Okay 15 hours later, 550 miles on the road, cheap motel room and a very nice bottle of Cabernet (screw top, of course), so what did I miss? I'm waiting for Draymond to pop the question to LeBron while walking on the Mediterranean beaches of Southern France. I proposed to my wife at a Cafe in Paris, dropping an old fashioned Ring Pop (cherry flavored) on the cafe table and offering her a pronounced shoulder shrug. For those not in the know, in French this gesture means "30 million per for 3 years? Pretty please." After all this time, will LeBron accept his hand. Stay tuned for the next episode of Basketball Wives - Paris.
Prospect A (20 y.o.) 30.3 pts on .599 TS / 13.6 rebounds
Prospect B (22 y.o.) 19.1 pts on .559 TS / 4.5 rebounds
A is Brandin Podz, B is of course Davion Mitchell when drafted. Sorry, I’ll never get over how bad Davion is at rebounding (and how great Podz is at it). How does a skinny 20 y.o. pull boards at three times the rate of a jacked 22 y.o. man?
I saw someone mention McCollum as an example of a small school guard who averaged a ton of rebounds. He didn't necessarily keep it up in the NBA, but maybe it was a signal for some other qualities he had that helped him translate to the NBA that could apply to Podziemski as well?
Of course, McCollum came into the league at 22 and still took a couple years to break out, I'm sure it's not an easy transition considering the competition level unless maybe you have a Jalen Williams type physical profile.
When you can draft the second coming of Avery Bradley with the 9th pick of the second round, you do it every time.
Wait a second, are you telling me this was in the first round?!
I do like to participate in the fun of disparaging the Kings, but really even at #9 is Mitchell really under-performing? By 9 you are already almost to "prayers up this man can ever be better than our G league prospects". I mean, they could have ended up with Bouknight. I don't see a big "miss" they should have drafted instead. Maybe a bit extra unusual as Kings seemed to pick a small guard over and over every year, but I get it. They are jealous of their neighbors in the Bay who have the greatest small guard ever.
God, I desperately want a trade for Porzingis, even if it means getting rid of Poole (who I actually like as a player).
Grabbing Porzingis will instantly open up our roster minimizing the shooting deficiencies of Dray/Kuminga while also giving us some much needed interior presence in an NBA dominated by giants (Jokic/Giannis/Embiid/Davis). With Beal/Kuzma likely gone, Porzingis seems like a legitimate potential snag.
Immortan Joe would need to open the cash flood gates! Would love to see Poole let go and go on a Mad Max mission through the league, leading his team to a ring, eye patch and all. Shame on you Draymond. (Mi scusi, I usually don't get so fiesty).
Yeah, that's interesting. He was healthy last year, and in his most recent article KOC noted he was elite in several areas where he'd been pretty inefficient previously: Attacking closeouts fro m 3, posting up and PNR defense.
He'll always be a risk due to health, but maybe that's where there's a discount on price. I wouldn't trade more then Poole and this year's first.
This was one of the trade scenarios I played with on fanspo. Even with Porzingis' injury history, he would change the dynamic of this team. Who would you bundle with Poole as the trade doesn't work straight up?
He is more of a drop defender, gets beat on switches, but he protects the rim really well. Good help/team defender. He would probably fit well next to Draymond though.
Nah. From what ive gathered the Wizards would probably value Porzingis one year contract over Pooles 4. Same reason why the Clippers are better poised to trade for Chris Paul causr they got some short contracts they can trade for (with some draft capital thrown in there). Not sure we can get Porzingis straight up without having to give up the 19th or Moody/Kuminga in addition to Poole
In an ideal world id like to see the Warriors trade back into the 2nd round AND get some future draft capital. I know KOC suggested trading back with Indiana or Charlotte but I don’t want more than one pick this year because we are looking at rotation time for Moody, Kuminga, Rollins, PBJ, and possibly even Santos along with said draft pick/s
There is Santa Cruz for our pic to develop. We need more talent and #19 seems to be a place where there will still be good players. I'm good with it but if they have a better plan then great!
