72 Comments

Scrub dubs for the dub!

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How about GP2 hitting 3 3's yesterday and they all looked confident/good coming off his hand!

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I have some doubt about how serious we were a out AB but man we dodged such a massive bullet if any of the rumors are true.

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Werd. Even if GP shoots 25% from three for the rest of the season, he’s still 10x the player Avery Bradley is.

(Also imo a much better player than Davion Mitchell, for whomever I was arguing about that with around the time of the draft…)

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Mitchell currently shooting 28% from 3 and posting a .445eFG%… oof

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(And GP2 is much better than just a dodged bullet)

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So now GP2 is my favorite Dubs. (Not named Steph, Klay or Dray).

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To me, it had the appearance almost of a preseason game to give some guys some run and get bench guys some valuable experience. Even the stumbling down the stretch had real value for both players and coaching staff. I'm glad they clung to the win in regulation, but even an overtime game could have been a very valuable learning experience. I think this game will yield real positive results down the line. And, they escaped with a win! Perfect.

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OT What happened to Mully on the Post Game Live shows? There is a lady, who is doing a nice job, now.

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Jennifer Azzi, former standout Stanford Cardinal player.

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I've been very impressed by her from what I've seen so far. She actually has something to say and says it well.

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I dislike Stanford by upbringing, but she is a notable exception. Not only a winner but super classy and a.good human being.

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Agreed. She makes a comment here and there that are not about sports that show her to be compassionate and thoughtful. Big fan.

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Two quality Stanford hires by CSNBA? Hope she has as bright a future as Ros.

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The team with the easiest schedule in the NBA so far - no NOT the Warriors, the Suns - just played the Mavs without Luka twice in three days. They are 12-3 but their Pythagorean W/L is only 10-5. We also have a two games in three days set against them coming up that will be an interesting measuring stick.

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Pythagorean W/L? Had not heard of it. Didn't even know Pythagoras followed the NBA. No, but seriously, I can sort of guess what that means but what does it mean?

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Pythagorean W/L is a formula that shows how many games a team "should" have won or lost based on the points they have allowed and scored. It's an exercise to see which teams are over/under-performing

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Tx

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A few other interesting tidbits:

- Portland is 7-1 at home snd 1-7 on the road. Atlanta is 6-1 at home and 1-8 on the road.

- Toronto is 2-6 at home and 6-3 on the road. Maybe Florida wasn’t the problem after all.

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Given Toronto’s excellent road record snd their usually stellar ability to shut down our motion offense, I am expecting a real dogfight in this game. OTOH not having to face Kyle Lowry on that team is going to be a relief.

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Yeah, I’m interested to see how the matchup looks. I thought the reason they always played us tough was mainly because Lowry seemed to really play well against Curry.

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I would not say mainly, I'd say that several guys split time guarding Curry (because let's be honest nobody can guard him effectively one-on-one particularly in the Warriors offense). Lowry's a great defender for sure, but when he got screened/switched off of Steph, my recollection is whoever was picking him up was also doing a good job. Those guys, the Pacers, and the Clippers almost always seem to do a great job of mucking up the works and keeping us from running our offense smoothly.

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Not just whether he was actually manned up on Curry. It be always seemed to play well on O as well.

I’m sure the Raps will guard well tomorrow, but the Dubs should completely annihilate their offense.

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Somewhere, probably leading up to the Raptors/Dubs finals, I remember Lowry saying that he was offered a contract with the Dubs [not sure when - before they got really good] but it would have been as a backup to Steph and he didn't want to do be that, wanted his own team. After that, in my mind, it seemed like he was trying to prove he was a starting PG whenever he played the Dubs.

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And isn't VanVleet out now too?

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I just checked the Raptors game with the Kings and VanVleet played in it. Siakam had 32 and Trent, Jr. had 23.

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Had not heard that, but if so, definitely a boost to our chances.

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I thought I did a game or 2 back but haven't paid attention since then.

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The Pistons are using their 2nd year point guard to drive the tank again this year. They actually look like they could be competitive without that guy, and he doesn’t seem to have any special skills to develop around, other that driving the tank.

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"Killian Hayes looks terrible at this point" was one of my takeaways from this game, too. That, and "random guy goes off on the Warriors" (yet again). That happens so often, I wonder if there's something in the Warriors analytics that causes Kerr to decide to leave certain guys wide open for the first part of the game until/unless they catch fire. Disappointing performance by Looney on offense, he was all fumbly. I don't know what the team sees in Chiozza, but I only watch the games, not the practices.

Pretty bad for Detroit to get beaten by what was essentially W's second and third units plus Wiggs and fumbly Looney. W's did a nice job controlling Jerami Grant (who's had good games against us in the past) and Saddiq Bey.

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Detroit is a very young team. They look more promising then they have in a while but they are still learning to play and play together.

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Name? Interesting comment, but...

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A really hopeful sign. Poole’s strong scoring nights seem to come in games where Steph is not en fuego or, in this case, getting a rest day. Nice to see

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Further complicating things for Poole will be Steph's new rotations starting the 2nd and 4th. 6th man Poole would theoretically have had 6 minute runs without Steph with the old pattern. Now, he will have to get hot in shorter spurts of 3-4 minutes when Steph goes out in the 1st and 3rd.

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Which makes one wonder if he doesn't do better as the lead guy rather than trying to coordinate with Curry...

