Major additions: JaMychal Green (free agent), Donte DiVincenzo (free agent), Patrick Baldwin Jr. (draft)
Major subtractions: Gary Payton II (Portland), Nemanja Bjelica (Europe), Otto Porter Jr. (Toronto), Juan Toscano-Anderson (Lakers)
Did this team get better? On the surface? Absolutely not. The Golden State Warriors saw three — maybe four — good role players leave in free agency this offseason. For a defending champion, that’s not exactly rare, but it was kind of odd to feel like the Warriors had finally hit a breaking point with doling out luxury-tax penalties. If DiVincenzo’s knee is healthy, he’ll be a nice replacement for Payton as a very different role player. Green should be a solid rotation option for them. This team is banking on Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson being great in title defense form, and on the young guys (Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, James Wiseman) growing up in bigger roles next season. The biggest key is a full offseason for Thompson … and maybe how Green handles extension talks.
Do we like what they did? 🏆
******************************
But Harper's article is really weird. He has the following teams getting better:
That's 18 teams getting better. There are 9 teams he listed as getting worse and 3 as treading water/no grade. That's a 2:1 ratio of improved teams to worsening teams, which is weird in this salary cap era. I'd expect it to be about even. I guess tanking teams bias it towards teams getting better, but that's still a majorly skewed ratio.
Given our upcoming salary cap situation in 2024 where Dray/Klay will be 34 years old finishing their contracts, I took a quick glance at all the 34+ players in the league. What I found was quite concerning!
Bench Worthy: JaVale McGee/Jeff Green/Rudy Gay/Ingles/Dwight Howard/Carmelo Anthony
Firstly, the fact that there are only 13 players who are 34+ in the league is an indictment on its own! Secondly, with only LBJ/CP as max worthy players (and CP is debatable because of health), the outlook for older players productivity is quite bleak! It certainly makes me think betting on the Golden Core to still be max worthy players past their current contract is a huge stretch.
With that being said, let’s look at our young core to see who we can/should retain! Poole can be a replacement for either Steph/Klay and is already playing at an All Star Level so we’re definitely keeping him to slot into whichever of Steph/Klay falters first! By 2024, Kuminga/Moody will be in year 4 so hopefully we’ll know if either of them can serve as replacements for Dray/Klay! Wiseman is so uncertain I’ll just leave him as is!
So long as just one other young talent explodes like Poole, we’ll have two young players to take us into the future!
One of the coolest things about Andrew Wiggins becoming that dude in the playoffs and NBA Finals is that he had a huge impact despite mediocre shooting. Here's a crazy stat: Wiggins shot worse from 3 by percentage in the 2022 Finals than Harrison Barnes did in the 2016 Finals.
"Brittney Griner broke the law in Russia, hence she is subject to their laws. She is not a political prisoner!"
1) Firstly, given they denied her consular access and then unilaterally extended her detention (aka the basic playbook by authoritarian governments for holding Americans citizens as political leverage) AND given that decision defied sentencing norms even for Russians, who would themselves receive lighter sentences or possibly even probation . . . I think its safe to say that she is a political prisoner!
2) I also don't give a shit that she broke the law. It's a stupid law. I bite my thumb at stupid laws. I will now go outside and jaywalk to support my point.
“Selom ist jemand, den wir lange gesucht haben. Vom Spielertyp her ist er genau das, was wir unbedingt haben wollten. Er ist lang, ein guter Shot Blocker und ein sehr guter Rebounder", sagt Coach Christian Held.
So excited for Selom. I honestly thought he had a shot at that second two way. Once CC rolled around, I kinda knew that opportunity had fallen by the wayside so good to see he’s gonna be able to make a decent living playing basketball overseas
As far Brittany griner I see alot of excuses and hypocrisy. Griner isn't exactly some innocent person.....she already has an domestic violence charge here in USA.....and just so y'all ain't misguided by the media as most sheep are here is another example of how other countries deal with drugs. Under current Ghanian law, cannabis is an illegal narcotic substance. Those caught possessing or importing cannabis “shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than 10 years.”
For anyone interested in getting to know one of our newest players Ryan Rollins a little better, there's a halfway decent interview that the new DubsTalk guy did with him that got released today. Talks about a number of topics such as how he chose to go to Toledo, getting drafted, the parts of his game he wants to improve on the most, favorite basketball movies, and the story behind some of his tattoos. Seems like a very nice young man who is all about basketball and who will get along well with our existing core. You can find the interview between 2:30 and 10:25 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVJVPi5ouI
Was listening to a pod about exciting teams and excited fanbases, there are a lot of young teams with really intriguing talent these days; Orlando, OKC, Detroit, Houston... and was then thinking of the sad team fanbases, and I thought about Charlotte. What a mess it is down there. Feel bad for the fans of that team. Is there a more messed up/disappointing team in the NBA right now?
OK, it's a good question: What ARE they going to say now?
