@Eric if you haven’t done your Q&A with Perks yet, the great Slater/Vecenie Athletic piece linked below by SD made me think of one: is there any chance of a replay of the same Dunleavy “backroom maneuvering” that got us TJD last season? I guess only MJD knows for sure, but are there any late-first-round type prospects that we might have an inside track on due to connections?
Or put more simply: does James Dunleavy represent any interesting prospects?
My understanding of the “backroom maneuvering” is less that MJD was family with James Dunleavy and more that other teams wanted TJD to take a 2-way and MJD was willing to offer a guaranteed contract. Being willing to offered a guaranteed contract instead of just a 2 way should be just as effective regardless of agent.
That said, I’m definitely curious who James Dunleavy represents.
Ignoring the clickbaity title, this takes a look at some of the draft options for the warriors with the 52nd pick. It also includes the most consolidated list of players who’ve come to the warriors facility that I’ve seen so far.
I'm absolutely heartbroken, I've been watching a lot of Jamir Watkins tape and I was falling in love with getting him on the Warriors. I was absolutely convinced that we had a legitimate steal as he was an athletic 6'6 wing with a 6'11 wingspan that was an underrated passer and absolutely fantastic defensively.
Now I've learned he withdrew from the draft and returned to FSU.
Right now, my fave prospect out of all Draft Tournament series you've written is undoubtedly KJ Simpson.
He scored at a high volume of 20 ppg on a highly efficient basis (61 TS%) while dripping 43% from deep (along with a consistently high FT% indicating that shootings legit). He's not just a one dimensional scorer, he's also producing a great 27 AST% indicating good passing and a very solid steal % (reflective of his good defense as backed by his honorary mention for All Pac-12 defense.) Then we have his excellent performances in the scrimmages and athletic tests where he was one of the top players in the lane agility drill/standing leap/max leap.
TBH, the only critique I have of Simpson is his lack of height/winspan which is a measly 6'1 with a 6'5 wingspan.
This, from Givony (above), is a hilarious: Are the current Dubs the NBA version of the '08-09 Davidson Wildcats? ...imagine what Curry could do playing alongside NBA players...:)
"There isn't a player in the country who receives as much scrutiny from opposing defenses as Curry does. The entire game-plan of every team he faces revolves solely around shutting him down, which makes it a little bit difficult to accurately evaluate him. The problem is that his teammates just aren't good enough to punish the opposition for the way they ignore them, as they rely so incredibly heavily on his ability to generate offense for them. Curry shoulders an unbelievable share of the offensive load for Davidson, ranking #1 in the NCAA in usage rate, and #2 in field goal attempts per-40. He's one of the few players in the NCAA that you can actually say that the game will likely become easier for once he's in the NBA, playing alongside better players and getting far more easy looks."
Still can't believe Steph did the ring me celebration only up 22 with 6 minutes left to go in the THIRD freaking quarter. That's madness in today's NBA even if it was the 4th quarter.
After watching that clip for the 23,000th time I said a similar to thing my partner - just how gutsy that was. If they lost he would have been dragged on that for the rest of his life. Instead, #legend.
Different topic but exciting news: I just saw the following article in a leading scientific journal. I haven't read it yet but assume it discusses Kerr's motion offense and its properties!
A driven Kerr oscillator with two-fold degeneracies for qubit protection
I get that gambling has always been a part of sports but damn it, the excessive amount of promotion for it at every corner is getting so annoying. Can't even read an article about trade rumors without seeing the odds for Trae Young getting traded and where you can go to place the bet.
There is so much money pouring into promoting sports gambling, which I don’t want to support. I’ve turned down a number of paid offers to put gambling ads on this site and in my videos, and I’m very small potatoes.
Good for you. In old days (get off my lawn) it felt like we acknowledged that gambling wasn't generally much of a virtue and tried to keep it penned in a bit, but as you say, the $$ rules all now. I think it's a little sad.
I don't disagree, but I feel like that's a different topic. I'm saying we used to say that overall gambling is not particularly good for anyone and is REALLY bad for a significant portion of those who participate. As a result we tried to keep it under wraps a bit both by not allowing it to advertise much and keeping it in specified locations. While it's still bad in all the same ways, we are not making any effort to contain it and the reason we aren't is so that some people can make more money (and those people already were making quite a bit of money)
With an NBA champion ready to be crowned in the next week or 2 at the latest , it's also a reminder that draft and trade season is approaching as well. It's time to mentally prepare for some major roster changes. I don't know what's going to happen but I'm fairly certain our top 6-7 guys will look very different next year.
