2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[Outside]

One thing that Phoenix and Milwaukee losing shows, yet again, is that it's really hard to maintain the focus, motivation, and luck that it takes for repeated runs to the finals. We should appreciate what an achievement it was for the Warriors to make the finals five straight seasons and for LeBron to be in the finals eight years in a row and nine out of ten. Just a staggering accomplishment.

[falcolombardi]

One thing that Phoenix and Milwaukee losing shows, yet again, is that it's really hard to maintain the focus, motivation, and luck that it takes for repeated runs to the finals. We should appreciate what an achievement it was for the Warriors to make the finals five straight seasons and for LeBron to be in the finals eight years in a row and nine out of ten. Just a staggering accomplishment.

for sure, most dinasties actually survive injuries really often which often gets undersppreiated

warriors when losing dursnt or curry, lebron teams when losing bosh, kyrie or having a limping wade out there and still making or winning the finals

[life_saver]

is kinda funny that we (i include myself) are only talking about dallas vs warriors while mostly ignoring heat series again lol, poor miami

Heat are boring

[Texas Chuck]

One thing that Phoenix and Milwaukee losing shows, yet again, is that it's really hard to maintain the focus, motivation, and luck that it takes for repeated runs to the finals. We should appreciate what an achievement it was for the Warriors to make the finals five straight seasons and for LeBron to be in the finals eight years in a row and nine out of ten. Just a staggering accomplishment.

Yep. Even when you have the most talent, we shouldn't take it for granted that they met the Finals every year. You still have to go out and win 4 games 3x to get there and then 4 more to take home the crown.

[HeartBreakKid]

is kinda funny that we (i include myself) are only talking about dallas vs warriors while mostly ignoring heat series again lol, poor miami

miami isnt a real big market team. if that same team was on the knicks there would be non stop talk about them.

miami only became a big deal when lebron join them. whether they're good or bad they have as large of an indifference as any other club, if not more so.

[The-Power]

Warriors versus Mavericks is going to be a fascinating series with very different philosophies. It's going to be interesting to see who can force their preferred style onto the game.

Luka is going to hunt mismatches, and the Warriors have some weak links. Especially Poole will have to provide enough resistance to stay on the court (or he has to be so good offensively that the Warriors adjust their defensive strategy to protect him and keep him on the floor). I could also see Luka trying to isolate Curry a lot and while Curry can provide some resistance these days, he's prone to commit silly fouls at times and of course you don't want to have your star guard exhaust himself on defense non-stop. Not to mention that Luka is just a very tough match-up for most players in the league. I fully expect the Warriors to be creative and try out a lot of different looks defensively. Kerr has been very vocal in his approach towards the best offensive players: you have to show them different looks, even over the course of a single game, to try to disrupt their rhythm. I think it's going to be an interesting series to follow for defensive strategists because I see the Warriors pulling out all the stops.

It will also be interesting to see if the Warriors are going after Luka on defense. Not sure if this is a Game 1 kind of approach for the Warriors, but it could become relevant down the road. I'm sure the Warriors like that they can run with small-ball line-ups against Dallas, who like to play similarly small. But the biggest priority for the Warriors should be to keep the pace up. The Warriors like a higher pace, whereas Dallas likes to keep it low and execute in the half-court. Pace, I reckon, is going to be a key factor for both teams and control over pace may well determine who wins this match-up (the Warriors are 4th among playoff teams in pace, Dallas is 14th).

Indeed, my biggest concern from the Warriors perspective may very well be that Dallas slows down the pace and our players try to increase the pace and become sped up and sloppy in the process. We all know how turnovers are somewhat of an Achilles heel for the Dubs. The Warriors will have to create turnovers and run after controlling the defensive boards, or else I can see the players becoming too antsy.

I see a couple big issues that the Warriors will have that they didn't have to worry at all about versus the Nuggets.

1) Mavs have Dinwiddie and Brunson who will make Steph/Poole/Klay guard and tire them out on the defensive end. Nuggets had no perimeter threats even close to those two.

I'd disagree with that. Luka can tire players out, but I'm not concerned about the others. Indeed, I'm not too concerned about fatigue in general for the Warriors (unless Luka can wear Curry down on switches, but I'd assume the Warriors will adjust before that happens). Dallas offense is a lot of methodical hunting of mismatches. That causes problems for defenses, but it also means that not all defenders have to exhaust themselves on those possessions.

The Warriors defense may fail to stop Dallas but I doubt fatigue would be the reason why. Dallas' offense simply isn't designed to do that to multiple players due to its ‘my turn, your turn’ and ‘pick on one player’ approach. Doncic can try to tire out one player by constantly going after him, but that's about it. Guys like Klay and these days even Curry are definitely used to defend on the ball against the likes of Brunson and Dinwiddie, when it's their turn, to not get worn out by that.

Talking about fatigue, I would actually be more concerned as a Mavericks fan. Warriors fans have to be more concerned about mismatches on defense, but when it comes to fatigue, I believe the Warriors system is better equipped to wear teams out. I'm really curious to see if the Dallas role players can keep up their high shooting percentages from behind the arc after chasing around GSW's shooters on defense all the time and being on constant alert. That can be mentally and physically draining, and I'd expect role players who are supposed to stretch the floor but only shoot relatively infrequently to be most prone to see their percentages drop as a result (also because they are usually asked to do more heavy lifting on defense).

