<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Are Expectations Too High? Payam Jahromi - 13th September, 2005 11:52 AM The season can?t start soon enough. That?s the prevailing feeling in the Bay Area when it comes to the Warriors. After the 18-10 finish with Baron Davis, the optimism and anticipation has been phenomenal while season tickets sales have increased more than any other team. This broaches the obvious question. Are the expectations too high? I?ve heard some call the Warriors this year?s Suns. That?s ridiculous. Despite some similarities ? both get the point guard who makes the team click ? there is one big difference. The Suns have Amare Stoudamire and the Warriors have Adonal Foyle. The Suns won over 60 games. The Warriors have no shot of winning that many in 2005-06. Any realistic Warriors fan knows the Warriors have a shot at the No. 7 or 8 seed in the Western Conference ? and perhaps the fifth or sixth seed as a best-case scenario. But if anything goes wrong, such as injury or just a letdown, this team will miss the playoffs for the twelfth consecutive year. With all the hype and expectations, another trip to the lottery will be considerably disappointing for the fans. And that?s what scares me. Are the fans setting themselves up for more torture, or is this is a team that will surprise the league next season? Time will tell.</div> Continued
Well awhile ago weren't we posting articles from insidehoops.com? It was the "article" about Celtics/Nuggets trade with Pierce for Nene/Miller. I'll take this article since it was the least ridiculous. 7th/8th seed could be about right. I'd figure even the 2nd time around without Baron in all 82 games would be a lot better than last year because of the adjustment period teams usually go through with a new head coach and losing a good starting center (A consistent, intimidating presence of a big man is that important). When we didn't play Foyle and we started playing a PF/SF at center, it was pretty ridiculous in terms of how bad we got outrebounded and taken to the rack because of the lack of shotblocking intimidation. So like the often coined phrase, "We are only one good player away from making the playoffs", it holds true that we are only one good player away from missing the playoffs just as well. Baron needs to hold up, because unlike the Kings/Suns we don't have any Pejas, Bibbys, Millers, Stoudamires, J. Johnsons to step in if the Nashes and Webbers go down. At least 4 of those type of teams' starting 5s were studs and they had mismatches all over the place in their favor.
Oh, one more thing: Shooting guards like Jrich or even some of the most elite shooting guards can't save franchises. We saw that with Kobe and T-mac leading the league in scoring and that didn't save their teams from missing the playoffs. So if Baron goes down and if Kobe was a warrior, I don't believe Kobe could even save us with our frontcourt and our middle. I've been mentioning that Murphy, Dunleavy are good players and Foyle is decent for what is expected of him, but even I think they're slowly looking like they don't belong. Dunleavy could be nice to hold on to just to see if a low post presence makes a difference in the way he plays. Murphy ain't getting down on that block, but Ike/Taft would, so it would be nice to see how Dunleavy could make the big man inside a lot better. I think he can honestly.
One aspect of the Warriors, which is being overlooked is the fact this team brings back all their key players from last season. When was the last time the Warriors didn't go through an off-season of losing key players? 2004-05 - Lost Erik Dampier & Brian Cardinal 2003-04 - Lost Antawn Jamison & Gilbert Arenas & Bobby Sura 2002-03 - Lost Larry Hughes & Danny Fortson In order for a team to improve they need stability from the top of the organization on down. This off-season the Warriors finally accomplished retaining all their core players. They improved through the draft, and trimmed some of the fat from last season's roster. No one's going to miss Nikoloz Tskitishvili or Rodney White from this team. Baron Davis played all of 28 games with Golden State last year, and the team meshed immediately with him on board to win 18 of the 28 games. Now the team has an entire summer and full season to grow and improve together. Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, and Troy Murphy have been improving every season, sometimes all you need is time for your draft picks to become seasoned veterans. I expect Pietrus to continue to improve and also Biedrins, plus the contributions from this crop of draft picks, Ike Diogu, Chris Taft, and Monta Ellis. I don't think it's fair to write the Warriors off even if Baron Davis gets injured. They still have plenty of fire power from a group of players who have improved every season. I think they can have similar results to the Baby Bulls of last season or possibly the Sonics. Both those teams just needed a few seasons to have their young players get experience and mesh. The Warriors also have the option of making a trade if Baron Davis gets injured, or just simply signing a veteran PG to a contract until Davis is healthy enough to play. Someone like Travis Best would be good enough for a veteran signing. Also the Wizards will be shopping Chucky Atkins all season long. The Warriors could probably acquire him for a second round pick and Calbert Chaney's expiring contract.