Our pick will still tie up a roster spot which is why im almost all in on drafting an immediate contributor towards latter half or beginning of second round and getting some addtl future capital than I am about drafting a high upside project thats gonna be a bit of seasoning. I say ‘almost’ because my top top choice for trading back would be Andre Jackson Jr and he would defn need to spend a good chunk of the season in Santa Cruz
I think Santos needs more development time in SC. He's not consistent enough and is still learning the system. I'd be against using him in a trade. He has some unique skills that no one else seems to have on the Dubs. He's big and can pass and goes to the basket easily. He needs to become more defensive, too.
[Jake Fischer] According to one source with knowledge of the situation, Portland is preparing what the team believes to be a compelling package for Miami to part with All-Defensive centerpiece Bam Adebayo.
"one source with knowledge of the situation" Miami trading Bam? I call BS. That sounds like a rumor with no substance to it, attributed to a mystery source who doesn't exist.
The NBA draft is officially scheduled to start at 5pm PST on 6/22. Assuming that the Spurs will actually go "on the clock" at ~5:15pm PST and each team takes on average 4:30 (out of 5:00 allowed), the Warriors will go on the clock at ~6:36pm PST and make their pick ~6:41pm PST.
This is a clever guess, but I have what I believe is a superior methodology which says the pick will happen ~6:55pm PST, as I will announce in our Draft Viewing Guide on Thursday.
<hidden> I looked up when Woj tweeted about the #19 pick in each of the last three drafts. </hidden>
Great methodology! And Banchero was officially selected at 5:10pm last year. That's almost 6 minutes between picks. I guess everybody generally goes the full 5 minutes and there's ~45s between "the pick is in" and "new team on the clock".
People definitely take longer than 5 min, and from this fantastic behind the scenes podcast (that I’ll link on Thursday):
- there’s a special private chat with every team where the draft runs about 10 picks ahead of the broadcast, so there is time to pull off trades that depend on players being available; no Woj is not in the chat, it’s ahead of even Woj.
- on draft night, half the league sends last minute trade offers for your pick
Would be great to have seen some of these from 20, 30+ years ago. What offers did Portland get for #2 in 1984? Cleveland for LeBron? Any last-second offers by the Knicks in 2009 for Curry?
It’s an interesting question about when the chat started since 84 was before SMS and the cell phone. I supposed they could have had a big conference call on their landlines.
Going back to a potential Kuminga for Lively trade, I’m not very committed either way, but can kind of see it from a roster construction standpoint. If they really believe Kuminga is a 4, a big rotation of PBJ, Looney and Lively is arguably more versatile than PBJ, Looney and JK, especially if people believe in Lively as a potential guy who can knock down 3’s enough to stretch the floor.
It will make some of you happy to know that Jaime Jaquez has been invited to the NBA Draft green room. Everyone there is either projected not to fall to GSW or has been covered in our Draft Tourney with the one exception of Olivier Maxence-Prosper. You all can scout him yourselves...
**
The 2023 NBA Draft is just days away and the list of invites to the green room for Thursday's draft has been determined, according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony. On Tuesday, UCLA's Jamie Jaquez Jr., Marquette's Olivier Maxence-Prosper, Santa Clara's Brandin Podziemski and New Zealand Breakers' Rayan Rupert all received invites.
Green room invites are given to the top prospects for each year's draft and presidents or general managers of NBA teams are given a chance to vote on the top 25 players they think will be selected first. Most players who are given a green room invite are selected in the first round of the draft.
In my opinion, the Warriors need to keep this team together, force Kerr to play Kuminga. Moody, GP2 over 20 min per game, get rid of that horrible sagging man/zone defense they played the majority of the year that gave up so many wide open shots, and add 1 or 2 athletic, defensive minded 6'8+ players this offseason. If they do that, in my opinion, Dubs will be competing for the NBA Championship next year. Warriors are at their best and almost unbeatable when they get stops on D and score in transition and the best way to do that is play hard nose, switch every screen man to man defense like they did in the good ol' days with livingston and iggy. Kuminga. Moody, GP are a perfect fit for that type of strategy.
I agree adding defensive and size while keeping the team together is a top priority.
It would be nice to get someone who can play on the ball and stop point of attack penetration, as well as someone else for interior size and rebounding.
