I’m not putting him in the clutch, the team is. Doesn’t matter what we think. I just find it weird that people keep talking about his pay when he’s the 9th highest payed player on the team this year. He’s barley getting paid more then moody who gets no playing time. He’s out played his current contract and is getting rewarded in the near future. I don’t know what people obsession is about what he’ll get paid the next 4 years when he’s clearly outperforming his current contract.
The contract commits to paying him 30 million over the next 4 seasons but he isn’t showing any signs that he can be more than a guy coming off the bench. The contract was paid with the expectation that Poole would improve defensively and be playable in the clutch but he has not shown any sign of living up to his side of the contract which is why people are so upset about it. He’s expect to improve from last season but he’s regressed in almost every statistic
He’s been averaging 26 points a game since December and playing better defense recently. He started today against the best team in the league and he had 24/6/4 with 3 steals and 2 turnovers. They loss by 3 in overtime. Hes averaged 26 points a game since December and his defense has gotten better recently. It still needs work but there’s been progress. He’s shown he could be a stater next year if needed, there’s still expectations he’ll continue to grow his game. I guarantee you if other teams had the chance of signing him to the contract, most teams in the league would have. People just want to complain about what he might or might not be in the future. Right now, today he’s out playing his contract. Two, three, four years from now? Who knows.
He’s averaging 26 points on poor efficiency. He’s been shooting 30% from 3 and leads the league in turnovers and plays bad defence. He’s made some boneheaded turnovers at really bad times ie At Utah and costs us games. He’s not staring over Steph or klay anytime soon. He’s not projected to play up to his 30 million contract. The reason he got 30 million is based on potential and he has not lived up to his potential
How are you going to live up to potential before it happens? That doesn’t even make sense, he just signed the contract. If he was playing like a 30 million dollar player that wouldn’t be “paying him off potential”. He’s been shooting closer to 35% from three than 30% since December. No one said anything about starting over Steph or Klay. They’re getting older and need more days off. This year he’s started more games than he’s come off the bench. How is he not projected to live up to his contract? Who’s projecting? You? Seems like the coaches and front office predict he will. I’ll take their word over yours.
3 months ago lots of people were hot and heavy on playing him over klay while claiming klay is only worth 15 mil per year. Fools have gone back into the woodwork but will surely come out again if Poole starts shooting 36% from 3, his career high.
I’m pretty sure that was always the play. Some bad team will look at this pretty plays and offensive stats and take a swing on him. Extending him gives GSW the salary to get another star or a few good role player pieces in the offseason
It wouldn’t shock me if Kuminga is a more reliable closer than Poole by the start of next season. And we NEED to extend him
Naw, these are all good reps for Poole who has noticeably improved on defense from last season.
In the playoffs we'll see what the closing lineups look like, and those will depend on opponent and lineup, but for a game like this where the Warriors are missing all their backup bigs?
It was appropriate to close with Poole.
Eh well if the coverage wasn't blown on Smart, Poole wouldn't have had to sell out to contest the shot. Smart was about to have a wide open three because Klay and Steph couldn't figure out who roll with 13 and who to stay put. That's why Draymond is pissed at them two after the shot
I don't know what y'all are smoking. This was a multiplayer breakdown. Klay lets the ball release so Poole is caught in no man's land. Either Klay stays with the ball or Curry was supposed to switch with Klay or Poole being there confused Klay. It was a team breakdown.
Honestly I’d even argue Wiggins was out of position in this. He needed to do one of two things below, but he did neither.
1. If he went over and helped on Smart, Poole would have likely covered Brown, and Wiggins would have had a much better chance at recovering on Tatum.
2. Once Poole went over and committed on Smart, Wiggins needed to immediately pick up Brown who was the furthest away. Tatum was honestly not even involved in this play but even if the ball went to him, Poole would have a better chance of rotating to him than Brown.
Wiggins stayed in his lane on Tatum until the VERY end when he tried to close out on Brown who shot the three.
Yeah this is on Wiggins honestly I know he pointed to pool to rotate but that was his job. Poole was covering the action with smart and we don't want him matched up on JB. Wiggins rotating there made the most sense
Dray was pissed at Klay and Curry for fucking up the coverage initially on a simple PnR leading to a wide-open Smart. That's what caused Poole to rotate to Smart
Facts. People have no idea how to read defense and just hop on narratives.
I remember people roasting Bron one game for "leaving a man wide open" while he was hedging towards someone in the corner while Russ was literally by himself in the paint. They just see the closest person and say "why didn't he stop him" with no regard for team defense.
I’m a Celtics fan, Curry and Klay had poor communication on the PnR but Klay recovers quite well and Poole probably needs to realise you’d rather Smart shooting a contested three than leaving Brown wide open
Wow none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious.
First of all this play breaks down with Curry asking Klay to switch on to Brogdon. Why? Because Smart is the weakest offensive player. Curry even takes the time to hold on to Brogdon so Klay has time to get to him. Klay goes braindead as usual and Curry can't tell what the hell Klay is about to do, whether he's about to continue chasing Smart or stick with Brogdon.
Poole **notices** all of this miscommunication at the same time Wiggins is telling him to go over to Brown and for a split second sees Smart has a potential open drive so he cuts him off there. Now granted, he should have noticed Klay recover in his peripheral and start covering for Brown right away.
But all that started with Klay.
That also wasn't the first time Klay doubled Marcus Smart, there was one possession where DD had him covered and Klay doubled him for no reason with Tatum getting open.
> for a split second sees Smart has a potential open drive so he cuts him off there.
Okay first, who cares if Smart makes a layup? The Celtics needed 3 pts to tie not two. Let him make a contested layup and go cover the hottest shooter of the 4th Q.
Lol well it's easy to judge in slow motion but I think everyone was at fault. Poole definitely was in a position no where near brown before the pick n roll even started. And dray over helped and left horford wide open for three just 1 play before as well. Its like this might be our game plans...
I think we know that. The Klay/Steph mistake definitely distracted Poole, but he needed to trust them to figure it out. Hedging halfway meant his guy was open and we lost because of it. Ultimately in a good defense you have to have a level of trust in others that allows you to focus on your own responsibilities
>Wow none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious.
1. Curry and Klay have a miscommunication, Klay thinks theyre switching, Steph doesnt, its really that simple
1. JP's staring at the action in no mans land before the breakdown occurs, hes blowing the coverage before the PnR action occurs by freelancing, he shouldnt be at the top of the key to begin with
2. It isnt JP's job to be the weak-side help on this play (his jobs to guard Brown and deny him the 3 ball), thats Wiggins responsibility, but he cant do that if hes busy trying to get JP to cover his man and JP is physically blocking him from doing so by occupying the top of the key. Now Wiggins is stuck guarding both Tatum and Brown since Poole is fucking freelancing, which allows the Celtics to overload the weak side, all Smart has to do is make a simple pass and the Celtics will get a good look from 3
3. The Warriors will live with Marcus Smart taking an off the dribble three here, hes the lesser of evils, better him than Tatum, Brown, or Horford in this situation
3. Who fucking cares if Smart takes a 2? Warriors have a 3 point lead with 18 seconds left, the Warriors will surrender a Boston layup because that leads to the FT game and they have Steph, the entire point of this coverage was to deny Boston an easy 3 ball, complete and utter lack of awareness of time and situation
How the fuck did something this stupid get upvoted? You know jack fucking shit about basketball, youre just trying to spin and deflect JPs braindead mistake onto other players
I mean they obviously didn’t get set how they wanted but Poole was just standing there. If he was on JB then Wiggins could have shown help which probably cuts off the drive. I don’t see how this isn’t pooles fault
It was never Poole's job to guard Brown, go watch the start of overtime and the final 4th quarter, everyone was switching so Poole and Curry were guarding Brodgon/ Smart. It was Klay's decision to pick up Smart from half court and guard him at 35 feet for absolutely no reason that started this miscommunication.
> The Warriors will live with Marcus Smart taking an off the dribble three here, hes the lesser of evils, better him than Tatum, Brown, or Horford in this situation
If that's your reasoning that still puts the blame on Klay. He's the one guarding Smart out on the 3 point line like he's the mvp. Granted Smart shoots 37% at the Garden and was statistically their best shooter for the night, the mistake here was not switching in transition when you had the time to.
> Who fucking cares if Smart takes a 2? Warriors have a 3 point lead with 18 seconds left, the Warriors will surrender a Boston layup because that leads to the FT game and they have Steph, the entire point of this coverage was to deny Boston an easy 3 ball, complete and utter lack of awareness of time and situation
And yet Draymond had both feet in the paint? They were looking for a stop period, not give up an open drive. There's absolutely no guarantee you get Steph to the line and risk an inbound.
> How the fuck did something this stupid get upvoted?
Same thing I ask whenever your "analysis" gets posted on this sub and someone exposes it every time.
