<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> <font size="2">This is the time of year when the other 28 teams watch, examine and determine what the two remaining teams did right. This year?s theme is obvious: you can make the playoffs with offense, but you win a championship with defense. The Pistons and Spurs are the best defensive teams in the league, and not coincidently, they are still playing. </font> <font size="2"> Which brings me to the Warriors. I understand that fans in the Bay Area want to see a playoff team before they talk championship. But just for fun, let?s see how the Warriors stack up against the teams in the finals. ? and what it would take to get to that level defensively. After acquiring Baron Davis, the Warriors resembled the Suns? style of play. They ran, scored and barely defended. It was enough to win the majority of their games ? just like it was for the Suns ? but it probably wouldn?t have gotten them very far had they made the playoffs. Still, it was a huge improvement from what we saw early in the season. But for the Warriors to compete with the upper-echelon teams, they need better individual, team and transition defense. Does good defense always beat good offense? Not necessarily, but I don?t think there?s any question that in order to be a championship-caliber team, you must have the ability to stop the opponent in the fourth quarter. The Suns couldn?t do that and now they?re on vacation. For the Spurs, Tim Duncan, Bruce Bowen, Manu Ginobili and Robert Horry are excellent defenders. The Pistons? entire starting lineup consists of above-average-to-outstanding defenders. If you look at the Warriors roster, three of the five starters (Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy) have been criticized for defense. Davis? defense isn?t talked about, but it is above average and definitely good enough to lead a team. Adonal Foyle, who is a better help defender and shot-blocker than a straight-up defender, is an above average defender overall. Mickael Pietrus is really the only player on the team who is known for his defense. Though he?s no Bowen or Ron Artest at this point, Pietrus is extremely aggressive and active, and he bothers the opponent more than any other Warrior. Perhaps Pietrus? best defensive game as a pro was April 18 against the Lakers. In a game where he was mostly matched up on Kobe Bryant, Pietrus helped force him to a 9-for-27 shooting game. Bryant was visibly frustrated by the third quarter, drawing a technical foul at one point. http://warriors.realgm.com/articles/101/20..._the_finalists/ </font></div>...
This year's PO has been very interesting to say the least. First, we have Shaq and Wade's team. The team with two superstars and bunch of role players, which reminds of last year's Lakers that defeated Spurs. Second, we have Pistons. The team with very good 'roll playing' starting 5 players with good bench. They defeated Lakers last year and this year's Heat. Third, we have Spurs. Mix of Lakers and Pistons. One superstar, couple very good 'roll playing' starters, and bunch of roll players. They lost to Lakers last year, but they are completely dismantling Pistons so far. Kinda feels like rock paper game. In retro respect, Heat probably are better match up against Spurs then Pistons. Can we model any of those teams? Well, no. Since, all those teams have a force in the middle, both offense and defense, and we don't. If any, our team is close to Suns, Dallas or Kings, and with current line up, I just don't think we will ever have a good defense to go deep in PO, and in order for us to imitate either Spurs or Pistons, we probably need a major overhaul. But, until we hit our limit, Mullin will probably push with this core. Speaking of finals... Did anybody see this coming? I mean, I thought Spurs would win eventually, but they are completely destroying Pistons. Once considered best defense in the league is ineffective against Spurs' not so well known offense, and their supposely well oiled offense went complete stop against Spurs. Dang, why did Duncan decide to finish his degree, instead of coming out in his 2nd year, when we had 1st pick? It's amazing to see how everything moves around Duncan so efficiently, even though he doesn't exactly dominates in stat wise. If Duncan wins this title, how would you rank Duncan in all time best?
Actually, I did bet money on the Spurs. They've got the franchise superstar, the D and O, the half court game, the running game, the bench and the x-factors. Big Shot Bob and SuperManu are just killer. I guess the Warriors should just concentrate on making the playoffs. It's taken us this long, we have to go to war with what we got. I just wish we could've focussed our drafting effort on players with potential and have the attitude and ability to play tough on both ends. Sure we've had our bad luck getting the high draft selections because of the pingpong balls. Lost out to the Knicks when we had the overall worst record long ago and we missed out on Yao Ming by two spots. We totally blew it on Kevin Garnett. Guys like Jamison, Arenas, Murphy, Richardson, as good as they are just don't get it done on defense. Richardson has improved on D and gotten more consistent on O. At least out of the four, I'm glad we kept the one that makes the team better. 4-5 assists a game + steals + scoring is what a good shooting guard should be doing. Now if Arenas was 6'6 he'd be an awesome shooting guard.
Arenas should be SG. I didn't like his PG skill before, especially when we are in half court set, and once I see how Davis operates as a PG, I really do think they need PG to involve entire team around. One too many times, it's either Arenas or Hughes dribbles, pass each other and shoots. God knows how Jamison actually managed to scrap 20+ ppg. And, since they failed to involve big men, that may be one of the reason why their defense is bad. Yeah, Duncan and Manu get credits, but don't forget the secret hero. I. Thomas! If he didn't trade Mohammad for Rose and his horrible contract, I don't know Spurs could advance to the final. His 10/7 has been huge for them. Ugh. Our draft luck. First, Nelson had to blow 3 unprotected first round pick for Webber, so that hampered us quite a bit. Then, when we actually got the first pick. Duncan's mom convinced Duncan to stay in school. Of course, in Duncan's sake, teamming with Robinson instead of Spree was an absolute gift from the above, but what about us! Without Duncan, we had to choose between Smith, McDyess, Stackhouse and Wallace. Unsurprisingly, we selected the worst one, Smith. And, we had 5th worst record in that year. 5th pick was Garnett. But then, Twerdzik probably would have drafted Big Country anyway. Then, there is whole Fuller over Kobe and Foyle over McGrady. Then, when we actually had a guy who can make a right choice in draft, we got worst possible pick possible. We had 3rd worst rec in 2001 and we can't get any worse than 5th pick. Guess what. We got 5th pick! Well, we managed to draft darn good player, named Richardson, so I don't have any problem with that. And, there is whole Yao/Williams draft when we got 3rd pick, despite having the worst rec. Well, at least Mullin has eyes for talent and luck as well, considering how everybody's grandmother knew that we would draft Biedrins months before the draft happens, but we safely got him at the end. So, let's see if Mullin can get another good player. Ok, that's enough rambling from me at this moment ...
