“I am worthy to be traded” GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS star player insisting to leave the team due to…
A pivotal moment came midway through the Golden State Warriors’ comeback against the Denver Nuggets on Thursday night, as they lost an 18-point fourth-quarter lead.
The Warriors inbounded the ball to Brandin Podziemski with just over five minutes left, and he allowed it to roll to bleed the time. After noticing, Nikola Jokic forced the rookie to touch the ball to start the timer by picking him up at full court. The Nuggets required every second available to them. Then, in an attempt to draw a foul, Jokic flailed his arms after being bumped by Podz as he crossed half court. Perhaps infuriated by Jokic’s repeated attempts to draw a foul, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr signaled a timeout and began shaking his head and yelling at him. However, in light of what transpired five minutes later, Kerr’s loss of composure appears to be more related to the harsh realization that Golden State’s era is coming to an end than it is to Jokic’s antics.
Jokic completed the comeback and won the game for the Nuggets, who are currently 25-11 and one and a half games out of the top seed in the West, with a remarkable 40-foot bank jumper at the buzzer. Jokic has attempted 44 shots in his last four games and made 39 of them, which is Wilt Chamberlain-caliber performance. In the meantime, the Warriors are ranked 11th and have a record below.500. Golden State wouldn’t even be in the play-in tournament if the season ended today.
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The philosophical disparities between the two teams were quite evident when the Nuggets started to cut into the Warriors’ lead. Jonathan Kuminga was playing brilliantly as he continued the finest run of his career, but Kerr was.
unable to find him any minutes during the last 15 minutes. On the other hand, Michael Malone of Denver chose to bench his well-established veteran Michael Porter Jr. during crucial moments in favor of Peyton Watson, a second-year backup, who took advantage of the situation by displaying excellent team defense and making a huge 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter:
In high-pressure situations, Malone is prepared to take a chance on his youth and enthusiasm, whereas Kerr mostly relies on his experience. The Nuggets make player development investments. Last year, it was Christian Braun. This year, it is Watson. Next up is Julian Strawther. As Nuggets general manager Calvin Booth explained to me during the offseason, part of the strategy to potentially create a dynasty is to support their young players’ development.
“We didn’t give them jobs at the beginning of the season for a reason. That is not how it operates. A uprising would ensue if you took that action. Regarding his choice to hold off on playing his young players right out of training camp, Kerr stated two weeks ago that “you have to honor the work that the veterans have done.” There is no denying that the dynamics in Golden State’s locker room differ from Denver’s. But when the Warriors keep losing ground and blowing leads month after month, the following query emerges: Is the team suffering as a result of Kerr’s devotion to his aging stars?
Partially, the Watson clutch 3 proves it, but the problems go far deeper. The play starts like this:
The Nuggets often used a strategy known as a double drag, which is effectively when two players set an on-ball screen at the same time, throughout the fourth quarter. For Jamal Murray, the Nuggets are doing that right now. And Golden State is having a lot of problems right now. Because he isn’t focused on his task, Steph Curry is out of position, according to Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. It is impossible for Klay Thompson to stay in front of Murray. And for whatever reason, Dario Saric is assigned to defend Jokic, even though it had no bearing on the outcome of this case.
