NBA 2020-21 reg season 1st half thread

was pretty funny explaining to my brother in law, a huge bandwagon dubs fan who had always been more into the sf baseball giants, that andrew wiggins was not that good of a basketball player, he had all these idea about how wiggins would help and so forth, at one point i said something like if i know one thing about basketball its that andrew wiggins is not good

Otm

But! I do think he’s probably better than dangelo Russell, it’s pretty close tho.

imo russell is better, was still a good trade on the merits, not sure if it was the ideal one for the dubs roster, but who knows what else they couldve gotten

they could end up getting a serious star in this years draft, which is cool

i still think it made sense when they thought they would have klay and needed wiggins in a true 3 and D role. overpaid obviously but he would've been more suited for that roster than rusell would have. w/ klay out they need scoring & creation so bad they prob would rather have russell tho the pick is lining up to be so valuable that even knowing everything they know now i think they would still do it

yeah agree

that pick + wiseman is looking pretty good right now, their path back to contention with the big 3 is murky tho

can you imagine what sort of haul they cld get for steph et al

not that i think they shd do that youve got to try to make it work but still

i still think it made sense when they thought they would have klay and needed wiggins in a true 3 and D role. overpaid obviously but he would've been more suited for that roster than rusell would have. w/ klay out they need scoring & creation so bad they prob would rather have russell tho the pick is lining up to be so valuable that even knowing everything they know now i think they would still do it

was gonna say lol

tho i think he prob cldve hit some threes w a healthy roster

and hes got size so you can move him around on d

i still think he would be more likely to succeed in that kind of role than one where he is asked to use up a lot of possessions and be the first option on the second unit. his shooting stroke looks fine to me, i thought w/ klay if he was asked to mainly focus on hitting threes and being a wing defender he could have maybe found a niche for himself on a good team. that's all out the window now

was seeing the annual "Wiggins is more focused than ever, wants to prove the doubters wrong" stories getting passed around by warriors folks on Twitter and was like oh you sweet, foolish summer child

they didnt even extract a promise

It seems like ums is desperate to get Warriors fans to give a shit about Wiggins being bad but I could honestly care less. Just another bad player on a bad team.

lol matt otm

wiggins is like hydroxychloroquine: a lot of promise for one reason or another out of the gate, and after it was clear the idea was a flop people keep talking themselves into it working somehow, in the right context, at the right dose...
it's easier to accept that wiggins is bad if you also accept that the reasons you thought he might be good were just a mirage

polyphonic I'm a Timberwolves fan I'm not desperate about anything, things just fall apart it makes no difference, it's all doomed to fail, the warriors will be fine, they are a real franchise

it's just stuff like this is funny, familiar

https://sports.yahoo.com/why-tom-haberstroh-changed-mind-032857703.html

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/why-steve-kerr-believes-andrew-wiggins-puts-warriors-puzzle-together

initially responded just to defend Kerr from any responsibility for Wiggins being Wiggins

He said literally the same stuff about Russell and could not trade the guy fast enough

it’s almost as if the warriors should stop trading for bad players.

kinda doubt the warriors ever thought wiggins would be good

They've also completely whiffed on all of their draft picks post-Draymond pre-Wiseman.

i do think it's kinda hard to fault them for that ... it appears hard to draft & develop guys when you're so intensely focused on winning a title. you're drafting low ceiling players for specific need & giving them minimal minutes to grow as players. compare the heat's drafting in the lebron era to what they've done after. the spurs are held up as the gold standard of this and they did make some good picks but didn't find many guys who helped them out all that much

the injuries have masked it but i think the warriors process and decisionmaking have been pretty shaky for a while now.

i seem to remember them running a questionably low amount of pick and roll last time they were in the offs

it's hard to untangle their decision making from giving steph, klay and draymond huge contracts for downside years. but i don't think they had another choice in that matter. it was almost certainly going to end this way and the injuries have just exacerbated it

Lacob's open checkbook deserves most of the credit imo. Guy is a fuckin legend

the pistons are legitimately hysterical. mason plumlee is looking around before crunch time possessions at the end of games like “shit, i’ll iso”

Both of these Celtic Pistons games have been atrocities

mason plumlee has a really "freshman GOP house rep" name

well he's from a family of brothers who all went to duke, so

pedigree I guess

Ok campazzo is making some amazing defensive plays this game I’m back on board

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant both miss game-winners vs. Wizardspic.twitter.com/F7iYu6h1dg

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) January 4, 2021

game-losers

And now the clips blowing out the suns 60-30

that KD look was basically a lay up

yeah easy shot for him he didnt rush it but he did take a fading one legger for no real reason

Kyrie and KD each had a chance to win the game for the Nets but fall short. pic.twitter.com/RoOV8eFhqZ

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) January 4, 2021

Campazzo with 3 steals, a block, a drawn charge and 4 threes. Back in the rotation conversation

thank god

Clippers trying to blow a 31 lead

steph has 31 in the first half

Steph was driving like crazy

Getting heated lac vs phx

Chris Paul was so right for this team lmao

Devin Booker calls Paul George a “ soft ass n*****” pic.twitter.com/pHI4harZSa

— gifdsports (@gifdsports) January 4, 2021

fellas fellas hey hey cmon