If Kevin Durant Ruined The NBA Then What The Hell Do We Say About Boogie?
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Let me preface this blog by acknowledging what we’re about to talk about is a very small sample size. Boogie has been back for only two games, one against the Clippers and one against the Lakers, but the early returns on the Boogie Experiment are unlike anything we’ve seen from this GS team. By now, at this point in their dominance nothing should surprise us, but for all the questions of how Boogie would fit and how he would look, the numbers are legit inexplicable. His averages don’t blow you away as he’s playing just 18 minutes a night with 11/7.5/4.0 averages on 35/50% splits with 1.5 3PM a night, and he’s for sure having problems not fouling but that’s to be expected as he works his way back into game shape. This is a guy that is a career 3.9 foul per game player after all, so that’s not too much of a concern.
What made me spit out my coffee that I was actually drinking was what I saw when I looked at the on/off stats for this team over the last two games. I legit don’t even know how to comprehend these numbers. See for yourself
A +59 net rating? A 92% AST%? Let me put that in context for you compared to the rest of the league. The Bucks lead the NBA with a +9.7 Net Rating. The Sixers lead the NBA with a 66% AST%. I know this is not sustainable and is a very small sample size, but if we were to take an early look at how things are going, inserting Boogie into this lineup has made an already impossible to beat Warriors team insanely better. What’s scary is this is the worst Boogie will look all season if he’s able to stay healthy and all I can do is be very angry at all those teams that turned Boogie down when he approached them with the same $5.3M offer GS did. Oh you didn’t know about that? Boogie explained it himself
“The people I reached out to … man, the teams I was talking to, and how they slammed the phone in my face,” Cousins said. “They all slammed the door shut on me. I wish I could share those conversations. But it’s done with. I reached out to teams with the same offer as Golden State, just to see.”
I need the names of those teams and executives because they should be publicly shamed. I understand the risk in a big man coming off an achilles injury, but I also know $5.3M is literally nothing to an NBA team. The juice is 100% worth the squeeze when we’re talking about an elite talent like Boogie. We want to be mad at GS for making this addition but how can you be when other teams had their chance? Now look at what you’ve done. We’re dealing with a team playing on 2K Rookie Mode, and even if their competition hasn’t been all that tough during this stretch the production is still eye opening. Honestly this is just the reality of our biggest fears coming true. Not only does he look like the Boogie of old, but he fits this system perfectly and takes them to a level we didn’t know was possible. All because nobody else wanted to give him $5.3M, unbelievable.
So maybe we actually owe Kevin Durant an apology? We say all the time he ruined the NBA when he joined GS, but if that’s true then what the hell do we say about Boogie? His situation is a little different so perhaps we shouldn’t hate him for it like we do Durant, but it’s still bullshit. This whole thing is making me both upset and a little nervous for BOS/GS Saturday night and I don’t like that one bit.