The Warriors kept their chances alive to advance in the in-season tournament with a win over San Antonio on Friday night, but it might not have happened without another strong performance from Dario Saric, writes Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Saric came off the bench to hit four three-pointers and score 20 points in 26 minutes, along with seven rebounds, four assists and two steals. He has reached the 20-point mark in all three of Golden State’s tournament games.
Saric has been a tremendous find in free agency for a team that needed size but didn’t have many resources available to spend. He signed a one-year, minimum-salary contract, so he’ll be back on the open market in 2024.
“We gave him a hard (free agency) pitch,” coach Steve Kerr said. “He asked me, ‘How much am I going to play? Am I going to play?’ He knew this was a year he slipped through the cracks, free agency-wise, and needed to be in a good spot to show what he could do. This is definitely the spot. He’s playing so well. He’s clearly a player who is going to command a big salary next summer.”
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Draymond Green‘s return from his five-game suspension will create some difficult decisions for Kerr, Slater observes in the same piece. Saric is playing too well to cut his minutes and Kevon Looney is a fixture in the frontcourt, so that may lead to less playing time for Jonathan Kuminga. Although Kuminga wasn’t outstanding during Green’s absence, Slater notes that he played an important role in Friday’s win, scoring 12 points in the fourth quarter.
- Kerr made a change to his starting lineup Friday, Slater adds, replacing Chris Paul with Moses Moody. Even though he came off the bench, Paul logged 29 minutes compared to Moody’s 17. “Just wanted to change some of the combinations,” Kerr explained. “We were looking to get some different guys together and some apart.”
- Trayce Jackson-Davis is a huge fan of the NIL system, which enabled him to amass more than $1MM in sponsorships in college and remain at Indiana long enough to polish his skills for the NBA, per Connor Letourneau of The San Francisco Chronicle. Kerr is happy to have a rare rookie with four years of NCAA experience. “He has (126) college games under his belt, so you don’t have to teach him a lot of the things you’d normally expect to have to teach a rookie,” Kerr said. “He’s another guy I’d like to play more because he’s a very good player. I just haven’t been able to find the minutes.”
Trace has done well in limited minutes. He really stepped up his game last year at Indiana.
Trayce, Podziemski, Saric, Moody, GP2, and CP3 have been huge this year. Last week I saw lineup +/-‘s with those guys and they were all between +16 and +38, whereas our starting lineups were -14 and -9. That literally means this team would be just as sorry if not worse than last year’s if not for the guys I listed above, and no doubt CP3’s ability to connect all their playing styles together in a cohesive manner.
The NBA has put the word out to NBA writers and news outlets to cover the In-Season Tournament like it is the playoffs.
Nobody cares who is in, and who is out of any of this.
It shouldn’t have to be that hard to get players in a league where the minimum salary is over $1 million for 6 months of work.
Regular Season is meaningless. A good team can get ravaged by injuries, and still have no fear of missing the Playoffs. Why play hard until then?? Half the so-called best players in the league sit out back-to-back games. Anybody ever remember Jordan, Kobe, or Magic sitting out the 2nd game of a back-to-back?? It was already tough to NOT make the Playoffs, and then they added “Play-In” games to expand even further teams getting in regardless of record. Miami went from the Play-In all the way to the NBA Finals last year.
Games are garbage and coaching doesn’t really matter because ALL the rules have been changed to make it as easy as possible to score buckets. No more strategy. A couple of guys hang out in the corners waiting to shoot a 3, while another dude dribbles through most of the shot clock en route to deciding which stat he is gonna try to pad, a point, rebound or an assist.
Jaden McDaniels can get $25 million per year for being an elite 3-D guy averaging 12/5/3. Which means offensively his job is to “space” the floor by standing behind the 3-point arc and waiting for a shot. He will get 5 or 6 chances per game. His job is to hit a couple of them. Defensively, it means he can guard both forward positions.
Now we get more gimmicks. The In-Season Tournament. The NBA media echo chamber is doing all it can to make people think anybody cares at all.
Then why do you care or comment? For hell’s sake why even bother to watch? The times have passed you by and that’s particularly sad considering I’m telling you this and I’m 47.
Times haven’t passed me by. Changes are not done to make a “better” product. It’s all done to add revenue through selling ads and tickets.
Coaching doesn’t matter. 4 guys stand around and wait for the other guy to decide.
Does it matter if your team finishes the Regular Season with a losing record?? Nope! You still make the Playoffs!
The traditional big brought balance. The game, and the coaching of the game, was never meant to be positionless basketball. This is just a way to call it what it really is …. Trying to simulate the video game experience in real games, and thinking that will get that age group more interested in your product.
I will complain as much as I want as long as I want. No game has passed me by. I happen to form my own opinions and think for myself. I don’t fall for the marketing gimmicks from the NBA to make me think I am watching something that I am not.
If they want to make the tournament matter the team that wins it all is assured of a 6th place playoff shot. Now it means something not a shiny trophy
Isn’t it an organization’s ultimate goal to make itself and its members money though? I would think they are doing a good job if that’s the case…
Ditto Taco. All VB has to do is not watch. Don’t care? Don’t watch, don’t read, don’t pay attention. There are times NFL is hard to watch because of nothing penalties OR penalties that should be called but aren’t. Ticks me off BUT not enough to not watch. Definitely not enough to write essays about it. Maybe there’ll be a time when I stop watching. If the niners, my team, become bad again, that might keep me from watching. I’d watch them but would care less about NFL but it would have nothing to do with the league issues.
You commented this on an article that didn’t mention the in-season tournament other than that was the last time Saric had 20. It’s just another game Super Dario scored more than expected. Go type your mental crack spew on the article below this one ABOUT the mid season tournament(which isn’t about player or fans, just another gimmick to sell to Amazon/Apple TV/Disney+/Hulu/etc. welcome to capitalism!) OR send it to your therapist but this is as senile a comment as someone coming in here and talking about iguanas or Taco Bell’s new breakfast taco. It’s not even close to the same topic as the article, which makes it look like you can’t read. So, I guess I’m sorry.
Not to mention the garish looking..God awful floor’s..Plus when a guy misses a free throw he gets a double hand clap after getting fouled after a four step ” Euro-Step ” to the hoop!
How about giving the team who wins the tournament an extra draft pick at the end of the lottery. They can trade ore use it. Or a cap exemption or something
Markkanen to GSW for Kuminga and picks …