Goeiedag, enchantée and welcome to this week's episode of Eight 2 Four presents: All-NBA Team of the Week. We’re still waiting on the Eastern Conference Finals to wrap up. Jimmy Butler and Jayson Tatum are trading massive performances every night and a huge Game 7 on Sunday will decide on who makes it to the NBA Finals. Next week, we’ll dedicate our show to the winner. This week, we travel West where the Golden State Warriors were way too strong for the Dallas Mavericks. We look at the road to the Finals through the eyes of the 5 best players on this team. Get ready for your All-NBA Team of the Week!
PICK #1
Our first pick of the week is Stephen Curry. Curry is still the main man on this team, he is the Golden State Warriors and the Warriors are him. Everybody is replaceable but Curry is probably the one player you wouldn’t want to have to find a replacement for. In these Playoffs, he’s averaging 26 points, 5 rebounds and 6 assists per game, by far the most impactful player on the Warriors this postseason. In round 1, against Denver, he came off the bench and slowly built up his minutes after coming back from injury. In round 2, against the Grizzlies, he went toe to toe with Ja Morant, a duel we’ll probably see regularly in the years to come. And then finally, in the Western Conference Finals, he outperformed Luka Doncic and led the Warriors to the NBA Finals.
In college, Curry played 3 years for Davidson in North Carolina, about half an hour up the road from where he went to high school in Charlotte. Steph basically lived his whole life in Charlotte, except for the 3 years his dad played in Toronto. He also married his longtime girlfriend Ayesha. I bring this up because it paints a picture of the kind of man Stephen Curry is, loyal, a homebody, he is someone who doesn’t need to travel around. He’s happy to stay in one place and serve the people around him. You could see that in his career as well. Curry has been a one-team player so far in his career and I don’t see him leaving San Francisco any time soon, except maybe if he is traded away but not by his own volition. Steph sacrificed a lot, especially financially, to help this Warriors franchise achieve everything it has achieved in the last 10 years.
Six trips to the NBA Finals in the last 8 years. That’s not a bad stat to put forward. And considering the previous 2 years were decimated by injuries, it could have been more. But now we’re in “what-if?” territory, and in NBA terms, it could get messy. Anyway, the last team to make it to 6 Finals in 8 years? Yes, Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. Obviously, the Warriors don’t have the same strike rate, 6 for 6 for the Bulls, but it’s not bad company to be in. Curry definitely belongs among the best point guards to have ever played in this league, he could even be challenging Magic for that historical top spot. Considering Magic is about 6 inches taller than Curry, a very impressive accomplishment by someone who was marked as unreliable to run a team.
PICK #2
Our second pick of the week is Jordan Poole. Classed as a failed draft pick in 2019, and played a lot in the G-League playing for the Santa Cruz Warriors, Poole slowly improved his game bit by bit in the background. This year, he finally received his chance to shine next to Curry while the Warriors eagerly awaited Klay’s return from injury. He took that opportunity with both hands, putting up three 30+ point games in his first 20 games of the season. His shot selection wasn’t great at the start of the season, he was just chucking them up left, right and center, but he improved and it seems ridiculous now that Poole was still fighting for a roster spot at the start of the season.
Poole really cemented himself into the rotation in the first round of the Playoffs against Denver. That would have been the first time the broader public really started to pay attention to what he can do, especially because Coach Steve Kerr decided to start Poole over Steph Curry. Curry was coming back from injury and was on a minutes restriction, and as a team they decided to bring Curry off the bench, as a sort of not-so-secret weapon. That allowed Poole to start in most games and he averaged 21 points and 5 assists per game. Not bad going for someone who was stamped as “the worst pick in the draft” by a CBS reporter.
His numbers dropped a bit against the Grizzlies and Dallas, but mainly because he was playing less minutes as the Warriors progressed through the series. Obviously, Curry and Thompson are the undisputed leaders on this Warriors’ team so I expect Poole’s minutes to drop in the NBA Finals again, but don’t let that distract you from his position in this franchise. Poole is the future for the Warriors. His time will come when Curry retires, until then all he needs to do is show up and ball out.
PICK #3
Our third pick of the week is Draymond Green. Draymond is the engine of this Warriors team. His ability to find open players on the court and almost scream his teammates towards open positions is incredible. Yes, sometimes his brain even works to fast for him, like in that blowout loss against the Grizzlies where he finished with 5 turnovers in 22 minutes. But you take the good with the bad, because there is so much good for so very little bad. So far in these Playoffs he is averaging 8.5 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists per game. Don’t let these numbers fool you, Draymond is definitely the driving force behind the Golden State Warriors.
