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Likely outcomes.

Are the Dubs likely going to improve their defense over the course of the season. Yes.

Are the younger guys likely to improve generally as they learn the system over the course of the season. Yes.

Is Klay likely to revert at least offensively back to his former self. Yes (he didn't play all summer so I think so).

Are the Warriors likely to have enough wins to make the playoffs. Yes.

Will the game breaks between playoff games likely allow the older crew to rest more between games mitigating fatigue caused by old age. Yes.

Is it likely that Steph can still go full Super Saiyan God when needed in the playoffs. Best believe it.

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Nov 1, 2022·edited Nov 1, 2022

Happy Halloween everyone!

Per Jason Timpf:

Warriors starting lineup (Steph/Klay/Wiggins/Draymond/Looney): 127 ORTG, 100 DRTG (+27 NetRTG)

Meanwhile, 6 out of the remaining 8 most played lineups all have negative NetRTG (and some lineups double digit negative).

EDIT: Some more numbers: Warriors are -48 in 102 minutes when Wiseman is on the floor. The most played lineup involving Wiseman is Poole/DDV/Kuminga/Green/JW. That lineup has a 59 ORTG and 111 DRTG (-52 NetRTG, which in case anyone was wondering... is not good).

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That was close. Rockets could've won tonight, but Paul George said, "No OT tonight."

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Jazz beating the Grizzlies by a lot.

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Pistons pushing the Bucks to the final buzzer on a road B2B in Milwaukee makes me feel a bit less bad about losing to them. We should still have beaten them, but they’re not as bad as their 1-5 record might have indicated. Cade’s a budding stud, and the type of stud impacts both ends and seems to make his teammates better.

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The issues could very well not be the coaching but the players.

Pure speculation, but klay is playing to prove he's back and wants the respect he thinks he is not getting. Dray is playing for a contract and angling for meida gigs.

This could be a semi disfunctional locker right now. In the past, what is best for our stars has aligned with what is best for the team, which is winning championships.

This season, it's probably not enough for steph to just lead by example. Kerr and steph might need to find a motivation that unites the team that is more than just winning a championship.

Or it could just be early season woes after a short season and the team simply lacks urgency right now.

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I dressed up as the Warriors for Halloween. Didn't scare anyone. ;-(

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Bring back Mark Jackson? Even this highly critical fan doesn't think that's a good idea. Why isn't anyone questioning the so called 'defensive coordinator' Atkinson who took over from Mike Brown? Warriors like to keep everything internal hush hush. No public finger pointing, calling out anyone, or maybe our expiration date is up? 8 year run. Jordan's Bulls also had an 8 year run, 3 rings, 2 losses separating the 3 other championships. They won 6 rings. Not an easy feat. Teams are also fighting TIME.

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2 cents. Probably wrong.

Offensive problems are due to insufficient player movement, sharing the ball. Conditioning? Make them pass the ball 3 times before shooting....

Defensive problems - sometimes too much helping out, leaving people free on the perimeter. Weakness inside. JW's got to be better. Looney must lead the league in marginal fouls (that it, refs are bailing out bad offensive players who attack Looney's sound defense). He NEVER gets the benefit of the doubt.

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I've voted for the Return of Father Mark: this season needs some drama to keep me awake at 5 in the morning watchin' no defense on the floor

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Athletic Alchemy video on Dubs' D. There's a good point about O-reb's interfering with transition D. A few other points as well, but that one is something I haven't heard elsewhere.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvQr8ycnWBA&list=TLPQMzExMDIwMjJA1zkyIadKeA&index=1

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https://twitter.com/klaytheist11/status/1587191808672825344

Nice play by Kuminga. Very slow reaction time when getting the ball on the perimeter which is one of his big issues but still, easier as a big man to not be the one who has to make the quick reads. He can be a weapon for the Warriors this season if they put him in this type of role and also he improves in terms of his team defense (which is way harder when playing with Wiseman because it can become a scramble pretty easily).

I want to see a Curry/Moody/Wiggins/Draymond/Kuminga lineup, or DDV or Klay for Moody when back and in good form. Give him the defensive structure of playing with 4 guys who know what they are doing and an offensive role where he is a finisher/advantage attacker and I think he'll have a chance at being playoff usable in that role. I don't think we've seen any of those lineup combos yet.

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My hope/long shot guess is that they're planning for a G League stint for Wiseman, and that they've been compromising Kuminga reps to get "big club" data for Wise and coaches to take to the G League learning environment. SCW opening night is 11/4, same day as last game of road trip for GSW. Crossing fingers that something happens there...

FWIW, in the last 3 games, Kuminga's got all the "Kuminga vs. Wiseman" 2nd half minutes. I expect that trend to continue... and Wise's minutes have gone down the last 3 games quite a lot.

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Soft defense is one thing, but the other thing I've noticed last night was the lack of scoring in the 2nd quarter which eventually doomed the Warriors. How do you only score 18 points and give up 34 points in the 2nd quarter?

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I think I may have said it before a while ago, because it is a thing that is on my mind from time to time: I'm curious about what coaching staffs consider to be a useful approach to teaching something. Having been a teacher myself, I wouldn't say that it's a science, but there are some more or less proven systems and techniques. This is on my mind because I think we would all like to accelerate the moment when the young players understand what is being taught to them. Just as there are ways to teach high school science or English or math that are more likely to lead to good outcomes, and ways that are not, the same is true of how to play defense.

My worry is that the conventional wisdom leans heavily on suboptimal methods, and that's part of the problem now for GSW with all the young guys. Go stand here, watch this tape, OK now let's run it through in practice twice. So much more can be done. Maybe it is, I'm not there. But I doubt it. And if you look at the hiring done by NBA teams, it tends to focus on former players or assistant coaches. No one brings in a retired and awarded social studies teacher, but maybe they should. FWIW

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