2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West Semifinals: #6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs #7 Golden State Warriors (Series tied 1-1)

[Klomp]

Although I get what you're saying about the shift from being a main scorer to more of an over-qualified glue guy...but Jefferson never generated open 3s for his team-mate the way Julius did for us; which fit perfectly (after the OG trade) on a team that had more natural shooters around Randle than you do, but fewer guys who generated rim pressure & FTs outside of Ju + Ant/Brunson.

Dude was giving us 25-10-5 on nearly 60% TS while generating that ridiculous # of open 3s. And ever since Brunson arrived his avg touch time was even faster than it has been for the Wolves...3.20 sec/touch with MIN, 3.15 last season for us, 3.00 the year before.

I could be wrong, but my understanding was Julius was more of a low-post/some high-post hub in New York whereas he has been a perimeter drive and kick hub here. That's why I was using Jefferson as a comparison. It's not perfect, but it's what I could come up with. Finch has been using him in more of a Lamar Odom/Anthony Mason role. In some ways it's a "glue guy" role, but it's more about positioning on the court than being primary or secondary.

[Impuniti]

Why add Jimmy if you don't go all-in and get a serviceable big man too?

Warriors fans have no right to complain the but the whole dual timeline thing was always stupid. When you have an all timer like Curry just focus on wining with that horse as much as possible.

That said I think Curry/Jimmy/Draymond have at least one more year to make a run so even if it doesn't happen this year they have another swing at the bat to finally add somebody over 6-7 and athletic to the roster.

Well they could have had a dual timeline, they could have Hali and Wagner right now instead of guys that are DNPs or atrocious.

They obviously whiffed with their high picks, but even if they had picked those guys, we don't know that they would be who they are now if they had to develop in steph's shadow. We've seen that story way too many times in the NBA and development is too murky.

80% of those variations from either of them would have put Steph on a 3-peat schedule presuming there's no injuries. The league should be thanking Myers for being terrible at drafting and having a owner who thinks he understands basketball.

[cgf]

Well they could have had a dual timeline, they could have Hali and Wagner right now instead of guys that are DNPs or atrocious.

They obviously whiffed with their high picks, but even if they had picked those guys, we don't know that they would be who they are now if they had to develop in steph's shadow. We've seen that story way too many times in the NBA and development is too murky.

If we had picked Halli and Franz the NBA would be in a major blender right now.

We KNOW how Steph blends with other star players and it's GOAT level offensive impact with zero ego. Get real.

Well Hali very much has an ego. It's what makes him such a great villain.

But I was more getting at how players need space to develop and Hali was likely never going to become the Steve Nash who can take over in crunchtime that he got to grow into in Indy, if he had spent his whole career on Steph's team playing the way Kerr wants them to.

Same way Brunson was never going to blossom into the player he has become if he had stayed Luka's #2. It's not always just about talent and work ethic.

[cgf]

Although I get what you're saying about the shift from being a main scorer to more of an over-qualified glue guy...but Jefferson never generated open 3s for his team-mate the way Julius did for us; which fit perfectly (after the OG trade) on a team that had more natural shooters around Randle than you do, but fewer guys who generated rim pressure & FTs outside of Ju + Ant/Brunson.

Dude was giving us 25-10-5 on nearly 60% TS while generating that ridiculous # of open 3s. And ever since Brunson arrived his avg touch time was even faster than it has been for the Wolves...3.20 sec/touch with MIN, 3.15 last season for us, 3.00 the year before.

I could be wrong, but my understanding was Julius was more of a low-post/some high-post hub in New York whereas he has been a perimeter drive and kick hub here. That's why I was using Jefferson as a comparison. It's not perfect, but it's what I could come up with. Finch has been using him in more of a Lamar Odom/Anthony Mason role. In some ways it's a "glue guy" role, but it's more about positioning on the court than being primary or secondary.

So Julius changed his game every year for us and throughout his tenure some post ups stayed in the mix, but last season Julius did most of his damage driving from the perimeter and either forcing a double team that let him then kick it for the open 3, or taking it to the rim strong if a team hadn't started helping on him yet.

Wheras in 2023, he spammed 3s to juice his efficiency and open the paint for Brunson & Barrett...like I said, his shot profile and where he got the ball changed every season

[f4p]

will the warriors punt on game 3 like game 2 where they played the entire roster in the first half? or do they go for the win in game 3?

[cpower]

will the warriors punt on game 3 like game 2 where they played the entire roster in the first half? or do they go for the win in game 3?

we are going for g8

[Kobe187]

Curry putting on so much muscle over the last 3-4 years was probably not a wise idea. Remember when LeBron’s hammy cramped up and all the fun that was made of him (Meme’s of him crying & being carried off). He was back asap and played through it, the fact Steph needs multiple games off in the PLAYOFFS for a grade 1 strain is soft as hell. Play through it, a 80% Curry is better than no Curry.

[xdrta+]

Curry putting on so much muscle over the last 3-4 years was probably not a wise idea. Remember when LeBron’s hammy cramped up and all the fun that was made of him (Meme’s of him crying & being carried off). He was back asap and played through it, the fact Steph needs multiple games off in the PLAYOFFS for a grade 1 strain is soft as hell. Play through it, a 80% Curry is better than no Curry.

Internet doctors are the best.

[Sealab2024]

We're not the end. We honestly tried to be civil. nothing's but nothing...


We ain't playing with your obviously elbow ish .

You touch Naz again like that. You don't leave the state... For real player .

[durden_tyler]

Post started this game. As starting center, he played 3 minutes and was -13.

