Sep 8, 2022·edited Sep 8, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot
I've been following the Dubs and commenting in communities like this since usenet days. Yeah, it's like that. I was active on Warriors World, Golden State of Mind, LGW, Fast Break (more occasionally), and now here on DNHQ.
I have to add my voice to the chorus of those who are lauding and appreciating this blog and community. It's really outstanding. In addition to some fun and excellent content, the moderating of the comment section (and the goodwill of the vast majority of commenters) has made it a very enjoyable place to talk Warriors. Kudos to the writers, moderators, and all of you commenters. This is a blog and community commensurate with the entertainment value and excellence of the dynasty Warriors.
That said, I'm ready for this short off-season to end and for the games to begin. A new season is almost upon us!
Assuming Apricot is the same Apricot from AN, I've been reading and interacting with you since....2004 or so. When they still had UIDs in our profiles on SBNation, I signed up as uid #21 on GSOM for the possible bragging rights way down the line. Little did I know that the best sports blog on the internet would eventually be dedicated to a different sport than my first love of baseball and to a team that had never really been good enough for me to divert my A's or 49ers attention.
WOW you set the record for old school! Yeah, we all blazed that trail for Blez and Vox with our collective contributions to AthleticsNation.com, the first and greatest site.
You might recall my stuff for AN was way more bonkers than my GSOM / DNHQ stuff… I have to think of a way to get back to that. But in the offseason, I have to carry DNHQ day to day, and in the on-season, E1P uses all of my energy and more…
Sep 8, 2022·edited Sep 8, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot
Sometime early in the 2014-2015 season, I googled something like “warriors pick and roll defense” and found Eric’s E1P on GSOM. From there I lurked on GSOM and then LGW, but have actually started commenting in the last couple of seasons after the transition to DNHQ.
In Warriors/NBA withdrawal I started watching US Open Sinner v Alcaraz match going on right now (I'm 4 hours committed now). I'd say I like tennis, but usually just try to watch a few sets of the finals. But I think I picked the right random match to watch -- this has been quite intense and entertaining. If anyone is still awake, check out the final set. Not sure why they schedule these things to potentially end at 3am local, but who am I to judge.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, why is the offseason so long!!?!
PS - jumped on the GSOM bandwagon in 2015, followed the talent to LGW and then over here. I never had the innate commenting talent or athleticism to be a star but I’m comfortable as a role commenter, chasing rings for the minimum.
And it's almost time for ice cream of kitten happiness & I still haven't had the time today to watch any of these videos - but I am caught up on comments now.
Like Steph, it's really a year-round regimen that has to be adhered to so there is no fall-off when it really counts.
I live in the cornfields [almost literally] - not a lot to choose from in the way of exotics out here - but I have recently been adding an individual chocolate bundt cake on top of the ice cream. Chocolate cookies are my go-to accessory though.
In the hot weather, and in the interests of diversity, you might see if you can find Tillamook's fruit-flavored ice creams. They are a winner and will go well with your chocolate cookies. I am about to start on a box of their dark cherry ice cream. It's not quite as good as a game-winning Steph 3 from almost midcourt but it's close.
Your addendum question made me reflect for a minute on how deep the roots of this community really go back. If you include DNHQ, LGW, and GSOM as part of our sports blog ancestry, this community extends back to 2006, before the age of Curry and even before We Believe. I didn't start lurking until 2010 and didn't comment until 2014, but I can still remember the days when Atma Brother ONE was the big dog and guys like Spider Jerusalem, IQofaWarrior, J-RIDAH and R Dizzle roamed the comment section. A good handful of folks still here today can probably remember it even better than I can as they were active commenters even back in the day, like Sleepy and beli among others.
