<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -- Mike Montgomery drops by the office of Golden State general manager Rod Higgins almost daily now just to see what's happening. Are there any trades in the works? Which players are on the Warriors' radar? What else is new? Montgomery is clearly much more comfortable as an NBA head coach entering his second season in the league. He's ready to bring back winning to this playoff-starved organization, which hasn't reached in the postseason since 1994. ``I don't feel smarter,'' Montgomery said Wednesday. ``I certainly have a much better grasp. It seems more normal to me now. We're way, way ahead from where we were a year ago.'' Golden State has almost its entire roster back, most notably All-Star point guard Baron Davis -- and he will be healthy and around for the entire season after coming to the Warriors in a February trade with the New Orleans Hornets. There is hype surrounding this team again as the squad kicks off training camp in two weeks in Hawaii, and realistic talk of the Warriors being a playoff contender in the challenging Western Conference. When both Bay Area baseball teams were struggling this summer, many fans were looking ahead to the start of the season for the hard-luck Warriors and how perhaps their fortune would finally change. Montgomery made the tough decision to leave Stanford after 18 seasons on The Farm to be part of his new team's turnaround. The Warriors missed the playoffs for the 11th straight season last spring and finished with three fewer wins than the previous year when coach Eric Musselman got fired. Losing has never sat well with Montgomery, who took Stanford to the second round of the NCAA tournament for 10 straight seasons before bolting for the challenge of the NBA. Golden State went 18-10 after Davis' arrival, getting eight of those wins against playoff-bound teams and nine away from Oakland Arena. So, there are all kinds of positive signs for the Warriors -- and signs to Golden State's management that Montgomery is the guy to get it done. ``There are a lot of characteristics good coaches have at any level, and Mike has all that,'' said Chris Mullin, vice president of basketball operations. ``Of course when you change leagues ... the game is different and that just takes an adjustment period. I think Mike has handled all that really well. He feels more comfortable.'' Montgomery is no longer working with college kids, but grown men who respond differently to criticism and instruction. He had to rid himself of some old habits in a hurry. That proved to be his biggest challenge as a rookie NBA coach. ``Some of the nuances just took some time,'' Montgomery said. ``As a coach, I've been doing this for a long time. At Stanford, I got used to coaching a certain way with a certain kind of kid. The major adjustment is dealing with different personalities. ... Yet I still have to get them to respond.'' </div> Source
I've studied up on Montgomery's basketball style and I think, for the most part, it's inline with what the Warriors have been trying to achieve for the last few years, but just couldn't do with the personnel. We still don't have a half-court team that could play like the Pistons or Spurs, but we could be somewhat flexible in running our open court game and then do some passing and off the ball movement kind of game that will spread out the floor a little more, and also add some better team defense as well. While I disagree with Monty's tactics on the floor like his substitution patterns and his timeout calling, he's really skilled fundamentally on the team game. Plus, he's found very quickly what doesn't work early on, so he doesn't need to explore that any further. We basically play open court ball for now until we start playing more like a truly organized team that can toy with another team.
Let's see what he can do for his 2nd year. His first year has been OK, so let's see if he can place some sort of his own offense and defense scheme...
College coaches usually pull the "do it my way or the highway" routine when everything hits the fan. We got Baron and he balled. Monty said "yes....let's do more of that!" In all seriousness letting this team shoot unlimited three pointers had some logic to it. With our guys on the perimeter, we could easily get back on defense. Good idea Monty.
