Jonathan Kuminga & Brandin Podziemski must be better. Period. | Warriors-76ers Reaction

Another wild finish in Philly. The Warriors went into Philly without Steph and Jimmy and then Draymond got his foot stomped on again, so he ended up leaving the game in a walking boot. So, uh, some more trouble there, although the reporting is that Draymond is expected to continue to try to play through that injury. The Warriors couldn’t score to save their lives. Uh, Brandon Pajki and Jonathan Kaminga both had really rough games. I want to talk to them a little bit more in a minute because the negativity surrounding them is really starting to reach a fever pitch right now. Uh Tyresese Maxi’s lighting him on fire on the other end and the Warriors end up going down by 22 in the first quarter. They end up stiff arming them around there most of the rest of the game. But then the Warriors mount an epic 18-point fourth quarter comeback led by one of those classic little three guard lineups um that you know Golden State fans complain about all the time. We had Buddy Heel, Dean Anthony Melton, and Pat Spencer. U Will Richard got in there a little bit too. So three of those four guards at any given time. Geese Santos playing the four and then a mix of Al Horford and Quinton Post was the group that ended up leading the comeback. Buddy Heields like constantly just running by Tyresese Maxi and getting every single offensive rebound. Tyresese Maxi’s got to be more attentive on the defensive glass. That’s something that’s been standing out to me in film. He’s got to figure that out. It’s just a little detail that’s undercutting some of his success on the other end. Uh DeAnthony Melton was flying around on defense breaking plays up, hitting jump shots. Pat Spencer continues to provide like that like little bit of audacious scoring uh in these situations, hitting pullup threes, drawing fouls in the mid-range. G Santos hit a couple of spot up threes. He had a a spin move on the baseline that got the Warriors bench all stoked where he kind of got caught the ball in the short corner and the possession kind of died. No one was open and he just ripped to the right and pounded into his spin move. Toasted his man off the dribble. Got into a little reverse layup. A nice move from Ge Santos. Horford had a big block and dropped coverage. He also had an assist out of a postup double team and Quinton Post hit a couple of threes all while the team was playing great great defense on the other end. Uh they mixed in some 131 zone during that defensive run as well as some man-to-man. The Sixers were kind of playing into it a little bit by letting their foot off the gas and just passing the ball around the perimeter and taking some bad pull-up jump shots. The Warriors just battled and all of a sudden Pat Spencer hits a three off the left wing and they’re up by four. And it’s like, oh man, like the Warriors are about to have a massive win here. But the Sixers finally woke up and they made four big plays late in the game that ended up stealing the victory back in their direction. Quinn Grimes had a big driving and one out of the left corner where he just kind of went through Pat Spencer’s chest and got an and one. Uh Tyresese Maxi after settling a few times for some bad jump shots finally got downhill, pounded into a spin move over his right shoulder and put it up off the glass with his left hand. A really really nice basket attack from Tyrese Maxi. And then the final sequence. So the Sixers had the ball down by one and VJ Edgecomb identifies Tyresese Maxi’s taken like a tough step back jump shot like 18 19 feet off of the left elbow ex off of the right elbow extended and he airballs it. But VJ just kind of like identifies that the air ball is coming and just cuts into the open gap, times it perfectly, jumps, grabs the uh air ball, and feeds it back into the basket to put the Sixers up by one. DeAnthony Melton leaks out and Buddy Heel grabs the the inbound and just rifles it down the floor to DeAnthony Melton wide open for what would have been a layup to win the game. And Tyrese Maxi, who was literally like wrapped up in the bench in the Sixers bench because on his fall away jump shot he was like falling over into the bench. He somehow entangles himself from the mess and sprints back and blocks the Anthony Melton at the buzzer to save the game. Easily the best defensive play of his young career and just an insane display of his speed in the open floor and just a lot of a lot of fun in that particular game. couple really fun finishes between uh the two games that we covered this morning. And I love that about the NBA. Like we we we complain a lot about the NBA regular season about how it’s too long and how it can lack urgency sometimes, but you know, that was what looked like a pretty mediocre slate and it gave us some really cool moments. And that’s ultimately what makes the NBA regular season still fun is that it just provides so many moments over the course of those six months. Yeah, there’s a lot of bad games and blowouts in there as well, but generally speaking, each week you just get a dozen or so classic games with great finishes, with crazy highlights, and that’s why we keep coming back to this like a drug every single year when mid-occtober comes around. Uh before we get to the mailbag, I was thinking a little bit last night about how things have gone so wrong for the Warriors this year. And to be clear, it’s not over for them. They’re three and a half games back of the six seed to get out of the plan. That’s an achievable gap. And when they have their top three guys healthy and available on the floor, they’ve been really good this year. But I was thinking about it because like the reason why they’re below 500 instead of staying afloat has essentially come down to the lack of development of their young talent. If you look at the end of their roster, a lot of those guys have been great. Like you keep finding the Will Richard types and the Pat Spencer types and the Geese Santos types and the guys that can be their eighth, ninth, tenth man on any given night when Steve Kerr needs to find uh some some quality rotation minutes in the back end of his roster. They keep succeeding there. Their stars are just true pros, right? They do their jobs every night. When they’ve been on the floor, they’ve been winning their minutes. The stars do their jobs. They haven’t been perfect. There’s been bad games mixed in there, but for the most part, those guys have been really, really good. It’s that middle tier of the roster where they’ve needed some of these not like the undrafted second round pick types to pop, but where they’ve needed like these first round pick high pedigree dudes to pop and they just haven’t. And they’ve needed Pods to be on a little bit more of that Austin Reeves type of trajectory of becoming like a legitimate offensive weapon at the guard spot and he just hasn’t become that. They’ve needed Jonathan Kaminga to become something closer to what Pascal Seakum or OG Anobi have become and he just hasn’t. And it’s it because of that it just puts so much more emphasis and pressure on the older veterans to be awesome every night. And it forces Steve Kerr to lean on his eighth, ninth, tenth man more often. And those guys, they can do their jobs, but ultimately it’s a key possession late in the game. and DeAnthony Melton’s isoing off the top and smoking a left-handed layup off the glass. It’d be great if one of those first round picks that you had, a lottery pick could have developed into a guy when Steph’s out um with a uh with a thigh contusion that could come in and get a bucket when the team needs a bucket. And that that lack of development in that middle portion of their roster where some of their higher pedigree young talent has been. That lack of development I think ultimately has been the thing that’s led to this frustrating start as the Warriors end up slipping below 500.