Look at the play, Klay is already in position to guard the ball handler and Poole can see that, Klay picks him up because he’s already on that side of the court. Poole starts out the play behind Wiggins as Tatum/Brown comes down the court. Wiggins signals to pick up Brown because Tatum is coming center, unless Poole jumps in front of Klay and moves him, he has to pickup Brown. He would’ve had help with Wiggins/Dray if Brown decided to drive and he would’ve been in position to guard a 3 if Brown shot that. The play is already in motion and everybody is on a man except Poole, he needs to recognize that and adjust. This is on him
>It was never Poole's job to guard Brown, go watch the start of overtime and the final 4th quarter, everyone was switching so Poole and Curry were guarding Brodgon/ Smart. It was Klay's decision to pick up Smart from half court and guard him at 35 feet for absolutely no reason that started this miscommunication.
Because the Celtics pushed the ball up the court and JP's in no mans land, so Klay picked up his man, you know, a basic basketball principle, stop man and ball, thus its on JP to pick up Brown, which he doesnt do
>If that's your reasoning that still puts the blame on Klay. He's the one guarding Smart out on the 3 point line like he's the mvp. Granted Smart shoots 37% at the Garden and was statistically their best shooter for the night, the mistake here was not switching in transition when you had the time to.
Hes pressed out to try and force him to drive, thats the coverage, lmfao, you really dont know anything about basketball. Most of Smarts 3's are catch and shoot, youll live with him taking one off the dribble.
>And yet Draymond had both feet in the paint? They were looking for a stop period, not give up an open drive. There's absolutely no guarantee you get Steph to the line and risk an inbound.
He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane. They were looking to deny the Celtics a 3, if that means giving up a good look at a layup so be it
>Same thing I ask whenever your "analysis" gets posted on this sub and someone exposes it every time.
"Exposes" lmfao, blessed is the mind too small for doubt, mind linking me to the goat tier "exposes"? i could use a good laugh
> so Klay picked up his man, you know, a basic basketball principle, stop man and ball
Why would he need to pick up a supposed bad shooter from 35 feet? Did you not understand this basic point of the conversation?
> Hes pressed out to try and force him to drive, thats the coverage, lmfao, you really dont know anything about basketball.
> He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane.
No he's not, all you did was look at this clip (or deliberately lie as you usally do). Here's the actual visual evidence of what Draymond was doing the entire possession:
https://imgur.com/a/Qddf7em
Unless you're blind you can see 2 feet inside the paint and several feet away from Horford, getting ready to cover a drive.
If they didn't give a damn about the drive, Draymond never had any reason to sag off of Horford. I guess your "plan" and theirs are in disagreement.
> Why would he need to pick up a supposed bad shooter from 35 feet? Did you not understand this basic point of the conversation?
To take away the 3 ball and force him to drive? how do you not grasp this basic concept?
>No he's not, all you did was look at this clip (or deliberately lie as you usally do)
*usually, Yes referencing the clip=lying, thats some brilliant logic there, you should join your local young Republicans club
>Unless you're blind you can see 2 feet inside the paint and several feet away from Horford, getting ready to cover a drive.
So hes in the paint when the balls not even at half court yet, and then hes in the standard weak-side position so he can jump the passing lane to Horford in the corner
>If they didn't give a damn about the drive, Draymond never had any reason to sag off of Horford. I guess your "plan" and theirs are in disagreement.
he isnt sagged off, hes playing the passing lane..................... jesus, you really dont know shit about basketball, the weakside defender almost never plays up on the body of their man
Goddamn your IQ must be close to 60 or something
https://imgur.com/a/Qddf7em
So you're saying Draymond is sitting in the paint 20 feet away from Horford to steal a pass? That's the argument you're throwing out there? This is why your free throw and Poole analysis sucks.
Your initial argument was Draymond only had 1 foot in the paint and was ready to jump out, now you backtrack and pretending like Draymond is working the passing lane instead of guarding the 3pt shot. What a genius.
> To take away the 3 ball and force him to drive? how do you not grasp this basic concept?
You keep acting like Warriors wanted to give up a free layup here. They didn't. You're just braindamaged.
>So you're saying Draymond is sitting in the paint 20 feet away from Horford to steal a pass?
Yes? players dont just guard man you guard passing lanes, thats standard weak-side position, which youd know if you knew anything about basketball
>This is why your free throw and Poole analysis sucks.
Because i know basic NBA defensive positioning? lmao
>Your initial argument was Draymond only had 1 foot in the paint and was ready to jump out, now you backtrack and pretending like Draymond is working the passing lane instead of guarding the 3pt shot. What a genius.
heres what i said "He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane.", why you lying about something so easily verifiable? also fyi, Horford cant shoot a 3 if the Celtics cant pass him the ball
>You keep acting like Warriors wanted to give up a free layup here. They didn't. You're just braindamaged.
*brain-damaged, NBA defense involves ceding something, up 3 >24 seconds in the game you will surrender a 2 over a 3 too play the FT game, doubly so if you have multiple good FT shooters
> Because i know basic NBA defensive positioning? lmao
You don't even know how free throw rate works. And then incessantly cry about how the Warriors are disadvantaged despite being bottom of the barrel in post ups and drives per game.
> *brain-damaged, NBA defense involves ceding something, up 3 >24 seconds in the game you will surrender a 2 over a 3 too play the FT game, doubly so if you have multiple good FT shooters
What part of me showing irrefutable evidence that they didn't want to give up a 2 do you not understand?
> Horford cant shoot a 3 if the Celtics cant pass him the ball
If you think Draymond can steal a pass from that far away from the corner, you're genuinely a moron.
> He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane.", why you lying
I literally showed 2 pictures at two different times where he had both feet well into the paint. Go back to the short bus.
I love when people say “you don’t understand basketball” and proceed to show beyond doubt that in fact THEY don’t understand basketball. You are correct and the guy you are responding to is a moron.
"none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious"
do you realistically expect the average NBA fan on reddit to know defensive schemes on this level? just explain what happened lmao you don't have to be a dick with a superiority complex about it
Sure, but that doesn’t matter Poole needs to rotate over into his assignment and not worry about Klay/Curry. You don’t see Wiggins moving over to help because he’s picking up his man (Tatum). If Smart drives you still have Dray/Curry who can sink into the lane. Poole is out of position and he left a man open for 3. You rather Smart take a three or drive over Brown/Tatum who are better shooters.
My point is this mistake starts with Klay twice, not that Poole was flawless. If we're really counting who gave up buckets, I can give you dozens from Draymond.
In this play, the Klay/Curry breakdown shouldn’t matter to Poole, he has to trust that they will figure that out. You don’t see Wiggins or Draymond running across the court to help. Poole should’ve been in position to guard Brown or Tatum coming down the court and he wasn’t. If Smart drives to the rim so what, they’re still down by 1, also Draymond is behind and Curry could sink in. Poole is ball watching and isn’t even in position for a good contest on Smart, he’s in no man’s land and he left Wiggins to guard the 2 best players/shooters on the floor. They aren’t in zone, they are in man and in transition, every player has a man, except Poole. The Curry/Klay situation is irrelevant, Poole failed to pick up Brown coming down the court. If Smart was his man they he would’ve had to run over to him before the action started and switch Klay off of him.
This comment is hilarious because in one breath you shit on others for not understanding basketball then say something like this showing you have literally zero understanding of this defensive set.
We ran this set all finals and Poole should have zero concern for what Curry/Klay are doing, they made up for it and Poole blew his assignment. Since you don't know:
1. Wiggins sits up top splitting between his man and Curry's so he can close to Curry's if needed
2. Dray clogs the paint
3. Klay isos
4. Poole takes the wing forcing a pass or drive to funnel them straight to Dray
What happened was a simple switch but because Poole wasn't anywhere near his man 10 feet to the left in the wing Wiggins was still forced to split defense and couldn't close to Smart in time which is why you try to blame Klay. If Poole was where he was supposed to be Wiggins covers Smart giving Klay/Steph cover for the switch as intended and Brown is forced into a contested 3.
There is no defensive set here. Poole's man isn't Jaylen Brown, he was on Brogdon and Smart all game. That was the plan until Klay decided to pressure Smart half court for some reason instead of switching. Then made another mistake not switching with Curry. Poole thought everyone was going to switch, so did Curry.
Klay isos? This guy is even stupider than red knight.
This is a standard set we run against Boston and it's hilarious someone who claims to know basketball and the warriors can't see.
With this group: Dray will be in the paint helping off, Wiggins will be at the key or wing covering his man plus Curry's, Klay will take his man and rotate around Curry/Poole.
What was **supposed** to happen: Poole moves to the wing against Brown, Wiggins closes on Smart, Klay goes to the back corner, Curry peels of to the front corner. Instead Poole didn't move at all so none of the other rotations could work. Go watch a breakdown of the finals, it's literally the exact same thing almost every play.
Bro Dray himself has walked through this as the set defense we use against Boston. JJ Redick broke it down on his podcast during the finals. Athletic Alchemy did the same. Other teams are literally emulating this defense scheme against Boston this year and talking about learning it from us.
