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Well, the team looked pretty active on D, moving with a little more intention and crispness overall throughout the game. That was 3 games in 4 days, so it looks like the Curry buzzer beater injected a bit of much needed energy. Is everyone still adamant that Klay starts? With Green on the shelf, it seems like Poole scoring 20 is a pretty important ingredient to winning. So is it that important for Klay to play with Curry-Wiggs-Green-Loon when Green isn't here yet? With no Green and Klay rehabbing, safe to say if Poole scores 5 points we're gonna lose, if he scores 20, better chance we win. For whatever reason, Poole seems to find his mojo when he's in the starting group easier than coming off the bench. I'm just saying, as long as Green is on the shelf and Klay his still building up his stamina and overall game, I think I would do what I can to ensure I'm getting a good game out of Poole and if that means starting him (for now), then so be it. What is the rush to move him to the bench when we are missing 2 starters (Green and yes - Wiseman) and 1 starter is returning from 2 career ending injuries? Is it wrong to bend a little to get more out of your players? They did it for H Barnes and I am only talking about the short term. I'll take your answer off the air. Jumping in the van for an 8 hour drive to Joshua Tree. Whoopty-Do.

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It's really not about what works best. As Steve said when asked about starting him, he's Klay Thompson. You play Klay when he's available. Even if it means you lose a few games. In the 4th quarter against the Pacers I felt that he should not come back in. GPII would've been better in his place. But I also knew that he'd come back in and understood why. The guy has earned it.

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It's not about he's earned it. Klay has one job right now and it isn't team related in the short term. His job is to build up his minutes, get in game shape, get his groove back. Klay's schedule is about the team and more about Klay, which is fine because we all want him good for the playoffs. I'm really just talking about this period where Draymond is out. When Dray is back, absolutely, get Klay playing side by side with Curry and Dray. And this isn't just for Poole. The Warriors need a primary ball handler in the starting group to make up for Dray's absence. Or do we think Curry is a better player when he is doing his best CP3 imitation?

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I get your point. I even agree with you. I am not a fan of on ball Curry. I'd rather he's scoring than assisting. But the fact of the matter is Steve is comfortable having a few losses because he's integrating Klay. I am comfortable with that too because it's Klay and he's earned that. He just got snubbed off the top 75 list and we saw how hard he took that. It should be Klay who says I should come off the bench. Otherwise the issue with Russ and Vogel from last week or so will seem minor. It is all about the optics to me and treating Klay like the legend he is.

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typo "Klay's schedule ISN'T about the team and more about Klay,"

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Poole = ‘14-15 Barnes

Klay = ‘14-15 Iguodala

?

I’ll buy it.

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Ahh, "Cmon People". People think it's starting or coming off bench, but that isn't the issue. The issue is who is on the court with Poole. Poole excels when getting time on the floor with Curry. Truth is, everyone does. But in Poole's case it amounts to a 15 point differential (just eye balling here). Everyone has better numbers when they are playing with Curry. But Poole produces more than anyone else when sharing the floor with Curry and that is actually good for the team. In fact, it's good for Curry, too. See the 13 wide open 3s Curry mostly missed. The Warriors system is Curry mostly off-ball with a primary ball handler. JK seems like a good replacement for Dray, but what the Warriors really need is someone to replace Dray's play making abilities. Enter Poole. So I am not saying we need to bend over to make Poole happy. I'm saying the Warriors are a better team with Poole starting WHEN THERE IS NO DRAYMOND. WHy? Because the Warriors thrive when Curry has a play maker on the court with him.

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You know what's interesting about Dorrell Wright's commentary?

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Because I don't....

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You're perhaps wondering why the Nets have been inconsistent. Here Harden explains that the officiating has been inconsistent, so he's not getting foul calls. It's super sad. Poor guy just wants to, you know, go back to the old days when a guy could get a foul call for not getting fouled. It's only right. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/33136411/brooklyn-nets-star-james-harden-expresses-frustration-consistency-calls-officials

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Also, note that in the article Nash calls Harden "One of the poster childs" for the new era but wouldn't it be "poster children?" Attention to detail, Steve.

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He was a little upset maybe :-)

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😂

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Harden is an amazing talent. Amazing. But the kind of basketball he wants to play (drawing bogus fouls continuously) is unwatchably tedious.

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back in the day Deadspin (Burneko, I think) wrote an article calling Harden "the loathsome genius" & I think that's really apt

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What are the net ratings for jta bjelica and kuminga so far? Idk what stat to use or where to find it, I've been hard on jta n bjelica but maybe if they are still adding positives i can look past but if kuminga is higher on the advanced metrics then this is some bullshit.

