Here's the Warriors' depth chart: PG: Curry, Livingston, Clark SG: Thompson, Iggy, McCaw SF: Durant, Iggy, McCaw PF: Green, West, Durant C: Pachulia, Green, Verajao How do we defend these guys? Here's by traditional positions/likely starting lineup: PG: Dame on Curry SG: CJ on Thompson SF: Turner on Durant PF: Aminu on Green C: Ezeli or Plums on Pachulia Looks to me like we might get killed at 4 positions. So Stotts probably has to go with a non traditional lineup. Something like: PG: Dame on Curry SG: CJ on Thompson SF: Aminu on Durant PF: Harkless on Green C: Ezeli or Plums on Pachulia Looks more like we hold our own at 3 positions. Can Turner handle Green or Durant? That would help us at the offensive end. What happens when the Warriors go small? PG: Dame on Curry SG: Turner on Thompson SF: CJ on Iggy PF: Aminu on Durant C: Harkless on Green I think this actually plays to our strength. We get to play our 3 best scorers and our 3 best defenders. Plus we potentially get to hide CJ on Iggy. How about at the 8 minute mark when the benches come in to rest the starters? PG: Crabbe on Livingston SG: CJ on McCaw SF: Turner on Iggy PF: Leonard or Davis on West C: Plums or Ezeli on Varejao I think we clearly outclass their bench if these lineups are deployed. What's more likely is any two of Curry, Thompson, Green, and Durant will likely be on the court at the same time. A big question is how we can stop Durant. If Leonard can stick with him, he might be a great option for us. But he's shown to be more effective at post defense. We have to guard him and Green at the same time, so we need to consider both defenders. We want to play Turner for his offense as well as defense, but can he guard either effectively? What do you think?
Are we saying Turner is not a defender? I thought quite the opposite. I am all for getting Harkless time though.
Just have to laugh at the idea of Leonard guarding KD. Man, these matchups are depressing. We're fucked. So's the rest of the league.
I would keep Leonard as far from Durant as possible. KD would eat MyLe alive. IMO, Aminu is easily our best option on Durant due to his strength and length, and while you have Aminu guarding Green at various points, I think I would put Harkless on him. For the Warriors' standard starting lineup, I think I might actually consider starting Turner and Harkless at the 2/3 and bring CJ off the bench to (as you suggested) match up with Iggy when he comes in. Turner on Klay, Aminu on KD, and Harkless on Green seems like a decent strategy. I'd also think about starting Leonard on Pachulia to create an offensive mismatch in our favor (unless he gets abused in the PnR), as well as bring Crabbe in to defend Alexander to prevent him from abusing Dame in the post. So basically, my match-ups would be: Curry - Dame Alexander - Crabbe Thompson - Turner Iguodala - CJ Durant - Aminu Green - Harkless West - Davis Pachulia - Leonard/Ezeli And we'd probably be lucky to take 1 game out of 5.
I think folks are forgetting that Curry and Durant have been fairly injury prone for sometime now....Curry has bum ankles and they showed in the finals. Durant has sat out a lot of games for a couple years....it's a long season. They stay healthy and play a full season, sure, they're tough on paper. I like our depth and youth against them. I want the Blazers to be to the Warriors what the Suns were to the Blazers in the Lamarcus era...I hope we have GS's number all year
I say that when the NFL season is over the Blazers should sign the Patriot's Gostkowski to play a little "defense" on Draymond Green.
I think he is a defender, but he's more of a tweener SG/SF type. If he guards Durant, I think KD can see over him so well he gets really good looks.
I think Chief will do a good job against Durant and Turner will guard Klay a lot...you probably just have to hope to contain Durant and Thompson and let Curry get his circus shots. Double teaming will be tough against their starters...our bench will be the X factor.
Curry-Dame Livingston-CJ Thompson-Crabbe/ET Durant-Harkless Green-Aminu Iggy-ET/Crabbe West-Davis Pachula-Plums/Ezeli
I honestly think you want to get KD to do the scoring when you play the Warriors. Force him to go one-on-one and jack up mid-range jumpers.
How so? Be more positive man./ We have a way deeper bench ans they are injury prone. I think the match ups listed puts the Blazers as a top three match up issue for GSW. Meaning we are one of a few teams that can maneuver guys around to give GSW fits. Not many other teams match up as well in my opinion. I like Aminu on KD. I like Hark on DGreen. I think those match ups actually favor us better than any other team can in the league.
I think we'd put Aminu on Durant and Turner on Green. We match up with them better than any team IMO, because we have two 6'9 Forwards that can hang with Durant and Green. Thompson is great as a big guard/forward to match up with Klay, Iggy, Livingston, or even Green. Ezeli could be a rim protector close to Whitesides level, and of he is then we can run that team off the 3pt line every time.
A 73 win team just added an MVP caliber player. Ie we're fucked unless they have massive injuries. This season, and the next few will be races for second place. You also believed earlier that Harkless can become like Draymond Green. Aminu is going to get demolished by KD especially when we can't even shade a double team at him. Wish it was easier to access that eye rolling emoji.
Man, so many of your posts and opinions are one sided and (intentionally?) leaving out certain things. First, They added an MVP caliber player, but lost half their bench. I think you either forgot or missed that part. Second, I never said Hark can become DGreen. You missed it then and are still missing it now. I said he can become our version of D Green a two way player who can cover several positions, etc.... I'm not saying we are as good, but your first post was basically were fucked. Throw in the towel. Its over for the next few seasons, when that is not the case. We added more D and depth and played them very well last year. We might be the one team that beats them in a series next year for the regular season.
Considering we're too good to tank, the best option is what Neil is doing now. Keep building and hope GS has injuries or someone else takes them out. But if they're healthy and still together with their big 4, it won't matter what we have on our rosters or what CLE or anyone else does. I'd be completely satisfied with fairly competitive WCF appearances sometime in the next 3 years.I never said throw in the towel. What I am laughing at is your notion that we can come up with any semblance of a lineup that favors us a matchup over GS. Our best player is maybe better than their third best player, and their 4th best player is not too far behind our best player. Unless you're expecting a massive jump from Dame and CJ (which you never mentioned), there are 0 realistic lineups that favor ours over theirs. Why would GS ever play a minute of the game without at least one of their big 4 in there? Kerr is not Nate McMillan. He actually knows how to coach.
I hope Ezeli has career monstrous numbers when we play the Warriors, and he just swats all of em like ants