Jason reacts to the wild game between the Philadelphia 76ers and Golden State Warriors that ended in another Dubs loss without Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler. He explains why it’s not over for the Warriors, but that they need their young guys — Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, specifically — to play better.

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39 comments

  10. Personally I think the most disappointing player is Jimmy. He’s way too inconsistent to be making the money he is. With Steph out you would think Jimmy could get 25+ points and it’s just not the case. He might one game but the next he will be a ghost and take less than 10 field goal attempts.

  14. I feel like I'm not watching the same games as most of the post reviewers, like it's a rule not to mention the real problem when it's the coach. It is so obvious to anybody that's played that the small ball is just not going to work unless you have a time machine and can go back to they hey day of the splash brothers. But when your center is 6'6" and you sound him with 4 guards, especially Kerr's favorites, they just have no chance unless it's fluke like last night, or Curry saves the day, again. It's become unwatchable for me, a long time Warrior fan, it's just too ugly and sad that Curry's last couple of seasons are being squandered by a stubborn coach that can't seem to read the room, or make any real changes.

  15. Austin Reaves v podz is the comparison I constantly make.
    A38yr old 6’1” injury prone guard and Podz as the 19th pick – a guy on no one else’s draft board when they could’ve signed him like Reaves. Now the Dubs (local media) stuck trying to sell the pick to us, the fan base

  16. From what I see besides blaming Stevie for Kuminga being a dumptruck. Kuminga can barely dribble the ball! Kuminga is Not a good passer! Kuminga has a low basketball IQ! Kuminga is horrible from 3 point line! Kuminga misses alot of mid range shots! Kuminga is only Athletic at Lobs or dunking, besides that he ain't no shot blocker or any good at rebounds!! Kuminga is a dumptruck in my eyes!! Podz is Trash, period. Al Horford barely plays! Draymond shooting too many 3's! Stevie sabotaging his own team!! Just annoying. Maybe next year new coach and Curry retires with 5 Rings. Good content.

  17. life of a nba youtubers. you said warriors are real contender last month and now they’re 500. you have to pretend that all these teams are, and i quote verbatim “sneaky good” and “contender” and “better than we thought” 😂😂 sell your soul for the youtube cash. we all know only okc, denver and healthy boston are capable of winning the chips. 😂

  19. My take and venting on the Warriors is a decade long view…

    Steph (and Klay) changed the entire league: we can be undersized (with some respectable role playing big men), play tough D and just shoot the lights out and run you off the court. 3 > 2, good luck trying to match us. That was the identity and they ran the league.

