430 Comments

JFK's shot looks so much smoother now compared to the beginning of the season. You guys saw some of those moves in garbage time? He gave us a sneak peak into his future. He's probably going to be a much better shooter than we'd expect

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He is so athletic that I would rather have him moving down stream but having a reliable jumper will make that task a lot easier.

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Not only that, but his defense on Morant at the start of the game was great as well.

we're gonna be seeing Ja in the playoffs for the foreseeable future, but I feel no worries because we'll have Kuminga. It's insane!

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How sweet would it be for GP2 to stuff Ja in the playoffs next year??!?

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I'll be disappointed if the grizzlies implode after these playoffs because GP2 needs his revenge

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They're young, they're talented, they mostly need to gain experience and wisdom, including learning how to be physical without playing dirty. I don't see them imploding after the playoffs. (Not that I have any brilliant insight into that!) I think they'll be back strong next season.

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Also non-expert opinion, but I agree. Other than injuries, which can derail any team, the only other thing that could hold them back is themselves (I.e. player selfishness, confusion, demands to be a starter, to be traded, hurt feelings, etc.).

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We play them 4 times next season. Those will be fun assuming we have GP2 (Yes! Yes!!).

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Yes. It’s really nice how JKs shooting and defense have come along. Next area to develop is shot selection and when to attack and when to dish. Early in the game last night he clearly was trying to do much solo on offense and it wasn’t working. Still, he’s come so far this year!

Now I’m drooling thinking about him, Moody and Wiseman (!) all growing this much next year.

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He needs to tighten his handle as well!

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I am loving Iggy being dad in the room especially with JK and also Dray to some extent. I am haven't seen him with stern looks like these ever. If we win it all, Iggy letting a primal screen standing on the table is a guarantee.

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I too want to see Andre set some victory screens on the announcer table.

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People talk about him dogging Memphis, but Memphis clearly didn’t deserve him.

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May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

BATT (Big Ass Train Trip) update: Been rolling through eastern Utah (desolate but beautiful) and will soon cross into Colorado. The trip through the Rockies and along the Colorado River is supposed to be the most scenic train ride in the whole country. It’s coming up soon.

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You ever seen the movie Silver Streak Goofus?

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Let me know when I should wave at you [in my sleep] when you get into Iowa.

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We enter Iowa about 7am tomorrow. If I see you waiving, I’ll moon you with some pressed ham.

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You will probably be passing my town about 8 then if the train is going about 60mph.

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May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

It’s gotta be frustrating for Memphis.

The Warriors are tough as hell. They don’t get wound up by a 20-5 run. These guys have beaten Lebron 3 times in the Finals. They’ve beaten into oblivion badass playoff juggernaut teams from the past.

The lame petty online whining and surface-level flexing on the court isn’t going to keep you from having to outplay the Warriors for 48 minutes.

As others have pointed out, this series easily could have been 3-0 already with the warriors shooting like dog shit in the first two games. The bushleague antics had already painted them in a bad light, and the Morant injury has now manifested into a lame attempt at ref retribution (refribution ?) Lebron style because they’re frustrated as hell. The Warriors are frustrating to play because they’re tough and don’t care if you’re hot and feeling yourself… because they’re going to come back and make you do it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

Tonight showed what the Dubs can do when they actually hit the good looks their offense generates. End them in 5.

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Here’s your daily conspiracy theory:

Ja tweaked his knee somewhere along the way. Maybe even during the trap in question. Then he felt it when Poole pulled on that leg. This game was lost already and he knew the team needed motivation to stay in the series (you can hear it in the mic’d up clips). At the foul line he made a decision to create some drama and get the team angry for the next one (when Brooks will be back and getting boo’d every time he touches the ball). So he starts limping. Knee will be fine and he’ll start the next game with some ostentatious wrap on it and be his usual explosive self.

But we’ll never know so let’s just (nonviolently) beat the crap out of them.

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From someone who studied kinesiology...IF Poole pulled Ja's knee and caused an injury based on the direction the injury would have been to the OUTSIDE (lateral) of the knee not the INSIDE (medial). The medial injury must have occured at a different point previously.

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May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Honestly, for the life of me I can’t understand why anyone would want to coach the Kings as long as Vivek is the owner. Seems like they’re still in their version of the Cohan years…

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Money. A chance to be perceived as a legit head coach. And the long-shot bid: If the Kings ever took off, you'd be the guy helming them to improbable success.

