2021-22 NBA Season Discussion

[falcolombardi]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

[parsnips33]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

They had a top 2-3 offense for the first quarter of the season no?

[falcolombardi]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

They had a top 2-3 offense for the first quarter of the season no?

i dont remember the exact rank but i remember them plateauing around a +2,+3 offense which is not what i would call elite

i am gonna research this a bit when i get a chance to see if i am mistaken

[Colbinii]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

They had a top 2-3 offense for the first quarter of the season no?

They were 11th in October [106.6 Ortg], 2nd in November [114.8 Ortg] and 18th in December [110.5 Ortg]

[jalengreen]

the warriors did have one of the easiest schedules in the league to start the season. they were still impressive ofc but that's probably worth mentioning. (altho they also didnt have klay fwiw)

[Outside]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

The reasons why I say that:

-- Klay is not fully back to his pre-injury level, but his shooting has improved to the point that he again requires defensive attention or he will score in bunches.

-- Poole had a mid-season lull, but he has gained momentum over the last couple of months.

-- Draymond is back to his old self after his mid-season injury.

-- Steph, Klay, and Dray are finally getting minutes together (only 11 minutes together in the RS). Their familiarity with each other is second nature and needs very little on-court time to refresh. But the point is that the RS offensive performance was reduced because they weren't healthy together. Assuming Steph regains form, they are better as a group than they've been all year.

-- The other rotation players can be their best selves when at least two of the three scorers (Steph, Klay, Poole) are on the floor at all times. Wiggins in particular is a huge beneficiary of the increased spacing and open shot opportunities. It's not that they will necessary score that much more, but they will be the most efficient version of themselves.

-- The offensive potential of the Steph-Klay-Poole-Dray-Wiggins lineup is tremendous, and it's something they haven't been able to use until now. It was excellent in game 1 in limited minutes. Again, the question is whether that lineup (or similar lineups with, Say Otto Porter, Jr. instead of Wiggins) can defend and rebound. It's a lineup that has the potential to play almost all opposition bigs off the floor.

The combination of these factors is something that haven't had until now and makes their offensive potential so much greater than in the RS. The previous years when their offense dipped in the PS were years when they had all their offensive weapons available in the RS. This year, they're just now getting the old Klay back, Poole improved over the course of the season, and Dray and Steph both missed significant time in the second half. All those factors kept them from being the best version of themselves offensively in the RS and allow them to improve in the PS.

[Texas Chuck]

I have the Warriors winning primarily with their defense and them needing the offense to be merely good enough--I agree with Outside that it has the potential to be great, but I don't share his optimism that they will necessarily achieve that this post-season.

[Doctor MJ]

If Poole keeps playing like this, I think the Warriors are the favorites again to win it all. They're starting to look like the juggernauts they were at the beginning of the season. The injuries to Dray and Steph may even turn out to be a blessing. For one, they weren't serious enough to derail the whole year; two, they got some valuable rest in a grueling regular season; and three, it allowed room for Poole to shine.

definetely a strong contender, but suns look outright unstopabble and theorycraft wise i dont love the bucks and boston matchup (who i have coming off east) for warriors

Do the Suns look unstoppable? They had an SRS less than 7 in the regular season. Last year the Jazz had an 8.97 and I don't think anyone thought they looked unstoppable.

I feel like this year what people are seeing:

1. A team that got to the finals last year.
2. A team that has by far the best record in this regular season.
3. A team doing this despite stars missing time due to injury.

This leads to a conclusion that the Suns have proven bonafides and will be even better when healthy, but the truth is that there's a lot about their year that seems to indicate that they aren't on the level of dominant champions.

None of that means I think they can't win the title - they could have easily won last year after all - but I think what we've been seeing is more other teams falling off with injury than the Suns moving a tier beyond what we saw other teams do at their best.

[Doctor MJ]

Once Curry regains his form, the Warriors offense will be great. They will go as far as their defense and rebounding can carry them.

they have not been great offensively at any point of the season

i am not saying is impossible, but they would need to significatively inprove relative to their regular season which is unusual

also curry warriors teams going back to 2015 usually become worse offensively in the playoffs rather than better

The reasons why I say that:

-- Klay is not fully back to his pre-injury level, but his shooting has improved to the point that he again requires defensive attention or he will score in bunches.

-- Poole had a mid-season lull, but he has gained momentum over the last couple of months.

-- Draymond is back to his old self after his mid-season injury.

-- Steph, Klay, and Dray are finally getting minutes together (only 11 minutes together in the RS). Their familiarity with each other is second nature and needs very little on-court time to refresh. But the point is that the RS offensive performance was reduced because they weren't healthy together. Assuming Steph regains form, they are better as a group than they've been all year.

-- The other rotation players can be their best selves when at least two of the three scorers (Steph, Klay, Poole) are on the floor at all times. Wiggins in particular is a huge beneficiary of the increased spacing and open shot opportunities. It's not that they will necessary score that much more, but they will be the most efficient version of themselves.

