Two years ago, Curry had a legitimate argument for MVP, but voters apparently rejected the idea of someone on play-in team winning the award.
Last season, his shooting numbers were off his lofty standards and he missed time because of the injury.
Voter-fatigue, especially after B2B MVP’s, seems to be a real thing. This likely puts Joker out of the running.
Do we think a healthy Steph with a season like two years ago win it if the Warriors finish top 3 in the west, or is he at the stage Lebron hit where the voters are looking for new guys like Luka to anoint?
After the finals and “What are they gonna say now?”, it seemed like there were a lot of flowers and “top 10 all-time” discussions, but will that carry over into people realizing he’s still killing it. I’d think all the national game coverage after winning the ‘chip would keep him in the discussion.
Man I’m excited to see what a fully engaged Draymond will look like throughout the season. With something like 11 or 12 teams with sufficient cap space I think someone throws a Max or near max at him in the off-season (health willing)
Replacing Austin Rivers and Malik Beasley with KCP & Bruce Brown was a gamechanger for the Chicken McNuggets. They fit around that core better and should be more useful come playoff time.
1) disjointed preseason in many ways. Japan. Dray. Klay show ramp up. These first five games are basically still preseason games. Then you add in trying to figure out the best ways to use all these pieces. Might start 6-4. Oh well.
2) gonna lose 10-15 games just on young guys figuring it out which includes scheduled losses on vet rest games. Oh well.
3) missed conservatively ten wide open shots in the 2nd quarter. Yes the D was bad. Yes the kids struggled. But even three of those shots go down and it is a 12ish deficit at the half and we probably win but five to ten. Oh well.
4) Poole off to a slow start post big extension. Oh well. It happens. It won’t persist.
5) I fell asleep at half time cause I was way too high. Maybe none of those 2nd quarter shots were wide open and I’m an idiot. Oh well.
Let’s recognize it: we lost against one of the best coaches, maybe the best in the NBA. Kerr insisted too much on Poole (who was on a day almost off) and missed the winning moves that were: set the defensive tone with Moody (too late), and use the athleticism of Wiseman to fatigue Jokic and unsharpen his point playmaking. Malone is definitely underrated, and maybe Kerr is overrated as a strategist. Anyway, one thing is sure: we have at least two nemesis, two that shoot the whole magazine against us, Denver and Memphis. And this year they see us coming, and Lord how they want to see us.
I had ice cream of sadness. Much the same as ice cream of joy. But sadder...
I didn't get home until the 3rd qtr was already underway. Almost got to see a great comeback win. Not quite enough in spite of several good performances from Steph, Wiggs and Dray in the 3rd. It will come together for everybody else. I saw plenty of good things from Klay & Wise and JMG & Moody.
I like it better when it is OUR Porter Jr. taking and making the jump shooting no-no-no-YES! three pointers... Denver is going to be shooting themselves in and out of games all year. Really thought that this was our year to go undefeated. Bummer.
Also, looking at the Phoenix box score and D Lee is literally their 6th man, fifth in minutes played. Definitely not an ideal situation for Phoenix to be in but regardless, shout out to the people who said Lee was only in the league because he was Curry's brother in law.
There are concerning losses and annoying losses, this was the latter. The healthy Nuggets probably aren't beating the healthy Warriors in the playoffs. I say probably because the Nuggets are much improved and clearly have a puncher's chance, but if the Warriors take the game seriously their top end talent is too much for the Nuggets to handle and Curry/Dray is still a lethal 1-2 combo against Jokic.
Kuminga/Wiseman combo is no bueno, however they have no choice but to play them together because if not it probably means what we saw in the second half which is benching Kuminga in order to keep playing Wiseman (or vice versa). Need to find them minutes which means combining them. JMG and DDV will get minutes early on too because they weren't signing with the Warriors without that. That leaves Moody as the odd man out, which is frustrating to me because I consider him the Warriors' best prospect but I think Kerr's decision to play him a lot late spoke volumes about where Moody actually stands in the pecking order, the rest is just politics.
I don't see Jokic going anywhere out of the West anytime soon, which means if the Warriors want to compete for titles they cannot let go of Draymond. Not this season, not next season, not until they've decided it's time to rebuild. I'm fine with people wanting to move on from Draymond as long as they acknowledge what that means, there is no championship contention without him.
Denver seemed to play seriously tonight as if they really didn't want to fall to a 0-2 hole to start the season. I guess the loss to the Jazz a couple of nights ago is probably one of the reasons why.
Steve Kerr: “The second unit stuff, that’s all going to shake out in the next few weeks. We don’t have a set rotation yet, we’re trying a lot of different people.”
