Warriors vs Los Angeles Lakers First Pre-Season Game

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (philsmith75)</div><div class='quotemain'>Only saw the first half. The first quarter was tremendous. The ball movement and transition offense was beautiful. Its only the first preseason game but it looks promising. Baron, Jax, Biedrins, Azu, and Al were flowing and running but not taking wild shots.</p>

Azubuike knows how to play. Hope he can keep his confidence level up. He's a more solid player than Barnes.</p>

Belinelli looks like a nice shooter who knows how to play the game.</p>

POB looked promising. What we should have been seeing last year. Oh well, he's definitely a keeper at the bargain price.</p>

Why Burke got so much time is puzzling. If we have to rely on him we are hurting.</p>

Hudson is a gunner, and unfortunately a veteran gunner too (remember Fish's mentality? I'm the vet I'm doing what I want). Hopefully he's just a bit player this year.</p>

Hang on, its going to be a fun ride this year.</p>

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Pretty much agree with you. The starting 5 looked excellent. Baron and Azu were the only ones hitting their shots but everyone played extremely well together, the ball was moving very well, there wasn't many mistakes and their defense was impressive. Azu is an excellent fit at SG because hes got the total package, plays unselfishly, and hes very smart. Firstly, hes an excellent athlete; listed at 6'5 but looks like he may be even smaller than that (I'd say hes probably around 6'4), hes got a very big wingspan and strength to make up for his lack of height. Hes got very good hops and good speed, lateral quickness isn't too spectacular but definitely not bad. The thing I love about him that he shares with the great SGs in the league is that hes smoothe. Kobe, Ray Allen, Michael Redd, Joe Johnson, T-Mac, etc. they're all very smoothe and graceful players. Hes got all the skills you want in a SG; hits shots when hes open, can slash, decent handle (could improve here though IMO), gets to the FT line and hits the FTs, knows where to be on every play. Hes also a guy who is willing to do the dirty work, play defense, and REBOUND. He may even be a better rebounder than J-Rich by my estimation and IMO this is the biggest factor in why I believe he'll start for the entirity of the season. Dude has very good rebounding instincts and the athleticism to get to the ball, hes not going to shy away from banging around on the inside like Jack, Beli, or Monta. Physically he reminds me of Bonzi Wells, which is probably why they're both very good rebounders. If he starts for the whole season (which I expect him to do) I think he'll average 6+ rebs a game. Also I have to say from what I saw of him last year I wasn't that impressed by his defense but last night I thought he did a great job on Kobe.</p>

Baron was also spectacular last night. His shooting was on, penetrated well, was playing very unselfishly and was all over on defense. Jack didn't really do anything, he missed several shots that I thought he shouldn't have taken but also hit one or two and made a few nice passes. Al didn't really do anything either, hit a few jumpshots and showed very nice quickness on a nice penetration move to the rim. Biedrins looked like the same old Biedrins.</p>

I actually wasn't that impressed by Belinelli. He hit some beautiful shots but also missed his fair share of them. One problem I have with him is that it seems like he makes shots harder than they have to be. Granted hes amazing at hitting those off balance, fading, on the run jumpshots, there are a lot of times when he doesn't have to do that but he does anyway. Look at Kobe, Ray Allen, Michael Redd, etc. these guys don't shoot off balance, flashy shots when they don't have to. He'll learn with time but I do hope Don Nelson tones down the flashiness and promotes the efficiency. His defense wasn't that bad and he was active in the lanes. Showed nice passing and ball handling ability. He'll contribute this year and he'll blow up a few times a month for big scoring nights but I don't know if hes as good right now as many fans are projecting him to be.</p>

Barnes and Pietrus looked horrible. Barnes better step up or else he'll be losing A LOT of minutes. Azu and Beli are going to get theirs, whne Biedrins sits we now have POB/Cro to play C, which may mean more Al at PF and therefore less Barnes. I could care less about Pietrus, Shape made some god points that he does do some good tihngs on the court such as rebound and block shots but its just not worth it to have him on the court whne hes committing stupid fouls and turnovers CONSTANTLY. Hopefully he doesn't play much and we can pedal him off for a second round pick or two or maybe throw him into a mid-season block buster deal as an expiring contract with Al. IMO theres no hope for Pietrus becoming a regular rotation player, Barnes has a shot but hes his own worst enemy.</p>

Just to add on to what I said about POB earlier; he looked great and really surprised me but hes still got room to improve. I'll admit I did finally write him off this summer league after being patient with him all of last season. I think a few reasons why hes made such a drastic improvement are as follows:</p>

A) We need to remember the dude came out of freaking Bradley as a Sophmore. Its a HUGE step to even go from Bradley to a major conference like the ACC, SEC, Pac 10, Big 10, etc. needless to say the NBA. Its no wonder he was completely clueless and lost. Its very unreasonable to expect a Sophmore who was good but nothing to special at Bradley to come in and contribute in the NBA in his first year in the league. He needed to take that intermediate step in the D-League and now hes starting to show some promise in the NBA.</p>

Motivation has been a major question mark for POB. Many have cited that he doesn't show much interest or passion in the game at all, and I think there is (or was) some truth to this. I think something clicked with him. Part of it may just be him being a young guy, he didn't know how much work one needs to put in to be a good NBA player. Part of it may be Mullin/Nellie threatening to not pick up his contract extension, though he has apparently been working all offseason long at the W's practice facility. I also think that practicing against good bigs like Beans, veterans like Croshere helps a ton, not to mention he was practicing with Wright, Lasme, and Kosta (all were quite good in their respective leagues/conferences) every day in the offseason. Plus I'm sure POB notices the team adding bigs at an alarming rate; Wright, Lasme, Cro, Kosta, Burke all in one offseason, he knows hes fighting for his job now and if he doesn't produce quickly he'll be gone. POB will probably never be a Biedrins or Varejao type player, bouncing around like a crack addict and all, but hes showing some fire, some hustle, some passion now, and hes actually producing.</p>

Many people have also questioned POB's love for the game but he does show some signs that hes got some passion for the game. He was playing basketball even before high school, which is more than you can say for a lot of project big men. He also shows some signs of having good basketball instincts; his passing has impressed me for since I first saw him for an extended period of time in his first summer league and I haven't seen him make any bonehead plays. I haven't seen enough of him to call him a smart player but I can't see anything to refute it either like you see regularly from Barnes, Pietrus, Stro Swift, Kwame Brown, etc. He also shows a solid jumpshot and hook shot that no doubt took a lot of practice and dedication to develop. None of these things are sure measurements of his passion or love for the game but I would think they indicate that he does care about playing basketball and works pretty hard at improving, which is contrary to what many people have assumed.</p>

He'll still have to work on bulking up, improving his shooting and post game, not overplaying on screens or losing his man on defense, but hes come a long way so far and I'm happy with what hes shown. Hopefully he'll do that all season with decent consistency.</p>

Was a bit dissapointed that Wright and Lasme didn't play, I'm guessing they'll get more run as pre-season goes on and I got tickets to go to some pre-season game on the 15th against a Euro team (can't remember what team though) so hopefully they'll get plenty of run there.</p>