225 Comments

these guys in the nba have such amazing closeout speed and wingspan that it’s hard to out quick them without being crafty with your finish. JP has to be more clever at times. maybe a floater or be like steph and use your body instead of the underhand scoop.

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He would definitely benefit by initiating the contact and shielding the defender with his body. It may not even have a huge effect on his ability to finish directly but it would definitely at least get him to the line more often.

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deletedMar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023
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Can maybe remove that, but definitely can improve the consistency of his craftiness around the rim

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Go Knicks… this time with feeling.

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One thing I haven’t seen in the thread yet: MOSES PLAYED AND PLAYED OK!

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can you imagine us with any other mehhh FA from last year instead of DDV this season? the value we got from his contract is criminal. minimum guys aren’t supposed to step in to be your starter and perform at a high level the whole year.

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He’s not a min guy… he’s making 4M and got a player option for next year to protect his risk of getting injured or falling out of the rotation

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Yeah, not sure there’s a comp

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Wait, what meh FA from last year?

Bob Myers knocked it out of the park last year with OPJ, Iguodala (great to start the season until his body rapidly deteriorated), re-signed Loondog, and Bjelica. GP2 was already on the team so I guess not technically a FA from last year.

Also, DDV wasn't a minimum pickup, they used most of the MLE on him, 2 year / $9.3m, player option 2nd year.

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from the FA market. for example picking up a kemba walker because we ran out of options had DDV decided he wanted to go somewhere else.

oh right, still getting paid peanuts for his contributions

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Poole seems to have lost all confidence in his long-range shooting; hesitates even when wide-open. Seems his driving ability is the only thing he still has confidence in...

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He made a couple of 3s off screens at the top last night that looked fine to me.

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Yes he did, and hesitated on several other opportunities...

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Watched the game after reading all the Poole hate and expected something other than the game-long contributions I saw. I hope this young man does not have anyone in his life exposing him to this thread. Yikes.

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Yes!! Thanks for stating this. Perhaps it's a consequence of having won too much, perhaps it's the fact that a good percentage of the fan base only ever knew winning as a Dubs fan and cannot fathom supporting struggling players. It's made me want to come on this site less because of the hate expended against JP and before that Wiseman. There is critique, there is criticism, there is just "fanatic" hate. The nit-picking of every last detail of a young player's missteps by those who can't even touch the rim.

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I mean... ain’t been just this game (4-13 shooting, 4 TOs) he’s been killing the team all season. Not sure that qualifies as “hate”. It’s more like wear.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

No. There's lots of hate. I would prefer to see much less of it. He's on our team - probably for a few more years. Hate is not the same as tough love.

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Sports hate is different from "hate hate" - I think it is closer to tough live. Sport hate generally shows up in real time, during the game, especially when players are making what look like fundamental errors, and in JP's case, there are a lot of those.

After all, we are FAN-atics

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Beg to disagree. The negative comments about Poole have nothing to do with tough love. They are more like disgust and frustration and violated expectations than they are anything else. And, you are right - we are FANactics. Our identities are somewhat bound up with the team and the players. Poole's play (or Steph's lazy passes/TOs; Klay's un-self-conscious shooting; Draymond's volatility) violate our unrealistic sense of Self as perfect.

I guess if you took some of this passion/identification away from the game, we might be less FANactic. But I'd prefer some recollection that we are supporters of the players and team, with all that entails.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Poole the heir-apparent for Steph...yea, right.

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No one is. If that is the measuring stick, no one is good enough to be on this team. But this (often-frustrating) dude has won us games and can be a good contributor to a championship, empirically.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Poole -11 today alone. He's shot. I've never seen a scorer with a worse career Plus/minus. Let me look at Trae's real quick. OK Trae had a -336 in his rookie year. When you play D like Poole, he literally needs 27-28 for him break even.

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I'm here for criticism of JP's utter lack of understanding what constitutes a good 2 for 1 opportunity or his need to relearn legal dribbling, but plus/minus is perhaps the most mis-used stat in basketball, non-Westbrook category. Did Brook Lopez hurt his team today? Were they better with him off the floor? He was -12. So many variables at work with plu/minus as to make it nearly irrelevant in a single game analysis, and a bad career plus/minus has more to do with playing two lost years with the Ky Bowman/Kent Bazemore Revival than some irredeemable awfulness. JMG was -14. We probably are down 10 at the half without him and the 3 assists from Poole for 8 straight points. Cheers to you- we are 100% on the same page of wanting GSW to be championship. I'm just tired and saddened by the rage on fansites in general.

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The Ky Bowman/Kent Bazemore Revival - sounds like a jazz fusion band

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7 of Steph's 8 4th quarter and it baskets came on brook Lopez so yes he probably was a -12, Poole's offensive.contributioms aren't making up for his total lack of effort on defense, that's all we are saying. Klay has times where he spaces out off the ball or on switches, but he's the second best shooter of all time

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Alex, Poole didn't play in OT. Kerr's losing faith too. It's not just the fans. He can't be trusted to close. It's turnovers and dismal decision making.