Some of those old guys have departed to other mediums like Feltbot, Tony.psd, or everyone's favorite grump EvanZ, but regardless of whether they are still out in the ether or not, the community has persisted through their departure by a constant infusion of fresh new talent, much like an NBA team reloads through the draft and free agency every year. It might be getting a little too meta but much like Apricot's series about the Warriors and evaluating their success in the draft, I think that this community has drafted extremely well over time, especially during these modern days of DNHQ where there is no distant corporate overlord dictating community standards. The FO of this place has also done very well in understanding which players to eh, be traded away, so to speak. The constant infusion of new commenting talent combined with the creative and constant content (as well as judicious moderation) by the staff has resulted in the flourishing capital of Dubs fandom that we enjoy today.
I guess I just wanted to call out something that is pretty unique/special about this place. The wastes of the internet are littered with the ruins of extinct communities, some that persisted and boomed for many years, only to meet their extinction when external forces like web-hosting conflicts or corporate buyouts engulfed them. Some message boards don't die off entirely but carry on like a sad husk of what they once were, the core of what made them a special community scattered to the winds due to any number of reasons that cause groups to fracture and drift apart. Digital communities are just like cities or perhaps even states in that way. I like that this place is an Istanbul, it's history still being written regardless of previous names, rather than having become a Babylon, once glorious but lost to the sands of time.
You forgot to mention the time Ethan Strauss made a cameo appearance in response to some random Duby Dub Dubs critique if im recalling correctly.
Also any chance Andy Ruiz gives Wilder a good fight?
Oh and I and GSOM commenter WarriorsWarrior come from the ESPN comments boards before it got Spammed to hell then switched to Facebook then shut down entirely. Those were some glorious days a decade or so ago
Heh I actually do remember when that happened. He wasn't what I would call a regular poster though, although he could have just been a lurker.
I think Ruiz actually gives Wilder a pretty tough match-up, he's pretty sturdy and moves faster than his frame suggests. Decent power in those hands and he can hit hard at weird angles which might pose some problems for Deontay. I see that one as 60-40 Wilder.
Sep 8, 2022·edited Sep 8, 2022Liked by Eric Apricot
In short, yes.
I was a big fan of GSoM but rarely commented. I was worried during the transition, but wow the frequency and quality of content (an entire continent of same) has taken a big leap upward here. And it’s only here at the HQ do I feel like my own brand of 70% joke/random/mutterings and 30% analysis/commentary/study is tolerated. Thank you.
Yeah I came from lurking on GSOM starting in 2015 or 2016 to occasionally commenting. When the move to LGW happened, I tried to make the switch, but I think I was too used to the crappy old site and pretty pictures and seeing unread comments and I couldn't quite adjust so I mostly stayed at GSOM, but just used it less. But I noticed in the exodus as GSOM lost all you fine folks, the remaining commentors were too negative and know-better-y. I realized toward the end of this finals that reading it just made me feel agitated, and that's no good. So I gave it a try again here and I think the 70% randomness/silliness is definitely more to my liking. I mean we are mostly dopes (Apricot and some others excluded), it's better to just have a good time than act like you are vying for Myers/Kerr's jobs. I do appreciate E1P slowly making me less dopey, but at my core I am just a simple man more entertained by watching Wiggins sledgehammer Luka on repeat 20 times most days.
Ah those names… I’m not sure what happened to most of those familiar names… EvanZ obviously is a guest of ours here every draft. Atma and I had season tickets with some others right up until the move to Chase.
IQ was a strange case because they compiled these impressive lists of links after every game, but once GSW actually won the title, they kind of freaked out and said they couldn’t handle it and disappeared. I’m pretty sure that was right in 2015 and before KD ruined the league
Didn’t see this shared: Warriors put together a reel of Steph’s no-look 3’s (although he does sneak a peek on a number of them). Wildly entertaining https://youtu.be/-xbrv7pWTRc
Second one is the best one, especially because he's staring down "the heir apparent" (as if) Trae Young. Sadly they didn't include the best view of that one in this video (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH2ePndVEKo&t=177s).