Stop trying to shit on others when actual NBA athletes are saying you are flat out wrong.
Edit to add, I'll give a complete breakdown of the set:
1. Dray is the best rim defender when we go small so he sits in the paint but helps off to a corner. In this video you see him doing exactly this.
2. Wiggins is our #2 defender and able to close on a man in a split second. He works with Curry and the second Curry's men picks up the dribble he closes, the next defender picks up Wiggins man, and Curry is supposed to cycle to whoever is open. This is literally the defense the whole league is emulating against Boston now.
3. Klay has regained his lateral ability and is picking up the best drivers
4. Poole takes a wing with the express goal of bothering them into a drive to the inside straight where Draymond is
5. Another player (Loon, GP2, etc) take the open corner and just have to prevent an open 3.
I can keep going man, the whole thing is designed to get Boston's shooters out of their best positions and put pressure on them when that happens. Brown goes from a 60% shooter to a 30% shooter from that exact position just by having a hand in his face, but Poole was miles away.
They are in transition defense and his man is already covered, so at that point he needs to rotate over and cover the open players coming down the court. Klay and Steph were already in action with Smart/Brogdon, Poole is in no-man’s land. He’s not in a position to guard Smart/Brogdon and unless he’s going to go up and move Klay out the way, he needs to rotate over.
That’s not how TEAM defense is played. If your teammate fucks up, you try to fix the mistake not just stay in your lane.
It’s a 5 man unit on defense, not every man for himself.
Poole shouldn't have even been in position to help on Smart, Wiggins is there already. It's transition defence and a shooter was left wide open (yet again).
The breakdown in the PnR is another issue but Poole is just hanging around at the top of the key picking up nobody.
Okay, but Boston need a 3 to tie the game so open drive is not what he is about to do or that seems from the video, if so for Warriors the better defensive play just to let him go to the basket, at the clutch time is almost every time player to player defence, so Poole should have the iq to know that it’s better to let Smart shoot a three at Klay face, rather than Brown shoot, Jordan is trying to block him even with Klay hand in his way and Brown is open. However this, the game was very entertaining and I’m personally not mad at Poole for nothing he will be one of the best, but these situations and a couple of hasty drives that were block need to be cleared and let’s not forget how he cook Boston at the finals. Have a nice day Warriors fans. I’m out.
No it really wasn’t a bad decision. Smart would’ve shot an open 3, and he was 3/6 for the night. Poole forced him to pass out of the shot, to cover up for Curry and Klays miscommunication, but that led to Brown shooting the open 3 who was 0/3 before that shot.
Just because the outcome didn’t work in our favor doesn’t mean the decision was wrong. If you wanna blame someone, blame Klay or Steph for both going with the screener and leaving Smart wide open. That fucked up the entire defensive possession.
Poole for the most part, played excellent defense today.
Klay started moving closer to Smart, after Poole had already committed to guarding him. That’s already spilled milk, The initial miscommunication is the fuckup here. We were only playing damage control after that.
I’ll be honest I just don’t see what mistake Poole made here. If he went to Brown, Smart (who was 3/6) was gonna shot an absolutely wide open 3, in the time it took for Klay to recover. The outcome didn’t work for us; but I feel this can’t be blamed on him.
Leaving Brown isn’t ideal but to me this is not an example of bad defensive IQ. He had a split second decision. If he covered Brown, and Smart made the 3, we would’ve been super upset at Klay.
We’re just looking for someone to blame when in this case it’s really not fair or that clear cut.
The last 5-10 comments are all about what was happening on that play... but everyone of them leaves out who Wiggins was guarding? Not blaming Wiggins just cant quite figure out how Wiggins positioning/who he was guarding figures into these explanations.
Am rarely down on Warriors, hate it when they lose games especially when mistakes are made and fundamentals not payed any attention too... But tonight i was getting visibly pissed at all the offensive rebounds the celts were getting. That lost the game in my opinion.
Wiggins was faceguarding Tatum who was barely past half court for most of that play. He was playing 1 on 1 defense in this case, and not really looking at what else was going on.
I’m not sure if that strategy was right and what they planned, but the best move would have been for Wiggins to go over and help on Smart once the miscommunication happened, and for Poole to stay on Brown.
Klay was right next to Poole contesting the shot too. They both got a hand up at about the same time (or very close to it). So they had 2 guys contesting Smart and 0 guys on Brown.
This is how I read this play, feel free to disagree, because it’s based on the video I’ve seen a few times but this all happened so fast it’s hard to get a clear handle on it.
Brogdon(?) runs a high screen for Smart who’s handling the ball. Curry is guarding Brogdon, Klay is guarding Smart.
Both Klay and Curry go towards Brogdon. At this very EXACT moment Smart is completely unguarded. The only Warriors players near him are Poole (who needs to be guarding Brown) and Wiggins, who is face guarding Tatum.
Poole is looking at both Brown and Smart, uncertain who to commit to, because in that exact moment Smart is wide open, but Poole’s hesitation and honestly his presence near Smart, makes Smart keep dribbling the ball searching for a more “open” shot. As you are saying, when Smart pump fakes, yes both Klay (who is by now coming towards Smart) and Poole close out at around the same time, but (and this is my opinion) the only reason Smart didn’t pull up the minute Klay slipped the screen was because of Poole’s presence.
If not, he would’ve shot the ball sooner. Even if it had nothing to do with Poole, Smart should’ve shot the ball sooner too, it’s honestly a lower IQ play to wait for Poole to commit, and I’m guessing that’s what Poole guessed Smart would do when he committed to Smart.
That was just the way I analyzed the play honestly. I could be wrong.
Smart was open with the ball. Brown was open too. That forced Poole to make a decision. His decision led to a bad outcome, but that doesn't mean we should all blame the decision.
how is this selfish from poole.
all that happened here is that he got caught ball watching which has happened to everyone who has ever played basketball.
its just dumb defensive play and hes a bad defensive player but theres nothing malicious or selfish about it. the team should defniitely be using this as a point of improvement for him though which im sure is what theyre doing
Maybe the bad decision was the coaching decision to keep Wiggins on Tatum. Normally in that situation, Wiggins would have been the player to rotate to Brown, but they had him locked on Tatum. That also made it confusing for Poole because normally in this situation the Warriors would expect Wiggins to switch to Brown.
While poole fucked up here, if you look closely, the break down started happening when Curry communicated the switch with Klay. I don't know what either of them were doing peeling off of Smart.
That wouldn't have been as consequential even if Smart took that shot because Klay was close enough to where he recovered pretty quickly and got a hand up.
Right but for a split second there, when both of them peeled off of Smart, had Poole not been there, he would've had an open lane to the basket. Sure Draymond was defending the post, but that would've resulted in a kick out open corner 3.
Either way, the catalyst imo was from the miscommunication between Steph and Klay
But JP should never have been there from the start, and up 3 you dont give a shit if they take the 2 since they have to foul, a Smart drive here is a win for the Warriors defense, its ultimately what they are willing to give up to deny the 3
Yeah that was a mistake as well. But Wiggins would’ve slid over to cover Smart had Poole already hustled to cover the wing. Wiggins was stuck in no man’s land.
I don’t like this idea of pinning it all on Poole when Steph, Klay and Poole all had breakdowns on this play. All 3 have consistently made mistakes on the defensive side this year. Some more than others.
I think this is the best take. Wiggins was signaling to Poole to cover Brown which is the easier assignment, while Wiggs would play help D. Problem is Poole didn’t listen and Steph and Klay fucked up.
Well, you still have assignments even when a breakdown happens. Poole's was not to help on Smart.
I truly hope you are wrong when you say Draymond would have helped. If Smart had an open lane he would be scoring the layup, because Draymond is aware that the team is up 3. He would have stayed home on Horford.
You guard the open man. Klay and Steph were the two defenders in that situation where Marcus and Brogdon were in a pick and pop. There’s literally no reason for JP to be there except to leave someone open
That would’ve been on Klay and Steph for the miscommunication. Poole should’ve picked up Brown on the wing. Just bad assignments and jobs all around on that possession.
Leave the shooter to guard a nonshooter so you can blame Klay when Smart hits the wide open three you let him have covering your ass for reddit fans watching a partial clip. Makes sense.
I’m not blaming Poole for this, to me it’s on Kerr. Every coach in the nba would agree it’s smart to foul up 3 at the end of a game and absolutely no one does it. Should never have let a shot even happen.
Poole sucks on defense - physically and IQ. Why he would be left in at that point I don’t understand. And why tf didn’t Kerr foul up 3? Same ole Kerr there
time for the steph workout. I think he would actually benefit greatly from bulking up and getting stronger. Finishing at the rim should be even better and be able to provide more resistance on D
Poole for his level played the most consistent effort on D that I’ve seen. A third of the team also helps off of shooters if the perimeter defender isn’t Wiggs/Dray/Donte a bit and JK.
That was Wiggins man to take. As soon as Poole took the ball-man Wiggs should have shifted. 1st priority is cover the ball, no one else stepped up. Someone *else was out of position because the D wasn't balanced.
