By Mark Emmons Mercury News Jason Richardson's defiant words weren't anything new, of course. He had said similar things near the end of last season. Before him, it was Antawn Jamison making the same proclamations. And there was someone else before Jamison. But as Richardson -- a bright spot in yet another lost Warriors season -- sat in the team's quiet locker room last week after a meaningless victory over Minnesota, he felt compelled to repeat them anyway. ``This is not going to happen next year, I'll tell you that,'' Richardson said softly. ``Guys like me, Dunleavy, Murphy, Davis, we're not going to let this happen again.'' OK, but this season was supposed to be next season. The Warriors would finally end their mind-boggling playoff drought that dates to 1994. The players, beginning with new star Baron Davis, openly discussed it. Management encouraged it. Fans expected it. Instead, it all went wrong. The Warriors (28-38) have entered yet another spring preparing for the draft lottery, not the playoffs. Coach Mike Montgomery, unaccustomed to failure, is facing serious heat for the first time in his career. Several players now say that perhaps they overestimated the team's prospects. And yet they steadfastly cling to the belief that the Warriors are better, and that if only a few of the team's heartbreakingly close losses had gone their way, they might have been in the hunt. But they know that's a tough sell for their long-suffering fan base. ``I said at the beginning of the year there was an elephant in the room, and that elephant was expectations,'' center Adonal Foyle said. ``We had to manage that, and we didn't do a very good job of it.'' Changes ahead The price to be paid: change. It's not certain all the players Richardson mentioned -- or the coach -- even will be back. ``You're not going to see the exact same cast next year,'' said Warriors President Robert Rowell, echoing recent comments by General Manager Chris Mullin. ``I'm not saying there will be big changes. But I expect the team will be different.'' Before last Thursday's game, Montgomery spread his arms out wide -- almost as if to make himself a larger target. It was fitting because Montgomery feels as though he is wearing a bull's-eye. ``It's open season on the coach,'' Montgomery said. That day, the Mercury News had published a column by Tim Kawakami that concluded Montgomery should be gone after the season. ``Sarah read it and she was upset,'' Montgomery said of his wife. ``I didn't read it. But I was trying to explain to her that we've never been through anything like this before. We're experiencing the other side.'' After just one losing year in 26 collegiate seasons, the former Stanford coach is about to go 0 for 2 with the Warriors. Vultures are circling. A recent Sports Illustrated item said the Warriors had a team meeting and Montgomery was ``told outright that the players have lost respect for him because he doesn't stand up to Baron Davis.'' Several team sources said that didn't happen, but one has said that a couple of players may have privately approached Montgomery about asserting more authority. ``You work a long time to build up some pretty good credibility, and then all of a sudden your reputation is getting torn apart,'' he said of the criticism. ``That's kind of hard to deal with.'' Something else that proved hard to deal with: raised expectations. Last year's 20-10 finish, coupled with a 12-6 start this season, had turned Golden State into a feel-good story. Then the cracks started to show. The team's lack of a low-post presence was apparent at the end of tight games; the Warriors are 10-11 in games decided by five points or fewer. Montgomery is among those who say they believe last season's finish was something of a mirage. The Warriors, thanks to Davis' arrival, were playing with a jolt of energy when other teams were coasting. This season, opponents have built game plans around stopping Davis. It hasn't helped that Davis was first limited, and now is sidelined, because of an ankle injury. ``Coming into the All-Star break, we were within shouting distance of the playoffs,'' Montgomery said. ``But Baron is a big part of what we do. He essentially has been out since then, so we've been hamstrung.'' Montgomery concedes that coaching in the NBA is more about managing people than he had anticipated. But he said he thinks the team is still listening to him -- including Davis, who gained a reputation for being difficult when he clashed with New Orleans Hornets Coach Byron Scott. The big question Does Montgomery expect to be back next season? ``Once you start talking about it, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,'' Montgomery said. ``The question people have to ask: Is it all me? If it is, then the answer is obvious.'' Mike Dunleavy said the Warriors' quick start gave the team a ``false sense of hope.'' Then he decided that's not exactly what he meant to say. ``Maybe a better way to put it is we thought we were a little better than we really were,'' he added. ``We weren't playing the best of teams and we didn't get an accurate idea of what kind of team we were. Then we started playing better opponents, started losing close games, and it was a real rude awakening.'' Lessons learned The Warriors began the season as the NBA's fifth-youngest team, and if nothing else, the growing pains could help the team later, Dunleavy added. ``I think we learned a lot of lessons about what not to do this year,'' he said. ``We made so many mistakes -- not only in games, but just our total approach. Sometimes we haven't practiced well. But maybe that kind of stuff was likely to happen to a young team.'' Richardson, the team's star averaging 23.6 points, knows the lesson he is taking away: Play better defense. ``We forgot what was getting us the wins early,'' he said. ``It was defense. Everybody was worried about offense because we were supposed to be a high-scoring team. But we were winning games. I'd rather be a boring team and win games than an exciting team and lose games.'' The sense among the Warriors is that with their talent, this ought to be a playoff team. Rowell said he is more disappointed than anyone. Yet he maintains the team is on the cusp of becoming a winner because of its nucleus. Some of those pieces could be packaged to acquire a big man. And this off-season Richardson and Troy Murphy become easier to trade under the NBA's arcane salary-cap rules, giving Mullin the flexibility to shake up the locker room. For now, with 16 games left, the Warriors are left making promises about the future and rationalizing the present. ``This isn't like the old Warriors who used to get blown out all the time,'' Foyle said. Then he conceded that sounds like sugarcoating what amounts to a failed season. ``Nobody wanted to make the playoffs more than me,'' Foyle said. ``But it didn't happen and it's something we all have to carry.''
