Typical one game sample size overreaction. How 'bout we actually see a few games against some real NBA competition before we decide to move one of the top 5 shooting guards in the league to the bench? Of course our starters shut down the Suns' offense. They are the Phoenix Absolutely Fucking Terrible Suns for fuck's sake. Half the teams in the NCAA Top 25 could shut them down (see, I can overreact too, yay me!). Last year, C.J. was actually a better defender than Dame. Dame has shown improvement and a new dedication to playing defense. Why is it a given that C.J. can't, and won't, do the same? It sure gets a lot easier to defend the perimeter when you have a beast like Nurk backing you up. Go back and look at how much better our team defense was with Nurk than without him last season. While you're at it, also look at how our team 3-point shooting, including C.J.'s, got so much better with Nurk. Players get more open 3-pointers with Nurk on the floor. Ask yourself this, who would you rather have taking those open 3-pointers, C.J. McCollum or Evan Turner? Turner is a terrible 3-point shooter, who is also perfectly capable of creating for himself (mid range game and drives to the basket) and others. He is also a much better defender than C.J. In short, Turner can be Turner without playing with Nurk. He doesn't benefit from Nurk collapsing the defense and creating open 3-pointers and he doesn't need Nurk to have his back to be a plus defender. C.J. benefits much more from the Nurk Effect that Turner does. Therefore, I want C.J. playing as many minutes as possible with Nurk, and that means as long as Nurk is starting, C.J. should be starting, too. BNM
I have questions for you: 1.) Do you want CJ or Dame playing less minutes? 2.) Did you not see Dame playing improved defense yesterday? They can coexist with a defensive frontcourt. 3.) Do you not think that we could use that lineup in the latter part of the 1st/3rd Qs and the earlier part of the 2nd/4th??
Exactly. CJ plays 18min a half (so he rests 6). There's no point to not start him and then bring him in 3 minutes into the game. That's the same as starting him. So everyone who suggests to bring CJ off the bench is either suggesting to play him less or suggesting to play him 18 minutes straight to end each half. Both are horrible ideas.
No. Turner played excellent D last night and has been doing the same thing in preseason. When Nurk got his first block it was because of Turner's D. Between Turner, Mo, and Aminu, we have some great OTB defenders.
How can you keep CJs minutes (36min) bringing him off the bench at the 6min mark in the 1Q/3Q and not play him 18 minutes to end the half by playing Dame less, or playing 3 guards?
Plus, Turner off the bench allows us to avoid a Dame/CJ/Connaugton lineup. I don't want to see Pat play SF at all this year. He's too small for that.
Maybe we play both CJ and Dame less. Why do we need to play him more? Klay Thompson averaged 34 minutes last season, Curry only 33.4, Green 32.5, and Durant 33.4. A few minutes extra rest could mean a lot more effort (on defense especially) can be expended. We're so deep at all the positions right now and it's not clear we need to play our stars max minutes.
You do realize those guys minutes are that low because they blow out a lot of teams, right? The less CJ and Dame are on the court, the bigger chance we have of losing. 36min is ideal. Planning for less than that is a losing strategy.
GSW is rather famous for playing their stars less minutes in principle. Not because of blowouts. Plus, I think we'll have our share this season. It's going to be a fun team to watch.
What the hell are you people talking about???? We just smashed a G league team... WITHOUT CJ... Dame played sparingly and Nurk got a double double and 2 blocks. Edit: On another note, WTF?? WE all saw that block that Nurk sent out of bounds right? How come they didn't register it here?? http://www.nba.com/games/20171018/PORPHX#/boxscore
When we consistently start blowing teams out (not just PHO) like the Warriors do, I'm sure our starters will see fewer minutes. It's pretty easy to rest your stars in the 4th quarter when you have an average margin of victory of +11.6 ppg. Not so much when your average margin is -0.6 ppg. BNM
They are also rather famous for having more stars than anyone else. It's easy to rest a star when you still have three more in the game. We're not there yet. BNM
FWIW http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/02/14/4385776/ Steve Kerr and the Warriors’ stars diligent in their reduced minutes approach Sports science has advanced since then. There is player tracking for games and practices. Teams prioritize rest better and trainers advise keeping a player’s minutes in the 35ish per game range. The league’s most-used players average near 38 per night — right around what LeBron is pushing — instead of logging 41 or 42. But the careful teams try to keep their main guys in the 34 per game range. Golden State is one of the league’s most diligent, given the benefit of depth and a large number of fourth-quarter blowouts. The Warriors don’t have a player in the top 29 in minutes per game. Klay Thompson, 30th in the NBA at 34.2, leads the team. “Mentally and physically you’re still exerting yourself in those minutes. I’m exhausted right now,” Curry said after a recent game. “But over the course of the season, you hope taking care of business, protecting leads, the amount of fourth quarters starters have missed for good reasons will help us down the road and keep us fresh for the playoffs.” Curry averaged 38.2 and 36.5 minutes per game in Mark Jackson’s last two seasons. Kerr arrived, the team exploded, Curry won two MVPs and they were able to reduce his per game load to 32.7 and 34.2 the past two years. He’s at 33.5 per game this season, behind older players such as Carmelo Anthony (34.0) and Paul Millsap (34.3), just ahead of teammate Green (33.3 per, 42nd in the league). “I think it’s made a difference,” Kerr said. “But then you look at last year and Steph averaged 33 per game and then got hurt in the first game of the playoffs and it knocked him back a bit. (Andrew) Bogut got hurt. But you’d like to think the cumulative effect of playing guys fewer minutes will keep guys fresh, but you never know. I do think playing guys 34 instead of 38 over the course of the year will keep our guys fresher than they would’ve been otherwise.”
They were also 67-15, with a 10.1 point differential. Chicken or egg. Did he play less minutes because they were "diligent" about it, or were they able to be diligent about it because they were blowing teams out? I'd posit the latter.
