{~}Official 2023/2024 NBA Thread - 2024 Summer League, USA Hoops
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Best development of the fucking season so far.
Great omen for the Warriors season:
In the days leading up to training camp, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called his six best players into his office for a conversation that Stephen Curry, a month later, specifically referenced late Sunday night in Houston. The attendees: Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney and Chris Paul.
“I remember on Steve’s whiteboard it said: ‘Dray don’t be late!'” Paul laughed. “Draymond noticed it during the meeting.”
This discussion was of high importance to Kerr. The previous Warriors season was derailed, in part, due to internal splintering. It began with the preseason punch but never subsided because of continued grumbling about playing time, uncertain roles and a shifting pecking order. Kerr and Curry were determined to avoid a repeat.
That meant facing the uncomfortable truth about a crowded six-man mix. Who starts? Who closes? It’d depend on the night. Everyone would presumably have a moment of sacrifice. But this was a message most directed at Paul. He was the newcomer with an extensive résumé that included one amazing statistic: 1,365 consecutive starts to begin his 19-year career.
That streak, longer than any other NBA player in the last 50 years, was snapped Sunday night in Houston. It was agreed upon during a morning conversation at the team’s Houston hotel 10 minutes out of downtown. Green was returning from a two-game absence. Kerr approached Paul and told him that Green’s return meant Paul was shifting to the bench.
“He just said, ‘Yep,’ nodded his head and said, ‘Let’s go get them,'” Kerr said. “No big deal.”
Paul then went out and served as a second-unit catalyst in the Warriors’ 106-95 road win. The starters struggled early. Curry left the game with the Warriors trailing 18-15, usually danger time. But he returned with the Warriors up 39-26, a plus-16 stint over more than eight-and-a-half minutes. In all, Paul was a plus-22.
“They were the much better unit this game,” Green said. “There’s no doubt about it. Chris is right at the forefront of that. When you’re talking about replacing Steph Curry with Chris Paul, it doesn’t get much better than that. You’re taking your starting point guard out and the next point guard is Chris Paul? That’s incredible. We will have that advantage all year.”
It’s become clear that the Warriors’ plan is to keep the Curry, Thompson, Wiggins, Green, Looney five-man grouping as their starting unit and Paul as a reserve. An injury or a bad stretch of games could alter plans, but Kerr said they’ll start that way in New Orleans on Monday and, from a basketball perspective, everybody understands that it makes the most sense to keep it stable.
“It works,” Paul said. “It gives us a bigger lineup. I’ve never been on a team probably with this type of depth. I’ve been on really good teams, don’t get it twisted. But not necessarily where you could say: ‘All these guys can start.’ And I think last year that was the best starting five in the league.”
An hour after the game, Paul spent several minutes discussing this drastic late-career rotational change with The Athletic. He agreed that the pre-camp meeting in Kerr’s office was crucial, generating the type of open dialogue Paul craves. If a decision is reasoned, shared and discussed, he is comfortable with the choice.
“Yes,” Paul said. “Because it’s talking. We’re communicating. We ain’t just coming up to somebody day of and saying: ‘Hey, this is happening.'”
It is clear that this Warriors team, laced with veterans, is communicating often and well early in the Paul era. That’s a leadership quality that has always been considered among Kerr and Curry’s best and it’s something that clearly vibes with Paul.
“I’m an over-communicator,” Paul said. “I say that all the time. Some people don’t like it. But that’s me. That way you don’t have to guess how I feel about you. A lot of time people are scared to have those conversations. But you got guys who’ve won, guys who want to win and everyone understands what they mean to the team. When you done played this long, you want to enjoy the people you’re around and you want to win.”
Some of the external concern and skepticism about Paul’s willingness to accept a bench role can be traced back to Las Vegas. In early July, after the Jordan Poole for Paul trade was finalized, he did an introductory press conference before a Warriors’ summer league game. During it, a reporter prefaced a question stating that he’d be coming off the bench. Paul shot back a “you coaching?” response that many perceived as a sign that he wouldn’t accept such a demotion, sparking a wave of conversation about whether this player, team pairing was already doomed.
