This is a TOR article but deals specifically about them acquiring Gasol during the deadline in 2019 and how that was an exception to the rule. Everything had to fall in place perfectly for it to work out.
> Two things are true: (1) The Toronto Raptors don’t win the 2019 NBA championship without swapping Jonas Valanciunas for Gasol before the 2019 February trade deadline and (2) mid-season trades of that scale rarely work out.
> It required Gasol to come in and pick up Toronto’s complex defensive schemes within a matter of weeks. [...] Every player who joins the Raptors either mid-season or in the offseason talks about how complicated Toronto’s defensive schemes are. Even this year [2022], it took the Raptors almost half the year to gel defensively and become one league’s top defenses over the past two weeks.
I admit I was shouting at my TV last night ‘YES YES KLAYYYYYY … NO NO HOW COULD YOU MISS????’
But this team was constructed to win with awesome three point shooting. Pretty much we were all in for that. At least I was. Last night’s 33.3% - with Curry below that! - wasn’t the plan and still was almost good enough. A big who could crush the boards for 20 minutes would have been an awfully nice backup plan, but it didn’t happen.
All we can hope for is the return of Dray, the emergence of Wiseman, Steph/Klay returning to historical shooting averages, or a white knight leaping out of the buyout market. I vote for all of the above!
Zach Lowe reports that the Bucks approached Marc Gasol to sign with them as a late season addition. Given that they traded for Ibaka, my guess is he told them no.
So chances are he would tell the Warriors no as well, then again maybe playing with Curry is on his bucket list or something lol.
Someone explain to me how the Nuggets were granted a DPE like 10 days ago for MPJ, and now the GM is saying MPJ is expected to return from injuries "in the not too distant future". Was it a misquote?
As Warrior fans know with Klay, the DPE is granted for players who are deemed to be out for the season (and postseason). How could the Nuggets possibly have gotten that diagnosis and then MPJ also returns soon? That almost feels like cheating?
Wiggins essentially has Steph's coveted rotation, playing just about the whole 1st and 3rd quarters. I can understand him playing a backseat role with Steph and Klay on the floor, but not when they are off. Gotta keep him going and aggressive if he is the star ending the quarter.
Hoping the Dubs bounce back these last 3 games. Also looking forward to the other side of ASB where we will have more healthy bodies and less experimenting with lineups. Steph with Poole, Lee, Moody and JTA, while trying to come back in the 4th. Why?
Feb 11, 2022Liked by punk basketball, Daniel Hardee
It’s not just size. Those clips make it abundantly clear we’re not aggressively blocking out or fighting for position. A couple of those were really egregious. I guess I could forgive Wiggs a bit for giving up a ton of size, but Bjelica especially, it’s like, ‘what would you say ya do here?’
While it absolutely sucks to get dominated by journeymen bigs (At All, let alone in back-to-back games), I'm still glad the FO didn't make the knee-jerk reaction to upset the roster in order to get a journeyman big of our own to stave off some regular-season losses. We've seen this roster do fine on the boards earlier in the season w/ Draymond and Otto healthy and playing, and that was w/ no Wise and almost no Kuminga. Waiting for Draymond is fine; resting dudes is fine; losing winnable games in February, while a depressing and horrible viewing experience, is ultimately probably fine, though I'd very much like to hold onto the #2 seed.
Come playoff time, if Everyone is healthy and available, Warriors are contenders; if a key contributor gets hurt at the wrong time, they're probably screwed - no fiddling at the margins is going to change that calculus. I DO believe Wiseman is coming back this season and I honestly think he's going to be useful. Dude has not been sitting w/ his thumb up his butt for the past 9 months - he's been working out, shooting, drilling, practicing, learning, and being a part of this team; there's a zero percent chance that he's the same kid we watched last year. He's going to know exactly what his role is ('do Big Guy things'); he's going to be motivated AF to prove that he's not a bust; and our guys are going to be chucking stupid lobs to him on the nightly. All he has to do is make a few good things happen in his 10 minutes to make a positive impact. That's the dream anyway.
Watching these losses is painful and frustrating, but every new game isn't proof that 'this is who the Warriors are now.' It's just one game - so many little things could have changed last night's loss into a win. Granted, eking one out against the Knicks is not ideal either, buuut it's February and one of our best players is taking a sabbatical. It's normally a brainless, overly-simplistic, throwaway soundbite to say "the guys didn't want it enough," but looking at the ball-watching that was going on under the rim in last night's game, that kind of feels like it applies here. The bright side is that losses like these come w/ shame, and that shame will need to be exorcised via the uncorking of some whup-ass (Warriors whup-ass being stored in a magnum rather than a can, natch) on some unfortunate team in the future.
