<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><span class="georgia md" id="bodytext">Today marks the end of the Warriors' two-a-day practices. Golden State will switch to longer single sessions beginning Saturday before traveling to Honolulu next week for a pair of exhibition games with the Lakers. ... The early scrimmage reviews from Nelson? Harrington has been the best player and all the rookies, including Marco Belinelli, are struggling to learn the system. ... Nelson said Baron Davis will receive the least playing time during the preseason and plans on using about 12 of the Warriors' 18 players during their exhibition games.</div></span></p> <span class="georgia md" id="bodytext">Source: SF Gate</span></p> Great news Al Harrington is standing out early for the team. It would be nice to know exactly what he's doing differently than others, but we will find out soon enough if Harrington has figured out how to put some power back into the power forward position.</p> <span class="georgia md" id="bodytext">Losing JRich, means someone needs to step up and pick up the slack for his rebounding contributions. Harrington and the Warriors have to figure out a way to keep teams off the offensive glass, and bait them into settling for perimeter shots instead. Long misses lead to long rebounds, which leads to 3 on 1 Warrior fastbreaks and highlight finishes at the other end. It's up to Al, Beans, and the other frontline players to clean glass find Baron on the outlet pass and sprint down the court with the rest of the guys.</span></p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peg182)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> Harrington, the best player? This comes at a surprise. Does Nelson even like Al?</p> </div></p> He saw something in him when he had Mullin trade to bring him and SJax over. The Warriors went on a tear after the trade, so I'm sure Nelson likes Harrington. I think Nellie probably gave him a to-do list at the end of the season of areas to work on to improve in his role on the team. Harrington probably worked on those areas and Nelson is giving him credit for that. Again, the article didn't get into any specifics on why Nellie said he was the best out there, but that would be my educated guess on his comments.</p> Sidenote: <span class="body">Golden State named Stephen Jackson, Baron Davis and Matt Barnes as captains.</span></p> </p>
Maybe Al Harrington went to small forward? That's basically what he is. An overgrown small forward. But then I remember, this is Nelson we're talking about. He likes to play guys at bigger positions than they were originally suited for. Besides, Al Harrington is the kind of tweener that you want playing more of a quickness mismatch on offense than a strength mismatch on offense (we can do without his defensive liabilities against quicker perimeter players at SF). Last year, Al Harrington was a fine 3 point shooter for us who was able to do other things on the court (who else was good at outside shooting besides him last year and could dribble the ball?). I bash AH for playing small for his size, but he does do nice things. I hope Nelson gets what he wants in calling for more rebounding coming from Harrington as our power forward because we lost Richardson's 6 a game. I also think we need Harrington if Sjax is a captain, because Harrington might be a guy who can keep him in check. Does anybody think of Al Harrington as not a professional player? I always thought that he treats the sport as a privilege rather than a right and that's a good quality to have. I'm hoping Harrington can play up to his potential this year because we have no other point power forwards unless we bump Jackson up 1 or 2 positions.</p>
I was just wondering because Harrington didn't play much at all in the first round.</p> I figured maybe it was matchups, but he barely played at all, and with his talent level...I didn't expect that.</p> and custodian--didn't Jax play the 4 some last year? I think I remember a few games where he manned the 4 in the playoffs, and did pretty good, too.</p>
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (peg182)</div><div class='quotemain'></p> I was just wondering because Harrington didn't play much at all in the first round.</p> I figured maybe it was matchups, but he barely played at all, and with his talent level...I didn't expect that.</p> and custodian--didn't Jax play the 4 some last year? I think I remember a few games where he manned the 4 in the playoffs, and did pretty good, too.</p> </div></p> Harrington didn't play because he couldn't rebound or provide much D or shoot like he was doing in the regular season. Plus he finished at the rim pretty weak. And Yeah Sjax manned the 4 taking turns with Pietrus/Barnes against Nowitzki. When the 2nd round came, the guys were spent from all that running and having to guard guys much stronger and more physical. So I don't blame the Warriors for losing. They did pretty well with just small guys. Charles Barkley couldn't believe it.</p> </p>
Well I think a lot of people anticipated that Al Harrington would most likely be better this season with the Warriors than last. This is because last season, he probably was not in the Don Nelson, up-tempo condition necessary to be the most effective in the Don Nelson system. I am guessing that he worked hard this offseason to get ready physically for this season. Maybe I should read the whole article, but from the blurb that was quoted, I would make the assumption that Al Harrington working to get in the best condition is the reason why he is looking so good, especially to Don Nelson. Perhaps Al has worked on his vertical and is much more mobile now.
