Golden State Warriors

[Guiness]

Maybe because shooting is really hard to aspire for? It is a unique talent to shoot the way steph shoots...

 

i don't think it has anything to do with talent. shooting requires repetition. to be a great shooter. you have to practice shooting the ball from all angles. there is this shooting drill called 15, 17, 19 reggie explains the drill on this vid on the 11:23 mark of the clip. once you are able to be comfortable with your form and your shot. you can extend away from the basket until you are comfortable in that range.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlKmY7QWZzE

 

If you watch Curry, he regularly practices shooting the ball that's why he got good shooting it because he kept practicing and once his range extended to at least 30 feet. he got stronger by doing shooting drills. He probably shoots 1000 shots a day. But being a good shooter doesn't show his total skills. He had to learn how to create separation from the player guarding him. He has a lot of vids showing him doing his dribbling drills. Anyone who works hard at these will get to be good.

 

The reason why the majority of rookies don't have him as favorites is because he doesn't have the total package to be a complete basketball player. He isn't a great defender, he's not that athletic like the other guards like Westbrook. During each of the Finals the past 2 years if you look at players who guard him they try to be physical with him and that throws him off his game a bit because he isn't as physically strong

 

He makes up for it by working on what he can be better at and that is to shoot the ball and have a great dribble. These 2 skills enabled him to create that space to get his shot off.

 

But other than that, the rookies are looking at him and don't see him as a complete package. If you look at their top 3 picks. KD, Lebron, Melo, Westbrook. These players are physically strong, athletically gifted. Their not just 1 or 2 dimensional players like Curry is.

 

That's how im looking at how they gauge a players skills. and Curry doesn't seem to fit those skills they are looking for in a player.

 

It's not hating on the guy but they just think that other players are better than him in terms of overall skill sets.

[The Cunning Linguist]

Curry doesn't make rookies' list of favorite NBA players

 

By Rob Perez

 

Aug 30, 2016 at 7:00p ET

 

On Tuesday, NBA.com's John Schuhmann released the results of a survey which polled 38 NBA rookies on eight topics.

 

One question: who is their favorite player in the league? The answers came back with eye-popping results:

 

"Who is your favorite player in the league?

 

1. Kevin Durant, Golden State — 29.7%

 

T-2. Carmelo Anthony, New York — 9.4%

 

LeBron James, Cleveland — 9.4%

 

Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City — 9.4%

 

T-5. LaMarcus Aldridge, San Antonio — 6.3%

 

Kobe Bryant (retired) — 6.3%

 

Paul George, Indiana — 6.3%

 

Chris Paul, L.A. Clippers — 6.3%

 

T-9. Kevin Garnett, Minnesota — 4.7%

 

Others receiving votes: Vince Carter, Memphis; Stephen Curry, Golden State; Marc Gasol, Memphis; Kyrie Irving, Cleveland

 

That's right: Steph Curry, the league's first unanimous MVP, received less than 4.7% of the total vote — suggesting that his proverbial "heel turn" is a sentiment shared not just by fans cheering against the Golden State Warriors, but, incoming rookies as well.

 

Durant, on the other hand, has now won this poll three years in a row with his percentage increasing each season. While some NBA fans and a large chunk of the Oklahoma City metropolis might feel differently, among his peers, Durant isn't the villain of the NBA — rather, he is the role model.

 

My, how the tables have turned...

 

 

What is the specific instance that is being described as his heel turn? I'm quite curious...is it because he teamed up with KD? then makes KD a heel as well, but clearly the number of Rookies who idolize him doesn't see it that way or it just isn't a factor in them not choosing Curry.

[atsuko]

Good Morning atsuko hir SPA AICHI

[MrRoboboto21]

Spurs parin

[Guiness]

 

What is the specific instance that is being described as his heel turn? I'm quite curious...is it because he teamed up with KD? then makes KD a heel as well, but clearly the number of Rookies who idolize him doesn't see it that way or it just isn't a factor in them not choosing Curry.

 

i think the author just added the heel turn comment to the column. But i don't think it was a determining factor for the rookies when they were asked the question. They look at the overall skill set of the player they like and this is what they use to determine the player they like.

