.

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The championship Warriors squads have always been driven by a foundation of defense. Always.

What's been going unnoticed so far this year: Klay's defense. Nobody's complaining about it. He may not be manning up the oppositions alpha, but he's not getting noticeably burned. That's where Klay's going to earn his next paycheck. By showing that he's still a solid defender, and not trending to "aged shooter, who's a defensive sieve".

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To my eye, his defense has been “ok”. Since the injury, the best defense I remember seeing from him was in the playoffs of championship year and I was hoping he’d build off of that by continuing with the comeback. Instead, it looks like he’s been ever so slightly losing a step.

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It’s way better this year than last. Which is a good thing.

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SSS but the strategy on all fronts remains solid. The decision to move on from defensive + chemistry albatross Poole, alongside CP3's improvements in reducing our turnover and foul issues has already started to show tremendous benefits.

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I love it when a plan comes together!

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

Insert “a team” gif?

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Interesting stats. Definitely the bench squad has the feeling of "we'll swarm you on defense get some transition buckets and we'll try to stay afloat in the half court".

Also: no bold, no links other than just pasting a link. Substack is anti fun comments, but on the flip side, the comments aren't crazy eyesores either.

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Nov 3, 2023·edited Nov 3, 2023

Instead of “Let’s score more points than our opponents”, it’s “Let’s give up fewer points than they do.”

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And things load fast with no ads

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Check out the rookies net rating in the 17 min they played together in the Pels game! It’s over 25 to the good.

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Small sample size, but here are the off. and def. efficiencies for teams in the Pacific Division right now:

Warriors: #11 offense, #5 defense

Lakers: #14 offense, #14 defense

Clippers: #5 offense, #10 defense

Kings: #9 offense, #17 defense

Suns: #16 offense, #4 defense

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Frank Vogel has that Suns defense humming. If they can keep that up once Beal and Book are back, that will be a very very scary team.

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You know it's early season when the Sun's have a top 5 defense. If they can keep that, oh boy will they be tough to beat in the playoffs

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its skewed from that warriors 1st game STINKER :)

but that aside i think that okogie and eubanks additions have helped them - great hussle guys and arent focused on scoring, just doing whatever is needed.

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Yes. It's all of the games up until last night. Opposing team's shooting %age were: 35.6% (Warriors), 42.9% (Lakers), 44.0% (Jazz), and 46.7% (Spurs).

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Yah - those are all well above average marks. They'd be first with that average if it were mid-season. But early season variance means they're only #4.

Who's #'s 1-3?

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Wolves (1), Knicks (2), and Magic (3).

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For as much as we scoff, maybe Rudy Gobert is doing some regular season magic again for the TimberPups.

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Gotta be honest. I did not expect those teams.

I would not have expect Wolves or Magic to be top10 in defense this season. And I don't follow the Knicks close enough to have made a prediction.

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I hope you guys are all ready to watch the final act of the Cursed Clippers Show thanks to Mister Fat Suit. Kawhi will either go to the Lakers or retire after a season of this.

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Why would any team trade so much for harden? Why?!

Its just seems so stupid

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I give it maybe 4 months before the "off the court" stuff starts. Next year's training camp at the latest.

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That is assuming all of those guys resign for next season. Harden is a free agent who cannot be extended and Kawhi & PG 13 have player options.

I haven't looked at next years FA market but if the Clippers don't win a chip this year then I could see any of those 3 jumping ship... if only to go to the Lakers.

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If they flame out in the early playoff rounds again due to injury to PG or KL, does any team give any of the three a max next season?

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I will wait by the phone

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Google safe search off "daggering"

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This is not the type of comment I really welcome here. If it's an effort to be funny... ok... but it's not very funny... and points toward a discussion that's quite far away from "Warriors basketball"

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I’d agree whole heartedly. Puns and sly witty nuanced humor welcome. But aren’t we a family friendly site?

I mean, its not just OT, its potentially offensive to some folks.

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Sounds risky

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Did I mention I have irrational faith in Thompson

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Impossible. Faith in Klay is, by definition, rational.

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If I weren't busy with other things I could give you a 98 page dissertation on why my faith in Thompson is entirely rational.

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That's a waste of time. Here's the appropriate written justification:

Faith in Klay is rational.

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To those voting for Dario as Warrior Wonder (with a smile): I understand that Dario hit 3 threes in a row that brought us back in it, but his horrendous misses, turnovers, being torched by Sabonis, not protecting the rim (did I miss anything else -oh yes, multiple fouls that cost points and got us in the bonus early) was largely responsible for the hole to begin with. Now, whenever he comes in my daughter and I root for 3 quick fouls so TJD can come in! (And by the way, did you see how he shined in his 0.2 seconds of court time, pressing the inbound -why isn't he on the Warrior Wonder list!?)

