Opening Night = Warriors' night
The last month leading up to the NBA regular season has been unmistakably downbeat, but Golden State's four titles and six trips to the Finals in eight years demand our recognition and praise
Today is the first day of the NBA's 77th regular season — my 30th season on the beat and my 29th Opening Night.
I can happily report that, at least in our house, it began with a laugh.
After a steady stream of extremely dispiriting headlines for the past month, from Sarver Punished Meekly to Udoka Suspended to Green Punches Poole, #thisleague and its more customary (and generally harmless) forms of disarray are officially back.
That hit home via this humorous morning tweet from the NBA on TNT crew, unveiling a very slick graphic featuring Charles Barkley — fresh recipient of a new 10-year contract reportedly worth as much as $200 million — shifting into bus-driver mode (his go-to metaphor for NBA leadership) with several of the league's most compelling personalities as his passengers. The super-smart illustration from Aaron Dana somehow seemingly captured every drama, storyline or personality trait that gets discussed endlessly about the game's foremost names.
The NBA's critics say there is far too much focus on what happens off the floor and interpersonal dynamics, which is hard to argue, but that's largely because so many of us — especially residents of our community here on this Substack — are so deeply invested in the characters of this riveting reality show on hardwood. We watch these artists nightly and come away from the ballet wanting to know everything we can find out about everyone pictured on The Chuck Bus.
Opening Night, though, is supposed to belong to the reigning champions, which is a tradition we always strive to uphold in the Tuesday Newsletter Extravaganza. The Golden State Warriors have thus earned our focus as they prepare to collect the championship rings from their fourth crown in a span of eight seasons before playing host to the Los Angeles Lakers in the second half of TNT's lid-lifting doubleheader.
Tons of intrigue naturally surrounds Draymond Green and ongoing efforts to regain the trust of his teammates after he decked Poole in practice on Oct. 5. Yet there is plenty of runway for that discussion ... and how the nine-figure contract extensions freshly secured by Poole and Andrew Wiggins will affect Green's psyche as he begins the second-to-last season on his current contract ... and how Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber plan to deal with a looming payroll (plus luxury-tax bill) that, as soon as next season, could exceed the entire price tag they paid for the team.
So as Lakers at Warriors tipoff approaches, let’s laser in on some Warriors Superlatives from these last eight seasons, which have wildly featured six trips to the NBA Finals for Golden State and two seasons completely out of the playoffs.
Since we’ve never seen anything quite like it.
🏀 With seven championships as a franchise, Golden State now sits third in league history, trailing only Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers, who have won 17 each.
🏀 The Warriors are just the fourth NBA team to win at least four championships in an eight-season span, along with the Celtics (four times), Lakers (three times) and Chicago Bulls (once).
🏀 Face of the Franchise Stephen Curry ranks as one of only six players in history with at least four NBA titles, two regular-season MVP awards and one NBA Finals MVP trophy, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Tim Duncan and LeBron James.
🏀 For all the controversy swirling around Green, don’t forget that he’s just the fifth player ever to be selected No. 35 or lower in the modern NBA Draft era (since 1966-67) and go on to win four titles, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, joining Manu Ginobili (No. 57, four rings), Kurt Rambis (No. 58, four), Michael Cooper (No. 60, five) … and his coach (Steve Kerr was the No. 50 overall pick in 1988). (Editor’s note: This item incorrectly included Sam Jones and K.C. Jones when the story was initially published.)
🏀 Kerr is one of just seven individuals in NBA history to win at least nine rings as a player and coach (four on the bench; five as an active participant). The last to accomplish the feat previously was Phil Jackson (11 rings as a coach and two as a player).
🏀 Only 42 players in league history have won at least four championships and the Warriors have four of them: Curry, Klay Thompson, Green and Andre Iguodala. Those 42 players represent only 0.8% of the NBA’s all-time population (more than 4,700 players are listed in Basketball Reference’s database as having played in at least one NBA regular-season game).
🏀 There are only two instances in the last 50 years, according to Elias, that one team has been able to field four players who won at least four championships together. That would be Curry/Thompson/Green/Iguodala and the Lakers’ quartet of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper and Kurt Rambis (1982, 1985, 1987, 1988).
🏀 “Four years at Michigan State. Washington State. And Davidson,” Curry told The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson II last June after Golden State finished off Boston in six games in the NBA Finals, referring to Green, Klay Thompson and himself. “No. 7 pick. No. 11 pick. And No. 35. C’mon, man. You can’t make this up.” You’ll recall some of the players selected before Curry in the 2009 draft: No. 2 Hasheem Thabeet, No. 4 Tyreke Evans, No. 5 Ricky Rubio and No. 6 Jonny Flynn.
