AP Photo/David Zalubowski
Here are the 16 things I learned about the Warriors this season:
1. I was wrong about Baron Davis. I thought the Warriors should have rewarded him for what he did for the team the last two years and just pay him, never mind how old he was, what shape he was in or how many games he would miss or take off mentally. Well, he wound up getting paid by the Clippers ... and he was dreadful. His body language was terrible, clearly mailing it in some nights, and he finished the season shooting 37 percent.
37 percent! That hurts my eyes just looking at the number, never mind the actual memory of the bad shots he jacked up. The 37 percent ranked 119th in the NBA, and that's only because the NBA.com stat only went 119 guys deep.
So, if that was Bobby Rowell who vetoed the deal that Davis and Chris Mullin worked out, good job Bobby.
2. I was right about signing Corey Maggette being a bad move. $50 million out the window in what looked like a desperate move after Davis walked. Heck, even with what I know now about Davis, I would have burnt another $15-20 million on him if I knew the $50 million was going to Maggette. Maggs has been in the league 10 years and been on one winning team. Despite being buffed, he misses a lot of games -- an average of 23 the last five years, 31 this season.
He has photos of a lot of refs doing a lot of naughty things, or else how do we explain his getting the call every time he drives through a defender. He is a free-throw artist the way he gets to the line so often, and I salute him for that. I still don't want him on my team. He is a nice guy off the court, just not a guy who puts team ahead of himself. I was not surprised when I heard he was seen at the Winky Wright fight in Las Vegas the same night the Warriors were playing the Jazz earlier this month.
3. The Warriors are awful defensively. I mean, the worst I have seen in 10 years watching or covering the team. Golden State was the worst in the NBA in points allowed (112.3) and rebounds allowed (47.1)
4. Ronny Turiaf was a nice add, but people are getting a little too excited about all the blocked shots he had. I think ESPN's Mark Jackson said it best when during a telecast he said the Warriors play such bad defense, it's a like a freeway to the rim. Turiaf gets a lot of blocks because he has so many opportunities.
5. Don Nelson had a bad year. I know, I know, the injuries. And while he was criticized for his handling of Anthony Randolph, Randolph is coming along nicely so maybe he was right. But still, it seemed like Nelson never set the bar very high this season, with or without Monta Ellis popping wheelies on his moped.
"I didn't think that we were a playoff team even if we had Monta," Nelson said the last week of the season. "I said that early. Without Baron (Davis), it would be quite an adjustment. I think we would've won more games. Would we have been a .500 team? I don't know, maybe. I don't really know. I can't really anticipate what would've happened. But we would've been a better team, obviously."
Then there's the handling of Jamal Crawford. He is limited, true, but he can score -- he might be one of the top 50 scorers in the league -- and saying that he cannot help a 29-53 team because he doesn't fit on next year's roster doesn't fly. Especially when the Warriors have no idea what next year's roster will look like. They don't know what trades they can make, or where they will draft, heck Nelson can't even commit to Ellis being the starting point guard next season.
6. Stephen Jackson reminds me of Antawn Jamison. You would love to him on your NBA team, but he has to be your second or third-best player. Otherwise you're 19-63 like Antawn was in 2000 or 29-53 like the Warriors were this season. And many Warriors people have tried explaining why the timing of Jackson's contract extension wasn't ludicrous but I don't get it. I must be dense.
7. Ellis could still become a point guard (he hasn't had a full training camp at the position), but I don't know about becoming a leader or franchise player. I know he is young, but there a lot of young players in the NBA who would have apologized to the fans for getting hurt on a moped and missing 57 games.
8. Anthony Morrow can shoot. And he works hard to get better. Those two sentences look great together. Much better than: Marcus Williams is out of shape. And he is still struggling to find a jump shot.
9. Andris Biedrins is a tease. He is pretty good, but the way everyone raves about him shouldn't we have seen more glimpses of "great" by now.
10. That said, I do think the Warriors are set up front with Biedrins, Turiaf, Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright.
11. C.J. Watson is a keeper.
12. Kelenna Azubuike took advantage of being on a lousy, injury-riddled team and put up some nice numbers. That's cool. He is a piece to the puzzle.
13. The whole Bobby Rowell-Chris Mullin thing could be easily resolved by making Mullin available to the media before the draft. If he wasn't forced out, have him say so. But until he does, I am going to assume he was forced out. Which is fine. VPs and GMs get forced out all the time. Just not with a wave of a cape, a cloud of smoke and no explanation.
14. Warriors fans continue to amaze me. The Warriors registered their 12th sellout of the season in their home finale and averaged 18,943 fans this season, ninth-highest average in the NBA and second-highest in franchise history. That's love - for a team that has gone to the playoffs once in 15 years.