 

The heel turn question should be directed more to the fans, and media. Even before Durant decided to sign with the Warriors. There was already a growing resentment of fans towards Curry and his clean cut image. They are thinking that its fake and pretentious because in their mind no one is that nice.

[The Cunning Linguist]

With the way the majority of society thinks nowadays, they are just hating the Warriors just to have someone to hate and because they are the team to beat. They hated the Heat back then too during their LBJ era. That's just the way it goes.

[Guiness]

There is some truth to people hating just to hate. But not all the people had that excuse to hate. There was a lot of fans who had good reasons to hate the Warriors even before Durant joined . I noticed this during last season when they were going on this run to get to 73 wins. The year they won in 2015. People loved them and not just in Oakland. Fans outside of Oakland liked them because they were portrayed as a team who empitomized great team play and had the best backcourt in the modern NBA. This in turn had people glued on them and had the media put them in a microscope coming into this season.

 

Add to that the pressure mounted considerably when they were on this run towards 70+ wins. And all of this was used to turn against them. The Draymond Green kicks to the nuts of Steven Adams, and Lebron, to his halftime tirade against Steve Kerr. Curry was also getting resentment by showboating too much before his shot went in he was already celebrating and shimmying even before the ball went it. This got fans to turn on them because now they're not really good guys but a bunch of dirty and coc.ky brash players. Not the goody good players they were being portrayed as.

 

Not to mention they were the heavy favorites coming into the Finals.

 

I'm one of those guys who love the underdog team winning against a heavily favored team. David vs Goliath type of result.

 

Now they're more hated because Durant decided to join them. Durant is being hated because of his decision to join the Warriors where he had choices of teams he can join and he joined the team they almost beat last season. It just heightened the hate level more because its the Warriors. Plus people hate it when they look at a season and they see no reason to watch the games because all they will see is the Warriors winning all the time and no other team legitimitely challenging to knock them off.

 

People are looking for the Warriors to lose again this season which would give them more ammunition to deride Durant if they end up losing

[Guiness]

Kerr tempers expectations as team expects growing pains

Durant's arrival will spark lineup experiments in search for right mix

POSTED: Sep 21, 2016 9:03 PM ET

BY Scott Howard-Cooper

NBA.com

OAKLAND — Steve Kerr kept using phrases Wednesday like "experimental" and "The fans should not be focused on how many wins we get" and "We've got a lot of growing ahead," until finally confirmation was necessary.

Yes, he is still the coach of the Warriors, the team that won a record 73 games last regular season followed by a second consecutive Western Conference title.

 

Yes, All-Stars Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson are back.

And, yes, his team is the one that led the league in scoring and then added Kevin Durant.

Point taken, though. There is possibly, if not likely, an adjustment period ahead with the arrival of two new starters, one of those newcomers will necessitate reconstructive surgery for the offense and the calendar is the 30th opponent. These are different times around the Warriors.

 

They are the ultimate in the NBA version of first-world concerns, but they are real concerns as Golden State prepares to open training camp Tuesday in a much different place than a year ago. The 2015 version was coming off a title and the roster was mostly filled with carryovers stepping back into the gym with a champion's certainty, as relaxing a way to return no matter how great the expectations.

This isn't that.

 

The September 2016 Warriors, in stark contrast, have a lot to prove. Durant has to fit into an offense already bursting with scorers. Thompson and Green have to power nap their way through the season after playing into June two seasons in a row and losing a large chunk of the most-recent offseason to be in the Olympics.

 

Zaza Pachulia has to prove to be a reliable replacement at center for Andrew Bogut, traded to Dallas in a salary dump to clear cap space for Durant. The carryovers this time can look back at the Finals and feel the memories not off a champagne shower but the historic implosion as the first team to blow a 3-1 lead in the championship series.

 

These Warriors will possibly use the start of the regular season to test lineups before settling into a set rotation and may even ration minutes early, beyond the fourth-quarter rest that may come, as it has in the past, with comfortable leads. This is the season, because of the marathons of the previous two seasons, because of the Olympics, because Kerr cares not at all about taking a shot at 74-8, because of the veteran roster, that will start with the coach refusing to dismiss the possibility of his stars sitting out games long before March and April.

