<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">With a healthy Ike Diogu getting the same minutes as an injured Ike Diogu, the Warriors' forward says he isn't bothered by the lack of playing time. He simply isn't sure how to get himself back in coach Don Nelson's rotation. "He's going to play the people who give him the best chances to win. That's how it is," said Diogu, who hasn't gotten off the bench the last two games. "I just got to keep working hard so I can eventually be one of those guys. "I guess he must be looking for something, so I've got to just keep going all out in practice and see where it goes from there." Diogu's strength is his low-post scoring, but Nelson has cited liability on defense and trouble remembering plays as hindrances to Diogu's progress. His six-week absence from a sprained ankle didn't help. Nelson was forced to use Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes at power forward when both Diogu and Troy Murphy missed extensive time last month, and the coach seemingly has found a comfort zone with his new lineup. </div> Source
See, I knew it wasn't some sort of feud between Ike and Nellie as so many people have stated. It's a long season and it's just not Ike's time yet, despite the numbers he's putting up. He'll come around and get into Nellie's rotation, I'm sure.
<div class="quote_poster">Kensaku Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">See, I knew it wasn't some sort of feud between Ike and Nellie as so many people have stated. It's a long season and it's just not Ike's time yet, despite the numbers he's putting up. He'll come around and get into Nellie's rotation, I'm sure.</div> Or it could be he's just saying the right things. The guy is being benched over a super soft jump shooting power forward who CAN'T shoot right now, aka Murphy. Theres no reason for Ike to get 0 minutes.
And Nellie was quoted as calling Ike a "blamer" for pointing fingers on defensive meltdowns. But even my blind grandma can see that Ike is a scoring machine (okay she's not blind).
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">And Nellie was quoted as calling Ike a "blamer" for pointing fingers on defensive meltdowns. But even my blind grandma can see that Ike is a scoring machine (okay she's not blind).</div> Even if Ike sucks on D, it can't be any worse than Murphy's right? And his offense is way better than Murphy's. So it doesn't make sense to give him 0 minutes, which is why I believe theres some beef between the 2. I mean, even Dunleavy points fingers, and he gets minutes even though he sucks.
I don't get why Ike gets labeled a blamer when Dunleavy is kind of the same way. First Dunleavy complains about "streetball" dominating the warriors "playbook". It's not an unfounded complaint because some guys aren't passing it and they're just chucking it off the dribble trying to break defenders down on their own (Baron, Murphy, Fisher, Jrich, Pietrus, Ellis, etc). Those guys can destroy momentum as easily as they help create it. Yet I don't see Dunleavy doing anything important on both ends of the ball, or finishing plays or get inside to the rim consistently like the other so called "streetballers". I mean one can't play the blame game if they're not part of the solution. But in fairness, Dunleavy has called out himself and has played better than last year. I'm just depressed that Nelson won't go bigger. Rebounding numbers are down, we're not stopping anybody at the rim, our transition D still has problems, we're getting into all sorts of foul trouble, we're still taking outside shots and not running anything, we're not getting to the line or converting at the line sometimes. It feels like we've gotten worse. Aside from injuries making us worse, but having the same record at this stage in time as last year, it just doesn't feel like a winner to me. I feel like we're too close to what Seattle and New Orleans are right now, only we should have the bigger market to attract better players. Even if we make the 8th seed, what direction do we go with Mullin and Don Nelson? At best we're an 8th seeded team, but I repeat, "from there, where do we go?" I just don't see much momentum unless Mullin can find some trade flexibility and can understand/estimate the CBA/FA market.
BTW, I'm only a proponent of small ball in small doses. If all we do is rely upon it, we won't get very far. It's just the nature of the style. We don't control the pace of the game unless our offensive variety is so dominant and the other team isn't that good at scoring against us. We're very limited right now and especially defensively and controlling the rebounds if we play smaller. I'll be willing to say that Baron can do no wrong at this point because we've seen that Ellis isn't ready yet, Jrich's game is (to some extent) replaceable with forwards like Pietrus, Barnes. Other Warriors aren't making good shot selections either. Its pretty obvious the momentum just dies when they put McLeod in for him. The franchise is resting all their weight on one player who is statistically not very good at efficiency and injury prone. This makes me nervous because I just want the Warriors to finally win and not come up empty yet again. I'm afraid I'll snap one of these days.
I would love to see a BIG lineup for once, just to give it a try! Imagine... Baron Pietrus Dunleavy Diogu Biedrens just for a little bit. Then when we have a fully healthy squad swap Pietrus for Jrich and Dunleavy for Pietrus. That right there is my ideal starting lineup...
<div class="quote_poster">AnimeFANatic Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Or it could be he's just saying the right things. The guy is being benched over a super soft jump shooting power forward who CAN'T shoot right now, aka Murphy. Theres no reason for Ike to get 0 minutes.</div> Yeah, I don't know what's going on, but I'm not too worried. I don't see the W's as having drama-queens. That's one thing I'm glad we haven't had to deal with as fans for a while.
<div class="quote_poster">Warriorfansnc93 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> I would love to see a BIG lineup for once, just to give it a try! Imagine... Baron Pietrus Dunleavy Diogu Biedrens just for a little bit. Then when we have a fully healthy squad swap Pietrus for Jrich and Dunleavy for Pietrus. That right there is my ideal starting lineup...</div> Swap out Barnes for Dunleavy or Pietrus and I'm sold. Barnes is 2 inches shorter than Dunleavy, but plays bigger - strong, wiry, springy, athletic, loves to rebound, long arms -- he really reminds of Shawn Marion. Plus, Beans is one of the quickest centers in the league, so even though he's big he still fits into "small ball" running very well. The only problem is without Dun, and with Pietrus at the 2, there's no ball handling other than Baron (Barnes can take it up court but half-court would be issue). So, how about: Baron Dunleavy Barnes Ike Biedrins That's interesting. Dunleavy can handle at the 2, even though Barnes is smaller he can play the 3, Ike in there for rebounding and half-court game and kick-outs for fast breaks, and Beans can run the floor. This is interesting indeed. Still, my favorite would be: Baron Monta Barnes Ike Biedrins Barnes is a great glue-guy to hold it down, would compliment Ike on the boards, and can run with Monta and Baron for the 3-on-1 fast breaks. Ike and Biedrins do the dirty work.