So, without being an expert on any of the potential draft possibilities, I might try to trade down, for a couple of high 2nd round picks. This might also save some salary money. They also can use another ball handler but it might be easier to find a free agent for that role.
Everything depends on who is available when the picks start to come in and things sort out.
Regarding Kerr playing/not playing the young dudes, my take is this less about "Kerr hates teenagers" and more about the team started off slow and he was trying to dig his way out of the hole. In retrospect, you can say maybe he should have thrown away last season, focused on development, and they'd be better off this year, but if JK and MM are looking good in September, I would not be surprised if they get a lot of minutes without anyone needing to force Kerr to play them. If they still have some big weaknesses, then yeah, he probably won't give them a lot of run. But I do recall Patrick friggin McCaw getting some real minutes in a playoff run not that long ago, so clearly Kerr will play kids if he thinks they can bring something.
The one criticism that I do agree with is Kerr's tendency to have a very short hook for any mistake by the kids, but letting the more seasoned players make even worse versions of the same mistake and still get their minutes. I can well imagine JK or MM, sitting on the bench going, wait, how come [Player X] can get away with those mistakes and I can't.
I am with you in thinking let's see what this group has if they have a bit better injury luck, no pre-season international travel, better chemistry being a year removed from the punch, Klay not spending until January to get in game shape, and a bunch of talented young guys that are a year older.
Hopefully this coming year there is a crossover point where unless they are stiffs, and I don't think any of the young guys are, the recent draft class are largely better than the cheap vets they have been able to plug in and we don't have to worry about finding the next OPJ looking for a career reboot because we have strong contributions from the 21 year olds.
That sagging man/zone defense was (allegedly) something Wiseman couldn't do. But if you think back to the early part of the dynasty, the Dubs were feared for their switch everything defense. My belief (speculation?) is that they play that soft pretty useless defense because Curry is older and while he is a better defender than he was in 2015, he is not someone you want switched onto front court players for fatigue an injury reasons. So, they are adopting a defense to protect Curry, which is fine by me. I still don't know why when he goes to the bench they don't go back to switch everything. Wiseman was much better at handling a pretty easy strategy (switch) than the complex hedge don't commit/do commit central to the drop coverage. And, my sense is all the young guns would play switch everything much more effectively than the softer, noncommital defenses.
If I am right, this is yet another case where failure to adapt strategy to the personnel on the court is leading the team to underperform. The beauty of switch everything is it keeps everyone engaged, and young players would probably even play better on the offensive end if they were playing a more active strategy on the defensive end. Just 'cause the old core is slowing down doesn't mean the whole team has to relax their defensive pressure or play defenses with which they are less comfortable even when none of the core is on the court.
I agree with you completely. Not to mention Wiseman is one of the more agile, athletic centers in the league. I think he would've excelled in this role. The frustrating part is that even after trading him, they still played this way. Looney wasn't allowed to leave the key. Sometimes it was Draymond too. As a result, the perimeter defender had to guard 2 players at once. And this opened the door to wide open shots (and 3s). Its a losing strategy. It lost games for them all year. And for some reason, Kerr never tried to change it. Very disappointing, and as a die hard Dubs and hoops fan, it was really hard to watch. I fear the Warriors miss Mike Brown more than we will ever know.
Other low key UCLA prospect the Warriors should look at with their 2nd rounder: Jaylen Clark. NABC defensive player of the year, smart off-ball player and improving 3 point shooter.
The catch: tore his Achilles right before the tournament.
If they had him I’m confident they’re playing for the title and beating UConn — he was that big of a difference maker
We don't. However, we have a history of buying them. Cheaper way to fill out the roster than a vet min. Although, at this point we probably have too many young guys at the backend. We could use a TWC instead. I think there are 3 TWC starting next season. Gui and Lester should grab two of them.
I think the new CBA prevents you from buying picks when you’re above the 2nd apron if I remember right. Not sure when that aspect comes into effect though.
I believe that restriction doesn't take effect until next season. Correct me if I'm wrong though, I'm having trouble finding the source that I saw that.
