I'm not worried about losing Fisher. The only aspect that worries me is the free throw shooting. The last second heroics are nice but it always seemed to be a universal law of correcting his prior mistakes from the same evening. Besides he isn't a PG, even if he is 6'1 and has a nice shooting stroke. I'd like a team of diverse players with diverse skills. Ike in the post is nice, JRich with his midrange game, shooting and post skills are nice, Baron penetrating and finishing is nice, Montay shooting off the dribble is nice. See where I'm going? The stand and chuck type players were too many. The shooting defender types you can find every offseason.
Yeah, I get ya, you want dynamic players that won't be limited physically or skill-wise. They'll be able to handle a variety of situations and not be limited against anything the opposing teams try to do to prevent us from controlling the tempo. More guys with more dimensions is always better, but we've been hard pressed to find those guys. It's been hard to find guys who can shoot, create their own shot, defend, make good decisions, and to win on some kind of a power/speed/size n' finesse matchup and do the other things their position and roles require. Generally, we just haven't had a very high % game in recent years. We need high scorers that know how to get to the line, actually convert if they ain't giving up the rock for others to score. Of course, when it comes to Foyle and Dunleavy not being efficient scorers, it leaves only 3 guys who can score and two are not efficient as setup players or high scorers. Fisher/Murphy are the catch and shoot set shooting kind and they are also low % from what they could be doing. They both hold onto the ball quite a bit when they are going iso in all their wonderful slowness. There's nothing power in the paint to reward the guards, so I'm thankful for Ike/Taft/Biedrins and probably more lenient on the concept of Dunleavy's role on this team if he could just shoot the ball and play bigger. The last thing we need is more low % guys trying to look for their own shot or waiting around. The backcourt and the inside players need to reward each other with assists or making the extra passes which lead to the assist. That's called an inside/outside game and it's supposed to promote more ball movement as long as guys are making good decisions and playing unselfishly and they have the chemistry/gameplan down. Good teamwork can get defenses moving and collapsing just as much as a great isolation play. Hopefully the defense is there too or scoring slow or fast won't matter if we aren't dominant scoring team like the Suns or the '02 or '03 Mavericks. We need to improve our bench as well... we're trying to develop too many guys at once using the bench. Not good. We need guys that can step in right away and aren't overpaid and crappy. I'll take a NVE/Cliffy/Dale Davis type player again but I'd pass on Cheaney/Fisher. The former all-star deals were short although pricy, but had valuable experience/talent to show for the rookies and could produce as backups or starters. It's why I like good vets as opposed to regular journeymen.
About the three point thing -- 1) Teams with high 3pt % are usually the teams that take fewer threes and have good shot selections. They don't even need to have terrific individual shooters -- merely terrific shot selection. Look at the Pistons and Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, and Chauncy Billups last year. Those guys weren't necessarily volume shooters from 3 -- especially Rip -- they would usually take the shot when it came in the natural rythm of the offense. Obviously this comment is a gross generalization about that team, but it demonstrates the idea. Rip shot 46% from 3 last year but only shot a handful - because he only took them when they were dead open shots. The Warriors, on the other hand, often ended up shooting ill-advised threes because of several reasons. Most importantly, they didn't get the ball up court quickly enough, and the PGs -- both Baron and Fisher -- pounded the ball way too long before getting the play started. Often times the team wouldn't get into its set formation and start the play until there was only 10 to 14 seconds left on the clock. This led to an extreme over-abundance of botched plays and desperation kick-outs for threes. When a guy would try to make the play happen, and not have something, all of a sudden there would be only 3 to 5 seconds left, and it's either kick it out for a three or, in the case of Fisher, bust a little shimmy-shake-n-bake and jack one up from 35 feet. I believe that, if the Warriors can find a way (ditching Fisher will help significantly with this) to get upcourt and into their sets more quickly, then less often will they need to bail out of a play with a last second kick-out for a three. If you start the play with 20 seconds on the clock, and it gets screwed up, you can often swing it up top and have time to run a new play. Less often will you see them taking "bail out" three pointers. Those threes will now start to be conscious decisions -- either designed plays or wide open options within the flow of the offense. This alone will up the team percentage significantly. 2.) Several coaches and analysts last year said Monta Ellis was hands down the best shooter on the team. his increased minutes should improve the team shooting percentage.
Good point AlleyOop about the three point shot and overall field goal %. But what about free throw shooting now? It's no more intentionally foul Fisher to close out the victory... It's got to be intentionally foul Murphy or Ike Diogu because our big men are better than our guards at hitting foul shots. Sad...
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">Good point AlleyOop about the three point shot and overall field goal %. But what about free throw shooting now?</div> Yeah, I think this will be a serious issue regardless of who the Warriors trade for, because the two guys that will have the ball in their hands -- JRich and Baron -- both suck ass from the line. JRich I guess I can understand. He was a forward in college, and he's been trying to work on his form every year. But he still tallied 67% last year, and that is just an embarrassment no matter how you slice the pie. Frankly I would never even discuss the words "All Star" and "JRich" in the same breath (if I have in the past just ignore that for the sake of credibility in my post here thank you) until he gets that number over at least 70%. But Baron I just can't get. Maybe it's just a physical thing. Maybe he has a birth defect and it's just physically/mentally/emotionally impossible for him to shoot 75% from the line. I hope it's something like that because frankly he better be stopping at nothing short of impossible at trying to up that number. A guy who can get to the line at will, who loves to make a flashy And-1 play, and yet clangs iron at the line? He shot 68% last year. It's like he cares more about being able to scream "AND ONE!!!!" after a shot than he does about actually tallying the extra point at the line. I can't accept any excuse for why he hasn't forged himself into a Chauncy Billups-like dagger from the line. He'd probably lead the league in scoring if he did. P.S. What about the dismal terd that Pietrus managed to post last year? 61%? Are you kidding me? Dude is flirting with more freethrows missed than made. That doesn't exactly help your cause when you're campaigning for a starter's contract.
I honestly don't get it. I mean, there was a guy on our team when we were in High school that struggled shooting free throws. He was simply uncoordinated. (One of those guys who couldn't snap to the beat of a song if his life depended on it). We worked on his free throws between his Sophomore and Junior season and he went from 52% to 77%. There's no excuse for poor freethrow shooting. Especially for someone as physically gifted as Baron, JRich, and Pietrus. I mean, JRich hits jumpers from well behind the arc with pretty high regularity. So frustrating.
It's a weak mental game these players have. They just choke when there's pressure. I'm sure Jrich can nail a bunch of free throw shots like butter when he's practicing by himself. The choking is something the team does like in an 82 game season until they know they are definitely out of the playoffs and just play the remainder of the season for pride. Then they start winning games, fooling us all into believing they'll be getting the playoffs next season. They just remain the same with a lower draft pick that they might have gotten higher if they didn't win a bunch of meaningless games. Some notable chokers are Dunleavy (wide open shots), Baron/Jrich (free throw line), Foyle (getting ready for the pass), Murphy (the three point trailer), Fisher (where do I start?), Pietrus (foul line and making the right decisions, like "not to foul") The guards shooting worse than our big men is pretty downright embarassing. That's why adding SF D-Miles or Gerald Wallace would just add to the hilarity if we got those guys. Are you saying those little kids trying to win prizes during halftime free-throw shootout can shoot better free throws than the pros? A big man has an excuse for not shooting it well (but not perimeter players, pure shooters, or guys shooting as badly as Biedrins). If Biedrins can't fix that shot of his he has to go underhand like Rick Barry. It works very well, I think. If I was a horrible free throw shooter, I bet I could nail the granny shots at a 75-80% rate.