Dub Detractor Dial: 1. The core guys are getting old, they can't win any more. They'll lose a step/get injured. They're sunk. (Closely related to ...) 2. The young guys are too young to step up big yet. They'll finish in the play-in. 3. They lost key and irreplaceable parts in GPII, OPJ. No chance for a repeat. 4. They lucked into a favorable matchup with Dallas, when Phoenix was scarier. Won't happen again this year. 5. They lucked into a Ja injury and would have lost that series. Memphis is a young and hungry team who will eat them up this year. 6. Boston was extremely close to beating them and has reloaded so well in the offseason that they would beat GSW easily now. 7. Middleton was injured. If the Bucks were healthy, they'd have won it all. 8. The Lakers and Nets are the clear favorites. 9. Draymond and other contract issues will hang over the team and cause irreperrable strife. -- Help! I need a tenth to make my list a ten list!!!
Hypotheticals Anonymous. Meetings start next week.
If Dray leaves the Warriors soon, he will be betting that the Dubs won't win a chip without him. Hypothetically, if Dray left and the Dubs did win another Chip without him, it would rubber stamp a giant "Dumb Ass" on his legacy. All the critics (I'm not one) who claim he just rode Curry's coattails would have a smoking gun. I won't begrudge him if he really wants to move on and spread his wings a little bit. But I do want to see him, Klay and Curry retire as lifetime Warriors. If he desires that, and all of the accolades, advertising, attention and WINNING that comes with it, he will take a haircut on his next deal. Not a buzz cut. But a "come on honey, we are going to a wedding, can you go get it cleaned up a bit?" haircut.
Warriors posted a short video of Moody returning to Little Rock with the trophy for a youth camp where kids had to read a certain number of books to attend. He seems like such a great kid and kind of Looney-esque; rapidly becoming one of my favorite personalities on the team. https://youtu.be/ascvBhuTsJ8
Offseason grades are starting to come out. ESPN had one behind a paywall. Zach Harper @ theAthletic has this one: https://theathletic.com/3447356/2022/08/03/nba-power-rankings-2022-offseason/
Relevant blurb:
******************************
1. Golden State Warriors, defending champs
Major additions: JaMychal Green (free agent), Donte DiVincenzo (free agent), Patrick Baldwin Jr. (draft)
Major subtractions: Gary Payton II (Portland), Nemanja Bjelica (Europe), Otto Porter Jr. (Toronto), Juan Toscano-Anderson (Lakers)
Did this team get better? On the surface? Absolutely not. The Golden State Warriors saw three — maybe four — good role players leave in free agency this offseason. For a defending champion, that’s not exactly rare, but it was kind of odd to feel like the Warriors had finally hit a breaking point with doling out luxury-tax penalties. If DiVincenzo’s knee is healthy, he’ll be a nice replacement for Payton as a very different role player. Green should be a solid rotation option for them. This team is banking on Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson being great in title defense form, and on the young guys (Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, James Wiseman) growing up in bigger roles next season. The biggest key is a full offseason for Thompson … and maybe how Green handles extension talks.
Do we like what they did? 🏆
******************************
But Harper's article is really weird. He has the following teams getting better:
Celtics, Bucks, 76ers, Mavs, Nuggets, Hawks, Clipps, Raptors, Bulls, Wolves, Pels, Cavs, Blazers, Knicks, Wizards(?), Kings, OKC, Magic.
That's 18 teams getting better. There are 9 teams he listed as getting worse and 3 as treading water/no grade. That's a 2:1 ratio of improved teams to worsening teams, which is weird in this salary cap era. I'd expect it to be about even. I guess tanking teams bias it towards teams getting better, but that's still a majorly skewed ratio.
Given our upcoming salary cap situation in 2024 where Dray/Klay will be 34 years old finishing their contracts, I took a quick glance at all the 34+ players in the league. What I found was quite concerning!
Max Worthy: LBJ/Chris Paul
Starter Worthy: PJ Tucker/Mike Conley Jr./Kyle Lowry/Al Horford
Bench Worthy: JaVale McGee/Jeff Green/Rudy Gay/Ingles/Dwight Howard/Carmelo Anthony
Firstly, the fact that there are only 13 players who are 34+ in the league is an indictment on its own! Secondly, with only LBJ/CP as max worthy players (and CP is debatable because of health), the outlook for older players productivity is quite bleak! It certainly makes me think betting on the Golden Core to still be max worthy players past their current contract is a huge stretch.
With that being said, let’s look at our young core to see who we can/should retain! Poole can be a replacement for either Steph/Klay and is already playing at an All Star Level so we’re definitely keeping him to slot into whichever of Steph/Klay falters first! By 2024, Kuminga/Moody will be in year 4 so hopefully we’ll know if either of them can serve as replacements for Dray/Klay! Wiseman is so uncertain I’ll just leave him as is!
So long as just one other young talent explodes like Poole, we’ll have two young players to take us into the future!
From twitter:
@_itskellyo
One of the coolest things about Andrew Wiggins becoming that dude in the playoffs and NBA Finals is that he had a huge impact despite mediocre shooting. Here's a crazy stat: Wiggins shot worse from 3 by percentage in the 2022 Finals than Harrison Barnes did in the 2016 Finals.
