Yeah, I don't understand Simmons infatuation with the Warriors. I get they're fun but picking them over the Rockets or Clippers in a playoff series, huh?! I remember the last Bird-mester in which he had them ranked ahead of us and named them the Dark Horse. At that time, they weren't even in the playoffs and now they are a 7th seed that can't keep up with the Suns, much less the Rockets or Clippers. I just don't understand especially since we seem to have their number and are flat out better than them.
the warriors are a fun team - they have the pieces i feel and should be better even with the injury to Iggy earlier in the season (though its funny a lot of places keep saying injuries are why the Warriors aren't doing as well when the Rockets have been far more injured than they have this season) - and even with their current record they had a huge 10 game winning streak earlier this season which seems more of an anomaly now they way they have been playing. Again the Warriors are primarily a jump shooting team that got insanely hot in last year's playoffs and beat a denver team that was built for the regular season and not the playoffs. They continued to be hot and came close with the Spurs but the Spurs were too disciplined to lose to a team like GS last year. They are playing better defense but their offense has dropped - they play at a faster pace than the Rockets but score 4 less points a game. As it stands amongst the "hyped" teams in the west GS and Portland are the two teams I would want to see most in the first round compared to OKC, Spurs, Clippers - even Dallas
It's cause Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes are screwing up and not playing as good as people thought. Everyone thought Barnes was legit based on his playoffs as well as Klay. I'd say Bogut, Lee, Curry, and Iggy have mostly performed up to expectations.
I was listening to Stan van pelt and rusillo and they were ranking all the contenders in the west. Svp had okc, spurs,blazers, clippers and his dark horse was GS... Smh....no mention of the rockets. I've been saying it since last season, they're overrated. They're actually a worse team this season. They should've kept jack and Landry, instead they signed igudola which they had no need for since they already have a good SF in Barnes. I had them as a 7th seed at best.
Iggy is actually playing pretty terrible right now. It might be due to his injury, or it might just be the fact that he had a hot start. He shot over 40% from 3 at the beginning of the season, and he took 3-4 a game, but his 3PT% last month is only 31%, so he is likely regressing back to the mean.
In GSW's defense, Landry has looked like trash since returning. Dude couldn't even capitalize on Cousins' injury (after our game)
thye wouldnt have beat denver had they not lost gallinari that Denver team was one no one wanted to play.
Those two are really good they just suffer from the same thing we suffer. A poor x and o coach. The black Mchale.
Thats sad. They don't even have Dwight Howard and their defensive efficiency is better than us. They have 3 not very good defensive starters in Lee, Curry and Thompson. Just shows that our defensive coach (Sampson?) is straight up trash and schemes mean everything.
Thing is, I don't think you can say Jackson is a poor X's and O's coach. The Warriors run some really neat stuff, with some of it being the very same stuff the Spurs or D'Antoni's high powered offenses run/ran. Their defense schemes are rock solid as well. And their game-planing -- as far as adjusting for certain styles of defenses goes -- has been quite solid, too. As Ethan Sherwood Strauss will tell you, their main problem mostly is their weird love for isolations and post-ups, i.e. their play-calling. If they chill out on those (especially the isolations for Barnes and post-up for O'Neal) and allocate those possessions to some more motion or pick and roll plays they very much would be a dangerous team. It doesn't quite end there, though, as another issue for them has been the use of their lineups and Jackson's resistance to their 4-out lineups and stagging lineups -- using Iguodala as the de facto PG on the second unit. So, I do think it's fair to criticize Jackson for not figuring out what would seem like two key, yet simple, adjustments. But I don't think it's fair to call him a poor X's and O's coach. Their playbook is top-10 material IMO. Klay has a few short-comings, but he's actually quite solid on D.
Thompson is quite a good defender. They fit really well defensively. Iggy takes the best perimeter threat and does really well. Klay is overqualified to shut down the 2nd perimeter threat. That leaves Curry on the 3rd threat who usually he can handle. Bogut anchors the middle and Lee takes the 2nd big man. There aren't many teams with two serious big men to worry about.
Nice cover up for Lee. Should've just said he's almost 7ft tall so there's no way he's a defensive liability.
Not only is the Iggy acquisition NOT the solution to bolting them into contender status, but now they are stuck with that big contract for 3 more years. Have fun with that, GS.
Essentially, GSW's young talent has been performing below expectations (Barnes and Thompson) while their marquee FA acquisition (Iguodala) looks like an injury has been nagging them. Curry has been awesome and Lee has his defensive limitations, while Bogut has remained healthy but has little offensive game. I like GSW's coaching staff which seems similar to ours in that they are still figuring out how to fit all the pieces together. However, the ROXs have a brighter future.
I wouldn't count the Warriors out yet. They have the talent. They just need to figure out how to put them together. Kind of on the same boat with Houston. I wouldn't say Jackson is the black McHale. It's more like McHale is the black Jackson. j/k
Kevin McHale is Croatian American. Croatians make great sports coaches. Rudy Tomjanovich, Greg Popovich, Bill Belichick and Nick Saban are all fellow Croatian American coaches.