After this long stretch of chilling, it will be six weeks of madness. Draft, more draft, free agency starts right away, summer league, Olympics, summer league, Olympics. Then months of nothing.
Kinda bummed I'm going to miss them, but realistically, who's going to play?
I wouldn't really expect Podz or TJD to play. They've graduated to the big leagues ... I would think the injury risk exceeds whatever they could learn in that setting (mostly non-team basketball).
So, it's likely to be just the new pick and maybe Lester, if they offer him a contract.
@ Eric as someone who got to witness Steph at Davidson live both on and off the court thank you for sharing this. Brought a smile to my face and a flood of great memories. Givony nailed his analysis…although he turned out to be more than just a solid pro 😉
I see some similarities between Curry and Reed Sheppard's scouting profiles. Sheppard doesn't have the scoring volume but he was also playing for a program notorious for having talented guys take smaller roles and then "expanding" their games a lot in the pros (Booker, SGA, Maxey as some examples).
> -For the two years we have data (2008 and 2009), Curry is the straight up #1 most productive player in college basketball and would be #1 in most years since 2008.
Sheppard #9 in BPM, only freshman in the top 25. Probably a harder game for freshmen last season too since a lot of COVID super seniors were still around.
> -A very high Offensive Rating on extremely high Usage and very efficient TS%, shooting a very respectable 38.8% on a very high volume.
Sheppard didn't get near Curry's usage which is the knock (with the Kentucky caveat above), but he did have a pretty disgusting 70% TS while shooting 52% on 6 threes per 40 minutes. Supposedly 90th percentile in the country in off the dribble shooting as well, a crucial skill for someone his size.
> -Add to this an extremely high Assist Rate, #8 in the whole country
Sheppard isn't near that but he also has a 2.2 A/TO ratio with 6 assists per 40 minutes, a promising sign that he might be able to make the transition to PG like Curry did. Freshman Curry had a 1 A/TO ratio, he didn't really transition to PG until Richards left in his junior season.
> -Add to this an extremely high Steal Rate (#8 in Steals in the whole country)
Sheppard was #12 in the country in steal rate and also had 23 blocks in 33 games. A much higher "stock" rate than Podz at Santa Clara, I think it probably indicates defensive activity and intelligence.
It's unlikely he becomes Curry but if it truly is a weak draft (wouldn't know, have barely paid attention), I'd take the swing on the guy with the Curry upside profile.
I’d still say that’s closer to a poor man’s Steph vs any Lonzo comp. Lonzo was purely a catch and shoot guy with a bad release. Limited him as a scorer.
Reed’s got a really pure quick shot. From 3 or mid range and he can stop and shoot it quickly off the dribble. Thats a great thing to build an NBA scorers repertoire off of.
It’s probably more like Immanuel Quickley with more upside and better defense
I kinda get what you're saying, but where I would say that the Lonzo comparison holds truer than Steph/Quickley is that Reed is a bit stiff in the half court. I don't know if he has the burst/handle to consistenly break down his guy as Steph obviously had and even Quickley has.
And Lonzo adds a lot of transition and connective passing value which I think Reed also adds so I don't fully agree with the purely catch and shoot guy point.
Givoni: “Although he's probably never going to be a pure playmaker in the Steve Nash or Chris Paul mold, he plays the game at an excellent pace, looks extremely poised at all times, and appears to show a good enough feel for the game to at least develop into a capable facilitator, ala Mike Bibby or Mo Williams.”
This Curry kid seems really good but it seems really unlikely that he'll fall to us at 7th. Minnesota could use a point guard and they've got two picks in the top 6...
Sad news - Jerry west has passed away
RIP the Logo
@Eric if you haven’t done your Q&A with Perks yet, the great Slater/Vecenie Athletic piece linked below by SD made me think of one: is there any chance of a replay of the same Dunleavy “backroom maneuvering” that got us TJD last season? I guess only MJD knows for sure, but are there any late-first-round type prospects that we might have an inside track on due to connections?
Or put more simply: does James Dunleavy represent any interesting prospects?