I wonder how the new CBA will affect team's with draft picks overseas that the team wants to sign. Will they only be limited to the vet min? What if it's a Mirotic, who can easily command more than the rookie scale/vet min? The team basically can't sign their own player no matter what? Lol. What a weird CBA
Curious as to thoughts on what teams are attempting to get younger or build on their young core. If trading Kuminga/Poole/Moody/Picks is the only option to improve the roster, it seems it would have to be with one of those teams.
I don’t think a team would have to be in rebuilding mode to have until Poole. I think a lot of teams might watch some of Poole’s tape from last season and say “We don’t have anyone who can initiate at the point of attack like that.
The Future is here... brace yourselves
Victor Wembanyama On His First Ever Pod | JJ REDICK
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wg3_c_4glE
Okay 15 hours later, 550 miles on the road, cheap motel room and a very nice bottle of Cabernet (screw top, of course), so what did I miss? I'm waiting for Draymond to pop the question to LeBron while walking on the Mediterranean beaches of Southern France. I proposed to my wife at a Cafe in Paris, dropping an old fashioned Ring Pop (cherry flavored) on the cafe table and offering her a pronounced shoulder shrug. For those not in the know, in French this gesture means "30 million per for 3 years? Pretty please." After all this time, will LeBron accept his hand. Stay tuned for the next episode of Basketball Wives - Paris.
College stats, per 100 possessions
Prospect A (20 y.o.) 30.3 pts on .599 TS / 13.6 rebounds
Prospect B (22 y.o.) 19.1 pts on .559 TS / 4.5 rebounds
A is Brandin Podz, B is of course Davion Mitchell when drafted. Sorry, I’ll never get over how bad Davion is at rebounding (and how great Podz is at it). How does a skinny 20 y.o. pull boards at three times the rate of a jacked 22 y.o. man?
I saw someone mention McCollum as an example of a small school guard who averaged a ton of rebounds. He didn't necessarily keep it up in the NBA, but maybe it was a signal for some other qualities he had that helped him translate to the NBA that could apply to Podziemski as well?
Of course, McCollum came into the league at 22 and still took a couple years to break out, I'm sure it's not an easy transition considering the competition level unless maybe you have a Jalen Williams type physical profile.
When you can draft the second coming of Avery Bradley with the 9th pick of the second round, you do it every time.
Wait a second, are you telling me this was in the first round?!
I do like to participate in the fun of disparaging the Kings, but really even at #9 is Mitchell really under-performing? By 9 you are already almost to "prayers up this man can ever be better than our G league prospects". I mean, they could have ended up with Bouknight. I don't see a big "miss" they should have drafted instead. Maybe a bit extra unusual as Kings seemed to pick a small guard over and over every year, but I get it. They are jealous of their neighbors in the Bay who have the greatest small guard ever.
And why was the 22 yo even considered for a top 10 pick?
OT: if you haven’t watched Jury Duty yet… watch it. It’s really something.
I never liked James Marsden until this show. It was really good.
Pauly Shore such a legend
Wemby rides the subway to the Yankees game:
https://thumbs.gfycat.com/LegitimateJealousEwe-mobile.mp4
Is Oscar Tshiebwe just not considered a realistic NBA prospect? I haven't seen his name in ages. Maybe an undrafted FA option.
God, I desperately want a trade for Porzingis, even if it means getting rid of Poole (who I actually like as a player).
Grabbing Porzingis will instantly open up our roster minimizing the shooting deficiencies of Dray/Kuminga while also giving us some much needed interior presence in an NBA dominated by giants (Jokic/Giannis/Embiid/Davis). With Beal/Kuzma likely gone, Porzingis seems like a legitimate potential snag.
Immortan Joe would need to open the cash flood gates! Would love to see Poole let go and go on a Mad Max mission through the league, leading his team to a ring, eye patch and all. Shame on you Draymond. (Mi scusi, I usually don't get so fiesty).
you're not wrong. lot's of fun there.
Yeah, that's interesting. He was healthy last year, and in his most recent article KOC noted he was elite in several areas where he'd been pretty inefficient previously: Attacking closeouts fro m 3, posting up and PNR defense.
He'll always be a risk due to health, but maybe that's where there's a discount on price. I wouldn't trade more then Poole and this year's first.
I wonder how good he is at screening?
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/6/19/23765863/2023-nba-draft-trades-rumors-bradley-beal
Not particularly good at screening, he ranks quite low when it comes to screen assists.
