Lakers @ Warriors - 7:20PM 3/3/2006

Signing Adonal Foyle was probably Mullin's worst move. Foyle gets paid for doing nothing! He can't rebound, run, score, etc.

 

Well, Chris Mullin will be FORCED to do something. I can only hope he realizes that now and stops saying he wants to watch the team develop.

He's got some pieces to work with -- the BIG 3 or the rooks and AB. It's too bad he probably won't be able to get rid of Foyle; Don't think he should be playing unless he improves his rebounding. Foyle doesn't give us anything on O and D except blocked shots.

For example, Mullin may be able to get someone like Luol Deng in the draft (?) to put on the front line of AB and Murphy. Or he can trade Murphy and others to get someone like KG (dream). I guess what I'm trying to say is he can try and improve the chemistry on this team and get players who fit together better and get lucky and improve the talent.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">The coaches need to do more than just tell the players what to do though. None of the veterans on our team are punished in any way for repeatedly making the same mistakes and making bonehead decisions. It seems like Dunleavy, Fisher, Murphy, and Baron can do whatever they want and they'll continue to get playing time but guys like Pietrus and Ike make one mistake and they'll be lucky to see the floor the rest of the night.

Even in the list of observations you mentioned there are some things there that are coaching problems. Theres just no discipline at all and without that the players will do whatever they want knowing that there won't be any consequences (other than losing).</div>

Then that hammers back to instability and who the GM has investments in. It's a dangerous game with a losing team with guys like Fisher, Foyle, Murphy, Jrich, Baron, Dunleavy who are big investments to this team

Those guys probably mean more value to this team and little value to those outside of this team. They are veterans (well Foyle still sucks but he gets benched regularly until rookies get into foul trouble or Ike is not being much of a center. BTW The only reason Ike plays center is because the idea is to get dribble penetration going from somewhere else like the forward spots i.e. Dunleavy dribbling from PF or Jrich or Pietrus attacking from the wing. All of our guards that play shooting guard or point guard suck at dribbling unless its Baron). Anyway until those rookies get it done in practice, we move some contracts or we prove some consistency, we're not going to have a good 8 or 9 man rotation unless they add to the balance on both ends of the floor. This is why I think Mullin needs to make some drastic moves to make a better fit for a 5 man motion offense. That definitely starts with making more room for the young guys and getting Ike ready to be promoted once he's ready. Our nba vets just don't play like their positions are supposed to. Murphy the oversized small forward, Fisher the undersized two, Pietrus the undersized small forward, Dunleavy the oversized guard that would be a great small forward if he didn't suck, Foyle the guy who barely is a 12th man unless he's blocking shots or chasing loose balls.

Anyway these vets should show some discipline and humble themselves . If they are letting loose, maybe they need to see what their actions on the court produce. Mullin should be smart enough to see what he's got now and humble enough to see what the coaches are going through. I don't think Mullin will play the blame game and he's got a tough enough job taking the blame himself because he pretty much decided the rosters going into this year. Again this all comes down to big contracts and Monty has to play and support Mullin's card before its coach/frontoffice vs. players. Let them vets play, find some taker, get a humble guy that can actually lead like a Kirk Hinrich or Chris Paul that can take suggestions and make things happen. They don't have to be disciplined, because smart, humble guys listen if something is wrong and they know.

Also maybe we need more true position players because it seems like the only college twos we get end up playing like nba twos instead of ones. Then we also need better shooters who can defend, more passing as a team, we need better big men then who we have. I mean real bigs who do the stuff that PJ Brown does on the dirty work and big men who can put the ball in the hoop at a high % rate is what we need. We don't have many guys in the pivot that are effective as of right now and I think that's been hurting us the most. I mean outside of whatever production we can get from the forwards, guards, we need that big dude presence to rebound, box out, set good screens, space the floor, finish inside. We need that inside outside game or we're taking one pass shots, swinging the ball around the arc getting nothing, or shooting more dumb threes which lead to fastbreaks going the other way.

 

fisher fisher fisher...what the hell was he doing?? He's such a dumb@$$! he always tries to be the hero..taking all those illadvised shots??? what was his numbers today?? 1 for effing 12???? and how many of those shots were were unnecessary?? god that guy pisses me off! even monty had him guarding KOBE HALF THE DAMN TIME! KOBE=SCORER, FISH=HORRIBLE D, FOUL PRONE, FLOPS= WARRIORS LOSS. Im sorry but FISHER needs to go..he hasn't proved anything at all. HE's supposed to be the veteran and yet he does bonehead plays like he's a rookie

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Run BJM:</div><div class="quote_post">
The biggest problem in my opinion is just that other teams have figured us out and we are a very easy team to stop. Last season teams probably didn't take us seriously, we didn't have a gameplan either, the opponent couldnt read what we were doing because no one really knew what we were doing (except Baron). This season teams just pack lane and Baron can't penetrate, its that simple, thats all we have that is effective.</div>

Yeah we pretty much relied on dribble penetration to spark our offense but that's pretty much a telegraphed pass if guys are standing around waiting. Too easy to close off the passing lanes and crowd inside. But I can understand guys waiting around if they don't know what the ballhandler will do at the last second. Baron hardly runs plays and tries to replicate what he did last year while injured. We just have too many other slow laterally moving players that can't handle the ball or shoot or play organized. No inside game, no defense... few fundamentals. The whole point of 5 man motion or 5 man stack offense is to get contribution and shot creation for guys that can't score on their own. We don't want to force Jrich or Baron or outside shooting guys into becoming high volume shooters, but it's a catch 22 obviously because those dudes are our only reliable scorers (who also have problems defending one-on-one or on help d, as well).

