Rounding up all Warriors and NBA related news for Friday, July 26th.
ESPN recently released their list of the Top 25 NBA players of the 21st century. After measuring the accomplishments of basketball players over the past 24 years, the Golden State Warriors found themselves with two of their current players featured on the list: Draymond Green and Stephen Curry.
Green’s defensive prowess and championship resume earned him the 22nd spot on the list, while Curry’s generational talent and long list of accomplishments finished him at third — just behind LeBron James and the late great Kobe Bryant who earned the top spots. In total, four Golden State players were featured on the list including former Warriors Kevin Durant and Chris Paul.
For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Friday, July 26th:
Key accomplishments: NBA 75th Anniversary team, four-time NBA champion, 2022 Finals MVP, 10-time All-Star, nine-time All-NBA, 2022 All-Star Game MVP, two-time scoring leader, career leader in 3-pointers made
Curry had been reluctant to call himself the greatest shooter of all time until he broke the career 3-point scoring record. Once he achieved that milestone in December 2021, he wasn’t so shy about it anymore. Curry has changed the way basketball is played — at every level of the sport. Nowadays you’ll find kids in high school gyms going through the same pregame shooting routine Curry does. And in the NBA, offenses are built around 3-point shooting like never before.
If the way he revolutionized the game isn’t enough to solidify his standing in the NBA — and among great athletes around the world — his résumé is. After winning his first Finals MVP in 2022, to go along with his four titles, 10 All-Star appearances, nine All-NBA teams and two MVPs, Curry asked: “What are they going to say now?” — Kendra Andrews
Kerr, a four-time champion as NBA coach and an assistant on the gold medal-winning team in Tokyo, and his staff are raising their games and expecting the players to follow.
“We have another level. I think we have another two levels that we can get to, but it’s a collaboration always,” Kerr said. “So we can show the strategic stuff on the tape walk-through. We can show them, ‘Let’s do this, let’s do that. Let’s learn personnel.’ We got to know the shooters, know the non-shooters, all that stuff. So that’s where we can help them. Where they can help themselves is just effort and energy play after play, after play. This is different.”
Draymond Green says the Warriors nearly made short-term trades beneficial to him and Steph but harmful in the long run, and he advised against them
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) July 25, 2024
“That’s a bad trade, don’t do that trade.”
( @club520podcast / h/t @ClutchPoints )
pic.twitter.com/r5igSmIvUj
Green went on to explain how the Warriors drafting him turned out to be a pivotal moment in his life, both personally and professionally.
“Now, not only do I get drafted to the state of California, you start talking about destiny and how your life shapes up, but I get drafted to the Golden State Warriors in Oakland, California,” Green explained. “I get to Oakland; I feel like I’m [back in] Saginaw. I get there and I’m like ‘Man, I feel like I’m at home, I’m comfortable,’ like I can be me to my core. Oakland understood me, you know what I’m saying?
“When I look at how it all played out, for me to be drafted to that place, I couldn’t have asked for a better situation. It set me up for success.”
Group stage
All times Eastern
Saturday, July 27
Australia vs. Spain, 5:30 a.m. (CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Germany vs. Japan, 7:30 a.m. (Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
France vs. Brazil, 11:15 a.m. (CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Greece vs. Canada, 3:15 p.m. (CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Sunday, July 28
South Sudan vs. Puerto Rico, 5 a.m. (CNBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Serbia vs. USA, 11:15 a.m. (NBC, Peacock, NBCOlympics.com)
Defensively, Sheppard showed he might be more impactful than scouts presumed. While Sheppard still yielded his share of blow-bys, much as his tape at Kentucky showed, he made up for it with disruptive plays. He finished with 11 steals and five blocks in four games, a Matisse Thybulle-esque “stocks” performance not too far off what Sheppard did in a much larger sample in the SEC last season.
At 6-foot-2, he’ll always be vulnerable as a small guard with only average lateral quickness, but a team like Houston — with so many long, versatile defenders — is in a great situation to provide cover for him. That should allow him to gamble more often than if he were in a weak defensive context.
I tried Jennifer https://t.co/iRhCMSt2Hp
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) July 25, 2024
But the Dubs also might simple be exercising patience with Wiggins, and hoping that a team will get more desperate as the season inches closer. And with Paul and Thompson gone, Wiggins is the only large chunk of salary that the Warriors could move in a deal, meaning Wiggins is almost guaranteed to be involved in a trade should the Warriors find a way to swing a big move. Lauri Markkanen, it’s worth noting, is only owed $18 million for the upcoming season, so the Warriors could trade for him without including Wiggins. But if they were to acquire, say, Brandon Ingram — owed $36 million — it would almost certainly include Two Way Wiggs.
Great answer @StephenCurry30
— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 25, 2024
#USABMNT pic.twitter.com/Ci2CGYaU9t
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