Do you really believe Kenneth Faried will make a difference?

It just worked. Shrugs

And that's with it being brand new.

 

It's like getting your flash underoos for the first time. You feel a little faster. A little stronger. But he's still just another guy who was sleeping under his woovie a few weeks ago. We are playing guys who are either bench players or weren't even in the league. It's not going to work in the long run. He's great on the bench.

 

I’m positive

 

If by now you haven’t seen how much of a glaring difference he has made then you never will

 

Another 50% 3pt shooting night!

 

Sheer ignorance. They played their death lineup 84 seconds and were +5.

No double big lineup will work against the Warriors unless it's 2 unicorns that can both shoot the 3 and switch everything on the perimeter.

 

Rox 3-0 vs Warriors

 

So your theory is that the Warriors didn't want to win the game?

 

Nope. The Warriors do this every season. They do the same thing every season. And then in the playoffs they switch it up as necessary.

Being healthy and fresh at the end the season is a huge key for them. They want to win every game. But they're also playing the long game better than everybody else. That's why they go get these grunts (Bogut, Festus, Speights, Javale, Looney, West, Lee, DeMarcus, Zaza, Bell, Jones) every summer to consume regular season minutes. And then those guys get minimal minutes in the playoffs. Yes, everybody does it. But they do it better then everybody else.

Do you realize that before Damian Jones got hurt this year that he was their starting center? Damian Jones!

Over Looney?!?!?! Over Bell?!?!?!?!
Over lineup of death?!?!?!?!

Do you really think Damian Jones is a better player than Looney or Bell???????

No! He's not! And a lineup with him in it sure isn't as good a as a lineup with Draymond at the 5 for sure!!!!!! Yes he was starting and playing rotation minutes.

Not to mention DeMarcus. Is there a single person that really thinks DeMarcus should be playing right now? Isn't it obvious he's not ready? But they're running him out there. Why? DeMarcus right now at this stage of his recovery isn't even as good as Looney or Bell. He should not be playing over them yet. But he is. Why?

Do you realize that during the Kerr era (2015 to present) at least one of Bogut, Festus, Speights, Javale, Looney, West, Lee, DeMarcus, Zaza, Bell, Jones have started every regular season game and around 10% of those games TWO of those guys started and played substantial regular season minutes?

They are regular season minute eaters. The difference they make is in the rest they provide the top 6-7 players for the playoffs.

 

Why did they play their starters close to 40 minutes, more minutes than our guys, just to lose to us?

 

the competition from nba franchises over your scouting and analytical acumen must be fierce

 

Funny how he went from an unstoppable super weapon to wipe Clint Capela off the face of the earth that the warriors are charging up to a benchwarmer not worthy of a single minute in your eyes.

And to answer your question: Demarcus Cousins.

 

Funny how I make one comment about a healthy DeMarcus in the playoffs and you and a whole slew of foos think one regular season game two days ago with Cuz still in recovery mode disproves my statement. Cuz is the superior player. (You're showing your ignorance.) That's been long proven. He's just got to get healthy.

 

Compared to the demand for your opinion pieces, I'd say that's an understatement.

 

I actually agree with Holic here. The Warriors don't play their best lineups much in the regular season. I disagree that it's because they do a better job of bringing in grunts, it's because they have so many elite players that they can get away with it. Simple as that.

As to whether the double big lineup would work against the Warriors DEFENSIVELY, it's really hard to say. The Warriors switch us on defense to get our worst defender on the ball A LOT so does it really matter how many bad ones you have lol?

 

10,000 words on how the regular doesn’t matter to them and they just save up for the playoffs, yet none of them explained why the Rockets were up 3-2 before Paul got injured.

Theory is nice, but sometimes real-world results matter.

 

The first point: While the Warriors tend to keep their big 4's minutes down in the regular season, all four of them played +38 minutes that Saturday, more than any Rocket (on a 8-man rotation due to injuries). While I doubt they play that poorly in the 1st quarter of any playoff game, we still won by 6, and Harden's BPM is +11.2 on the year.

To answer your second question, YES. The efficiency of their offense compounds for every defender not in constant communication with the rest of the team. We didn't put a defensive clinic on them for 3 of the first 5 games because we ran around not calling out switches and leaving shooters open. While Harden is far from the best off-ball defender (especially in the regular season ), you notice the intensity he plays with come April and May on that end. Guys like Gerald Green don't have the smarts to turn it on in the postseason.

Also, the Warriors don't run ISO switches on offense unless forced to (like last year's WCF), that's more our thing. The Rockets and Warriors best lineups both consisted of 4 defenders + guy so good on offense it doesn't matter. But us targeting Curry on defense worked out better than them targeting Harden, because attention and effort can be scaled up, wingspan, hight, and weight cannot.

I think our double big lineup against GS depends on whether Faried can communicate and rotate on switches. His 1-on-1 defense is questionable enough, but a Gerald Green-esque level of awareness would make him unplayable.

 

Because they do it to laugh at regular season wins and validate Jopat's agenda against Capela.

 

Just let us know when you start getting paid for your expertise. A brilliant basketball mind like yours should certainly be monetized!

 

in 2017-2018, Looney went from 13th to 6th in minutes once the playoffs started, and McGee went from 15th to 8th. By your logic, Looney and McGee did not really enter the rotation until the playoffs started.

McCaw and Zaza basically dropped out of the playoff rotation. Jones was never really in any rotation.

You are mostly right that playoff minutes increase dramatically for the best Warriors players.

In the playoffs, changes of minutes 2017-2018
Green: +6.3
Steph: +5.0
Looney: +4.6
KD: +4.2
Klay: +3.5
McGee: +2.7
Iggy: +1.4
Livingston: +1.3
Jones: -3.1
Bell: -4.0
West: -4.0
Young: -7.1
Zaza: -10.4
Cook: -12.1
McCaw: -14.2

Change in rotation # (rank by # of minutes), regular season-->playoffs

Green 3 --> 1
KD 2 --> 2
Klay 1--> 3
Steph 4 --> 4
Iggy 5 --> 5
Looney 13 --> 6
Livingston 9 --> 7
McGee 15 --> 8
Young 7 --> 9
Cook 6 --> 10
Bell 10 --> 11
West 14 --> 12
Zaza 11 --> 13
McCaw 8 --> 14
Jones 16 --> 15