2014-15 Regular Season Thread

If I was a coach I'd be one who'd say either try to dunk or shoot a 3. Jarrett Jack and Waiters would've been my least favorite players

Try to do what Klay did by yourself in a gym with no one watching and you'll never score 37 straight


NEVER

What I like more is the whole team knew what to do. They all force fed him the ball no matter what.


I bet Kyrie could drop 10 straight and Lebron would shoot eventually

Kizzle said:

I bet Kyrie could drop 10 straight and Lebron would shoot eventually

Click to expand...

Even when Dion had it going, LeBron knew to just get him the ball.

Triumph36 said:

lol, no. no "yikes on that one." up until he signed the contract he 100% was not a max player. until now he was a deadly 3pt shooter with horrific shot selection which killed his efficiency. this season he stopped taking so many bad shots, got to the rim a lot more, and finished better once he got there (huh, those glaring weaknesses that needed to be addressed sound familiar....). as a result, he's actually looking like a max player. if he didn't make those improvements and was still playing the same way he had his entire career, giving him a max deal still would've been terrible.

does he deserve credit for the improvement? of course. it is interesting to note, though, that curry's also improved his shot selection too - and he suffered from the similar issue of too many dumb 2s and not enough shots at the rim (but his %s elsewhere negated that so he was still v efficienct). he drastically cut down on his bad 2s and basically shifted them all to shots at the rim. lo and behold, he's having his most efficient season ever, on his way to an mvp, all the while having his lowest 3pt% of his career. so maybe the offense is just run better now, too.

both players serve as a nice case study for people who actually think the long 2 is a good shot and should not be minimized though

Click to expand...

Right. So this is what we call projecting forward and trying to figure out what a player will be as opposed to what he is. It's very easy to just look at the numbers right now and declare a guy is or isn't a max player. It would have been a monumental misstep for the Warriors to not pay Klay Thompson because they thought like you, pay him only what he has done and not what he will end up doing. They took somewhat of a risk, predicted he was going to become what he has become, and paid him accordingly.

If all scouts and GMs had to do was decide a players value based on their current play, then it would be an easy job indeed. Klay has been trending in this direction since the Spurs series and this season he's finally reached his destination.

Kizzle said:

Watched the 3rd on league pass

Klay was possessed by the basketball gods

TT is good but let's not act like we're the one franchise that messed up

A lot of teams missed on him

Click to expand...

Sacramento could've picked him, and they were in front of Golden State in the draft.

Instead, they picked Jimmer.

Kizzle said:

If I was a coach I'd be one who'd say either try to dunk or shoot a 3. Jarrett Jack and Waiters would've been my least favorite players

Click to expand...

yes. this is basic math. the goal on offense should be to maximize shots at the rim and from 3 - ideally dunks, and corner 3s respectively - and minimize the long 2 more than anything. there is a reason why the most efficient teams offensively all shoot lots of 3s.

that is why i hated waiters from day one. his shot selection was the absolute worst and when he did get high quality shots at the rim he still couldn't finish worth a damn - hence his embarrassingly low efficiency.

Rich said:

Right. So this is what we call projecting forward and trying to figure out what a player will be as opposed to what he is. It's very easy to just look at the numbers right now and declare a guy is or isn't a max player. It would have been a monumental misstep for the Warriors to not pay Klay Thompson because they thought like you, pay him only what he has done and not what he will end up doing. They took somewhat of a risk, predicted he was going to become what he has become, and paid him accordingly.

If all scouts and GMs had to do was decide a players value based on their current play, then it would be an easy job indeed. Klay has been trending in this direction since the Spurs series and this season he's finally reached his destination.

Click to expand...

right, projection is part of the picture. but in his first 3 years he didn't make up a whole lot of ground re: shot selection. his first year was ridiculously bad with almost 32% of his shots being long 2s. his tendency for that crap did gradually decline, but he replaced those shots with mid range 2s instead of more valuable shots and he actually took less shots at the rim with each additional season. in other words, it was 2 steps forwards, 1 step backwards. paying a player like that the kind of money they game him is way more than "somewhat of a risk." especially when you consider the other salaries on golden state - lee, bogut, iggy, curry (which is absurdly under market), etc.

paying based on what they think he'll become is fine, but they paid him based on the best-case scenario. that is risky. i sure as hell hope we aren't going to pay our thompson based on his best-case scenario (primarily because there is no way in hell he reaches it).

and with klay, i still think coaching deserves a lot of credit for "what he has become" primarily because many of his specific improvements also apply to his backcourt partner and their offense as a whole. it wasn't just him improving, it was the entire offense improving in those areas.

Good to see him shine. Been on his train since his rookie year.

The only thing standing in the way of them making the WCF, is Curry's ankles.

Golden State, Portland, Dallas, Houston, Memphis, San Antonio, Phoenix, Oklahoma City, LA Clippers...

I'm so glad that we're not in the West

Lamarcus Aldridge is passing on surgery until the offseason? I hope it doesn't bite him in the ass.

It makes it sound like Aldridge made that decision himself. If so, that is stupid. They should be more worried about him getting healthy and rested for the playoffs. He is probably gonna make it worse.

Triumph36 said:

yes. this is basic math. the goal on offense should be to maximize shots at the rim and from 3 - ideally dunks, and corner 3s respectively - and minimize the long 2 more than anything. there is a reason why the most efficient teams offensively all shoot lots of 3s.

that is why i hated waiters from day one. his shot selection was the absolute worst and when he did get high quality shots at the rim he still couldn't finish worth a damn - hence his embarrassingly low efficiency.

right, projection is part of the picture. but in his first 3 years he didn't make up a whole lot of ground re: shot selection. his first year was ridiculously bad with almost 32% of his shots being long 2s. his tendency for that crap did gradually decline, but he replaced those shots with mid range 2s instead of more valuable shots and he actually took less shots at the rim with each additional season. in other words, it was 2 steps forwards, 1 step backwards. paying a player like that the kind of money they game him is way more than "somewhat of a risk." especially when you consider the other salaries on golden state - lee, bogut, iggy, curry (which is absurdly under market), etc.

paying based on what they think he'll become is fine, but they paid him based on the best-case scenario. that is risky. i sure as hell hope we aren't going to pay our thompson based on his best-case scenario (primarily because there is no way in hell he reaches it).

and with klay, i still think coaching deserves a lot of credit for "what he has become" primarily because many of his specific improvements also apply to his backcourt partner and their offense as a whole. it wasn't just him improving, it was the entire offense improving in those areas.

Click to expand...

There's a difference in paying a guy who has shown you that his ceiling is potentially the best all-around 2 guard in the league and another guy who has a potential, best case ceiling of like, I dunno, smaller Amir Johnson. Klay Thompson had shown more than glimpses. He was, by the end of last season, already approaching elite wing defender status and was already one of the 3 best 3 point shooters (and was taking quite a lot of them). They weren't just taking a wild guess. He had shown plenty up to that point.

Looks like Brandon Jennings will be out a long time. Non-contact play, apparently his Achilles. Poor guy was truly in agony.

Thanks @wuck. Your timely reporting came up clutch and I was able to grab DJ Augustin off the waiver wire.

You may have just saved my fantasy season

Edit: Sad to hear the news though especially considering how well he has played of late. Hopefully Detroit is able to keep up their post- Josh Smith level of play in his absence.

wuck said:

Looks like Brandon Jennings will be out a long time. Non-contact play, apparently his Achilles. Poor guy was truly in agony.

Click to expand...

Yup. Here's the video of it.

That's disgusting to watch. Almost want that Vine to be in spoiler tags...