Nuggets won the 22-23 title and did so handily vs. a good Miami team. That series wasn’t about Miami’s lack of talent or shooting or size, but rather about the comprehensive impact Nicola Jokic has on games when they really matter.
The Nuggets are a lot more than Jokic of course, but he’s what makes everyone else fit into their roles. His ability to manipulate opposing defenses to his team’s advantage … very few players in history have been masterful at it in the way he’s become. And he’s only getting better. The Nuggets lost a big piece however, and while the loss of Bruce Brown may be partially offset by the addition of Reggie Jackson, it’s unlikely that they’ll have the same kind of surprise off the bench they had during their 22-23 championship run. Brown was amazing, but Porter Jr. will likely continue to improve as will Braun, and with Jokic in charge the teamwork will only get better.
So IMO Jokic is the main story going into this regular season. That’s a remarkable thing to think, and even if it’s not true by consensus it’s remarkable that he’s reached this sort of prominence as he’s just starting into his prime. And with the league stacked with both veteran and young talent like we’ve never seen (at least SIX current players are likely to be consensus top 20 all time?), he’s moved demonstrably beyond all of them in terms of his current impact on the game.
Regardless, while Jokic is the main story going in there are significant changes and many huge improvements leaguewide. The Suns with new ownership (starting early 2023) appear to have made a mockery out of the free agent market – topping off their already offensively talented roster with the additions of Bradley Beal, Eric Gordon, Jusef Nurkic and Grayson Allen while shedding the apparently unmotivated weight of the not-quite-ready-for-prime-time Deandre Ayton who was shipped off to the Blazers. With the additions of Nurkic, Allen and Nassir Little the Suns become a larger and likely much better defensive team making up for the loss of Mikhal Bridges early in 2023.
Many teams are better, and one needs to see how to season plays out before appointing the Suns as the leagues best chance at becoming the Jokic Killers. The Celtics are brewing up major changes at both ends of the court, albeit with the loss of their emotional backbone comprised of Smart and Grant Williams and their outstanding rim protector/rebounder in Robert Williams III. By adding Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingas they may very well have improved at both ends. Big time pressure is on Porzingas to deliver however, as the best teams in the league have gotten taller and physical inside play appears to be returning to the sport. Boston has a tall task this year as they need to prove they can consistently win battles vs. Jokic, Giannis, Nurkic, Looney, Davis, Sabonis, Valanciunas, JJJ and Holmgren (to name only some). If Horford and Porzingas can make it through to the playoffs while allowing the Celtics to deliver as is expected … we will see!
The Bucks gave up a lot to land Damion Lillard in a trade. They still have depth, but the replacement of Holiday and Allen with Lillard in the starting lineup … how they defend the perimeter now becomes a big question. Portis is a big part of the answer, but will his increased minutes (my guess) be enough to make the Lillard trade worth the big changes in their chemistry? Lillard will be a big part of deciding how quickly they all come together, and he may be able to succeed early and often in the East which clearly lacks the overall talent and expertise of the West.
Staying in the East it’s surprising (to me anyhow) that relative to the West there’s only one other team that is likely to be vastly improved over who they were in 22-23: The Detroit Pistons will add not only their young leader (and SHOULD have been ROY) back into the roster (Cunningham) but also drafted a solid ball moving and defensive minded stud in Ausar Thompson. They’re a young quick and potent team that, on paper anyhow, look to be the future of the East or at least contenders alongside the Celtics going forward. Other teams have improved in the East (Orlando comes to mind especially) but the off season wasn’t especially kind to many other teams that for one reason or the other appear to be standing pat with what they have currently. Miami, Cleveland, Chicago, Indiana, Philly, Knicks, Raptors all come to mind here. That’s a startling contrast to what’s happening in the West with almost just as many teams making great improvements, in many cases by pulling from talent originating in the East.
I have no comments about Charlotte because that team appears to be cursed. I don’t know what goes on there, and not sure ownership cares about winning. Bridges might not play this year. Hayward is past his prime. I don’t like their draft pick. They have Ball and Rozier and that appears to be it. It all seems like a big fail – they will need to trade Ball if he’s ok with that.
The Brooklyn Nets might deserve special recognition here as they appear to have a solid foundation. They’ve added Lonnie Walker and are poised to make more big changes in the near future, but it will likely take some time as they need to flesh out their front court and possibly find a solid leader among the ranks. Bridges and Dinwiddie seem unlikely to take on that role, and Simmons seems unfit in this regard.
I should also give more respect to the Knicks who added DiVincenzo to what is already a very scrappy team that plays hard at both ends and has one of the best floor generals in the league in Brunson. But the Knicks lack size and shooting from their best players. Expect them to be better this year because all their young players will be better, but how they can beat the top teams in the league that have size AND shooting … it’s a lot to ask.
Wizards. There. I wrote the word just to indicate that I didn’t forget them.
Now, where to start in the West now that the Nuggets and Suns have already been covered? I think you have to look at three teams that are going to really shake things up making it difficult for all the other contenders: Warriors, Kings and Thunder. It’s unfortunate that Dray Green isn’t ready to go in the season opener, but there are big reasons to expect big things out off the Warriors this season. The addition or Dario Saric brings a new look for them in the frontcourt and a question to be answered is how he and Looney might create some chemistry to become the league’s top rebounding front court. Dray can play any position, but how often will Kerr want him on the court at the same time as Looney and Saric? I think it’s only a question about injury risk if you play those three together, but it’s going to be something to watch when it happens even if only on given nights because of matchups.
Interesting stat here: Looney seems to have crushed it in the category of “offensive rating” – look at his number of games played vs. others atop this category. Big Time Studliness …
https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2023_per_poss.html#per_poss_stats::off_rtg
The Warriors added CP3 which should be an improvement over Poole, and they’re likely to be right there with the Celtics, Thunder and Knicks as the scrappiest in the league at both ends. But they lack size and we’ll need to watch to see how they can win vs. the many much bigger teams. There are many things to watch for starting with Klay’s continued improvement at both ends and Kuminga’s ability to stay under control during his quicker athletic “power drives” to the hoop. How many minutes will he get per game? I assume this is something Kerr is trying to figure out as well. As always it will be hard to decide to take Wiggins out when he and Dray have become such anchors defensively. Kerr’s got one of his biggest challenges ahead now that the Warriors appear to be back to contending status after the disappointment of their Wiseman mistake.
The Sacramento Kings are in many ways the opposite team to the Warriors. Big huge dude in Sabonis in the center who can be the focus offensively on any given night. His passing game has improved and the chemistry with Fox appears to have clicked almost right off the bat. Also unlike the Warriors, the Kings’ formula appears to be founded on having the ball in Fox’s hands on every play, mostly to allow him to try and penetrate the defense with his drives to the hoop while always threatening the harm. Fox has become much better and looking around for his guys though, and he has plenty to choose from. Murray, Heurter, Monk, Barnes and Mitchell. That’s a more physical bunch that can shoot and score than most PGs have to choose from. They’ve also added Duarte who can help to shore up their defense. If Fox improves on his already much improved game by patiently looking for his guys rather than choosing to drive first then the Kings will be a top team in the league and right there with the Nuggets and Celtics in their ability to end the regular season with the best record.
The OKC Thunder will be the new kids on the block this year. Last year it was the Kings with the Thunder making some noise along the way. In addition to SGA hitting his prime and being a top 5 MVP candidate, every guy on the roster improved over the course of last season. They have arguably the most physical and scrappy wings in the Williams’s, a continually improving and big physical scoring PG in Giddey and are now adding a top 2 or 3 shot blocker in Holmgren who can also score and rebound and make plays. The Thunder are a team to watch for upsetting contenders, and they’re only getting started assuming Holmgren’s body holds up. Loaded with draft picks they’re unquestionably one of the top teams of the future, and it starts with SGA who might be the most difficult player to stop going to the basket. Not that he doesn’t have a lot of competition starting with Morant.
I don’t know what to write about the Lakers other than that Reaves is a very likely top MIP candidate already going in. I admit to being worried that he’ll take over the LeBron role on a team with LeBron on it. He doesn’t touch the ball nearly enough IMO and seems like one of the leagues best threats at drawing fouls on drives to the rim a la SGA, Doncic and Tatum. Gabe Vincent is a nice replacement for Lonnie Walker. Still, can’t really write or predict much without knowing how many games AD will be at his best, and LeBron really needs to let his other guys run the show if he’s not going to load manage. I don’t know if he will though, but IMO they’re in the playoffs regardless as I don’t expect much from the Grizz or Pels or Wolves relative to the rest of the crowd in the West.
Pels … sooo disappointed in watching what appears to be a downturn in Ingram’s quality of play this summer in FIBA championships. That he was probably the weakest member of that team is a sad statement for Pels fans. Zion or no Zion, Ingram needs to be the player he was 2 years ago. Who knows what happened to him since then.
Dallas appears to be such a wild card with this new lineup. They could be the surprise of the league if Doncic figures out how to play alongside Kyrie. This looks like a well built roster now impressive even albeit not as deep or as big as many in the West.
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/roster/_/name/dal/dallas-mavericks
Kyrie, Curry, Morris, Kleber and Grant Williams mean serious fire power if Doncic finds them regularly. I think this will be the year that we discover just how smart he can be without throwing those baby tantrums. Time to grow up kid – he’s had his fun and it needs to be about contending now but they’re thin in the front court.
I won’t write much about the Grizzlies only because it’s impossible to say how they’ll look this year. Marcus Smart is there now and will start alongside Bane – a VERY tough two-some at both ends. But without a solid and consistent leader and floor general they’re likely to appear lost early this season. Stephen Adams is out for an indefinite amount of time to start the season. Luke Kennard is likely to be a bright spot for them, but without some consistency it just doesn’t look good for the Grizz with so many other teams moving forward while they appear to be pedaling backward.
Big Jazz Fan here. Big Kessler fan. Not enough depth to make a noise in the playoffs, but wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the play in. Clarkson continues to be the most underrated – seems like I keep saying that every year. Not sure how Ainge is going to flesh out this roster – OKC and Houston are leaps and bounds ahead of them while on a similar timeline. In any case, I fully expect Kessler to become a story this year. Another sign that the Big Man is back in the NBA.
