45 Comments

GP2 out tonight. peroneal contusion.

(tendon connecting foot to leg, and yes, I had to look it up).

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Is this the game thread?

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No I'm just late

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So Dray got a warning from the NBA for “playing too aggressive”? What is this shit 🤣. NBA fuckin sucks, basketball is great but the NBA can suck a donkey boner.

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I wouldn't have phrased it that way but I think this is ridiculous. Either what he did merited a tech, so give it to him, or a suspension, whatever -- or it didn't. What is this gray area? We had a discussion of this yesterday in chat and to my mind the league can't just say to someone like Dillon Brooks or Draymond "You have a history so I'm keeping my eye on you." Penalize the crime not the person.

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Uh huh.....

[Mavs PR] Exum, L Achilles tightness, is AVAILABLE vs. MIA. Irving, R shoulder soreness; Thompson, L foot sprain; Gafford, R knee sprain; Davis, L adductor strain; Washington Jr., R ankle sprain; Martin, R hip strain; Lively II, R ankle stress fracture; Powell, R hip strain, are OUT.

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So the Mavs targeted our game to win out of the back-to-back. I probably would, too.

Worked out for them.

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As for the Heat:

No Bam, Love, Rozier, and Wiggins. Jovic and Robinson are available for the Heat.

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Starters combined ON -66

Curry, Hield, Butler, Dray, Post

Bench combined ON +46

Podz, GP2, Moody, Gui, Loon

Net differential: 112

Can't blame that game on anyone else other than the 3 guys with their names on the marquee.

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Is Hield's name on the marquee? Because I'd like to blame it on him, in significant measure. Not everything was his fault but he was turrible.

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Guards take up 40% of available minutes on the court as they are 2/5ths of the 5 positions in a game. On a team that leans into 3 guard lineups, that % would go up. At the moment, our guards occupy only 29% of the total roster. I'm not so sure waiting until whatever the next deadline is that is approaching is prudent considering the importance of each and every game. I know jumping the gun on the buyout market can cost money and maybe cause us to miss out on players who are cut at the last minute, but are we in a position to wait? Based on last night's performance, I'm not so sure.

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The buyout prospects seem so slim, I wonder if we should just grab a POA defender out of the G-league.

You'd think there would be a fair number of decent POA guys, but with lousy shots in the G-league. We probably could live with that with Butler and Steph on the floor.

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The thing with picking up just a functional point guard is that it frees up Podz and now you can interchange Podz/Hield at the 2. It just gives you options up the rotation. Podz is nailed to the bench as the back-up PG, so it ties Steve's hands a bit and leads to nights like last night where he probably felt he had no other option than to leave Hield in.

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Rockets stats:

Offense:

16 in points scored (113.0)

10 in points in paint!! (50.5)

3 in fastbreak points!!!!!!!!!!!!! (17.9)

11 in offensive efficiency

25 in shooting % (44.7%)

28 in three point % (34.0%)

28 in two point % (51.3%)

1 in off. rebound % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (31.5%)

13 in def. rebound % (75.2%)

1 in total rebound % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (52.6%)

29 in opponent blocks (6.1)

9 in opponent steals!!!! (7.6)

30 in assists (22.6)

8 in turnovers!!!!!! (13.5)

Defense:

6 in points allowed!!!!!!!!!! (108.7)

16 in opponent points in paint (47.9)

3 in opponent fastbreak points!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (13.2)

4 in defensive efficiency!!!!!!!!!!!!

5 in opponent shooting % !!!!!!!!!!!!!! (45.5%)

11 in opponent three point % (35.7%)

2 in opponent two point % !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (51.8%)

12 in blocks (5.1)

8 in steals!!!!!! (8.9)

1 in opponent assists!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (22.6)

12 in opponent turnovers (14.7)

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Rockets had an off. efficiency at #16 the last time the Warriors played them. Their offense has gotten better since then.

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Om mani padme hum

Om mani padme hum

Om mani padme Marcus Smart

Om mani padme hum

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>>>The Philadelphia 76ers are converting two-way guard Jared Butler to a standard two-year NBA contract, Mark Bartelstein of @PrioritySports told ESPN. Butler has averaged 10 points, 4.7 assists and 17.1 minutes over 3 games since joining the 76ers via trade last week.<<<

https://bsky.app/profile/shamsbot.bsky.social/post/3li3s6dxgrk27

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Warriors really need a reliable point of attack defender, to the point where I'm like "would the spacing with GP2 in the starting lineup be *that* bad?"... And the answer is, yeah, probably. I miss De'anthony.