This was one of the trade scenarios I played with on fanspo. Even with Porzingis' injury history, he would change the dynamic of this team. Who would you bundle with Poole as the trade doesn't work straight up?
Isn't his defense and injury history a bad fit?
He is more of a drop defender, gets beat on switches, but he protects the rim really well. Good help/team defender. He would probably fit well next to Draymond though.
Only question is, do the Wizards want Poole's contract?
I don't see why not, Poole is a 25 and 5 guy who they can lock down in contract for the next 4 years.
Porzingis has one year on his contract and if they're not careful, he may leave them without any compensation whatsoever.
Nah. From what ive gathered the Wizards would probably value Porzingis one year contract over Pooles 4. Same reason why the Clippers are better poised to trade for Chris Paul causr they got some short contracts they can trade for (with some draft capital thrown in there). Not sure we can get Porzingis straight up without having to give up the 19th or Moody/Kuminga in addition to Poole
Giving up the 19th and Poole would be a smart deal for us.
There is still a roster minimum requirement right? Poole in the Bradley Beale memorial perma-tank commander role actually pencils out.
In an ideal world id like to see the Warriors trade back into the 2nd round AND get some future draft capital. I know KOC suggested trading back with Indiana or Charlotte but I don’t want more than one pick this year because we are looking at rotation time for Moody, Kuminga, Rollins, PBJ, and possibly even Santos along with said draft pick/s
There is Santa Cruz for our pic to develop. We need more talent and #19 seems to be a place where there will still be good players. I'm good with it but if they have a better plan then great!
Our pick will still tie up a roster spot which is why im almost all in on drafting an immediate contributor towards latter half or beginning of second round and getting some addtl future capital than I am about drafting a high upside project thats gonna be a bit of seasoning. I say ‘almost’ because my top top choice for trading back would be Andre Jackson Jr and he would defn need to spend a good chunk of the season in Santa Cruz
We could also dig into our incredibly deep bag of . . . 2026 and 2028 Atlanta 2nd-rounders to try to get one on Thursday.
Having those 7 draft picks instead of Gary would suck, but at least that'd solve the Warriors' lack of tradable flotsam
Forgot about Santos. Unless the front office feels the pick is better than Santos, wouldn't be against trading out of this draft.
I think Santos needs more development time in SC. He's not consistent enough and is still learning the system. I'd be against using him in a trade. He has some unique skills that no one else seems to have on the Dubs. He's big and can pass and goes to the basket easily. He needs to become more defensive, too.
This makes him a perfect benchmark. If a draft pick isn't clearly better, trade back a season.
Trade back with them and then spend the second pick on Nnaji as a stash
Definitely a possibility.
Makes sense.
Weirdest rumor so far?
[Jake Fischer] According to one source with knowledge of the situation, Portland is preparing what the team believes to be a compelling package for Miami to part with All-Defensive centerpiece Bam Adebayo.
"one source with knowledge of the situation" Miami trading Bam? I call BS. That sounds like a rumor with no substance to it, attributed to a mystery source who doesn't exist.
It’d be weird if Miami engaged with it. This just feels like Portland going through some motions to appease Dame
That is a good one.
The NBA draft is officially scheduled to start at 5pm PST on 6/22. Assuming that the Spurs will actually go "on the clock" at ~5:15pm PST and each team takes on average 4:30 (out of 5:00 allowed), the Warriors will go on the clock at ~6:36pm PST and make their pick ~6:41pm PST.
Woj will leak the Warriors pick by 5:32. Actually, I'm not sure but that's how the NFL draft works lol
Not if we trade up . . . (or down)
Whatever happens, there will be lively discussions.
This is a clever guess, but I have what I believe is a superior methodology which says the pick will happen ~6:55pm PST, as I will announce in our Draft Viewing Guide on Thursday.
<hidden> I looked up when Woj tweeted about the #19 pick in each of the last three drafts. </hidden>
Great methodology! And Banchero was officially selected at 5:10pm last year. That's almost 6 minutes between picks. I guess everybody generally goes the full 5 minutes and there's ~45s between "the pick is in" and "new team on the clock".