-- The offensive potential of the Steph-Klay-Poole-Dray-Wiggins lineup is tremendous, and it's something they haven't been able to use until now. It was excellent in game 1 in limited minutes. Again, the question is whether that lineup (or similar lineups with, Say Otto Porter, Jr. instead of Wiggins) can defend and rebound. It's a lineup that has the potential to play almost all opposition bigs off the floor.

The combination of these factors is something that haven't had until now and makes their offensive potential so much greater than in the RS. The previous years when their offense dipped in the PS were years when they had all their offensive weapons available in the RS. This year, they're just now getting the old Klay back, Poole improved over the course of the season, and Dray and Steph both missed significant time in the second half. All those factors kept them from being the best version of themselves offensively in the RS and allow them to improve in the PS.

So, I think the deal is that the Warriors were clearly playing better basketball than anyone else before Klay came back, and so if the team can get back into their rhythm together, and their trio of scorers (Curry, Thompson, Poole) perform well enough, they should be seen as a serious title threat.

But we've still not seen a time this year where all of these 3 guy look like they are all in their groove at the same time, and we saw the way Klay's return disrupted everything. Good reason to hope the Warriors are figuring it out now, but still much uncertainty.

[parsnips33]

Kerr's got a big decision now, assuming Steph isn't gonna come off the bench for the rest of this series. Can't imagine benching Poole with the way he's been playing, but Looney and Wiggins have been so key for the defense. Having too many starter quality players is a good problem to have, but it is still technically a problem

[Doctor MJ]

Kerr's got a big decision now, assuming Steph isn't gonna come off the bench for the rest of this series. Can't imagine benching Poole with the way he's been playing, but Looney and Wiggins have been so key for the defense. Having too many starter quality players is a good problem to have, but it is still technically a problem

Yup, it's tricky. Based on how Poole's been playing, it frankly seems like the thing that should happen is that Klay should become the 6th man and the franchise going forward should focus on Curry-Poole...but that's a big pivot to make in the heat of the season.

Additionally, while it was cute when Klay was doing his whole "I'm 77" thing as a motivator to come back and be a star again...will Klay handle things well if the proper role for him now is as a role player? In general I've always seen Klay as a guy who will just do his best whatever he's asked to do, but once ego gets involved it's tricky.

(Tangent: The 77 thing always bugged me because Klay isn't the next guy on the team who should have been consider - Draymond is. Klay has always said all the right things about how valuable Draymond is, but the way he promoted himself here is was like it had never even occurred to him that he's basically never been a Top 2 player on his team before.)

[falcolombardi]

If Poole keeps playing like this, I think the Warriors are the favorites again to win it all. They're starting to look like the juggernauts they were at the beginning of the season. The injuries to Dray and Steph may even turn out to be a blessing. For one, they weren't serious enough to derail the whole year; two, they got some valuable rest in a grueling regular season; and three, it allowed room for Poole to shine.

definetely a strong contender, but suns look outright unstopabble and theorycraft wise i dont love the bucks and boston matchup (who i have coming off east) for warriors

Do the Suns look unstoppable? They had an SRS less than 7 in the regular season. Last year the Jazz had an 8.97 and I don't think anyone thought they looked unstoppable.

I feel like this year what people are seeing:

1. A team that got to the finals last year.
2. A team that has by far the best record in this regular season.
3. A team doing this despite stars missing time due to injury.

This leads to a conclusion that the Suns have proven bonafides and will be even better when healthy, but the truth is that there's a lot about their year that seems to indicate that they aren't on the level of dominant champions.

None of that means I think they can't win the title - they could have easily won last year after all - but I think what we've been seeing is more other teams falling off with injury than the Suns moving a tier beyond what we saw other teams do at their best.

their srs was closer to around 8 actually before they got the firsy seed and relaxed their effort at the end of the season

but you are right that srs is whatever, the reason why i am so high on them is that they are built for playoffs basketball

they are not a team built around a dominant paint slasher thst could be walled off with a good enough defense or inherently volatile 3 point shooting game, bur around midrange

they already thrive doing the stuff teams try to force you into, that is fairly unusual and imo harder to tske away than most forms of offense (bucks accomplished it with fantastic personnel for it but i wouldnt bet my house on them being able to do it again)

they have two guys who can get to the midrange and kill you from there (chris paul 54% midrange is outright absurd and that is a bailout shot

they have multiple creators, great spacing, their offense is not dependant on a single player, they have a borderline dpoy wing, good defenders all around, 3 capable shotblocking centers and the ability to go small too

the only weakness is the lack of a superstar, but they sre uniquely equipped to be resilient offensively without one, in many ways they feel like the 2014 spurs to me with how complete of a team they are

that crazy clutch record in close games?maybe noise, but it potentially is a signal of a team thst has really strong tool to handle close games which is pretty damn important thingh to have in the playoffs

are they unbeatable?of course not

but there is no way you will beat them without playing at your absolute max potential which warriors or sixers or bucks could do but i wouldnt bet my car on it

[Doctor MJ]

the warriors did have one of the easiest schedules in the league to start the season. they were still impressive ofc but that's probably worth mentioning. (altho they also didnt have klay fwiw)

It can certainly be mentioned and analyzed objectively, but I'd note that while people were saying "It's only because weak competition", the beatdown they put on the Nets in that run said something very different.

