hoopshype rating <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="2"> STRENGTHS: Explosive backcourt ... A perimeter of Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Mickael Pietrus is as athletic as it gets ... Davis, one of the top guards in the league, has injected a lot of talent and enthusiasm to this team ... Pretty potent offense ... This should be one of the top squads in the league in the open court ... Several key players are in or entering their primes ... Richardson could very well be an All-Star this season ... There is an air of optimism in the Bay Area about the team. </font></font> <font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="2"> WEAKNESSES: On paper, the Warriors should once again be one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA ... No stoppers ... Mickael Pietrus is the only perimeter player with good enough defensive mentality ... No shot blockers other than Adonal Foyle ... No proven low-post scorers ... Most of the points will have to come from the perimeter ... Their offensive game could be a little bit too predictable in the half court ... The team was outrebounded on a nightly basis last season ... Will that change this year? ... Durability is an issue with Baron Davis ... He has missed an average of 27 games per season since 2002. </font></font> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"></font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Point guard Baron Davis </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> One of the best point guards in the NBA ? especially when he's not jacking up threes. Knows how to run a team and can score in bunches. </font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"></font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Shooting guard Jason Richardson</font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> J-Rich has shown improvement each and every year since he entered the league. An athletic freak. Extremely flashy. All-Star material?</font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Small Forward Mike Dunleavy </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Will compete for the starting job with Mickael Pietrus. Sweet shooting touch. Very soft. A disappointment so far in the NBA. </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"></font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Power Forward Troy Murphy</font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> The best rebounder on a team that's often outrebounded. Puts up nice numbers, but he is clearly not an elite forward in the league. </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"></font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Center Adonal Foyle</font></font><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> Outstanding shot blocker. Good rebounding skills. No offensive game to speak of. One of the most overpaid players in the NBA.</font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> </font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1">Sixth Man Mickael Pietrus</font></font></div> <div align="left"><font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"><font size="1"> Impressive physical specimen. Has both power and finesse to his game. Good defender. A player to watch out for this season.</font></font></div> http://www.hoopshype.com/previews/golden_state.htm
Power and finesse... I love how they describe Mickael Pietrus in that way because that's two things I think a good nba basketball player has to have. The skills they can always perfect over time if they have the potential and the desire.
The Warriors are a very talented team. There defense needs help, but there offense is simply amazing. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> A perimeter of Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Mickael Pietrus is as athletic as it gets</div> Agreed.
I like the preview and whoever wrote the preview knows about Warriors. Davis: Really, there shouldn't be a reason for Davis to jack up 7.8 3pts attempts per game, when he can do so many things with penetration or run the team efficiently. Not only he can drive at will, he can bump off PFs like a mini tanks. I guess he wants to enjoy the game by shooting 3pts, but still... I want to see him attempting 3 pts no more than 5. Richardson: I loved to hear that Richardson is focusing on how to drive during the summer, because I really do think that will be a major factor for Richardson to survive with Davis. If he can be shake off his defender regulary, All-Star isn't a reach for Richardson. Dunleavy: I really don't know what he can improve. Clearly, we would like him to improve defense or have some ability to create his own shots, but I really think Murphy has better chance of developing post up games (which is just about 0% in my book) than those to happen. I guess I wish Dunleavy to shoot like how he did with Davis, when he basically shot 50% from the field and about 45% from the 3 pts. Murphy: Murphy has a sweet jumper, which seems to go down every time he shots. For that, I am surprised to see how poor his shooting % is. I would love to see him bumping up his shooting % to at least 45% range, instead of 41%. I don't expect post up moves from him, and I don't expect hiim to be more than an average defender (which seems to be a stretch at this point). Foyle: Do whatever you did with Davis. Pietrus: Expand your game like mid range jumpers. Also, if Pietrus becomes a smart defender (which probably will come with experience), he can be a defense demon...
