Playing time is only a part of it with Randolph, Wright (Matt Steinmetz)

Playing time is only a part of it with Randolph, Wright

I disagree with Steinmetz.

A lot of people have been bashing Nellie for the lack of PT he has given both. I've bashed Nellie for his PT of Wright, but the more I see, the more I realize he is doing it for good reasons. Not the ridiculous conspiracy theory people have conjured up about Nellie undermining Mullin's draft choices. I'm sorry, I just don't buy it. I don't think Nellie, at this point in his life, would go about screwing with people's LIVES that way.

On the contrary, I think Nellie is making the right choices with the young guys. Again, my example would be Marco Belinelli. All this time, I've been saying "PLAY HIM!" Well, he finally is playing him but not because I said so. Because Marco probably found it in him to work HARD on defense and the other "little things" that make up a good player. We all thought Nellie hated Marco. We all think Nellie hates Wright and Randolph. Let's just wait and see what happens here.

 

I don't know, Marco in my opinion is not very good defensively. Yes, he tries hard, but he gets abused often (for example the other night instead of fighting through a screen and sticking with his man, he sloughed off under the screen, then tried to regain his target. He did, but in the momentary window, the screener rolled to the basked, the pass went behind the back of Marco, and scored). I don't think Wright is any worse, although he does make some mistakes. And Wright has been consistently good offensively (last night's game excluded with the foul troubles), Marco has been recently. Plus, it's not really even Wright vs. Belinelli, it's more like Wright vs. whoever Nellie is trying to awkwardly shove into playing PF on a given night. I still think Wright gives you the most positives there (highly efficient scoring and pretty good rebounding). Hopefully the new "defensive coordinator" Smart will improve everyone's defense.

 

Are you saying Steinmetz's comments support your assertion that Don Nelson is handling them the right way? Because the way I read that, I got the total opposite impression. That Nellie, with his random allotment of minutes and playing time seemingly not based on performance (with a base amount every night that befits a first-round investment, especially in what is obviously a year with zero chance of making the playoffs), is in fact messing with these kid's heads. They're confused, most probably disgruntled, and will probably take the first chance to play elsewhere they can get, with a coach who will give them some consistent minutes, at their most natural position.

Examples:

 

Bashing on Belinelli's defense is a moot argument when there's others on the team that are far worse. At least Marco is trying.

The entire team's defensive woes can be attributed to Nellie. I won't argue that.

 

Okay, I obviously didn't read his article carefully enough. Um...hmmm, how do I get out of this one? Oh well, I'll just let it be.

I guess I have to disagree with Steinmetz then. Sorry, Sunday morning, still sleepy.

 

I hate that I agree with Steinmetz, because I think of him as Kawakami's deuchey-cousin (I call him Deuchey McDeuchenstein). But He got it right here, IMO.
Just look at Wright, he finally played a complete game, stayed focused and busted his butt, then he followed it up with a total lack of effort. It could be that he just had no legs left (like I've said before, he's just not there physically to play extended minutes on a nightly basis)

 

I love Steinmetz. He's got this right. I wrote him asking him to put a column out there bashing Nellie for the failure to develop the youngsters and I'm glad to see this criticism in print.

Nellie has simply abused the young guys and he's going to pay for it. We are paying for it by watching mediocre basketball by mediocre players who are playing at their max yet still playing mediocre. Crawford for 50? But barely beating the Bobcats? That's not the basketball I want.

I would rather watch the W's lose while developing the youngsters. Look at how well Hill played for the Spurs while Parker and Ginobili were out, the Spurs lost games but he got the chance to develop. Millsap? You telling me he did not make mental mistakes? You never saw Sloan jerk him around. Batum? He starts, doesn't finish, but he gets consistent minutes. Look at the good coaches in the league and how they handle young players. Even Riley did not jerk guys in and out while they were young.

 

Steinmetz was criticizing Nellie for the inconsistent minutes he has been giving Wright and Randolph; haven't you been praising or at least rationalizing Nellie's reasons for keeping Wright from getting consistent minutes? I have been pretty critical about Wright's minutes, but I've seen that withholding PT to Belinelli has probably done Belinelli a good thing: effort on D and complete floor game. So, I've decided to hold off on my Nellie doubting for a while because it seems he knew how to bring Marco along and hopefully in short time, Wright can follow in suit.

I initially thought this is what Steinmetz was saying but HiRez corrected me on that one crazy

 

But how would you see the Marco situation now? Just a few weeks ago, we were all bashing Nellie for not playing Marco. Now he's playing him and Marco is playing great. Would you think supports the argument that Nellie should have played him earlier (i.e. "told ya so") or that he knew exactly when to bring him to speed (i.e. give him consistent minutes because he earned it?