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He's hard to miss given how few games he played but he did seem like a really perfect fit.

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6 games, that's all. Everyone acting like he was the savior. 10.7 pts on 41/37/63 shooting, 3.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.7 turnovers. Small sample size and all that, but c'mon people.

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And he had a career before that which, while good, was not otherworldly. He did seem like a good fit though

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Gary is... 3 for his last 8 3PA, including 2/3 on 3 aggressive/confident attempts in the last game! I'll take it!

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Lonzo Ball. I know he is getting over some tough injuries, but I would have gone after him, not Vuc. But Chicago is such a weird team to deal with, you never know what the hell they are thinking or doing.

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I've heard there was a first round pick on the table for Lonzo and they decided to extend him instead. Not sure what's going on over there!

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Chicago humor: How many point guards does it take to change a light bulb?

Answer: 6. 1 to change the bulb and 5 to dangle in trade talks that go nowhere.

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It’s brutal to think how good Melton would be for this squad.

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He was basically in the Butler trade anyway, since Schroder was in it.

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They could've traded the combo of Buddy + GP2 instead of the Melton/Schroder swap. Might've needed to add in a 2nd round pick to grease the wheels, might not.

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Hield has a 3 year contract, Miami isn't doing that when they are trying to clear cap space for 2026. And every extra player you add to a trade in terms of the outgoing/incoming ratio makes it way less realistic.

In fact, I definitely don't know the terms but given how close the Warriors are to the hard cap that Butler waiving the trade kicker was important, would they have been able to fill out the roster had they traded an additional players?

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Buddy/GP2 combined made more money than Schroder so they would have had plenty of space to fill out the roster. So technically possible if you can find the right third team for Buddy. But obviously this is all pretty academic since Melton's long gone anyway.

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But the Heat are <2 million under the first apron and those two combine to make 4 million more than Schroder, so wouldn't doing this without the Heat sending back anyone else put the Heat into the first apron and make it even less appealing for them? At which point you are probably upping the draft capital to get it done?

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We shall see him next year on a mini MLE

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If we can stay below the 2nd apron. I think it might be fairly tough, unless JK gets < $30 mil.

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Him or someone in that mold. Getting the Jimmy Butler is the hard part, getting the 3 and D SG and the starting center hopefully isn't quite as difficult. It's unfortunate they didn't do it now though because next year might be too late depending on how the older guys' games age.

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IDK. It'll be almost two full seasons since he's played a significant number of games. He may only get a vet min. In which case he would be an absolute steal.

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Well... that's the thing with Melton. He's been the injury prone hope for multiple teams now... and he's only been able to be their injury prone hope because he's been available at "injury prone hope" level salaries.

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Could we please not repeat the frequent get behind early, come back, get behind again, come back, and then hope to pull things out at the end? How about leading wire-to-wire for once?

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almost got it all in houston 🤷🏽‍♂️

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Just when I was getting used to it!

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Yes, please... need to start small, imo. Though, if one wants to argue that Sengun is a decent matchup for Post, I suppose I will allow it. Houston likely starting Sengun/Green/Thompson/Brooks/Whitmore(?).

I suppose defense could look like:

Post → Sengun

Butler → Green

Dray → Thompson

Steph → Brooks

Buddy → Whitmore (or Sheppard or Tate)

That wouldn't be awful... and it'd limit Dray's time on Sengun to when Sengun's more tired and maybe less feisty. But, I'm MFing tired of these MFing double digit deficits in these MFing first quarters!

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I feel the same way about Snakes on a Plane.

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Second game in two nights for both teams...

Rockets didn't have to travel, and have younger players who played big minutes last night.

Warriors need to use experience, guile, and maybe some hard assed toughness, along with much better shooting.

A win would make it a successful (.500) long road trip before the All-Star break... with all the team transition emotions and necessary roster adjustments along the way. They can do it!

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Need to give the young guys more minutes on the SEGABABA. It's good for their development, and our old guys can't go long minutes over and over again. You've got to believe...

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I am displeased.

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