Golden State Warriors vs. Brooklyn Nets - season recap a little early (3/25/26)

 There are small bits of positive spin, if you want to look.

Last night the Warriors were headed into the last 10 games of the season with only two games on the schedule against tanking teams and a virtual lock to be in the lower half of the Western Conference play-in.   While some fans have been rooting for the Warriors to tank (Bad form, in my opinion), I'm fairly certain their thinking goes no deeper than "Worse must be better." 

But in reality, it buys them nothing.  There's nine games left now and the Warriors hold a six game lead over Chicago in the battle for 10th draft seed.  They're going to get 11 or 12 based entirely on play-in results, so the Tank Commanders have to root for them to lose twice in the play-in just to get a 0.32% advantage in a shot for a top 3 seed or 0.46% for a top 4, and there's only three blue-chip prospects.

So bottom line... anyone who roots for Warrior tanking for any game the rest of the season is just a loser and should be dismissed as such.

Turning to last night's game, we saw the Warriors trail a G-league team of Brooklyn Nets most of the game, but manage to catch up and win by 2 at the end.  There were definite highlights from Kristaps Porziņģis who is impressing not only with his play, but also his availability.   He's now played 198 minutes in 9 games with the Warriors (Sitting for 13) after playing 413 in 17 games with the Hawks (Sitting for 36).  So that's 9 MPG (counting team games, not just the ones he played) over 7.8 MPG for Atlanta.  Hmm, not as drastic as I imagined, but still better, considering the POTS-like disease was well-known and I thought trading JK for him was a total salary dump.

No, I'm interested in focusing on the growth of the Warriors' secondary players this year.   Gui Santos would have definitely been an odd man out if the Warriors stuck with a 10 man rotation all year.  What we've seen of him since he's gotten regular time has been a revelation, as well as a partial redemption of Bob Myers' post-Looney draft record, now that Gui and Ryan Rollins have emerged as bona fide players.

Gui scored a career high 31 points (previous was 22 on March 7) and he did it the way he's been consistently doing it:  Drilling threes and showing deft body control and maneuverability near the hoop.   I'm not sure how to evaluate his defense, but by Defensive Win Shares he's 4th on the team this year.  The Warriors had a big need for someone with this size and ability, not to mention his high-energy play, and lo and behold, he's already on the roster.  It's like Peter Gabriel leaving Genesis and finding out that Phil Collins can sing.

The other guy who deserves respect is Brandin Podziemski.   There has been a lot of resentment building up against Brandin, probably largely because of the minutes and forgiveness he got from Steve Kerr compared to Jonathan Kuminga.  He dug himself a hole in the preseason by answering the question "Do you want to be as good as Stephen Curry?" with "I strive to be the same or better than Steph," which is a definite sports interview no-no.  When you play with a legend, your answer has to be that there's no possible way, but you'll do your best to be all you can be.

Last night, Sideshow Podz did three things that stood out to me as examples of how his "Little things" matter.

1. He was driving through the key right to left and they know he always wants to shoot lefty, so they blocked him and he cut right and finished righty.  That's about the third time I've seen him finish righty this year which means that he is both aware of its importance and he's working on it.
2. He's starting to figure out how to get the shooting foul calls on offense.  He got a few calls that look like ones he didn't get earlier in the year.
3. In the 4th quarter there was a missed Warriors shot that looked like it was going to one of three Nets in the key, all jumping together.   Most guys just get back on D in this situation, but Podz ran in there, reached high enough to tip it and it bounced off a Net to go out of bounds for a stolen possession.

These things are hard if not impossible to see in the stats, and they're the kinds of things that prove he is trying hard in every aspect of the game, and continues to work on all of it.  That's why I like him, even if he has less talent than the next guy.  He is trying to be the best he can be.

And although he's out for the season, Moses Moody has progressed this year.  His three-point percentage went up from a consistent 36-37% to 40% this year, and that showed linear improvement every month except December, and January continued the line as if December followed suit.   

One more shout out for the not-so-young Gary Payton II who has now made his last 16 shots: 5 for 5 last night, 8 for 8 the last game, and he made his last three in the game before that. He's been so consistent in recent months and provides game that the rest of the Warriors lack. 

So, the bottom line is that playing to win has demonstrable  value and playing to tank does not.  Even if this is a lost year and they make the playoffs (guaranteeing a mediocre draft pick) but get run, that will still mean they made the playoffs in three of the past four years, including the second round twice.   It wasn't that long ago that was a dream scenario. 

Think positively, DubNation.  Don't cost nothin'.