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“In seven minutes of action, this bench lineup of Paul, Payton, Thompson, Kuminga, and Šarić outscored the Kings by a total of 11 points (20-9). They are a plus-16 in three games overall.“. From a Joe V article

It also points out a bunch of other positives about Dario

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Thanks for sharing -here's a link from an earlier Viral article I think and I agreed with this take going in (can you share post for one you quote?):

https://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2023/7/9/23788609/warriors-dario-saric-chris-paul-steph-curry-draymond-green-film-breakdown

He hasn't looked like the highlight reels (yet) but hope he will adjust!

This quote is most relevant to my comments on D:

"Šarić won’t profile as a particularly trustworthy individual defender, nor will he catch eyes with his pick-and-roll defense. He has never averaged more than 0.4 blocks in a season and doesn’t provide much mitigation near the rim."

...but Saric did get more physical on D in the 2nd half -and hit his shots. As Viray notes, we'll have to see if he can fill the Otto Porter Jr role enough to help us compete for a championship. Maybe the difference will be whether he shoots 36% (career) or 39% (last year) from three?

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

The turnovers weren’t great, but not sure what you mean by horrendous misses, dude was 6 for 9 (3-5 from 3). And I think you’re underrating his defense. He was making McGee and Sabonis work hard for those points, and only got called for 1 foul despite how generous of a whistle Sabonis gets. If he was getting cooked as much as you’re saying he wouldn't have finished with the second highest +/- on the team.

Do love and desire for more TJD though, enjoyed every minute he’s played for the dubs :)

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It’s a fabulous make or horrendous miss league.

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LOL

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Thanks. Would be fun to watch together to evaluate. Sabonis did anything he wanted to when Saric was on him -vs nothing with Draymond and mixed success with Looney. Also, Saric was out of position on pick and rolls leading to baskets at the rim and leading to fouls by others this game. His early shots were off, but yes, as Fantom says, if he hits the 3s as he did late in yesterday's game then it does seem like he'll stay on the court and soak up non-Looney and non-Draymond minutes. Plus he's a vet, and I've heard that Steve has an irrational love of vets :)

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i agree that he was unreliable on the offense when inside the paint - outside of that he was very good. As for defending Sabonis - the warriors best defenders were not on sabonis - example GP2 was on Monk - Sabonis is NOT a winning basketball player for the Kings!

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His defense as a 5 depends on who he is defending which is why I think 14 should be a big. But he also puts them in a tough position with his 3 point success

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

I'm not really sure what the need is for another defensive 5. We have 4! of them, three of which are playable for sure, and one who may or may not be at some point (Garuba). Plus Dario isn't hopeless on D ... he's just not good against a great offensive center.

I would rather have either a shooting stretch big (Meyers Leonard), or a shooting big wing (Gay) to give us some offensive juice. Dario is the one guy on the team who has no close stylistic replacement. If he goes down, our 'stretch big' is basically Draymond, which no one will fear. Probably they'd have to slide Klay or Kuminga to the 4, and hope he can hold up defensively.

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Are there any defensive 5 duties Dario performas that Kuminga couldn't perform just as well? Issue 1 would be JK's 3pt shooting. Is the preseason improvement real? If not, and he sees constant drop coverage, he's not "stretching" the floor the same way. Issue 2 would be who takes JK's place as the 4?

But seriously, if the rest of the lineup was something like CP, Klay, GP2, MM, who would you prefer as the 5? Dario or JK? There's a handful of centers and 4's in the league that would destroy them both on D, and then there's a whole lot of small-ball/stretch/slow-as-fuck centers that JK would be either better against or equivalent as Dario would be defensively.

I mean, the only one on the team slowing down the AD's, Jokic's, Embiid's of the world is Dray with a helping of Loon. TJD or Garuba may eventually learn, but I don't see that happening this season.

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

Right now, I'd rather have Dario at the 5 for D than Kuminga.

1. I think Dario is a better help defender than Kuminga at the moment. Part of the reason Dario looks like such a spazz on defense is that he's *always* busting his butt to be in the right place, and that's what you need in a 4/5.

2. Kuminga is fouling at more than 1.5 times the rate (going by per-36 numbers) than Saric (6.1 vs 3.7 per 36 so far this year). And that's doing what he does better, which is on-ball defense.

That could easily change, since I expect team defense to be a focus for Kuminga this year, but that's what I would want right now at a 4/5.

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That's fair. Thanks for the take.

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So, Taj Gibson?

Nerlens Noel, Khem Birch, and Dwayne Dedman are all available but Gibson seems like the best fit and someone Kerr would be able to trust.

OTOH, he isn't actually any bigger than TDJ, Saric, or Looney.

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Who's 14?

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Clearly Tom Meschery is coming out of retirement, he's just what the team needs!

