Don Nelson Q & A, lively-ing up the Warrior universe

Don Nelson Q & A, lively-ing up the Warrior universe

Don Nelson Q & A, lively-ing up the Warrior universe

http://mercextra.com/blogs/kawakami/2006/0...iverse/#more-70

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">QUESTION: You?ve mentioned previously that you?d like Baron to lose weight to better suit your fast playing style. Have you told him that yet?
NELSON: Haven?t talked to him yet. I?ve exchanged voice messages a few times. He?s gotten that message through some people I know who talked to him, where I want his weight and stuff.
My flash analysis: Not talked with Baron yet? Hmm. If I was Baron, I?d have gone out of my way, but I?m not? Q: Do you think Baron?s weight has contributed to his recent run of injuries?
NELSON: Well, I don?t know that he was overweight. I just know that I want him thin. Thinner than normal, I think. I think it would be good for him. I don?t know that he was overweight or he wasn?t. Why, was that a problem? Did somebody say he was overweight?
Q: It was theorized that Baron?s injuries could be due to him being overweight.
NELSON: Oh. I like all my guys as light as possible. He?s no exception. I think it would help, if he?s having injury problems, to be lighter. I think that would be a natural. Lighter than his lowest weight would be good for me.
Q: Baron likes to dribble a lot? What do you want him to do differently?
NELSON: Well, I?d like him to make his decisions quicker. We?re saying that if you have a fast-moving team, the last thing you want is have the ball stop. He?ll be involved with a lot of screen and rolls. He?s just an excellent player at screen-and-roll basketball, and he?ll be doing a lot of that.
I think he?ll be a very happy guy. When he does give the ball up and we run Dunleavy at the point, he?ll be the first or second option?between he and Richardson. They?ll both be below the foul line then. And they?ll be an initial part of our attack, from one side or the other. So that should make everybody happy as well.
The last thing I want anybody worried about is numbers. ?Oh Dunleavy isn?t scoring enough!? or ?How come this guy didn?t have the same scoring average as last year?? We?ve got to forget all that. Because if that?s important to players, you never have a winning team. You have to win games.
Q: Do you have a starting five planned?
NELSON: I have an idea of what I think is going to happen, from what I?ve seen. But I?ll keep that to myself for the time being. I?m not sure it?ll pan out that way.
Q: Could that lineup include Monta Ellis?
NELSON: I haven?t had a chance to see him in person? But on film, I like him a lot. He?s a really good young player.
Q: Could Ellis possibly play starter?s minutes this year?
NELSON: He?s a young player, so I don?t know how mature he?s going to be. But from what I see on film, he?s a good-looking young player. I don?t know if next year will be his year, but he?ll be playing a lot of minutes someday, for sure. I just don?t know when.
Eventually, if he really wants to be a great player?Ellis, I?m talking about?he?ll probably have to move over and be a point guard. I don?t know if he has those kinds of skills. He doesn?t show them now. I think there?s a lot of ability and a lot of growth that we can push him into some areas.
Eventually, if he wants to be as good a player as Jim Barnett thinks?I?ve been listening to Jim talk on film a lot?he?s going to have to be a point guard. That?s just my humble estimation and opinion.
Flash analysis: Gee, don?t the Warriors already have a point guard? Oh, wait, I see. Next year or the year after, Ellis is it. Or maybe halfway through this one.

Q: Which players on the roster do you think will benefit most from your system?
NELSON: All of the ones that can run and pass and shoot. Those guys all benefit. And have the desire to do that. I try to play good players, basically, and not try to worry too much about size. And I like players that can play more than one position.

Q: Will Dunleavy benefit in your system?
NELSON: I think Dunleavy?s going to do real well in our system. I?d be surprised if he doesn?t.
Q: Will it be mostly as a passer and initiator?
NELSON: Oh no, not MOSTLY. But some.
Q: So you expect him to score?
NELSON: Oh yeah. He?s a good player. I think he?s going to be a good all-around player with a unique ability to play point guard at a power-forward position. I don?t know anyone who?s ever done that. I?ve never had a guy who could do that. I?ve had small forwards that were kind of a natural.
But this guy?s 6-11. He has that ability, which frees up guys like Baron Davis to not have to exert all his energy getting the ball up and making him more of a part of the offense on the other end. He doesn?t just initiate the play and then move away.
Now he?ll be able to do some more creativity from below the foul line. I think it?s going to all work out. I think everybody will be real pleased because they?ll all get a chance to do what I think they?re good at. And they have to prove me wrong.</div>

 

Will Kawakami ever write a quality article? His 'flash analysis' and hate for Davis is annoying. Nelson said if Ellis wants to be a great player, he will eventually become a PG, which most people would agree, and for some strange reason Kawakami attempted to rip Davis with that comment...

 

wow i had no idea dunleavy was 6'11..weird because it says on nba.com that he's 6'9.

 

Yeah, I know I hate Tim Kawakami's work, but it's "something" news... sort of... Plus fans need to speak out against his kind of Skip Bayless journalism.

BTW Dunleavy is legit 6'11" but that's only when he's in his high heels most of the time.

