Through 4 games: FG%: Stephen Jackson .363% Corey Maggette .345% Al Harrington .333% Andris Biedrins .630% .
Those stats are slightly misleading. If you don't count the Memphis game, what are their FG%'s? I know that's not the point. But those horrid %'s should rise over 40%...right???
Before Memphis game Jackson: 39% Maggette: 38.5% Harrington: 37.3% Still hitting under 40% One thing I would like to know is their FG% in 4th quarter. But then, it shouldn't be that bad, since we turn the ball over in late 4th quarter so much and can't even get our shot up...
So, I guess this proves thus far that Baron Davis wasn't the only one with ill-advised shots. It was the team overall and I guess we can blame Nellie for that, huh? I'm not being sarcastic or anything, just trying to get to the bottom of our woes. It easy for us to say what's wrong with the Warriors and what they need to do. Why can't Nellie implement some more structure? It seems like basic fundamentals are amiss here. I mean, I play more fundamental basketball at the local gym than the Warriors do.
It's actually very simple. A good PG will put you in a position to score and give you the ball in rhythm. Baron may have shot poorly, but he made others shoot better. We'll miss out on that until we get a solid 1. Just watch and see what happens in Denver once Chauncy settles in.
What does that mean though? There were plenty of times last year when the Warriors were in their so-called half-court set and nothing seemed rhythmic about the way they chucked up contested shots. Sorry, I don't buy that (completely). There are plenty of times when Harrington caught the ball "in rhythm" (e.g. coming off a backdoor screen) and chucked up a fadeaway shot, when instead he could take his time, survey the situation, and get something better out of it. Settling for shots isn't the point guard's (or lack of) fault, always.
Yeah, Baron was the king of the 40-foot fade-away prayer with 20 seconds on the shot clock. He had terrible shot selection and didn't always do a good job of getting others involved. Yet, CohanHater is right, IMO, in the fact that we need a true PG (like I've been saying) who can control the rock, push the break, and pass well. Imagine how many easy shots and dunks Beans and Mags would be getting if Deron Williams or Chris Paul were at the point. Those two guys are floor generals who can control the rock. They have elite handles, floor vision, and a sense of where every one is supposed to be. But of course there are no superstars available at PG. That's okay. But that doesn't change the fact that, until we get a true PG, a natural-born point guard, the flow of the GS offense is going to look like garbage, because Jax, Harrington and Mags are all chuckers instead of passers and cutters. Denver just got a whole lot better with Billups. That team is going to be scary in a few months. Can we get Steve Blake, Heinrich, or a guy like Calderon to run the show? Maybe Portland will give us Jared Bayliss for Wright + a future pick?
I still don't think the current FG% can be fully attributed to the lack of a "true PG." There are a lot of teams that don't have a true PG and they don't take stupid shots. Stupid shots are stupid shots, period. Also, don't we supposedly have a "true PG" on our team in Marcus Williams? I'd like to see him get a shot at it too.
You have to factor in that we have Don Nelson as coach for the lower FG% age. For example, Mags was around 45% last season with the Clips and is close to that for career. Nelson wants players to take the outside shot and the 3-ball when they're open. It doesn't matter if you miss it or not as long as you get an open look. Taking it inside burns up the clock. It's better to toss it in low and bring it out for the open shot than go inside for the higher percentage shot and burn clock. It's all about spacing, so if you take it inside, Nelson wants a layup instead of the iso down low.
Speaking of Baron...another typical game for him last night: 5-15 FG, 1-4 FT, 9 ast, 2 stl, 3 TO...and a Loss. There you have Baron with 9 assists but it didn't help the Clips win the game either. BTW, Biedrins tied for #1 in the NBA in rebounding right now
Clippers seem to be in a deep trouble. Their margin of loss for 4 games is -21 pts. Of course, that doesn't mean we are missing Davis. As a matter of fact, ball movements and late 4th quarter scoring went MIA, which Davis provided. It was a bad break up for both sides. We can blame Nelson all we want, but the end of day, Nelson is Nelson. He is 68 years old man, who has been very successful for a long time with his way. We all know his style, and it would be nearly impossible to change his coaching style at this point. Rowell should either give right players to Nelson or let him go and start anew. Instead, he caused Davis to leave, and extended Nelson for 3 years without knowing that Monta will be the solution. Maybe, he will bring a PG via trade to fix our problem. However, our current team looks pretty bleak. For ball movement... Yeah, without true PGs, who can actually play in NBA, or a superstar, having a good ball movement is nearly impossible. If you have a superstar, other role players will pass to him, and the ball will move from there. If we have a true PG, he will distribute the ball. We have neither, and to make things worse, we have number of players, whose skill and level are similar, and they think they are better than they are. Now Davis is gone, all Jackson, Maggette, and Harrington think they should be the no. 1 option, and they all like to shoot from outside. Without Davis soaking up all attention, now other teams can play honest defense on those guys, and their shooting % dropped consequently. If this continues and we start to lose, I can see a chemistry problem, especially between Jackson and Maggette. Will Monta solve the problem? I really don't know. Even if we assume that Monta comes back 100%, he was never known for a ball distributor. In worst case, he may be another ball hog and make our ball movement even worse. His sheer speed alone will make the ball movement better, but how much? And, if he doesn't come back 100%... Oh boy... M. Wiilliams may be a victim of political battle. But, at the end of day, he can't shoot, defend or athletic enough to play Nelson style. Then, he has an attitude problem. Even without a political battle, I don’t think he will see many minutes. I guess we expected this to happen. But man…
The Warriors had some tough shot selection even against the Nets. Fortunately they were attacking the rim enough and were getting A LOT of calls go their way so they were able to convert at least enough to win the game. But from what I saw, Jackson is much worse with his shot selection than anyone else on the team. Harrington is close since he is basically a black hole and just chucks it up every time he touches the ball. