the all-star break can change things certainly but historically it's been a boost to older teams and especially to older teams with a lot of big game experience. The Warriors had dropped to 5 games under .500 and 10th in the lottery on January 27. Since then they have won 8 of 10 and are a game over .500 their remaining SOS is the 25th most difficult. Obviously, they are a thin-ice team because any significant injury could derail their season. But gauging by their last 10 games I wouldn't be penciling in a lottery pick for Portland here. That's still entirely possible, especially with the uncertainty of the play-in, but the Warriors do know how to sustain a hot streak if their health holds
Both Draymond and Steph were featured all star weekend. Bet your bottom dollar the leagues gonna prop them up.
a handful of teams have no picks, and sure could use a decent rookie. This GSW pick has legit value. Slap a 2nd on there and trade for player and future pick??
Trayce Jackson shot 80% FG. The Lakers refused to put a body on him. That kind of effort is inexusable. Coach Ham should be on the hot seat. His guys have checked out.
The pick watch thing is pretty simple. We have to hope that the Jazz wake the fuck up and the Warriors shit the bed and miss the play-ins. We also want one of the Hawks, Bulls or both to win a playoff spot in the play-ins. Then the Warriors pick will be 10 or 11. We just need to lose out for the season, that will definitely put us in 4th place in the lotto and then we need to hope we get really lucky. Having the first and eleventh pick in the draft would be awesome even if so many experts are saying that this draft is weak.
If we win one of those games and that one win drops us from 4th to 5th in lotto odds it's a disaster. With a team this bad absolutely no loss or amount of losses is a disaster. In this situation you either capitalize on the opportunity to give yourself the highest probability to get the most impactful player through the draft or you make the short sighted mistake of pursuing not meaningless wins but actually franchise damaging wins. The difference between the 4th lotto slot and the 5th lotto slot is 6% better odds of winding up in the top four and a 10.9% higher probability that you end up drafting 6th or worse. I just want our team to have the best chance to have the most options to choose from to make us better in the future because we absolutely fucking suck right now and there is no changing that but how long we suck for going forward and how great we can get in the future is an area our front office can impact.
I agree with you in spirit—yes ping pong balls good, wins bad—but I think you're pretty incorrect on this specific point, respectfully. You're sort of implying that the Hornets are about to lose every game for the rest of the season as well. The Pistons lost 28 games in a row earlier in the year and were a national story. The Blazers will be able to win a few games and still stay in the hunt for the 4th seed. The Hornets still have games against the Wizards, Grizzlies, Pistons, us, and two games against the newly-tanking Hawks. And they've won 5 of their last 6 games.
If we lose enough games that we have a cushion between us and the Hornets and at the same time one of the bottom three isn't starting to pick up wins at a stupid pace, then a win won't bother me... fuck that just sucks to say. I would love it if at some point we are in a position to win a couple more games that wouldn't hurt our lotto odds. I just think at this juncture the team has to have an eye towards the future and can't afford for one second to pretend that a single win right now is worth anything to our franchise let alone losing lotto positioning.
ah geez, i shouldn't have trusted the Wizards. Poole just airballed, and Kuzma passed it right to Klay Thompson. Warriors up 14, Wizards call timeout
