Golden State Warriors Are Reloading
Matt: We can start obviously with the defending NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors. They lost. Payton, they lost Porter, but they gained Wiseman, who’s already been on the team. But, he’s actually gonna be playing for the team this year. Already had a pretty decent showing in game one on Ring Night against the hapless Los Angeles Lakers.
To me, it’s still this team and everybody else in the west. I’ve thought that whenever their team is healthy, I don’t think there’s anyone that’s beating the Golden State Warriors. There’s gonna be some challenges this year, but I think the Golden State Warriors are definitely one of those teams we gotta pay attention to all year round.
Ryan: Yeah, I think they’re the best team in the Western Conference. I don’t know that it’s the head and shoulders above everybody else, but I do think the Golden State Warriors are better than what they were last year. Not even just Wiseman. No. The starting vibe that they had in the playoffs, they didn’t play any minutes together in the regular season because somebody was always hurt.
Klay obviously a big portion of the season, but Draymond. Like they didn’t have their starting five until the playoffs. And then when they were in the playoffs, they had the, I think they were plus 26 with all those guys on the court. And that was just the finals, but they had the best net rating of any five-man lineup in the playoffs.
So it’s of course a really good team. We saw what they did to a team who’s probably not so good in the Lakers on. But they obviously, they’re going through their own kind of turmoil, right? With Draymond Green punching, and knocking out Jordan Poole, we’ll see how that plays out throughout the length of the season.
The team made the decision not to spend Draymond at all. So maybe it’s not a big deal. Maybe it’s something that people on the outside are just making a bigger deal of it because, we haven’t seen anything like this really, but maybe the Golden State Warriors are over it, which I guess is entirely possible.
But yeah, the Golden State Warriors are the Golden State Warriors at this point. Like they’ve been doing this long enough that you can just say the Golden State Warriors are the Golden State Warriors and that’s what it is. And they are certainly the Golden State Warriors again.
Matt: Look man, sometimes when you are the established starting better player like a Draymond Green or a Michael Jordan, you gotta punch a Steve Kerr or a Jordan Poole in the face to keep him in line.
It didn’t stop the bulls from winning a championship after that happened. So I don’t know, it’s gonna stop the Golden State Warriors there. But we’re talking about guys like, we, we haven’t even mentioned Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody. Guys that actually stepped up and played important minutes last year in the finals forum are now gonna get this year, the full year under their belt with them as well, to go along with Wiseman. Andrew Wiggins, Klay, Steph, Poole. Like you’re just, it’s just, it’s ridiculous, man. The rich just get richer.
Ryan: Yeah. And even if they got a rookie, we were just talking about rookies, Patrick Baldwin, who’s, probably not good right now, but certainly, by the time the playoffs come around, he was a guy who was really highly recruited and highly rated in high school.
So I think the talent’s probably there and, what better situation to go than to go into Golden State where you’re able to just find you, find your niche, right? And I think that’s what makes the warrior so scary is they, the culture of the system, but just the flow of everything on the team.
They have their established, here’s what we’re gonna do. If Klay is hot, we’re getting him the ball. I don’t care what you got going on. If Klay is four or five, five or five from three, we’re just gonna keep feeding him until he misses or until this quarter ends or whatever happens. And it’s just getting guys to buy into all of that.
And then they’re all on the same page. They all know what to do. And then they’re adding these guys who are really talented. Jonathan Kuminga was a high draft pick. Wiseman was obviously a high-draft pick. Moody was a high draft pick. So they’re able to add in talent too. Steph Curry, who, no, he’s probably a top-five player in the NBA still.
Klay Thompson, who’s still one of the better shooters in the NBA. Draymond Green, who’s one of the better defenders in the NBA. Jordan Poole looks like he’s gonna be a really good combination of shooting and playmaking to be not a hybrid of Klay or Steph and Draymond, or whatever you wanna say, but just a hybrid guy who can do both.
He’s a guy who. And he is also a guy who can get his own shot and get to the line, make a three, whatever the case is. And then Andrew Wiggins who’s still a really good athlete. And then, he’s turned himself into a really good defender and that was the litmus test.
They got Andrew Wiggins and they got him to buy in a player who for years, everyone said was a losing player. He didn’t care about this, didn’t care about that. He was just somebody who got paid and coasted. And then he goes to Golden State and he’s, arguably the second-best player on the title team.