Two years ago, Curry had a legitimate argument for MVP, but voters apparently rejected the idea of someone on play-in team winning the award.
Last season, his shooting numbers were off his lofty standards and he missed time because of the injury.
Voter-fatigue, especially after B2B MVP’s, seems to be a real thing. This likely puts Joker out of the running.
Do we think a healthy Steph with a season like two years ago win it if the Warriors finish top 3 in the west, or is he at the stage Lebron hit where the voters are looking for new guys like Luka to anoint?
After the finals and “What are they gonna say now?”, it seemed like there were a lot of flowers and “top 10 all-time” discussions, but will that carry over into people realizing he’s still killing it. I’d think all the national game coverage after winning the ‘chip would keep him in the discussion.
Man I’m excited to see what a fully engaged Draymond will look like throughout the season. With something like 11 or 12 teams with sufficient cap space I think someone throws a Max or near max at him in the off-season (health willing)
Replacing Austin Rivers and Malik Beasley with KCP & Bruce Brown was a gamechanger for the Chicken McNuggets. They fit around that core better and should be more useful come playoff time.
Fun with two-game samples (per 36)…
Curry 35.0 pts on .645 ts / 5.7 reb / 5.7 ast / 2.1 stl / +49.6 net on-off
Wiggins 23.1 pts on .631 ts / 7.5 reb / 3.5 ast / 0.5 tov / 1.1 blk / 2.1 stl / +54.2 net on-off
Dray 12.0 pts on .666 ts / 5.6 reb / 9.9 ast / 1.4 blk / 1.4 stl / +41.4 net on-off
Loon 9.9 pts on .652 ts / 6.5 reb / 5.4 ast / 0.0 tov / +55.0 net on-off
Wiseman 20.7 pts on .675 ts / 13.1 reb (net on-off redacted, lol)
(JP’s stats also redacted EXCEPT: 9.0 assists per 36)
Kaykay’s Five “Oh well”s of the night.
1) disjointed preseason in many ways. Japan. Dray. Klay show ramp up. These first five games are basically still preseason games. Then you add in trying to figure out the best ways to use all these pieces. Might start 6-4. Oh well.
2) gonna lose 10-15 games just on young guys figuring it out which includes scheduled losses on vet rest games. Oh well.
3) missed conservatively ten wide open shots in the 2nd quarter. Yes the D was bad. Yes the kids struggled. But even three of those shots go down and it is a 12ish deficit at the half and we probably win but five to ten. Oh well.
4) Poole off to a slow start post big extension. Oh well. It happens. It won’t persist.
5) I fell asleep at half time cause I was way too high. Maybe none of those 2nd quarter shots were wide open and I’m an idiot. Oh well.
Let’s recognize it: we lost against one of the best coaches, maybe the best in the NBA. Kerr insisted too much on Poole (who was on a day almost off) and missed the winning moves that were: set the defensive tone with Moody (too late), and use the athleticism of Wiseman to fatigue Jokic and unsharpen his point playmaking. Malone is definitely underrated, and maybe Kerr is overrated as a strategist. Anyway, one thing is sure: we have at least two nemesis, two that shoot the whole magazine against us, Denver and Memphis. And this year they see us coming, and Lord how they want to see us.
Winnable game - lost in 2nd quarter. Also Curry's passing game was off - not sure how much of that is due to playing with new players.
Dray played awesome. W/o him, this would have been 30 pt loss.
Also looks like Wiggs is trying to ramp up his defensive game to get steals and more.
I had ice cream of sadness. Much the same as ice cream of joy. But sadder...
I didn't get home until the 3rd qtr was already underway. Almost got to see a great comeback win. Not quite enough in spite of several good performances from Steph, Wiggs and Dray in the 3rd. It will come together for everybody else. I saw plenty of good things from Klay & Wise and JMG & Moody.
I like it better when it is OUR Porter Jr. taking and making the jump shooting no-no-no-YES! three pointers... Denver is going to be shooting themselves in and out of games all year. Really thought that this was our year to go undefeated. Bummer.
Also, looking at the Phoenix box score and D Lee is literally their 6th man, fifth in minutes played. Definitely not an ideal situation for Phoenix to be in but regardless, shout out to the people who said Lee was only in the league because he was Curry's brother in law.
There are concerning losses and annoying losses, this was the latter. The healthy Nuggets probably aren't beating the healthy Warriors in the playoffs. I say probably because the Nuggets are much improved and clearly have a puncher's chance, but if the Warriors take the game seriously their top end talent is too much for the Nuggets to handle and Curry/Dray is still a lethal 1-2 combo against Jokic.
