I think we are going to have to make a sticky about Taft. The kid is getting really appreciated by Warriors fans for his dunks and his better than expected defensive play. I saw he got a nice feed from Baron for the dunk when he was following up Baron's drive to the hoop. That is perfect! That is how Baron makes players around him better. Last night for the first time it looked like Monty found his 9 man rotation with Fisher, Pietrus, Zarko and Taft playing. I think he needs to keep that rotation right there for a while. It sucks for Miles and especially Ellis because I think they deserve some PT. Hopefully we can get some more blow out games and these guys can get in there. And when Diogu gets back I think Zarko is out of the rotation. What do you guys think? Or will it be Taft? I hope it is Zarko. In fact I hope Zarko gets traded along with Fisher or someone else. Nothing against Zarko, I just want to make room for Diogu and Taft. I think if Taft keeps playing well he will have a chance to start in place of Foyle soon. Maybe not this season but soon. It also sucks for Biedrens. Speaking of him, where was he last night?
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">I think we are going to have to make a sticky about Taft. The kid is getting really appreciated by Warriors fans for his dunks and his better than expected defensive play. I saw he got a nice feed from Baron for the dunk when he was following up Baron's drive to the hoop. That is perfect! That is how Baron makes players around him better. Last night for the first time it looked like Monty found his 9 man rotation with Fisher, Pietrus, Zarko and Taft playing. I think he needs to keep that rotation right there for a while. It sucks for Miles and especially Ellis because I think they deserve some PT. Hopefully we can get some more blow out games and these guys can get in there. And when Diogu gets back I think Zarko is out of the rotation. What do you guys think? Or will it be Taft? I hope it is Zarko. In fact I hope Zarko gets traded along with Fisher or someone else. Nothing against Zarko, I just want to make room for Diogu and Taft. I think if Taft keeps playing well he will have a chance to start in place of Foyle soon. Maybe not this season but soon. It also sucks for Biedrens. Speaking of him, where was he last night?</div> I think Taft played minimal minutes because A) Murphy/Foyle were playing well and Monty was saving him for tonight's game against Da' Bulls. If Taft can keep up his good play, I too would like to see him more than Zarko. But, you have to remember that Zarko has abilities Taft doesn't: <ul> [*]Mid/Long Range Shot [*]Triple Threat [*]Passing [/list] All the while, Taft has shown things I could never seen Zarko do which is probably more valuable to the Warriors at this point. I think when Ike comes back and produces to everyone's expectations, Taft is the one that will be shoved to the end of the bench. But, don't quote me on that . At this point, I'm ambivalent as to who is more valuable, Zarko or Taft...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kensaku:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Taft played minimal minutes because A) Murphy/Foyle were playing well and Monty was saving him for tonight's game against Da' Bulls. If Taft can keep up his good play, I too would like to see him more than Zarko. But, you have to remember that Zarko has abilities Taft doesn't: <ul> [*]Mid/Long Range Shot [*]Triple Threat [*]Passing [/list] All the while, Taft has shown things I could never seen Zarko do which is probably more valuable to the Warriors at this point. I think when Ike comes back and produces to everyone's expectations, Taft is the one that will be shoved to the end of the bench. But, don't quote me on that . At this point, I'm ambivalent as to who is more valuable, Zarko or Taft...</div> BTW, Kensaku, welcome to the board! I dont think I have seen you post on here before. This was a great post and I agree with you for the most part. I totally agree Taft and Zarko are different players and I think who plays depends on the matchups and what kind of line up we run. Taft and Diogu seem to be very similar players so Diogu and Taft are probably going to be competing for minutes rather than Zarko. That makes sense. I just like what I have seen and heard about him so far. He seems like he could be a starting center in a few years. Now that is somewhat unfortunate for Beans. Good luck to all of the Warriors young players...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kensaku:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Taft played minimal minutes because A) Murphy/Foyle were playing well and Monty was saving him for tonight's game against Da' Bulls. If Taft can keep up his good play, I too would like to see him more than Zarko. But, you have to remember that Zarko has abilities Taft doesn't: <ul> [*]Mid/Long Range Shot [*]Triple Threat [*]Passing[/list] All the while, Taft has shown things I could never seen Zarko do which is probably more valuable to the Warriors at this point. I think when Ike comes back and produces to everyone's expectations, Taft is the one that will be shoved to the end of the bench. But, don't quote me on that . At this point, I'm ambivalent as to who is more valuable, Zarko or Taft...</div> Good points. I think with what Dunleavy provides in an all around game is enough to make Zarko somewhat not needed, which is unfortunate because I like Zarko a lot. He delivers as a matchup nightmare with those killer steps of his and at 50% fg shooting on most nights. Plus, he can actually finish in traffic going hard. I think Taft doesn't take away Zarko's minutes, but it's Dunleavy taking away Zarko's minutes because Zarko is not a good rebounder for his size. Dunleavy at power forward has been pretty standard issue in this smaller lineup since Dunleavy can handle the ball and rebound a lot better. Taft is great for the reason that we don't have any other big men to fill in the gaps at center and he does his duty well. Biedrins is too light to play center a whole lot with his feet, Foyle is a high energy guy best suited for protecting Murphy's butt on weakside defense and is just too easy to get position on early... We have to face that there's no Cliff Robinson to play the passing lanes or force the travel like a crafty vet would. We also don't have any guys that can make good passes from the high-post. I don't think Taft will fill in those roles quite yet, but he certainly provides a measure of toughness and calmness about his game while demonstrating some important skills needed in a defensive big man. He's also very athletic and very strong which helps. His upside is tremendous, but I wouldn't call him the sht just yet.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">BTW, Kensaku, welcome to the board! I dont think I have seen you post on here before. This was a great post and I agree with you for the most part. I totally agree Taft and Zarko are different players and I think who plays depends on the matchups and what kind of line up we run. Taft and Diogu seem to be very similar players so Diogu and Taft are probably going to be competing for minutes rather than Zarko. That makes sense. I just like what I have seen and heard about him so far. He seems like he could be a starting center in a few years. Now that is somewhat unfortunate for Beans. Good luck to all of the Warriors young players...</div> Thanks for the welcome. I actually signed up in 2003 by the way of Rudeezy's invitation. It seems like we have A LOT of very young and promising PF's on this team and I wonder what we're going to do with them down the road. I think it's good to keep the team as-is for now. This is a good problem to have, but as the team and individual players get better, the conflicts will be greater and Mullin will have to start moving some pieces...such is the result of success...
