NBA Pre-Season is here plus a Reader Request
Last night, the Nets and Lakers squared off in the first NBA Pre-Season game of the year, previewing what I think could be the NBA Finals matchup this season. Outside of Anthony Davis, neither teams big 3 saw the floor, which was to be expected. Given AD’s injury history, I’m surprised we even saw him out there, but he looked sharp, scoring the first bucket of the game, rocking a mini fro and head band. Although Lebron is the orchestrator of the team, it’s AD who is going to have to be the powerhouse on the court for them to ultimately thrive this season. Although it was overshadowed by Tom Brady’s return to Foxborough, basketball is back. October 19th marks the start of the regular season, just 2 weeks away.
Reader Request:
Last week I had a reader request that I do a series of “What If” scenarios, and while there is only a couple of weeks before the season begins, I will try to get a few in before things begin to ramp up. Thank you for the request Adam, here is the first “What If" and Reader Request in All Net history
What if the Timberwolves drafted Steph Curry in 2009
One of my favorite players, if not my favorite player, of this generation, Stephen Curry, was drafted 7th overall by Golden State in 2009. Holding onto the 5th and 6th overall picks, were the Minnesota Timberwolves. What if instead of choosing Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn, they took, who we know now as the greatest shooter of all time, Steph Curry?
Don’t get me wrong Rubio had a decent career and played well with the TWolves, even though Flynn got the starting minutes his rookie year, but does that franchise look completely different with Steph at the helm?
I like to think so, but a lot of the time, players are a product of the situation they are put in. This would have paired Curry with Kevin Love and they no doubt would have had success, but would Curry live up to his potential in the TWolves system? They were already playing through their second year centerpiece KLove, and may not have given Steph the freedom to go out and be Steph.
When Curry arrived in Golden State, he was thrown into the starting line up with Monte Ellis, Andris Biedrins, Stephen Jackson, and Ronny Turiaf.
Had he arrived in Minnesota with say, Ricky Rubio being the other pick in the draft, the starting line-up included Corey Brewer, Al Jefferson, Damien Wilkins and Ryan Gomes playing in place of an injured Kevin Love. The make up of this team is not elite, but it is on a much different timeline than the Warriors at the time, and I am not so sure it warrants Steph to go out and be himself and take chances to build his confidence to where it is today, but rather that he has to play to the system that has already been established. For the sake of the article lets say he still has an all-star career and is a league leading scoring threat, which is still likely.
This change in the draft would change the course for the Warriors, obviously not becoming the dynasty that we know today. The OKC Thunder run the Western Conference getting to the Finals and matching up with Lebron’s Cavs and the Durant vs Lebron story line would play out on another level. Durant, Westbrook and maybe Harden would have stayed in OKC (maybe Harden still leaves, but that’s a “what if” for another time) and Kevin Love likely doesn’t go to the Cavs to create the Kyrie, KLove, Lebron core. Lebron probably still flees Cleveland after the team isn’t able to get over the hump and beat OKC’s big 3. I like to think that there are even a few Thunder vs Bulls finals matchups strewn in the mix, with a less injury filled story line for Derrick Rose (Happy Birthday BTW).
I think there is a chance the NBA as a whole looks different as well. Steph changed the way teams play the game of basketball. Spacing the floor and throwing up 3’s from the logo was not something teams were doing on a regular basis pre-Steph Curry. Centers shooting the 3 ball??? The DRose, Russell Westbrook, John Wall playing style may have prevailed, focusing on driving to the rim, getting to the lane, and distributing from there.
In the end, I think the major differences are that we would be discussing the Thunder as one of the greatest teams, dynasties, in history instead of the Warriors. Steph doesn’t reach the potential that we now know he has, still has an excellent career but probably doesn’t achieve as great of heights, and the landscape of the Western Conference looks completely different than it does today. I do still think Lebron would team up with Wade, but maybe Bosh’s Raptors are more competitive in the East than when KLove teamed up with Kyrie and Lebron, so the big 3 in Miami could look different. Who knows, maybe it would have been Steph teaming up with Lebron to go get a ring or DWade coming to Cleveland.
It is obviously all up to speculation, but imagining how things could have played out is definitely a fun experiment. The tough part about something like this is that you end up going down a rabbit hole and could write an entire book about how things could have played out. Thank you again for the request Adam, if anyone has things they would like me to write about, just let me know, you can reach me by replying to this email, or on twitter @GreNBA_
As always, thanks for reading, have a great week, enjoy some pre-season basketball, and until next time, this is ALL NET.
Thanks to Basketball-Reference.com for help with the starting line-ups from 2009.