 

"It could be," Kerr said at the practice facility when asked about the possibility of rationing minutes the opening months. "Those are things we have to read. It'll start out in training camp -- we're not going twice a day. We'll go just once a day in camp. We'll ease into things pretty well. We'll try to get some of the younger guys a lot of minutes in the preseason. I don't feel compelled to play Steph and KD and Klay a ton of minutes. And Draymond. They don't need to play a ton of minutes. Same with Andre (Iguodala) and Shaun (Livingston) right away. We can try to pace ourselves. But it's always a feel thing. You can't do it at the expense of your team growing and learning to play together. That's the challenge as a coaching staff. We've got to figure all this out.

 

".... In my mind this is a very different season and a different approach to the season. Much more experimental. I think our fans should really look forward to watching the growth of the team, whereas last year we were kind of a finished product on opening night. We really were. We were the same team that won the title. This is a different team. We've got a lot of growing ahead. The fans should not be focused on how many wins we get. They should be focused on how different we look from one month to the next. Good luck with that."

 

The Warriors could look a lot different as the calendar pages turn, in other words.

"We have to pace our team really well this year," Kerr said. "That's a key component to the season. Going to the Finals three years in a row is not something that happens very often, I think for a reason. In Chicago with the Bulls, we did it. They did it twice, I was on one of those teams and I remember the third year. Even with Michael (Jordan) and Scottie (Pippen) and Dennis (Rodman) it was a hard year and we were running on fumes. It's difficult to do. The emotion of it. The exertion that is spent. You go through a lot and don't get as much time off as everybody else, so we've got to pace our team. I think it's great that we've got some new guys. We're going to miss some of the old guys for sure, but I think in many ways we're going to be re-energized. KD will absolutely add a different level of energy to our team that will be necessary because of the grind of trying to make it back for a third time."

[The Cunning Linguist]

What's funny is that Kevin Durant was the epitome of a "good guy" in the NBA, especially during his MVP acceptance speech, the same goes with Curry, whose viewed or, at the very least, portrayed as a nice guy by the media. But now, the media (specially, social media) are treating them like they murdered a thousand infants. Sorry for my exageration but it's that damn funny lol

[Guiness]

I think the hate on Kevin Durant was prompted by him leaving the Thunder to go join the Warriors. The same team that they almost beat in the West Finals. I don't think KD would have had the same backlash had he joined another team that wasn't the Warriors. The hate wouldn't have been as bad.

 

The Steph Curry hate stems from different reasons not just from fans but from ex NBA Players like Tracy Mcgrady, Stephen Jackson, Raja Bell, Charles Barkley, Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar etc. giving their negative take on Curry's game to even fellow current NBA players disrespecting Curry from Lebron James talking about what the true meaning of MVP was and Damian Lillard tweeting something about Curry. From the fans' perspective. There are some fans who got tired of hearing Curry and the Warriors being mentioned by the sports media every minute of everyday. And even the way he was being portrayed by the media as this poster boy as a the "perfect package" of a family and his good guy image. People got turned off by that because in their mind its too good to be true.

 

All of these things culminated in a lot of people hating him. Although personally i didn't really care about his good guy image or whatever. I cared more about the analysis of NBA players because they are the ones who play against him and know the pro game. If you really do think about it. Other than his shooting and his handle, what else does he bring to the game?

 

Here is what ESPN's Jemele Hill on why People are hating on Steph.

 

Jemele Hill: ‘Never Seen’ Open Disrespect Other Players Show Steph Curry

May 31, 2016 6:01 PM

 

On the latest episode of Michael Rapaport’s I AM RAPAPORT: STEREO PODCAST on CBS Radio’s Play.it podcast network, Michael spoke with ESPN’s Jemele Hill about all things NBA Finals.

 

In addition to discussing the greatness of the Golden State Warriors’ backcourt of Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry, the two addressed a troubling trend that arose as the Warriors began to falter early in the Western Conference Finals to the Oklahoma City Thunder: the world started to turn against Stephen Curry.

 

“Could you have imagined this Curry backlash?” Rapaport incredulously asked Hill. “Could you have imagined so fast, people turning on Curry so quick? And why do you think that happened? Because, as far a sports guy and like a hero, he’s you’d want. But then he has a couple of bad games and he’s on the ropes and just like, boom. People are laughing at him, giggling at him, talking ‘greazy,’ what’s that all about?”