I think it may be a battle between Diogu and Zarko at back up PF spot and Taft and Biedrins at back up center spot. I like Zarko as well, but Monty just don't seem to like him much. I just wonder what he needs to do more to get additional mins. In terms of pure production at 48 mins scale, Zarko can score 23.7 pts in 48 mins (3rd in last year) and 26.8 pts (2nd in this year). And, it's not like he is shooting sub 40% either, since he shot 49% in last year and 62% in this year. Maybe, it's his style or defense, but at least I think he deserves bit more mins then he is getting now. Since, Diogu is Monty's choice, I think it's pretty much predetermined who will get a min at back up PF spot. For back up center position, Biedrins couldn't get injured in worse time then this, because Taft is playing quite well as a back up center. Since, Biedrins is still raw and Taft probably has better game right now, it may be an uphill battle for Biedrins to take his back up center position back...
Kwan, I think the biggest issue about Zarko is can he rebound and play defense? Some guys are rail thin but strong like Andrei Kirilenko, Chris Bosh or Tayshaun Prince or Kevin Garnett. Unfortunately Zarko is a very under-sized 230 lbs and can't rebound like any of those guys. All that rebounding starts with good positioning and he just doesn't like contact that can be avoided. I think why Zarko doesn't play as much is that our biggest struggles haven't been scoring but keeping teams from getting the offensive boards by rebounding and boxing out. It doesn't help when we're shooting 50% and the other team is also shooting 50% and getting offensive boards and easy layups off dribble penetration. I think this is why Jrich has had to play the role of defensive rebounder, shotblocker, as well as the scorer and why Dunleavy gets substituted in to play power forward. Our big men just lack a lot of the things that Montgomery likes. He wants the big men to pass, rebound, block shots, box out, and just be fundamentally sound in all areas. Would any other team have Murphy and Foyle as starters? No, they are decent, but there's a huge reason why Mullin got those guys that he did in this year's draft.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Kensaku:</div><div class="quote_post">Thanks for the welcome. I actually signed up in 2003 by the way of Rudeezy's invitation. It seems like we have A LOT of very young and promising PF's on this team and I wonder what we're going to do with them down the road. I think it's good to keep the team as-is for now. This is a good problem to have, but as the team and individual players get better, the conflicts will be greater and Mullin will have to start moving some pieces...such is the result of success...</div> Yeah welcome again, Kensaku, I just hope you post more often instead of disappearing. I pray the pieces that we have locked up for several years don't interfere with our other guys who could be come even better than the guys we've locked up. We all know that overpaid players can destroy any leverage or flexibility we have to make moves. Like how do we obtain a solid defensive stopper that can at least shoot some? This is why I hope we don't lose Pietrus, but the guy may want to start eventually and some team just might pay him a fair price that we can't match or don't want to match for the sake of re-signing Ellis, Taft, Diogu, Zarko or Biedrins.
I hate Foyle but he played well last night, they didn't need Taft on the floor. I'd like to see Dunleavy paired with Taft. Dunleavy is passing up a lot of open mid range shots to feed Foyle but it ends up in disaster. Taft has good hands and can straight up finish. When Ike comes back, Zarko is going to get buried in the rotation. He's playing like garbage. I'd like to see Taft play backup center and Ike/ Biedrins play backup PF. Murphy has been looking good this year. Real good....
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting upsidedownside7:</div><div class="quote_post">I hate Foyle but he played well last night, they didn't need Taft on the floor. I'd like to see Dunleavy paired with Taft. Dunleavy is passing up a lot of open mid range shots to feed Foyle but it ends up in disaster. Taft has good hands and can straight up finish. When Ike comes back, Zarko is going to get buried in the rotation. He's playing like garbage. I'd like to see Taft play backup center and Ike/ Biedrins play backup PF. Murphy has been looking good this year. Real good....</div> I don't like Foyle as well because I don't think much of him as a starter, but a very good backup that will block tons of shots. But who else is there? I wouldn't praise Taft just yet and I hope doesn't blow up into something huge where we'll have to try and match salary. Hopefully, he'll stay hidden and put us in a good position to retain him if he's really the future of Warriors big men.
Foyle is definitely a starter in this league. He's gotten better every year he just had been banged up a bit the last couple. I mean, he actually even hits that beby hook with regularity now. On Defense, he makes the right read even though his help rotation rarely picks up for him when he moves to defend the ball. I think people would be singing a different tune if he played next to a decent defender of 20-30 minutes a game.
I always like Foyle type of center, who defend the middle and grab rebounds. His individual defense looked pretty good in this season as well. Of course, we would like to improve center position, but really, who's out there?
The truth is, there are no legitimate centers out there. We are actually pretty lucky to have a "true" center, albeit an under-sized one.
Well, we learned our lesson that Murphy at center spot shouldn't be used in the 4th quarter (loss to Chicago). Next time we use Foyle.