The W's went more up tempo post-Davis. Actually,up-tempo had been the plan earlier but we needed a PG who brought it up aggresively and penetrated,plus a team concept of move,pass,drive and don't stand still out at the arc. A tempo game means both teams have more possessions,so scores are higher-BUT you can play up tempo OFFENSE..and still play good D. Important reasons behind my chronic insistance that Diogu or Granger is our guy-is that they both play very nice D,and can play up tempo,and are efficient scorers,as opposed to volume shooters. The HS and import options are relatively unproven on D,though Splitter and Blatche have decent shotblock numbers. Round 2,Deng Gai can be a D specialist. Look him up at CBS Spotsline's stats ....big time shotblocker.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kwan1031:</div><div class="quote_post">This year's PO has been very interesting to say the least. First, we have Shaq and Wade's team. The team with two superstars and bunch of role players, which reminds of last year's Lakers that defeated Spurs. Second, we have Pistons. The team with very good 'roll playing' starting 5 players with good bench. They defeated Lakers last year and this year's Heat. Third, we have Spurs. Mix of Lakers and Pistons. One superstar, couple very good 'roll playing' starters, and bunch of roll players. They lost to Lakers last year, but they are completely dismantling Pistons so far. Kinda feels like rock paper game. In retro respect, Heat probably are better match up against Spurs then Pistons. Can we model any of those teams? Well, no. Since, all those teams have a force in the middle, both offense and defense, and we don't. If any, our team is close to Suns, Dallas or Kings, and with current line up, I just don't think we will ever have a good defense to go deep in PO, and in order for us to imitate either Spurs or Pistons, we probably need a major overhaul. But, until we hit our limit, Mullin will probably push with this core. Speaking of finals... Did anybody see this coming? I mean, I thought Spurs would win eventually, but they are completely destroying Pistons. Once considered best defense in the league is ineffective against Spurs' not so well known offense, and their supposely well oiled offense went complete stop against Spurs. Dang, why did Duncan decide to finish his degree, instead of coming out in his 2nd year, when we had 1st pick? It's amazing to see how everything moves around Duncan so efficiently, even though he doesn't exactly dominates in stat wise. If Duncan wins this title, how would you rank Duncan in all time best?</div> Pretty interesting thought. It is hard to compare ERAS,Wilt + Russell had numbers hard to match now,because there is a smaller gap between the best and the rest. However,if Wilt had modern day training techniques,look out. In recent years,Olajuwon,Duncan and Shaq have been the elite Centers...though Duncan is often called a PF,he plays the role of a C typically.
Don't worry, Kwan, I love rambling about the Warriors, in every facet, past or present. Keep rambling! It helps educate us in terms of the forgotten history of the draft or what the GM's would have done if other lame GM's didn't do it first i.e. Bryant "Big Country" Reeves. Also, if we make it big in the playoffs, let's send a thank you card to our hero, Allan Bristow. REREM definitely admits to being old school, which is why I actually appreciate an x's and o's guy like Montgomery and a pure point guard who can make his team better in an old school way by moving the ball, collapsing/stretching defenses, getting other guys open for the wide open look. I like points like John Stockton, Steve Nash, Jason Kidd, quick point or big point guards with courtvision and creativity. Also I'm glad we have a point guard that can create and doesn't shoot the moment he crosses the halfcourt line i.e. Gilbert Arenas. I gave Arenas some slack because he was our most talented player at the time and his game wasn't as ugly as Jamison's. Gil had a great crossover and was clutch as we all knew from seeing him play for the Warriors for two years. He also showed signs of developing into a good playmaker at least to the point where he was at Jason Terry or Allen Iverson's level. I'm glad Baron Davis is making us forget about the former #0 because without a passing, double teamed big man like Shaq, KG, Duncan, and others that can draw fouls and create offense for the outside shooters, we were forced to do it from the outside position. I believe a franchise should be built on the either the point guard or the power forward/center spots. If we look at a lot of the successful teams, they've had both a point guard or a big man and they've all been above average defenders and pretty good scorers/passers. I'm hoping Andris Biedrins can be that big, passing center that can mix it up a little like Jermaine O'neil by lowering his shoulder, drop-stepping pump fake off glass, converting on putbacks/fastbreaks, and using the skyhook. On defense, I hope he's like Alonzo Mourning in his prime. Now Baron Davis, woah, that is going to be a guy who will be scary when healthy and is beginning to hit his prime. I think he will be league MVP if healthy and the Warriors end up making the playoffs and having one of the better records in the entire league. He and Derek Fisher do find Biedrins a lot, but Biedrins has to grow up fast and learn to develop his game as an inside scorer as well as be the intimidator on the defensive end without fouling out too early. I hope Biedrins can create his shot somewhat and learn to pick and pop eventually. Pick and roll will be deadly if AB lives up to his potential as a tall and lengthy, aggressive, wirery strong, athletic big man with a soft touch inside.