It’s just amazing and getting everybody to buy into that culture and then buy into the. They have over there. It’s incredible and it’s what makes them really hard to be, obviously outside of just their talent, but it’s, it seems like everybody knows their role and if they don’t know their role, they learn it within, what, three or four months at least within one season.
Where I bet Kuminga’s way more comfortable this year. Then he was last year. And he knows the kind of same goes with Moses Moody and then they’re able to pick their spots and then, if the Golden State Warriors have it their way, these are guys that they’re just gonna be passing the keys to moving forward. As Draymond Clay and Steph get phased out. Yeah.
Matt: All right. Last year the Golden State Warriors were a forgotten team. By most, they weren’t forgotten by me. I’d pick them. Same. As soon as this team gets healthy, watch out NBA the Golden State Warriors are coming back. This year’s forgotten team in my mind that I’m not for is the Los Angeles Clippers.
Because Kawhi is healthy this year, and Paul George is healthy? John Wall is playing this year and people forget cuz it’s been a long time since we’ve seen John Wall play basketball. But this man averages 19 and nine, I’m talking assists, not rebounds.
While being a pro and you’re adding that to Kawhi and Paul George, you’re adding a guy that can actually spread the floor and give that team some space. Cause this is a team that has struggled with having. With guys like Reggie Jackson who don’t do it as well, you have a scorer in John Wall.
A facilitator in John Wall to go along with a two-time finals MVP in a healthy Kawhi Leonard, and a top-25 player in his own right in Paul George, the Los Angeles Clippers. Are gonna be making a statement this year and might be the team battling Golden State for the Western Crown.
Ryan: So I like the Clippers too, but with the John Wall talk, a lot of his strength was the fact that he was just faster than everybody. And I know he didn’t play last year, not because of injury, because they just didn’t want him to play, but he’s been, he was hurt.
The year before that I don’t know that John Wall still has all those same attributes that he had before. They’re not even starting them. They’re gonna start Reggie Jackson. At Point Guard and then let Wall come off the bench. So I do think Wall was a good signing, but I wouldn’t just pencil wall in as their third-best player or anything.
It’s a guy who’s always struggled to shoot and again, his biggest strength was his quickness. Does he still have that? I, I don’t doubt that he can still pass or that he can still even score when he needs to, but, I don’t think they’re getting the John Wall of old,
Matt: but man, why you gotta ruin my parade with logic and facts? I didn’t ask for that.
Ryan: I like Wall, He’s John Wall, but I don’t know. I think the Clippers are gonna be good. Obviously, that’s more tied to Kawhi Leonard and Paul George for me than it is to John Wall. And then even some of the trades that the Clippers made last year to get some like bench pieces and debt pieces.
thought Norman Powell was really good. I think Azuback is still a pretty good center for the Clippers. And just have a ton of depth. I think one of the Morris brothers is still there, except for those guys, who changed teams. It seems like every year. So that might not be the case.
Markieff is in Brooklyn and Marcus Morris is, but drum roll, please. He is, so he is on the clippers and those are guys who have just been good NBA players, right? The Pistons had them both. Not at the same, but they’ve had ’em both. So we’ve seen them here and I think the, I don’t know I’m excited to watch the Clippers, they played.
But when we’re recording this, I gu I guess they’re gonna be playing tonight. But yeah, I think they’re a team that can absolutely win the West. Obviously, it depends on the health of Kawhi Leonard. With Paul, your, and that’s and John Wall kinda gonna. Where it stops and ends. I think they can do it without John Wall.
Again, I just don’t know what we’re getting from John Wall. I think it’s a good sign, it could be just like when the cash signed Shawn Marion or something and people were going crazy about that. And Shawn Marion was older than Wall was.
I’m sure Shawn Marion was probably. 35 years old. But like we, I, we don’t know what John Wall is. He did have all of last year just sit. He wasn’t hurt. The rockets just didn’t wanna play him because they were trying to be really bad and get the number one pick. But I don’t know. So I’d probably be a little less bullish on John Wall, but equally as bullish on the Clippers.
Matt: I’m saying ex I’m expecting 15 and six minimum from John Wall this year.
About The Show
Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel
▬ Griffin & Bass – Hosted by Ryan Griffin and Matt Bassin – We discuss the latest hot topics of the week and have some fun while doing it. New episodes are LIVE Tuesdays and Fridays.
Check out gearupdetroit.shop and get 25% off your purchase by using coupon code G&B25OFF