Much like the Grizz, the Clippers will stay in the TBD category until we see otherwise. The load management rule change will mean something to them, but maybe it just means that Balmer pays the most in fines. I don’t know what to think about the Clipps other than that I know Kawhi can be the best player in the league on any given night. If that’s what he wants, and who knows what Kawhi wants.
I have almost nothing to write about the Wolves because I simply think they are the worst franchise in the league management and ownership wise. They just don’t seem to know what they’re doing, and it wouldn’t surprise me if as Edwards improves he sees more clearly the dead end he’s stuck in. They’ll win games and he may be an MVP candidate but they aren’t and probably won’t be contenders for a great many years to come.
Houston and Spurs fans should be hell of excited, and they’ll both be fun to watch as they’ll undoubtedly win big games against top teams this year. Having never seen a team quite like Houston I won’t rule out a play-in berth though. It’s good to be an NBA fan in Southern Texas again.
Blazers … I seriously doubt they know what they’re doing. I think the owner is playing fantasy league or is just drunk a lot of the time.
124 thoughts on “2023-24 Season”
First comment – Dray and Beal will apparently miss the opener Suns vs. Warriors. I’m expecting good things from several players tonight to make it a great game to watch: How the Suns defend Saric and Kuminga is mostly of interest to me, but also looking to see how Looney can keep Nurkic from operating out of the high post. Vogel has so many wrinkles he can throw in with this team even without Beal in the lineup. Little and Allen and Goodwin are pests – I expect them to be instrumental in baiting Kuminga into some foul trouble or just some bad decision making throughout the game.
Big game for Kuminga I think. Booker is a potential no-go for this one by the way. That would really suck, but I expect Eric Gordon to pick up those minutes.
no idea what’s wrong with the links at the right!
hopefully you can see that there’s still a link to click on there. I’ll probably leave it as is for now.
I ran out of time to clean up what I wrote. Feel free to add or correct whatever you like and I’ll move it upstairs.
My annual prediction look at how the league will stack up this year:
Eastern Conference:
1. Bucks – their defense took a slight hit with subtraction of Holiday, but offense took a major jump up with the addition of Lillard. The Dame-Greek Freak pick-and-roll should be almost impossible to stop.
2. Celtics – we’ll see if trading RWIII will hurt their basket defense, but Holiday makes up for loss of Smart in the perimeter defense.
3. 76ers – even without Harden, should he finally force his way out, the Sixers should be in the top 3.
4. Cavaliers – this is an exciting young team that added Rubio to provide veteran leadership and Max Strus for some shooting off the bench.
5. Nets – Simmons, Dinwiddie, Bridges, and Claxton will provide great defense. If Simmons is fully healthy in both mind and body, the Nets could be better than expected.
6. Heat – the losses of Strus and Vincent hurt their bench, but Richardson will make up for that a little. Butler is 34 now, so I suspect he won’t play as many games this year.
7. Pacers – I like the additions of Toppin, Theis and Brown. Haliburton is a budding All-Star. I can see them finishing higher, but they didn’t really live up to the hype last year.
8. Knicks – they should probably be higher, but something feels off about them. The Toppin/Cenz switch is probably a wash. If they pull off a trade for Embiid though…
9. Hawks – I’d like to believe more in the Hawks, but I don’t think they got better, they unloaded the unhappy Collins, and Capela seemed to be in the doghouse last year. Not sure what to make of them.
10. Magic – Banchero and 2 Wagners give them a bright future, but probably still a year or two away from becoming contenders.
11. Pistons – they’ve got a lot of good young players and Cade returns. With Monty Williams coaching, I can see a big jump for them.
12. Raptors – my guess is that they unload Siakim before the end of the year and go into rebuilding mode.
13. Bulls – DeRozan and Vucevic are probably past their prime, Lonzo is out for the seasons, and I don’t think LaVine doesn’t give you enough past his scoring. I see them being a big disappointment this year.
14. Hornets – Bridges is serving a 30-game suspension and Bouknight is out at least a month. LaMelo is an All-Star, but doesn’t have enough help.
15. Wizards – I think the Wiz are about to find out a me-first Jordan Poole is all about.
Western Conference:
1. Nuggets – this is just the most complete team in the league, even with the loss of Brown.
2. Suns – just so much firepower and I think the addition of Nurkic will provide a much improved big-man screening option that the Suns lacked with Ayton.
3. Warriors – this may be wishful thinking as their lack of size will hurt in a conference with Jokic, AD, KAT, Sabonis, and now Wembanyama. But the bench looks to be deeper and more cohesive than last year.
4. Clippers – Kawhi and PG13 are healthy, they’ve got a lot of good pieces around them, and remain the favorites to land Harden. Obviously, this could go awry if Kawhi and PG13 suffer injuries like usual.
5. Kings – I could see them edging ahead of the Dubs and Clips. There’s a lot to like here, but I think the youngsters need one more year to gel.
6. Lakers – I can also see them crashing and burning if LBJ and AD suffer what now seem to be their annual injuries, but adding Reddish and Vincent gives them some depth.
7. Pelicans – another team that could crash and burn if Zion goes down again. I don’t like their depth, but this placement is based on Zion being healthy.
8. Grizzlies – the Grizz want to have title aspirations, but losing Adams for the year and Ja suspended for so long is going to make this a disappointing year for them.
9. Thunder – another exciting young team that may need one more year to get experience and contend.
10. Mavericks – I think the Luka-Kyrie experiment fails, but there is still enough talent here to slip into the play-in.
11. Rockets – like the Thunder, another team on the rise, but they are a little behind the Thunder, so I suspect they need another two years to get there.
12. Jazz – I suspect last year was a little bit of a mirage. There’s no real star on the team, just a bunch of pretty good players, who I don’t think will surprise as much as they did last year.
13. Timberwolves – as you said, perhaps the worst run team in the league. Antman signed the big extension, but how soon is he asking out of there?
14. Spurs – Wembanyama is a likely future MVP and likely ROY this year. Doesn’t have enough help around him yet, but Pop will likely figure out how to help Wemby in future years.
15. Blazers – they are in full rebuilding mode and did well in unloading Dame, but the rebuild will take some years.
nice. so it appears that we really only have one difference of opinion, even though I think the Thunder are more like 6th in the West than 9th. Holmgren is a big part of that, so really can’t quibble much over it.
but it’s mostly the pacers and pistons that we differ on. I just don’t think they’re putting the right pieces around Haliburton and have noticed that his good or great games don’t necessarily translate to wins. I love the player, but don’t think he should be even a top 2 scorer on the Pacers. Would love to see him prove me wrong though. I agree that Bruce Brown is a big pickup, so we’ll see how he changes things.
We mostly differ wrt where we see the Pistons in the East. Not only was Cunningham out last year but they clearly tanked. I’m guessing they’re neck and neck with the Pacers and slotting them into the 8th spot ahead of the Pacers and Hawks and just behind the Knicks.
I like where the Pistons are headed, but think they’ll need a year to gel and get into the playoff picture. Young teams tend to make a lot of mistakes. With the Pacers, it is not Brown that they added, but Toppin and Theis. They’ve got a deeper team this year, so I expect better from them.
As for Thunder, I will not be surprised to see them finish as high as 6th or 7th, particularly if the Pels lose Zion and the Grizz remain in disarray. I probably should have put the Thunder ahead of the Grizz anyway.
“it is not JUST Brown that they added.” is how that should of read.
There’s actually quite a bit more to my Pistons fever than I’ve expressed. I’ve watched the Pistons in preseason and Thompson in the summer league, and what I’m seeing is an excellent complement of veteran like patience, ball movement and playmaking to go with excellent defense from both he and Cunningham. Having those kinds of skills for both of them at their size isn’t happening on other teams. Maybe the Lakers with LeBron and Reaves but I think Thompson is better than Reaves. Tatum and Brown don’t have the same team-first approach either, nor do I think either of those can play the point like both Cunningham and Thompson can. Add in what also looks to be the complementary scoring and slashing speed of Ivey and Killian Hayes and the shooting of Bogdanovic. Then there’s a ton of size in their front court. In any case, the last time I watched them play I was extremely impressed by their poise at both ends. I assume Cunningham will be a MIP leader this year. Just doesn’t seem like a typical young team like Orlando and Houston will likely be this year.
Anyhow, just a very preliminary opinion. We’ll see how the games actually go, but the race is on between the Spurs and Pistons for biggest win differential from last year. Vegas has the Pistons winning 27-28 games this year. That’s ridiculous for a team that tanked AND didn’t have their best player on the court for most of the season.
Correction. Houston also has the same kind of tall poised skilled players in Amen Thompson and Eason. I keep forgetting about Eason for some reason. I think I’ll put him right alongside Jordan Clarkson as most underrated, or in his case more like unknown.
Rockets are projected to win 31-32 games this coming year. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them win 38-41 though, but they won’t get there if Van Vleet and Brooks are using up the minutes that would otherwise go to Eason and Thompson. And Whitmore … Jesus. They should just waive Brooks now and start Thompson in that spot instead. The sooner they admit that Brooks was a mistake the better IMO.
I’m not very impressed by the Suns even though the beat the Warriors last night. I don’t know what Vogel is thinking by playing Eric Gordon so many minutes especially in the role of PG or whatever his role is. It’s distinctly “anti-Suns” to have a guy in the backcourt put his head down on almost every possession thinking he’s going to do it all on his own. Even if it was an experiment there are better ways to experiment like giving Goodwin a lot of those minutes. Or just trusting Allen to do what he does best : create space and promote ball movement for the shooters and scorers. I hardly think it matters that Allen missed all his shots – he should never be getting fewer minutes than 5 other guys on the team.
The Warriors looked great. Easy win for them if Dray had been playing, but it shouldn’t have been THAT easy to take away so much space from Booker. Still, Warriors did that and Booker had to be the man again, just so they could eek out a win.
Suns got lucky that Okogie was hitting so many shots. Vogel needs to be better next time somehow. Obviously Watanabe needs to play more and Gordon less. I’m worried that the Gordon thing might be someone else’s decision other than Vogel’s.