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More Predictions
On Monday I published my annual Eight (Almost) Fearless Predictions for the coming season. Here are the more traditional awards picks (and some big-picture proclamations):
Coach of the Year: Taylor Jenkins (Memphis)
Jenkins was unlucky to lose to Phoenix's Monty Williams last season and will give himself another strong chance to break through this season if he can help keep the Grizzlies in the West's top three — especially with defensive ace Jaren Jackson Jr. unavailable for the start of the season as JJJ continues to recover from offseason foot surgery. Jenkins' problem, of course, is that this tends to be one of the more crowded categories every year. As I pondered the possibilities, it wasn't hard to dream up scenarios in which any number of coaches won the COY trophy, including the LA Clippers' Tyronn Lue (imagine if they win top seed in the West), New Orleans' Willie Green (imagine if the Pelicans surge up the West ladder), Minnesota's Chris Finch (imagine if he can mold a supersized frontcourt into a top-four seed), Philadelphia's Doc Rivers (imagine if the Sixers post a win total in the 60s and live up to their contender billing), Sacramento's Mike Brown (imagine if the Kings actually make the playoffs), Brooklyn's Steve Nash (imagine if the Nets actually find success and harmony after the summer they just had), Golden State's Steve Kerr (imagine if the Warriors swiftly put all of the altercation tumult behind them), Dallas' Jason Kidd (imagine if the Luka Dončić-led Mavericks overachieve again to win 50-plus games again) and even Boston rookie Joe Mazzulla (imagine if the Celtics snag one of the top two seeds in the East under an interim coach after Ime Udoka's suspension).
Defensive Player of the Year: Rudy Gobert (Minnesota)
Ben Wallace and Dikembe Mutombo are the only four-time winners of this award. It would be a wonderful tribute to Dikembe, who is facing the fight of his life after being diagnosed with a brain tumor, for Gobert to join them. And he'll certainly deserve to if he has the impact the Timberwolves' brain trust thinks he'll have on a defense that has been in the NBA's bottom 10 in six of Karl-Anthony Towns' seven seasons.
Most Improved Player: Kyle Lowry (Miami)
Lowry absolutely won't win this award. He's not even allowed to win, if you want to get technical, because the league's MIP ballot very clearly states that you're not supposed to make this a "Comeback Player of the Year" pick — even in a season that, as my Sports Illustrated pal Howard Beck sagely noted, we could sorely use a Comeback Player of the Year award with so many big names (Kawhi Leonard, Zion Williamson, Damian Lillard, Ben Simmons, John Wall, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., James Wiseman, et al.) returning from a full season (or close to it) lost. I'll figure out some actual MIP contenders once we get going, but I'm going with Lowry here just to make a point, since Miami really needs a bounce-back season from the backcourt veteran in the worst way. A rejuvenated Lowry would be like a free-agent bonus for the Heat after they invested so much in him in the summer of 2021 ... and after they were so much quieter this past offseason than several East rivals.
Rookie of the Year: Paolo Banchero (Orlando)
Sacramento's Keegan Murray would appear to have some pretty favorable conditions in the California capitol given that he should have a substantial role on a team that will be more competitive than, say, Banchero's Magic, Bennedict Mathurin's Pacers or Jaden Ivey's Pistons. I just can't shake the feeling that the Magic will fare better than expected, with Banchero and Franz Wagner starting to form a productive partnership — and with Banchero capitalizing on the added spotlight that the No. 1 pick in the draft inevitably attracts.
Sixth Man of the Year: Jordan Poole (Golden State)
The closest thing to a layup on the board. Poole has to move back to the bench full-time now that Klay Thompson is sufficiently healthy to start the season this time, plus he'll obviously play one of the most significant roles in the Bay Area regarding how the Warriors rebound collectively from the Draymond Green practice-floor punch that decked Poole and rocked the whole organization. The gap will be hard to close for presumed prime challengers like Boston's Malcolm Brogdon and Dallas' Christian Wood.
Most Valuable Player: Joel Embiid (Philadelphia)
Please see Monday's Musings for my full MVP thoughts.
EAST FINALS: Bucks over 76ers
WEST FINALS: Clippers over Warriors
NBA FINALS: Bucks over Clippers
Numbers Game
🏀 11
Eleven fourth-year players from the NBA's 2019 draft class signed rookie-scale extensions before Monday's 6 PM ET buzzer, tying a league record for extensions set last season. (Full list below in the first tweet.)
🏀 13
The same draft class will have 13 restricted free agents next summer after they did not secure extensions during the offseason window that ended Monday.
🏀 14.0
Reminder: The teams that finish with the three worst records in the league this season will have just a 14% shot at landing the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft and the right to select Victor Wembanyama. The team that finishes with the fourth-worst record will have a 12.5% shot at No. 1, with the fifth-worst team possessing only a 10.5% shot.
🏀 226-224
The East’s 226-224 record against the West last season in head-to-head games marked just the second time since the 1999-2000 season that the West lost the interconference battle. The East posted a 231-219 record in 2008-09.
🏀 9
A roster doozy involving the Lakers:
🏀 1,326
LeBron James needs 1,326 points to pass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (38,387 points) for the NBA's all-time scoring lead. Abdul-Jabbar supplanted Wilt Chamberlain as the league's all-time scoring leader on April 5, 1984.
🏀 44
If James matches his 30.3 PPG scoring average from last season, he's 44 games away from passing Kareem. Yet it must be noted that LeBron has missed 84 regular-season games in four seasons with the Lakers after he was unable to play only 71 games through his first 15 NBA seasons.
🏀 6
An absolute Numbers Game gem to cap this edition off from my pal Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press about Coach Pop and his San Antonio Spurs:
I guess if Warriors ownership wants to spend close to a half billion dollars in payroll that’s their prerogative. I ‘m guessing a competitive billionaire owns the Warriors, because they must care more about collecting the trophies than their bottom line. Great to be a Warrior fan, .... I’m a Mavs fan myself.
354, 372, 480. Those are the millions of dollars the Warriors are spending on payroll and luxury tax from last year through next year. Pardon me for not celebrating a team that grossly flouts their agreements with other teams. They're borderline cheaters.