People definitely take longer than 5 min, and from this fantastic behind the scenes podcast (that I’ll link on Thursday):
- there’s a special private chat with every team where the draft runs about 10 picks ahead of the broadcast, so there is time to pull off trades that depend on players being available; no Woj is not in the chat, it’s ahead of even Woj.
- on draft night, half the league sends last minute trade offers for your pick
This intel is fabulous. Always wondered how teams/GMs managed timing the trades.
Would be great to have seen some of these from 20, 30+ years ago. What offers did Portland get for #2 in 1984? Cleveland for LeBron? Any last-second offers by the Knicks in 2009 for Curry?
It’s an interesting question about when the chat started since 84 was before SMS and the cell phone. I supposed they could have had a big conference call on their landlines.
Going back to a potential Kuminga for Lively trade, I’m not very committed either way, but can kind of see it from a roster construction standpoint. If they really believe Kuminga is a 4, a big rotation of PBJ, Looney and Lively is arguably more versatile than PBJ, Looney and JK, especially if people believe in Lively as a potential guy who can knock down 3’s enough to stretch the floor.
If Dunleavy gets us a vet big who can eat minutes during the regular season, he will be off to a good start giving us the above versatility.
It will make some of you happy to know that Jaime Jaquez has been invited to the NBA Draft green room. Everyone there is either projected not to fall to GSW or has been covered in our Draft Tourney with the one exception of Olivier Maxence-Prosper. You all can scout him yourselves...
**
The 2023 NBA Draft is just days away and the list of invites to the green room for Thursday's draft has been determined, according to ESPN's Jonathan Givony. On Tuesday, UCLA's Jamie Jaquez Jr., Marquette's Olivier Maxence-Prosper, Santa Clara's Brandin Podziemski and New Zealand Breakers' Rayan Rupert all received invites.
Green room invites are given to the top prospects for each year's draft and presidents or general managers of NBA teams are given a chance to vote on the top 25 players they think will be selected first. Most players who are given a green room invite are selected in the first round of the draft.
Full green room list.
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2023-nba-draft-uclas-jamie-jaquez-jr-santa-claras-brandin-podziemski-earn-green-room-invitations/
That article has a video where some guy has Lively as the #4 guy on his big board, Hawkins at 8, and Jaquez at 10. Gonna be interesting on Thursday.
I remember Bol Bol sitting there and sitting there and sitting there and not getting called until about #41. Excruciating for the kid.
In my opinion, the Warriors need to keep this team together, force Kerr to play Kuminga. Moody, GP2 over 20 min per game, get rid of that horrible sagging man/zone defense they played the majority of the year that gave up so many wide open shots, and add 1 or 2 athletic, defensive minded 6'8+ players this offseason. If they do that, in my opinion, Dubs will be competing for the NBA Championship next year. Warriors are at their best and almost unbeatable when they get stops on D and score in transition and the best way to do that is play hard nose, switch every screen man to man defense like they did in the good ol' days with livingston and iggy. Kuminga. Moody, GP are a perfect fit for that type of strategy.
I agree adding defensive and size while keeping the team together is a top priority.
It would be nice to get someone who can play on the ball and stop point of attack penetration, as well as someone else for interior size and rebounding.
So, without being an expert on any of the potential draft possibilities, I might try to trade down, for a couple of high 2nd round picks. This might also save some salary money. They also can use another ball handler but it might be easier to find a free agent for that role.
Everything depends on who is available when the picks start to come in and things sort out.
Regarding Kerr playing/not playing the young dudes, my take is this less about "Kerr hates teenagers" and more about the team started off slow and he was trying to dig his way out of the hole. In retrospect, you can say maybe he should have thrown away last season, focused on development, and they'd be better off this year, but if JK and MM are looking good in September, I would not be surprised if they get a lot of minutes without anyone needing to force Kerr to play them. If they still have some big weaknesses, then yeah, he probably won't give them a lot of run. But I do recall Patrick friggin McCaw getting some real minutes in a playoff run not that long ago, so clearly Kerr will play kids if he thinks they can bring something.
The one criticism that I do agree with is Kerr's tendency to have a very short hook for any mistake by the kids, but letting the more seasoned players make even worse versions of the same mistake and still get their minutes. I can well imagine JK or MM, sitting on the bench going, wait, how come [Player X] can get away with those mistakes and I can't.