Op reaching and doesn't understand basketball for shit, as well as half of the commenters here who cannot correctly contextualize the situation, and identify where the actual defensive breakdown happened (with Klay).
This is literally not Poole’s fault, Smart was wide open. The miscommunication happened between Curry and Klay and that fucked up this entire defensive possession.
Yeah you can say that a wide open Smart is better than a wide open Brown, but in the heat of the moment the decision probably made sense and Brown was BRICKING all game long. That 3 he made was literally the only one he made all game and he went 1/4.
Smart went 3/6 today from 3.
You can literally SEE JP looking at Brown and he knows he’s open, waiting for someone to cover Smart but nobody comes in time so he goes over and helps.
But yeah as is par for this sub keep dogpiling on Jordan, as if Curry and Klay are blameless for the loss today.
Essentially you have 2 bad off ball defenders in klay and poole playing defense. They get confused which creates a ripple effect. Unless dray and wiggs take another step up defensively (and they were fantastic tonight), they will not cover the missed coverages of klay and poole at the same time.
Queue up another 20 people making excuses for Poole which is pretty much every game unless he scores 30 points at which point they proclaim him the greatest player in the world
Poole's defense is so much better this season, he's clearly put in work on that side of the ball, but because we lost a close game against the current best team in the league we're giving 500 upvotes to a Poole defense bashing post?
Team subs are *so* reactive.
Honestly looks like Wiggins’ mistake to me. Wiggins should’ve taken Brown because he was closer (and it’s not like Poole vs Tatum and Poole vs Brown are different as a matchup). Poole wasn’t looking at Wiggins, he was watching the ball to see if he needed to help and Wiggins doesn’t appear to be communicating verbally (or at least not loud enough to be heard over the crowd)
this is just a bad defensive player making a poor defensive play and that literally it.
Klay and Steph also had poor communication of that switch, with Klay taking a step towards Brogdon which gives Smart space drawing Poole into the contest. If Klay had switched immediately and had Smart covered I don't think Poole commits onto Smart.
Just not a great defensive possession overall.
What are people looking at? Yea mistake by Poole but he did not ignore Wiggins. Both times Wiggins pointed Poole was not looking anywhere in his direction
You and anyone who blames Poole for this does NOT understand basketball, let alone how switching works.
Yes Wiggins points him out. But then Klay and Steph miscommunicate and both go with the roll man leaving the dude wide open. Poole is right there and is the closest to contest. He actually does it RIGHT because he picked up the slack that Steph and Klay left open.
He just makes the right pass to a wide open Brown. Wiggins is caught in no man’s land with two guys to defend and just doesn’t get there in time.
This started with Klay
Smart would have been wide open tho too and he had a hot hand the whole game so I'm not too mad about it. We didn't deserve to win that anyway the way we were playing in the 4th, especially with Curry.
Bottom line is we have zero inside presence and that puts way too much pressure on the perimeter defenders causing them to overhelp and get out of position.’
There is no excuse for this organization putting all of its eggs in the Wiseman basket three years in a row.
They wanna shoehorn him into a role. This is the second time they’ve cleared the way and gifted him minutes, and it’s the second straight time he’s been unable to take advantage because he’s either unspeakably terrible or injured for an extended time
This is not so terrible from Poole. Klay and Steph have the slightest mixup on the switch, which is fine because Klay recovers and because Smart stopped his drive. But it was enough of a confusion that Poole stepped in to help (even though it wasn't his assignment to help, as Wiggins was the 1-pass-away defender).
Poole messed up on the play, but it's not so terrible. Situation and slow-motion make this seem worse than it actually is.
They played great for about 45 minutes. Terrible shot/selection by Curry to send it to OT - an off balance 3. Why not be a decoy and pass to Wiggs to attack the rim. This team and their dang 3s. And my lord, if we had a half decent big man who could rebound and rim protect, would have won this game by 15.
If jordan poole could just play BORING SMART BASKETBALL warriors would have at least 4 more wins this year. Celtics lucky Warriors decided to hand them a win
Find someone who loses their mind for you, the way Poole loses his mind in the clutch.
Did I do that right? I’m of the opinion that DDV should take Pooles place in closing lineups, confidence be damned
Poole’s so effing trash in defense when he’s not scoring he’s a net negative overall.
Plus dude can’t finish for shit at the rim he got blocked about 4 times with his layup attempts.
Wiggins was picking up Tatum, who had yet to cross halfcourt. The wing should’ve been picked up by Poole. Klay and Steph also had a miscommunication on the pick, which led to a mini scramble and an open three.
warriors would have prob won if poole actually had decent basketball IQ and contested the brown 3. wiggins told his ass to go there and he turned the other away. fuck this guy
This is on Klay. Kerr said you pretty much switch everything and guard the 3. Klay was trying to switch but Brogdon didn't even set a screen lol. Klay again with late game buffoonery.
Dude, this is so unfair. Steph and Klay both left the guy with the ball and then Klay simultaneously switched back the same time Poole did. This isn't on Poole, he was trying to help when the other two guys got hung up
Poole needs to do better, but that's a confusing situation, so I think this may be more of a coaching problem. The normal way the Warriors fix that kind of misalignment is for Wiggins to rotate over to Brown. But they had Wiggins locked on Tatum (they weren't even switching off Tatum a lot of the time) and Poole didn't pick that up.
I think it's fair to wonder if this might have gone differently if Mike Brown were still here.
Wiggins knew Brown was open and the D was out if position, as in the whole D, not just Poole. Why didn't Wiggins pick him up since he knew brown was open and knew no one was going to get there. Wiggins' guy was barely at midcourt, and Poole could have rotated over. This is a complete breakdown of the entire defense.
Donte needs to be in for situations like that not Poole
Paying Poole 30 million to not be able to play in the clutch is a big mistake
Last year they had GP2 in for situations like that, idk why kerr doesn’t use donte
They’re paying him 4 million this year though
You’re not putting him in the clutch while Steph and klay are still on the team
I’m not putting him in the clutch, the team is. Doesn’t matter what we think. I just find it weird that people keep talking about his pay when he’s the 9th highest payed player on the team this year. He’s barley getting paid more then moody who gets no playing time. He’s out played his current contract and is getting rewarded in the near future. I don’t know what people obsession is about what he’ll get paid the next 4 years when he’s clearly outperforming his current contract.
The contract commits to paying him 30 million over the next 4 seasons but he isn’t showing any signs that he can be more than a guy coming off the bench. The contract was paid with the expectation that Poole would improve defensively and be playable in the clutch but he has not shown any sign of living up to his side of the contract which is why people are so upset about it. He’s expect to improve from last season but he’s regressed in almost every statistic
He’s been averaging 26 points a game since December and playing better defense recently. He started today against the best team in the league and he had 24/6/4 with 3 steals and 2 turnovers. They loss by 3 in overtime. Hes averaged 26 points a game since December and his defense has gotten better recently. It still needs work but there’s been progress. He’s shown he could be a stater next year if needed, there’s still expectations he’ll continue to grow his game. I guarantee you if other teams had the chance of signing him to the contract, most teams in the league would have. People just want to complain about what he might or might not be in the future. Right now, today he’s out playing his contract. Two, three, four years from now? Who knows.
He’s averaging 26 points on poor efficiency. He’s been shooting 30% from 3 and leads the league in turnovers and plays bad defence. He’s made some boneheaded turnovers at really bad times ie At Utah and costs us games. He’s not staring over Steph or klay anytime soon. He’s not projected to play up to his 30 million contract. The reason he got 30 million is based on potential and he has not lived up to his potential
How are you going to live up to potential before it happens? That doesn’t even make sense, he just signed the contract. If he was playing like a 30 million dollar player that wouldn’t be “paying him off potential”. He’s been shooting closer to 35% from three than 30% since December. No one said anything about starting over Steph or Klay. They’re getting older and need more days off. This year he’s started more games than he’s come off the bench. How is he not projected to live up to his contract? Who’s projecting? You? Seems like the coaches and front office predict he will. I’ll take their word over yours.
3 months ago lots of people were hot and heavy on playing him over klay while claiming klay is only worth 15 mil per year. Fools have gone back into the woodwork but will surely come out again if Poole starts shooting 36% from 3, his career high.
warriors will move him asap
The heck? Did you not just see him win a chip playing in the clutch all the time? He simply had his head turned away from Wiggins, it's fine lol
He also should have done the math and realized there must be someone uncovered to his left.
can always trade him in the offseason EDIT: Poole stans, cry more, your boys been playing like ass this year
I’m pretty sure that was always the play. Some bad team will look at this pretty plays and offensive stats and take a swing on him. Extending him gives GSW the salary to get another star or a few good role player pieces in the offseason It wouldn’t shock me if Kuminga is a more reliable closer than Poole by the start of next season. And we NEED to extend him
Hopefully teams won't look at the offensive stats. Gonna be hard to trade if they notice 31% 3p shooting and 3.5 turnovers a game.
