guitars and basketball
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After last night's Warriors' game, I watched James Wiseman's minutes with a friend who works in basketball. Here's a thread that builds on some of the things we discussed and the interesting details he pointed out.
Yaxel is a bit too wiling to pass late in the clock when he doesn’t like the shots available to him in the paint or midrange. Yax is still connecting on late-clock passes, but he’s throwing them to players who aren’t always ready to score
Melton is a good player and last season, many people chose to ignore that he was rehabbing and coming back from an ACL tear, while playing himself into shape
By my count, this is just the fourth midrange jumper Yaxel has taken all season. He gets to the hoop and makes such good passes in the paint that he isn’t forcing middies, but it’s nice to see he can make them
This has been the essence of Lacob’s strategy since 2021: you can’t trade picks or young guys if the team is good because they are good already, and you can’t trade picks or young guys if the team is bad because they are bad
Tim Kawakami makes the case that the Warriors may not be that far from contending when Jimmy’s back while simultaneously saying it makes no sense to upgrade the team using a couple draft picks #LightyearsParadox
Underrated thing about Steph is that he can kill a team’s legs by crunch time. There’s a reason Julius Randle was hitting insane shit in the clutch after Steph went down
Classic Luka performance tonight.
“The best offensive player ever” when things are easy….
But an absolute SHOCKER that he lost steam after the 1Q… who woulda thought the guy that was FAT for 3 full seasons can’t keep up with 38yr old Steph Curry.
Luka is the gift that keeps on giving if you’re a real hater. Will always look disheleved when he really needs to dig deep.
Yaxel is struggling to attack from above the three-point line when smaller defenders can disrupt his dribble. I’d like to see him get more touches at the elbow to combat this
The type of shots and passes Yaxel had today are repeatable. Nights like these will simply happen when he decides to take on this much offensive responsibility. It’s not right to expect a rookie to do this every game, but good Yax games aren’t dependent on his shot-making
I also love that Yax can get to the line ethically. He’s so big and so controlled handling the ball that he can get to his spots and make defenders choose between giving him the lane or trying to foul him. No need for Harden/SGA theatrics on drives
Apropos of nothing, nobody seems to have looked at how Jonathan Kuminga’s usage ranked during his Warriors’ tenure
Andrew Wiggins shot worse from three in the 2022 NBA finals than Harrison Barnes did in the 2016 Finals. Wiggins impacted the game when his shots weren’t falling, Barnes folded
Paint field goals are the first thing to go after achillles. KD was relatively immune to this because he transitioned effortlessly into late career Dirk
Great work by The Athletic’s finest writer!!
Yaxel had a historic and outlier ast/to for college players his size. That translating, even in a small sample size, to the NBA, bodes well for his development
Jimmy’s injury sucks, but it’s giving Yaxel an opportunity to explore and get a glimpse of how high his offensive ceiling can get. The downside is that this increased offensive responsibility is coming at the expense of his defensive focus and efforts
