Warriors vs Rockets |GM-16|

What makes your commentary next-level is the little humor in it. Like you obviously know basketball mad well but then you have me dying with that steve kerr mike brown impression

Slater

Another half-hearted loss to the Mavs tonight. Since it appears to be a sure thing as KD said he's already out, we ought to be looking to trade him before the Feb deadline. Can get a first round pick along with a good player or two.

Nirky

I rest my case on the Dray vs. KD trade opportunities. <a href="https://fansided.com/2018/11/15/warriors-choose-between-draymond-durant/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://fansided.com/2018/11/15/warriors-choose-between-draymond-durant/</a>

I can start one. I probably won’t be in there often. I’m usually a little behind on games from my DVR. As well as having to take notes during.

Athletic Alchemy

Good catch! I don’t think Shaun wants to play anymore honestly.

Athletic Alchemy

You should start a discord chat so we can discuss the games live.

The turnover at 12:54 ain't Klay's fault, imo. Livingston slowed down somehow at the 3point line for whatever reason, so his defender was able to catch up, and that's why you see Klay at the last second try to adjust the pass off the floor. If Shaun kept running would have been an easy 2.

Ivan (Vanya) Kashperuk

That game was irritating. I dont know if you were able to watch the Bay Area broadcast but they were saying how garbage the Rockets defense is when they drive to the paint and that’s when they were able to get 4-5 buckets in the paint back to back. I don’t understand why they didn’t attack the paint as much

Kahlil Baker

If you could surround KD with 3 and d guys it would work really well. As of now we only have Klay, some of these teams have 3 and 4 of them.

Athletic Alchemy

I know the offense kinda sucks without Curry, but one of my favourite parts of last year was the 10 game stretch in December when Curry was out and KD, Draymond and Bell looked like they were gonna be the greatest defensive back court of all time. Most of those games were fights and not pretty, but so satisfying. Would really like to go back to a defensive mindset whenever Curry's injured.

The way that teams should deal with unrestricted free agents is to communicate with them and work with them, and be honest about what they're willing to pay them. That way there can be more trades engineered for players to go where they want to go, for the money or whatever, and so less disruption arising out of free agency. If the Ws are only willing to pay, say, $100M to Dray over 4 years in 2020, then they should be talking to him about that next summer, and he should be communicating back what his reaction to that would be, so if it's that he wants to go to certain other teams they can start working on trades. The soft cap creates this situation where many of the teams cannot replace a top player who leaves in free agency, because they still don't have the cap space, and so take a huge net loss. The only way to work around that is to trade for someone who also has a questionable future and hope it works out, as OKC did with Paul George or Toronto is doing with Leonard. The NBA situation is horrible, you have maybe a dozen players in the league who basically decide who wins championships and who doesn't, and the money doesn't really play that much of a role. So Durant decided GSW would win more titles, and now he'll decide if that's over next summer, and people like Kyrie, Hayward and Lebron have decided that Boston and LA will be good again, and now people like Leonard, Durant, Davis and Kyrie are deciding how good the LAs will be or if the NYs are next. And the only other alternative seems to be the Process. Or you can grind it out like Utah, Denver, Indiana and hope for the best, but those kinds of teams almost never win championships and rarely make the finals.

I’m telling you Alch, Lacob and Myers seriously should consider trading Draymond “this” year whether KD stays with us or not. I know they don’t have the guts to do it but long term like you said, do we want him in our squad? He’s got shoulder, knee and know toe issues. The dude is banged up... If we don’t trade him this season, literally he’s gonna be a hypocrite and make the season about him next year and whether he should get the contract he deserves. If FO feels otherwise, Dray may just walk on his own in FA. Gotta think Lightyears ahead man, regardless of this KD conundrum

Yeah but another concerning point is how injury prone Curry has been as of late. If Curry was as durable as Klay, sure but without KD and Steph? Man....

eehhhh....you might be disappointed in Boogie on that end. He is smart but lazy.

Athletic Alchemy

from what I have seen, the X &amp; O's guys are very rarely former players. They had to learn the hard way and thats why they have that skill set as a coach.

Athletic Alchemy

Definitely mad as fuck as Draymond dribbling into four people and fumbling, then getting defensive about it. That said I can't wait to see Draymond and Boogie command the defense together. You want to drive to the rim on those two?

YANCEY WADE

right! he has been humbled a few times in the last 10 months tho.

Athletic Alchemy

It was odd he went to IG, can't remember him doing that in the regular season in a while.