I wouldn't necessarily call Nellie's handling of Randolph "abusive." He's 19 and he's a rookie. I don't remember Monta or Biedrins getting as many minutes as Randolph has at this point in their rookie season, do you?

I would call Nellie's handling of Wright suspicious at best. I was upset that Nellie vowed to play Wright right when he had that career game at the same time Harrington spoke out about wanting to be traded. Then, Nellie stopped playing him. I felt deceived, but he must have had reasons.

In the few games where we saw Wright not get consistent minutes, he wasn't rebounding well, for example.

I don't know. I don't want to jump on the "Fire Nellie" or "Nellie's terrible" bangwagon. It's too early for that. I want to give him at least half a season to solidify my doubts or for him to prove me wrong.

 

My take on it is that there are 3 elements to playing basketball in the NBA: Talent, Physical Maturity, and Mental Maturity. Some players take longer to develop. Remember, Nelly originally started Marco after training camp 2 seasons ago. He just wasn't ready yet, so he pulled back the reigns and let him develop physically and mentally. The talent has always been there.

 

Right, so when it comes to Wright, do you agree or disagree with Steinmetz because he's not factoring in those three elements and he's just saying Nellie needs to play Wright and Randolph regardless.

 

I see the Marco thing as Nellie being lucky. The only reason Marco is playing right now is that SJax and Maggette are hurt along with Monta. This is hardly the result of some grand plan he had for Marco. If that was the case, there is no way the Crawford trade is made. Oh of course, Morrow returned to reality too other wise Marco would have been even deeper down the bench.

I never thought Nellie was abusive, what I've thought all along is he's forgotten how to develop younger players (he did develop Dirk, so I'll give him that) and I'm sick of it. Without Randolph and Wright, there is little if any future. Monta and Andris are wonderful but Monta may become another gunner if he's playing with Crawford/Maggs/SJax for any extended period of time. Monta needs to develop with the youngsters.

 

Yeah, good points. Injuries to key players certainly had an influence in the decision to play Marco. Basically, he HAD to play him.

 

Here's my take on the situation and article from Steinmetz, which I disagree with.

The way in which Nelson is handeling the young players is more preferable than the way someone like Mike Dunleavy was treated after he was drafted. I believe someone posted a comment that Nelson made about the beginning of the season and his focus. I think it was something like, give me X amount (was it 35 or 40) of games to try to get this team competing and in position for the playoffs before I just decide to develop the young players. I think that is very good to have, especially with a young team. The NBA is the league where you have to compete from the very beginning, and that's a good thing to instill in a team. Also from the in-game quick interview from the ESPN game recently, he was asked about dealing with all the young players on the roster, and he did say something like, "I'm 68 years old and wish I had more vets, but this is what I have".

As far as developing players and what Nelson is doing, I've seen something like this with my brother several years ago. He was playing on this team (it was AAU, in the summer after 8th grade before 9th grade) with this coach that had coached players like Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Isaiah Rider, etc. (even on this team he was playing with Demarcus Nelson). This guy was not always good ol' Saint Nick to his players. He was perhaps like a Bobby Knight, perhaps Don Nelson, in that he was very demanding, always screaming and such. A lot of the time many people, including my brother and definitely our parents had enough of him - including one time where I guess he was about to choke my brother, so I've heard (I wasn't at that game). In the end though, my brother says he was his best coach and he definitely improved the most as a player playing on that team. So having reports where Nelson is saying that Randolph needs to work harder in practice, is not something to go like, "HEY! what happened to your instant love of Randolph? You can't act like this to him now" - which seems to be what Matt's saying. But like that guy who wrote the Last Lecture said, if someone is giving you a hard time about not doing something correctly or properly it's not because they don't like you, it's because they know you can be better and perhaps something special.

To go back to the Warriors situation: Nelson has had the other four positions set, for the most part. The only variable position has been the 4. The other fixed positions have been played by the starters for most of the games and for about 35 to 40 minutes or more per game, I believe. So that leaves about 48 minutes for players like Turiaf, Wright, Randolph and whatever experiment he wants to put at the 4 (like Morrow, Kurz, Maggette, Azubuike, etc.). Turiaf seems to have been the one advancing most at that position, where as the other out of position options have been falling out the window. Wright has advanced well too. I believe he started the last game. Where before it seemed as if Wright would get PT one game, then none the next; where Randolph would get no PT the first game, and then play the second game (I think this was kind of Nelson trying to see what he has with those two). I suppose because of performances in practice or whatever, Randolph has fallen on the depth charts, even behind Kurz. But that's bound to happen for such a young player who hasn't played at the NBA level and consistantly needing to work so hard day in and day out - even in practice. But I am sure Nelson will let him climb back up. I think he's still very high on Randolph as a player.