3) Mavs have pretty strong POA defenders in Bullock and DFS who are some of the best ball-hawks in the league. Dinwiddie and Brunson are solid here too and they can also bring Ntilikina off the bench. Nuggets had no guys that could really bother Steph and Poole off the bounce.

I don't think individual POA defense is going to be key for either team. Neither Dallas nor GSW play in a way that can be stifled by individual POA defenders. Luka just hunts the mismatches he wants, and Kerr's offense requires other teams to be locked in as a unit. Having multiple POA defenders certainly helps in either case, but the idea of ‘let's just stick our best defenders on their best offensive players and they'll handle it’ certainly doesn't work here – especially not when exploitable match-ups are available.

[falcolombardi]

i wonder if warriors will try to target luka to tire him out or play their usual offense regardless

[Colbinii]

i wonder if warriors will try to target luka to tire him out or play their usual offense regardless

Warriors will run there typical offense. They aren't going to spam pick and roll with Curry or Poole.

[70sFan]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

[parsnips33]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

Ah the good old days when this was happening to Steph. It's a rite of passage at this point

[falcolombardi]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

ultra high scoring wing with solid but not strong efficiency is a very valuable but prone to being overated profile, kinda like 2006 kobe or even young (think 85-87) jordan for that matter

the former was not necesarrily the best version of kobe, and the latter definetely was far from the best version of jordan but they had the more impressive boxscores because of the ultra high points per game

[jalengreen]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

I think the last three postseasons have had a star player unexpectedly reach the conference finals and get a massive wave of praise that eventually crossed over into simply overrating that player.

Luka 2022
Trae 2021
Butler 2020 (primarily due to his Finals performance)

Not that they're not all great players but yeah just a trend I've noticed.

[GSP]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

I think the last three postseasons have had a star player unexpectedly reach the conference finals and get a massive wave of praise that eventually crossed over into simply overrating that player.

Luka 2022
Trae 2021
Butler 2020 (primarily due to his Finals performance)

Not that they're not all great players but yeah just a trend I've noticed.

Don't forget 19 Kawhi overrating

[Colbinii]

It had to start sooner than later, but we can watch the start of overrating Doncic to death right now.

It's funny, because the same people who are comparing him to Jordan (or saying he's much better than Dirk) will say he's overrated chucker if Dallas lose to GSW.

I'm rooting for Luka and the Mavs, but it can be annoying.

I think the last three postseasons have had a star player unexpectedly reach the conference finals and get a massive wave of praise that eventually crossed over into simply overrating that player.

Luka 2022
Trae 2021
Butler 2020 (primarily due to his Finals performance)

Not that they're not all great players but yeah just a trend I've noticed.

Don't forget 19 Kawhi overrating

Ah yes, the guy who created an account during that period to champion the Kawhi Run was better than any LeBron James run, only to go after shortly after the 2020 seasons start.

[GSP]

Read on Twitter

Prolly should be some talk about Frank. He isn't getting any buzz for his defense. It makes Jrue's shutdown on them in finals not look as impressive tho

[falcolombardi]

Read on Twitter

Prolly should be some talk about Frank. He isn't getting any buzz for his defense. It makes Jrue's shutdown on them in finals not look as impressive tho

wonder how would he do on poole

[sp6r=underrated]

is kinda funny that we (i include myself) are only talking about dallas vs warriors while mostly ignoring heat series again lol, poor miami

miami isnt a real big market team. if that same team was on the knicks there would be non stop talk about them.

miami only became a big deal when lebron join them. whether they're good or bad they have as large of an indifference as any other club, if not more so.

Yup, this is why I find what Riley's accomplished in Miami so impressive. They aren't in the undesirable market tier like OKC or Utah but there is no reason why they should be able to chronically acquire very good to ATG players in their prime which they've been doing for decades.

[MartinToVaught]

One thing that Phoenix and Milwaukee losing shows, yet again, is that it's really hard to maintain the focus, motivation, and luck that it takes for repeated runs to the finals. We should appreciate what an achievement it was for the Warriors to make the finals five straight seasons and for LeBron to be in the finals eight years in a row and nine out of ten. Just a staggering accomplishment.

To be fair, the Warriors should have been making the Finals every year. They got KD so their Finals chances wouldn't be reliant on focus, motivation or luck, but rather on how they stacked their team to a level that was literally impossible for the rest of the league to keep up with. The Bucks and Suns weren't stacked like that, so they were always going to be more vulnerable.

LeBron's eight straight Finals, on the other hand, are still mindblowing. Especially when there were comparable or better teams in his way a lot of the time and he'd end up having to do historic individual carry jobs to keep the streak alive.

[RCM88x]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned much I feel which I think is pretty crazy is how the Warriors basically completely blew the #2 pick last year and yet are still probably the best team in their conference. Imagine if they have drafted someone like LaMelo or possibly even traded it for something worth the cost of the jersey.

[parsnips33]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned much I feel which I think is pretty crazy is how the Warriors basically completely blew the #2 pick last year and yet are still probably the best team in their conference. Imagine if they have drafted someone like LaMelo or possibly even traded it for something worth the cost of the jersey.

Do I have to?