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I am obviously a huge Klay fan. It's sad seeing him this was but I reckon he is just going through an adjustment period. Really hoping he turns around and accept his new role with the Dubs.

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Feb 7·edited Feb 7

The #1 seed in the West now belongs to … the LA Clippers. And OKC Thunder. And Minnesota Timberwolves. And Denver Nuggets.

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Also interesting: the trade value podcast serves as a kind of Simmons 2021 redraft if you strip out all the other players. He's got them in this order, I think:

1. Sengun

2. Wagner

3. Cunningham (huh?)

4. Mobley

5. Jalen Johnson

6. Scottie Barnes

7. Kuminga

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Feb 7·edited Feb 7

(Per 36)

Kuminga

22.2 pts on .611 TS

6.7 reb / 2.4 ast / 2.3 tov

1.0 stl / 0.6 blk

+3.1 on court / +5.3 net on-off

====

Wagner

22.3 pts on .565 TS

6.2 reb / 4.3 ast / 2.2 tov

1.2 stl / 0.4 blk

+2.1 on court / +4.2 net on-off

JK is also over a year younger, which is typically a big deal in the expected development of guys this young.

These geniuses apparently put a lot of stock in Wagner’s extra 1.9 assists, and none in JK putting up an extra **9.2 points per 100 possessions** on the same volume?

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Defense and consistency. And being the best or second best player on a team that currently has a better record than GSW and doesn't have a Steph. Having Franz over JK is pretty reasonable still. Having Jalen Johnson or Cade is a tougher sell.

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I'm guessing it has more to do with Wagner being consistently pretty good so far compared to JK's sudden rise. That said, it's a little crazy that people are still so high on Cunningham and Mobley. Neither of them seems to be the kind of star that people expected.

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Give me kuminga over all of em

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Give me another 2 months of JK keeping up his current pace, and I'm with you.

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While listening to the Simmons trade value podcast I had a weird thought. It came to me as Simmons was advocating for San Antonio to make a play for Trae Young and I tried to figure out whose playoff or play-in spot they would get in the even more crowded west. So here's the idea: what if you could trade conferences with another team as part of a bigger trade package? I know that it wouldn't work logistically - too much travel - but how funny would it be if the Warriors could ask some sad bottom feeder in the East to switch conferences as part of a deal?

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There are 4 teams bunched closely at the top of the West, and it would take a catastrophic injury for one of them to fall out of the playoffs. Out of following 8 teams, 2 will not even make the play-in, and another two will be eliminated in the play-in round:

Kings

Lakers

Suns

Dallas

NOP

Utah

Rockets

Warriors

I think Kings and Lakers are locks to reach the first round, the latter due to refs / league pressure at least, the former just due to actually being good. I can see the Warriors jumping above Jazz, Rockets, and Pels with a good push.

So between the Suns and Dallas, which team do the Warriors bump out of the playoffs?

We're 0-3 against the Suns so far, with 1 game remaining.

We're 0-1 against Dallas, with 3 games remaining. We're 2 games behind Dallas in the loss column.

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It's a slooooowwww trade deadline when "The Bucks and Mavs are interested in Andrew Wiggins" is the lead story.

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Would a jk, Portis, dray lineup work better than the wiggs, jk, dray front court?

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Bucks without Lillard are having trouble scoring tonight.

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Can't score without him, can't defend with him.

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I’m already excited for the JK vs KD matchup, tbh… JK is gonna put him in the basket a few times…

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Jazz beat the Thunder 124-117. Both of the Wolves and the Thunder (the top two teams in the West) have lost tonight.

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45-23 bench points; Jazz-Thunder

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I read an article about how the Mavs and Bucks both might want Wiggins, so I used the trade machine to make a trade. It took me about four tries to even make something that the rules allow, so I have no idea if it's any good. Basically:

Dallas gets: Wiggins

Milwaukee gets: Grant Williams

Warriors get: Holmes and Portis

The trade machine also informs me that this projects to make Milwaukee a little worse, Dallas very slightly better, and the Warriors a lot (12 wins) worse. Perhaps the trade machine has not watched many games from Andrew Wiggins this season. Who says no first?

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Feb 7·edited Feb 7

Portis is ok, but how does he fit in our bigs rotation?… Holmes would get approximately negative 12 minutes/game (especially if we’re adding Portis too)… this trade absolutely leads to 12 fewer wins for the Dubs

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Given my previously stated belief that the Dubs should hang on to Wiggins, I generally agree. But I'm not totally sure that we're ever getting consistently good Wiggs back. I also have no idea if Portis is any good defensively, so I don't really have a good sense if he's worth getting. If he's a two way guy, maybe we have two stretch bigs.

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I'll take the bait - No

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It's not bait! I'm just trying to make the trade machine do things!

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with you 100%

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Are the Thunder a serious team? They cannot rebound…

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4th best player in the NBA, a top 5 offense, #6 defense (even despite the rebounding woes), yeah, I think they're a serious team.

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They can't rebound but after this loss they're still top 4 in the West. Their record says they're a lot more serious than we are.

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They are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league.

28 in off. rebounding % (21.1%)

29 in def. rebounding % (72.5%)

29 in total rebounding % (47.5%)

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Is that why they’re losing right now to Utah? They’ve been out rebounded tonight.

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Bulls beat the Wolves in OT 129-123.

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Wolves blow a 20+ point lead. They had a 98% estimated win probability at half time. Man, that must be really tough as a fan to watch your team throw away a win like that.

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Yea, happily I have never experienced that more than 37 times in half a season.

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Feb 7Liked by Eric Apricot

Here’s Kerr on 95.7 https://youtu.be/OtWYoyqflhw?si=SUzvILpIN2Fpcb5-

Really good listen. He discusses pretty much everything we’ve been talking about. Klay’s adjustment to a new reality in depth, Kuminga’s development and funny stuff about the Draymond challenge.

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Feb 7·edited Feb 7

Jazz is giving the Thunder a run for their money.

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Jazz is starting Dunn and Fontecchio, no 2nd star for Lauri still somehow winning all these games.

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I wonder if they are starting Dunn and Fontecchio for their defense?

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