After which I will gleefully (if hypocritically) embrace the idea that THAT game DOES represent 'who the Warriors are now.' Because it's just more fun that way.
I blame the loss entirely on Moody for airballing an uncontested 3. Seriously thought, nobody on the team played all that well including Curry. They all looked a step slow and out of sync and Bjelica in particular looked like a guy playing with a bad back. Hopefully they take out their frustration on the Lakers.
Draymond's extended absence is starting to catch up.
HOWEVER.
Every team is in the same boat. Unless a player is out for the year, every team will have a roster come playoff time. Injuries before and in the playoffs are always a wild card, it can happen to any player, any time. But you don't make decisions around "what ifs." What is Curry's out, what if Ayton's out? What if Harden's out? The best we can do is assume that all players for all teams are healthy and THEN ASK, what are our chances?
In my mind, the Warriors current roster (assuming health) is capable of going up against anyone and that is the best that any team can do.
And for all of those freaking out because Wiseman won't get enough minutes in the regular season to secure post-season minutes, are we forgetting:
a. He played 39 games last season
b. Everything that could go wrong for him in his rookie season went wrong and then some
c. Even through recovery, the Dubs have been grooming him and there lack of movement at the trade line belies their internal convictions about what he will bring once on the court.
Point being, the kid isn't coming in blind. And he is coming back to a Championship level team, not the wildly dysfunctional one of last year, and he will have a much more defined and simplified role.
His Per36 in his nightmare rookie season was roughly 19 / 10 / 1 with 1.5 Block. I'm taking him over Gasol, Millsap, T Thompson, R Lopez, or anyone else people think could become available on the buyout market.
Regular season losses?? Whatever. I'm waiting until it matters.
Fun fact: when LeBron made his NBA debut (10.29.03 v Sacramento) Kuminga was a year and two weeks old.
Campazzo is an epic flopper
https://streamable.com/lytres
The move that dropped Randle last night: Curry vs. MJ side by side comparison.
Funny how Grimes and Starks almost end up in the exact same position, almost touching their hands to the ground.
Haliburton off to a nice start in IND: 12 pts, 5/5 FG, 2/2 3P, 2 STL in the first quarter.
Rebounding deficit stands out but none of this matters if they shoot more efficiently.
Am I the only one that thinks they should have designed a play for Jordan Poole to get to the rim? A bucket, and And-1 or 2 sure free throws.
This is a TOR article but deals specifically about them acquiring Gasol during the deadline in 2019 and how that was an exception to the rule. Everything had to fall in place perfectly for it to work out.
> Two things are true: (1) The Toronto Raptors don’t win the 2019 NBA championship without swapping Jonas Valanciunas for Gasol before the 2019 February trade deadline and (2) mid-season trades of that scale rarely work out.
> It required Gasol to come in and pick up Toronto’s complex defensive schemes within a matter of weeks. [...] Every player who joins the Raptors either mid-season or in the offseason talks about how complicated Toronto’s defensive schemes are. Even this year [2022], it took the Raptors almost half the year to gel defensively and become one league’s top defenses over the past two weeks.
https://www.si.com/nba/raptors/news/toronto-raptors-trade-deadline-chemistry-fred-vanvleet
I admit I was shouting at my TV last night ‘YES YES KLAYYYYYY … NO NO HOW COULD YOU MISS????’
But this team was constructed to win with awesome three point shooting. Pretty much we were all in for that. At least I was. Last night’s 33.3% - with Curry below that! - wasn’t the plan and still was almost good enough. A big who could crush the boards for 20 minutes would have been an awfully nice backup plan, but it didn’t happen.
All we can hope for is the return of Dray, the emergence of Wiseman, Steph/Klay returning to historical shooting averages, or a white knight leaping out of the buyout market. I vote for all of the above!
https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/265803/Bucks-Approached-Marc-Gasol-About-Joining-Team
Zach Lowe reports that the Bucks approached Marc Gasol to sign with them as a late season addition. Given that they traded for Ibaka, my guess is he told them no.
So chances are he would tell the Warriors no as well, then again maybe playing with Curry is on his bucket list or something lol.
https://twitter.com/theathleticnba/status/1492190945328181261
Someone explain to me how the Nuggets were granted a DPE like 10 days ago for MPJ, and now the GM is saying MPJ is expected to return from injuries "in the not too distant future". Was it a misquote?
As Warrior fans know with Klay, the DPE is granted for players who are deemed to be out for the season (and postseason). How could the Nuggets possibly have gotten that diagnosis and then MPJ also returns soon? That almost feels like cheating?