Athletic Alchemy

Draymond was not very good, the ball didn't move and the spacing was poor. I also felt that Steve decision to sit Cook at the start of the game when the bulk of Cook's success in his time with the Warriors has been with starters playing for Steph in Steph's role was a mistake. Sure, Cook is a bad matchup defensively for their guards but by the time Cook got on the floor the lack of offensive continuity and playing out of the role he's been successful in really hampered his needed shooting and offense. Still and all, loses can serve a good function, they have for the Warriors in the past, AND we all need the reminder once in a while about the importance of our magic feather.....

Steven Stanley

Looney was the best player on the Warriors tonight. It is indeed very strange how Draymond was a 40% shooter in 2016 and is now complete trash. That can't just be an outlier, it has to do something with his form or how he is interacting with lineups. I hope the same thing isn't happening to Klay because his 3 pt shooting is atrocious (somehow makes tough fadeaways). When two of our "elite" shooters is shooting either (a) 33% or (b) unwilling o take a 3, like you said Alchemy this is a huge problem. Most of the 3 point shots have come from Cook, Jerebko, McKinnie, Iguodala the last few games. And it's not like they're shooting consistently on high volume. Rocket's interior defense in this game wasn't even good, despite them playing zone defense feasting on lack of shooting. We got a lot of open layups towards the end but no one wanted to run plays and cut to the basket.

Paradox

Kerr even admitted "Yeah when Steph is out there you kinda don't even have to run specific plays that other coaches have to make, he just makes people open". Lmao this reminds me of Casey saying the Raptors didn't make any play changes, just a roster change, when in reality the offense this year is completely different as well as the Buck's.

Paradox

I'll just leave this here: "Since Durant joined the team in 2016, the Warriors are a mere 21-18 in games without Curry in the lineup" "Without Durant in the lineup, the Warriors have instead marched on. The team has gone 25-9"

Nathan Glanzer

I like what Alch said about Kerr and his offense scheming and spacing. I get the feeling Kerr is mailing it in. Kerr's wake up call was the Clipper game. Kerr was "Oh shit, I thought I was watching the game.' No, you're the coach. That means calling a timeout and putting KD and Klay in a position to actually get a shot off. Don't even start with me about McKinnie's overtime minutes that should have gone to Livingston, who was having a very solid first game back. Doh!

YANCEY WADE

KD does deserve some blame. But the Way the league is headed, his lack of shooting is becoming more of a problem. You combine that with his body starting to age and you have to start questioning is the juice worth the squeeze... not now! But on a new max?

Athletic Alchemy

Thank God I didn't watch this crappie assed game. I'm glad Dray and KD are getting back on the good foot and doing the right thing.

YANCEY WADE

I keep seeing trade Dray, he can't shoot blah blah blah... He does other shit that is essential and we ALL know this... Every nba starter isn't a scorer... That's why Boston is going thru it, too many players need the ball... Our problem and I'm sorry to say this is K FUCKING D... We sometimes rely on him too much and get away from the ball movement that makes this team great... Also, homie is NOT a leader just a lethal scorer... Except his type of iso scoring doesn't get the team's momentum going... He needs Steph and hasn't apparent until now...

Nsikan Usen

The shit got real, man. That felt like the entire team was mentally drained by the Draymond situation, and couldn't give a shit about the game. Also, CP3 keepin' it real? Never saw that coming.

e40

I agree it premature and im guilt of it! Christmas is a good date to set for things to be back on course. I tell you what tho they lose this Texas triangle and its going to amplify!

Athletic Alchemy

agree

Totally agree.

Everyone except the kids and Jerebko seemed to be sleep-walking through this, which I think was the hangover effect. My concern with Dray is that he does seem humbled about it all, which I think is going to hurt his play and not improve anything - a Dray not playing with confidence and fire is just another journeyman undersized power forward. I don't think we'll see too much visible effect of this matter going forward, especially once Steph comes back, but the underlying aspect of this, which I think is KD's future on this team and not Draymond's, will likely continue to fester unless he does something to resolve that. And ultimately that might mean trading him, if he'll cooperate enough it that to work with teams interested to get him, because that's the only way that they can assess his value long-term. But if he wants the one more ring before moving on to a team with all its assets, there is no incentive for cooperation of any kind. This is the problem with veteran superstars in today's NBA, they have too much power, and everyone else suffers, unless you're just a fan of the player and you have no allegiance to teams, the LaBrawn effect. As a Warrior fan I was never entirely comfortable with the KD acquisition, and this season I become less of a fan of that every day.

