Nellie's 'real deal' praise for Anthony Morrow reminds of other dubious claims

November 28, 8:22 AMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

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Don Nelson: Guilty of too much praise? 

A little more than a week ago, after Anthony Morrow had scored 37 points and 25 points in his first two NBA starts, Don Nelson proclaimed:

“He’s the real deal.”

Uh-oh. Cringe.

I don’t want to start calling Nelson the “SI Jinx,” but he’s been all over the board with his player assessments during his second stint with the Warriors.

And at the very least, words of praise from Nelson don’t seem to carry much weight. Or go very far.

In the four games since his sparkling debut against the Clippers, a 15-for-20 shooting night, and impressive follow-up performance against Portland, Morrow has scored 20 total points on 6-for-22 shooting.

Morrow’s playing time also has dwindled during that time, going from 34 minutes to 24 minutes to 15 minutes to a DNP-CD vs. the Celtics on Wednesday.

The DNP-CD against Boston seemed curious because of Jamal Crawford’s emerging presence.

It seems clear Crawford is the Warriors’ best distributor at this point (not that it’s saying  much), which would invite a pairing with the terrific-shooting Morrow, or you would figure, right?

Anyway, who knows where Morrow is on the depth chart these days.  But if he’s confused there are a lot of players he can ask.

Like Marco Belinelli.
 
After watching Belinelli in the Las Vegas two summers ago, Nelson called him “sensational,” said he could play right away and talked of stardom.

Belinelli was buried on the bench most of his rookie season, and is as buried in year no. 2.

Or Morrow could ask Chris Webber.

Nelson helped woo Webber to Golden State in the middle of last season's playoff run, then after watching Webber practice a couple of days announced the forward as a 30-35 minute player and immediate starter.

The ineffectual Webber would retire weeks later.

Morrow could as Patrick O’Bryant, whom Nelson said would play alongside Andris Biedrins in a big Warriors frontcourt. O’Bryant is in Boston.

Or Morrow could ask Mike Dunleavy, who was going to be Nelson’s creative point-forward, just the kind Nelson loved to work with. He's in Indiana.

Or DeMarcus Nelson, another undrafted player. Nellie started Nelson in Game 1, but now DeMarcus is in the D-League.

Or Morrow doesn't have to ask anyone. Soon enough, he'll be back in the rotation or nowhere to be found.