Well,it's not like Murphy has played PF in a month,he appears to be one of the backup C's now. Barnes-Dun-Pietrus are the F's. Obviously-Power F just does not exist,instead it's Small F and Smaller F. I agree with custodian--100% smallball won't take us far. We don't have S Marion getting 11-12 boards. The Suns may not be tall-but they still put 2 guys on the floor who play big. We don't. We get killed if we ask Dun to impersonate a big man. Yeah,he will flop and draw a foul,but otherwise he's the target for opposing offenses. Teams figure out that Biedrens can't be everywhere,and they find the weakest link. Biedrens,meanwhile-has had his numbers slip lately. He's alone inside getting bumped and pushed and some games he just seems worn down.
Since when did Nellie play black players taller than him? He'd rather play Dunleavy and Biedrins than Diogu and Foyle. Warriors may be better off trading Ike.
<div class="quote_poster">dallasdude Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Since when did Nellie play black players taller than him? He'd rather play Dunleavy and Biedrins than Diogu and Foyle. Warriors may be better off trading Ike.</div> ... ?
<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">... ?</div> Don Nelson just doesnt like to play black players in the front court. How many times have us Mavs fans wanted to fire him when he coached the Mavs and gave play time to Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz even when they sucked. Its no surprise Diogu and Foyle don't get any playing time. Here's an interesting article http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/kaufm.../nba/index.html
Chris Gatling, Victor Alexander, Chris Washburn, Billy Owens Nelson is great at recoginzing talent in small positions, he just can't evaluate big guys-white or black
Well, Nelson's been starting a training camp invitee at PF, a guy who wasn't even supposed to make the roster, was going to get into a different career, and then suddenly Nelson latched onto him and resurrected his career, and now the guy has taken away the starting PF forward spot from the white Troy Murphy and is probably Neslon's favorite go-to player right now inside. His name is Matt Barnes. Oh, and guess what? He's African American. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Afri...ketball_players I don't think Nelson is stupid enough to actually be racist, let alone let racism affect his coaching. He has too keen an eye for talent. P.S. Lol -- the only reason why Foyle's even in the league is because some goofy GM actually gave him a long-term contract... he wouldn't start under any other coach in the league.
<div class="quote_poster">dallasdude Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Don Nelson just doesnt like to play black players in the front court. How many times have us Mavs fans wanted to fire him when he coached the Mavs and gave play time to Shawn Bradley and Raef LaFrentz even when they sucked. Its no surprise Diogu and Foyle don't get any playing time. Here's an interesting article http://www.salon.com/news/sports/col/kaufm.../nba/index.html</div> Right, I'm sure. Someone who is okay with black guards but not okay with black front court players... "When they reach a certain height, my blood starts to boil" - Don "KKK" Nelson
<div class="quote_poster">Kensaku Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> Right, I'm sure. Someone who is okay with black guards but not okay with black front court players... "When they reach a certain height, my blood starts to boil" - Don "KKK" Nelson</div> LOL. Yeah Dallas guy's comments were a bit unfounded, considering Nelson hyped up guys like Jamison and Antoine Walker because they could shoot from distance and provide more scoring punch. As if that's what Dallas really needed at the time. Oh yeah, let's get more guys that don't share the ball and take more outside shots! That was the main key in Nelson's big men is he wants mismatches in a run n' gun environment. He likes them to handle the ball and shoot, you know, like a GUARD? If he ever has a center they need to be able to shoot and block shots or be as wide as Antoine Walker, Popeye Jones and Danny Fortson were. That's pretty much what Nelson likes. And that's why he won't play Ike at any position other than center and he won't play Murphy at PF. Nelson's style and philosophy didn't get him very far in the playoffs despite a killer regular season record with his future NBA MVP candidates and future hall of famers. His matchups and style just doesn't work if that is all he's using. It's like REREM or somebody said about throwing a pitch. You don't throw nothing but fastballs, because sooner or later the batter is going to start hitting them because he anticipates it. It's like Nelson is trying to play baseball getting all kinds of homeruns and hits, but at the same time he is not paying attention to pitching, infielding, and double play execution. I know Nelson recognizes it, but he believes in offense is the best defense. He even said it himself that teams don't need to play small ball when they have higher quality of big men. That's true for players like Shaq, Duncan, Yao, Brand, Zebo, Carlos Boozer or any huge, dominant low post threat. I think what has Golden State fans from all over the internet so pissed is that we have a possible low post threat in Ike, yet Nelson will hold a different standard against Ike than he does with Ellis or Biedrins or guys without guaranteed contracts. The worst thing about our offense is that we're not moving the ball around as much as Nelson would like, and we're taking some really lazy shots and not getting to the line or making automatic free throws. I think fans can be irked by the same style of play inside and out, and can sense it's no fun without Ellis or Jrich being involved in the offense. The only bright spots in the guard rotation (I think) has been some of Pietrus, some of Barnes, and mostly all Baron. But our perimeter can't be taking 10 3point shot attempts each game. Who do they think they are, Vince Carter, Kobe Bryant, Damon Stoudamire, or Donyell Marshall?