I don't think it was really Monty's idea to shoot the low % 3-point shot a whole lot, I think that's just unfair to blame him. If there was a breakdown in the play, our players would just jack it up. Take Fisher for instance, he held up a play number, and then eventually it was like f-it I'm shooting. The team didn't know what to do. had no dominant dribble penetrators, shooters, or inside scorers. Even when we had Baron Davis we tended to shoot even more 3-point shots because defenders would collapse on Baron Davis inside right before the kickout. I mean it's not like you can go to Murphy or Foyle inside on the block... And once Baron kicked out that's the only good look at the basket because Murphy played away from the rim and Foyle's got hands of stone. It takes him like two seconds to catch a pass because it bounces off each of his hands like they were frying pans. Having a 4 and 5 position that has no post game or inside scoring (The 4 man gets stuffed by 6'2 guards despite his great hands, and the other who has bad hands can't even dunk or do a layup properly after catching it). We've also got weak transition D in general, Murphy can run quite fast on offense, but he's pretty slow getting back. Foyle isn't that athletic to run back and play defense for two people when he's generally one of the slower guys on the floor because of his size and weight. Plus, the fact we have few guys in general that could draw double team respect doesn't help either to get these jump shooters open and get the floor spacing a lot more spread out. We had no ability to utilize plays to get any good midrange looks. Teams could just zone us out and then we had no choice to jack up 3's because we had no franchise talent or team organization to make up for lack of franchise talent. Face it, we need some kind of system eventually whether it's Monty's or somebody else's because we can't rely on Bdiddy to make or break the team. The team needs to find alternative ways to score off the ball rather than with it or else Jrich needs to develop handles, Murphy needs to develop post game and an outlet pass, and Dunleavy needs to learn how to lose his defender on a regular basis. I mean it's not that simple and Mullin/Monty definitely understand the aspects of this game we need to have in place if we were ever to grow into a team that could repeat the 1975 season, let alone make the playoffs. We need smart ball movement with the ball and off the ball. We don't move great off the ball and you can tell our players like to stand around a lot like they have no clue what to do. Changing coaches every two years doesn't help us either, but it's not like Musselman ever had a reliable system that nba veterans could respect and opposing teams couldn't anticipate in the 2nd half of games. Part of the reason we won as many games under Muss is because we happend to have two all-stars on our team at the time in Gilbert Arenas and Antwan Jamison plus a decent center tandem in Erick Dampier/Adonal Foyle, a healthy Murphy, and a pretty good scorer in Jason Richardson with Earl Boykins/Arenas backcourt to close out games.
Well, we did try to install more of set offense system at the beginning of last year, and I have to say ever since I started to watch Warriors for last 11 years, it was the most horrendous moments. We shot below 40% while other team shot above 50%. To make things worse, with last offseason's shopping spree, we had zero flexibility for years to come. Must say that was the moment when I thought about jumping out of this sinking ship. Fortunately, Richardson came out and salvaged the early part of the season, and after we got Davis, we know the rest. Maybe that's why Monty was very high on drafting Diogu. In order for us to have some set play, we need some sort of post plays, and in that draft, nobody is supposely better than Diogu. I don't necessary agree with the move, because we are already dropping 110 pts with Davis, whether we have post up plays or not, but let's see what will happen in this coming season...
Yeah, let's just wait and see. I tend to be a proponent of a versatile method of attack that will help control the tempo of the game, whether it be more adjustments made to defense or more adjustments to offense or balanced attack. Since, there's no ignoring the fact our defense is not that strong, we better hope our offense is super tight this year. Diogu is supposed to be a sound defensive player, but at his size it might be tough. Richardson will never be 3rd team all defense. Dunleavy just sucks on defense not because he doesn't know how, but because he's too slow. He's a good help defender though, but nobody's afraid of shooting the ball right in front of his dome. Murphy is a lousy defender. Foyle is a terrible defender in the post. He will either reach in or let the guy get position right on him. He's got no craftiness or finesse like the way Brian Grant, Dale Davis, Kurt Thomas, or Cliff Robinson play post D. Hopefully, we'd like to have a defense in place in addition to being able to play any way we can to control the game. (defense/halfcourt with big strong players who can pound it in and pass to outside shooters) or fast (all offense/run n' gun small ball/ with our best inside finishers and in-transition/set shooters). Biedrins/Pietrus/Diogu/Taft/Ellis is a good start since they all happen to play very good defense with potential to be decent to great scorers. If Diogu helps out Monty, I think he'll also help out guys like Baron and Dunleavy and Richardson and eventually Biedrins. With those 4 passing and Diogu not a bad passer himself, it could be a very solid future lineup. pg Baron Davis sg Jason Richardson sf Mike Dunleavy Jr. pf Ike Diogu c Andris Biedrins I hope we can keep Pietrus, though, but even I have some doubts about Pietrus' ability to be consistent with his style of offensive game and as 4th option starter (He might want a bigger role on the team). Touches need to go to Bdiddy, Jrich and an inside scorer. But man we need some perimeter defense in the worst way. Jason Richardson still is an average defender and Mike Dunleavy will never play very good D based on the way he is.