Jta and bjelica came in the game in the 3rd up by almost 15 and the lead evaporated quickly

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Not sure what it is now, but someone on Twitter posted Net Ratings a couple weeks ago and Chiozza and JTA were the bottom two and JK was in the middle.

I'd wager JK and JTA probably close together now. So Kerr just needs to pick one of them and play em.

Something like last night giving JK 1st half minutes and then benching him for JTA in the 2nd half is dumb as hell. Ideally, it would be JK for the higher ceiling, but even just playing JTA makes more sense than the yo-yo'ing minutes.

As for Bejlica, seems like the one JK comment Kerr is sticking with is when he said he won't play JK at the 5 until Draymond returns.

Still, Bjelica is a more consistent rebounder than JK for the 5 spot, though his value plummets as his 3pt% drops, where he's below 35% now. So, trends not looking good right now, but this is the hole the Warriors dug themselves when they didn't bring in a true Center in the offseason.

What they really need is for Wiseman is be healthy enough to take Bejlica's minutes. So if the Wiseman recovery continues, or maybe even if Wiseman gets back soon, the Warriors should probably be thinking long and hard about replacing Bjelica's roster spot with a different big.

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I don't know the stat answer but I've been thinking about how weird it would be to be a defender on Bjelica and then Kuminga after a substitution, or vice versa. They seem to have almost no overlap. One is all skill and savvy, the other all athleticism. If I were Royce O'Neal or Gobert, etc. I'd be so confused.

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I really hated how Bjeli missed the layup at the end of Q3. The pass from JTA was a magical bullet.

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

What is going on between JK and Steve?? I can understand JK losing his spot to Otto but he's regressed completely. He got just 8 minutes this game. It feels like Steve is breaking him and he had started to play well lately. Is it match up based? Is it the tech? Steve doesn't even look like the sort of person who takes things personal. Must be some old school belief he holds. It's a different era now though. Hopefully the kid has the mental strength to survive this. As someone said on here, why does Steve give more leeway to a vet who makes good plays and then constant mistakes that cancel out the good? It's crazy that Moses has not gotten a proper chance yet. That guy parted the Red Sea.

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

The team started to hit a rough patch so Kerr decided they had to put the development on the backburner and chase wins. As also evidenced by the heavy Curry minutes on that back to back and lack of Chiozza.

It was dumb as hell for him to say what he said about Kuminga starting for the foreseeable future, this was always going to happen if the rough patch came and the rough patch was always going to happen with Draymond out.

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Perhaps the foreseeable future was not very far out... lol

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100% Beli

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In the little time JK as out there he looked pretty lost on both D and O. Yea that one great pass to Steph (which Steph then bricked sadly), but otherwise not in the right place or just out of the action. Definitely disappointing.

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But why is it ok for jta and bjelica to constantly mess up on offense and defense but not kuminga? Who gives us more then both

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JTA had even less time than JK. But yea I get your point. Bjeli or Kuminga? Most coaches would go with the conservative choice, the veteran. Seems pretty typical and, despite all of Kerr’s unusual strategy and thinking, he still has a lot of conservative coach in him.

I’m not sure Kuminga would have made a difference tonight, but a Kuminga that had played a lot more this season and learned more about how to impact the team (in other words, Kuminga from a different universe) would have been better than Bjeli.

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The thing is bjelica doesn't play like a veteran, he constantly sets moving screens, passes up open shots and does other things like a rookie

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I think it's fair to say that Kerr is a real nut for experience. He'll take Bjelica's floor-bound good judgment over Kuminga's soaring potential ... some nights. Then other nights he'll swing the other way. He's also a nut for matchups. Lastly, he's a nut for getting a feel mid-game as to which reserve is playing well. Basically, he's a nut.

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Kerr’s like Phil Jackson that way. Jackson was never able to develop rookies while his teams were elite.

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Lol I agree with you except on bjelica good judgment, his passing up on 3s into a drive turnover has gotten a little better recently but it's still bad

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Bjelica has a much better AST/TO ratio than Kuminga

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Yes but some of that in my opinion is bjelica getting easy assists through the split post action which he runs much more then kuminga, bjelica is at 2.7 TOs per 36 kuminga is at 2.1

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That was a weird game. Steph missing wide open threes, his body language wasn’t great during time outs (seats are upper bowl above Dubs bench), and I would think he’d start driving a bit more to get himself going. Glad rest of the team stepped up. @Eric Apricot - we need an E1P on Poole’s moves! Capture the facial expressions on the two Jordan’s faces after Poole broke Clarkson’s ankles. Priceless!

