Equally important: the NBA keeps improving. There could be 2 teams in the East better than the Warriors. Beating the Warriors is no longer the barometer. We're back to regular NBA conditions. Which means: build your team to be dynamic and flexible so that it can compete against the patterns that the top 3-4 teams are using. Also, we seem to be assuming no one in the West will improve. Nuggets won a lot in the regular season and as people predicted were not built for the playoffs. Despite that they have several players on the roster who can make internal dramatic leaps in effectiveness and Jokic showed himself to be a playoff monster. If they can convince Jokic to get into better shape and 2 of Harris/Murray/Morris/Porter improve their impact, it gets dangerous. If on top of that they "hit" on a MLE signing, we are now talking about a real contender with the likes of Bucks/Raptors. For example if the Nuggets acquire Beal with a package centered around Gary Harris and cap relief, they take a step up. If Porter can even be a good bench player, this team has improved from an inexperienced regular season winner. Mavericks always pull some sneaky ish in the offseason. What if they add to the core of Doncic/Porzingis? What if OKC gets a couple of shooters and a decent coach? Are both the Lakers and Clippers going to strike out on putting together a contender? I said this at the beginning of last season and there was a lot of resistance to it but we are most likely to get worst internally. We're the oldest time in the league. We have to improve more than others improve in order to counter act that wear and tear on older players. Paul, Tucker, Gordon as a unit are unlikely to get better. No one would be shocked if they got worse. That's 3 of our top 5 players. On a more positive note, I'm glad we have Clark and House. I feel like those 2 will be young rotation pieces and their games are perfect as role players for a contender. They were not ready for the playoffs, but they both know how they can fit in and what they need to work on. Danuel House's catch-and-shoot numbers for this season are EXCELLENT. He's knocking on the door of elite company as a catch and shooter. He will be able to drive to the basket better with experience. His biggest problem - shrinking in big games - is typical of his non-experience. His defense will get better as he starts getting comfortable being primary defender on better players. Clark just has that Tucker/Battier mentality, I strangely have no doubt he is going to be a super role player in this league.
It doesn't matter if the Warriors take a step back. It only matters if anyone is better than their current team, and let's face it. Chris Paul isn't getting better.
I ha e the clips really hit, the lakers as a 4 seed and Dallas at the 8. I’m figuring on improvement. I’m not guaranteeing a rockets title, I’m saying it’s gonna be wide open with no insurmountable object to stop us like a healthy dubs team has been.
They still beat us after the lost KD to injury. Last season, sure, we had a real chance at beating them. CP was a different player, on a friendlier contract, and we had Ariza and some others playing at a high level for us. This season, we basically showed that Harden is the makeup of this team. You can't do that and expect to win a chip. I love Harden, and he's my favorite player, but we need roster moves to be able to improve -- we can't expect him to put in a 50-pt triple dub in the playoffs against the elite teams. I have a hard time being optimistic about improving the roster, because the only way we can do that is via trade, which means we need to lose pieces we know we don't want to lose, like Tuck, EG, etc...
I agree with everything you said except the Warriors being a 6 seed, they’ll be top 3 no matter what i think, but we have a great opportunity to win a championship next year. Hit a couple of the right moves and we could be champions. The league will be very balanced next year and we have the best chance to break above the pack imo. The Bucks and Sixers are the teams that I’d be worried about, or if Kawhi went to the Clips I’d be terrified of them. Outside of those 3 scenarios were easily better than everyone else
1.) I'm not sure why the odds of Durant coming back are any better. Even if he prefers a short-term deal, other teams could (and would) offer a 1+1 deal with even more guaranteed money than what he'd get by opting in. 2.) He might play next year, but it's highly, highly doubtful that he'll be anything close to himself. For starters, I'm not sure he'll rush the timetable, considering what happened this time. Second, it's one thing to return to the floor... it's another to return to previous levels of play. He's likely looking at minutes limitations, and then there's also the matter of his style of play. The closest parallel to Durant's Achilles in terms of player usage is probably Kobe in 2013... who came back in 9 months, and after only 6 games, suffered a season-ending knee injury to the same leg. It wouldn't shock me if Durant were to take 2019-20 as a true redshirt year and come back when he feels he's ready to be KD again, rather than trying to limit himself to a 25 mpg stationary shooter role for a very small portion of one season (before then trying to flip the switch).
Further, on GetUp this morning Woj stated that KD *opting into his GSW* contract for a year was a *last resort decision.* If that is true, expect KD to leave Warriors. Likely to NY. Like @The Cat said, NY can redshirt him a year, get another lottery pick and then keep the cap space warm.
Mebbe. Or mebbe the motivation will be there for new wrinkles and a newly reinvented, better version (than '18-'19) CL3. Mebbe...
Without IG they aren't balling out or have near as good ball movement for an entire 48 minutes. Looney brought good bench minutes in the front court. They can't afford to pay those guys and they are not even close to being the same warriors.
I generally agree with that. 538 had a nice piece about this subject. I think Rudy gay is a closer parallel. Gay came back after 273 days and he has the exact same VORP. I believe KD being relative young and super freak human might beat expectations like Wilkins.
I’m a straight shooter. If the house’s foundation is cracked then it’s cracked. It’s stupid to lie about it to make yourself feel better.
Found this in the comment section of @KellyUnchained newest article. Pertinent to running it back or not I guess. Sounds like he knows something on House coming back.
House can sign a 4yr / 8M deal without touching the MLE. Also can sign a 1yr 2M deal and the Rockets would have his early bird rights next summer.
