On the Warriors' early season struggles

Welcome to another issue of A Farewell to Takes, our quick trip around the NBA. In this week’s issue, we are highlighting:

• Why the Warriors have had early season struggles

• A key player for the surprising Utah Jazz

• Tommy's Best Thing I Ate This Week 

• Our Wine of the Week (it’s bubbly)

There’s been a lot of things happening around the league that have had nothing to do with basketball. I addressed the Kyrie situation and the Nets’ firing of Steve Nash on Wednesday on First Take, so I’m not going to take any time here to do that. What I do want to tell you is that we are going to try and focus as much as possible on BASKETBALL in this newsletter and on the OM3 podcast. Please look for more video content on our YouTube channel where I’ll be breaking down plays and strategies. We also just launched an exclusive weekly podcast on Amazon Music called The Old Man and the Three Things. Tommy and I will be highlighting three key NBA trends, topics, and storylines each week. Those episodes will come out every Monday. As always, we appreciate you for reading, listening, and watching all of our content, and please enjoy this week’s issue of A Farewell to Takes.

—JJ

The Stat of the Week is 24.1

Because of all the drama in the NBA over the last 10 days, there actually is not a ton of chatter on the Warriors’ early season struggles. The defending champs are just 3-7 and have lost 5 straight games. They sat four starters in their loss to the Pelicans on Friday, but you certainly can’t blame the starters for the slow start. Right now the Warriors’ regular starting five has a net rating of 24.1 per 100 possessions and have the third best aggregate plus/minus of any starting 5 in the league. This has been the Warriors’ most used 5 man lineup by far; this group has played 108 min together and the next closest 5 man lineup has played 46 minutes together. Basically, the Warriors have cratered as soon as they have gone to their bench. The numbers are ugly, too. Jordan Poole has a net rating of -14.8 thru 10 games. Even when he plays with the four other starters (subbing out Looney), that group has a net rating of -10.4 per 100 possessions and that is the aforementioned 2nd most used lineup for the Warriors. You go down the list of the Warriors bench players and every single one of them has a negative net rating. You would assume there would be at least some improvement from Wiseman, Moody, and Kuminga as the season goes along, but it’s going to be a real challenge all season for Steve Kerr to figure out his rotations. Steph plays about 35 min a game right now. The biggest problem is that when he is not on the floor the OFFENSE is abysmal. The Warriors are about 25 points per 100 possessions WORSE when Steph is on the bench vs when he is on the floor. —JJ

Featured Player of the Week: The Utah Jazz's secret weapon

We (and the rest of the world) have tried to figure out — what is going on with the Utah Jazz? Two years removed from being the best regular season team in the NBA, the Jazz traded their defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert, their All-Star guard in Donovan Mitchell, and their noted shit-stirrer/friend-of-the-pod Joe Ingles for approximately 119 first round picks. The Jazz, it seemed to everybody, were clearly trying to lose. Truth is stranger than narrative sometimes though, and through 10 games, that is not the case. They are 7-3, with wins over the Nuggets, Pelicans, and two convincing back-to-back victories over the Memphis Grizzlies. They are deep, with young contributors like Talen Horton-Tucker and Walker Kessler making an immediate impact. They have a top-4 offense in the league and got a slightly-surprising-but-striking jump from Lauri Markkanen, an afterthought in the Mitchell deal who now looks like an All-Star. I wanted to focus on a different new member of the Jazz today though. A guy that never gets talked about no matter where he's playing: Kelly Olynyk. Through 10 games, Kelly's averaging close to 13 points per game, shooting 56% from the field and 59% from 3. All of which would be career highs. He's 2nd in the NBA behind Luka in clutch points at the moment, a clear closer for a team that has figured out that they have a bunch of different weapons. Olynyk is a matchup issue for opponents. Along with Markkanen, the Jazz have two bigs who can run and stretch the floor, something they never had, even with Gobert's dominance on the defensive end. A nine-year pro, Olynyk has been a solid vet for a long time, who — for whatever reason — never really seemed to get his due. Who can forget him putting TD Garden and the Celtics on his back in 2017, one of the more underrated playoff performances in recent memory? Who knows whether Kelly will keep this up or whether the team will, but for now, one of the great surprises in the NBA comes from an off-season acquisition that nobody really noticed. —Tommy

Best Thing I Ate This Week: Pepperoni Pizza from Star Tavern

There are a million and a half good pizza spots to pick from in the New York City tri-state area, so for our first pizza addition to this list, I had to go really special. Star Tavern, a hole-in-the-wall bar in Orange, New Jersey, has about as good a thin crust pie as you will ever have. While everything there is good — the wings, the Caesar salad, the beer etc. — the two real standouts are the Pep and the Pesto pies. They're perfectly proportioned with a thin enough crust that allows you to feel like you can finish a whole pie yourself. If you find yourself in North Jersey and are hungry, this is the place to be. —Tommy

Star Tavern | 400 High St, Orange, NJ 07050

Joakim Noah joined the show this week for a story-filled episode, including ones about Kobe's next-level pettiness at Barack Obama's 50th birthday pick-up game, his teammates deciding to suspend him as young rook, how a moment between him and D-Wade made him rethink the Bulls-Heat rivalry, and more.

YouTube | Wondery+ | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | wherever you get your podcasts

Wine of the Week: Agrapart 7 Cru Extra Brut NV* Champagne

This week’s WOTW is one of my favorite champagnes: the Agrapart 7 Crus. Agrapart makes some incredible Blanc de Blancs Champagne, and this particular wine is a blend of grapes from the 7 villages in the Cote de Blancs where they source from. This is described as their “entry-level” champagne, but there’s nothing about this sparkling wine that suggests entry-level. It’s a great wine, and I firmly believe it’s an incredible value given the astronomical price points of some other champagne producers. Vinous wrote that this wine “displays uncommon delicacy, buoyancy, tension and nuance for an 'intro-level' cuvee.” I also like the word nuance when describing this wine. There is a complexity to it that is often only found in champagnes at a much higher price point. With the holidays just around the corner, now is a good time to stock up. Every meal should start with champagne. —JJ

*NV stands for non-vintage

Thanks for reading A Farewell to Takes. If this email was forwarded to you, subscribe here.