Last night, the Golden State Warriors had their season opener in Oakland and squared off against last season's second seeded Western Conference team, the New Orleans Hornets. Golden State was off to a good start. They scored numerous points in the first quarter, and kept the Hornets away from causing too much trouble. It surprised the fans and the Hornets themselves who were heavy favorites coming into the game. Hornets superstar guard Chris Paul played only half of the quarter where the Warriors did the damage. Unfortunately for Golden State, Paul came back into the game and the Hornets went into a run to get back into the game and be down by only one at the half. At this time of the game, Stephen Jackson had yet to sit down and has played all twenty four minutes. You could see him throw up some desperation shots and get a bit lazier as the game went on. Undrafted rookie DeMarcus Nelson started the game, but played less than twenty minutes. Kelenna Azubuike played the majority of the bench time. The only other player besides Azubuike and the starters to play for the Warriors was Ronny Turiaf, and most of the reason he played was because Andris Biedrins was in foul trouble for most of the game. CJ Watson did play, but not for more than a minute. When the second half started, the players look fresh, but as the game wound down, you could tell that they were fatigued, especially Stephen Jackson who played every single minute of the game. The Warriors lost because of some careless plays in the end of the game, but did better than many expected. As for the seven man rotation, it did not work last season, but it seems like coach Don Nelson is insisting on it. Brandan Wright, Marco Belinelli, Marcus Williams, and rookie Anthony Randolph did not get to step out on the floor for more than seconds to support the team during timeouts. It was sad to see. Signing Nelson to an extension wasn't the best choice if the team is in rebuilding mode. The young players will not be able to gain experience and will most likely want out of Golden State sooner or later because of limited playing time. I know it's only one game, but it ticks me off as a fan to see this happen. Hopefully, Nelson plays the young guns the next game and doesn't wear out the players before the mid point of the season.
I think the reasoning, and the game itself backs it up (or debunks it, depending on how you look at it), is that Nellie wanted his best players on the court to give them the best chance to beat an elite team. Margin for error was very low, as evidenced: missed free throws, crucial turnovers, questionable shot selection, all played a part in the loss. All in all, I think the seven-man rotation thing is a little exaggerated given that it was the first game of the season. Nellie still has 81 games to prove he's going to play the young guys. I'm confident that will start this road trip.
I don't expect to see Marco, BW or AR on the floor for a lot of minutes under Nelson this season. The only way they get in is if they produce and they let Nelson know what they can do in a given game situation. It's Nellie's catch 22. If they produce, then Nellie lets them play. But they can't produce because Nellie doesn't let them play.
Wright has played, but Randolph and Belinelli haven't. Why did we trade for Marcus Williams if Nellie won't play him? Waste of a draft pick we traded.
Wright is playing, but barely. So far only averaging 4 minutes and 45 seconds per game in the 3 games. That's not much to work with. Plus, they aren't running any plays at all for him. I think that's a big mistake. If they treat Wright like they did Biedrins, as a clean-up garbage man, it's not going to work. Brandan Wright is a scorer but he needs to be fed the ball. And at least Belinelli and possibly Randolph and Hendrix should be getting a few minutes. I think it's easy to see that in all 3 games the Warriors have tired down the stretch and collapsed late in the 4th quarter of each game. Some of that is the lack of a point guard and floor leader, but the starters are clearly tired as well. I suspect Nellie is saving Randolph for a surprise to spring on some team on one of those days when none of the starters shows up to play and nothing is working.