Two problems hurt the Dubs last night. One, after limiting turnovers through the first 3 quarters, they gave the ball away on stupid TOs in the 4th too much. Second, their lack of height hurt them. Nurkic and Durant killed them on the boards. Wiggins played terribly, missing easy lay-ups and finger rolls. Kerr didn’t like what he was seeing from Wiggs and sat him for the last 5 minutes of the game. Overall, the Dubs shot terribly, but gotta figure that will get better. Chris Paul was exactly what he’s always been with 14 pts, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds.
On the Suns side, KD didn’t look as explosive on offense as usual, but also figure that will get back to normal. Okogie had an exceptional game, not just his shooting, but also his defense and just general tenacity. I’m guessing that his play was what limited Little to less than 3 minutes. Vogel stayed with the hot hand. Booker though, as you said, was the reason they won, with a number of clutch shots down the stretch and when the defense tried to focus on him, he was passing out for easy shots by teammates (8 assists!). Book has been a good passer in the past, but if he gets his assists up to 8 per game for the whole season, the Suns’ offense will be tough to shut down. I also think we saw how Nurkic improves the Suns, with his screens and ability to stretch the floor. He won’t be the presence in the lane like Ayton, but I think he’s a better overall fit.
Have to say that I’m more concerned about Vogel than I’ve let on, although I’m going to assume he just wanted to get this first win before starting to figure out who he’ll give minutes to and more important when to give them minutes during the game. What could he possibly have seen in the THREE minutes that Little played that he didn’t see in the 30+ minutes that Gordon played leading him to take Little out hastily but leave Gordon in for so long. I thought the Suns were grossly incohesive because of whatever his plan was to keep the ball in Gordon’s hands. I just wonder what he was thinking, what he wanted to see and more importantly what he thought he saw that led him to an offense dictated by a guard who doesn’t know how to play the point.
If that continues I’m not going to be able to watch them.
Dallas at Spurs tonight. Spurs can play Osman and Sochan alongside Wemby and not sure how Dallas stops all that passing above their heads. Mavs probably win but will they?
Champagnie is 6’9″.
According to Doc Rivers, the problem with Harden last year started with his initial failure to be named to the All-Star team last season. During the first half of the season, Harden was being a facilitator and less of a scorer. He apparently thought his scoring numbers being down somewhat led to the failure to be named an All-Star. After the All-Star break, he told Rivers that he wanted to play more with the second unit, which Rivers interpreted to mean that he wanted to do more scoring.
Harden has repeatedly called Morey a liar. I wonder if he had an All-Star bonus in his contract and Morey initially told him that he would get it anyway before reneging? I think most people have assumed it related to Morey telling him that he would be traded and failing to do so. Don’t know if this will ever be clarified.
Harden has apparently returned to the team. His absence from the team for the past week or two is allegedly because of a family issue. I wonder if he plays Thursday night against the Bucks.
Not surprised that the Nuggets beat the Lakers in the NBA season opener last night, but a little surprised that LBJ only played 29 minutes. I know that Darvin Ham said that they would have to manage his minutes better this season, but playing less minutes than all the other starters and more than six minutes less than last season’s average seems a bit excessive. Particularly when AD was having an absolutely atrocious 2nd half and James was playing well.
Meanwhile, Joker was his usual brilliant self with a triple-double. Porter chipped in a double-double. And Murray had an excellent shooting night. The Nuggets’ bench looks week though. Unless they add to it, I’m guessing a 7-man rotation (the starters plus Jackson and Braun) when they get to the playoffs. If I’m other teams, I work on getting the Nuggets into foul trouble.
sure helps when your mega-superstar (jokic) almost never gets injured.
From the first big night of the season. Standout performances mostly related to efficiency …
Pacers vs. Wizards:
Bruce Brown
27 8-11 6-8 2-2 1 2 3 1 1 0 1 3 +15 24
Nembhard
22 6-9 0-1 0-0 1 3 4 10 0 0 2 4 +12 12
Hornets v Hawks:
PJ Washington
32 12-18 1-6 0-0 1 4 5 2 0 0 1 4 +5 25
Mark Williams (????)
30 5-6 0-0 3-3 4 11 15 1 3 1 2 2 +19 13
Celtics vs Knicks:
Porzingas
38 8-15 5-9 9-10 1 7 8 0 0 4 1 4 +13 30
OKC vs. Bulls
SGA (1 turnover!!)
36 12-18 2-5 5-5 0 5 5 10 1 2 1 0 +19 31
Kings vs Jazz
Barnes
33 11-16 5-7 6-6 0 4 4 2 1 0 1 2 +10 33
Clipps v Blazers
Westbrook
29 5-8 1-2 0-0 2 3 5 13 0 0 3 3 +30 11
George
32 11-17 4-7 1-1 0 3 3 6 3 0 4 2 +23 27
and my observations …
Spurs have some great pieces that seem to work together. I was especially impressed by Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins, and maybe even more by how Popovich is giving Collins and Johnson the green light. Strange to see that on a Spurs team. I don’t know Sochan’s game well enough, but I’m guessing for Pop to let him run the show like that he must be much more efficient on average. Scary to think of an offensively efficient Sochan on that team. Very very impressed by the Spurs first night out with a bunch of relatively unknown and/or rather unheralded players. The league has been put on notice!
Pistons came back from a 19 or more point deficit LATE. They looked every bit like a veteran team. Hayes surprised me mostly. Thompson with 5 blocks. Duren dominated. Cunningham is one cool customer. Heat win this one by a hair, and probably only because this group of Pistons has never played together before. Side note is that Jaime Jacquez looked awesome. He needs to start at PG. It’s that obvious.
Doncic did a good job of looking for his shooters. Curry didn’t play much for some reason???. Neither did Markieff Morris. Mavs have a rim protection issue and need to work on their defense (curry will help), but that’s not unusual for such a new group of guys the first night out. Doncic and Kyrie look good together – Cuban must be pretty happy right now as they’re just a couple of role players away from becoming a complete team. I expect Cuban to find someone to plug up the middle soon. The guy just keeps getting unlucky with all his big man signings. It’s embarrassing how badly he’s done in that department. Not sure why Powell sat. Clearly that was a huge problem last night.
Probably won’t be reported, but after TWELVE minutes vs the Clippers DeAndre Ayton sat with 4 fouls and I think 2 shots and maybe 4 rebounds at most. He sure as hell figured out how to right his ship after that ending with 12 rebs and 3 steals in 23 minutes. I assume there’s a huge collective sigh of relief from the Blazers’ front office today.
Mostly the night belonged to SGA. Many would say Porzingas, but most of his performance was related to poorly contested 3s albeit with some great shot blocking. Good win for the Celtics, but SGA ruled the night with ridiculous efficiency and 10 assists on 1 TO with many passes in traffic vs. a decent defensive Bulls team. He looks like a fucking machine and if he stays healthy is a top 3 MVP candidate.
You didn’t mention the Magic crushing the Rockets. As much length as they have, how did the Rockets get outrebounded 57-31? The Magic didn’t even have anyone in double figures. Everyone on the team was apparently hitting the boards. I’m not surprised the Magic won, but the Rockets getting blown out by 30 is not encouraging for them. Other than Senguin, who lead the team in both rebounds and assists and was tied for the lead in points, apparently no one else was doing much. Brooks had a good shooting night, but contributed little else. Smith fouled out in 26 minutes. Amen Thompson was throwing up more 3s than anyone else, but only hit one of them. For now, I will rack this up to opening night jitters, but not a good look for the Rockets.
i didn’t mention a lot of crap from that first night. was reporting on standout performances.
the only thing about houstons game that really caught me eye as whitmore’s 0-fer. didn’t expect that.
more specifically there were too many inefficient performances even for the big scorers on Thursday. If memory serves a bunch of guys had good nights but nothing like the guys I mentioned IMO. And I only mentioned Ayton because he surprised me and I’m glad he wasn’t a complete FAIL his first night out.
Off the top of my head I think MacCullum, Zion, Ingram, Haliburton, Bane, Quickly, Bridges (Nets), Anunoby, Clarkson, Simons, Adebayo, Holmgren, Coby White, Rozier, Brandon Miller .had good nights but they didn’t stand out like the guys I mentioned. At least not to me.
I’m not worried about the Rockets at all. Eason had a very calming influence on them in summer league and Amen Thompson obviously had a bad night – who knows why. The only thing that concerns me about the Rockets is if the coach and GM aren’t on the same page or if the coach can’t connect with his guys. I do think that Sengun isn’t improving quickly enough and I hope that means Landale gets big minutes this season.
Funny that I left out the one guy who almost made the cut on my list after weds games … Cole Anthony. I left him out for some reason – maybe only because of the 2 assists, but 8 rebs and outstanding shooting in 24 minutes for a PG … very nice.
I’m surprised that Anthony Black played only 5 minutes. He should be starting soon. Not sure what’s up there.
Clearly I must revisit my assumptions wrt Charlotte. Who needs Bridges and Bouknight?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-GrZgQ7fTU
Yeah, not sure what to make of that game. The Hawks have been very dysfunctional for the past year. They shot extremely poorly against the Hornets. Was that bad shooting or the Hornets’ defense? The Hornets move the ball around well (34 assists) and Williams could be a steal as a mid-1st rounder if he throws up double-doubles like that every night. Figure it is just a matter of time before Miller replaces Hayward in the starting line-up and I will not be surprised to see the Hornets unload Hayward before the trade deadline. If Miller and Williams are this good every night, I will also have to revise my assumptions about the Hornets.
Let’s get this out of the way so I don’t need to eat too much crow later …
I’m blown away by Lillard’s first night on a new team. Amazing and wasn’t expecting that especially when several Sixers played well. Suns better be healthy when they meet up.
And my only comment about the Suns Lakers is that I’m surprised at Reaves’ usage. That team won’t win anything this year even if they make the playoffs. Okogie was dominant vs a bunch of big guys especially. Super impressive. Suns finally get a PG that keeps moving and plays with his head and can score and defend: Goodwin in a massive upgrade over Payne and much better for the Suns style than CP3. Eric Gordon has no business starting ever again. That’s just a mistake that is one reason the suns lost last night.
Makes no difference that the Lakers won.