That said, I doubt it's worth it. If he's got a good situation at Golden State -- and it seem like he does -- I wouldn't give it up for that.

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Mark Jackson coaching the dysfunctional Kings has more appeal to me.

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I am hoping for that because it will get him off ESPN. Maybe he will hire Jeff Van Gundy as an assistant and we won't have to tolerate him on ESPN broadcasts either.

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Would even tune in once in a while to see that train wreck.

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In fairness Jackson helped turn the Dubs around, especially on defense and general winning attitude. I admit I didn't like him as our coach because he created his own brand of dysfunction, and his offense was surprisingly poorly planned for a former pass-first point guard. But Jackson should get some credit for the good things he did.

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I hope he remains with the Warriors next season too. He deserves another head coaching job for what he's done with our defense this year, but... I'd rather have him back on our side.

And besides, who wants to coach that Kangz disaster?

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May 8, 2022·edited May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

JP playoff career (now 269 total minutes): 25.0 pts per 36 on **.706 true shooting.**

I think he and Ja are now #1-2 in a 2019 redraft. In some order.

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Can you imagine the fan screaming had he been taken #2 and performed as he did for the Warriors the first year and a half? I can. See a lot of bad-mouthing of James Wiseman.

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Not sure if Poole would go top two (although there are great arguments for him doing so) but I think top five isn't even controversial at this point. Such a crazy turn around.

I'd go as far as to say from last year to this year he has... Improved.

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I would take Poole #2 (or even #1). Garland (who’s 6-1) and Zion (who’s a huge question mark with his weight and durability issues) are the only other guys in the convo, I think.

But yeah, for the hope public at large, “top 5” is probably prudent. But I think the hoops public at large still probably underrates how great JP is. 25 points per 36 on .700. TS in his first playoff appearance (5.9 ast per 36 to boot) is absolutely insane.

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Why is that insane, can you give some other examples or comparisons? And, is it possible that the reason JP is so good is that he’s on the court with Steph, Dray and Klay? Would he still have made this gigantic leap if he was surrounded by coaches and players on say, the Kings?

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I'm right there with you. Your post made me look up some mock redrafts. Just a year ago has him falling out of the first round completely.

Earlier this year had him at #8.

This past March had him going #3.

It's a very unscientific method for assessing his perceived value over time, but it's fascinating to see how the narrative on his career has shifted so much so quickly.

It would not shock me now for a mock redraft to have him going #2.

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You would think climbing 20-odd spaces in a redraft would be a pretty good metric for "most improved" wouldn't you?

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Morant moved up a spot too

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And can’t move up any more spots

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I'd take him at #1 on maturity alone.

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Nice summary by Slater this morning ($): https://theathletic.com/3299300/2022/05/08/warriors-explode-for-142-points/

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Thanks for the Steven Adams $creen heads up :)

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I used to like Ja before this series. That's going to be a lot harder now.

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I'll give him a pass on this one, the coach on the other hand.

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I don’t know about giving Ja a pass. For me, it feeds the “young Westbrook” narrative. Lots of people calling him Steph’s heir, but Steph don’t do it like that.

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If it's a pattern then sure but I'm not seeing this as an issue so far.

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It's hilarious how Westbrook was drafted before Steph and they basically 'Little bro'd" him by comparing him to Steph instead of the other way around lol

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Coach is immature too… they’ll learn, I hope

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well he did learn from Pop in SA

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He did not coach under Pops. He interned for a year with the Spurs basketball operations.

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deletedMay 8, 2022·edited May 8, 2022
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they mentioned during the broadcast yesterday that he worked as an intern for the Spurs after university instead of going to a prestigious grad school program

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May 8, 2022·edited May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

true shooting percentages (w/ total points in parentheses):

Looney: 100% (6)

OPJ: 92.8% (13)

Kuminga: 90% (18)

Moody: 83.3% (5)

Wiggs: 81.4% (17)

Klay: 78.1% (21)

Poole: 75.5% (27)

Steph: 74.4% (30)

Draymond: 64.4% (5)

Lee: 0% (0)

JTA: 0% (0)

Beli: 0% (0)

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Decent shooting game. This team has promise.

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Steph and Dray the weak links. Time to trade them, see if we can get anything in return still :)

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May 8, 2022·edited May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

@Sleepy Freud, Klay obviously heard you slandering his rebounding and pulled down a game (edit: and Season) high 9 Boards!

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May 8, 2022·edited May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Hah, totally. He heard me … and told me to STFU. Now keep it up, Klay.