Thanks for making this more visible. I hope to have time to actually watch some of it now.
I was a GSOM lurker for several years and decloaked & became vocal during the stop at LGW, and, of course, being thoroughly addicted by then, I followed to DNHQ.
I was an 8-yo watching the Dubs win the title in '75, sticking each day's Sporting Green (it was really green!) into my desk. Did the same with the A's for prior to that.
My path here (as a 99.9% lurker) was finding GSOM somehow. My first GSOM Night happened to be Kerr's first season. Went to a few. Then the Great SBNation Fallout happened – my other site was California Golden Blogs, so it's now I'm at Write For California – which put me at LGW.
I knew that shi...stuff had gone down, but thru late in the almost-playoff season, I forgot that you'd all moved to DNHQ and still checked out LGW. couldn't figure out why it was all PMC articles and none of the good stuff. Then remembered/stumbled back to LGW...and life has been good!
I pimp it all I can. Usually starting with a link to EA's epic Bang Bang plus maybe a My Worst Take. And the other day, I added Alas Phood Fight's "Odd Man Out", just to show that the Warrior-ican Dream is alive and well. Yes, even you can become an above-the-fold writer here!
I was pretty active on GSOM, but didn't make the migration to LGW and fell off the Warriors posting bandwagon for a little while. Just made my way back via DNHQ at the beginning of this past season. Never should have left!
I was much the same, lurked for years at GSOM, just occasionally poking my head up for a comment. I had never spent much time on fan blogs before, so I was feeling my way. When I came over to LGW and then DNHQ I became more vocal. Now I feel at home here, among friends.
I grew up in Maryland (except for 2 years), and I started watching NBA games when the Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets in 1963. Before that there were no teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line (okay, the St Louis Hawks but that's technically west of the line). For a year or so before the Bullets we had nothing at all, but back around '61, I sometimes listened at night to AM radio broadcasts of a team in Philadelphia called the Warriors. They were pretty good, with guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Al Attles, Tom Meschery, Paul Arizin, and Guy Rodgers. But they were in the same division (there were only two) as the Celtics, so you know how that went. So I go back pretty far with the Warriors.
It really is fascinating how much the Warriors defense is oriented around consistently contesting the shots of opposing offense rather than actively trying to disrupt them through physical play/deflections/steals/blocks.
Watching the Warriors defense, they are consistently hedging one pass away because they'd rather trust in their long wingspans/smart rotations and bet on the opposing team fumbling giving them time to recover rather than allowing a simple breakdown where the opposing player gets a uncontested shot after breaking past their defender off the dribble.
Positioning is the most important aspect of defense in any sport imo, if you are in the right place then you don't require incredible recovery speed or jumping ability to get to the right place.
Being "on a string" around Draymond is crucial to the Warrior defensive system which is why someone like Kuminga didn't play as much as the fans wanted him to play.
Bball neophyte here….How do they teach this to a squad? There are no set positions or assignments. They do communicate with each other in games, but how do they approximate analogous situations in practice? Do they practice for left dominant and right dominant teams? Do they walk through situations slowly?
Actually let me amend that to add communication when you are talking about team sports, since you have to account for the positioning of your teammates in those sports as well.
Yah, and you don't see this as a casual fan until you study the defense and how it moves. It's also not just Dray. It's kinda a 2way string, one attached to the ball, one attached to Dray, with a weak one connected to the chief playmaker on the offense who's not guarded 1:1 by someone like GP2 or Wiggs.
Yah, in spite of GP2's stellar individual contributions, you really do see how much the D really is a system in these replays. There's so much hedging/zoning/soft-help that happens. Even in straight up man coverage, whenever the ball changes hands, the off-ball defense will shift to accommodate whatever's happening on-ball. It's so different than the traditional man coverage, where if your guy is hanging out in the corner, you are too, and if the play is on the other side of the court, both of you basically become spectators.