While I certainly agree with most people here in being completely disgusted with the whole teams performance lately, especially with the Dray-KD drama going on, I don't want to be a prisoner of the moment too much. I want to continue believing and having faith that this is just another (bigger) bump in the road to the team gelling a lot more come February-March. I think this is exactly what the media and the rest of the league wants. They want there to be tension in the Warriors locker room, rumors to spread, and false claims to be made. The warriors just need to keep their wits and just play ball. This obviously shows how important Curry is to the team functioning both on AND off the court. Because if the Warriors are this brittle because they lose a few games, its going to be a LONG and DREADFUL season. Im slightly nervous and on edge like everyone else, but I want to continue holding out hope because I dont really trust the sports media. Yeah I didnt like KDs reaction or Draymonds handling of everything, but all this "KD WANTS OUT.....DRAYMOND GETTING TRADED???.....WARRIORS CHEMISTRY DESTROYED" nonsense from the media is a little overblown to me. If things arent better by Christmas, then yeah we definitlely have a serious problem. But right now, nothing is new. We know this team crumbles without Curry. We've seen it before. Its just now, our bench is much more pathetic in picking up the slack. We need better bench production (and perhaps new bench players). Without KD, the team can still function but just wont be as good. Without Steph, this team can be good, but they wont function. And thats the big difference. I think we all just gotta breathe and take a step back.

Jansen E

Moving forward as well, Dray, essentially playing the point out of necessity due to his inability and reluctance to score is not going to lend well to the newly blossoming Klay Thompson. Next year we will see the beginning of Klay’s prime which includes more play making and shooting off the dribble. Regardless if KD is there or not next season, the warriors have to move away from having 2 non shooters on the floor with Dray and a big. Curry and Klay being the primary ball handlers plus KD if still present is what’s best for the offense along with capable player makers who are a serious threat from beyond the arc. Dray loves to win, needs to win, but he obviously doesn’t love basketball and his craft the same way the other 3 do. They all came back with new moves and they all already had patented attacks at scoring. Dray went several days in row possibly weeks without shooting the basketball for more than 15 20 minutes. He has a ton of a trade value at this moment because there is a reason outside the fact we are hesitant to give him the bag. There are teams that want to roll the dice and see if he can transform their defense especially those who cannot sign big free agents for cap reasons (Wizards, Heat) or simply are not a destination (Suns, Wolves, Mavericks). This upcoming draft class is supposed to be even more stacked then the last two years. The warriors should serious be looking for a way to get their hands on a lottery pick. It won’t be easy, but with 70%+ Boogie and a healthy Curry, there’s no team in the West that will take them 7, and a real dog fight in the Finals will help everyone’s legacy.

Stevie Ray

There are so many aspects to why its hard to like the Rockets but style has to be 1b

Athletic Alchemy

solid take! didn't think about them proving a point to him...makes perfect sense.

Athletic Alchemy

There’s no scenario where the warriors trade KD unless he demanded them to do so and even then, they would be most likely trading a title for a pick and role player. Dray should officially be out on the trade block, there are several locations where he could be exchanged for strong prospects and picks the supplement upcoming season. If the warriors were open after the trade with KD and the media that the underling reason for the trade actually was the fact that they did not want to give him the bag, which they don’t, that I believe gives the best chance to get one more year with KD in a blue and yellow uniform.

Stevie Ray

I so hope Dray gets that this team played to show him they don't like his Emo BS. If they came out and killed it Dray would never stop being an Asshole. He's got it in his head that his childish antics are just him being him and everyone needs to adjust. KD gave him grief for his mistake against the Clippers and Dray just couldn't take it. You can say KD should put up with Dray no matter how bad he gets but I don't think that's correct. Dray thinks too much of himself. How would he like it if everyone got on him for his inability to shoot even a little bit. Turnover machine as well. Damn he pisses me off. At least Rodman didn't ride his own teammates.

Russ

Watching the first half of this game was so boring. Should've realized that when it was 9-6 halfway through the first. Just slow and ugly like Dray's turnovers. Means nothing, but agree Kerr needs to come up with a offensive-scheme to stopgap while Steph's out.

I could do that, I just feel like id then be repeating myself in my breakdown.

Athletic Alchemy

I can rarely make the pre-game show, but maybe a post game show could be cool. Give your quick thoughts on what happened. Just an idea.

IDK man! with everything going on I don't think so. My concern is it would give someone for KD to go off and separate himself with socially. Just my first thoughts

Athletic Alchemy

Thought on maybe signing Melo to be an offense focal point in the second unit?

SunniDaZambi

This should be good