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Also erratic at best defense. Whether Kerr is really losing faith in him overall is hard to say as a fan but Kerr pretty plainly wanted better defense in the OT than Poole provides.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Perhaps Poole's (and Klay's) most impactful crime was playing such atrocious defense in the first ten games that Kerr panicked and benched Wiseman, JK, and Moody, prematurely ending the integration of the young guns into the team. With the eventual Wiseman trade and thus ending of the two-timeline plan, the ramifications of that for the franchise are massive.

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Agree with your first and last sentences 😎

My assertion is that he still contributed to the win, and Kerr was correct in his closing lineup for this game.

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

Oh and the elephant in the room is that Poole's three point percentage is worse than Draymond's, with Steph's volume. Add to that the turnovers, pouting as a non starter, and no defense. He will be an albatross for years to come. I'm terrified. His only equivalent in the league is Trae and Poole's a far worse shooter. Fans grant him an enormous pass but if you look at his contributions objectively, you will come to realize that he hurts us.

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So, after the OKC game, I said if we lost to the Grizzlies and then beat the Bucks, I'd still think we can win the championship... and yup. Just have to figure out how to get the defense on the road.

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I think it may be simpler than that, dfib. Methinks we just need to get in the playoffs with the 6th or higher spot. I have more confidence in this team showing up in a playoff series, than a one, or, two-game, play in....

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Mar 12, 2023·edited Mar 12, 2023

In 11 games, Kyrie Irving as a Maverick is scoring 27 points on 50-40-90 and has 6 assists a night. Yet the team is 3-8 during that time. I would think that one factor is that Dorian Finney-Smith was a key defender for the Mavs and was traded for Kyrie, who has never been a key defender. High risk gamble not looking that wise yet.

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Though in fairness, I'd give them until next season. It will take some time to integrate Irving's playstyle into Dallas's offense, he is not like KD who is so mindbendingly good that you can have him do any kind of offense immediately with basically no drop-off.

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Will Kyrie even be there next season. I'm gonna say no.

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It’s pretty obvious… Doncic has missed some games too, as has Kyrie… but having Doncic and Kyrie out there without many plus defenders and no amazing interior defender is not going to work.

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Kevon Looney is the first Warrior since Joe Smith in 1996 to record 15+ rebounds and 5+ steals in a single game.

https://twitter.com/warriors/status/1634798895464349696

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Was one assist away from a 5 for 5 of Off. Rebounds, Def. Rebounds, Steals, Points, and Assists).

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Kind of surprised Dray never did it.

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Mar 12, 2023Liked by Eric Apricot

Remaining strength of schedule (Pacific Division):

#2: Suns. Toughest opponents: Bucks, 76ers, Nuggets (2X). Easiest opponents: Spurs, Magic, Thunder (2X)

#9: Kings. Toughest: Bucks, Celtics, Nuggets. Easiest: Spurs, Wizards, Blazers (2X)

#17: Warriors. Toughest: Nuggets, 76ers, Grizzlies. Easiest: Rockets, Spurs, Blazers

#20: Clippers. Toughest: Grizzlies (2X), Suns, Warriors. Easiest: Magic, Blazers (2X), Bulls

#28: Lakers. Toughest: Knicks, Suns (2X), Clippers. Easiest: Rockets (2X), Magic, Bulls (2X)

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Yuck on Lakers. 7-3 in their last 10, only 1.5 games behind us.

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....and, rising.....

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somebody needs to check the stats but when dante scores in double digits on top of everything else he does i think our record is pretty damn good.

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Steph Curry on Andrew Wiggins' absence: "Friend-to-friend, teammate-to-teammate, sending him support. Tough situation in terms of him being away for so long but necessary, life is bigger than basketball. Whenever he's ready to come back, I'm sure he will, that's how he's built in terms of being available and I know he's missing the vibe of being with us."

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Leave it to Steph to make you feel empathetic w/o letting it be know what's going on with Wiggs..

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Report from Chase: Curry put the team in his back. Had the crowd in a frenzy with the late 3’s. Klay and Draymond came to win. Draymond coming back in after the ankle tweak was huge. Poole was in his own head. Kuminga was in great spirits on the sideline - a good sign. Was that shot for Dray at the end of regulation intentional?!? Wild.

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Looked to me like it was supposed to go back to Steph - he was open after Holliday went for his fake and then saw Draymond was going to shoot. But probably not enough time to pass to Steph and get the shot off.

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Precisely why I think Dray was the first option. Kerr knows it is very difficult to get off 2 passes, free Steph, and a shot in 1.9 secs...

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I agree. Steph was open, but Holiday was in between them and was going to make a clean pass to Steph more difficult, putting doubt into whether they could get to him cleanly with enough time to shoot.

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Methinks Dray's shot was drawn play with Steph as the decoy....

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If DDV and JMike are gonna go 10-18 from three, in addition to Splash Bro biz as usual, who knows what's possible? DDV is so valuable.

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Shout out to Donte who had a double double: 20 points and 10 rebounds!

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...vs his old team...lots of motivation...lol

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