No idea how the Jazz beat the Clippers one night before being embarrassingly run out of the Suns arena. I didn’t realize how defensively challenged the Jazz are even with Sexton and Clarkson in the lineup, but Eric Gordon and Grayson Allen were having their merry way and taking the load off of KD.
Vogel has his work cut out for him. Who starts but more importantly which guys work well together off the bench? It sure looks like KD will be covering more PFs along the baseline and in the paint, because the starting Okogie is stubbornly refusing to be replaced by anyone else. So just a guess but Suns are trending toward Beal, Booker, Okogie, Durant and Nurkic as starters leaving a ton of talent for the second unit if you can call it that. More likely it will be the 3 out of 4 amigos playing alongside Booker and KD much of the game: Goodwin, Allen, Gordon & Eubanks are showing to be at another level than the rest of Watanabe, Little, Diop, Metu. And Damion Lee wasn’t even in last night’s lineup for some reason.
Really looked good last night albeit vs. a poor defense, but some positioning questions are being answered. Eric Gordon and Grayson Allen in particular have earned their 18-24 minutes a game. Eubanks is a big surprise as it looks like he’s mobile enough to defend the 4. I’m not sure that was a reason for adding him in the trade, but it’s a damn good reason to get him some solid minutes now. I never considered that getting rid of Landale could be a good move, but am reconsidering.
Suns have the right pieces now. Still challenged wrt defending tall mobile 4s and 5s but the teams that have those likely have no way to stop all the Suns scoring. In any case we wait for Beal to get into the lineup soon (Tuesday is what I’ve read) and see how they all fit together.
I should have written that Jazz should be better defensively with Sexton and Kessler in the lineup. Not Clarkson. In any case both Allen and Gordon looked very comfortable out there.
SGA vs Nuggets today.: worst shooting game of his career when shooting more than 6 shots (first season)
2-16 and 0-4 3PG.
no clue what that was all about. disappointed I even decided to watch part of that. I assume he was ill.
Just because it couldn’t happen to a more appropriate person, here’s Steph Curry making Dillon Brooks look silly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VY8BEYWigo
The Dubs were down briefly in the 4th quarter until Steph had another Curry Flurry with 4 3-pointers to put it away. With Draymond back, the Dubs had the full squad and were able to limit minutes with only Curry playing (a little) more than 30 minutes and no one playing less than 17 minutes and 10 players getting time. It was the Rockets, so they could afford to play the 2nd team more, but I suspect the top 10 on the squad will get a lot of minutes this year.
I watched part of that with my sister in Tucson who is also a Warriors fan. And we saw Curry’s punking of Brooks. Fun to watch.
Curry looks great. Warriors look great to start the season – they should have a good shot at the title this year. Just need to figure out Jokic mostly, just like everyone else.
Rockets are improving at a scary fast rate. Van Vleet is completely wrong as a starter – I wonder if they’ll keep him in the starting lineup if only to justify their “purchase”. Jalen Green especially is clearly improved and surprised me. Nine rebounds against the Warriors. The guy can’t be even 190lbs soaking wet, but he looked much stronger and more aggressive than I’ve seen.
As you noted in a text the offense going through Sengun is better, but in addition to Green’s improvement they’re defensive minded to a man even if they haven’t figured it out yet. Surprisingly Brooks not only looked useful but he looked like the man at times. And I had forgotten about Tate. Meanwhile no Eason and no Whitmore.
Even without Klay and Kuminga, the Dubs easily disposed of the Pelicans, who were missing Ingram and Murphy themselves. Because Klay and Kuminga were out, the Dubs gave Pod and TJD quite a bit of run, more than 20 minutes each and they responded well. Pod had 5 pts and 8 rebounds and TJD had 13 pts, 9 rebounds, and most significantly, 4 blocks. Surprisingly, with Klay out, the Dubs inserted Moody into the starting line-up instead of CP3. Hopefully, this means that CP3 is basically coming off the bench for the rest of the season except for any games that Curry misses. Curry had another huge game. He’s just smoking the other teams on this road trip.
On the Pelicans side, Zion routinely had to deal with 2 or 3 defenders on him and still consistently bullied his way to the basket but turned the ball over 5 times too. If he can just stay healthy, he is just too big and fast for most defenders. I would like to see him become a better rebounder though. There’s no reason for him not to be a double-double guy every night.
Warriors are looking like a top 2 or 3 team to me. The blocks and mobility from Jackson-Davis … he could be the missing piece that completes them.
They have a very tough schedule coming up through Nov 11th. Every team is bigger – can’t wait to see Looney’s impact on these games. I assume Warriors will still outrebound all of them. Maybe not Denver. We’ll see.
Wolves are bigger too of course (starting Nov 12) but I didn’t mention since I don’t see how it will be close enough to matter.
But yeah … hell of a tough schedule
Well, it finally happened. Harden is traded from the Sixers to the Clippers.:
Clippers get: Harden, Tucker, Filip Petrusev
76ers get: Batum, Marcus Morris, Covington, KJ Martin, unprotected 2028 1st round pick, two 2nd round picks, and a pick swap.
So Clips have Kawhi, PG13, Westbrook and Harden. Who do you run the offense through? Are they all starters (with presumably Zuvac)? That would essentially be a four guard offense and Westbrook and Harden don’t defend well. Not sure this ends well for the Clippers.
Clipps sure as hell won’t win a title with those guys. Unless Harden sits on the bench. Maybe Kawhi and PG can get through to him, but hard to know if it will stick. He’s a quitter when things get tough. Not sure how that can change quickly enough. Unless they can get him to stop the partying lifestyle he’s rumored to live.
More importantly Morey gave up Tucker. That’s just strange. Why would he need to do that? Is KJ Martin worth it? He better be, because that makes no sense to me right now.
The rumor now is that the 76ers want to flip some of the player and draft assets to another team for maybe another disgruntled star like Zach LaVine in Chicago.
should be able to land miles bridges and/or boughnight (sp) on the cheap. not sure what other disgruntled players might be available and also worth it.
i still don’t get why Morey let Tucker go. Tucker is definitively the kind of efficient and high analytical value player that Morey has excelled at utilizing. And Tucker looked to be at his best or close to it last year. WTF? Is he conceding this year for something else? What would that be?
I guess it should be obvious. He’s building a team fleshed out by his next 2 and maybe 3 offseason improvements. Building around Maxey and Embiid. Lots of available talent in the league to piece into the roster. Building around Embiid and Maxey seems like a great plan. Maybe including Harris as well. Maybe Harris does things that are more valuable than I realize.
Celtics favored 5:1 vs. the 2-1 Pacers tonight. The betting world is out of control.
I almost put $2 on the Spurs last night when Suns were up by about 12 and that $2 would get me $30.
I’m going to try and watch it. Not sure how the Kings will do without Fox, so doubt I’ll watch much of the Warriors game.
shit. haliburton isn’t playing. no wonder. that’s probably $6 I can say good bye to.
meanwhile the bucks are getting DESTROYED by the Raptors.
wiseman had 4 fouls in six minutes tonight. is that a record? or ties a record?
Embiid has an axe to grind. Is Jokic better than him by consensus?
So far absolutely he is. Embiid knows that that. What’s he going to do about it?
Seems like a funny question. If I’m Embiid I’m wondering why I don’t just go tell coach I want to average 40 a game and I think we should design our offense around my touches and choices.
Why isn’t the ball going to Embiid on the block on almost every play?
Maybe the Spurs are a playoff team in year 1 of Wemby? I didn’t think they had enough around him to be a playoff team, but maybe a budding superstar surrounded by a couple of good wings (Johnson and Vassell) and a smart PG (Jones) is enough.
he’s a beast. super physical. aggressive. so mobile it’s like having two rebounders when he’s near the basket.
the only good news for the rest of the league is that he’s an average FT shooter. If he improves to above 80% it’s night night.
So the in-season tournament started tonight for the Dubs in OKC. Dubs eked out a 141-139 on a Curry floater as time was nearly out that involved a review because both Dray and Giddey touched the hoop and net. The refs initially called it basket interference on Draymond, but the review overturned it. So Dubs get their first group win in the in-season tourney. They’ve still got games against the Spurs, T-Wolves, and Kings in their group.
The Thunder were playing without SGA, but it almost didn’t matter because they were shooting the lights (over 60%, including 51.7% from 3, on the game). Lu Dort didn’t miss a shot for nearly 3 quarters. Holmgren was hard to stop inside. The Thunder’s height, length and athleticism caused a lot of Dubs’ turnovers in the 1st half, but the Dubs made an adjustment and only turned it over 4 times in the 2nd half.
Where the Warriors had an advantage was when their 2nd unit was in. All the Dubs’ starters had a 0 or worse +/-, but the bench all had positive +/-s. The Thunder don’t have a great bench yet, but that is mostly because they are all still young. As they gain experience, their bench will get deeper. They’ll be a playoff team again this year barring injuries, but give them 2 or 3 years and they’ll be championship contenders. I like their team more than the Rockets.
And the play of the game, a no-look hook lob from beyond the arc from Curry to GPII.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5W3y3p5RRgw
Ha. Toying with Holmgren. Excellent.
and he does it again at the 8:37 mark. Holmgren a full step too slow in one case and slow to see where curry was going in the next.
https://youtu.be/JntX6mPKgT4?feature=shared&t=517
Nice take. I agree. They’re loaded with draft picks as well. They could trade picks for an all star quality player. Maybe a vet or a disgruntled star like Edwards who knows?
BTW, that was supposed to say that the Thunder played WITHOUT SGA, not with. They put up 139 pts on the Dubs without SGA.
And damn, could you imagine them trading for Edwards? They could give the T-Wolves a couple of young pieces, like Isaiah Joe and Cason Wallace and like 4 1st round draft picks. Then you’ve got SGA and Antman at guard, Dort or Giddey at SF (the other as your 6th man), and Holmgren and a Williams up front. If I’m OKC’s GM, I’m on the phone to Minnesota right now trying to get that done.
More scary is that the other Ja. Williams hasn’t played more than the 15 minutes from last night. I think he’s almost as good as the Ja. WIlliams who, by the way, looks to be quite a bit better offensively than last year.
I’ll fix the typo you mention above, but it was obvious what you meant. Yeah. Pretty impressed by a few guys on that roster while SGA was out.