The biggest difference we have is that, rather than PBJ, I think Looney is the logical heir apparent to Draymond’s captain of the defense/facilitator of the offense role. He’s the most senior, most respected and has the most rings of all the young guys. He’s also the most well-versed in the Warriors systems and as a front line player with the plays in front of him, can call out screens and switches and provide the help that Green provides.
Wiseman taking over the center position at some point could derail that, but with Looney’s ability to cover perimeter players and Wiseman’s athleticism, I’m starting to think they’ll be a lot of times where the Warriors could play them together, especially against some of the really big front lines we’re going to see going forward (KAT/Rudy, Chet/Poku, Ayton/Saric, Mobley/Allen)
That's a great prediction. I was really expecting this to be Loon's last contract, but I think you may be right. If Wiseman takes over the starting C spot, then Loon might just slide back to the 4 and be the next Draymond for a few years until someone like PBJ bulks up enough and has the smarts to take over. I mean, it's taken Looney almost 6 seasons to get to this point, so it will likely take the young guys a similar amount of time to ramp it up. I do think it would be amazing if Looney would be able to take over Dray's floor captain/help defender role on D, and Wiseman could step into Looney's existing big-man-defender who can switch onto perimeter guards adequately. Of course, this plan does beg the question of what to do with Dray's contract this year. Man, I don't envy Bob.
Jury's still out on J-Dubs' shot I think. He shot .316 from 3 and .628 from the FT line as a rook. Those numbers both need to come up for him to be a passable stretch 5, but there have been murmurs of him being a stretch 5, so I think the Dubs may have more confidence in his shot than those numbers would seem to deserve.
I wonder about that too. I think it would be any two of those three on the court. I also will be curious to see how much speed and agility PBJ has once his ankle has fully healed and he has worked with the Dubs trainers and coaches for awhile. Will he be a long wing or will he not be quick enough for that and be better as a 4? Ah... and Being has already discussed that below.
PBJ's body (specifically his shoulders) reminds me of Looney so I have some hope that Looney can teach him how to play effectively despite a lack of conventional athleticism.
Think, in a couple year, PBJ could be Looney but with a handle/jumpshot.
I think there's so much unknown about his game right now. The biggest question is can he regain his HS athleticism? If so, is that enough so that he can defend the perimeter against the faster wings and guards? There's precious little high school film on PBJ as a defender. On offense, I remember seeing quite a bit of post-ups from him resulting in pretty midrange jumpers where he rises over his defender and drops the ball softly in the basket. Reminded me a lot of KD. If that's an efficient shot for him in the NBA, it would be huge. But yah, I didn't see a lot of banging under the basket that resulted in dunks/layups.
Maybe I'll have to go back over his HS footage and compile another set of commentaries with videos about PBJ.
My kitten was really getting into the 3rd E1P. I may have a Dubs buddy to watch games now.
I've been following the Dubs and commenting in communities like this since usenet days. Yeah, it's like that. I was active on Warriors World, Golden State of Mind, LGW, Fast Break (more occasionally), and now here on DNHQ.
I have to add my voice to the chorus of those who are lauding and appreciating this blog and community. It's really outstanding. In addition to some fun and excellent content, the moderating of the comment section (and the goodwill of the vast majority of commenters) has made it a very enjoyable place to talk Warriors. Kudos to the writers, moderators, and all of you commenters. This is a blog and community commensurate with the entertainment value and excellence of the dynasty Warriors.
That said, I'm ready for this short off-season to end and for the games to begin. A new season is almost upon us!
Assuming Apricot is the same Apricot from AN, I've been reading and interacting with you since....2004 or so. When they still had UIDs in our profiles on SBNation, I signed up as uid #21 on GSOM for the possible bragging rights way down the line. Little did I know that the best sports blog on the internet would eventually be dedicated to a different sport than my first love of baseball and to a team that had never really been good enough for me to divert my A's or 49ers attention.
