Obviously injuries are the biggest risk to our roster. But what roster could sustain an injury to core members of its rotation and still remain competitive? Spurs are hopeless without Wemby; Knicks without Brunson; Sixers without Embiid; OKC without SGA; DEN without Jokic; goes on and on.

What I see in our rotation- an old rotation- is:

- 10 combined championships between Steph, Dray, Al, and KP
- 2 recent college champs between Yaxel and Richards
- An automatic all star addition in Jimmy Butler- who loves playing for us- in February
- A rising talent in Podz who did start to shine as a scorer when Steph had to sit last year
- A solid role player in Moses, should he be able to play later this year
- And Bassey, who proved to be a very workable back up center

I know we are worried about injury history and a lack of Jimmy. But:

- KP and Celebrini must have developed something serviceable over the past months. KP also alluded to how much he believes he can get back to himself throughout the end of last year. What if he balls out?
- Likewise, Al was a saving grace at the end of last season. We entered last season relying on him as the big man, and now he gets to come off the bench. That’s not insignificant.
- Steph’s runner’s knee might flair up, but maybe it doesn’t? He has a history of being his best after season’s that he doesn’t play x number of games- last year fitting into that category.

Why continuity is good:

Last season, we really didn’t get to see this roster maximized. Our players had to shift roles midway through the season AND we had a pretty grueling start to the season (schedule-wise). With that data, I think rational fans can look to Kerr and our vets to scheme a viable pathway to acceptable levels of success in the first half of the year.

Additionally, if we use the most recent NBA finals as our barometer, we can surmise this: veteran experience is far more valuable for winning than young, raw athletic talent. There is not- for better- a more veteran savvy team in the NBA than the current Golden State Warriors.

Why I’m optimistic:

- We have multiple guys who have proven they can get 30 any given night: Steph, KP, and Jimmy (when he’s back).

- We have multiple guys who are above average role players: Melton, Podz (sorry to offend), and Moses (when he’s back).

- Our defensive principles will still be good.

- Our youth is quite good between Richards and Yaxel.

I really do believe in these guys. We saw everything bad happen last year, and I appreciate how fresh on everyone’s minds that is. But I also appreciate a calm, rational front office that is able to look at what we have and call a spade a spade. There are multiple 30 point game scorers on this team, a couple very decent young guys (college champions, like the Knicks), a whole lot of veteran savvy guys, and just enough rational fire guys to stir up the pot.

I’ll spend this season counting on Celebrini, Kerr, and injury luck. All 29 other teams are counting on the latter. We are lucky to have the former two cards in our favor.

Can’t W

And if you're down with Houston then fuck you too

Remember when Ellis & Curry was a thing?

Seems like a lifetime ago, but yeah - it was!

Easy to look at things in hindsight, but just imagine if the Warriors had kept Ellis and traded the "weak-ankled" Curry instead…

Well no need to stretch the imagination too far; the Kings are essentially in this situation.

They traded away Haliburton the Pacers and kept Fox.

The Pacers are now in the NBA Finals (made the Conference Finals last season) and the Kings have yet to move on past the first round since 2004 🤯

… And the Warriors, well just a couple titles!

Stay and remain a Klegend forever

I don’t even know anybody who wants money anyway

So if you follow the Warriors you have probably seen this talked about before, Podz is leading the team in rebounds over the past few months but many discount this because he is "stat padding and stealing his teammates rebounds". At first I thought this was a bit silly, but after seeing this come up dozens of times in different threads I figured it was worth investigating.

Something you might not know (I found this out yesterday) is that the NBA has a new feature this season where if you go into the post-game box score and click on a player's stats (rebounds, assists, etc.) it will pull up clips of each of these rebounds or assists. It's not perfect, sometimes the clip times are off and there's no rebound during the clip, but overall it is pretty good.

I thought this was a good time to do some film review and test this out. Are Podz' high rebound numbers actually because he's a good rebounder, or because he's stealing rebounds from teammates? To be generous to the steal crowd I will be using a pretty loose definition of stealing a rebound, which is just that if a teammate is in position to grab it uncontested and Podz jumps in to get the rebound it it'll count as stealing a rebound.

I went through the last 10 games and went over each rebound, all in all this took about 15 minutes. Rebounds are linked below, along with my notes. Please look through them and double check me.