=====================================================
Whoa, Wiggins shot 29.7% from 3 in the Finals and I didn't even notice.
That said, Wiggins overall had a poor 51.5% True Shooting, but HB was a horrific 43.1 TS%.
"Brittney Griner broke the law in Russia, hence she is subject to their laws. She is not a political prisoner!"
1) Firstly, given they denied her consular access and then unilaterally extended her detention (aka the basic playbook by authoritarian governments for holding Americans citizens as political leverage) AND given that decision defied sentencing norms even for Russians, who would themselves receive lighter sentences or possibly even probation . . . I think its safe to say that she is a political prisoner!
2) I also don't give a shit that she broke the law. It's a stupid law. I bite my thumb at stupid laws. I will now go outside and jaywalk to support my point.
Two minutes of MJ, because why not. :-)
https://streamable.com/ofi5w8
Rostock Seawolves
@HRO_Seawolves
Willkommen in #Rostock, Selom Mawugbe!
“Selom ist jemand, den wir lange gesucht haben. Vom Spielertyp her ist er genau das, was wir unbedingt haben wollten. Er ist lang, ein guter Shot Blocker und ein sehr guter Rebounder", sagt Coach Christian Held.
So excited for Selom. I honestly thought he had a shot at that second two way. Once CC rolled around, I kinda knew that opportunity had fallen by the wayside so good to see he’s gonna be able to make a decent living playing basketball overseas
As far Brittany griner I see alot of excuses and hypocrisy. Griner isn't exactly some innocent person.....she already has an domestic violence charge here in USA.....and just so y'all ain't misguided by the media as most sheep are here is another example of how other countries deal with drugs. Under current Ghanian law, cannabis is an illegal narcotic substance. Those caught possessing or importing cannabis “shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term of not less than 10 years.”
Yo… Splash Bros also combined for 62 against Portland on 1/3/2021:
https://youtu.be/xSs4yUZhb-I
Who on the Warriors staff besides Steve Kerr have won four rings with the Dubs?
For anyone interested in getting to know one of our newest players Ryan Rollins a little better, there's a halfway decent interview that the new DubsTalk guy did with him that got released today. Talks about a number of topics such as how he chose to go to Toledo, getting drafted, the parts of his game he wants to improve on the most, favorite basketball movies, and the story behind some of his tattoos. Seems like a very nice young man who is all about basketball and who will get along well with our existing core. You can find the interview between 2:30 and 10:25 of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhVJVPi5ouI
Was listening to a pod about exciting teams and excited fanbases, there are a lot of young teams with really intriguing talent these days; Orlando, OKC, Detroit, Houston... and was then thinking of the sad team fanbases, and I thought about Charlotte. What a mess it is down there. Feel bad for the fans of that team. Is there a more messed up/disappointing team in the NBA right now?
A post in solidarity with Brittney Griner. Shit, man.
If I was hypothetically, no guarantee, to run a little Most Iconic Warriors Dunks contest, what plays should go in there?
The first three that came to mind:
- Baron Davis tummy flash
- J Rich dunk contest, one of them or all of them
- Wiggins on Doncic
OK, it's a good question: What ARE they going to say now?
Dub Detractor Dial: 1. The core guys are getting old, they can't win any more. They'll lose a step/get injured. They're sunk. (Closely related to ...) 2. The young guys are too young to step up big yet. They'll finish in the play-in. 3. They lost key and irreplaceable parts in GPII, OPJ. No chance for a repeat. 4. They lucked into a favorable matchup with Dallas, when Phoenix was scarier. Won't happen again this year. 5. They lucked into a Ja injury and would have lost that series. Memphis is a young and hungry team who will eat them up this year. 6. Boston was extremely close to beating them and has reloaded so well in the offseason that they would beat GSW easily now. 7. Middleton was injured. If the Bucks were healthy, they'd have won it all. 8. The Lakers and Nets are the clear favorites. 9. Draymond and other contract issues will hang over the team and cause irreperrable strife. -- Help! I need a tenth to make my list a ten list!!!
Hypotheticals Anonymous. Meetings start next week.
If Dray leaves the Warriors soon, he will be betting that the Dubs won't win a chip without him. Hypothetically, if Dray left and the Dubs did win another Chip without him, it would rubber stamp a giant "Dumb Ass" on his legacy. All the critics (I'm not one) who claim he just rode Curry's coattails would have a smoking gun. I won't begrudge him if he really wants to move on and spread his wings a little bit. But I do want to see him, Klay and Curry retire as lifetime Warriors. If he desires that, and all of the accolades, advertising, attention and WINNING that comes with it, he will take a haircut on his next deal. Not a buzz cut. But a "come on honey, we are going to a wedding, can you go get it cleaned up a bit?" haircut.
Warriors posted a short video of Moody returning to Little Rock with the trophy for a youth camp where kids had to read a certain number of books to attend. He seems like such a great kid and kind of Looney-esque; rapidly becoming one of my favorite personalities on the team. https://youtu.be/ascvBhuTsJ8