Forty days is what separates us today from the end of the 2021-22 regular season. A month and a half before the Playoffs – or the Lottery – each franchise honed its weapons during the trade deadline on February 10, then recently took advantage of a week of All-Star Break to ask itself some essential questions. to a regular end in the nails. The objectives are not the same everywhere, of course, but we also quickly settled on the main themes of the six weeks ahead of us, by selecting for each franchise three small questions, three ideas to develop. Non-exhaustive choice of course because otherwise it never ends, and we leave without further delay on the end of the season of… Warriors.
Someone please call Curry 2016 (ou automne 2021)
28 points on average in October, November and December. 45 points against the Clippers, 46 against Memphis, 50 against the Hawks, 40 against the Bulls and the Cavs, blah, blah, blah. Since ? 22 pawns per game tah Terry Rozier, a few soft poops and especially the Warriors who, lately, let go a little (too much?) of ballast before the Playoffs. Hard to believe that the link exists but since… the return of Klay Thompson the production of the Chef has dropped badly and he suddenly disappeared from the radars of the race for the MVP trophy. Steph Curry uncomfortable alongside Klay Thompson, a duo that is going nowhere, so this is the analysis we would have if we spent our days at PMU asking about the great Casanis without ice. The opportunity, simply, to remember that when the 2015 and 2016 MVP plays at the level we know him to be, the Dubs quickly go from “dangerous” team to “unplayable” team, and that in the midst of an incredible troop of mabouls (Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, DeMar DeRozan, Luka Doncic and Ja Morant to name a few) we would love to see the return of the prime Curry, the one who does 9/16 parking four nights a week. Index to take into account? Draymond Green has his say in the matter and we’re ready to put a little coin on the return of golden state nights when your favorite facilitator’s favorite facilitator returns. That’s good, we had some news this morning and it’s about a short week to wait. Steph is waiting for his bodyguard, and we are waiting for Steph who is waiting for his bodyguard.
The supporting cast more important than it seems?
If you’re a Warriors fan today, you’ve probably become one thanks to these gentlemen Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green or maybe even Kevin Durant. Not thanks to Damion Lee or Juan Toscano-Anderson, not thanks to Kevon Looney or Jordan Poole, nor thanks to Nemanja Bjelica. Not thanks to Otto Porter Jr., not thanks to Gary Payton II, and even less thanks to Chris Chiozza. Ah yes, and not thanks to Andrew Wiggins either, because we remember that all the people who voted for him at the All-Star Game are bots. In short, add an Andre Iguodala who will perhaps carve out a good share of quiche in the Playoffs and a trio of very young kids (Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and James Wiseman) and you have 1) a clever way of reciting an entire roster in three lines and 2) a bench depth often overlooked but which remains a great strength for Steve Kerr. Jordan Poole would start in two-thirds of the League franchises, Damion Lee, JTA and Looney Tunes have been bottle-fed Warriors for years and have grown, progressed knowing their role, Jonathan Kuminga can already bring his meat and energy to short sequences, Gary Payton II can prove to be the defensive X factor of a series of Playoffs and Otto Porter Jr. seems to have fun far from the too great responsibilities that we have been able to give him in the past. We know that in the Playoffs rotations are getting tighter, but if the 2022 Dubs want to emulate their elders from 2015, 2017 and 2018, a run in the Playoffs may also go through the production of all these guys. Transition between paragraphs, when you hold us.
Return to the NBA Finals, three years later?
Hey, how about we go back there? Champions in 2015, finalists in 2016, champions in 2017 and 2018 then injured finalists in 2019, the Warriors have obviously punctuated the NBA for the past ten years. After three seasons of turmoil between injuries, the departure of an all-time attacker and the need to hang up the wagon, the Dubs are back in the heights of the West, they have recovered all their armament and here they are again, very logically, in the highlands. spheres of the League. But concretely, can Golden State aspire to regain the throne? Of course yes, and several themes come into play. The first seems quite logical and ultimately concerns all contenders: play the full Playoffs. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have proven with or without Kevin Durant to be one of the most effective and complementary lines in history and in form the three men know no bounds. The second ? Does Stephen Curry finally only need a Finals MVP trophy to move up the all-time playmaker hierarchy? Not the time for debate but with two MVP trophies, six finals including four rings and a Finals MVP it would start to cause a lot and at the same time would silence the few haters who remain in this lower world. Be careful all the same because the competition is no longer the same as it used to be with the Suns in their prime in the West and the Grizzlies who aspire to know it faster than expected, with the Lakers who will also always have to be wary despite their disgusting season. In the East we don’t even talk about it with no less than four or five franchises who dream of a ring, and to make it short if the Warriors are NBA champions this season it will most likely not be at the cost of a sweep in Finale, finished the good life. If you had to get wet? Victory in 7 against the Grizzlies in the semi-finals but lost 4-2 in the Conference Finals against the Suns. For those interested my name is Giovanni and I respond to attacks in the comments, because as long as you might as well get a little wet.
