The TNT Showcase Game of the Week was a dandy…for a half. Then the MVP caliber of play by Steph Curry wore down the Brooklyn Nets into submission as the Warriors breezed 117-99 at the Barclays Center.
Steph was simply brilliant scoring 37 points and moving the ball like the generational B-Ball wizard he truly has become for those of us still lucky enough to be around watching him play.
On my first MVP ballot of the season I have 1 Steph, 2 Jokic….not sure who I would have as my three just yet.
Any doubts about where Steph and Kevin curently rank among this generation of stars was wiped away with a display of ball which shows who’s team the Warriors truly are.
These Warriors are still without Klay and second year center James Wiseman…but even without those two the Warriors have been the class of the West one-sixth of the way into this NBA season.
Kudos to Warriors GM Bob Myers for the rebuild. These aren’t the injury decimated Warriors which lost to Toronto in their last Finals appearance. This is a rebuilt team with depth galore into the second unit and perhaps into a third unit as well.
Klay is now playing five on five in practice, but when he eventually comes back he won’t have to be a full-time Splash Brother is my take. He can be a Mini-Splash Brother who in my fertile mind should not have to be playing more than 22-24 minutes a game to contribute to this version of the Warriors.
For those old enough…think back to when Bill Walton’s injury riddled legs were at the end of his illustrious career with the Boston Celtics. That Bill Walton wasn’t Portland’s world champion Bill Walton, but there was still enough left in Bill Walton’s gas tank to help the Celtics win a championship as their Sixth Man playing lighter minutes.
God…I wish we had guys like Bob Myers and Steve Kerr in Oklahoma City….I’d be a regular again at the Peake if that were the case. I wouldn’t have to sit in the stands and cheer for teams from San Francisco and Miami….. and dream one day we in Oklahoma would once again have a team which is more than a AAA developmental squad subsidized by Adam Silver to move players to other locales in the league.
Klay doesn’t have to be the bulldog anymore. There’s Gary Payton Jr. to be the defensive bulldog and there’s Jordan Poole to help with scoring. There’s the two rookies in Moses Moody and Johnny Kuminga who make the Warriors future burn even brighter.
If you watch the video I posted above…please note #00 for the Warriors…that’s rookie Johnny Kuminga who was the 9th player taken in this past draft and generally recognized as perhaps the player in the draft with the most raw athletic potential.
Some say he could be the next Kawhi who was the 15th player taken in his draft class or the next Giannis was also the 15th player taken in his draft class. Johnny Kuminga went at No. 9…three picks after Sam Hinkie-Presti decided on the non-athletic Josh Giddy at No. 6.
We could have had Johnny Kuminga, but instead the only Johnny we have is the ‘once’ great Johnny Thunder on the abysmal Daily Thunder blog.
I think in closing that pretty much says why the Warriors are who they are and why the tanking Thunder are playing the putrid 1-11 Houston Rockets tonight in the least desirable NBA game on this season’s slate so far this NBA season.
Tonight’s over/under for Mike Muscala minutes is set at 7.5 minutes per okcthunderground.com. Can’t play him too much if the Thunder are to have any chance at losing this game to the feeble Rockets.
Let’s Go Rockets!