OT: Why is Golden State suddenly so good?

[Rastapopoulos]

Theories? Don't they have essentially the same team as last season?

 

[andalusian]

Theories? Don't they have essentially the same team as last season?

Not really. They got rid of Monte Ellis halfway through last year, and they had sometime to rethink their team with Curry being #1 this year. When your #1 guy is a gunner with little team-play preference it is harder, I think, to have a really great team. Curry is much more team oriented than Ellis ever was, imho.

 

[HailBlazers]

Basketball is a game of Chemistry after all. G-State has had the pieces, they've just finally fitted them together.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

They have a lot.of depth

 

[Charcoal Filtered]

They tanked last year late and put quality players around.their.core this offseason.

 

[illmatic99]

Curry + Lee.

/

 

[Jayps15]

Shipping out Ellis and Curry stepping up to be the man, Klay Thompson getting more playing time, Barnes being a solid but not spectacular roleplayer, and the depth they added with both Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry from NOH.

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

They would be even better if bogut was healthy

 

[Nikolokolus]

Motherfucking Harrison Barnes?

Too soon?

 

[KingSpeed]

Jack and Landry have made a huge difference. Same improvement we could make with more depth next year. Also, thanks to us, they landed a future All Star in Harrison Barnes.

 

[RR7]

I think their depth has alot to do with it. If you look, our starters match up pretty favorably to their starters. A little worse here, a little better there. We have an advantage at C, for sure, with Hickson over Ezeli. And at SF with Batum over Barnes. The rest of the starters are fairly close. They have Landry and Jack off their bench. Jack's giving them 10/5/3 off the bench, and the ability to play both guard positions. Landry is giving them 13/7. Our top bench producer is Leonard, with 5/4.

 

[Nikolokolus]

Jack and Landry have made a huge difference. Same improvement we could make with more depth next year. Also, thanks to us, they landed a future All Star in Harrison Barnes.

His 11.8 PER is glittering like an uncut diamond.

 

[Natebishop3]

His 11.8 PER is glittering like an uncut diamond.

That got a chuckle out of me.

 

[magnifier661]

That got a chuckle out of me.

Lol yeah that was hilarious!

 

[HailBlazers]

Also, thanks to us, they landed a future All Star in Harrison Barnes.

I'll take our future Superstar thank you very much

 

[magnifier661]

They got this guy to techno dance in their locker room.

[video=youtube;qh_mRiGF2G0]

 

[STOMP]

to the OP?- besides Bogut, everyone is healthy. Having Curry back from constant ankle issues is their biggest plus over last season. Klay Thompson isn't a rookie anymore and Harrison Barnes is fitting in well. Jarret Jack is giving them quality minutes off the bench.

STOMP

 

[MickZagger]

Klay Thompson got better, Steph Curry healthy and lots of depth. A luxury to have Jack, Landry and others coming off the bench.

If we had that kind of a depth we'd have a similar or better record.

 

[HailBlazers]

Word, gives us a good example to follow

 

[NOVoodoo]

I see a lot of the Detroit Pistons in the Golden State Warriors. I also see a lot of the Memphis Grizzlies in them as well (probably just because I'm a Grizz fan, but I do think they're comparable). They wound up building a great team with a bunch of below-"great", above-"average" players.

Were there any Hall of Famers on the dominant Pistons squads? You could make a case for Billups or Wallace, but at the end of the day, I really don't see any of them being HOF'ers. If they're HOF'ers, it's because they were apart of that great team, not because they were the guy on their squad like most HOF'ers.

The Warriors have a far way to go to get to the Pistons level, so I think the Grizzlies analogy is more relevant, but if you look at their roster, it was just a matter of time before they started winning basketball games. David Lee, like Zach Randolph, is one of the most under-appreciated players in the league. He's been a consistent 20/10 player throughout the bulk of his career, but when was the last time you ever heard someone mention Lee with the league's greats?

 

[Mediocre Man]

Coach.

Jackson is a good head coach, and that team is finally buying into his defensive philosophies

 

[STOMP]

The Warriors have a far way to go to get to the Pistons level, so I think the Grizzlies analogy is more relevant, but if you look at their roster, it was just a matter of time before they started winning basketball games. David Lee, like Zach Randolph, is one of the most under-appreciated players in the league. He's been a consistent 20/10 player throughout the bulk of his career, but when was the last time you ever heard someone mention Lee with the league's greats?

a Big who isn't a shotblocking threat is like a baseball corner infielder without HR power. Hitting for a high average and being a gold glover are valuable skills too, but it's hard to be considered great when a player is missing a skillset that benefits the effectiveness of a team so much. Randolph and Lee are quality players and they put up great stats, but I sure don't consider them great because of this glaring hole in their games

STOMP

 

[mook]

Barkley and Malone weren't great shotblockers. But then they put up a lot better numbers than Lee and Randolph did. If you are going to have that kind of hole in your game, you'd better not just be really good at the other stuff, but utterly fantastic. In the end, even though they were great players, they still never won championships.

 

[Run BJM]

Coach.

