This Week's Show
The conclusion of the regular season! We talk the 76ers and Sam Hinkie's process, the Warriors' process, and Kobe's reputation.
Hosts
- Andres Alvarez (@nerdnumbers)
- Produced by Brian Foster (@boxscorebrian)
Sources
You can watch us live at twitch.tv/nerdnumbers; we usually go Tuesday or Wednesday at 9:30 pm EST. Follow us on Twitter and we'll keep you posted!
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Video Show
Show Notes
The Warriors had to get 73 wins on the last day of the season. That said, if they hadn't given up the biggest regular season upset to the Lakers earlier, that wouldn't have been necessary.
Dave Berri had a suggestion a few years ago. General Managers that don't make the playoffs three years in a row should be fired. That said, Hinkie apparently listened, firing himself after thirty-four months of service.
I call Hinkie a "role player" like GM. He's good at some things (drafting and shedding cap) while not being good at other key aspects. I compare him to Klay Thompson, who is a shooter and not much else. That's not entirely fair, though, as Klay at least contributes positively to success.
On the tangent of "role players", players like DeAndre Jordan, who are pretty much positively impacting their team in all categories, are not role players!
We bring up Darko Milicic and Manute Bol, who were quite good at blocks but not amazing at other categories.
We bring up the Thunder Model of success, which is what Hinkie seemed to be trying to emulate. Of course, in the "best" case, you end up with multiple players getting huge pay raises at the same time, and lose the squad. See the Thunder...
We talk how "winning" the Draft Lottery is more often a curse than a blessing.
We talk about Hinkie's odd exit letter about the process.
Deadspin also took apart Hinkie's strange letter. There was so much; they had enough content for a second post on it!
We're not quite crowning the Warriors a savvy team yet. Remember, there was a point in NBA history where Joe Dumars looked like the smartest GM in the world.
We bash the "Treadmill of Mediocrity" again and disuss Patrick's "Ladder to Greatness" (We can name stuff too!) The note being if you're a bad team it will take 5 or six solid moves to get good. Also, you can't hope all of those moves will be draft picks.
We also talk about the Warriors "process." It's odd how a lot of Joe Lacob's comments smack of Sam Hinkie. Brian's only point is the Warriors shouldn't be so sure just yet, particularly since the primary driver of their success is Curry!
We talk a ton about the Warriors, 76ers, and success. Tune in!
George Karl was fired today. My only point was that the Kings were a mess, and this doesn't surprise me.
We talk about Kobe and his overratedness. Take a recent 538 piece that called Kobe's 2005-2006 offense "devasting." His Effective Field Goal Percentage in 2005-2006 was 49.1%, which was good. But it ranked him 54th in players that took ten shots a game. Not sure, Devasting is the adjective I'd use.
Kobe's last game was strangely appropriate:
Tonight Kobe scored 60 points on 50 shots and 12 free throws. That's a True Shooting of 54.3%. Team League Average True Shooting ... 54.1%.
— boxscoregeeks (@boxscoregeeks) April 14, 2016
Shout Outs
Brian shouts out Cardale Jones, who has been written about by both Deadspin and our own Patrick Minton.
Brian shouts out Bomani Jones for his jab at Cleveland Baseball.
On that note:
This is GREATNESS RT @VeryWhiteGuy: Thank you to whomever did this. pic.twitter.com/SbbtZ78MSm
— Tweetgood Mac (@SnottieDrippen) April 10, 2016