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I think it’s by Tuesday that the warriors are required to fill their 14 th roster slot

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Of course

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I think he's referring to "roster spot #14"

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Ah yes, silly me.

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Do you think they miss Ja and Brooks?

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They miss Tyus Jones and Adams and Clarke

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"I am a system error". There, corrected.

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Woah. What system is that, may I ask? The one that fades away during playoffs? The one who jumps from team to team in search of the elusive ring? This guy is full of BS.

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It’s glitchy just like any other system.

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I’m not a system man, I’m a system, man

This combined with Harden’s quote about being on a leash in PHI because he had no input, it’s odd behavior.

Is Doc Rivers (his phi coach) known for not taking player input? He’s supposed to be a player’s coach….

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I just remember Paul George complaining about Doc Rivers once the Clippers let him go. Criticized how he was used and Docs lack of adjustments in the playoffs.

Idk if Harden will ever be happy in a situation, he'll probably spend the rest of his career being passed around the league.

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I mean, he did a pretty good job of adjusting his game for KD and Kyrie when he joined the Nets. He can be amenable in the right conditions.

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deletedNov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023Liked by Daniel Hardee
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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

I’d argue the Warriors have four of the two teams’ five best players under 25 (Moody, Kuminga, TJD, Podz, Murray).

The Kangz actually have a surprising dearth of young talent for a team that has been below .500 for 16 of the last 17 seasons.

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Thats an awfully irrantionally positive take on your part Sleepy :)

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

Too early on Podz and TJD. I'm sure the Kings are just as excited about Colby Jones.

That leaves it as Murray vs. MM/JK, and I'm sure Kings fans would argue Murray's realistic ceiling is just as high or even higher than JK's realistic ceiling.

Oh, and if Davion can prove out that his 3 shooting is consistently better, he gets put up there in the conversation with MM.

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Imo Murray seems like a better prospect than Kuminga, then again I'd also say Moody is a better prospect than Kuminga so I view Kuminga differently than a lot of Warrior fans.

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Do you believe in Kuminga's 3pt shooting?

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TBD, his poor career FT% can't be overlooked imo. He's never going to get close to Murray or Moody's level though.

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

Well, Davion just turned 25, so misses the cut as worded "under 25".

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whoop. I kept thinking he was still 24.

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Don't forget Looney is all of 27 and Wiggins is 28. Those guys will both be at or near their "prime" in 5 years.

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GP2 belongs in this 25-30 convo, too!

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True. Although if we include those guys in the comparison, we also might want to include Fox and Sabonis… 😊

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And Steph is playing like he is 25, so I'd count him too 😀

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And Fox may well have asked for a trade. "Next 5 years are mine" has been said... somebody tell Kings fans to go talk to the fans of various teams who's "up and coming" rosters have been defeated (e.g. Lob City, Dame Time, Haren's Rockets, etc.)

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(The Memphis Frizzles)

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Memphis Fizzled :)

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Dillon's Dynasty

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Nov 2, 2023·edited Nov 2, 2023

"Imagine celebrating this hard over a one-point win against a team without their best player."

You're right... they should wait till the point in the season they play against the Kings with Fox. Wait... you're telling me this already happened? And they were playing without Draymond? In Sacramento? Woah... Fox & the Kings must have absolutely capital C Crushed the Warriors, amirite? No way... the Warriors won by 8?!?!

Look, brah, winning in the NBA is hard. Nobody wins every game. Nobody has their A-game going every night. Winning on a buzzer beater is always awesome, and will always be worthy of celebration from the guys that executed the game winner.

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Those sac fans are starting to sound like the ultra irritating grizzlies fans

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every fanbase has obnoxious ass fans if you go nutpicking

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All they need to be told is this and I am sure it will make their brains explode

"Kings better without Fox " (Like "Grizzlies better without Ja")

They lost by just a point after all, without him :-) /s

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They're still another KCP type of wing and Andre type of vet away from winning championships IMO. HB is not good enough.

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If they had CP3 and GP2!

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is it me, or are most of their guys pretty good shooters/scorers but are somewhat on the slower footspeed side? aside from Davion, Fox, Monk. I guess it's mostly their wings which seems opposite of what you'd want in wings? Huerter and Keegan arent old but dont seem super quick - more like Moody type footspeed. And Barnes is older but still never quick like Wiggs or JK or even Andre

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Their guards definitely feel more athletic than their wings. Well at least Huertar. I honestly don't know enough about Keegan's game to say how athletic he is, but in the games I've watched, nothing seemed to pop out. He did show off some flashes of nice shot-making, though. And of course, HB is HB.

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Murray picked Steph's pocket a couple of times last night. Of course, with 7 turn overs, he wasn't the only one.

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They need to do something about the rim protection too...

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