The biggest influence he had on a series came against the Grizzlies. It started with his ejection in the first game. He pulled down Brandon Clarke and received a questionable Flagrant 2, which means immediate exit. He may not have meant it but the tone for the series was set. It was grim and aggressive, in both cities in every game. Dillon Brooks was ejected after hammering Gary Payton II into the ground and Green flipped off the Grizzlies crowd in that same game. But the most agonising moment of all was Green dancing along to “Whoop That Trick” in the Game 5 blowout. Very disrespectful, but all Draymond was trying to do was trying to win the game mentally. And in the end, he did, the Warriors beating the Grizzlies in Game 6.
Draymond Green is one of many NBA players who have jumped on the podcast wagon, hosting the Draymond Green Show. Here he gives his unbiased and unsalted opinion on his own series, but also the other series around the league. By doing so, he’s already made some enemies in Miami, when he said that he thinks Boston will go through to the Finals. It’s always fun when players are allowed to voice their opinions of others, especially when it leads to heated battles on the court. But there is a fine line between voicing opinions and spouting hatred in personal feuds. Right now, Dray sits on the right side of that line, but will it stay that way?
PICK #4
Our fourth pick of the week is Klay Thompson. 941 days. That’s how long it took Klay to return from his season-ending injury in Game 6 against the Toronto Raptors in the 2019 NBA Finals. In January he finally made his return to the court after 941 days. In 20 minutes against Cleveland, he managed to make 17 points, shooting 3 of 8 from deep, and made a huge dunk. Klay was back and the Warriors would win it all. At least, that was the narrative on the day. In reality Klay struggled a lot finding his form from the past, for example, this regular season is the only season in his career he did not shoot 40% from behind the arc. But for Klay, this was not your average regular season. It was a warm up for the Playoffs.
And it worked, Klay was hot against the Nuggets, shooting over 45% from deep for the series on nearly 10 attempts per game. Denver had no solutions to stop Curry, Poole and Klay and the Warriors breezed through that first round. Against the Grizzlies, things were a bit different. His series was very up and down. For every good game, he had a bad game, shooting over 65% in Game 3 followed by a big fat 0 for 7 in Game 4. Game 5 was a wash for the Warriors but Klay was pretty much the only one playing at a decent level. And then came Game 6. Klay has made a name for himself over the years, overperforming in Game Sixes. And against the Grizzlies “Game 6 Klay” was back.
Klay finished with 30 points, going 8 from 14 from deep and he added 8 rebounds. This game was the official return of Klay Thompson to the highest level. Against Dallas, Klay played like himself again, with another great performance in Game 5, the closeout game against Dallas. A lot needed to go well for the Warriors to have a chance at winning this season’s title and one of those things was Thompson returning successfully. I think we can all agree that that box has been ticked.
PICK #5
Our fifth pick of the week is Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins was probably one of the biggest miscasts in NBA History. The 2014 number 1 pick was never able to cash in on the expectations in Minnesota, and ended up in San Francisco in the D’Angelo Russell trade. That trade will go into history as the turning point for the Warriors. The franchise was in disarray, KD had left and Klay and Curry were both injured. The trade was sort of a last resort to build back what they once had. And right now, that move was a stroke of genius. Wiggins as the third or fourth option proves to suit him a whole lot better than the first option. And on top of that, Wiggins can defend! We haven’t seen that since, well ever!
What Wiggins has shown us while guarding Luka has been nothing short of incredible. Luka is probably the most un-guardable player in the league right now, and yes, he still averaged 32 points per game, but Wiggins clearly stopped him from playing his game. Luka was unable to get his team going and the rest is history. That’s a feather on the cap of Wiggins. On top of that he managed to add 18 points and 7 rebounds per game. He was the piece the Warriors didn’t know they were missing and he will be crucial for the Warriors in the NBA finals.
But what happens after that is anyone’s guess. The Warriors are paying Wiggins over $30 million per year and he will be on an expiring contract next season. That’s a valuable trade asset the Warriors can use to open up a spot for a similar player on a much lower salary and pay Poole and Looney the money they deserve. But whether or not Wiggins stays or goes, his stint at Golden State has been more than just successful. He has shown the world that he does know how to play basketball, as long as you don’t expect too much of him, and for a lot of people that has been an eyeopener.
This is our All-NBA team of the Week. Please share our podcast and give us 5 stars. If you have any questions, you can contact the show on eight2fouroffice@gmail.com. Thank you for listening, ballers out!