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Who needs finger nails, anyway?

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GP2 sometimes...

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Makes me feel a little bit better after my bills lost tonight :(

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Oof. It was over the moment the moment you guys kicked it into the end zone before regulation ended... the coin flip was just the final nail in the coffin OT. Whoever got the ball first was going to win. Josh Allen is a freaking stud though and will be a problem for years to come.

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

I have watched a few teams take late game leads in football and wondered: Why not make them return it and burn a few seconds?

Have to think kicking to the 5 yard line and making them burn 3-4 seconds would make a difference, there…

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Dallas thumped the Grizzlies today, we are not playing them at a good time.

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I'm pretty sure I heard a Memphis announcer or someone call Porzingis "The uniform in human form." Which, if true, is one of the all-time great nicknames. It might have been "Unicorn in human form" which makes more sense and is consistent with his historical nickname, but I would love to change it to the Uniform. He's just ... so thin ... it's like this walking uniform. In human form.

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He's found someone he's good at guarding... Jaren Jackson Jr.

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Wow. That is a perfect name for him.

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Who would have thought after game 1 we'd have felt grateful to be 2-1 on the homestand?

Can we do a brain transplant of Looney onto Wiseman? I don't think there's a single thing Wiseman can't do better physically than Looney (including 2 extra inches of wingspan), but Looney has just gotten so good at squeezing out every ounce of value.

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Just wait and it'll happen, barring injury. It's just that it took Looney like six years so I guess that's how long we might have to wait with Wiseman

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

Wanted to come celebrate with you all. Ws are making us sweat for it. I'll be relieved when Steph goes back to being Steph.

Anyone else think that the streak of consecutive games with a made 3 might be in his head?

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

I thought Steph's non-answer on injury was interesting. He didn't say "I'm not injured," and instead said "who gives a damn about excuses." Curry hurt his hand the game after Christmas (not the injury everyone's generally talking about) in the first quarter, and I'm not convinced its been right since. But if you can play without further injury, but with reduced ability, you don't confirm that injury and diminish your gravity by saying, "hey, I'm not going to shoot out of this slump until my hand gets better."

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Don't think so. Steph hit his second three of the night, so that would have gotten the monkey off his back. Then he missed his final 11!

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Good point. Missed tonight's game and had to rely on highlights.

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

I was thinking about GP2 tonight. Dude was waived and nobody picked him up. That means 450 players more desirable than him. Part of that I think is incomplete or poor scouting, but he has been in and out of the league multiple times, so it’s not like he never got a honest look. Part of it is fit and coaching, he probably is better on the warriors than he would be anywhere else. But I also think it goes to show how incredible fringe NBA players are, and how cut throat competitive the league is to think a guy like that is fighting to even get on a team. Nuts.

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last guy on an NBA roster goes to play basketball literally anywhere else & he's the best player on the court

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Just like many of the Dubs, GP2 has struggled with his three ball the last few games. Over the last five, he's 0 for 8. Of course, he's still at 39% for the year which is phenomenal for a guy who wasn't supposed to be able to shoot/score.

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Have you read the in depth article CBS sports did on him?

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Great read - thanks for the reference, I had not seen it.

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"They all started calling me Popeye"

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He really does look like a basketball playing Popeye character--and dazzles like he's just eaten his spinach every game. Love that dude.

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Jan 24, 2022·edited Jan 24, 2022

My favorite thing about him is how strategically aggressive he is. He has incredibly good emotional control, and seems to calculate exactly how annoying / angry / nice to be. I thought his two layups last night were ultimately disrespectful to Utah, because normally he would hammer dunk those, and it was like "stealing the ball from you guys is too easy for me to take advantage." [I know it could have been him favoring an injury, but I like my version better]

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author

I'm digging the Kerith and Grant post game.

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Phew.

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Well that was nerve wracking.

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

We like to keep it interesting

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Jan 24, 2022Liked by punk basketball

Bonus stats:

Clarkson: (+4)

9 points 3/13 FGs 1/4 three pointers 2/2 FTs

3 rebounds (1 off.) 4 assists 2 turnovers

Paschall: (+3)

6 points 2/5 FGs 1/2 three pointers 1/2 FTs

3 rebounds (2 off.)

Wiggins: (+10)

14 points 6/17 FGs 1/5 three pointers 1/2 FTs

5 rebounds (1 off.) 1 assist 1 turnover 2 steals 1 block

Curry: (-5)

13 points 5/20 FGs 1/13 three pointers 2/2 FTs

4 rebounds (2 off.) 6 assists 1 turnover 1 steal

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