Heat Check | 5 CATASTROPHIC Disappointments Of The Season @HeatCheck | Uploaded March 2023 | Updated October 2024, 10 hours ago.
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Winning the championship last season and seeing some of the young guys making significant plays for them in the process, meant that the Golden State Warriors had high hopes for this year. And with an aging core of Curry, Thompson and Green, everyone had their eyes on Poole, Kuminga, Moody and Wiseman to step up and keep this championship window open for dub nation.
But this plan failed in a catastrophic way, and right now
the Warriors are hanging on for dear life just to avoid the play- in. So what happened? Let’s get into it.
Taking a look at Jordan Poole’s stats you can see that he’s having a slight bump with 1 and a half points per game more. But that’s simply because of his increased shot attempts and comes with a cost. His field goal percentage is down and especially his 3 point efficiency went from 36 and a half to 32.8. A significant step back. Not to mention the fact that the opponents target him constantly as the weakest link defensively.
Kuminga and Moody both have seen a slight bump in minutes but their production has stayed exactly the same as last season. So in a situation where Klay had a rough start, and Wiggins is not playing in like half the games, you need other players to step up and they haven’t.
Not to mention Wiseman who never really found his spot on this team and struggled so much that Golden State eventually traded him.
The Warriors are just 1 game away from the play-in at the moment and it’s going to be a battle for the defending champs to even make the postseason, let alone win it.
At number 2, we got a player who had a terrific rookie campaign. So much so, that he actually won the rookie of the year award. Scottie Barnes brought a lot of promise to the Toronto Raptors and their lineup entirely built by 6-8 wings was a pleasant surprise last year finishing as the 5th seed.
So building off of that success both individually for Barnes and collectively for Toronto there were some hopes and expectations for this team.
And we can see this as a letdown in both regards.
Barnes hasn’t taken a leap forward. He’s still at the plateau of 15 points per game, but to achieve that he now needs to shoot more. So his field goal percentage dropped from 49% all the way to 45. Every other category has a negligible change.
This transferred at team level as well. The Raptors are in the play- in zone at the moment and don’t have the same juice as last year. That’s why it was particularly surprising that they didn’t make a trade to solidify their position either as contenders- by acquiring a piece, or as a rebuilding young roster by trading away Siakam. A player that a lot of teams wanted.
This way, Toronto is stuck in no man’s land and this season is a wash both for them and their young star Scottie Barnes.
Number 3 is a bit controversial, so let me know what you think about it. But first…
Moving on, I said that the Pelicans pick for the biggest disappointment might be a bit controversial because a big reason for this team underperforming this season have been injuries.
Out of the 73 games so far, Zion appeared in only 29 of them, and Ingram in just 36. Even if Brandon plays out the majority of the games left, that’s still going to be half of the season that he missed. That’s a lot of time to be fighting without your 2 franchise superstars.
But for some reason I still feel like the Pelicans underperformed. Maybe because I was so hyped for them, maybe because of the fact that they confirmed that the hype is real by being at the top of the west in the middle of December. But to go from 18-8 all the way to 36-37 and have a 10 game losing streak, I just feel like this roster overall is better than that. You still have C.J. you still have a nice bench, a great defender in Herb Jones, and a sniper in Trey Murphy.
I may be overrating this team, or I may be too harsh on them and give them a pass for all the injuries, you can let me know in the comments.
Next up is Ben Simmons. I know that right now he’s reportedly injured, but him missing the last 10 games or so has nothing to do with it.
This goes back to when KD and Kyrie were still there, and expected Simmons to help them out. Simmons failed to reach 10 points in 29 out of the 42 games he played so far.
Just think about that. Single digit points in 70% of his games.
That’s in no way a star player. I don’t care what else he can do on the floor.
There were times when he literally missed layups.
And even moments when he would refuse to shoot the ball.
To think that the Nets gave away James Harden and expected this guy to fill in the void is absolutely laughable looking back.
There are people in NBA circles saying that from this point on he would only get a contract as big as the veteran’s minimum. And I fully agree with that.