• GSW vs DAL - 10 rebounds, 5 offensive boards. For one defensive rebound off of a FT Pat Spencer was behind Podz and probably could've grabbed it, but this was behind Podz who had no vision and Gafford could have contested. One very debatable 'steal' if you squint hard enough. Every other rebound had no teammates in position to grab.
• GSW vs ATL - Podz had no rebounds this game
• GSW vs DET - 6 rebounds, none of his rebounds had a teammate in position to grab.
• GSW vs BOS - 6 rebounds, 2 offensive. One rebound both he and Will Richard run for, but Podz is closer and gets it. No stolen rebounds.
• GSW vs WAS - 4 rebounds, 1 offensive. One rebound Melton is closeby for, but if Podz didn't get it it would've likely gone to Will Riley on the wizards. No stolen rebounds.
• GSW vs NYK - 5 rebounds. This is the first clip where there is a clearly stolen rebound. On clip #3 the ball is going right for Post with no opposing players nearby and Podz jumps to grab it.
• MIN vs GSW - 7 redounds, 3 offensive. One rebound Will Richard goes for it and misses, and Podz gets it afterwards. Another in the "if you squint hard enough" column.
• CHI vs GSW 2 rebounds. One rebound both Podz, Gui, and Jalen Smith go for, but Jalen seems to deflect it to Podz. No steal IMO
• GSW vs UTA - 8 rebounds. One Gui loses control of and Podz secures to keep from going out of bounds. Every other one Podz is just in position for.
• GSW vs OKC - 6 rebounds, one offensive. Podz has position on all of them.

Over these 10 games there are 54 rebounds. I was able to find 1 stolen rebound clip #3 and 2 that maybe you could count if you squint hard enough, but are a big stretch clip #1 and clip #7. The vast majority of Podz' rebounds are because of his positioning and because he is consistently crashing the boards.

TL;DR, Podz has high rebounding numbers because he's a good rebounder, people saying he just steals from his teammates are probably not watching the games and instead watching a few highly circulated clips online.

-3 and 4 guard lineups

-JK DNP (if Draymond is out, and you’re barely going to play Santos, maybe play the guy that averaged 24 a game vs Minnesota in the playoffs last year?)

-Podz cardio (why does he need to play 23 minutes?)

-Podz being the backup PG and not Spencer was outrageous. Spencer was only used with Steph or with Podz

Sick of Kerr and his infatuation with Podz and 4 guard lineups

The last few days I've been starting to dive into draft research - my first impression is that overall this is an excitingly deep draft and even with the #11 pick I think we've got access to guys who could go top 5 in a weaker draft. There's not a lot of consensus on the big boards and there are plenty of other guys who could end up around #11, but here are 3 that are mocked around our position that the Warriors might be interested in.

1) Yaxel Lendeborg

Yaxel was unanimously chosen as the big 10 player of the year this year, he's 6'10 with a 7'4 wingspan and is a swiss army knife glue guy kind of player. He's a very good defender, solid passer, is shooting 64% from 2 and 37% from 3 on 15/7/3.

His major downside is that he's 23. Players that old are kind of expected to dominate in college, he's going to be a year older than Obi Toppin on draft day, for reference. It is pretty rare for players that old to go in the lottery, but if Yaxel had this season and was only 20 he'd be going in the top 3 and we'd have zero chance of getting him at 11. Its also important to note that he only started playing basketball at 18 years old, so there's a good argument that he'll be developing more than your average older prospect since his whole development curve is offset.

If we want someone who can make an impact in their first year I think Yaxel is the clear choice, but we're probably looking at a good defensive role player rather than a future star. Here are some highlights

2) Karim Lopez

While Yaxel is a grown man dominating a bunch of teenagers, Karim is the opposite - a teenager doing pretty well versus grown men in the NBL.

Karim is another big swiss army knife kind of player, he's 19 years old and 6'9" - his game reminds me a lot of Slowmo's with that same bruisery slow eurostep where he uses his size to his advantage. He's a bit of a weird prospect because looking at his film not a lot really jumps out at you, but his NBL stats compared to other prospects from the NBL are actually really good.

The fact that he's able to use his size so well at 19 against older players in the NBL makes me wonder what his game could look like at 22 if he bulks up like most players do. But unfortunately I doubt he'd be able to contribute a ton his first year, he definitely still looks a bit raw. Here are some highlights

3) Labaron Philon

Labaron is probably my favorite player to watch right now, if you want someone who can create shots Labaron is definitely the pick. He's a 6'4 sophomore combo guard who was considered kind of a defensive specialist his rookie year and was projected to go in the 2nd round, but he came back for another year in college and turned into one of the biggest scoring threats in college basketball, putting up 22/3.5/5 on 57% from 2, 40% from 3, and 80% from the line. His ball handle and pacing just looks so fucking good, really a fun player to watch.