WOW you set the record for old school! Yeah, we all blazed that trail for Blez and Vox with our collective contributions to AthleticsNation.com, the first and greatest site.
You might recall my stuff for AN was way more bonkers than my GSOM / DNHQ stuff… I have to think of a way to get back to that. But in the offseason, I have to carry DNHQ day to day, and in the on-season, E1P uses all of my energy and more…
Sometime early in the 2014-2015 season, I googled something like “warriors pick and roll defense” and found Eric’s E1P on GSOM. From there I lurked on GSOM and then LGW, but have actually started commenting in the last couple of seasons after the transition to DNHQ.
Are we there yet?
IF YOU DON"T QUIET DOWN, I SWEAR I WILL TURN THIS OFFSEASON RIGHT AROUND!!!
But..daddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
On the one hand this would be terrible but on the other, does it mean we would get the re-live winning the championship again?
In Warriors/NBA withdrawal I started watching US Open Sinner v Alcaraz match going on right now (I'm 4 hours committed now). I'd say I like tennis, but usually just try to watch a few sets of the finals. But I think I picked the right random match to watch -- this has been quite intense and entertaining. If anyone is still awake, check out the final set. Not sure why they schedule these things to potentially end at 3am local, but who am I to judge.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, why is the offseason so long!!?!
PS - jumped on the GSOM bandwagon in 2015, followed the talent to LGW and then over here. I never had the innate commenting talent or athleticism to be a star but I’m comfortable as a role commenter, chasing rings for the minimum.
Championship blogs need commenters who understand their role and will embrace it. Keep doing the little things that contribute to winning!
And it's almost time for ice cream of kitten happiness & I still haven't had the time today to watch any of these videos - but I am caught up on comments now.
I finished off a box of vanilla ice cream today and thought of you and of Dubs victory ice cream yet to come.
I finished off the vanilla a few nights ago. Working on the Neapolitan now. Gotta keep in shape for all of the Dub's victories to come!!
Your off-season discipline is admirable. All of this hard work is going to pay off during the upcoming season!
Have you added anything new to your game -- gelato, shave ice, pies, or cookies?
Like Steph, it's really a year-round regimen that has to be adhered to so there is no fall-off when it really counts.
I live in the cornfields [almost literally] - not a lot to choose from in the way of exotics out here - but I have recently been adding an individual chocolate bundt cake on top of the ice cream. Chocolate cookies are my go-to accessory though.
In the hot weather, and in the interests of diversity, you might see if you can find Tillamook's fruit-flavored ice creams. They are a winner and will go well with your chocolate cookies. I am about to start on a box of their dark cherry ice cream. It's not quite as good as a game-winning Steph 3 from almost midcourt but it's close.
I will have to check, but suspect it's a regional thing. Sounds delicious.
Epic analysis, will take me a few days to consume it all. Thank you B!
Hmmm, posts in the comments turning into DNHQ articles... Is this our version of The New Media?
No, because it’s not all about the personality of the analyst.
Are you saying I need to inject more personality into my comments?
Nope.
Your addendum question made me reflect for a minute on how deep the roots of this community really go back. If you include DNHQ, LGW, and GSOM as part of our sports blog ancestry, this community extends back to 2006, before the age of Curry and even before We Believe. I didn't start lurking until 2010 and didn't comment until 2014, but I can still remember the days when Atma Brother ONE was the big dog and guys like Spider Jerusalem, IQofaWarrior, J-RIDAH and R Dizzle roamed the comment section. A good handful of folks still here today can probably remember it even better than I can as they were active commenters even back in the day, like Sleepy and beli among others.