The Dubs’ announcers were referring to them as Santa Clara Williams (6’6″) and Arkansas Williams (6’10”) much of the time to avoid confusion. Santa Clara Williams has been playing very well this year and, like Draymond, plays much taller than he is. Last night was the 1st game of the season for Arkansas Williams, but his numbers were about what he averaged last year. Would like to see him become more of an inside presence since Holmgren will be wandering out beyond the arc often. OKC needs someone to become a big-time rebounder, as there is no reason a much shorter team like the Dubs should out-rebound them in a game. Holmgren obviously has the size for it, but since he is easily beat on defense by smaller, quicker players, teams will bring the man he is defending out to screen the ballhandler to take advantage of that. Giddey and SGA are good rebounders, but OKC could really use a guy who can grab 10+ rebounds a game.
I think the Cavs showed the blueprint for how to beat the Warriors last night. The Cavs are big in the frontcourt with Mobley and Allen and with Thompson and Jones backing them up. However, even smaller players on their team have lengthy wingspans. Between altering passes and shots, the Warriors ended up shooting poorly. It looked the Dubs were trying to get the bigs, particularly Mobley, into foul trouble, but the Cavs did a pretty good job of avoiding it. This was essentially how the Lakers knocked the Dubs out of the playoffs last year. The Warriors did insert TJD into the game yesterday, but it was a little too late although they did very well when he was in the game to counteract the Cavs’ height advantage.
We’ll see if the Dubs have the same trouble tonight with the Pistons, who are also very tall and lengthy. Given past history, I’m sure there are adjustments the Dubs can make to counteract the height issue. Phoenix with Nurkic and KD on the frontline present the same problem to the Dubs, as does Denver with Joker and MPJ.
The Dubs had two roster spots open. They just inked a new 3-year deal with Gui Santos, who they drafted in the 2nd round last year, after he spent all of last season in Santa Cruz. He’s 6’7″, which will help a little, but not much, with the height issue. I suspect the Dubs will wait till the All-Star break to fill the last roster spot, hopefully with a big man. I’m guessing that TJD may start getting increased time, particularly in games where the Dubs have a big height disadvantage.
BTW, any word on when Beal will actually play a game for the Suns. After the big off-season trade to get him, its not a good look that he hasn’t played for them yet. I guess it is some kind of back issue. It sucks that we haven’t seen the Suns at full strength yet and see how the Book, Beal, KD trio works together.
I no longer believe any of the injury updates I hear. Will just have to wait and see. However, the team is coming together defensively now that guys are getting the extra minutes. In particular Allen, Gordon, Okogie and Eubanks seem to be working well together and Bates-Diop has emerged as the newest starter recently. He seemed like a defensive liability earlier to me but maybe that’s changing.
So much for the Blazers experimenting at times with both Ayton and Robert Williams III on the court at the same time. Williams injured his right knee (he had prior injury to left knee) and will be undergoing surgery. The timeframe to return isn’t known yet, but he is expected to be out for an extended period of time.
Meanwhile, the Blazers have been starting Scoot and bringing Brogdon off the bench, however, Brogdon is playing more minutes than Scoot (and averaging more pts, assists, and rebounds than Scoot). A lot of people thought Charlotte made the wrong choice in taking Brandon Miller over Scoot with the 2nd pick of the draft, notwithstanding that the Hornets already had their PG of the future), but Miller looks like the right pick so far. But for Wemby, Miller would be the early favorite for RoY. Maybe the Blazers are playing Brogdon a lot to get other teams interested in him for a trade.
Some other recent injuries:
1. CJ McCollum suffered a collapsed lung. Pelicans might be without him for 6-8 weeks.
2. Nic Claxton has a high ankle sprain, so Nets may be without him for 6-8 weeks as well.
3. Jamal Murray has a hamstring strain. Nuggets coach Michael Malone said it won’t be a 1 or 2 game thing and that he may miss extended time.
4. Anthony Davis suffered a hip or groin spasm in the Lakers game against the Heat. Unclear if he will miss time or try to play through pain.
5. Wendell Carter, Jr. had hand surgery on a fracture in his left hand. Magic doctors will reevaluate him in 3 weeks.
6. Anfernee Simons underwent right thumb surgery. The Blazers star is expected to miss 6 weeks.
Beyond Murray missing tonight’s Nuggets-Warriors game, there will be no Draymond and GPII as well. Apparently Payton is sick and personal reasons are listed for Draymond. They haven’t stated what those personal reasons are, but the speculation is that Draymond’s wife may be having a baby as she was very pregnant when recently seen at Chase Arena.
Sigh. Was looking forward to the game. Many others to watch though. Beal might play for Suns..I’m assuming likely even though he’s listed as questionable.
Thunder/Cavs and Sixers/Celtics look like a great matchups mainly because I don’t think there are significant injuries. Celtics coming off the loss to the Wolves and playing in Philly. I smell a second straight loss, since I’m sticking to my theory that they can’t defend big men across the league. And Embiid appears to ready to break some scoring records at least in more recent NBA history..
Reports now are that Jamal Murray will be out for at least the remainder of the month.
I didn’t know about Simons. Things not going well for the Blazers so far. Or for anyone involved in the Lillard trade, although the Suns definitely look like they’re coming together.
A couple more injuries. The Heat’s Tyler Herro has a Grade 2 ankle sprain and is out for at least two weeks. Pretty much the same for the Nets’ Cam Thomas–ankle sprain that will keep him out for at least two weeks.
I had figured that Andre Iguodala would join the Warriors’ front office after his retirement, but today, he was named Acting Executive Director of the Player’s Association after Tamika Tremaglio stepped down from the job. Apparently she has been talking about stepping down since she finalized the new CBA last April. Iggy has long been part of the Player’s Association Executive Committee, so is well suited for the job, however, I don’t know if he is seeking the permanent gig or not.
great choice!
Eason is back for the Rockets who destroyed the lakers last night (without AD playing). Not sure where Whitmore was but didn’t see him in the lineup. Makes me wonder if there are some attitude issues.
I read that the Rockets sent Whitmore to their G-League team a couple of days ago. This goes back to the stupid decision to pay Dillon Brooks all that money in the sign and trade deal with the Grizz AFTER they drafted Thompson and Whitmore. All 3 are 6’7″ and with Brooks making a lot of money, the Rockets need to play him to justify the contract. I hope the Rockets dump Brooks at the trade deadline. Both Thompson (currently out with sprained ankle) and Whitmore should be getting plenty of playing time so that they are quality players in a few years when this team could be a championship contender.
This will be a fun topic throughout the year I think, or rather hope: while I completely understand your points and while I agree that Brooks brings an unnecessary amount of high risk negative reward unpredictability, I also think the Rockets can afford to take the chance right now as he shows the rest of his teammates how to play their asses off. He’s a hustler, and like Grayson Allen and Pat Bev there’s at least one good reason to have one of them on your team: you won’t have to worry about playing against them.
But some of my thoughts on this are in hindsight, because he’s been playing well for them and if they think they can afford to roll the dice for most of the length of his contract then the start of this season alone might be worth it as his value increases across the league. That happened to Pat Bev incidentally. The Rockets were the ones ridding themselves of him thinking he added little value. I think the Clippers did the same thing. But now he’s a valued commodity.
All speculation on my part, because I’d need to know a lot more about his and the team’s “psychology” to be better at guessing the level of risk involved.
I get that Brooks could bring a grittiness/toughness to the team. That might be fine on a one year deal, not four years. Thompson and Whitmore have much bigger upsides though and Brooks is taking away from their playing time. I fear the Rockets are gonna eff up their future by either not developing their youngsters well enough because they are not getting enough playing time OR having those youngsters want out of Houston because players like Brooks and Van Vleet are taking their playing time. Frankly, I would have given the youngsters all the playing time this year and next year and if they then needed some toughening up, you bring in a vet on a short term deal to show them how.
Yes, I understand your points well. But Houston can afford to trade him after two years now that his stock has climbed significantly from where it was and I think they should roll the dice hoping he can keep it going at least through 2025 playoffs. They can trade or jettison his 2 years left after that. Teams are doing that league wide anyhow as they look for ways to pay their main contracts. Houston has plenty of room to make some mistakes as they roll the dice on different ways of quickly bringing up this team of young talent. Cutting him loose after 2 years even if they do it at a $$ loss isn’t that different than what other teams are doing with some of their talented players. It’s become an inefficiency built into team structuring. No matter what you do you’re likely to need to take losses on some of your bigger contracts.
More important is that I doubt Whitmore will be affected much. From what I’ve seen of the Rockets’ game they’re missing exactly what Whitmore brings: an un-guardable high volume scoring big. Brooks is finding his place and having his fun and they’re winning in part because of the energy he brings. I think Whitmore will see playing time after mid-december because, to your point, he needs the minutes that aren’t available to him now. I also think it’ll be impossible to keep Amen Thompson off the court. IMO they should experiment on going big with Thompson and Whitmore coming in for Van Vleet and Jalen Green and moving those two (Thompson and Whitmore) around to different positions while trying Jabari Smith at C when Sengun needs to sit. I think this lineup could work well for them even though Smith is small in the middle.
Jalen Green, Brooks, Thompson, Whitmore, Smith
There’s really no reason Van Vleet needs to get so many minutes but he could come in with Sengun and replace Smith and Brooks for example.
Where I agree with you is that there seems to be no reason for them to have given Brooks a four rather than a three year deal. Seems like they wouldn’t do that unless another team was considering the same. Hard to imagine that though.
As you can tell almost all my thoughts are written with 20-20 hindsight. Regardless, I think Houston is able to roll the dice on a few strategies since they have a lot of room for error and a large number of ways they can flesh out their team going forward.
Based on mins played per game, I think it’s Van Vleet who needs to be pulled out more often. Check it out:
https://www.espn.com/nba/team/stats/_/name/hou/table/game/sort/avgMinutes/dir/desc
He’s the guy keeping Thompson off the court. And I’m not sure why Smith is getting fewer than 30 minutes a game, but it seems clear that by pulling Van Vleet, Brooks, Green and Sengun off the court more often there’d be plenty of minutes for Thompson and Whitmore and maybe Eason instead.
Yeah. I don’t like Van Vleet getting the most minutes at all. That’s weird, and I don’t see any reason for it.