“It was over-exaggerated because I’ll tell you this: It wasn’t a question,” Paul said. “She made a statement. I know what the media is like. I know what I said in there. I know what bullet points gonna be taken from that.”
Paul then wanted to give a little history lesson, beginning back in the summer of 2019 when the Houston Rockets flipped him for Russell Westbrook and the entire world assumed he was going to force a buyout and muscle his way to Los Angeles.
“When I went to OKC, what’d everyone say? ‘He wants to be traded. He wants out of there,'” Paul said. “People always speaking for me. The very first meeting I had in OKC, did I tell you what happened? I stood up in front of my teammates and said, ‘Don’t pay attention to what the media says about me trying to get moved out of here. I don’t know how to be half in and half out. I’m here.'”
Paul led a resurgent Oklahoma City Thunder team to the bubble playoffs and stretched the Rockets to seven games in the first round, generating a mentorship with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander along the way. Thunder people still glow about his professionalism there.
“When I came to Houston, what’d they say?” Paul asked.
You and (James) Harden won’t work.
“Ain’t gonna work,” Paul smiled. “In Phoenix? We too young. But what I’ve had to do my whole career is I’ve had to stand on who I am. I’m not saying this (Warriors team is) the best team ever, but as soon as the trade happened, what did everyone say? This ain’t gonna work.”
It’s only been three games. The Warriors are 2-1. It’s too early to declare what type of high-level success this older group can still produce, but it’s already clear that Paul’s fit — as a steadying point guard with the starters, a driving force with the second unit and an immediate leader behind the scenes — is humming smoothly.
They don’t win a game like this last season. The Warriors were minus-2 in the Curry minutes and still cruised by double-digits. Paul’s plus-22 was a game-high. He has 28 assists and five turnovers through three games. But, most notably, he accepted the immediate bench role without a peep.
“Massive,” Kerr said. “It’s massive the way Chris has embraced everything here in the first month. … It’s similar to Andre (Iguodala) all those years ago, I guess 2014. When a vet, a great player, an All-Star shows that kind of sacrifice, it just sets the tone for the whole team.”
Kerr doesn’t throw around Iguodala comparisons lightly.
“It sends a message,” Green said. “When you got a first-ballot Hall of Famer that’ll go to the bench with no complaints, that means a lot. Everyone else has to fall in line. That’s important. With us coming off the year we had last year, you understand the things it takes to win. One very important one is the camaraderie and togetherness of the group. It’s things like that that build that.”
“He’s about winning,” Curry told The Athletic. “It’s easy to talk about it, but when you have to go prove it, it’s in the essence of what Andre did. (Chris) talked that game this summer and he’s obviously showing it. It kind of cuts through the notion of typical bench versus starter. There is a lot of value on that bench, connecting lineups. He showed it tonight.”
The trickle-down impact has already been felt. Because of his early struggles, Wiggins hasn’t closed two of the three games. He played a quiet 28 minutes against the Rockets and didn’t puncture the stat sheet much, finishing with zero rebounds. He only has six in three games.
“Loon was playing good,” Wiggins said. “Draymond was playing good. Klay was playing good. Everyone was playing good. Stuff happens. The coaches make a decision that’s best. We won the game. As long as we keep winning, I’m fine. I gotta give them a reason not to take me out. Rebound more. I can do more.”
Wiggins was in that pre-camp meeting in Kerr’s office: “It just let everyone know that we’re here for one reason — to win.”
So was Looney, who will assuredly be benched several times as the season progresses: “Having that line of communication is always key when your role is different than you’re used to. We all gotta sacrifice. It was good to hear. Just so you ain’t hearing it through the media, hearing it through different sources. Uncertainty can cause confusion and separation.”
Thompson was also in the room. Does he remember it? “Barely, honestly. Just a bunch of guys talking hoops.”
Paul admitted it’ll take some adjustment. He needs to time his warmup differently and create a routine to get his body ready to enter in the middle of the first quarter. But the clearest read of his mindset about the bench role came when he was asked whether he liked it.