 

“I knew it would happen eventually, because eventually it happens to everybody,” Hill said. “Because success does breed contempt for a lot of people. But here’s the thing: there’s so many layers to the Steph Curry hatred.”

 

Some of those layers, Hill pointed out, are the older generation of players like Charles Barkley and Oscar Robertson, who aren’t a fan of the way Steph plays. Then there are the people who feel like Steph is a ‘package’ that’s too good to be true and is being forced upon them with his perfect family and stellar image and play.

 

On top of that, Hill added, Curry is “light-skinned” and that’s “exposed this deeper level of insecurity within black people that they have when it comes to skin tone.”

 

Because of all those reasons, Hill said, Steph has been disrespected to a whole new level and even NBA players are taking shots at the league MVP.

 

“You’ve got to understand, it’s not just people on Twitter and social media that hate,” Hill said. “The open disrespect that he’s shown by other players I’ve never seen before. It’s completely crazy. For LeBron, to all of a sudden, unprovoked, go into this conversation about what value is in the NBA, it’s like, he wouldn’t have done that if Russell Westbrook won it. Then you have (Damian) Lillard dropping the tweet ‘no excuses’, like, they didn’t do that with LeBron, they didn’t even do that with Dirk Nowitzki! People are going in on him and his team got sent home in the first round the year he won the MVP. And yet it’s completely acceptable to do it with Steph.”

Edited September 23, 2016 by hahnz

[Guiness]

Kevin Durant hints that he wouldn't have signed with the Warriors if they won the title

 

By Rob Perez

 

Oct 11, 2016 at 1:32a ET

 

Late Monday night, San Jose Mercury News' Anthony Slater spoke with the Golden State Warriors' prized free agent signing from this summer -- Kevin Durant.

 

Slater proposed Durant with a "what if" scenario: what if the Warriors had won the Finals last year? Would it have affected Durant's decision to sign with Golden State?

 

Durant's response was nothing short of eye-popping:

 

"I was telling one of my friends, (my agent) Rich (Kleiman), who's here, we were watching Game 7. Well, as it started to unfold, it was, 'No question, no way could you go to this team.' And I was just like a kid, like, I'd really like playing with these guys. I'd get wide open 3s. I could just run up and down the court, get wide open layups. I was basically begging him. I was like, yo, this would be nice. So as I was thinking about my decision and who I was gonna play for, this team came to mind. You know, as they lost, it became more real every day. You start to think about it even more. To see if I would fit. Then once I sat down with these guys, everything that I wanted to know about them they kinda showed me. But we don't have to talk about it though because they didn't get the job done and they came after me and who knows what would've happened. But I guess you could say I'm glad that they lost."

[calvinzero]

There is no guarantee that KD will stay long term.

 

I wish him the best but his credibility was tainted.

 

Steve Kerr era was full of drama for the Warriors.

[dickrodriguez]

The GSW is fun this year!

[Watdhell]

The hate they are receiving is because of the way they are changing the game...a team with not so much post play but in the perimeter....the old guys who have to bleed for every point ground their bodies against each other then come along this guy that shoots way beyond the goal worth more than they got...

[Daddy Dee]

I am not hating. In fact, I like the Ws style of play but four superstars doesn't necessarily make a team a champion.

 

Exhibit A; 20030-2004 Lakers. They had the Mailman, the Glove, Diesel and Black Mamba, yet, they fell short to the much inferior Pistons. Team work and chemistry trump individual talent.

 

Exhibit B: 2012-2013 Lakers. They had Howard, Gasol, Bryant and Nash. In fact, three of them are franchise players in Howard, Nash and Bryant. They got eliminated in the first round by San Antonio. Obviously, star power does not make a team a champion.

 

Durant, Green, Curry and Thompson should play like the US national team to be able to be a champion. In other words, they have to play unselfishly. There is a big bullseye on Golden State's back. Durant's ego should be sacrificed in order for GSW to have a chance to be champion.

 

Well Exhibit A: The Mailman and the Glove past their prime when they join the lakers.As far i remember, that season was the last for Malone.Unlike GS, they are still what, mid-20's and very much in their prime.Durant , Green, and Thompson played last olympic together.

 

Exhibit B : Nash, Bryant, Gasol already past their prime.in fact, Nash was out most of the season due to injuries so as Gasol