Some of those old guys have departed to other mediums like Feltbot, Tony.psd, or everyone's favorite grump EvanZ, but regardless of whether they are still out in the ether or not, the community has persisted through their departure by a constant infusion of fresh new talent, much like an NBA team reloads through the draft and free agency every year. It might be getting a little too meta but much like Apricot's series about the Warriors and evaluating their success in the draft, I think that this community has drafted extremely well over time, especially during these modern days of DNHQ where there is no distant corporate overlord dictating community standards. The FO of this place has also done very well in understanding which players to eh, be traded away, so to speak. The constant infusion of new commenting talent combined with the creative and constant content (as well as judicious moderation) by the staff has resulted in the flourishing capital of Dubs fandom that we enjoy today.
I guess I just wanted to call out something that is pretty unique/special about this place. The wastes of the internet are littered with the ruins of extinct communities, some that persisted and boomed for many years, only to meet their extinction when external forces like web-hosting conflicts or corporate buyouts engulfed them. Some message boards don't die off entirely but carry on like a sad husk of what they once were, the core of what made them a special community scattered to the winds due to any number of reasons that cause groups to fracture and drift apart. Digital communities are just like cities or perhaps even states in that way. I like that this place is an Istanbul, it's history still being written regardless of previous names, rather than having become a Babylon, once glorious but lost to the sands of time.
You forgot to mention the time Ethan Strauss made a cameo appearance in response to some random Duby Dub Dubs critique if im recalling correctly.
Also any chance Andy Ruiz gives Wilder a good fight?
Oh and I and GSOM commenter WarriorsWarrior come from the ESPN comments boards before it got Spammed to hell then switched to Facebook then shut down entirely. Those were some glorious days a decade or so ago
Heh I actually do remember when that happened. He wasn't what I would call a regular poster though, although he could have just been a lurker.
I think Ruiz actually gives Wilder a pretty tough match-up, he's pretty sturdy and moves faster than his frame suggests. Decent power in those hands and he can hit hard at weird angles which might pose some problems for Deontay. I see that one as 60-40 Wilder.
In short, yes.
I was a big fan of GSoM but rarely commented. I was worried during the transition, but wow the frequency and quality of content (an entire continent of same) has taken a big leap upward here. And it’s only here at the HQ do I feel like my own brand of 70% joke/random/mutterings and 30% analysis/commentary/study is tolerated. Thank you.
Yeah I came from lurking on GSOM starting in 2015 or 2016 to occasionally commenting. When the move to LGW happened, I tried to make the switch, but I think I was too used to the crappy old site and pretty pictures and seeing unread comments and I couldn't quite adjust so I mostly stayed at GSOM, but just used it less. But I noticed in the exodus as GSOM lost all you fine folks, the remaining commentors were too negative and know-better-y. I realized toward the end of this finals that reading it just made me feel agitated, and that's no good. So I gave it a try again here and I think the 70% randomness/silliness is definitely more to my liking. I mean we are mostly dopes (Apricot and some others excluded), it's better to just have a good time than act like you are vying for Myers/Kerr's jobs. I do appreciate E1P slowly making me less dopey, but at my core I am just a simple man more entertained by watching Wiggins sledgehammer Luka on repeat 20 times most days.
Ah those names… I’m not sure what happened to most of those familiar names… EvanZ obviously is a guest of ours here every draft. Atma and I had season tickets with some others right up until the move to Chase.
IQ was a strange case because they compiled these impressive lists of links after every game, but once GSW actually won the title, they kind of freaked out and said they couldn’t handle it and disappeared. I’m pretty sure that was right in 2015 and before KD ruined the league
Yeah IQ will forever remain one of life’s great mysteries up there with the true identity/ies of Satoshi Nakamoto
Didn’t see this shared: Warriors put together a reel of Steph’s no-look 3’s (although he does sneak a peek on a number of them). Wildly entertaining https://youtu.be/-xbrv7pWTRc
Second one is the best one, especially because he's staring down "the heir apparent" (as if) Trae Young. Sadly they didn't include the best view of that one in this video (link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nH2ePndVEKo&t=177s).
Thanks for making this more visible. I hope to have time to actually watch some of it now.