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Sounds like a 6th man to me

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I think the better word is “defer”

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Agreed, but he will also need to fill in minutes because Klay will probably be on a minutes restriction until next year, even if all goes well.

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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Eric Apricot

Watching bits of the game again, I thought the calls were pretty accurate down the stretch in the 4th quarter. The Pistons really did earn all those free throws down the stretch. I found one moment that could've decided the game really interesting, though. When I watched it live, that last play with Jordan dribbling right into Cunningham really made me groan. But on the replay I did notice that Cade snagged Jordan's arm and pulled him down to the ground, and it seemed like maybe a clever vet move.

Watching again, it really just seems like a terrible uncalled foul. Looking at where their feet are before the grab, Jordan was actually going around Cade, not through him, and Cade's feet are clearly to the side of Jordan. Cade then jumps sideways into Jordan (which should already be a blocking foul, not a charge), reaches out with both hands while his feet are STILL IN THE AIR, grabs Jordan's arm, pulls them together so Jordan is suddenly moving straight into him, and then keeps pulling Jordan away from the ball and down to the ground.

Making it more obvious, a couple seconds before the grab, Cade looks like he's already made up his mind what he's going to do. He swipes out with his hand as soon as Jordan gets close and swipes Jordan's arm, and is quickly shaken off.

Anyway, I'm curious: Is this actually a play that happens all the time? Is it something aggressive defenders do all over the league? Are a lot of charges actually sneaky grabs?

It also made Jordan's play down the stretch seem a lot less boneheaded to me. He got grabbed and pulled down by a stronger defender. Plus, if you look at where the defense is, he's probably trying to drive there because the Piston bigs are pulled out to the perimeter and only Cory Joseph is under the basket, with Looney right behind him in the dunker's spot ready for a pass. If anything the annoying thing about Jordan on that possession isn't the foul, it's that he doesn't complain or suggest they challenge the call (had they already used their challenge?)

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I remember it looking weird in real time. Thanks for the breakdown.

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Even if it was a foul on Cade, my biggest problem with the entire play is the decision making.

Dubs up two possessions with 1:44 left. The shot clock is at 17. Why is Poole calling his own number when going ISO is literally one of his worst abilities (0.81 PPP, 32nd percentile this year; 10th percentile last season)? JTA was coming up to give him a screen, too. Try running something, even a simple PnR...

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Agreed that it doesn't make sense with 17 on the shot clock! But, there is a mismatch under the hoop at that moment between Looney and a 6'3" guard.

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Nov 20, 2021Liked by Eric Apricot

https://ibb.co/9GXM1MR

Physics, I don't get it either lol

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Interesting photo. but...I'm guessing, looking at the clock and score that the shot must have impossibly not dropped through? Or did the ref call it off?

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author

It spun around wildly and that ball did not go through. Truly the ultimate random ending

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That is crazy 😂

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Glad to see the "strength in numbers" crew do their bit. Thought Beli should have taken a few more threes rather than drive into trouble.

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The best part of that game was having the Benny Hill theme drown out the announcing.

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Missed the game. Can someone tell me if we were running more actions to get Poole downhill? From the highlights, it seems like he was attacking the rim a lot like we all wanted tonight.

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A very forgettable game. It was a difficult watch without our stars. Poole may become a star in the future, but he is lacking in control, decision making, and efficiency. He needed all the help he could get to beat the Pistons, a team we would devour with our regular lineup. We were lucky he had his shot tonight. Much less playmaking than usual. Chiozza is seriously challenged and so is Kuminga. Lee couldn't get his shot going but he had lots of energy and rebounded. GP2 was himself and helped tip the balance of this game. Looney couldn't find his shot but rebounded well. Bjelica was himself. Overall, a really ugly match.

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In what world is 32 points on 22 FGA’s and 59%/50%/100% shooting considered “inefficient”?

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This game was an anomaly for him. He is slowly improving. If we had played a decent team we would have probably lost.

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You’re supposed be to lose to pretty much every NBA team when it’s 2nd night of B2B on the road with your best players missing.

Poole was great. Focused and energetic in a very nice win.

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That was actually light years coaching. Whenever it looked like the Warriors might blow the game open they took GP2 and/or Poole off the floor. Clearly they wanted Poole and Wiggins to get some crunch time work in.

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Nah pretty much the same actions from what I saw, poole just had his shot going and was aggressive against a weak defense

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Watched the first half, went out for the evening and didn't see the first half. Looks like ... a meh game, as expected? Anything thrilling happen?

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The last shot of the game- see other comments on “physics”

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Really really curious to see if we run high PnRs with Wiseman / Poole in January. One thing that I most vividly remember last year early on was how much driving lane Wiseman would create with Wiggins when he set the pick with that large frame of his. I don’t know why we went away later on in the year last year but early on Wiseman would set the pick then Wiggins would drive and kick to the corners.

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They will, after ruining steph's mvp season last year forcing wiseman down the teams throat, theres no way they force wiseman post ups and midrange jumpers this year, turn him into a valuable pick and roll big for when the playoffs come and our motion gets clamped

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I hope so. PNR is all about reps. I think it’s a big reason why Chiozza is here. He’s an experienced PNR PG and you can’t find a lot of those for the 2-way level.

Poole may not have a lot of reps, but he’s so good at finishing, and Wiseman is such a big target that I think they can be pretty good until they build up a nice little chemistry.

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