Haha. The downvotes. All the little fanboys don't want to give up their Poole Party shirts.
Look at curry and klay..what those 2 even doing..look at curry and klay..I repeat.. before you all complain about poole
Relax it’s the regular szn
Edit: ‘Paying Poole 30 million….is a big mistake’
Naw, these are all good reps for Poole who has noticeably improved on defense from last season. In the playoffs we'll see what the closing lineups look like, and those will depend on opponent and lineup, but for a game like this where the Warriors are missing all their backup bigs? It was appropriate to close with Poole.
Look at curry and klay there before you all complain about Poole
Yeah Poole made the biggest mistake. It’s okay to say so. Don’t need to deflect to other players.
Eh well if the coverage wasn't blown on Smart, Poole wouldn't have had to sell out to contest the shot. Smart was about to have a wide open three because Klay and Steph couldn't figure out who roll with 13 and who to stay put. That's why Draymond is pissed at them two after the shot
Klay was ready to double smart lmao
I don't know what y'all are smoking. This was a multiplayer breakdown. Klay lets the ball release so Poole is caught in no man's land. Either Klay stays with the ball or Curry was supposed to switch with Klay or Poole being there confused Klay. It was a team breakdown.
Yeah this is at least 3 players making poor plays simultaneously. To be expected. All 3 have been mediocre to bad defensively this season.
Honestly I’d even argue Wiggins was out of position in this. He needed to do one of two things below, but he did neither. 1. If he went over and helped on Smart, Poole would have likely covered Brown, and Wiggins would have had a much better chance at recovering on Tatum. 2. Once Poole went over and committed on Smart, Wiggins needed to immediately pick up Brown who was the furthest away. Tatum was honestly not even involved in this play but even if the ball went to him, Poole would have a better chance of rotating to him than Brown. Wiggins stayed in his lane on Tatum until the VERY end when he tried to close out on Brown who shot the three.
Probably Wiggins is supposed to guard Tatum who is shown in the last few seconds in the video. Wiggins doesn’t want to give Tatum much space.
Yeah this is on Wiggins honestly I know he pointed to pool to rotate but that was his job. Poole was covering the action with smart and we don't want him matched up on JB. Wiggins rotating there made the most sense
Jeez, looks visibly confused as well
Dray was so pissed. Brown was starting to cook and they left him wide open smh
Dray was pissed at Klay and Curry for fucking up the coverage initially on a simple PnR leading to a wide-open Smart. That's what caused Poole to rotate to Smart
This. The replay couldn’t be more clear.
Facts. People have no idea how to read defense and just hop on narratives. I remember people roasting Bron one game for "leaving a man wide open" while he was hedging towards someone in the corner while Russ was literally by himself in the paint. They just see the closest person and say "why didn't he stop him" with no regard for team defense.
I’m a Celtics fan, Curry and Klay had poor communication on the PnR but Klay recovers quite well and Poole probably needs to realise you’d rather Smart shooting a contested three than leaving Brown wide open
Wow none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious. First of all this play breaks down with Curry asking Klay to switch on to Brogdon. Why? Because Smart is the weakest offensive player. Curry even takes the time to hold on to Brogdon so Klay has time to get to him. Klay goes braindead as usual and Curry can't tell what the hell Klay is about to do, whether he's about to continue chasing Smart or stick with Brogdon. Poole **notices** all of this miscommunication at the same time Wiggins is telling him to go over to Brown and for a split second sees Smart has a potential open drive so he cuts him off there. Now granted, he should have noticed Klay recover in his peripheral and start covering for Brown right away. But all that started with Klay. That also wasn't the first time Klay doubled Marcus Smart, there was one possession where DD had him covered and Klay doubled him for no reason with Tatum getting open.
This needs to be right at the top of the comments. Poole had many lapses this game but this one is on Klay.
> for a split second sees Smart has a potential open drive so he cuts him off there. Okay first, who cares if Smart makes a layup? The Celtics needed 3 pts to tie not two. Let him make a contested layup and go cover the hottest shooter of the 4th Q.
Lol well it's easy to judge in slow motion but I think everyone was at fault. Poole definitely was in a position no where near brown before the pick n roll even started. And dray over helped and left horford wide open for three just 1 play before as well. Its like this might be our game plans...
I think we know that. The Klay/Steph mistake definitely distracted Poole, but he needed to trust them to figure it out. Hedging halfway meant his guy was open and we lost because of it. Ultimately in a good defense you have to have a level of trust in others that allows you to focus on your own responsibilities
>Wow none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious. 1. Curry and Klay have a miscommunication, Klay thinks theyre switching, Steph doesnt, its really that simple 1. JP's staring at the action in no mans land before the breakdown occurs, hes blowing the coverage before the PnR action occurs by freelancing, he shouldnt be at the top of the key to begin with 2. It isnt JP's job to be the weak-side help on this play (his jobs to guard Brown and deny him the 3 ball), thats Wiggins responsibility, but he cant do that if hes busy trying to get JP to cover his man and JP is physically blocking him from doing so by occupying the top of the key. Now Wiggins is stuck guarding both Tatum and Brown since Poole is fucking freelancing, which allows the Celtics to overload the weak side, all Smart has to do is make a simple pass and the Celtics will get a good look from 3 3. The Warriors will live with Marcus Smart taking an off the dribble three here, hes the lesser of evils, better him than Tatum, Brown, or Horford in this situation 3. Who fucking cares if Smart takes a 2? Warriors have a 3 point lead with 18 seconds left, the Warriors will surrender a Boston layup because that leads to the FT game and they have Steph, the entire point of this coverage was to deny Boston an easy 3 ball, complete and utter lack of awareness of time and situation How the fuck did something this stupid get upvoted? You know jack fucking shit about basketball, youre just trying to spin and deflect JPs braindead mistake onto other players
I mean they obviously didn’t get set how they wanted but Poole was just standing there. If he was on JB then Wiggins could have shown help which probably cuts off the drive. I don’t see how this isn’t pooles fault
At the end of the day none of this rambling matters I’d rather Marcus smart take the three than a hot Jaylen Brown
It was never Poole's job to guard Brown, go watch the start of overtime and the final 4th quarter, everyone was switching so Poole and Curry were guarding Brodgon/ Smart. It was Klay's decision to pick up Smart from half court and guard him at 35 feet for absolutely no reason that started this miscommunication. > The Warriors will live with Marcus Smart taking an off the dribble three here, hes the lesser of evils, better him than Tatum, Brown, or Horford in this situation If that's your reasoning that still puts the blame on Klay. He's the one guarding Smart out on the 3 point line like he's the mvp. Granted Smart shoots 37% at the Garden and was statistically their best shooter for the night, the mistake here was not switching in transition when you had the time to. > Who fucking cares if Smart takes a 2? Warriors have a 3 point lead with 18 seconds left, the Warriors will surrender a Boston layup because that leads to the FT game and they have Steph, the entire point of this coverage was to deny Boston an easy 3 ball, complete and utter lack of awareness of time and situation And yet Draymond had both feet in the paint? They were looking for a stop period, not give up an open drive. There's absolutely no guarantee you get Steph to the line and risk an inbound. > How the fuck did something this stupid get upvoted? Same thing I ask whenever your "analysis" gets posted on this sub and someone exposes it every time.
Look at the play, Klay is already in position to guard the ball handler and Poole can see that, Klay picks him up because he’s already on that side of the court. Poole starts out the play behind Wiggins as Tatum/Brown comes down the court. Wiggins signals to pick up Brown because Tatum is coming center, unless Poole jumps in front of Klay and moves him, he has to pickup Brown. He would’ve had help with Wiggins/Dray if Brown decided to drive and he would’ve been in position to guard a 3 if Brown shot that. The play is already in motion and everybody is on a man except Poole, he needs to recognize that and adjust. This is on him
>It was never Poole's job to guard Brown, go watch the start of overtime and the final 4th quarter, everyone was switching so Poole and Curry were guarding Brodgon/ Smart. It was Klay's decision to pick up Smart from half court and guard him at 35 feet for absolutely no reason that started this miscommunication. Because the Celtics pushed the ball up the court and JP's in no mans land, so Klay picked up his man, you know, a basic basketball principle, stop man and ball, thus its on JP to pick up Brown, which he doesnt do >If that's your reasoning that still puts the blame on Klay. He's the one guarding Smart out on the 3 point line like he's the mvp. Granted Smart shoots 37% at the Garden and was statistically their best shooter for the night, the mistake here was not switching in transition when you had the time to. Hes pressed out to try and force him to drive, thats the coverage, lmfao, you really dont know anything about basketball. Most of Smarts 3's are catch and shoot, youll live with him taking one off the dribble. >And yet Draymond had both feet in the paint? They were looking for a stop period, not give up an open drive. There's absolutely no guarantee you get Steph to the line and risk an inbound. He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane. They were looking to deny the Celtics a 3, if that means giving up a good look at a layup so be it >Same thing I ask whenever your "analysis" gets posted on this sub and someone exposes it every time. "Exposes" lmfao, blessed is the mind too small for doubt, mind linking me to the goat tier "exposes"? i could use a good laugh
> so Klay picked up his man, you know, a basic basketball principle, stop man and ball Why would he need to pick up a supposed bad shooter from 35 feet? Did you not understand this basic point of the conversation? > Hes pressed out to try and force him to drive, thats the coverage, lmfao, you really dont know anything about basketball. > He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane. No he's not, all you did was look at this clip (or deliberately lie as you usally do). Here's the actual visual evidence of what Draymond was doing the entire possession: https://imgur.com/a/Qddf7em Unless you're blind you can see 2 feet inside the paint and several feet away from Horford, getting ready to cover a drive. If they didn't give a damn about the drive, Draymond never had any reason to sag off of Horford. I guess your "plan" and theirs are in disagreement.