The most impressive thing about him though is that almost all of his shots are self created, he's shooting 40% from 3 on a diet of off the dribble/stepback 3s. He's shooting 67% at the rim mostly just from advantage created out of the pick and roll. I remember hearing scouts talk about how SGA was underrated in his draft and how they should've paid more attention to the fact that he was able to self create shots at 60% at the rim... well here LaBaron is at 67% at the rim and he's still IMO being mostly overlooked.

Over the past few years shot creation in the 2nd unit has been a real struggle for the Warriors - we've been relying on guys like Podz and Moody to do it when that's really not their game. Labaron is someone I can see as kind of a middle ground, I could see him contributing early on as a backup ball handler/microwave bench scorer, who could also develop into a starter later in his career. His game reminds me a lot of Maxey's.

If you're going to check out one set of highlights, check these out

Let me know what you guys think, or if there are any other guys you think I should check out around #11

Some may not want to hear it, but Draymond has been holding this team back for several years now.

It's been time to move on for a while. Unplayable on offense, and the effort on defense is barely ever there anymore. His antics routinely cost us games. Kerr enables him by constantly excusing all his BS and never holding him accountable. Trade him ASAP!

TJD at 57 is legit insane.

He is going to fit into your system so well. Dude can jump out of the gym and throw down any lob thrown his way. He is outstanding working out of the PnR, playing at the top of the key, and getting the ball in the post. This past year he elevated his game by showing great court vision, often bringing the ball up the court and initiating the offense, almost identical to how Jokic was doing in the playoffs. He got a triple double last year, only the 4th player in Indiana history to do so. He flirted with another 1 or 2 and I believe almost had a quadruple double one game.

In terms of stats, he broke so many random IU and national stats. He is IU's all time leader in blocks, top 5 in rebounds I believe, and top 5-10 in scoring. When it comes to 25 point, 5+ rebound, 5+ blocks in a game, he sat with only Tim Duncan and Shaq for most in a career.

He does not have the shooting yet, his form is there and he had a green light to shoot at IU, he just wasn't confident in his shot. Think of how Sabonis looked against the Warriors in the playoffs, just a little timid to pull the trigger on anything 12 feet out.

His first step is very fast. Dude is very athletic and long.From time to time he will throw a bad pass or lose the ball, mainly out of the fact that IU required him to do so much.

Defensively, he gets a lot of blocks, usually weak side. At times this causes his defender to get a weak side miss.

His attitude is perfect. Amazing locker room guy. Dude is a hard worker and a professional. He loves the game and it shows in his play. He runs the floor so well and his conditioning is great.

He is going to be the ultimate role player for you and 100% will take over Drayton's role once he is gone. If he can ever gain confidence in his shot, he can be an all-star level player.

Because he will be surrounded by shooters, he can play the 4 or 5 for you guys but will not thrive guarding anyone over 7 foot.

We know that Kerr is the best head coach in the league. Make your predication on the adjustments you think he’ll make to set us up for the win tonight.

Personally, I think they really upped the pace in the 3rd quarter and Steph went into shot hunting attack mode in the second half of the 4th. They made great adjustments with AD as well.

So what adjustments will they make for Game 2?

This may get downvoted to oblivion, but that’s ok. I have seen a major problem with Jimmy lately, not taking mid ranges, being much more passive than his usual aggressiveness, struggling to get 20 points, etc. For context, Julius Randle, their best player that night had 27/9/6, is getting paid about $25 million less than Butler. I have seen some people here mention that he is not trying until the playoffs, and that he is not primarily a scorer etc. I really think if you are getting paid the same as Luka, Giannis, Tatum, and significantly more than all the TWolves’ players, there should be some responsibility to perform at that level. Quite frankly, the stark difference between Steph and Jimmy (2nd option) is quite remarkable.

I just don’t understand how we lost to a team without their franchise superstar where Curry had to drop close to 40 again, and why Jimmy, as the 2nd best player, can’t just step it up already. Outside of Jimmy, we can’t really expect much major “improvement” from our younger guys/bench, given the sheer lack of skill, size, and athleticism of our guys compared to the rest of the west. I really think unless we can make major trades or have Jimmy play up to his pay grade, we’re in big trouble.

How in the era of hard aprons have the clips got signed
1. Leonard
2. Harden
3. Zubac
4. Collins
5. Beal
6. Brook Lopez, Bogdon, Batum, DJJ
And they still got money for GrandPa CP

How's their front office doing it? Explain it like I'm a gifted 4th grader

Barring a miracle, we're gonna be active in the January trade market with Kuminga's 22M salary.