Also, and I know this is a stretch but not too much of one I think …
If Houston has assembled a brain trust that includes someone with a psychology degree (or the equivalent) then there may be a sensible strategy that appeals to Van Vleet and Brooks that goes like this: everyone knows that Whitmore needs to get minutes this year. Both Van Vleet and Brooks know that he could be the future of the Rockets offensively along with Green. So when the time comes to tell them (not ask) that their minutes will be reduced because Whitmore is coming up it’s unlikely to be a surprise to either of them.
Another way to think of it is that it’s clear to everyone that Whitmore is paying his dues early in his career while others benefit from his “sacrifice” (if you will). Van Vleet and Brooks will simply need to man-up when they’re told to play fewer minutes. If they’re about winning in the playoffs this year they’ll realize it’s an obvious decision and they’ll go along with it.
But really, Van Vleet playing 35+ minutes on THIS team?? I’ll be surprised if that continues.
I totally agree that Van Vleet should not be getting 35+ mpg. In fact, he shouldn’t be getting even 30 mpg. I suspect that the reason he does is that he’s the only real PG on the team (Holiday is listed as a PG because of his height, but doesn’t distribute the ball well). I would like to think that one or more of Green, Thompson, & Whitmore can develop into a good ball distributor given time. That’s one reason I want to see them getting a lot of minutes. Thus far, the only one outside of Van Vleet that moves the ball well is Sengun.
As for Brooks, he has shot extremely well so far this year, but I don’t believe he will keep up this pace. He doesn’t rebound or pass well, though we know he can defend. If, as you suggest, the Rockets brain trust has a tacit agreement with Van Vleet and Brooks to accept reduced playing time as the season goes on, I think that would be great. Frankly, I don’t believe that such an agreement exists though.
I think I’m playing at a bit of devil’s advocacy here, but since 1) we can’t know what the Rockets front office is thinking and 2) it’s fun to speculate regardless … I’ll take a stab at this point as well: they may be considering and agree with most if not all of what you and I are thinking here, and they don’t intend to continue going they way they’re going. Eason is back and that’s a huge difference. But also because they know Amen Thompson is their best all around player and mature as well and it makes no sense to keep that kind of player off the floor unless injury is the main concern.
Since Sengun is improving and greasing the wheels of the offense, he needs minutes. Since Jabari Smith and Amen Thompson are your two all around players they need to be out there together forming some cohesion alongside Sengun. And because Jalen Green (with the exception of last night) is showing that he belongs in the conversation with the best scorers in the game right now AND because he’s been playing solid defense then he needs to be part of the mix with those other 3 players.
Van Vleet is taking away from all that with big minutes. When he’s on the floor he should be a spot up shooter or a slasher/shooter/penetrator but unless he’s going to be pass first in concert with the other 4 guys then this isn’t a good recipe for the Rockets future. Let him start and then finish at the end of each half, but 24-26 minutes is where he should be at on this team.
IMO Brooks doesn’t get in the way of the cohesiveness of the other 4 I mentioned because he won’t prevent Sengun and Thompson from running the offense. Van Vleet will do exactly that however. I want to believe that their front office knows all of this and wants Thompson out there so he can prove he’s their #1 ball distributor going forward. Time will tell!
We’ve got an interesting contrast to look at when considering what is the proper way to build a team. The Thunder and Rockets have been essentially the same the last few seasons. They traded away stars, picked up boatloads of draft picks and are building for the future. Both have some really good, very promising young players.
For the last 3 years, the Thunder have basically not played anyone over the age of 25 in their rotation. They seem to be working on the philosophy of giving the young guys all kinds of minutes to build experience.
The Rockets meanwhile, have five guys in their rotation this year age 27 or more. They had essentially the same thing two years ago with 4 players age 26 or more in the rotation. Interestingly, last year, only Eric Gordon (34) and Jae’Sean Tate (27) were older than 25 and in the rotation and they traded Gordon at the deadline last season.
So far, I think the Thunder philosophy has worked better and it looked like the Rockets were going that way. I wonder if Kevin Porter, Jr. basically getting himself kicked out of the league changed how Rockets brass were approaching this season and caused them to panic and sign Van Vleet.
That brings up a league-wide possibility. Porter is sitting out there as a free agent. What team takes a shot on him? Yes, he will likely come with a suspension, but if you are a good team, why not take a chance? I’m a little surprised that the Thunder simply waived him after the trade from the Rockets. Seems like Porter would be a good fit there. What good team needs a PG? Is the PR hit in signing him too big for any team to take the chance?
Miami, Toronto and Chicago come to mind although I doubt Riley would take the chance. Bulls certainly need to do something fast or just blow up the whole thing. Should have done that already.
Not your usual injury…Kelly Oubre, Jr. was hit by a car while walking in Philly. He is expected to miss significant time, though the injuries are not expected to be season-ending. Oubre has been giving Philly 16 ppg and 5 rpg thus far this season as basically the fourth option on offense. I suspect Covington will get a lot of his minutes.
The Dubs had a terrible weekend. There is a common denominator to their losses this year. The Cavs, T-Wolves, and Nuggets all have very tall, lengthy, athletic big men. Even the Suns have KD and Nurkic, though Nurkic is not very athletic. The Dubs have shooters, but a lot more shot get altered by these teams. Although the Rockets present that kind of team as well, they aren’t good enough yet, so the Dubs were able to get by them, though the Rockets made it a game until the end. The Dubs are probably lucky that they faced the Pelicans without Valanciunas and Ingram and the Pistons without Duren. They beat the Kings twice because the Kings are built like the Dubs, without an athletic big man. Sabonis provides some height, but the Dubs repeatedly ran circles around him.
I believe I mentioned back at the beginning of the season that this could be a problem for the Warriors. Thus far, it has been borne out. I suspect that they will try to get bigger before the trade deadline, though I’m not sure who willl be available or what the Dubs would have to give up. In the meantime, I think they have to start playing Kuminga more than 20 mpg to give themselves an athletic boost. Maybe Payton a little more for the same reason.
One stat that evidences the Warriors’ problems with height and length…the Dubs are last in the league in paint points. To overcome that, they need to be among the best at 3-pt shooting. They are not right now. Not counting a couple of reserves with very few attempts, other than Curry (44.6%) and surprisingly, Green (45%), no Dub is shooting better than 36.4% (Payton) from the arc. Gotta hope that Klay (34.7%), Saric (33%), Kuminga (18%), Paul (16%), and Wiggs (15%) start shooting better from deep.
You might have mentioned the height as an issue. I know I mentioned it as not only an issue but as the Warriors #1 issue. In particular I singled out the Thunder in addition to the Nuggets as the biggest challenges. I think I’ve mentioned this several times since the start of last year or even earlier as I began to see a proliferation of taller quicker and headier ball distributors and playmakers across the league, but this year it’s Holmgren that concerns me the most after Jokic.
I was curious so I watched some of the Cavs – Blazers game last night. Blazers are another team with taller longer guys that play defense and move the ball. Not great shooters, but Billups appears to have them playing with the right amount of defensive minded intensity and professionalism.
So there’s another team that might be bothering the Warriors and, once Durant moves on, the Suns as well.
Jacquez, Black, Holmgren, Thompson Brothers and Wemby have changed the size/length of their teams substantially. and we’re only a month into their first year. Batum went to Sixer so they get taller and more defensive minded.
Meanwhile Podzemski(sp?) is what … 6′ 4″ which would have been adequate for a player at his position in past years but that’s short now. Suns added 6′ 3″ Beal. Lakers have a ton of height. Nuggets have Braun at 6′ 6″
Kings aren’t as long as these other teams, but they’re not short either. Long enough I guess.
Clippers now seem slow and old and definitely not tall unless Paul George starts playing like a younger version of himself.
I think the Clippers are done for. They’re 0-5 since the Harden trade and he’s only averaging 15 ppg, 4.4 rpg, and 4.2 rpg in 32 mpg. Basically, he and Westbrook are the same player, except Harden is a better, though still not great, shooter. The Clips have 6 guys on the roster with 10+ years in the league. Kawhi, PG13, Russ and Harden are all guys who need the ball in their hands. They are predictably a dumpster fire.
So Warriors were playing without Steph tonight (knee soreness) and less than 2 minutes into the game, this happened:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufn9a4EwBG4
Jaden McDaniels and Klay Thompson get into a shoving match with McDaniels ripping Klay’s jersey, Rudy Gobert then grabs Klay around the upper chest (announcers said it was a headlock, but it wasn’t, though you could see how someone might interpret it that way), then Draymond comes in and puts a chokehold on Gobert. McDaniels, Thompson and Green all got ejected. No punches were thrown, so maybe there will be no suspensions.
With the Dubs seriously shorthanded, the youngsters got a lot of time and almost pulled off an upset. Pod, who was playing with a bandage over part of his right eyebrow, played 39 minutes, made a number of circus shots, and both he and Saric had over 20 pts, the first non-Curry Warriors to do so this season. Somehow Kuminga still only played 16 minutes though. Surprised he didn’t get more time.
On First Take this morning, Jay Williams called for Draymond to be suspended 10 games. Stephen A. said he should be suspended, but only for 2-3 games. I guess Draymond held on to Gobert for a little too long, but clearly his intention was to pull Gobert off Klay. Draymond’s reputation won’t help him.
Five game suspension for Draymond. That seems excessive to me, but as I said, his reputation didn’t help him.
Booker is back and Beal is not, yet the Suns looked unstoppable last night. Booker changes so many things on both ends. Grayson Allen started as he should – the perfect complement to a lineup with shooter/scorers around him.
I was surprised that Eric Gordon got the start and played more minutes than Okogie who’s taken his game to another level this year. I had assumed more minutes for Okogie to keep Edwards in check. I think it must say something about Gordon’s defense that I haven’t noticed. Also possible that Vogel is seeing Gordon improve in this new role and wants him to continue getting minutes to continue the improvement? Just a guess.
Drew Eubanks was a steal. Nurkic has turned into a high post passing demon. Can’t wait to play the Nuggets when both teams are healthy. I like what I’m seeing from the Suns.