To sum it all up. I think Nelson is just trying to get these players to be the best they can be, while keeping the team competitive. This is still December. There are several months ahead to just blow off games and play whomever, which I really don't think Nelson at his age wants to start this early in the season. He is harsh and demanding on his players, but that's not a bad thing. Do you think the Spurs coach is very nice on his players? I mean he was always very hard, even on players like Duncan and especially Manu and Parker. They all got better because of it. I think Nelson will do the same with these young players on this team. I like this method much better than just giving PT because they were drafted higher than another player or because they are supposed to be the "future of the team" (especially since I don't think any of these players are really at that level - even though I won't say they don't have the potential to be called that - I hope they are all with the team for many years).

So that's my say on this whole Nelson hates the young players thing and it hurting their development. He may dislike having so many on his team, but I don't think he's been hurting their development. I don't think he's hurting the team either, unless if he gets someone to demand a trade (maybe like he did with Randolph?). I don't know, though. I guess we will see how it all turns out.

 

Nicely said. I agree with it all. People will say that Nellie has given free reign to his veterans like Sjax, Mags, and Crawford, but like I said and you said, Nellie is trying to win games so you can't blame him for relying on his veterans. The problem is, his veterans, namely Sjax, haven't really shined this season. His veterans are hurting the team more than anything. I would say that was totally unexpected. But, being veterans, a coach would hope that they wouldn't continue this streak of ugly play.

Again, it's only December...the 2nd month of a very long season. It seems Nellie has already confronted Sjax about his horrible play. Maggette as well, right when he got injured. I think Crawford is doing okay, but he can still do better as far as team play is concerned.

 

Nicely said.

If we really want to play balanced basketball we really have to focus on an inside outside game that starts with setting the tone inside the paint and rebounding and getting second chance points. How many of Nellie's midgets do the job of all that? It's not the role of the small guys to play the big positions, yet Nellie feels inclined to play the small forward at power forward and he gets about the same results as having Harrington playing that spot. Why the freak did we trade Harrington then? So we can develop a new malcontent who doesn't want to play the 4 or 5 in Nellie's idiotic rotations? Because we wanted to get a higher volume chucking guard that is a worse point guard than Baron Davis? I mean we got all these big men and Nellie doesn't want to use them because they're rookies or they can't shoot 3's, then we lose the rebounds and the other team gets more shots on goal than we do... go figure.

It's just absolutely ludicrous how Nellie insists on playing one hand tied behind his back and shooting himself in the foot by not developing the rookies so we can actually get a talented big man to play next to Biedrins. Nelson takes away any chance of setting the tone in the paint. Right now, Nellie's only chance to win games is to set the tone from outside and you know how that works in the Warriors favor....

I really wish we had a coach that took a chance on the big men because we've needed one for about a decade or more. Having Biedrins just isn't enough. If Lamarcus Aldrige and Bosh get playing time so should Wright, Randolph. Who cares if they make mistakes, we got a bunch of undersized doofuses on our team dropping 5 turnovers a game almost and putting up 39% or less shooting on nights in high volume. What is the worst a big man rookie can do that any of our guards do on most nights? I'd love for a big man to take inside shots, box out, and rebound. Lord knows that we don't do any of those 3 things with our midgets on the floor. This is probably one of the reasons why Nelly got fired the first time around. Plus, he's pretty useless without run and gun. I'd like to see at least one play in the 4th being run in the halfcourt set without guys resorting to throwing up a prayer before it touches anybody inside the paint.

 

To have an inside game, you need to be able to get upcourt in time and feed the post (without throwing the ball away). This team doesn't have the backcourt to do that. And, you need bigs that can pass the ball. I don't think this team has either of those 2 things (other than Turiaf, and I don't see us running the offense through him).

 

Randolph has shown some pretty good passing instincts. Wright has not.

 

Do you see Randolph as a back-to-the-basket type of player?

 

Not yet, but short answer is yes. Did you see his spin move and pump fake into the paint last night against Howard and I think Rashard Lewis? He's got good foot work and instincts down low. The move didn't start with his back to the basket, but it showed that he's got the right tools to work in the paint.

It reminded me of KG.