My understanding of the “backroom maneuvering” is less that MJD was family with James Dunleavy and more that other teams wanted TJD to take a 2-way and MJD was willing to offer a guaranteed contract. Being willing to offered a guaranteed contract instead of just a 2 way should be just as effective regardless of agent.
That said, I’m definitely curious who James Dunleavy represents.
Ignoring the clickbaity title, this takes a look at some of the draft options for the warriors with the 52nd pick. It also includes the most consolidated list of players who’ve come to the warriors facility that I’ve seen so far.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5552132/2024/06/11/warriors-nba-draft-52-pick-bronny-james/?source=user_shared_article
“
Here are some of the various names that have come through
Chibuzo Agbo, Boise State
Brooks Barnhizer, Northwestern
Adama Bal, Santa Clara
Dillon Jones, Weber State
Jared McCain, Duke
Gabe McGlothan, Grand Canyon
Lamont Butler (San Diego State)
Isaac Jones (Washington State)
Antonio Reeves (Kentucky)
Payton Sandfort (Iowa)
Jaylin Williams (Auburn)
Jermaine Couisnard (Oregon)
Miles Kelly (Georgia Tech)
Tre Mitchell (Kentucky)
Branden Carlson (Ole Miss)
DJ Horne (NC State)
Darin Green Jr. (Boston College)
Keshod Johnson (Arizona)
Moses Wood (Washington)
PJ Hall (Clemson)
Jaedon LeDee (San Diego State)
Jamison Battle (Ohio State)
“
Good article. And also, I think traffic is about 10x greater if you mention Bronny in the headline, so I understand why they did it…
Changing my username to "Bronny Ando" for the clicks.
Changing my YouTube channel to “Jenny Ando Craig Adventures”
Seems like everyone has their own podcast nowadays. Steph is joining the podcast bandwagon with dad Dell.
https://www.si.com/fannation/nba/fastbreak/exciting-announcement-about-golden-state-warriors-star-steph-curry-dell-curry-nba
Interesting. I wonder how compelling it will be. Steph almost seems too nice and measured to reveal much.
Too much podcast over saturation honestly
I'm absolutely heartbroken, I've been watching a lot of Jamir Watkins tape and I was falling in love with getting him on the Warriors. I was absolutely convinced that we had a legitimate steal as he was an athletic 6'6 wing with a 6'11 wingspan that was an underrated passer and absolutely fantastic defensively.
Now I've learned he withdrew from the draft and returned to FSU.
Yes, we tracked the sadness on Withdraw Day on May 31 here https://dubnationhq.com/p/nba-draft-decision-deadline-many
GSW can take him with pick #30 next year, heh heh
Right now, my fave prospect out of all Draft Tournament series you've written is undoubtedly KJ Simpson.
He scored at a high volume of 20 ppg on a highly efficient basis (61 TS%) while dripping 43% from deep (along with a consistently high FT% indicating that shootings legit). He's not just a one dimensional scorer, he's also producing a great 27 AST% indicating good passing and a very solid steal % (reflective of his good defense as backed by his honorary mention for All Pac-12 defense.) Then we have his excellent performances in the scrimmages and athletic tests where he was one of the top players in the lane agility drill/standing leap/max leap.
TBH, the only critique I have of Simpson is his lack of height/winspan which is a measly 6'1 with a 6'5 wingspan.
Important question: Is he a 5th year senior? If not, he is automatically disqualified.
He is a spring chicken compared to the other Tourneyians.
From https://dubnationhq.com/p/dnhq-draft-tourney-group-b-baylor
Why isn’t he in the first round?
* He’s short.
* He’s a third-year player and has only been popping for a year.
* He had a good NBA Combine, but he still seems second round bound.
Unbelievable... how could you do this to us?
I really like "dripping 43% from deep." That jumper is wet!
This, from Givony (above), is a hilarious: Are the current Dubs the NBA version of the '08-09 Davidson Wildcats? ...imagine what Curry could do playing alongside NBA players...:)
"There isn't a player in the country who receives as much scrutiny from opposing defenses as Curry does. The entire game-plan of every team he faces revolves solely around shutting him down, which makes it a little bit difficult to accurately evaluate him. The problem is that his teammates just aren't good enough to punish the opposition for the way they ignore them, as they rely so incredibly heavily on his ability to generate offense for them. Curry shoulders an unbelievable share of the offensive load for Davidson, ranking #1 in the NCAA in usage rate, and #2 in field goal attempts per-40. He's one of the few players in the NCAA that you can actually say that the game will likely become easier for once he's in the NBA, playing alongside better players and getting far more easy looks."
