This Week's Show
The Warriors have a title, and Iguodala was the "MVP"? The Pistons, Bucks, and Clippers make some savvy offseason trades. And the draft is a myth. Tune in!
Hosts
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
You can watch us live at twitch.tv/nerdnumbers almost every Monday at 9:30pm EST.
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Video Show
This Week's Poll
Show Notes
Brian points out normally he likes the offseason for the draft and trade speculation. Things have changed for the Warriors!
Finals stats from Basketball Reference
The Warriors shooting a lot of threes is a difference from the historical NBA. They may not be the first to do this, but in the "Silicon Valley" spirit, you don't want to be first, you want to have the most successful version (Apple, Google, Apple, for example)
I don't think there's any lasting impact on the NBA from this Warriors team. The 2004 Pistons, for instance, are almost forgotten in NBA history.
As Patrick pointed out, having a good three-point shooting team has become the norm for succeeding in the playoffs.
We find a dead horse in the studio and do the only logical thing. We talk "Small ball" even more.
The upcoming CBA is impacting future contracts and trades. For instance, Jimmy Butler is expected to turn down a max contract to wait for the new CBA!
Jerry West will be the only Finals MVP on the losing team. LeBron James has made that clear. That said, Iguodala was a good choice though.
I think individual defense is a bit overrated. I'm not saying defense isn't important, but how much an individual can do in a poor system is limited. Case in point? The 2008 Defensive Player of the Year - Kevin Garnett - was on the tenth worst defense in the NBA in 2007.
Only three players - Stephen Curry, Timofey Mozgov, and Andre Iguodala - had over ten net points for the Finals. This was an ugly shooting Finals.
I'm not that excited by the Nuggets hiring Mike Malone. If you don't get rid of the poor depth on the team, then a new coach won't improve much.
I'm sorry, but I don't think Malone "turned" Cousins into a great player last season.
The Bucks and Pistons both made a good trade in our book. Ersan was a good player a few seasons ago. He only has one guaranteed season left on his contract. And they only gave up older, unproductive players with no upside for him. The Bucks acquired two non-guaranteed contracts to clear up cap space.
The Clippers made a similar move to the Pistons. They gave up an older player with little upside and an unproductive player for a player that was quite good a few seasons ago. I love moves for young players with upside, especially when it costs nothing. Not sure what Hornets are thinking though.
I go off on a rant about the NBA Draft. The reality is most teams aren't going to get a lot better. Most draft players don't pan out. Even if you luck into a good player, it's probably on a bad team (see Chris Paul and Anthony Davis) That leaves out that the draft is an exploitative system that makes little sense. In short, I'm not a big fan of the draft. Don't worry though, we'll have draft analysis on the site.
I compare the draft to "Kitchen Nightmares." Namely, the odds of success are small to start. And if you need a top draft pick, odds are your team is poorly run, and one good player won't even come close to fixing it.
We talked with draft expert Layne Vashro a while back on the NBA draft. It's a great listen.
Shout Outs
John Floyd, Andrew Sutton, and Dodgson all get a shout out for their discussion on Jahlil Okafor, who's name I'm sure I butcher.
Dave Berri (@wagesofwins) gets a shout out.
@nbageek @NerdNumbers @DPG21920 I can do that tomorrow.
— David Berri (@wagesofwins) June 23, 2015
We give Iguodala a shout out for his MVP. Brian also gives a shout out to the phallic statue his son made him.
My brother Daniel gets a shout out. He helped host and edit a podcast with me about an incredible (horrible) TV show from the 90s - WMAC Masters! We had fun making it.