Update: Andre Iguodala will return. No sign-and-trade as Oubre leaves Warriors for Hornets; plus USA vs France open thread
Update: Andre Iguodala will return. No sign-and-trade as Oubre leaves Warriors for Hornets; plus USA vs France open thread
Fantasy GMs in Dub Nation may feel a bit let down by the anticlimactic end to KOJ's Golden State tenure.
Wellp. Kelly Oubre Jr. is outta here, headed to the Charlotte Hornets to team with LaMelo Ball.
I’m really interested in hearing the community’s thoughts on two topics:
A.) KOJ’s time as a Warrior. Duby Dub Dubs wrote an insightful review of Tsunami Papi’s season with Golden State. After a historically rough start he showed signs of gelling with the team before an injury cut his year short. Were you hoping that he’d return?
B.) In the aftermath of him not returning, were you surprised that the Warriors weren’t able to execute a sign-and-trade for his contract?
Maybe I’m just too high on the potential of Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, but I feel like the Warriors may have adequately replaced his wild card athleticism and defensive versatility in this draft…if all pans out. And much cheaper too!
At any rate, I enjoyed his time as a Warrior and can’t wait to see what he does playing with LaMelo in Charlotte. In an interesting twist, Golden State picked up his former Washington Wizards teammate Otto Porter Jr. We’ll see if the OPJ experience is better or worse than the KOJ life.
Switching gears, there’s two viewing items of note for ya here at the HQ.
First, we’ve got another compilation video on our YouTube channel in the same spirit of our previous “Wiggins defense vs Beal’s offense”. This one is Steph Curry’s offense vs Jrue Holiday’s defense over last season; every Curry FGA, assist, or turnover while Holiday was harassing him. After watching Holiday disrupt the Phoenix Suns’ backcourt in the Finals, it’s a fascinating case study to see how he defends the Unanimous One.
Secondly, tonight is the gold medal game for the U.S. Men’s basketball team! They look to avenge themselves against France after Rudy Gobert and Nicolas Batum gave them a tough loss a week-and-a-half ago that sent me into a Hennessy induced rage.
Gametime is at 7:30pm PT on NBC and NBCOlympics.com. Of course I’m rooting for the U.S. to smash France in the gold medal game on principle, but it helps that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr and former defensive player of the year Draymond Green are out there fighting for gold alongside former Dub Kevin Durant.
Oh yeah and it’s always fun waiting to see Rudy Gobert get dunked on. USA! USA! USA!
To answer Daniel's questions:
- I was not hoping Oubre would return, this side of a trade of Wiggins for a superstar (and I didn't favor that either). I would not have begrudged him coming back, but it seems clear he was a starter (and possibly a star in the making) with a high ceiling in his own mind, and I don't think that was going to be his role in Golden State.
- I was not in the least surprised that they couldn't sign-and-trade him. That was always a long shot, with too many things that had to fall into place to make it possible. Would have been happy for it -- my personal dream scenario was that they'd find a way to send him to Indiana for Myles Turner -- but it was not a likely scenario in my estimation.
We’re finally running back the 2015/16 revenge squad. It’s a good karma group. Only this time the core is old and the periphery is young. If we can get some injury luck for the first time in four years, it’s gonna be a helluva ride.
Also, congrats to Dray, KD, Pop, Kerr and the rest of Team USA on cobbling together a real team in a short period of time and bringing the hardware home to its rightful place.