While one can argue in retrospect that those Nets weren't truly elite given their record, KD was seen by many as the pre-season favorite for MVP, and the beat-down the Warriors gave them in Brooklyn which left the stadium crowd giving Steph Curry MVP chants was a big moment.

[Peregrine01]

Kerr's got a big decision now, assuming Steph isn't gonna come off the bench for the rest of this series. Can't imagine benching Poole with the way he's been playing, but Looney and Wiggins have been so key for the defense. Having too many starter quality players is a good problem to have, but it is still technically a problem

Yup, it's tricky. Based on how Poole's been playing, it frankly seems like the thing that should happen is that Klay should become the 6th man and the franchise going forward should focus on Curry-Poole...but that's a big pivot to make in the heat of the season.

Additionally, while it was cute when Klay was doing his whole "I'm 77" thing as a motivator to come back and be a star again...will Klay handle things well if the proper role for him now is as a role player? In general I've always seen Klay as a guy who will just do his best whatever he's asked to do, but once ego gets involved it's tricky.

(Tangent: The 77 thing always bugged me because Klay isn't the next guy on the team who should have been consider - Draymond is. Klay has always said all the right things about how valuable Draymond is, but the way he promoted himself here is was like it had never even occurred to him that he's basically never been a Top 2 player on his team before.)

They may well just bring Wiggins off the bench. Or even Looney given the matchup. I don't think they need to play particularly big against the Grizz/Wolves or the Suns.

[parsnips33]

Kerr's got a big decision now, assuming Steph isn't gonna come off the bench for the rest of this series. Can't imagine benching Poole with the way he's been playing, but Looney and Wiggins have been so key for the defense. Having too many starter quality players is a good problem to have, but it is still technically a problem

Yup, it's tricky. Based on how Poole's been playing, it frankly seems like the thing that should happen is that Klay should become the 6th man and the franchise going forward should focus on Curry-Poole...but that's a big pivot to make in the heat of the season.

Additionally, while it was cute when Klay was doing his whole "I'm 77" thing as a motivator to come back and be a star again...will Klay handle things well if the proper role for him now is as a role player? In general I've always seen Klay as a guy who will just do his best whatever he's asked to do, but once ego gets involved it's tricky.

(Tangent: The 77 thing always bugged me because Klay isn't the next guy on the team who should have been consider - Draymond is. Klay has always said all the right things about how valuable Draymond is, but the way he promoted himself here is was like it had never even occurred to him that he's basically never been a Top 2 player on his team before.)

They may well just bring Wiggins off the bench. Or even Looney given the matchup. I don't think they need to play particularly big against the Grizz/Wolves or the Suns.

Yeah I think there's a matchup dependent component. And like Doc mentioned, there's ego management that also goes into it. It helps that this is really just a question of starting 5. Steph-Poole-Klay-Wiggins-Draymond looks cemented as the closing unit, especially if Wiggins is grabbing 9 boards and playing active defense on and off the ball

[Doctor MJ]

Kerr's got a big decision now, assuming Steph isn't gonna come off the bench for the rest of this series. Can't imagine benching Poole with the way he's been playing, but Looney and Wiggins have been so key for the defense. Having too many starter quality players is a good problem to have, but it is still technically a problem

Yup, it's tricky. Based on how Poole's been playing, it frankly seems like the thing that should happen is that Klay should become the 6th man and the franchise going forward should focus on Curry-Poole...but that's a big pivot to make in the heat of the season.

Additionally, while it was cute when Klay was doing his whole "I'm 77" thing as a motivator to come back and be a star again...will Klay handle things well if the proper role for him now is as a role player? In general I've always seen Klay as a guy who will just do his best whatever he's asked to do, but once ego gets involved it's tricky.

(Tangent: The 77 thing always bugged me because Klay isn't the next guy on the team who should have been consider - Draymond is. Klay has always said all the right things about how valuable Draymond is, but the way he promoted himself here is was like it had never even occurred to him that he's basically never been a Top 2 player on his team before.)

They may well just bring Wiggins off the bench. Or even Looney given the matchup. I don't think they need to play particularly big against the Grizz/Wolves or the Suns.

I don't think there's any doubt that all 3 of the guards are better offensive players than Wiggins when healthy, but what about the defense? Unless Klay gets back to his old form there, it would seem to me like Wiggins is going to need to be one of your 5 big minute guys if you're going to beat all comers.

[itsxtray]

Im not a fan of guards winning Dpoy since we know their impact in the paint is minimal, even with the guards who can provide some paint protection via charges, digging down, the occasional play at the rim, etc... The best defenders deter shots from even being taken and even tho the league has increased 3pa's defending the paint is still the most important defensive responsibility in basketball. So count me as someone who says this is one of the weaker Dpoy wins of all time.

[RCM88x]

Guess this begs the question, is Smart the worst DPOY since Payton?

[GSP]

Guess this begs the question, is Smart the worst DPOY since Payton?

Camby was far worse than either

[Fadeaway_J]

Thought Bam would have at least been a finalist.

I could see this result coming between the sudden pro-Smart campaign and the general disrespect of Gobert.