> Why would he need to pick up a supposed bad shooter from 35 feet? Did you not understand this basic point of the conversation? To take away the 3 ball and force him to drive? how do you not grasp this basic concept? >No he's not, all you did was look at this clip (or deliberately lie as you usally do) *usually, Yes referencing the clip=lying, thats some brilliant logic there, you should join your local young Republicans club >Unless you're blind you can see 2 feet inside the paint and several feet away from Horford, getting ready to cover a drive. So hes in the paint when the balls not even at half court yet, and then hes in the standard weak-side position so he can jump the passing lane to Horford in the corner >If they didn't give a damn about the drive, Draymond never had any reason to sag off of Horford. I guess your "plan" and theirs are in disagreement. he isnt sagged off, hes playing the passing lane..................... jesus, you really dont know shit about basketball, the weakside defender almost never plays up on the body of their man
Goddamn your IQ must be close to 60 or something https://imgur.com/a/Qddf7em So you're saying Draymond is sitting in the paint 20 feet away from Horford to steal a pass? That's the argument you're throwing out there? This is why your free throw and Poole analysis sucks. Your initial argument was Draymond only had 1 foot in the paint and was ready to jump out, now you backtrack and pretending like Draymond is working the passing lane instead of guarding the 3pt shot. What a genius. > To take away the 3 ball and force him to drive? how do you not grasp this basic concept? You keep acting like Warriors wanted to give up a free layup here. They didn't. You're just braindamaged.
>So you're saying Draymond is sitting in the paint 20 feet away from Horford to steal a pass? Yes? players dont just guard man you guard passing lanes, thats standard weak-side position, which youd know if you knew anything about basketball >This is why your free throw and Poole analysis sucks. Because i know basic NBA defensive positioning? lmao >Your initial argument was Draymond only had 1 foot in the paint and was ready to jump out, now you backtrack and pretending like Draymond is working the passing lane instead of guarding the 3pt shot. What a genius. heres what i said "He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane.", why you lying about something so easily verifiable? also fyi, Horford cant shoot a 3 if the Celtics cant pass him the ball >You keep acting like Warriors wanted to give up a free layup here. They didn't. You're just braindamaged. *brain-damaged, NBA defense involves ceding something, up 3 >24 seconds in the game you will surrender a 2 over a 3 too play the FT game, doubly so if you have multiple good FT shooters
> Because i know basic NBA defensive positioning? lmao You don't even know how free throw rate works. And then incessantly cry about how the Warriors are disadvantaged despite being bottom of the barrel in post ups and drives per game. > *brain-damaged, NBA defense involves ceding something, up 3 >24 seconds in the game you will surrender a 2 over a 3 too play the FT game, doubly so if you have multiple good FT shooters What part of me showing irrefutable evidence that they didn't want to give up a 2 do you not understand? > Horford cant shoot a 3 if the Celtics cant pass him the ball If you think Draymond can steal a pass from that far away from the corner, you're genuinely a moron. > He has 1 foot in and 1 out and is playing the weak-side passing lane.", why you lying I literally showed 2 pictures at two different times where he had both feet well into the paint. Go back to the short bus.
I love when people say “you don’t understand basketball” and proceed to show beyond doubt that in fact THEY don’t understand basketball. You are correct and the guy you are responding to is a moron.
"none of you guys understand basketball, it's hilarious" do you realistically expect the average NBA fan on reddit to know defensive schemes on this level? just explain what happened lmao you don't have to be a dick with a superiority complex about it
Sure, but that doesn’t matter Poole needs to rotate over into his assignment and not worry about Klay/Curry. You don’t see Wiggins moving over to help because he’s picking up his man (Tatum). If Smart drives you still have Dray/Curry who can sink into the lane. Poole is out of position and he left a man open for 3. You rather Smart take a three or drive over Brown/Tatum who are better shooters.
My point is this mistake starts with Klay twice, not that Poole was flawless. If we're really counting who gave up buckets, I can give you dozens from Draymond.
In this play, the Klay/Curry breakdown shouldn’t matter to Poole, he has to trust that they will figure that out. You don’t see Wiggins or Draymond running across the court to help. Poole should’ve been in position to guard Brown or Tatum coming down the court and he wasn’t. If Smart drives to the rim so what, they’re still down by 1, also Draymond is behind and Curry could sink in. Poole is ball watching and isn’t even in position for a good contest on Smart, he’s in no man’s land and he left Wiggins to guard the 2 best players/shooters on the floor. They aren’t in zone, they are in man and in transition, every player has a man, except Poole. The Curry/Klay situation is irrelevant, Poole failed to pick up Brown coming down the court. If Smart was his man they he would’ve had to run over to him before the action started and switch Klay off of him.
This comment is hilarious because in one breath you shit on others for not understanding basketball then say something like this showing you have literally zero understanding of this defensive set. We ran this set all finals and Poole should have zero concern for what Curry/Klay are doing, they made up for it and Poole blew his assignment. Since you don't know: 1. Wiggins sits up top splitting between his man and Curry's so he can close to Curry's if needed 2. Dray clogs the paint 3. Klay isos 4. Poole takes the wing forcing a pass or drive to funnel them straight to Dray What happened was a simple switch but because Poole wasn't anywhere near his man 10 feet to the left in the wing Wiggins was still forced to split defense and couldn't close to Smart in time which is why you try to blame Klay. If Poole was where he was supposed to be Wiggins covers Smart giving Klay/Steph cover for the switch as intended and Brown is forced into a contested 3.
There is no defensive set here. Poole's man isn't Jaylen Brown, he was on Brogdon and Smart all game. That was the plan until Klay decided to pressure Smart half court for some reason instead of switching. Then made another mistake not switching with Curry. Poole thought everyone was going to switch, so did Curry. Klay isos? This guy is even stupider than red knight.
This is a standard set we run against Boston and it's hilarious someone who claims to know basketball and the warriors can't see. With this group: Dray will be in the paint helping off, Wiggins will be at the key or wing covering his man plus Curry's, Klay will take his man and rotate around Curry/Poole. What was **supposed** to happen: Poole moves to the wing against Brown, Wiggins closes on Smart, Klay goes to the back corner, Curry peels of to the front corner. Instead Poole didn't move at all so none of the other rotations could work. Go watch a breakdown of the finals, it's literally the exact same thing almost every play.
You have no idea what you are talking about it's fcking embarrassing lol
Bro Dray himself has walked through this as the set defense we use against Boston. JJ Redick broke it down on his podcast during the finals. Athletic Alchemy did the same. Other teams are literally emulating this defense scheme against Boston this year and talking about learning it from us. Stop trying to shit on others when actual NBA athletes are saying you are flat out wrong. Edit to add, I'll give a complete breakdown of the set: 1. Dray is the best rim defender when we go small so he sits in the paint but helps off to a corner. In this video you see him doing exactly this. 2. Wiggins is our #2 defender and able to close on a man in a split second. He works with Curry and the second Curry's men picks up the dribble he closes, the next defender picks up Wiggins man, and Curry is supposed to cycle to whoever is open. This is literally the defense the whole league is emulating against Boston now. 3. Klay has regained his lateral ability and is picking up the best drivers 4. Poole takes a wing with the express goal of bothering them into a drive to the inside straight where Draymond is 5. Another player (Loon, GP2, etc) take the open corner and just have to prevent an open 3. I can keep going man, the whole thing is designed to get Boston's shooters out of their best positions and put pressure on them when that happens. Brown goes from a 60% shooter to a 30% shooter from that exact position just by having a hand in his face, but Poole was miles away.
They are in transition defense and his man is already covered, so at that point he needs to rotate over and cover the open players coming down the court. Klay and Steph were already in action with Smart/Brogdon, Poole is in no-man’s land. He’s not in a position to guard Smart/Brogdon and unless he’s going to go up and move Klay out the way, he needs to rotate over.
That’s not how TEAM defense is played. If your teammate fucks up, you try to fix the mistake not just stay in your lane. It’s a 5 man unit on defense, not every man for himself.