Warriors suck! I'm not even sure they'll make the playoffs next season . Most likely traded will be Pietrus. If the Warriors are lucky, they'll be able to trade Murphy and a high draft pick. Heck, they may trade Ike just because Mullin said he was untouchable (that makes Warriors sense). Even then, the W's won't be able to get KG, Pierce or a decent center in return. We'll end up with someone like Stromile Swift. It would be great if they could get rid of Foyle, Fisher or Dunleavy, but they're likely 2/5s of the starting lineup for next season. Are we stuck with doom and gloom FOREVER????!!!!????!!!!
Maybe another item on the NBA Philosophy ballot to add is to not be so resistant to playing young veteran/rookie players--who knows, they might be better than your current starters...
Bayareafan85, we're not really allowed to post entire articles, so if you can fix that please by doing the first 3 or so paragraphs and then including an online link? Thanks. Guys, I think the one thing we don't understand is that players with big, lengthy deals are going to play ahead of first year rookies who are still being developed. We also have to understand the motives of guys who do this job for a living. We've never developed a rookie to know what their psyche is, what their confidence level is, which guys are ready and which guys need time to be consistent. We're on the outside and we expect so many things that these management guys should do and probably already thought of... It's real easy for us to say the reason we lost is because we didn't play rookies who are ideally suited for the job RIGHT NOW. We fans said the same thing about Biedrins and we learned he couldn't stay on the floor consistently or hold his position in the post against much stronger players like Foyle can (although Foyle is often slow to get position even though he's strong enough to hold it). We thought the same of Pietrus who simply wasn't mentally ready for the game back then or sometimes maybe now. Then also a supposedly ready now guy like Dunleavy was forced into starter right away and he was not a starter with the way he missed his long jump shots constantly. These quotes are totally true though: Jrich has learned so much in his young career. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> ``We forgot what was getting us the wins early,'' he said. ``It was defense. Everybody was worried about offense because we were supposed to be a high-scoring team. But we were winning games. I'd rather be a boring team and win games than an exciting team and lose games.''</div> We've got a lot of weak links on defense. Guys too slow to stay in front or move their feet in a zone or man-to-man defense. We can't make stops if we can't defend dribble penetration if zone isn't working, traps aren't working, man to man isn't working. The help D needs to be there and there's so much slack the Warriors can pick up as a team to hide the weakest defensive player. The only solution is to get guys to work harder if they're capable of playing defense, or get rid of the guys that can't physically or mentally play consistent defense. If a guy is too slow to react, then he's too slow to react. He's a poor defender and a liability. It doesn't matter how hard they try, they suck. Foyle can try and catch the ball, but he sucks. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> ``I said at the beginning of the year there was an elephant in the room, and that elephant was expectations,'' center Adonal Foyle said. ``We had to manage that, and we didn't do a very good job of it.''</div> Yeah... and that elephant has better hands to catch the ball and pass it back out. One the major reasons we couldn't even trade this guy is he is grossly overpaid and he's done nothing outside of shotblocking and hustle to prove he's a starter. He's a great backup, but Mullin made him starter out of necessity/inexperience/and probably politics since he's a career warrior and wonderful community member, and we've unfortunately had to live with that lack of a real center. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Before last Thursday's game, Montgomery spread his arms out wide -- almost as if to make himself a larger target. It was fitting because Montgomery feels as though he is wearing a bull's-eye. ``It's open season on the coach,'' Montgomery said. </div> I've always said it before that Montgomery is unjustly being blamed for the way this team plays overall. If you really are a warriors fan and can't see why we keep missing the playoffs each season, or are fans that can't get passed the homerism, and emotions getting in the way of fact, you can see that this team isn't geared to play a fastbreak offense without offensive rebounding, secondary ballhandling, Baron Davis leading the fastbreaks and guys shooting the ball well. We didn't have that this year and people forget that Dunleavy, Zarko, and Pietrus were major x factors of that run last season. The coaches tried to do something different because that wasn't working, but we can't get the ball inside whether we dribble it or feed the post. And if we can't play motion or fastbreak offense, what the hell do we have left? We can't matchup and make adjustments to what the other team is throwing at us. Even if we do get inside, our outside shooting is erratic and guys getting inside sometimes can't even finish layups, can't handle the ball, especially our center who is right freakin' there at the hoop and he either mishandles the pass right to him or he misses the layup. I'm sorry, but I'm pleading with anyone with eyes, experience, and a brain to see that this team isn't all its cracked up to be... especially when