Still can't believe Steph did the ring me celebration only up 22 with 6 minutes left to go in the THIRD freaking quarter. That's madness in today's NBA even if it was the 4th quarter.
After watching that clip for the 23,000th time I said a similar to thing my partner - just how gutsy that was. If they lost he would have been dragged on that for the rest of his life. Instead, #legend.
Different topic but exciting news: I just saw the following article in a leading scientific journal. I haven't read it yet but assume it discusses Kerr's motion offense and its properties!
A driven Kerr oscillator with two-fold degeneracies for qubit protection
https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2311241121
Sorry, no. It's about quantum physics.
And how Steph's gravity is the binding agent between classical and quantum physics. I assume.
I'm pretty sure I have several-fold degeneracies.
ha ha.
I think his offense is more like the Kerr effect - electrifying and optically pleasing!
I get that gambling has always been a part of sports but damn it, the excessive amount of promotion for it at every corner is getting so annoying. Can't even read an article about trade rumors without seeing the odds for Trae Young getting traded and where you can go to place the bet.
I love how have every single Podcaster normalizes gambling. They all love gambling? Everyone? It's incredibly manipulative.
You can tell a lot of shorter podcast episodes exist soley to talk about betting picks. It's not good content.
I agree. It's disgusting.
...
...
...
so ... just out of curiosity, what ARE the odds of Trae getting traded ?
Could not agree more
There is so much money pouring into promoting sports gambling, which I don’t want to support. I’ve turned down a number of paid offers to put gambling ads on this site and in my videos, and I’m very small potatoes.
I dunno. Sounds like you've got bigger potatoes than most.
Good for you. In old days (get off my lawn) it felt like we acknowledged that gambling wasn't generally much of a virtue and tried to keep it penned in a bit, but as you say, the $$ rules all now. I think it's a little sad.
When fair earnings don't pay for what they used to, trying to get lucky gets more appealing.
I don't disagree, but I feel like that's a different topic. I'm saying we used to say that overall gambling is not particularly good for anyone and is REALLY bad for a significant portion of those who participate. As a result we tried to keep it under wraps a bit both by not allowing it to advertise much and keeping it in specified locations. While it's still bad in all the same ways, we are not making any effort to contain it and the reason we aren't is so that some people can make more money (and those people already were making quite a bit of money)
Truly a man of the people :')
Not really sold on this Curry kid. Hard pass.
but are you sold on his popcorn expertise ???
https://www.reddit.com/r/warriors/comments/1dd0scj/the_clippers_asked_steph_as_the_ultimate_expert/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
and a link to the older NY times article on his popcorn addiction!
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/04/12/sports/basketball/stephen-curry-warriors-popcorn.html
He's a walking carbon print disaster.
With an NBA champion ready to be crowned in the next week or 2 at the latest , it's also a reminder that draft and trade season is approaching as well. It's time to mentally prepare for some major roster changes. I don't know what's going to happen but I'm fairly certain our top 6-7 guys will look very different next year.
After this long stretch of chilling, it will be six weeks of madness. Draft, more draft, free agency starts right away, summer league, Olympics, summer league, Olympics. Then months of nothing.
I'm sooo ready to watch summer league games...
Kinda bummed I'm going to miss them, but realistically, who's going to play?
I wouldn't really expect Podz or TJD to play. They've graduated to the big leagues ... I would think the injury risk exceeds whatever they could learn in that setting (mostly non-team basketball).
So, it's likely to be just the new pick and maybe Lester, if they offer him a contract.
Podziemski has said he wants to play in Summer League… I think he wants to practice becoming an on-ball point guard.
https://www.reddit.com/r/warriors/comments/1c6jzy0/slater_brandin_podziemski_on_his_expectations/?t&rdt=34922
Also, if TJD is working on his shooting in the off-season as he said he would, I’m guessing he’d want to try out his results in SL.
over/under 48 total minutes of Podz summer league play?
Ah. Now I'm really bummed I'm going to miss it.