I was a GSOM lurker for several years and decloaked & became vocal during the stop at LGW, and, of course, being thoroughly addicted by then, I followed to DNHQ.
I was an 8-yo watching the Dubs win the title in '75, sticking each day's Sporting Green (it was really green!) into my desk. Did the same with the A's for prior to that.
My path here (as a 99.9% lurker) was finding GSOM somehow. My first GSOM Night happened to be Kerr's first season. Went to a few. Then the Great SBNation Fallout happened – my other site was California Golden Blogs, so it's now I'm at Write For California – which put me at LGW.
I knew that shi...stuff had gone down, but thru late in the almost-playoff season, I forgot that you'd all moved to DNHQ and still checked out LGW. couldn't figure out why it was all PMC articles and none of the good stuff. Then remembered/stumbled back to LGW...and life has been good!
I pimp it all I can. Usually starting with a link to EA's epic Bang Bang plus maybe a My Worst Take. And the other day, I added Alas Phood Fight's "Odd Man Out", just to show that the Warrior-ican Dream is alive and well. Yes, even you can become an above-the-fold writer here!
I was pretty active on GSOM, but didn't make the migration to LGW and fell off the Warriors posting bandwagon for a little while. Just made my way back via DNHQ at the beginning of this past season. Never should have left!
Came in thanks to affirmative action.
I was much the same, lurked for years at GSOM, just occasionally poking my head up for a comment. I had never spent much time on fan blogs before, so I was feeling my way. When I came over to LGW and then DNHQ I became more vocal. Now I feel at home here, among friends.
That's so neat, because I think of both of you as such vocal contributors!
I grew up in Maryland (except for 2 years), and I started watching NBA games when the Chicago Zephyrs moved to Baltimore and became the Bullets in 1963. Before that there were no teams south of the Mason-Dixon Line (okay, the St Louis Hawks but that's technically west of the line). For a year or so before the Bullets we had nothing at all, but back around '61, I sometimes listened at night to AM radio broadcasts of a team in Philadelphia called the Warriors. They were pretty good, with guys like Wilt Chamberlain, Al Attles, Tom Meschery, Paul Arizin, and Guy Rodgers. But they were in the same division (there were only two) as the Celtics, so you know how that went. So I go back pretty far with the Warriors.
I'm in this line, as well. Was much more active on McC back then than GSOM, but would post rarely.
Came over from GSOM, and couldn't be happier about it.
The rest of us could.
Goofi will goof.
But he's OUR Goofus, and we love him.
It really is fascinating how much the Warriors defense is oriented around consistently contesting the shots of opposing offense rather than actively trying to disrupt them through physical play/deflections/steals/blocks.
Watching the Warriors defense, they are consistently hedging one pass away because they'd rather trust in their long wingspans/smart rotations and bet on the opposing team fumbling giving them time to recover rather than allowing a simple breakdown where the opposing player gets a uncontested shot after breaking past their defender off the dribble.
Watching these analyses reminds me how irreplaceable Wiggins, Dray, and Looney are for defense, given the current players.
Positioning is the most important aspect of defense in any sport imo, if you are in the right place then you don't require incredible recovery speed or jumping ability to get to the right place.
Being "on a string" around Draymond is crucial to the Warrior defensive system which is why someone like Kuminga didn't play as much as the fans wanted him to play.
Bball neophyte here….How do they teach this to a squad? There are no set positions or assignments. They do communicate with each other in games, but how do they approximate analogous situations in practice? Do they practice for left dominant and right dominant teams? Do they walk through situations slowly?
💜
Actually let me amend that to add communication when you are talking about team sports, since you have to account for the positioning of your teammates in those sports as well.
Draymond has remarked that he learned a lot about communication on D from Andrew Bogut, who was a master at it.
Yah, several of the vids emphasized the communication, as well as trust in your teammates.