What I’m seeing in the ROY race so far this year …
If I rank according to what the players mean to their teams winning % I’d list it this way:
Anthony Black
Chet Holmgren
Jaime Jacquez
Victor Wembanyama
If I rank according to their statistics …
V.W.
C.H.
If I rank according to their overall impact on the game at both ends …
A.B.
C.H.
J.J.
V.W.
Not that it matters, because Wemby will get the votes regardless if they can win some games and I’m sure they will soon when they get healthy (Keldon Johnson is out now). However, Anthony Black is the perfect piece for the Magic. He does everything and he’s everywhere. He’s like a speedier Grayson Allen that can jump. Or better comparison would be a taller Maxey. I’m sure people are comparing him to Anfernee Hardaway. He’s so much better than that though.
Interesting though. Black is reminding me of Penny in some ways. Weird coincidence that they landed him at #6 in this draft when he should have gone before Ausar and Brandon Miller IMO.
Amen Thompson was the better choice for Charlotte. Hindsight I know, but teams are beating each other with the tall guys that pass well, and LaMelo – Amen would be an incredible combo.
Guess I’ll have to watch Orlando at some point, because Black’s stats don’t suggest that he’s having much of an impact. He’s listed as a PG, but averages less than 2 apg and I’m guessing that he’s not actually playing much PG with Anthony and Fultz on the roster. His shooting percentage from the line and the arc are terrible. I’m interested to know what you’ve seen from him so far.
Black is a show. It’s hard to describe the value he brings without watching games. Rather it’s hard to explain in a few words but I can try …
at 19 he’s already a top 10 defender in the league. but he’s so much more than that. He’s better than Bridges was his first two years defensively, but it comes at a cost and this is probably what we’ll be seeing as long as he keeps starting: his feet and hands are so frickin fast for his size that his game is constant anticipation getting in the way of almost everything the opposing offense tries to do. He’s everywhere a human can possibly be (like Kidd was in his prime – remember that Black is 3-4 years younger than Kidd when Kidd came in) …. so he tends to get in foul trouble because of his style. But the Magic are an excellent team. I think top 8 in the league from what I’ve been seeing. They can afford to keep him on the floor as he figures it out. I’m guessing that means until he figures out the faster speed and better coordination of NBA players.
He doesn’t need to shoot a single shot to be effective. If he’s not the best passer on the team he’s right there with whoever is (Anthony or Suggs I guess though Banchero is improving his oeverall game at a scary rate).
So I’d say Orlando is must watch NBA if you ever decide to watch a non-warriors game. Just imagine it’s a 19 year old Kidd out there. But taller and faster without the eyes in the back of the head.
I’ll add this as well, although it’s obvious when you watch them play: the Magic should be renamed the Dogs. That’s the way they play. Like having taller Okogies out there that can pass and shoot as well. Or GPIIs if you will, albeit without the ridiculous vertical. they all play this way going 100% on every play or so it seems. Banchero and Suggs and Black set the speed and tone. Black creates all kinds of space for everyone with the constant motion at fast speed. I think he’d be more effective if he never took an outside shot at all, because it seems like he’s always able to find one of his guys with a better shot.
By the way my early nod for MIP is Suggs. Regarding Fultz … not sure what his role will be with them anymore since Anthony is also a Dog and does everything better than Fultz anyhow.
I’m holding back on even more commentary regarding Black and his absence during the Celtics game because I’m seeing even more talent on the Magic roster than I realized. I’m not sure whose time should be reduced when Black is out there. Suggs sure is making a case for being ready to go at both ends while Black is still being super and often overly aggressive defensively and overly passive on the offensive end. Even then what I see from him when he’s defending guys going to the hole is elite elite. But I get why the Magic need to get the more seasoned guys on the floor against teams like the Celtics. I doubt Orlando thought they’d be a top 4 or even top 3 team in the East this year but it’s looking that way. So maybe there will be less time trying to develop Black’s overall game. Regardless, almost every time I watch him play he does something defensively that I’ve seen very few players do. He can really mess up what offenses are trying to do all the way from the arc to the rim.
Also, I have no idea who this guy is but he’s good. Listed as 6′ 10″ but plays like a 7′ er
https://www.espn.com/nba/player/_/id/4348700/goga-bitadze
Shot blocker and fast with quick reactions. At the rate the Magic are going they’ll be in the conference finals, but I really doubt they can keep it up without other teams catching up to them.
probably stating the obvious but Klay can’t be pulling up against faster longer defenders. He needs to drive and finish, He’s a great FT shooter. Just drive and dominate that way.
Klay definitely needs to evolve his game. You are right that he can’t keep up with younger, quicker, longer players. I thought I saw him start to dribble and drive more last year, but he’s reverted this year to the catch and shoot player he has always been. Maybe the Dubs can start setting some screens for him with CP3 or Steph to get a smaller defender on him. Then he has the option of driving for the layup or pulling up for a short jumper.
The same is true for Kuminga. While he drives more than Klay, he too often is content to sit at the arc and wait for a swing pass to take a 3. His game should be all about aggression. No team respects his 3-pt shot, so they will always lay off him out there.
Kuminga seems to be fitting in perfectly with the new “style” of tall and fast and powerful athletic guys who take advantage of the relaxed (but more accurate IMO) rules regarding defenders not-quite-set outside the circle. I really like this change in the league where these Dr. J types take flight 8-14 feet inside the arc and before the defender can get good position. I think what I like most about that kind of aggression is that it gives players like Kuminga and their teams a better option than settling for the 3pt shot. Starting to look like every team has one or two guys like this now that can fly to the hole under control. I’d like to see Moody do more of that but not sure he’s got the vertical. On the Suns it’s two white guys in Allen and Eubanks who are doing this more often. It seems like Little is getting more playing time now so hoping I’ll see more of that from him.
When Kuminga moves and cuts to the basket, he is electric. He is at his best on fast breaks. I just want to see him do that more and do some pick-and-rolls with CP3. However, Kuminga sometimes spends too much time standing around at the arc watching others and waiting for a pass. Moody doesn’t have the athleticism to do what Kuminga can do. However, Moody knows his role and the schemes and is not found out of position too often.
Read today that the Wizards don’t view Jordan Poole as part of their future, but want to feature him in the early part of the season so that they can flip him at the deadline. Unclear if they always thought this or are already tired of his game. He has shot pretty poorly so far this season (16.6 ppg, 39.6 FG%, 28.4 3pt%) and is only dishing out 3.5 apg. I’m sure he sees a lot less wide-open shots in Washington than he did in Golden State and may not be able to handle the increased defensive pressure on him as the “man” in D.C. He probably needs to be on a team where his role can be similar to what he was in S.F. 6th man-type with other players that the defense needs to key on. Philly, Milwaukee, and the Lakers are all teams where he could be an asset and wouldn’t be tempted to be the man.
Chicago as well I think
It would be unkind, uncool and probably unwise to not at least mention the name Haliburton here this morning.
What a game.
And for that matter I should have mentioned Holmgren twice already within the last 7 days. Easily right there with Wemby for ROY unless and until Spurs can get some wins.
Really great game by Haliburton and the Pacers have beaten some really good teams this year (Cavs twice, Bucks and Sixers). However, the Pacers have also lost to teams that they should be beating (Hornets, Bulls). Barring injuries, Haliburton will comfortably lead the league in assists this year and should be an All-Star and on one of the all-NBA teams at year’s end.
I have no idea where to start after watching a few of the many awesome games yesterday, but since there are no games today I’ll take my time doing it and maybe write up some things over the next 3 days. But first will start by saying I couldn’t watch any of Suns-Warriors so if you did please share your thoughts. I do know that Little played bigger minutes than usual as I was hoping to keep a body on Wiggins and Kuminga. I understand that he did well.
But the story from my POV is that yesterday is exhibit A that the league is vastly changed wrt parity and talent level and style of play. I think the Warriors are to thank for that mostly, but also the ’92-94 Suns and the “system” based Spurs since Duncan-Parker-Ginobili. Teams are now all moving the ball quickly getting defenses out of position and finding the interior pass with cutters timing their dives more precisely. Centers are passing or at least looking to pass quickly. Defenders are aggressively getting hands everywhere. And although the 3pt shot still rules it seems that very few teams are playing as if the entire goal is to get 3pt shots for their best shooters.
The aggression and quickness is what I’m seeing mostly, and teams that are doing that best seem to have the advantage. But since they’re almost all being aggressive with quickness and (mostly) under control the games get close or stay close and the result is what happened last night: about 10 games that could have gone either way.
I’ll cut this short for now but mentioning a few things that stand out to me:
– Ayton didn’t play but the Blazers were crushing the Jazz most of the game. There’s an asterisk there since Kessler is still out, but even with Scoot looking like shit the Blazers play well together with exactly the aforementioned aggression and ball movement and attack.
– Philly gave the Celtics a run for their money without Embiid and Oubre. I’m surprised they’re still able to score so well against an elite defensive team.
– Something is up with Cleveland that I don’t understand. They appear to be the most inconsistent team in the league, when they should be ready to for title contention. I’m not even sure if they’re a top 12 team in the league with all these younger teams shooting past them. Weird.
OK. Duh. Mitchell didn’t play last night. My injury report sources are pretty fucked up apparently.
OK. Regarding games played on 10/22 a few more notes …
I’ve been watching Houston on and off and they’re nowhere close to being a cohesive group that knows each other. And yet they’re a threat to win almost every game they play. That’s effin scary for 2024-2025, but I think will take some time. Still, they can make noise and probably will be in the playin tourney. Sengun and Jabari are one hell of a backbone to build around. I’m not sure which front court is better right now. I guess Jokic/Gordon and Looney/Dray. What’s interesting about Jabari Smith is that he went second because Banchero was universally labeled as “more ready for the pros” than Smith, but those two are the spitting images of 10 year all star veterans already. And as mentioned before Jalen Green is bigger and more physical and starting to catch up to Anthony Edwards in many ways as most un-guardable players under 23. Houston can trade Green and one or two others (like Tate or Eason) for a veteran superstar that shoots, scores, passes and defends and they’ll be ready to contend in 2025. I’m thinking someone like Mikal Bridges at the 2 spot. Scary, especially since the Van Vleet and Brooks experiment has been surprisingly successful. Who would have thought all this after Morey left?