Join my private Sorare league to compete against me and have the chance at prizes in future Game Weeks, you'll also get 20 free Common Cards if you use the link to sign up: sorare.pxf.io/oejROb
Winning the championship last season and seeing some of the young guys making significant plays for them in the process, meant that the Golden State Warriors had high hopes for this year. And with an aging core of Curry, Thompson and Green, everyone had their eyes on Poole, Kuminga, Moody and Wiseman to step up and keep this championship window open for dub nation.
But this plan failed in a catastrophic way, and right now
the Warriors are hanging on for dear life just to avoid the play- in. So what happened? Let’s get into it.
Taking a look at Jordan Poole’s stats you can see that he’s having a slight bump with 1 and a half points per game more. But that’s simply because of his increased shot attempts and comes with a cost. His field goal percentage is down and especially his 3 point efficiency went from 36 and a half to 32.8. A significant step back. Not to mention the fact that the opponents target him constantly as the weakest link defensively.
Kuminga and Moody both have seen a slight bump in minutes but their production has stayed exactly the same as last season. So in a situation where Klay had a rough start, and Wiggins is not playing in like half the games, you need other players to step up and they haven’t.
Not to mention Wiseman who never really found his spot on this team and struggled so much that Golden State eventually traded him.
The Warriors are just 1 game away from the play-in at the moment and it’s going to be a battle for the defending champs to even make the postseason, let alone win it.
At number 2, we got a player who had a terrific rookie campaign. So much so, that he actually won the rookie of the year award. Scottie Barnes brought a lot of promise to the Toronto Raptors and their lineup entirely built by 6-8 wings was a pleasant surprise last year finishing as the 5th seed.
So building off of that success both individually for Barnes and collectively for Toronto there were some hopes and expectations for this team.
And we can see this as a letdown in both regards.
Barnes hasn’t taken a leap forward. He’s still at the plateau of 15 points per game, but to achieve that he now needs to shoot more. So his field goal percentage dropped from 49% all the way to 45. Every other category has a negligible change.
This transferred at team level as well. The Raptors are in the play- in zone at the moment and don’t have the same juice as last year. That’s why it was particularly surprising that they didn’t make a trade to solidify their position either as contenders- by acquiring a piece, or as a rebuilding young roster by trading away Siakam. A player that a lot of teams wanted.
This way, Toronto is stuck in no man’s land and this season is a wash both for them and their young star Scottie Barnes.
Number 3 is a bit controversial, so let me know what you think about it. But first…
Moving on, I said that the Pelicans pick for the biggest disappointment might be a bit controversial because a big reason for this team underperforming this season have been injuries.
Out of the 73 games so far, Zion appeared in only 29 of them, and Ingram in just 36. Even if Brandon plays out the majority of the games left, that’s still going to be half of the season that he missed. That’s a lot of time to be fighting without your 2 franchise superstars.
But for some reason I still feel like the Pelicans underperformed. Maybe because I was so hyped for them, maybe because of the fact that they confirmed that the hype is real by being at the top of the west in the middle of December. But to go from 18-8 all the way to 36-37 and have a 10 game losing streak, I just feel like this roster overall is better than that. You still have C.J. you still have a nice bench, a great defender in Herb Jones, and a sniper in Trey Murphy.
I may be overrating this team, or I may be too harsh on them and give them a pass for all the injuries, you can let me know in the comments.
Next up is Ben Simmons. I know that right now he’s reportedly injured, but him missing the last 10 games or so has nothing to do with it.
This goes back to when KD and Kyrie were still there, and expected Simmons to help them out. Simmons failed to reach 10 points in 29 out of the 42 games he played so far.
Just think about that. Single digit points in 70% of his games.
That’s in no way a star player. I don’t care what else he can do on the floor.
There were times when he literally missed layups.
And even moments when he would refuse to shoot the ball.
To think that the Nets gave away James Harden and expected this guy to fill in the void is absolutely laughable looking back.
There are people in NBA circles saying that from this point on he would only get a contract as big as the veteran’s minimum. And I fully agree with that.