    It feels like teams caught up to that overall strategy. Athletic 3 and D guys is what everyone looks for now. Look at the Cs last year and many others, everyone specializes in 3s or tries to and it’s legit because of the style of the Warriors in the 2010s.

    I feel like Kerr, Steph, Draymond are…satisfied…or over it…or act like a kid who hacked the game and now every other kid is using the same hack so they are bored,. they almost feel lazy and purposely uncompetitive at times.

    Kerr praises Steph all day and night and it doesn’t feel like a team he believes in overall just one superstar he loves and leans on. If Steph is not at 100% then no real competitive fire in them really (see: last year v Minn)

    It feels like they don’t want to be who they used to be anymore. Yeah they still are a three point team but the pace isn’t what it used to be. Sure Steph isn’t in his 20s anymore but I don’t see the pace of a hungry team, I see the pace of team that thinks they can turn it on come playoff time, one that doesn’t care if they win more championships or not and I think that starts with Kerr.

    I don’t understand aside from injuries, changing the starting 5 every damn night. It feels like sabotage. Put your best 5 on the floor and use some big men for Christ’s sake. No Kuminga starting, pulling players when they get hot. Kerr is coaching them to be average and .500 like they are. I feel like this team has the talent and firepower to be great but it’s a weird pace and energy they are coached with that’s like “meh, it doesn’t matter.”

    Rant over. Overall, I think Kerr is the main problem and they are acting too cool to have fire in them and just be who they used to be. Get back to the identity shamelessly: chuck up those threes, have a fast pace, and be that team that makes more of them than everyone else. Who cares if everyone else does it now too? You still have Steph and he scares opponents if he gets hot.

    Thank you for reading.

  24. To be honest I think The Warriors had this coming, they stunted the growth of JK last year, cuz they didn’t want to pay him — and now want him to produce?

  25. Like MarioHerena in comments below said.They have two non shooting starters in Joy and Donkey.Donkey has to go, time is up with his annoying antics as well

  27. Kerr's coaching is nonsense, here's why:

    – Buddy's defence is atrocious, even worse was Kerr putting him on Maxey, letting Maxey get whatever he wanted inside the arc.

    – Podz was just lost on defence, and in games when he couldn't find his rhythm, Kerr just keeps him in the game for some unknown reason.

    – JK just couldn't be bothered anymore, I really think the guy is low-key trying to sabotage the team now.

    – We have Seth, Will and Melton, there is no reason to continue playing Podz, Buddy and JK. Yet Kerr just keeps playing them.

    – Spencer and Santos are better than people give them credit for.

  31. All Podz does is dribble into traffic and pump fake on every shot attempt. On a 1vs1 can’t ever get his own shot off. If it wasn’t for his penchant to draw charges which he is really good at, on D he gets regularly blown by. Needs to be benched or at the very least get his minutes cut big time

  33. JK wouldn't have to be Siakam. He's been tutored by one of the best defenders in the history of the game. If we could just give the Dubbs a Wiggins like player, that would be an upgrade. Similar body, athleticism, but entirely different attitudes.

  34. Lmfao you can really tell which media members hate the warriors. Al horford was part of the come back? wtf r u on?

    The ‘comeback’ was made by pat spencer, Quinton post, melton, and santos. If you think JK/podz/buddy did anything u need to rethink why ur covering a team you don’t like.

  38. Old and bad?..let's make a Little history… He is the same guy Who, last week and many other times, said that, your allstars are those Who win or lose a game.. he said that.. multiple times.. and it's the same guy Who used to blame Reaves and role players, when LeBron and AD played trash in the playoffs.. the same guy Who is now telling us, it's the role players' guilt.. History repeats itself over and over..

  39. So about Kerr’s lineups. Let’s look at the final DEFENSIVE lineup:

    Pat Spencer (6’2 below average def)
    Buddy Hield (6’3 abysmal)
    De’Anthony Melton (6’2 great defender but still getting his legs back)
    Will Richard (6’4 inconsistent rookie)
    + Al Horford (a shell of himself)

    On the bench:
    GPII, Moses Moody, Quentin Post, Gui Santos, TJD… so many better choices that would’ve kept that putback from happening.

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