“Did I like it?” Paul said. “Who likes new things? It ain’t a matter of liking it. It’s new. I don’t hate it. It ain’t a matter of liking it. I like the fact that we won. That’s the most important thing.”
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"Who likes new things" is the most old man question possible.
@KingTaharqa - My criticism of Kerr has always been basketball strategy and his stubornness but he manages a locker room as well as anyone in sports.
Brooks had to have been talking shit to Curry cuz usually Curry’s more subtle with his trash talk after cooking somebody.
Is there any greater way for the universe to co-sign "Don't do that, Season just started" more than for it to take us from "Trae regressing" and "Dame > Steph" to Hawks 127 Bucks 110 with 0 first half points for Dame and just 6 overall, Bucks down 30 at one point and -33 points for Dame between his first and second game with the Bucks, the largest point differential between a player's first and second game with a team in NBA history?!????
(And we can just leave what Curry did tonight out of it.)
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This some crazy shit, these hoes are for the streets.....I hope he divorce her!
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Woomp there it is, can't lie though I didn't expect Hawks to win especially by that margin. Reminds me when everyone was on the Dolphins and Bill's dick ( pause ) beginning of the season , then they instantly got humbled.
Couldn't happen to a nicer guy
I'm honestly glad Brooks is still in the league. I thought he talked himself outta a job last year, but the league's comedy levels are in an better place with Brooks on the floor.
New Orleans biggest problem honestly isn't Zion and/or Ingram staying healthy. I know it can seem that way but that is at best their second biggest problem.
No, the largest hurdle facing NO is the fact that no one in the league front office can read a fucking map!
Anyone want to explain how the fuck that is a West conference team. They might have been able to steal a 8th or 7th seed in the East every once in awhile. Being 'out west' tho means they have to win like 50 minimal to even sniff the playoffs.
I would be concerned if i were a Laker fan... But, he did perform very well in international play this summer. So he may just be getting reacclimated to NBA play..
Man that shit was crazy... home team was up by 1 and this dude bust the game wide open with 4 three pointers in a row... unreal... that dude from another planet
But I was told the heat fucked up by not giving him a check
Oof
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I guess some players only play well on the heat.
Man I was in that same boat at first, but his performance for Team Canada and then his first few games here (other than that one preseason game where he got ejected) he's been solid. He hits open 3's, finishes at the rim, and behind the scenes is teaching the young guys the right way to go about the game of basketball. That price tag was high but he's been pretty good so far this year and I can't complain about that.
As for Steph cooking him, shit man Steph cooks EVERYBODY. That dude is a cheat code. He don't need much daylight to get his shot off and if he does you are more surprised that he misses it than you are if he makes it.
Brooks gonna get cooked because he always guard the other teams best player. You don't really stop those guys you just slow them down. There's very few guys that actually STOP someone from going off so Brooks just making it difficult, can't ask for much more than that.
I was so glad they got him and I said from the beginning he's gonna be so helpful for them no matter what role he's in.
If they go with that death lineup he can organize it and let Steph and Klay run the ops ragged off screens. If they get into that playoff ball and need to slow the game down but still get a bucket, Paul can put you in position to do that. Problems with the second unit? That goes away with Paul leading the way. What a luxury to have 1 of 2 HOF point guards on the court at all times.
Honestly it's a lose lose situation
because I don't think Nurkic or him are very good
Like I said before, top five center in Oregon is about it
Funny...if he was balling you would be bragging about the heat culture building up players
Heat culture is selective...Funny...if he was balling you would be bragging about the heat culture building up players
I think the Heat learned from past contracts not to pay players just because. Gabe is too small. He served a purpose, but wasn't a game changer.Funny...if he was balling you would be bragging about the heat culture building up players
Get out the studio
He’s a big kid, no accountability when it gets tough
Strus is hoopingFunny...if he was balling you would be bragging about the heat culture building up players
Hopefully nick nurse will hold him accountable in the playoffs.
How long is the season?
Not my problem
You should care, your team is 1-2
The same forbes who for years claimed Trump was a Billionaire?