a team can't seal the game by doing something as simple as hitting free throws, making the extra pass or cut, and taking care of the ball. People tend to dwell on one thing that an unpopular guy does, even though its everyone's fault leading up to that situation. Everyone knows its not always how you open the game, but how you can close it and we've got a lot of weak closers on this team that can get things done as well as guys that can't open and set the tone. The veterans that signed big money have to deal with that pressure and the blame. I don't think the rookies in their FIRST year should have to deal with that end of game pressure and get blamed by ignorant fans for them blowing it if they do blow it. It's about realistic expectations about this team and its young talent. They are young. I'm not saying on this forum, but other online forums, I see too many ignorant Warriors fans pointing the fingers at one or two guys, when it should be several, several guys to blame, including the very highest at management level, then the coaching staff also learning the nba game like the rookies are, and to guys like Dunleavy/Foyle, etc who aren't getting it done despite being in the league for a while and having expectations to do more than they've shown in past years. Anytime somebody accepts big money, they have to live with the expectations they can often fail to meet. But who had those expectations? Mullin and his staff? Back to the coaching staff. Sometimes coaching is a little different from politics, you've got guys in there that can coach and maybe they can coach better on certain teams because of the style, identity, or personality, and fans think they can do the same job. Why don't those guys try and do it for a living then? See if screaming makes these guys play smarter or having a veteran like Larry Brown or Stan Van Gundy works. Maybe we'd win a few more games, but not enough to prove that we're deserving to be called a playoff team. We'd need a stronger foundation first, guys who can pass/score the ball inside and out because there's inside and outside players. Plus what about defense? That's more important than anything else we do. Those kind of anti-Montgomery comments IMO are made out of ego and frustration. I know because I do it too until I think wow, you know there has to be more than meets the eye. It's not like I'm out there coaching or being the GM of basketball... Maybe the guys who are doing this for a living know better despite what we think. Maybe I should start really thinking about why this team is the way it is without dwelling on one or two guys like Dunleavy or Montgomery or maybe Mullin. But wait Mullin is the guy in charge and he made decisions that anybody else could have made. Like all decisions they have no guarantees. But still who is accountable? The guy who put together the team. The bottom line is I think for any coaching to be successful and not another revolving door guy coming in set up to fail, the Warriors have to develop a style and an identity, a foundation, first. Then they have to continue to play with a Jason Richardson blue collar approach to the game on both ends with mental/physical ability to be quick and strong. Otherwise, what is the point? Dumb fans are just going to blame the next guy, and the next guy, until we win, and the coach suddenly takes credit. Think Larry Brown and how he is absolutely helpless with what Isiah Thomas gave him for the Knicks. The knicks made the playoffs 8th seed at one time in the East and they've had losing seasons thereafter where they've beat good teams and had Marbury the 2nd league leader in assists. We Warriors are in the Western Pacific and the way we play isn't going to win us games consistently if we play defense and rebound like they do. Anyway people should know by now that the guy that builds this team through drafts and free agent signings is the guy that all eyes fall upon with no excuses. This is even though the fact of the matter is, very few GMs will turn their teams in successes overnight. I think Mullin did a better job than most, but he's not where he needs to have been to stay above other teams and maintain consistent level of talent year to year. This team is young and he still has time, but he needs to make decisions almost perfectly. That's hard to do when you don't know the future. You have to pay attention to the numbers, estimate the talent market accurately and have good hunches/observations/insight. What was Mullin thinking if the team was more geared to run and he got a halfcourt, non-playmaking combo guard (Fisher) and a center (Foyle) that can't score inside at least as well as Ben Wallace or Dale Davis or Erick Dampier. That only makes us pray for Baron/Ellis and Biedrins/Ike that much sooner when all of them might not be ready just yet due to injury or rawness. Like I said we've never developed rookies and maybe the whole mindset was for Mullin to bring stable personalities to the club to give such guys enough time to get ready. The basketball hoop may not have an age limit, but surely team basketball does if you don't have the experience of playing together in the NBA. If there's a Lebron James out there that's a basketball prodigy who is unselfish, makes players around him better, that's a whole different story. Sorry for the novel, but if we're throwing comments/opinions out there, I'm trying to be thorough with all the ideas/counter arguments. I feel like people just don't understand that basketball is a team sport and you need the talent and the chemistry. Not one or the other. If the coach doesn't have that, he's screwed. He's got no ingredients to work with to promise victory.