The warriors have derek fisher to back up baron davis but thats not the warrior's problem the problem is lack of rebounds. you guys drafted some good rebounds in diogu and taft but im expecting taft to do way better than diogu
Hey, after all these years of futility we have every right to be giddy and have our high expectations. I'm lovin' all the imaginary scenarios with the Warriors as winners. I think our biggest weakness is Coach Montgomery. Last season he missed many substitutions, was a poor clock manager and he was the worst in the league at calling timeouts to slow the oppositions rallies. Sure we have weaknesses in our lineup every team does. And an injury to a key player will kill us. Just like the Lakers loosing Kobe or Minnesota loosing KG. We can't have any long term injuries to Baron. He is the catalyst and creator of all my offseason hopes for the Warriors. We'll run with any team in the league. If Monty gets his sh*t together and the Warriors can get stops at the end of games, and if..... a lot of ifs but that's what makes the games so much fun to watch. This team will kick some serious a** this year. Bring on the season!
Look, if the Warriors play like they did when they played 18-10, that is good enough right there. But that was when Baron was still kind of gimpy. The article said it right when he STARTED we went 14-5. That is amazing. If they can sustain that winning percentage through the entire season we would win about 55 games. That is not far off of Phoenix's mark. Rememeber that 14-5 stretch? That included away games against the likes of Seattle (league suprise), Sacramento, Houston and Phoenix. Those teams are the teams we are competing against. In my mind the only thing keeping us from the top 3 seeds in the west is the new and improved Kings and injuries. If we stay relatively injury free and Sacramento is not as good as Kings fans think they are going to be then I am not settling for the 7 or 8 seed, I am thinking #1, 2 or 3 seed... As Montay says....Bring on the season!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post"> As Montay says....Bring on the season!</div> We need to get some sort of corny graphic with that on it. Then we dont have to type it in after every post. Bring on the Season!
I agree with WFS93, anything is possible depending on how our guys hold up. We could go very high. We're still very deep and talented and the chemistry has improved a bit last year because like shape mentioned, we kept everyone together. tmacgarnett also mentioned we got our butts outrebounded and that's true. If it weren't for Troy Murphy, defensive stops wouldn't matter. I remember when we had Cliff Robinson at power forward and we lost Dampier, we'd have to play defense twice in a row sometimes or more and we'd lose on the putback or offensive rebound Montay, we'll see about Montgomery. I've got much more faith in him then Musselman because he's more creative, less hotheaded and pragmatic, but I agree his quirks can be annoying. The guy is not stupid or clueless, he's just got a different belief system and plus he's like a rookie. He can't do jack unless the players get used to him and buy into his stuff. He was the best coach prospect at the time that was willing to do the job at least. I don't think any great coach wants to coach a losing team without any stars. Musselman was pretty good, but the guy did run a basketball team like a basketball team. He basically just told his guys to run, pass and cut. Very few people passed... also there was so much running, nobody bothered to play defense. I wish we could have gotten George Karl a long time ago... but then he'd probably run Jrich out of town and it's not like we had any great starting point guard. I still thought Luke Ridnour was a better point than Claxton because he could actually dribble with his head up, shoot, and look for people on the drive, so the 2003 draft might have been interesting if we took the safe pick for need over Pietrus, the shooting guard. BTW, Claxton was pretty much the opposite of all those traits of Ridnour even though I absolutely dug Speedy's one-on-one ballhandling, athleticism and pesky defense. You can't be a good point guard without some measure of quickness, ability to pass on target, ability to see the floor well, handle the ball well, and shoot from at least 20 feet. Even Stockton had some quickness, although he wasn't the fastest, but he did everything else great and he made the scorers a lot better. So while Speedy did have the quickness, ballhandling down, and he was exciting to watch, his injuries, the fact he was rather quiet for a floor leader and the fact he never developed a consistent shot or way to find anybody on the kickout or on the interior pass was maybe one reason the guy couldn't guarantee his own starting job against a guy like Fisher before the season began.