Yah, and you don't see this as a casual fan until you study the defense and how it moves. It's also not just Dray. It's kinda a 2way string, one attached to the ball, one attached to Dray, with a weak one connected to the chief playmaker on the offense who's not guarded 1:1 by someone like GP2 or Wiggs.
Yah, in spite of GP2's stellar individual contributions, you really do see how much the D really is a system in these replays. There's so much hedging/zoning/soft-help that happens. Even in straight up man coverage, whenever the ball changes hands, the off-ball defense will shift to accommodate whatever's happening on-ball. It's so different than the traditional man coverage, where if your guy is hanging out in the corner, you are too, and if the play is on the other side of the court, both of you basically become spectators.
Great post again!
The biggest difference we have is that, rather than PBJ, I think Looney is the logical heir apparent to Draymond’s captain of the defense/facilitator of the offense role. He’s the most senior, most respected and has the most rings of all the young guys. He’s also the most well-versed in the Warriors systems and as a front line player with the plays in front of him, can call out screens and switches and provide the help that Green provides.
Wiseman taking over the center position at some point could derail that, but with Looney’s ability to cover perimeter players and Wiseman’s athleticism, I’m starting to think they’ll be a lot of times where the Warriors could play them together, especially against some of the really big front lines we’re going to see going forward (KAT/Rudy, Chet/Poku, Ayton/Saric, Mobley/Allen)
That's a great prediction. I was really expecting this to be Loon's last contract, but I think you may be right. If Wiseman takes over the starting C spot, then Loon might just slide back to the 4 and be the next Draymond for a few years until someone like PBJ bulks up enough and has the smarts to take over. I mean, it's taken Looney almost 6 seasons to get to this point, so it will likely take the young guys a similar amount of time to ramp it up. I do think it would be amazing if Looney would be able to take over Dray's floor captain/help defender role on D, and Wiseman could step into Looney's existing big-man-defender who can switch onto perimeter guards adequately. Of course, this plan does beg the question of what to do with Dray's contract this year. Man, I don't envy Bob.
Loon + Dray= 2 non-shooters, add Wise, a defender then a shooter. How would this work?
Jury's still out on J-Dubs' shot I think. He shot .316 from 3 and .628 from the FT line as a rook. Those numbers both need to come up for him to be a passable stretch 5, but there have been murmurs of him being a stretch 5, so I think the Dubs may have more confidence in his shot than those numbers would seem to deserve.
JW's shooting form actually looked pretty good to me but of course ultimately the results are what matter.
I wonder about that too. I think it would be any two of those three on the court. I also will be curious to see how much speed and agility PBJ has once his ankle has fully healed and he has worked with the Dubs trainers and coaches for awhile. Will he be a long wing or will he not be quick enough for that and be better as a 4? Ah... and Being has already discussed that below.
I agree with this. I don't see all 3 out on the court at the same time. That would make Dray a 3? LOL.
Regarding the last point, I didn’t find DNHQ; it found me and offered me big bucks to jump ship, making it the LIV Tour of Warriors blogs.
PBJ's body (specifically his shoulders) reminds me of Looney so I have some hope that Looney can teach him how to play effectively despite a lack of conventional athleticism.
Think, in a couple year, PBJ could be Looney but with a handle/jumpshot.
From what little I’ve seen of his game, PBJ seems more of a finesse-wing than a front court tough guy, but we’ll see. 🤷🏼♂️
I think there's so much unknown about his game right now. The biggest question is can he regain his HS athleticism? If so, is that enough so that he can defend the perimeter against the faster wings and guards? There's precious little high school film on PBJ as a defender. On offense, I remember seeing quite a bit of post-ups from him resulting in pretty midrange jumpers where he rises over his defender and drops the ball softly in the basket. Reminded me a lot of KD. If that's an efficient shot for him in the NBA, it would be huge. But yah, I didn't see a lot of banging under the basket that resulted in dunks/layups.
Maybe I'll have to go back over his HS footage and compile another set of commentaries with videos about PBJ.