Stephen Jackson's role as leader on Warriors just became a thankless job

Stephen Jackson: Facing tough challenge 

Whether you like it or not, Stephen Jackson has his extension and the unquestioned leadership role on the team.

Now comes the hard part -- to actually lead this Golden State Warriors team.

It won’t be easy.

And it starts tonight when the Warriors take on the Wizards in Washington.

The acquisition of Jamal Crawford gives the Warriors another weapon, for sure. But it also gives them one more guy who wants to shoot the ball, meaning those FGA’s are coming out of someone’s bottom line.

The scary part for Jackson -- and the Warriors -- is that he will be playing alongside two bona fide scorers in Corey Maggette and Crawford.  And there’s another pretty potent scorer, Monta Ellis, apparently set to return in the next month or so.

Maggette and Crawford need the ball in their hands to be effective, and don’t even try to say otherwise. I understand Crawford already is talking of distributing, but his shots-attempted evidence is what it is.

Ellis doesn’t need to be spoon-fed like Maggette and Crawford because he can create more and get more on his own. But is there any arguing Ellis is a scorer, too?

That makes three scorers and Jackson, who averages a team-high 19 shots per game.

We haven’t even gotten into rookie Anthony Randolph, who is a one-man firing squad at this point. Andris Biedrins and Kelenna Azubuike aren't as high-maintenance as Maggette, Crawford, Jackson and Ellis.  But right now they're divvying up 25 shots, a total sure to come down.

How in the world is Jackson going to manage this thing? The facts and the numbers are daunting.

The first thing Jackson may have to come to terms with is that his shot attempts are going to go down. And not only are they going to go down, they might wind up being less than a teammate or two.

Is Jackson OK with that? We’ll see.

And if it's not OK with Jackson, what about his teammates?

The Warriors are averaging almost four shots per game fewer than a season ago because they’re playing slower and turning the ball over more.

But they no longer have their best distributor (Baron Davis) and have added two more ball-needers in Maggette and Crawford.

Jackson is also a player who  has to have the ball in his hands to be effective. But the Warriors are going to need their leader -- both in the leader-sense and in shots taken) to keep everyone else content.

This is going to be difficult.

It’s one thing when regular old players aren’t getting enough shots; it’s another when scorers aren’t getting enough shots.

When players don’t get their shots they’re likely to hurt you less than scorers because players can sometimes do other things to help.

Scorers are called scorers for a reason. If they’re not scoring, they don’t tend to help you very much in the other areas.

Quite frankly, scorers who aren't scoring can be virtually worthless on the court.

There is no doubt the Warriors have some serious firepower. But is it too much?

Can players such as Maggette, Crawford and even Jackson be productive with fewer shots?

None of them, thus far in their careers, have proven they can do that.

No time like the present.

Good luck, Stephen.