<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">OAKLAND - Every November, the Chicago Bulls open their season with a two-week road trip so the United Center can host the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey circus. Fans of the Warriors, on the other hand, are going to get to see the circus 41 times this season, beginning Wednesday night against the visiting Los Angeles Lakers. With a roster that's tilted toward the backcourt in terms of talent and coach Don Nelson back preaching his up-tempo style, the 2006-07 Warriors should provide copious grist for the highlight mills at ESPN and NBA TV. But will all those fast breaks and dunks really translate into anything different from the back-to-back 34-48 seasons the Warriors have posted? Consider that, even though Nelson is generally credited as being the father of today's ever-more-popular small ball attacks, he has a confession to make: "The better your team, the less of that you need to do." So is the return of Nelson's style to the Bay Area simply a gimmick? Or are the Warriors laying the foundation for a potential title contender in the near future? "I don't think it's a gimmick," said former NBA coach Paul Silas, whose son Stephen is now a Warriors assistant. "One thing Nellie wants to bring is a winning attitude. You've got to start winning, build a tradition, then hopefully get to a championship. That's his plan right now, is build a winning foundation. How do you do that? You play your best players." Mitch Richmond, who saw seasons of 43, 37 and 44 wins in his three years playing for Nelson's Run TMC squads from 1988-91, agrees with that assessment. "I think you've got to crawl before you walk," said Richmond, who's now a special assistant to executive vice president Chris Mullin. "We have to be in a position to get out of this hole that we've been in. I think we have the opportunity to get some confidence for our players. I think it's the perfect way to play. It's a fun way to play."</div> Source
Unfortunately our best players need to shoot better free throws, so I'm glad Nelson is getting on these guys about it. If perimeter guys continue to miss free throws, we need to draft somebody better because after a while it gets ridiculous. That's the one thing agents never talk about when comparing a player like Ray Allen or Michael Redd to Jrich when it comes to scoring. Can our guy shoot from different areas of the floor and can he make free throws? Those are important aspects of a scoring guard. Baron Davis has impressed in summer league, but I wonder how long can he keep it up. Same with Jrich when it comes to his free throw streakiness. The other bad news is that my favorite rookie, Monta Ellis is a 70% ft shooter as well.
Unlike Monty-Nellie got involved on the FT thing-made it a priority,and it seems to have helped. I've mentioned before-We-like most teams-collect players based on just about any other skill---then afterwards fuss that they don't make FT's. A good illustration-Daniel Horton is a PG who went undrafted-was with the heat preseason-got cut. Horton was an all round decent PG at Mich...and #1 in the NCAA in FT%...near 93%. Meanwhile,guys get drafted-make rosters-get hype,while all they can do is soar pretty on a dunk now and then. If a guy is long and a leaper-they call it upside-like he "probably" will get all the missing skills-or will even pay the dues to improve. 90% from the line is sweet-but won't get you on Sportscenter-maybe not even on a roster..that's the message. So-if we,or any team,bypasses the Hortons,drafts a Biedrens,it should be on the agenda to enhance the FT skills of whoever you got.
Undersize? Well,we have 7 players 6-9 or taller,plus Ike at 250+ with inside game,wingspan etc. Nellie will tend to have a relatively small group on the floor often-but there's size if and when he wants to use it. Our C was #1 in rbds in the preseason-over 12 per...behind him-2 lotto 7 footers and last years starter. We have a PF available who appears apt to be around 20pts anytime he gets the minutes.
<div class="quote_poster">REREM Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Undersize? Well,we have 7 players 6-9 or taller,plus Ike at 250+ with inside game,wingspan etc. Nellie will tend to have a relatively small group on the floor often-but there's size if and when he wants to use it. Our C was #1 in rbds in the preseason-over 12 per...behind him-2 lotto 7 footers and last years starter. We have a PF available who appears apt to be around 20pts anytime he gets the minutes.</div> I do not think the article suggests that the team is undersized. It says in terms of talent, their is much more of that placed in the back court. However I do agree with your analysis of the roster in terms of height. We just need POB and Ike to become monsters on the board like Andris and Murphy. I agree with Nelson's and the article's argument. Good teams don't need to play up-tempo because they can execute so well in the half-court and in all kinds of tempos which doesn't make it a necessity for good teams to play uptempo. Maybe this is why Avery Johnson replaced Nelson in Dallas and suddenly got his team to the finals in his first season. But Silas and Richmond are correct. This team needs to first think about winning and becoming decent as a team, before winning championships. Watching the Hornets/Warriors game in the preseason, I noticed that Nelson's uptempo game got the Warriors just enough points to stay in the game and in the end win the game. They didn't play that much better than the Hornets, but they just worked harder and were quicker at scoring as many easy buckets that were open to them as possible: this including taking the ball out of the hoop and passing it up court for an easy bucket while the other team was still walking back.
I agree with Clif and REM. And I guess now they both know where some of us are coming from in what we'd like to see, versus what we're forced to see for now. And that eventually trickles back down to the vicious cycle of Cohan, Rowell, and Mullin complaining with his choices of players to complement our revolving door/ coach carousel. I wish Nelson was younger...
A lot of the plus in running is to score in 3 on 3,4 on 3 etc-and even if the D gets everyone downcourt-they don't have the time to locate assignments-make adjustments-clog lanes. We don't NEED 5 runts to run. Nellie's Runnin' Runts might be a nice name for a circus act-but it best not be the whole plan-and won't be. Already-after 3 games Nellie has sensed that if Dun is getting 4 pt-2 boards---that ain't the sort of results you need from the PF. Meanwhile--Ike gets ball-Ike makes basket..Ike gets ball-Ike makes basket...not much need to complicate that formula-and I don't see us losing anything on D...far from it.
Actually--The Old School Celtics under Auerbach were aggressively fast break,so were,obviously the "Showtime" Lakers with Magic. Houston ran with Olajuwon + Drexler,The Bulls ran a lot in Jordan's younger years
I like the comments here, especially talking about successful teams of old. We just need to play some fundamentall basketball or we are not a good team. This means when there's a break opportunity, run the break, but it also means we need to play an honest halfcourt and defense because teams can stop us from leaking out or if they dare us to shoot more by crowding the paint or playing the 3-2 zone. I mean it's really about floor spacing, guys moving, guys creating and limiting turnovers when they do. It's about guys putting the ball through the hoop and making it hard for the other team to do it back. We just play risky, low %, and disorganized ball. I just stopped believing in this club with their choice of position selections except for the guys Mullin drafted in '04 and '05. I really didn't like his free agent signings. I think it went against the objective to build around the draft if we can't even re-sign some of our own guys because nobody wants to trade for them and give us decent value in return or give us an expiring deal. There was just no summer roster shakeup like promised and Murphy's value was a bit inflated, especially because it's hard to find a decent center to pair up with him. I do like Monta Ellis, Ike Diogu, Biedrins, but we need some wings. More importantly, a shooting guard that plays like a shooting guard, and an athletic small forward that also plays something like a guard. They just need to shoot, pass, and dribble better than the guys we have now.