I hate the fact that everyone is jumping on the Warrior bandwagon. Now when the Warriors do have success this season they are going to say that they were behind us from the beginning, when they have been Warriors haters for the past 10 years!!!! Names like Chad Ford jump to mind.
SanQuinn, I actually started watching/learning the game of basketball last November. Never knew much about it previously, just that my friends would always talk about it. So I decided to give the sport a shot (I never really watched sports before), and I started by watching the Warriors. Warrior games were the only ones I watched, and they became my favorite team. Of course I was frustrated by their 4th quarter failures, which I called "The Curse" since they always do good up to the last 5-12 mins then just lose it completely. But I stuck with them an watched like 80% of their games (making school tougher I must say). Then Baron came... he was the answer to my prayers for the teams, and of course, everyone elses. Now I count everyday until the season starts. I just hope I don't fall into the "bandwagon" category.
Since the Warriors were your first team, and you were a fan in the B.D. era (before Davis), then I guess that makes a "true" Warriors fan. Just consider yourself lucky that you didnt have to suffer through John Starks, Duane Ferrell, Bimbo Coles, etc.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SanQuinn:</div><div class="quote_post">I hate the fact that everyone is jumping on the Warrior bandwagon. Now when the Warriors do have success this season they are going to say that they were behind us from the beginning, when they have been Warriors haters for the past 10 years!!!! Names like Chad Ford jump to mind.</div> Werd on bandwagoners! I don't think Chad Ford really jumped on the bandwagon per say but he has made good comments about the Warriors season outlook. I get nervous when Chad Ford starts talking nice about the Warriors, though. It's like opposite day whenever he does season previews. His niche is the nba draft, not season previews.
I just glad Stephan A(hole) Smith is stubborn enough to continue to hate on the Warriors even after Barron came and the success they had with him last season. Damn it's gonna feel good to shove it in his face!!! OH NO BABAY!!!!!!!!!!! THE WAARRIORS ARE BACK!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AnimeFANatic:</div><div class="quote_post">SanQuinn, I actually started watching/learning the game of basketball last November. Never knew much about it previously, just that my friends would always talk about it. So I decided to give the sport a shot (I never really watched sports before), and I started by watching the Warriors. Warrior games were the only ones I watched, and they became my favorite team. Of course I was frustrated by their 4th quarter failures, which I called "The Curse" since they always do good up to the last 5-12 mins then just lose it completely. But I stuck with them an watched like 80% of their games (making school tougher I must say). Then Baron came... he was the answer to my prayers for the teams, and of course, everyone elses. Now I count everyday until the season starts. I just hope I don't fall into the "bandwagon" category.</div> I think what Quinn was saying is that if you're a Phoenix Suns fast last year, A Lakers fan the year before with Malone/Payton/Shaq/Kobe, and all of a sudden you're a Warrior fan this year (if they live up to the hype), it's like you have no true team that you stick with because you root for whoever the hot team at the moment is. That's being a bandwagon fan. Now a fairweather fan is a fan that decides to hop on board their favorite team whenever they happen to be making a buzz or doing well, but go into hiding whenever they suck. In your case you'd be just a new fan. I think it's safe to say most here are pretty passionate about our Warriors.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting SanQuinn:</div><div class="quote_post">I just glad Stephan A(hole) Smith is stubborn enough to continue to hate on the Warriors even after Barron came and the success they had with him last season. Damn it's gonna feel good to shove it in his face!!! OH NO BABAY!!!!!!!!!!! THE WAARRIORS ARE BACK!!!</div> Remember Stephen A. Smith said that "Baron Davis will NOT be traded by the Hornets at the deadline" and the other times he was so far off like "The Orlando Magic WILL make the playoffs (with Tracy McGrady even after their 0 and 15(?) season start or something)". Can't believe he got his own show... Quite frankly he's annoying
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">We need to get some sort of corny graphic with that on it. Then we dont have to type it in after every post. Bring on the Season!</div> I could do that! We'll have Montay sport it around for us
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">I could do that! We'll have Montay sport it around for us</div> bring it on!