 

I wonder what the standard deviation of the guy's average height (6'9") is? It can't be 2 inches. We've seen him play point guard. The 20 or so rebound game at that position back in '03 or '04 was an anomaly. Since then we've seen him avoid post-ups on 6'0, 170 lb players in order to avoid contact or worry over offensive fouls. Also there were a lot of missed opportunities to just shoot over the smaller guy. Wait "shoot"? Sorry forget that isn't in his arsenal yet. Guy plays a lot smaller sometimes, and only bigger when he gets it done early in the game. And that didn't happen last year compared to every other week like he used to do before signing big money Mullin wasted from Cohan.

 

I bet Casey Jacobsen could play bigger than him as far as 6'5 shooting guys go.

One fell out of the league from the Suns and is on the bubble of returning to an NBA team, but that's not the point. The point is maybe there are some forces at work trying to convince us that Dunleavy is more like Toni Kukoc type F and needs to play more power forward instead of small forward or any other position where guys are typically around 6'9 and under and a lot quicker. So they inflate Dun Dun's height to make fans/teams/whoever think that if he can't be more like a squatty Antoine Walker type dude, then he should be a tall/lean 6'11 Toni Kukoc type dude. Same small forward position, different body types as the other point forwards, but closer to Toni Kukoc because of versatility and length and tendency not to shoot the ball unless its an absolutely good look for him. Unlike Walker, I don't think he can reliably play point forward and he chucks so many ill advised shots and he's a horrible free throw shooter...

 

At the worst, if this experiment fails it will probably make Diogu the next guy Nelson will try out as a starter. I mean, who else is there?

 

Knowing Nelson... maybe Jrich or Baron Davis at power forward?

I love "belongs in a mental assylum", "out of the box" thinking, but only if it ends up working.

I think everything Nelson is trying to do for Mullin is almost a near impossibility. And Nelson is forced to try to do everything he can in the goal of trying to make the post season. Ticket sales aren't the problem, it's the fact this team just doesn't play like a winning team and it's because general managers have historically fouled things up so bad that they need to hire another manager to get it back on track. Then they hire another GM after that GM to f things up again.

I mean a guy like Foyle and possibly Dunleavy is something of a reminder of how bad our talent evaluations/investments are and the types of things this franchise is looking for before they really think the word "teamplay" out or about who they should draft. Drafts have been decent, but the investments made in other players before those drafts were already made and we may not utilize those locked up players like Murphy or Dun to make good trades along the way. Teams need guys who can compete in their position with the rest of the league and fit the roles that the coach wants them to play. Now if guys have weaknesses and play out of position, it just makes it more difficult to establish that team identity and truly compete amongst the league's best if guys have to play out of their intended position because they are too short or too slow.

I mean our roster, we've got guards that cannot shoot or make smart decisions. Big men that would rather shoot than pass or score inside or they can't catch or defend the rim... It's frustrating. It's like a "math expert "that doesnt' know trig. Or an engineer that never took physics... If guys are in a role like shooting guard or power forward, they are expected to at least emulate one. I do not see this at all. These are matchups that can be used in our favor, but I don't see any Dirk's, Wades, Arenas, or any matchup that has been unstoppable offensively and worked decently defensively and moving the ball around.

But anyway, I would like to see Ike play more. High% scorer I think and he can finish plays. Finishing plays means flushing it down, laying it up, and making the foul shots. I hope to see a lot of And1's from him and a lot of fear from guys trying to guard him. If he gets Duncan and his help defenders in more foul trouble than Murphy, good for us. In a sense Ike could be like Speedy Claxton when that guy was on fire for us. He got whole teams in foul trouble and he was a team leader in free throws.

When Ike is hot maybe he can kick out or operate from the high post while other guys move off the ball. Lots of possibilities. And he doesn't really need to be a super run and jump athlete. He just needs to be better at 245 lbs than Murphy does at 245 lbs. Murphy needs to drop some, because he's got lead feet for power forward or center...

 

Also before I get called out over why crap on Murphy more than Dunleavy? Well I picked on Dunleavy enough. We know the problem is that he's a special player (I bet 9 out of 10 coaches think so including Nelly), but it's frustrating that he can't shoot very well and he's not living up to the hype with his so called "intangibles". Even at the foul line his shot is flaky for a pure shooter. A guy who can truly shoot well gets at least 80% or 90% like Peja, Ray Allen, Dirk, whoever. A guy who can shoot well can create enough space and respect from a defender to drive left or right or pull up and shoot. Guys just crowd Dunleavy.

The other thing is if he's too slow for the nba, then he needs finishers and guys that can move for him. Unfortunately our secondary ballhandler from Duke is too slow to break guys down and there's no Boozer's inside the paint to catch and flush it down for him. Murphy is pretty much the same player as Dunleavy without the passing or the ballhandling or decision making ability, but he's more solid in two categories and more limited everywhere else.

Mullin has drafted a lot of big men recently. I agree it's what needs to be done so we can find some kind of anchor, but man... if he had just waited rather than jumped the gun and said, "this is a playoff team.", we could have had room to look at big man prospects and sign or possibly even draft a wing or a swingman with an extra pick. Maybe trading was an option if player's agents permitted that.