Kuminga/Wiseman combo is no bueno, however they have no choice but to play them together because if not it probably means what we saw in the second half which is benching Kuminga in order to keep playing Wiseman (or vice versa). Need to find them minutes which means combining them. JMG and DDV will get minutes early on too because they weren't signing with the Warriors without that. That leaves Moody as the odd man out, which is frustrating to me because I consider him the Warriors' best prospect but I think Kerr's decision to play him a lot late spoke volumes about where Moody actually stands in the pecking order, the rest is just politics.
I don't see Jokic going anywhere out of the West anytime soon, which means if the Warriors want to compete for titles they cannot let go of Draymond. Not this season, not next season, not until they've decided it's time to rebuild. I'm fine with people wanting to move on from Draymond as long as they acknowledge what that means, there is no championship contention without him.
Wiggs looks great.
Denver seemed to play seriously tonight as if they really didn't want to fall to a 0-2 hole to start the season. I guess the loss to the Jazz a couple of nights ago is probably one of the reasons why.
Shayna Rubin
@ShaynaRubin
Steve Kerr: “The second unit stuff, that’s all going to shake out in the next few weeks. We don’t have a set rotation yet, we’re trying a lot of different people.”
https://twitter.com/ShaynaRubin/status/1583684580602630145
-----
Should not be a surprise for anyone that was paying attention.
Other stats:
Gordon: (-10)
10 points, 5/12 FGs, 0/6 threes
3 rebounds (1 off.), 3 assists, 3 turnovers
Porter Jr.: (-7)
17 points, 6/12 FGs, 5/10 threes
6 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block
Braun: (+14)
4 points, 2/5 FGs, 0/1 three
5 rebounds (2 off.), 3 assists, 1 turnover, 3 steals
Poole: (-20)
7 points, 2/5 FGs, 0/2 three pointers, 3/4 FTs
1 rebound, 7 assists, 4 turnovers, 3 steals
JaMychal Green: (-10)
5 points, 2/5 FGs, 1/3 threes
5 rebounds (1 off.), 2 assists, 2 turnovers, 1 steal
Moody: (+3)
3 points, 1/5 FGs, 1/4 threes
1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 steal
Notable stats:
Nuggets:
Jokic: (-3)
26 points, 7/13 FGs, 1/2 threes, 11/11 FTs
12 rebounds (3 off.), 10 assists, 5 turnovers
Brown: (-8)
20 points, 8/10 FGs, 3/4 threes, 1/2 FTs
1 rebound, 5 assists, 3 turnovers, 1 steal
Caldwell-Pope: (-10)
17 points, 7/14 FGs, 3/6 threes
4 rebounds (2 off.), 1 assist, 2 turnovers, 2 steals
Jordan: (+8)
9 points, 4/4 FGs, 1/2 FTs
5 rebounds (3 off.), 2 turnovers, 1 block
Hyland: (+13)
14 points, 4/10 FGs, 1/3 threes, 5/6 FTs
5 assists, 3 turnovers
Jeff Green: (+14)
10 points, 3/5 FGs, 2/2 threes, 2/2 FTs
3 rebounds (1 off.), 1 assist
Warriors:
Curry: (+9)
34 points, 10/22 FGs, 5/11 threes, 9/9 FTs
5 rebounds (1 off.), 4 assists, 3 turnovers
Wiggins: (+7)
23 points, 8/17 FGs 2/8 threes, 5/7 FTs
8 rebounds (3 off.), 3 assists, 3 steals, 1 block
Draymond Green: (+11)
13 points, 4/6 FGs, 1/3 threes, 4/4 FTs
3 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 turnover, 2 steals, 2 blocks
Thompson: (+9)
16 points, 6/14 FGs, 4/10 threes,
4 rebounds (1 off.), 3 assists, 4 turnovers
Wiseman: (-14)
11 points, 4/5 FGs, 3/3 FTs
5 rebounds (1 off.), 1 assist, 1 turnover
Final stats:
Nuggets:
53.5% shooting (46/86 FGs)
15/34 threes
21/25 FTs
41 rebounds (12 off.)
30 assists
20 turnovers
10 steals
2 blocks
Warriors:
47.7% shooting (42/88 FGs)
15/44 three pointers
24/27 FTs
35 rebounds (7 off.)
34 assists
19 turnovers
10 steals
3 blocks
Points in paint:
Nuggets: 44
Warriors: 48
Fastbreak points:
Nuggets: 16
Warriors: 11
Points off turnovers:
Nuggets: 30
Warriors: 27
Bench points:
Nuggets: 38
Warriors: 33
https://derpicdn.net/img/2022/6/1/2877478/small.gif