That was such a strange move to me. Most of Kerr's rotations have had me scratching my head. I thought Golden State would have a coaching advantage over Minnesota, but so far it feels like Kerr has just been experimenting as if this is his first playoff series.

Kerr has no choice. These are a bunch of role players that have overachieved thus far and without the gravity in Steph they are being exposed as regular, average players. The Timberwolves are simply the better team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[f4p]

Post started this game. As starting center, he played 3 minutes and was -13.

That was such a strange move to me. Most of Kerr's rotations have had me scratching my head. I thought Golden State would have a coaching advantage over Minnesota, but so far it feels like Kerr has just been experimenting as if this is his first playoff series.

Kerr has no choice. These are a bunch of role players that have overachieved thus far and without the gravity in Steph they are being exposed as regular, average players. The Timberwolves are simply the better team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They were over 0.500 without Steph this season and just won the previous playoff game without him. Kerr treated the game like they were 0-10 without Steph and like it was just a joke.

[Onlytimewilltel]

We're not the end. We honestly tried to be civil. nothing's but nothing...


We ain't playing with your obviously elbow ish .

You touch Naz again like that. You don't leave the state... For real player .

Huh lol

[xdrta+]

You touch Naz again like that. You don't leave the state... For real player .

Oooh, Internet cowboys are the second best, right behind the doctors.

[Sealab2024]

You touch Naz again like that. You don't leave the state... For real player .

Oooh, Internet cowboys are the second best, right behind the doctors.

Walking side by side with death
Devil mocks our every step.

[Klomp]

Post started this game. As starting center, he played 3 minutes and was -13.

That was such a strange move to me. Most of Kerr's rotations have had me scratching my head. I thought Golden State would have a coaching advantage over Minnesota, but so far it feels like Kerr has just been experimenting as if this is his first playoff series.

Kerr has no choice. These are a bunch of role players that have overachieved thus far and without the gravity in Steph they are being exposed as regular, average players. The Timberwolves are simply the better team.

Of course, but Kerr didn't really do himself any favors in Game 2. It felt like he was just experimenting because they already had one win in their pockets. That's the approach and attitude someone would have if they expected to sweep their home games.....or if he's already given up all hope on the series.

[floppymoose]

Or, he wants to find out now if any of the deep bench perform well in this series, because it's 4 straight losses unless something is discovered.

Steph is the only player on GSW where they have a negative scoring differential when he is off the court. As in, they are below average. A no-Steph Warriors squad is somewhere around 17th or 18th in the league. That is not a team that is going to win second round playoff games.

[nazario]

That was such a strange move to me. Most of Kerr's rotations have had me scratching my head. I thought Golden State would have a coaching advantage over Minnesota, but so far it feels like Kerr has just been experimenting as if this is his first playoff series.

Kerr has no choice. These are a bunch of role players that have overachieved thus far and without the gravity in Steph they are being exposed as regular, average players. The Timberwolves are simply the better team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They were over 0.500 without Steph this season and just won the previous playoff game without him. Kerr treated the game like they were 0-10 without Steph and like it was just a joke.

Such a bad sample size. 1. Most of the games were with the bench going ham with supernova Hield at the start of the season. 2. one off games in december doesn't allow for the other team to adjust. It's like throwing a changeup after a few heaters. More relevant is how they performed after the allstar game with Jimmy and without Steph - it was brutal.

Fact of the matter is, the GSW roster has a way below average roster in terms of shootin/shotcreation, and the only thing keeping them afloat is that teams allows them to go 4vs3 on offense all the time because they're dedicating all the best defenders to guarding curry

[f4p]

Kerr has no choice. These are a bunch of role players that have overachieved thus far and without the gravity in Steph they are being exposed as regular, average players. The Timberwolves are simply the better team.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

They were over 0.500 without Steph this season and just won the previous playoff game without him. Kerr treated the game like they were 0-10 without Steph and like it was just a joke.

Such a bad sample size. 1. Most of the games were with the bench going ham with supernova Hield at the start of the season.

By most do you mean 3 of 12? The rest were spread out among the rest of the season about as well as can be expected. I don't know why there's always so much push back to the idea that the warriors did perfectly fine without Steph this season just because they...did perfectly fine without Steph this season. And one of the losses was by 4 to OKC.

2. one off games in december doesn't allow for the other team to adjust. It's like throwing a changeup after a few heaters

So you just don't try to win? It's hopeless despite the above 0.500 record and the win the previous game? You just start playing the 15th man in the first half? Has a single team played their entire roster in the first half of a playoff game this year?


.[quote More relevant is how they performed after the allstar game with Jimmy and without Steph - it was brutal. [/Quote]

They played one ugly game when Butler no-showed his return to Miami. Otherwise it was an 11 point win and 9 point loss.

Fact of the matter is, the GSW roster has a way below average roster in terms of shootin/shotcreation, and the only thing keeping them afloat is that teams allows them to go 4vs3 on offense all the time because they're dedicating all the best defenders to guarding curry

How is that problem solved by putting Kevin Knox into a game?

[Wingy]

If Denver’s experience continues to win out, feeling like the Wolves will re-regret the KAT trade.

(Felt like we went regret/“bad trade” initially -> “good trade” as the season progressed and til now)

Having that 3rd big body to battle Joker was key last year.

[jscott]

If Denver’s experience continues to win out, feeling like the Wolves will re-regret the KAT trade.

(Felt like we went regret/“bad trade” initially -> “good trade” as the season progressed and til now)

Having that 3rd big body to battle Joker was key last year.

Julius did pretty well against Joker during the regular season.