Just get a goddam big in here it's not that difficult, it's been an issue for 2 years in a row, if looney goes down we are fucked
Wiggins essentially has Steph's coveted rotation, playing just about the whole 1st and 3rd quarters. I can understand him playing a backseat role with Steph and Klay on the floor, but not when they are off. Gotta keep him going and aggressive if he is the star ending the quarter.
Hoping the Dubs bounce back these last 3 games. Also looking forward to the other side of ASB where we will have more healthy bodies and less experimenting with lineups. Steph with Poole, Lee, Moody and JTA, while trying to come back in the 4th. Why?
It’s not just size. Those clips make it abundantly clear we’re not aggressively blocking out or fighting for position. A couple of those were really egregious. I guess I could forgive Wiggs a bit for giving up a ton of size, but Bjelica especially, it’s like, ‘what would you say ya do here?’
While it absolutely sucks to get dominated by journeymen bigs (At All, let alone in back-to-back games), I'm still glad the FO didn't make the knee-jerk reaction to upset the roster in order to get a journeyman big of our own to stave off some regular-season losses. We've seen this roster do fine on the boards earlier in the season w/ Draymond and Otto healthy and playing, and that was w/ no Wise and almost no Kuminga. Waiting for Draymond is fine; resting dudes is fine; losing winnable games in February, while a depressing and horrible viewing experience, is ultimately probably fine, though I'd very much like to hold onto the #2 seed.
Come playoff time, if Everyone is healthy and available, Warriors are contenders; if a key contributor gets hurt at the wrong time, they're probably screwed - no fiddling at the margins is going to change that calculus. I DO believe Wiseman is coming back this season and I honestly think he's going to be useful. Dude has not been sitting w/ his thumb up his butt for the past 9 months - he's been working out, shooting, drilling, practicing, learning, and being a part of this team; there's a zero percent chance that he's the same kid we watched last year. He's going to know exactly what his role is ('do Big Guy things'); he's going to be motivated AF to prove that he's not a bust; and our guys are going to be chucking stupid lobs to him on the nightly. All he has to do is make a few good things happen in his 10 minutes to make a positive impact. That's the dream anyway.
Watching these losses is painful and frustrating, but every new game isn't proof that 'this is who the Warriors are now.' It's just one game - so many little things could have changed last night's loss into a win. Granted, eking one out against the Knicks is not ideal either, buuut it's February and one of our best players is taking a sabbatical. It's normally a brainless, overly-simplistic, throwaway soundbite to say "the guys didn't want it enough," but looking at the ball-watching that was going on under the rim in last night's game, that kind of feels like it applies here. The bright side is that losses like these come w/ shame, and that shame will need to be exorcised via the uncorking of some whup-ass (Warriors whup-ass being stored in a magnum rather than a can, natch) on some unfortunate team in the future.
After which I will gleefully (if hypocritically) embrace the idea that THAT game DOES represent 'who the Warriors are now.' Because it's just more fun that way.
I blame the loss entirely on Moody for airballing an uncontested 3. Seriously thought, nobody on the team played all that well including Curry. They all looked a step slow and out of sync and Bjelica in particular looked like a guy playing with a bad back. Hopefully they take out their frustration on the Lakers.
Draymond's extended absence is starting to catch up.
HOWEVER.
Every team is in the same boat. Unless a player is out for the year, every team will have a roster come playoff time. Injuries before and in the playoffs are always a wild card, it can happen to any player, any time. But you don't make decisions around "what ifs." What is Curry's out, what if Ayton's out? What if Harden's out? The best we can do is assume that all players for all teams are healthy and THEN ASK, what are our chances?
In my mind, the Warriors current roster (assuming health) is capable of going up against anyone and that is the best that any team can do.
And for all of those freaking out because Wiseman won't get enough minutes in the regular season to secure post-season minutes, are we forgetting:
a. He played 39 games last season
b. Everything that could go wrong for him in his rookie season went wrong and then some
c. Even through recovery, the Dubs have been grooming him and there lack of movement at the trade line belies their internal convictions about what he will bring once on the court.
Point being, the kid isn't coming in blind. And he is coming back to a Championship level team, not the wildly dysfunctional one of last year, and he will have a much more defined and simplified role.
His Per36 in his nightmare rookie season was roughly 19 / 10 / 1 with 1.5 Block. I'm taking him over Gasol, Millsap, T Thompson, R Lopez, or anyone else people think could become available on the buyout market.
Regular season losses?? Whatever. I'm waiting until it matters.