I am with you in thinking let's see what this group has if they have a bit better injury luck, no pre-season international travel, better chemistry being a year removed from the punch, Klay not spending until January to get in game shape, and a bunch of talented young guys that are a year older.
Hopefully this coming year there is a crossover point where unless they are stiffs, and I don't think any of the young guys are, the recent draft class are largely better than the cheap vets they have been able to plug in and we don't have to worry about finding the next OPJ looking for a career reboot because we have strong contributions from the 21 year olds.
That sagging man/zone defense was (allegedly) something Wiseman couldn't do. But if you think back to the early part of the dynasty, the Dubs were feared for their switch everything defense. My belief (speculation?) is that they play that soft pretty useless defense because Curry is older and while he is a better defender than he was in 2015, he is not someone you want switched onto front court players for fatigue an injury reasons. So, they are adopting a defense to protect Curry, which is fine by me. I still don't know why when he goes to the bench they don't go back to switch everything. Wiseman was much better at handling a pretty easy strategy (switch) than the complex hedge don't commit/do commit central to the drop coverage. And, my sense is all the young guns would play switch everything much more effectively than the softer, noncommital defenses.
If I am right, this is yet another case where failure to adapt strategy to the personnel on the court is leading the team to underperform. The beauty of switch everything is it keeps everyone engaged, and young players would probably even play better on the offensive end if they were playing a more active strategy on the defensive end. Just 'cause the old core is slowing down doesn't mean the whole team has to relax their defensive pressure or play defenses with which they are less comfortable even when none of the core is on the court.
I agree with you completely. Not to mention Wiseman is one of the more agile, athletic centers in the league. I think he would've excelled in this role. The frustrating part is that even after trading him, they still played this way. Looney wasn't allowed to leave the key. Sometimes it was Draymond too. As a result, the perimeter defender had to guard 2 players at once. And this opened the door to wide open shots (and 3s). Its a losing strategy. It lost games for them all year. And for some reason, Kerr never tried to change it. Very disappointing, and as a die hard Dubs and hoops fan, it was really hard to watch. I fear the Warriors miss Mike Brown more than we will ever know.
Other low key UCLA prospect the Warriors should look at with their 2nd rounder: Jaylen Clark. NABC defensive player of the year, smart off-ball player and improving 3 point shooter.
The catch: tore his Achilles right before the tournament.
If they had him I’m confident they’re playing for the title and beating UConn — he was that big of a difference maker
We have a 2nd rounder? I don't think we do.
We don't. However, we have a history of buying them. Cheaper way to fill out the roster than a vet min. Although, at this point we probably have too many young guys at the backend. We could use a TWC instead. I think there are 3 TWC starting next season. Gui and Lester should grab two of them.
I think the new CBA prevents you from buying picks when you’re above the 2nd apron if I remember right. Not sure when that aspect comes into effect though.
I believe that restriction doesn't take effect until next season. Correct me if I'm wrong though, I'm having trouble finding the source that I saw that.
No 2nd rounders this year or next year. No 1st rounder next year either.
In 2025 we have our own 1st and Charlotte’s 2nd though.
I wonder how the new CBA will affect team's with draft picks overseas that the team wants to sign. Will they only be limited to the vet min? What if it's a Mirotic, who can easily command more than the rookie scale/vet min? The team basically can't sign their own player no matter what? Lol. What a weird CBA
Curious as to thoughts on what teams are attempting to get younger or build on their young core. If trading Kuminga/Poole/Moody/Picks is the only option to improve the roster, it seems it would have to be with one of those teams.
I don’t think a team would have to be in rebuilding mode to have until Poole. I think a lot of teams might watch some of Poole’s tape from last season and say “We don’t have anyone who can initiate at the point of attack like that.
Boston comes to mind.
It's not a full trade bc of salaries, but Poole for White: who'd be the angrier front office? Same with fan base?
Houston, OKC, Pistons…….
Washington is doing a reset.
For anyone who likes a capella music (or just harmonies), this is wonderful
(Pentatonix' cover of White Winter Hymnal)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezWS1UtjJ3Y