The preview was dead-on IMO. If I was to say things briefly and make my own preview, this would be a match. I noticed they didn't pick on Dunleavy's speed too much, because the guy looks pretty quick with the ball than he does without it. He can beat James Posey off the dribble or fake a drive and hit the step back jumper like Larry Bird used to. He also shoots a good percentage from the field, despite blowing a lot of catch and shoot plays in '04 and early '05. This made some believe he was strictly an off the dribble midrange shooter and not a top of the key, baseline catch and shoot player like Derek Fisher. On defense, the MDJ seems to get killed quite a bit reacting to a smaller, athletic ballhandler and he's soft, no question about it. The softness on defense wasn't as bad in the 2004 when he tried to sell every little body bump as a charge, but at the same time he did a lot more gutsier, prettier things with the ball like a slower Lamar Odom. Other times he played like a soft, unaggressive Toni Kukoc player without all the talent surrounding him to feed off of. I still like Pietrus over Dunleavy since Dun can't create his own shot better than Jrich can in the post or Pietrus or Baron off the dribble. MDJ has a great first and second step toward the hoop, but he can't finish sometimes because the refs don't call the contact or he can't finish in heavy contact like some of the calls they don't call for Jrich or Pietrus who can slam it home or maintain their balance in midair. Bottom line is Dunleavy has some good potential to be an important player, but he's been looking like a role player since day one, especially because he's so below the rim, slow compared to other small forwards and so limited on defense that he has to score like Peja or Dirk to even get noticed. People don't fear or respect the MDJ to give him the benefit of the doubt in anything. The preview also doesn't really talk about why Murphy is not an elite power forward (doesn't pass much because he tries to force the action which leads to lower fg%'s, he doesn't draw many fouls, he doesn't create much in the post or on the drive, doesn't play much defense, and he's horrible in transition defense, but can seem to run out pretty fast on offense). I guess Monty told Murphy not to worry about it since the game plan was to just "outscore the other team". Murphy's foot problem also made him slower than usual when he's actually quite fast running the floor. Sort of a cross between Matt Bonner and Predrag Drobnyak with the automatic midrange J's, the slowness, the extended 3 point range and being in between a power forward and a center. Like Bonner, he also works his ass off.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting kwan1031:</div><div class="quote_post">Richardson: I loved to hear that Richardson is focusing on how to drive during the summer, because I really do think that will be a major factor for Richardson to survive with Davis. If he can be shake off his defender regulary, All-Star isn't a reach for Richardson. </div> Werd. Jrich is still an explosive scorer nonetheless. He gets a dunk he gets hot from everywhere! One thing noted was that JRich was more consistent this year when he learned how to create his shot in ways an inside scoring power forward would do. He started freeing himself from all that defensive pressure that everyone threw on him because he was our best player at the time. He worked on his low post footwork, so all he would have to do in terms of a go to move was to turn his back to the basket with the ball, keep the ball low to protect it, bump his defender off balance using his strength and then do a short dribble spin move in the spot that he wanted to take the midrange jump shot (he added a fade away shot too and sold a lot of pumpfakes and simply outjumped and overpowered defenders). He also stopped forcing the action like he was doing at the beginning of the 2005 season and started looking to pass or looked to draw the foul. A lot of the other times it was just catch and shoot or run toward the rim so he can throw it down or complete the alley oop. If Jrich did have some ambidexterity down (equal use of left/right hand) with the ball, the variety of dribbling skills (behind the back to halt the dribble, a simple left-right crossover, between the legs crossover, behind the back on the drive) and the important first two and half steps off the dribble, he'll be elite like Vinsanity or at least Michael Finley in his prime. Currently at 3 asissts a game, a scorer from anywhere and an improved 3-point shot, I don't see why it couldn't improve to 4 assists a game with the added ballhandling skills since Richardson would now be more like a true shooting guard that can create his own offense and he could be the secondary playmaker to the point guard. Also, he would get to the line more often which would add a few more points to his scoring average and put that pressure on the opposing defenses.
I hope this isn't counted as a triple post, but this primarily both a *bump* and to keep this url link within a proper topic thread. http://www.nba.com/features/power_rankings_sept05.html We have been ranked at #15 in the NBA, 8th seed in the West. 8th is probably the safe bet since Baron was hardly ever healthy to begin with and our low post guys could be struggling initially. There was a few ways for us to play without low post presence and that was to just run it. We don't even have one point guard that makes fastbreaks successful. Dunleavy or Richardson are the closest things. Pietrus, if you count him moving off the ball, could be okay and Zarko definitely has his moments.