Jackson is a good head coach, and that team is finally buying into his defensive philosophies

This is a surprisingly big factor. GS' roster has a lot of very smart players and they're totally buying into what MJ is preaching.

Mike Malone has also lived up to his billing as one of the better defensive x's and o's guys around the league. Hes the mastermind behind their team defensive schemes and hes got them playing very well on defense despite two major liabilities in Curry and Lee. All of our rookies have been surprisingly good on defense, Draymond Green is the best defender on the team aside from Bogut. Klay Thompson and Jarret Jack are solid defenders at their positions. And they're also the top defensive rebounding team in the league so they aren't giving up any extra opportunities.

MJ and Malone apparently didn't get a full training camp last year, and with a Monta-centered team it was bound to be inefficient on both ends. This team has been much healthier, had a full TC and a year under the coaching staff, and despite no Bogut they've added talented players who play intelligently. Defense and rebounding are easily the #1 reason for the turnaround, but they've REALLY started to get it going as Curry is morphing back into second-half-rookie-season Steph, Lee is playing a stretch where hes been the best PF in the league by pure productivity, and Klay pulled out of a godawful slump to start the season. In December Curry is averaging 22/8/4/2 on 45% from 3 pt range, Lee is averaging 22 and 13 on 57% FGs and has the longest streak of consecutive 20/10 games in the league.

They really haven't been that healthy either. Bogut is obviously out. Brandon Rush is a top 5 player on the team and blew out his knee in the second game of the season. Curry's been healthy enough to play but he has tweaked his ankle a little and just played through it (I think its getting to the point where we all have to start expecting him to just live with that issue for the remainder of his career). GS has proven to have arguably the best depth in the league with Jack and Landry as two top notch reserves, Festus Ezeli and Harrison Barnes have stepped in and started and played their roles like they're 10 year veterans. After Rush and Richard Jefferson went down Green started playing and hes been shockingly effective on defense. You PER whores would hate him, but hes a fucking winner, great defender, great rebounder, and provides a ton of energy and toughness. Charles Jenkins has gotten some minutes due to injury and hes hitting like 60% of his shots, mostly on a money mid-range J. Even Andris Biedrins has been effective on defense and rebounding when hes played.

 

[crandc]

to the OP?- besides Bogut, everyone is healthy. Having Curry back from constant ankle issues is their biggest plus over last season. Klay Thompson isn't a rookie anymore and Harrison Barnes is fitting in well. Jarret Jack is giving them quality minutes off the bench.

STOMP

Exactly, Lee & Curry were injured a lot. They are both healthy and they picked up some good role players. Everyone accepts his role. Personally I still think something is going to happen, maybe wishful thinking on my part.

 

[BLAZER PROPHET]

I think their depth has alot to do with it.

DING DING DING!!

We have a winner.

And this is what I've been saying to those who want to take all our cap money and get one player. We're about 5 players away. We need depth. It isn't always about a particular player, but quantity of talent.

 

[magnifier661]

DING DING DING!!

We have a winner.

And this is what I've been saying to those who want to take all our cap money and get one player. We're about 5 players away. We need depth. It isn't always about a particular player, but quantity of talent.

But for the most part; depth only works in very rare occasions when talking about champions. Most championship teams have 3 all-star caliber players; with at least one being a superstar. Then the bench and other players are specialists like shooters, defenders, rebounders and enforcers. I'm hoping Lillard becomes our superstar and Aldridge the all-star. Maybe Batum could be the third all-star caliber player; but I doubt he makes the all-star team unless we are the most winningest team in the league. As for the intangibles... I think Hickson is that rebounder and almost can pass for a decent defender too. We have Babbitt as our shooter and Matthews as our defender. We need more role players to build around this core.

 

[Eastoff]

They got this guy to techno dance in their locker room.

[video=youtube;qh_mRiGF2G0]

this is what you sound like to me right now.
[video=youtube;XPzTq7PJIQQ]

 

[Eastoff]

DING DING DING!!

We have a winner.

And this is what I've been saying to those who want to take all our cap money and get one player. We're about 5 players away. We need depth. It isn't always about a particular player, but quantity of talent.

Depth wins games, but stars win championships.

 

[mook]

But for the most part; depth only works in very rare occasions when talking about champions. Most championship teams have 3 all-star caliber players; with at least one being a superstar. Then the bench and other players are specialists like shooters, defenders, rebounders and enforcers. I'm hoping Lillard becomes our superstar and Aldridge the all-star. Maybe Batum could be the third all-star caliber player; but I doubt he makes the all-star team unless we are the most winningest team in the league. As for the intangibles... I think Hickson is that rebounder and almost can pass for a decent defender too. We have Babbitt as our shooter and Matthews as our defender. We need more role players to build around this core.

I agree about a lot of that. But Hickson is not a starting-quality center on a championship team. The rebounding is there, but the defense isn't. Wish we could keep him, but coming off the bench. He's the kind of guy who just flat out out-works other bench players. But as a starter there's just not enough presence there on the defensive end.

I wish we could throw Leonard into a time machine and see what he's like in 4 years.