The NBA Has a Major Golden State Warriors Problem: TRAINA THOUGHTS
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1. Things were already ugly for the Warriors before it was announced Friday that Stephen Curry would miss at least three months after undergoing surgery on his broken left hand.
As bad as the team had been this year, you could understand fans tuning in to watch Curry work his magic on the court. That appeal, though, is out the window now.
This is horrific news for the NBA's TV partners because Golden State is all over the national schedule. If you include NBA TV, the 1-5 Warriors are featured 40 more times this season. If you take out NBA TV and just focus on ESPN and TNT, viewers will be treated to Golden State 29 times.
November alone will see the Warriors on national TV six times, with ESPN taking the biggest hit:
Tonight: Blazers at Warriors, NBA TV
Wednesday: Warriors at Rockets, ESPN
Nov. 13: Warriors at Lakers, ESPN
Nov. 15: Celtics at Warriors, ESPN
Nov. 20: Warriors at Mavericks, ESPN
Nov. 25: Thunder at Warriors, NBA TV
This was the starting lineup that Golden State trotted out in its game on Saturday:
Glenn Robinson III
Eric Paschall
Willie Cauley-Stein
Ky Bowman
Jordan Poole
Somehow, that crew doesn't scream ratings gold.
Traina Thoughts offers its thoughts and prayers to ESPN, TNT and NBA TV.
2. If the NBA's TV partners want to find a way to juice ratings for those Warriors game, there is one very easy solution. Get Snoop in the booth. The rapper made a cameo during Sunday night's Lakers-Spurs game and his play-by-play was outstanding.
3. You can go into a carb coma just from looking at The Rock's weekend cheat meal.
4. FS1's Cris Carter has been suspended from his hosting duties on First Things First, according to The Big Lead. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but Carter supposedly had a blow up with FOX execs because he hasn't been featured on the network's Thursday Night Football pregame show.
5. The biggest upset Sunday night was not the Ravens whipping the Patriots. It was that Bill Belichick managed to last five minutes during his postgame press conference. If you like to watch misery in action, enjoy this clip that features one excruciatingly painful answer after another.
6. The latest SI Media Podcast is a good one featuring two guests. First up is Andrew Siciliano of DirecTV's RedZone Channel, who was nice enough to come on after I had said I wasn't a fan of RedZone, which was extremely classy. Siciliano talked about understanding why some people might not be a fan of RedZone, he explained what his Sundays are like, revealed what his ideal 1 p.m. vs. 4 p.m. breakdown would be and more.
Following Siciliano, WWE's Renee Young joined the podcast to discuss her new, weekly FS1 show, WWE Backstage. She also talked about why her run as a Monday Night Raw commentator was a "disaster," what it's like to be married to someone who works for WWE's competition and much more.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
7. RANDOM YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 58th birthday, Ralph Macchio. Thank you for giving us one of the best sports movies of all time and one of the great musical moments in movie history.
Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on iTunes, Spotify or Google Play. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.