More later on other stuff. OKC and Orlando!!
Apparently Josh Giddey is under investigation by the NBA for an improper relationship with an underage girl back in Australia. Details are very sketchy right now, so hard to know what to think. The allegations were made in Twitter posts just before Thanksgiving. Giddey and the Thunder are refusing comment on the situation.
Weird. I guess the issue relates to Aussie law and extradition perhaps? I wonder what the players association has to say about it. Nothing I assume.
Definitely weird. I don’t understand why this seems to only be an NBA investigation right now. If Giddey had an inappropriate relationship with a minor, it seems like Aussie authorities would be the ones investigating. I haven’t seen the original Twitter posts about it (since deleted and I haven’t found any other site that saved them). In any event, the Thunder did not think they needed to suspend him while the NBA investigation goes on.
More injury news:
1. LaMelo Ball sprained his right ankle and will miss “extended” time according to Shams.
2. Kristaps Porzingis is out with a calf strain and will be reevaluated in a week or so.
3. Jamal Murray (hamstring), Nikola Jokic (back), and Aaron Gordon (heel) all missed the last game (and they still beat the Clippers) and are all expected to miss their next game.
4. Rui Hachimura: had a medical procedure to repair a nasal fracture and will be reevaluated in a week.
5. Marcus Smart: has a left foot sprain and is expected to miss 3-5 weeks.
6. Bradley Beal: he will get reevaluated in 3 weeks for his back strain. This has all the earmarks of a lost season for him and not the way to begin his time with the Suns.
Mark Cuban is selling a majority stake in the Mavs to Miriam Adelson, the widow of casino mogul Sheldon Adelson. However, under the terms of the deal, Cuban will retain control of basketball operations. Seems strange that someone would buy a majority stake without having control. I wonder if there is anything written into the deal where she could take control upon the happening of some contingency. Also wondering why Cuban would do this. Is he hard up for money? Who knows.
I mentioned I had a lot to say about last night’s Warriors v Kings, and I do but no need to throw it all down here now. Especially since the overall gist of my thoughts requires that the Warriors get back to healthy. But my comments relate to the East Coast media bias ONCE AGAIN!
I think Jeff Van Gundy is great, but only up to the extent that he can be objective when watching west coast games that usually end after he’s already gone to bed just as is the case with probably 90% of the NBA media personnel. Here’s what I noticed 2-3 years ago (contributing to an NBA title during that time by the way) : Kerr, Curry and Green know what they’re doing at both ends of the court so unless you watch the Warriors constantly don’t say stupid things like “turnovers are going to get them into trouble”.
Turnovers will get the Warriors into trouble only if they result in losing a playoff series. When did that happen last? Not last year, and obviously not the year before when they won the title.
The Warriors for years now tend to experiment with timing and spacing and movement throughout the regular season by pushing the pace to its limit. That keeps guys heads up and turned looking for the pass or loose ball or cutter or open lane or pick and roll and doing all of it more quickly than any other team in the NBA. They obviously lose games during the regular season because of the turnovers and errant passes and out of position miscommunications, but that just presents more opportunity for film study and discussion and room for improvement.
They’ve been doing this for years, and JVG? They were down 2 men last night and with all your concerns and the turnovers they were still the better team.
This idea that a championship is won by the team with a 1-2 or 1-2-3 punch is now officially OLD. Going forward the teams that win will be the teams that play best together at both ends for as close to 48 minutes. Warriors do that. Nuggets do that. Suns are doing that. Magic do that best now. Kings are getting close if they aren’t already there. Same with the Thunder and maybe the Wolves as well.
If the Celtics are going to win they’ll need to pick up the pace of ball and player movement at both ends, but it looks like they’re not going to be that kind of team. It’s all about Tatum and that’s going to keep them from winning it all this year. Instead the Sixers and Magic appear to be the better teams at all around attack and speed and relentlessness. All that is coming from the West coast and Pop and Kerr especially.
The media has it all wrong. Kerr, green and Curry aren’t stupid. Ya know?
As you mentioned, all the turnovers caused by the Warriors’ style of play will cause them to occasionally lose games. Last night, turnovers deep in the 4th quarter were a major contributing factor to the loss. One of the reasons that Warriors were interested in bringing CP3 in was to reduce their turnovers and he has been a major help in that department so far this year. So losing him after one quarter last night was not good. Also, CP3 would have calmed the Warriors down in the closing minutes when they got out of control.
Three other major contributing factors to the loss:
1. Losing GPII for the critical 4th quarter stretch drive. He brings so much energy and defense.
2. Draymond losing his cool after the tech in the 4th. It probably was a bad call, but he’s got to know that he will get more scrutiny than virtually any other player in the league. After the tech, he was playing out of control and Kerr even removed him from the game for a few minutes.
3. Steve Kerr made two bad decisions. One was challenging the Steph foul that was clearly a foul. He lost his last timeout with that challenge, so that the Dubs could not call time out and set up a play after the Monk go ahead shot. Then, with Moody playing great in the 4th, Kerr took him out of the game. About a month ago, Kerr said the closing line-up would be based on who had the hot hand. That was Moody in the stretch run, but Kerr took him out. Even if Moody wasn’t hitting his shots, he is a better defender than Klay at this point.
Dubs have had one of the hardest schedules of any team so far this year, so they will be fine IF the injuries don’t pile up.
BTW, Wiggs had his best game of the year last night, on both ends of the court. It was reported yesterday that the Warriors were unhappy that Wiggs came into camp out of shape. If true, and he is now rounding into shape, the Warriors could sorely use the Wiggs of two season ago.
Meanwhile, it was also reported that, despite his protestations, Klay is unhappy that he didn’t get a new contract in the off-season. Klay has been visibly upset at times, both on and off the court. He played well in the first half last night, not so much in the second half. Gotta wonder if the lack of a new contract has contributed to his poor start this year.
I just don’t think that losing a regular season game matters much to Kerr unless they get blown out or obviously if someone gets injured. There are a lot of bad reasons to lose games, and most of those reasons are much worse than adding up the turnovers and saying “too many”. It’s not really why the Warriors lose when they lose. A much much bigger factor is that Klay isn’t as valuable as he used to be and he isn’t attacking and obviously not hitting the shots he should be hitting. That’s something to discuss long before anything at all related to turnovers
CP3 brings the high % shooting from mid range as well as a 3pt shot when needed. I think that’s way more important toward winning in the post season than regular season turnovers which I actually don’t think make a damn bit of difference wrt the likelihood that the Warriors will win a title.
I think the same thing wrt the Magic, Suns and Thunder. I doubt there’s any metric which corelates well between turnovers and win-losses for any of these teams.
Update on GPII. He tore his calf muscle. Best case scenario is that he returns in 4-6 weeks. Worst case scenario is that he is out 3 months.
damn
A few notes on some unrelated items …
Suns looked like shit vs Toronto on Weds night. They seemed uncoordinated and at times unfocused – two things I never think of when watching them play over the last 3 weeks. Then I realized Grayson Allen wasn’t in the lineup. Dude makes all the difference, and they’ll need him back asap. I think he was ill rather than injured and expect to see him back tonight.
Anthony Edwards apparently has a right hip “pointer” which I suppose is the best news possible considering the magnitude of the impact (with the floor). Still, that could keep him out awhile. With him you never know though.
Extremely surprised that the Warriors could beat an improving Clippers team with only 13 minutes from Looney. Still, Curry had 8 rebs and Loon 5 in 13 minutes.
Chet Holmgren sure is a big story. OKC is woefully inconsistent though, but that may be their only problem and it’s early still.
Anthony Black played 27 minutes as a starter vs. Wizards Weds night: his 4th most this year. He had a good game albeit with only 5 shots taken. Just another example of how everything is falling into place with the Magic as they can continue to keep him on the floor while Suggs, Banchero, Cole Anthony, Bitadze and the Wagner bros are all shooting their team into very near term title contention. At this rate Black will be a force in the playoffs if not long before then – he simply is an elite defender on an elite team and he makes great decisions with the ball in his hands. I really don’t see how any team in the East can beat them in a 7 game series. Too much. Too good.
Banchero is in 31st place among all MVP candidates at +50000 odds. $1 gets you $500 if he wins. That’s the most absurd thing I’ve seen in weeks.
The MVP race appears to be impossible to call. Two weeks ago I would have said Jokic in a landslide because I didn’t see anyone else contending at that level. But if these players stay relatively healthy and can play at least 65 games each … Joker has some mean competition in Edwards, Zion, SGA and I’m fully expecting Curry, Doncic and Banchero to keep rising on the charts soon as well.
Yes, I do realize that Zion will likely go MIA not long after I write submit this comment, but his impact on the winning Pels has been undeniable. He’s back to his historically outstanding FG% ways – that alone is MVP worthy.
All the chatter nationwide about what’s wrong with the Warriors and Klay and Moody this and Moody that … I’m sure Kerr would be laughing if he didn’t have to deal with Dray’s antics and the recent injuries to CP3 and GP2. I completely understand why Klay needs the minutes as a starter and agree with Klay that he should decide what his role is. If he wants the starting minutes he should keep them. Regardless, once the two injured players are back the joke will be on the rest of the league. It’s simple math: Looney is so fucking good he’s the easy all-star nod no-one knows about. Moody is at the most underrated level now and ascending. Kuminga is a problem for any team on any given night. Saric is better than ever and should be considered for MIP. Curry and Dray are better than ever. The math alone says this is the 2024 champion. When healthy. But there’s a ton of work to do.
I rewrote the comment above in case you already read it.
I also added a comment just now that Black actually didn’t play the most minutes this year but rather his 4th most minutes. All while Suggs is skyrocketing toward MIP candidacy, which in my opinion is a very easy call. Will be interesting to see how Fultz fits in when he returns from knee tendonitis.
Wendell Carter Jr hasn’t been part of the success BTW. I wonder if he’s quick enough to fit in with what they’re doing. Especially with Bitadze playing so well and fitting in so seemlessly.
So sad to have lost my good friend and great NBA enthusiast. Arnold, these forums were mostly you and your immense historical and factual knowledge. Much more so than it was my hypothetical meandering.
You kept it all together and going strong for years. You will be sorely missed.
J