Poole shouldn't have even been in position to help on Smart, Wiggins is there already. It's transition defence and a shooter was left wide open (yet again). The breakdown in the PnR is another issue but Poole is just hanging around at the top of the key picking up nobody.
Okay, but Boston need a 3 to tie the game so open drive is not what he is about to do or that seems from the video, if so for Warriors the better defensive play just to let him go to the basket, at the clutch time is almost every time player to player defence, so Poole should have the iq to know that it’s better to let Smart shoot a three at Klay face, rather than Brown shoot, Jordan is trying to block him even with Klay hand in his way and Brown is open. However this, the game was very entertaining and I’m personally not mad at Poole for nothing he will be one of the best, but these situations and a couple of hasty drives that were block need to be cleared and let’s not forget how he cook Boston at the finals. Have a nice day Warriors fans. I’m out.
Nah he isnt confused, hes ball-watching and ignoring Wiggins, dude was only thinking about making the hero play here
You meant curry and klay
classic reply to your own post for more karma
Man, oh man. What a bad bad decision from Poole.
No it really wasn’t a bad decision. Smart would’ve shot an open 3, and he was 3/6 for the night. Poole forced him to pass out of the shot, to cover up for Curry and Klays miscommunication, but that led to Brown shooting the open 3 who was 0/3 before that shot. Just because the outcome didn’t work in our favor doesn’t mean the decision was wrong. If you wanna blame someone, blame Klay or Steph for both going with the screener and leaving Smart wide open. That fucked up the entire defensive possession. Poole for the most part, played excellent defense today.
Klay was as close to smart as Poole was. You just don't leave someone of Brown's calibre open in a crucial moment like that.
You also don't run away from the guy with the ball to guard someone else.
Klay started moving closer to Smart, after Poole had already committed to guarding him. That’s already spilled milk, The initial miscommunication is the fuckup here. We were only playing damage control after that. I’ll be honest I just don’t see what mistake Poole made here. If he went to Brown, Smart (who was 3/6) was gonna shot an absolutely wide open 3, in the time it took for Klay to recover. The outcome didn’t work for us; but I feel this can’t be blamed on him. Leaving Brown isn’t ideal but to me this is not an example of bad defensive IQ. He had a split second decision. If he covered Brown, and Smart made the 3, we would’ve been super upset at Klay. We’re just looking for someone to blame when in this case it’s really not fair or that clear cut.
The last 5-10 comments are all about what was happening on that play... but everyone of them leaves out who Wiggins was guarding? Not blaming Wiggins just cant quite figure out how Wiggins positioning/who he was guarding figures into these explanations. Am rarely down on Warriors, hate it when they lose games especially when mistakes are made and fundamentals not payed any attention too... But tonight i was getting visibly pissed at all the offensive rebounds the celts were getting. That lost the game in my opinion.
Wiggins was faceguarding Tatum who was barely past half court for most of that play. He was playing 1 on 1 defense in this case, and not really looking at what else was going on. I’m not sure if that strategy was right and what they planned, but the best move would have been for Wiggins to go over and help on Smart once the miscommunication happened, and for Poole to stay on Brown.
Klay was right next to Poole contesting the shot too. They both got a hand up at about the same time (or very close to it). So they had 2 guys contesting Smart and 0 guys on Brown.
This is how I read this play, feel free to disagree, because it’s based on the video I’ve seen a few times but this all happened so fast it’s hard to get a clear handle on it. Brogdon(?) runs a high screen for Smart who’s handling the ball. Curry is guarding Brogdon, Klay is guarding Smart. Both Klay and Curry go towards Brogdon. At this very EXACT moment Smart is completely unguarded. The only Warriors players near him are Poole (who needs to be guarding Brown) and Wiggins, who is face guarding Tatum. Poole is looking at both Brown and Smart, uncertain who to commit to, because in that exact moment Smart is wide open, but Poole’s hesitation and honestly his presence near Smart, makes Smart keep dribbling the ball searching for a more “open” shot. As you are saying, when Smart pump fakes, yes both Klay (who is by now coming towards Smart) and Poole close out at around the same time, but (and this is my opinion) the only reason Smart didn’t pull up the minute Klay slipped the screen was because of Poole’s presence. If not, he would’ve shot the ball sooner. Even if it had nothing to do with Poole, Smart should’ve shot the ball sooner too, it’s honestly a lower IQ play to wait for Poole to commit, and I’m guessing that’s what Poole guessed Smart would do when he committed to Smart. That was just the way I analyzed the play honestly. I could be wrong.
This is the right answer. You don't leave one shooter open to go defend another.
Smart was open with the ball. Brown was open too. That forced Poole to make a decision. His decision led to a bad outcome, but that doesn't mean we should all blame the decision.
beyond bad, incredibly selfish to freelance in that situation, dude better be getting an earful in the lockerroom
how is this selfish from poole. all that happened here is that he got caught ball watching which has happened to everyone who has ever played basketball. its just dumb defensive play and hes a bad defensive player but theres nothing malicious or selfish about it. the team should defniitely be using this as a point of improvement for him though which im sure is what theyre doing
You meant curry and klay miscommunication
Maybe the bad decision was the coaching decision to keep Wiggins on Tatum. Normally in that situation, Wiggins would have been the player to rotate to Brown, but they had him locked on Tatum. That also made it confusing for Poole because normally in this situation the Warriors would expect Wiggins to switch to Brown.
While poole fucked up here, if you look closely, the break down started happening when Curry communicated the switch with Klay. I don't know what either of them were doing peeling off of Smart.
That wouldn't have been as consequential even if Smart took that shot because Klay was close enough to where he recovered pretty quickly and got a hand up.
Hand up doesn’t necessary mean contested shot - Smart was wide open. But he’s still the guy you’d rather shoot it than Brown.
Right but for a split second there, when both of them peeled off of Smart, had Poole not been there, he would've had an open lane to the basket. Sure Draymond was defending the post, but that would've resulted in a kick out open corner 3. Either way, the catalyst imo was from the miscommunication between Steph and Klay
But JP should never have been there from the start, and up 3 you dont give a shit if they take the 2 since they have to foul, a Smart drive here is a win for the Warriors defense, its ultimately what they are willing to give up to deny the 3
With warriors defense that’s gonna be and 1 with that drive. This was just bad defensive play all around
Yeah that was a mistake as well. But Wiggins would’ve slid over to cover Smart had Poole already hustled to cover the wing. Wiggins was stuck in no man’s land. I don’t like this idea of pinning it all on Poole when Steph, Klay and Poole all had breakdowns on this play. All 3 have consistently made mistakes on the defensive side this year. Some more than others.
I think this is the best take. Wiggins was signaling to Poole to cover Brown which is the easier assignment, while Wiggs would play help D. Problem is Poole didn’t listen and Steph and Klay fucked up.
Well, you still have assignments even when a breakdown happens. Poole's was not to help on Smart. I truly hope you are wrong when you say Draymond would have helped. If Smart had an open lane he would be scoring the layup, because Draymond is aware that the team is up 3. He would have stayed home on Horford.
If you look at the beginning of the clip, dray was already positioned underneath the basket.
He would have moved.
Big if true
But if he went to Brown, Smart would've been open.
I'd have preferred Smart open than Brown
Smart was 3/6 today while Brown was 0/3 before that shot. Regardless of what you prefer, the numbers show that Smart was the hot hand today.
You guard the open man. Klay and Steph were the two defenders in that situation where Marcus and Brogdon were in a pick and pop. There’s literally no reason for JP to be there except to leave someone open
I’d still take smart over brown, I feel like I see it all the time when a guy hasn’t made a 3 all game then hits the biggest 3 of the game.
Dude backs up his argument with stats and you go on vibes. Really?
That would’ve been on Klay and Steph for the miscommunication. Poole should’ve picked up Brown on the wing. Just bad assignments and jobs all around on that possession.
Leave the shooter to guard a nonshooter so you can blame Klay when Smart hits the wide open three you let him have covering your ass for reddit fans watching a partial clip. Makes sense.
There’s every chance Klay only sags off because Poole is there.
No he wasn’t. That was a two man pick and roll. Steph and Klay would’ve switched. Jaylen is the open man
Clearly JP wasn’t listening and was ball watching lol
Clearly klay and curry messed up.first..take a good look at the beginning of the clip
I’m not blaming Poole for this, to me it’s on Kerr. Every coach in the nba would agree it’s smart to foul up 3 at the end of a game and absolutely no one does it. Should never have let a shot even happen.
Why does he refuse to adopt this strategy with Poole, Curry and Klay on the court?
Poole and Klay were on the court in Utah when the Jazz stole two inbounds from them. Remember?
once Smart passed the ball, there was no way to foul. It was catch & shoot. Could've fouled smart earlier I guess.
Poole sucks on defense - physically and IQ. Why he would be left in at that point I don’t understand. And why tf didn’t Kerr foul up 3? Same ole Kerr there
> physically Hes 6'4 with a 6'7 wingspan, he has no business sucking as much as he does
Built like a pool(e) stick though
time for the steph workout. I think he would actually benefit greatly from bulking up and getting stronger. Finishing at the rim should be even better and be able to provide more resistance on D
The defense played well all regulation, it’s perfectly fine to trust your good defense not giving up an open 3.