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So this is actual play that hurt JaMoron's knee

https://mobile.twitter.com/bleacherreport/status/1523147464370384897

How is this related to Poole again?

Its clear MEM is trying to create any narrative that they can, out of clear desperation. They know that they're on tilt in this series. Bad form kids

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The more the series goes on, the more we see how classless of an organisation the Grizzlies are. This silly narrative is a convenient diversion from the fact that they were truly and utterly blown out.

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You can see that Poole's hand hooks Morant's right knee. What it enough to cause injury? It doesn't look like it to me, but what do I know? Regardless, I'm resigned to the fact that we'll have to block out all of the noise for the next couple of days.

I do agree that Memphis is trying to control the narrative and has been since the Dray flagrant 2. It's one of the reasons I'm sick of them; if they want to win, maybe consider changing what's not working. Instead, it seems like they're trying to go the LeBron route and get an advantage by tricking the league into a suspension. It's dishonorable.

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No kidding. You think Jenkins as the voice if the team would just focus on making the team better instead of being the immature child instigating and fanning the flames

Hey, if thats how he wants to play it...they're doomed anyway

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In the other video from a different angle it is clear the “hooking” in the first angle is an optical illusion. There was no “hooking”.

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but their coach said he 'grabbed and twisted' the knee, you mean he's wrong? /s

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Even if it was hooked, you can't injury somebody's knee that way. typically knee injuries happen because the foot is planted and the upper body above the knee twists. To the extent that Poole's hand did anything at all, the twist would have been at Ja's hip, and hip joints are a lot more flexible in all directions. I don't know how Ja got injured, but it wasn't because Poole put his hand on Ja's knee.

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Even espn headlines pushing the controversy; though most comments (of non warrior fans) have seemed to be like: grizzly need to shut the f up, ja obviously hurt his knee the play where he jumps at klay. This is gonna be forgotten in two days,

So weak.

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Morant, WTF?

https://i.redd.it/beaw3apy57y81.jpg

Someone on r/warriors said that the letters stand for: "get off my dick all y'all stupid bandwagon ass warriors kids be lame y'all fake fans."

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covfefe

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Okay, I know I'm old and don't understand "kids these days," but how in the world did anyone decode that? Is that for real or did someone just make up some crazy stuff and attribute it to Ja?

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That's nice Ja 😂

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O, youth and social media!

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Dr. Brian Sutterer made a video regarding the Morant injury:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BegbbyqgKA

-Sutterer says that Morant and Poole's knee colliding with each other is the likely cause of the injury. The collision turned Morant's knee inward and put stress on the inner knee ligaments.

-He further confirms it when he shows a clip of Morant massaging the inner part of his knee. If Poole really did grab and yank Morant's knee, it would injure the OUTER portion of the knee.

-Sutterer mentions about how Morant had knee issues this season before the playoffs started. He also showed a clip when Morant's right knee collided with Klay at the very beginning of the 3rd quarter, which may have hurt Morant's knee along with the knee collision in the 4th quarter.

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Exactamundo

Looks like simple biology works against the grizz. Poor little babies

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May 8, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Steven Adams is back, but why isn't Jenkins using him? His rebounding and size is going to be helpful against the Warriors. The Warriors have outrebounded the Grizzlies so far in the series, and they're doing a great job boxing out Brandon Clarke, who grabbed a bunch of rebounds against the Timberwolves.

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He's slow but useful in spot min's.

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I get the feeling he's not fully in game shape following covid, so he has even less chance of keeping up with the fast pace of play. His few garbage time minutes last night may even be a conditioning test/ramp-up thing.

Or maybe Memphis's strategy is to play as fast as possible and he doesn't fit that.

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Because him trying to guard Steph/Poole in a PNR requires a time machine (though even 2015-2017 Adams probably gets lit up by those guys).

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Adam’s ain’t got nothing on 15 year old Poole

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Plus we were playing fast tonight, and he's not going to be able to keep up.

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This series needs to end so we can move on to CP3 and his antics… blech.

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I would love to see the Mavericks try and beat the Suns. If they can play amazing defense like they did last night, Mavericks may be able to win the series.

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Wouldn't be the first time the suns lose after leading 2-0.

I honestly have a hard time taking Phoenix as serious as I probably should, but I'm very arrogant about this dubs team, and they're just standing in their way.

Besides, it's CP3. When's the last time he actually ate his own lunch around the Warriors, like 2014? Pffft

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Yeah, back when he was allowed to foul Steph going up for a shot 3 different ways and not get called.

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