August and September are the worst months to ever exist
@ Eric as someone who got to witness Steph at Davidson live both on and off the court thank you for sharing this. Brought a smile to my face and a flood of great memories. Givony nailed his analysis…although he turned out to be more than just a solid pro 😉
Why Boston gets easy shots and Dallas doesn't | NBA Finals Game 2 analysis | Thinking Basketball: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJyHNqUbtOA
I see some similarities between Curry and Reed Sheppard's scouting profiles. Sheppard doesn't have the scoring volume but he was also playing for a program notorious for having talented guys take smaller roles and then "expanding" their games a lot in the pros (Booker, SGA, Maxey as some examples).
> -For the two years we have data (2008 and 2009), Curry is the straight up #1 most productive player in college basketball and would be #1 in most years since 2008.
Sheppard #9 in BPM, only freshman in the top 25. Probably a harder game for freshmen last season too since a lot of COVID super seniors were still around.
> -A very high Offensive Rating on extremely high Usage and very efficient TS%, shooting a very respectable 38.8% on a very high volume.
Sheppard didn't get near Curry's usage which is the knock (with the Kentucky caveat above), but he did have a pretty disgusting 70% TS while shooting 52% on 6 threes per 40 minutes. Supposedly 90th percentile in the country in off the dribble shooting as well, a crucial skill for someone his size.
> -Add to this an extremely high Assist Rate, #8 in the whole country
Sheppard isn't near that but he also has a 2.2 A/TO ratio with 6 assists per 40 minutes, a promising sign that he might be able to make the transition to PG like Curry did. Freshman Curry had a 1 A/TO ratio, he didn't really transition to PG until Richards left in his junior season.
> -Add to this an extremely high Steal Rate (#8 in Steals in the whole country)
Sheppard was #12 in the country in steal rate and also had 23 blocks in 33 games. A much higher "stock" rate than Podz at Santa Clara, I think it probably indicates defensive activity and intelligence.
It's unlikely he becomes Curry but if it truly is a weak draft (wouldn't know, have barely paid attention), I'd take the swing on the guy with the Curry upside profile.
Doesn't have the shake/self-creation ability, though he is an interesting player.
Like a much better shooting, worse defending Lonzo Ball.
Here's a good video (this guy's draft profiles are great): http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dn8Ai2y7SOg&pp=ygUccmVlZCBzaGVwcGFyZCBob29wIGludGVsbGVjdA%3D%3D
I’d still say that’s closer to a poor man’s Steph vs any Lonzo comp. Lonzo was purely a catch and shoot guy with a bad release. Limited him as a scorer.
Reed’s got a really pure quick shot. From 3 or mid range and he can stop and shoot it quickly off the dribble. Thats a great thing to build an NBA scorers repertoire off of.
It’s probably more like Immanuel Quickley with more upside and better defense
I kinda get what you're saying, but where I would say that the Lonzo comparison holds truer than Steph/Quickley is that Reed is a bit stiff in the half court. I don't know if he has the burst/handle to consistenly break down his guy as Steph obviously had and even Quickley has.
And Lonzo adds a lot of transition and connective passing value which I think Reed also adds so I don't fully agree with the purely catch and shoot guy point.
I'll check the video out, thanks. I miss the Adam Spinella draft videos, they were the best ones out there imo. Too bad he got hired by the Sixers.
Yeah, I suppose that's the thing with being a really good scout in the public eye - you get snapped up quickly lol.
Geez. Now you made me nervous that the Spurs are gonna get this guy and rack up like seven straight titles from 2027 to 2033.
If it makes you feel better, this is based on like 5 minutes of "research" and I haven't looked up anyone else projected in the high lottery
I think Sleepy Freud beats Givoni on this one.
Givoni: “Although he's probably never going to be a pure playmaker in the Steve Nash or Chris Paul mold, he plays the game at an excellent pace, looks extremely poised at all times, and appears to show a good enough feel for the game to at least develop into a capable facilitator, ala Mike Bibby or Mo Williams.”
Well, Sleepy Fraud definitely got it right, but I think this other guy you mentioned mighta whiffed...
Sleepy Fraud is infallible!
So is Mr Real!
Hah. That reminds me of the recent trending game where people were asked to change the name of famous bands by switching out just one letter.
The Why
Sly and the Family Store
Steely Dad
etc.
Blink 187?
The Black Eyed Pees?
N.R.A.?
Like this
This Curry kid seems really good but it seems really unlikely that he'll fall to us at 7th. Minnesota could use a point guard and they've got two picks in the top 6...
No problem, we'll grab Jonny Flynn. I just know he'll be a star with a long career in the league. Yeah, that's the ticket.