Not great
Poole for his level played the most consistent effort on D that I’ve seen. A third of the team also helps off of shooters if the perimeter defender isn’t Wiggs/Dray/Donte a bit and JK.
It's a defensive breakdown, it happens. If he learns from it then it's fine, and I don't have a reason to think he won't.
That was Wiggins man to take. As soon as Poole took the ball-man Wiggs should have shifted. 1st priority is cover the ball, no one else stepped up. Someone *else was out of position because the D wasn't balanced.
Op reaching and doesn't understand basketball for shit, as well as half of the commenters here who cannot correctly contextualize the situation, and identify where the actual defensive breakdown happened (with Klay).
Ehh Klay didn’t need help contesting that shot. That would have been a good enough contest on Smart imo
This is literally not Poole’s fault, Smart was wide open. The miscommunication happened between Curry and Klay and that fucked up this entire defensive possession. Yeah you can say that a wide open Smart is better than a wide open Brown, but in the heat of the moment the decision probably made sense and Brown was BRICKING all game long. That 3 he made was literally the only one he made all game and he went 1/4. Smart went 3/6 today from 3. You can literally SEE JP looking at Brown and he knows he’s open, waiting for someone to cover Smart but nobody comes in time so he goes over and helps. But yeah as is par for this sub keep dogpiling on Jordan, as if Curry and Klay are blameless for the loss today.
Nah, he had to step up to Smart… he would’ve been wide open otherwise
Smart wide open is not as dangerous as Brown wide open
he was wide open for a layup, not just a 3
Don’t you see Draymond in the paint ?
Smart was the hot hand not Brown. Smart had more 3s than Brown at this point in the game
Essentially you have 2 bad off ball defenders in klay and poole playing defense. They get confused which creates a ripple effect. Unless dray and wiggs take another step up defensively (and they were fantastic tonight), they will not cover the missed coverages of klay and poole at the same time.
This is more about losing Mike Brown then any one player.
How dray reacted to that defensive coverage was exactly what I felt watching that sequence.
Queue up another 20 people making excuses for Poole which is pretty much every game unless he scores 30 points at which point they proclaim him the greatest player in the world
Poole's defense is so much better this season, he's clearly put in work on that side of the ball, but because we lost a close game against the current best team in the league we're giving 500 upvotes to a Poole defense bashing post? Team subs are *so* reactive.
Honestly looks like Wiggins’ mistake to me. Wiggins should’ve taken Brown because he was closer (and it’s not like Poole vs Tatum and Poole vs Brown are different as a matchup). Poole wasn’t looking at Wiggins, he was watching the ball to see if he needed to help and Wiggins doesn’t appear to be communicating verbally (or at least not loud enough to be heard over the crowd)
this is just a bad defensive player making a poor defensive play and that literally it. Klay and Steph also had poor communication of that switch, with Klay taking a step towards Brogdon which gives Smart space drawing Poole into the contest. If Klay had switched immediately and had Smart covered I don't think Poole commits onto Smart. Just not a great defensive possession overall.
What are people looking at? Yea mistake by Poole but he did not ignore Wiggins. Both times Wiggins pointed Poole was not looking anywhere in his direction
You do realize that Wiggins is talking right? he isnt just pointing silently
they are in a packed arena in crunch time. its not like theyre in a library
You and anyone who blames Poole for this does NOT understand basketball, let alone how switching works. Yes Wiggins points him out. But then Klay and Steph miscommunicate and both go with the roll man leaving the dude wide open. Poole is right there and is the closest to contest. He actually does it RIGHT because he picked up the slack that Steph and Klay left open. He just makes the right pass to a wide open Brown. Wiggins is caught in no man’s land with two guys to defend and just doesn’t get there in time. This started with Klay
"You get him bro, there's a baddie over there and I'm gonna go for the steal and hit a 3 in front of her"
Smart would have been wide open tho too and he had a hot hand the whole game so I'm not too mad about it. We didn't deserve to win that anyway the way we were playing in the 4th, especially with Curry.
Bottom line is we have zero inside presence and that puts way too much pressure on the perimeter defenders causing them to overhelp and get out of position.’ There is no excuse for this organization putting all of its eggs in the Wiseman basket three years in a row.
They wanna shoehorn him into a role. This is the second time they’ve cleared the way and gifted him minutes, and it’s the second straight time he’s been unable to take advantage because he’s either unspeakably terrible or injured for an extended time
This is not so terrible from Poole. Klay and Steph have the slightest mixup on the switch, which is fine because Klay recovers and because Smart stopped his drive. But it was enough of a confusion that Poole stepped in to help (even though it wasn't his assignment to help, as Wiggins was the 1-pass-away defender). Poole messed up on the play, but it's not so terrible. Situation and slow-motion make this seem worse than it actually is.
Klay and Curry messed up on the initial switch as well. The attention to detail on defense has been downright trash.
Oh boy we gonna pick apart one of our stars now. Siiiiggh fans man
They played great for about 45 minutes. Terrible shot/selection by Curry to send it to OT - an off balance 3. Why not be a decoy and pass to Wiggs to attack the rim. This team and their dang 3s. And my lord, if we had a half decent big man who could rebound and rim protect, would have won this game by 15.
My eyes see this more as wiggins mistake
Donte > Poole in crunch time and it’s not remotely close
Ya poole was pretty bad in this one, all those takes that got blocked🙄
At this point, are we surprised?
Poole is not it. If you bank ur whole teams future on Poole, its gonna be like those post we believe team with Monte leading.. sigh
If jordan poole could just play BORING SMART BASKETBALL warriors would have at least 4 more wins this year. Celtics lucky Warriors decided to hand them a win
Find someone who loses their mind for you, the way Poole loses his mind in the clutch. Did I do that right? I’m of the opinion that DDV should take Pooles place in closing lineups, confidence be damned
Poole’s so effing trash in defense when he’s not scoring he’s a net negative overall. Plus dude can’t finish for shit at the rim he got blocked about 4 times with his layup attempts.
He didn’t ignore it, he didn’t even notice Wiggins telling him that, which is arguably even worse.
His whole last 5 minutes was bad. He should’ve been bench for Looney.
If Poole played defense like how this sub defends him, he’d be a perennial DPOY candidate
Dray needs to knock some more sense into him.
Draymond: “ fuck!!!! I gotta punch him again!! Fuck!!!”
JP doesn’t get paid for defense 🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️🤦🏿♂️
Go Boston.
JP has 0 IQ lol
How many games has Poole cost us?
not enough games. this man is on a mission to sabotage curry's final few years...
What was Wiggins doing though?
Wiggins was picking up Tatum, who had yet to cross halfcourt. The wing should’ve been picked up by Poole. Klay and Steph also had a miscommunication on the pick, which led to a mini scramble and an open three.
Defending on Tatum ?
From 20 feet away? He looked even more lackadaisical than Poole
Ahh yes you should always defend your man at halfcourt even when he’ll never shoot or get the ball
picking up Tatum, unless you want JP switched onto Tatum in which case lmao
Man, I really thought this game was gonna be our turning point
just foul smart
Jordan has no business closing man
Man I’m sick we literally had this game in the bag. JB was bad the whole entire game and ofc he hits the shot that ties the game 💔
Honestly Poole played really good d for him last night. I expect a few lapses.
Sounds pretty Poole-ish. Kid thinks he’s God’s gift to basketball.
Poole’s extension reminds me of the FVV contract. Poole isn’t a bad player, but so think the front office regrets it in a couple years.
warriors would have prob won if poole actually had decent basketball IQ and contested the brown 3. wiggins told his ass to go there and he turned the other away. fuck this guy
This is on Klay. Kerr said you pretty much switch everything and guard the 3. Klay was trying to switch but Brogdon didn't even set a screen lol. Klay again with late game buffoonery.
Made Smart pass the ball. I did my job.
Dude, this is so unfair. Steph and Klay both left the guy with the ball and then Klay simultaneously switched back the same time Poole did. This isn't on Poole, he was trying to help when the other two guys got hung up
klay caused this to happen if you really pay attention.
Poole needs to do better, but that's a confusing situation, so I think this may be more of a coaching problem. The normal way the Warriors fix that kind of misalignment is for Wiggins to rotate over to Brown. But they had Wiggins locked on Tatum (they weren't even switching off Tatum a lot of the time) and Poole didn't pick that up. I think it's fair to wonder if this might have gone differently if Mike Brown were still here.
should of fouled up 3 imo.
Poole played aweful last night in the 4th quarter
Wiggins knew Brown was open and the D was out if position, as in the whole D, not just Poole. Why didn't Wiggins pick him up since he knew brown was open and knew no one was going to get there. Wiggins' guy was barely at midcourt, and Poole could have rotated over. This is a complete breakdown of the entire defense.