15. The best reward for the fans would have to come from up above, like Golden State winning the draft lottery (a 3-percent likelihood) and getting Blake Griffin. C'mon, God ... One time!
16. I just thought of a nickname for Randolph: "The Milkman" He delivers just like the Mailman but always has that look on his face like he just drank some sour milk.
That's it for now.
Comments
Great write up!
My take on the Jackson extension. It was a Nellie move. He needed Jax in the locker room backing him up so he can develop the youngsters properly. Not a coincidence both extensions happened about the same time.
I still think Baron would of gotten us to the playoffs.
Biedrins can be great, but needs others to get him the ball. His numbers dipped when Jack was injured.
Trade Maggette, Crawford, whoever else and get a veteran PG. Could of had Chauncy Billups at one point.
We needed Baron as much as he needed us. He has no supporting cast, we don't have a playmaking PG. I like your choice of Stephen Curry for our Draft Pick. That would work. If Amare Stoudemire is available, we need to take him. We have ZERO low post scoring. Randolph is good in transition, but isn't a threat with his back to the basket.
Greaaat article. I think you almost abt had everything right!
Amare is not a back-to-the-basket threat. HAve you ever seen the suns play? He just catches dimes from Nash and dunks or pulls up. I'd rather let Randolph develop than put him behind Amare.
Wouldnt you look uninterested if you had to play for the clippers under Dunleavy? Low shooting %? Thats due to playing a half court offense, which means less driving for Baron. I come back to playing for dunleavy and being uninterested to baron chucking up shots because he doesnt care = 37%
Baron Davis with the Clippers does suck. But Baron with the W's? Just because the Clippers with Baron suck, doesn't mean the W's with Baron would also suck.
Several very solid observations and points made here.
Re: Biedrens
Everyone loves Biedrens and his value to the organization remains unquestioned. But where is his development headed? It is accepted that he will never be any kind of spot shooter or perimeter player. OK.
His post game showed improvement early on, but didn't really grow. If he never going to be great with his back to the basket, and he is never going to be a perimeter shooter....then does he really have a chance at greatness?
I accuse Nellie of neglecting his development an in interior scorer. W's don't have even a single post player.
Great stuff! I agree on just about everything except:
Turiaf is something to be excited about, not because of the blocks, but because of his heart and locker room presence.
Biedrins deserves the love, too. We caught a glimpse of what he can do early in the season when he raked up all those consecutive double-doubles. He proved that he could be a nice offensive weapon in the post, showed a huge improvement overall, then it seemed like coach and his teammates decided not to continue to make him a significant part of the offense. Maybe Nellie's not the coach for Biedrins or any of the bigs. If you're a big and you can't shoot the 3, you're relegated to rebounding and blocking shots.
#1 pick, GET RUBIO! We need a competent floor general in the worst way.
I hope you're right about Monta still having a chance to be a PG, but I just don't see it. He can't make the pass in traffic, doesn't have the 6th sense to find the open man once he gets to the paint, can't make a simple ally-oop pass, and just doesn't seem like he takes pride in passing the way a true PG should.
Excellent stuff, Vittorio!
Depending on how the off-season goes, Jackson could easily be our third best player next year, behind Ellis and Randolph. The problem will be getting Jackson to know that he is the #1 heart guy, but #3 talent guy on the team. If he goes into the season thinking he needs the ball all the time and he needs to make plays for everyone like he did this season, then you can expect a repeat of him leading the league in turnovers.
Hey, Vic, FYI I linked you in my last piece. Randy Winn is the Giants Stack Jack. If those guys are your best players you're in trouble.
Wow Vic! Great stuff! I agree with many points. Too bad the season is over. You were just getting goin! Great points on Jack/Jamison, Morrow and Watson. I still think Maggs is a great add as we need someone getting to the foul line when our outside shot isn't dropping. I cant blame him for not being interested towards the end of the season as we were out of out and he was beat up. why risk further injury when the young guys needed the playing time anyway? Good stuff and I agree on the draft...C'Mon!! ONE TIME!?!!
Wow! what an awful article! Did Rowell and Cohan pay you to write this? Nelson had a bad year, nice piece of journalism there. Ellis could be a point gaurd, sure, my left foot could jump through hoops. Biedrins isn't great, I agree, but is Crawford, Jackson, Morrow, or anyone els you mention. Biedrins is a very solid defender with a great ability to get to the hoop with the right point gaurd in place. Baron shouldn't have got the money because he sucked for Dunleavy, almost everyone sucks for Dunleavy. Baron should have got the money, otherwise the team wouldn't ahve panicked and bought Maggette for ten million over asking, what a waste, talk about a bad player that guy does only one thing well, shoot free throws. This is bad, biased journalism, read Tim Kawakami and take a lesson as to what Rowell and Cohan have done to this great fan base, until then sit on your fingers because they accomplish nothing in your blog.
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