The next 3 months are to evaluate the needs of the roster before pushing for a trade. Here are the different types of trade targets currently...

Athletic, defense-first wings (most ideal to least ideal...)

1. Toumani Camara, POR ($3m): Absolute monster. No reason for Portland to trade him.
2. Herb Jones, NOP ($14m): Not a shooter, but yet another monstrous defender. Again, Pels would love to keep him)
3. Andrew Wiggins ($28m): Hasn't been a motivated player since 2022, but I'm ready to be let down again
4. Dilllon Brooks, PHX ($21m): Fuck him but he'd be a great addition for us. Elite PoA defender, solid 3pt shooter. Absolute dick though.
5. Ziaire Williams or Highsmith, BKN ($6m): Both are tall 3-and-D bodies if we really need them.
6. Thybulle, POR ($13m): Elite defense, mediocre shot. Absolutely useless with the ball.
7. Keldon Johnson, SAS ($18m): Undersized, stocky wing who can score a bit and rebounds really well. Not a floor spacer though.
8. Saddiq Bey, NOP, ($6m): Great rebounder, solid deep shooter, coming off injuries.
9. Anthony Black, ORL ($8m): Young athletic wing (kinda like Orland's Moody), more D than 3, Magic love him

Offense-first wings (most ideal to least ideal...)

1. Trey Murphy, NOP ($25m): Salary can easily work and he'd be a perfect with his size, scoring and shooting. Pels have no reason to trade him though
2. Deni Avdija, POR ($14m): Best player on the Blazers, zero chance he gets traded.
3. Khris Middleton, WAS ($33m): Can be had on a buyout in Feb.
4. Brice Sensabaugh, UTA ($3m): Absolute elite shooter. He's gonna blow up pretty soon into a new Luke Kennard.
5. Corey Kispert, WAS ($13m): Great shooter, can do a bit of everything else.
6. Grimes, PHI ($9m): Great shooter, solid scorer and passable on defense. Very unlikely to trade for him due to loss of bird rights.
7. Derozan, SAC (25m): We can run the oldest starting linup in league history.
8. Kyle Kuzma, MIL ($22m): Hell na, makes JK look like a basketball genius

Scoring Guards (most ideal to least ideal..)

1. Coby White ($12m) or Dosunmu ($8m), CHI: Good shooters, can handle a bit and defend a bit too. Great fit.
2. Ty Jerome ($9m), MEM: Bring him back home. Memphis has no reason to let go of him though, given Ja is Ja.
3. CJ McCollum ($30m), WAS: Incredible buyout candidate. Terrible trade candidate.
   
4. Kevin Huerter ($18m), CHI: Elite shooter, great spacer, solid on the ball but not a good defender. He'll be a great fit if healthy.
5. Sexton, CHO ($18m): Amazing slasher, great shooter and jitterbug everywhere. 3-on-5 basketball legend.
6. Malik Monk, SAC ($18m): Great shooter, great scorer and another bad defender. We need a scorer like him tbf.

7. Grayson Allen ($17m), PHX: Absolute dick but also one of the top-10 shooters in the league. Not great on the ball and a bad defender.

8. Ja Morant, MEM ($40m): Obviously terrible idea, but if he was motivated and healthy, we'd be winning a ring easily.

Defensive guards

1. Davion Mitchell ($11m)/Keon Ellis ($3m): Incredible 3-and-D PoA defenders. No reason for their teams to trade them though.
2. Dejounte Murray ($30M): Two-way guy and a solid ball handler. Overpaid but flashes some elite potential. Low BBIQ sadly.
3. Ochai Agbaji ($6M): Really good defender, nothing much else.
4. John Konchar, MEM, ($6m): Nothing elite about him, just another useful NBA body if we need it.

Rebounding Bigs

1. Robert Williams, POR ($13m): If he's healthy, he's good enough to get us a ring.
2. Nic Claxton, BKN ($27m): Amazing switchable shot-blocker. Cannot hit a FT though.
3. Walker Kessler, UTA ($3M): we'd have to overpay him, but he's a solid rim protector
4. Vucevic, CHI ($21m): Straight salary dump + gets us a useful body. Spacing big who can rebound really well.
5. Kyle Anderson, UTA ($9M): More of playmaking, non-scoring big, cannot shoot for shit sadly

Unless something breaks (like a top team breaking it up) or a player wanting out, these will be the most probable candidate pool for the winter.

Who would you go for?