I dunno, Mullin needs to start dumping some bad contracts somehow, make some Clif Robinson or Dale Davis type moves because man we are f-ed if these guys can't play the 5 man team game and we have to include them in the offense for about 4 more years. All those guys do is tie up the rookies hog up more shots only to brick them (we also have rookies who may or may not be ready right away I might add). The only reason I like old vets like Robinson and Dale Davis is because crap they were one-time allstars that did their jobs well (so you know they got some talent and knowledge of the game) and they do well in their roles. The older guys aren't worried about getting their numbers like some guys, panicking or playing outside their game getting carried away. Who knows maybe Fisher may have a motive in that he's trying to land his way out of golden state so its why he plays so erratically? Who knows, but its why he's not all-star.

With Dale Davis or Clif at least we didn't have to worry about that funkiness or long term expensive contracts for years to come. The problem was the situation and timing. Since Foyle wasn't cutting it as starter (maybe he was also injured) but he was paid a 5 year deal, so a "1 year left on his deal" Clif Robinson would be used as starting center since he played with the Warriors before and passed better from the high post than Murphy did and Clif scored more than Foyle. Then Dale Davis didn't play because there was no point in upping his value since he wouldn't be around next season.

So I guess the next move we'll have to find out if Andris Biedrins is ready to start against centers that can push him around and get him into foul trouble. Also can our perimeter D protect Biedrins? I'd hate to have this guy be a non factor because the other four guys can't stay in front and Biedrins is forced to pick up the foul or look bad giving up the layup or dunk.

Then this whole Ike thing we'll need to figure out if next season he can be a regular contributor. Hopefully if he's the real deal, Murphy can be used in some other trade to get some better shooters at the wing positions... All of our guards and wings just can't dribble or shoot sometimes... it's pathetic. The crappiness from the foul line is proof that these perimeter shooting guys are weak mentally.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting iLL PiLL:</div><div class="quote_post">fisher fisher fisher...what the hell was he doing?? He's such a dumb@$$! he always tries to be the hero..taking all those illadvised shots??? what was his numbers today?? 1 for effing 12???? and how many of those shots were were unnecessary?? god that guy pisses me off! even monty had him guarding KOBE HALF THE DAMN TIME! KOBE=SCORER, FISH=HORRIBLE D, FOUL PRONE, FLOPS= WARRIORS LOSS. Im sorry but FISHER needs to go..he hasn't proved anything at all. HE's supposed to be the veteran and yet he does bonehead plays like he's a rookie</div>
I feel like we have David Wesley rather than a guy who can run offense. Give me Brevin Knight or Luke Ridnour or somebody that's a pure point that won't kill the momentum for a 5 player offense. Damn... Dumb outside shots without moving the ball to get the defense to collapse is just momentum killing. Especially without rebounders under the hoop. Sonics had no inside presence last season except for maybe Jerome James, but at least they could rebound and be tough on screens. Where do the guards use screens effectively? It's just risky style of play, dumb style of play.

Only Baron can play risky and get away with it, but man he needs to organize the other guys too because the other four don't know how to help him when he makes a move. He never holds up his hand to call a play. I mean our offense is all dribble penetration so we have to work on a game plan to get points inside not take more outside shots... We need 5 men to do that by moving their feet and staying ahead of the defense.

Besides that, I thought the officials were kind of being generous to the Lakers...

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Clif25:</div><div class="quote_post">Ditto. I mean it sometimes seems that the Warriors think there is only ten seconds on the shot clock. They play like a ten second offense which usually ends up in a long jumper, starting with Jason(13 3 point attempted shots in tonight's game) which sprouts to Murphy a few times and then Pietrus and then Fisher, and soon it's the whole team. Just catch and shoot before 13 seconds go off the clock. I try to see how many seconds are left on the shot clock when the team shoots and so many times, especially in big long stretches there are 12-17 seconds left on the clock when the Warriors put up shots without making any effort to get easier shots or get anything going to break down the opposing defense. It's terrible to watch. When the team is knocking down their shots, maybe like against the Magic or for some quarters in any given game, but for a foul 4 quarter game against some solid teams, it just doesn't seem to work, in my opinion at least.

The whole Warrior front court was pretty much taken out of the game by fouls, and fouls could be a totally different issue/topic in itself after this game.</div>
Yeah, which is where we need to figure out what we are and how to gain confidence back. We saw a spark of confidence in our shooting when Baron was traded to the Warriors... but I think something is wrong with the talent out there. I don't think it fits or a rotation would have been figured out by now. Are we going to be a defensive team, a jump shooting team, a fastbreak team, a scoring on isolations type team like Dallas? You need a combo of all those things especially comittment to defense, but unfortunately we've got IMO some weaknesses that make it hard to do well in any of those styles. It's why the Warriors fit the bill of mediocre pretty well. We've even locked up mediocre type players. It's no wonder we can't set the tone offensively or defensively all year long. The only time we played great defense was when Baron and Murphy was out. The only time we played good offense was when there was more ball movement inside and out. It led to better shots. We saw it a little bit this year and last half season. The ball stops moving, players don't value posessions by hoisting, and players stop moving its just momentum killing... It totally affects the defensive end as well because defense is tiring work. Especially for slow guys who don't have as much reaction time. Guys like Dunleavy have to back off a little more or guys like Murphy have to rely on help. Foyle wasn't built to leave home and contest shots. Jrich is pretty slow laterally...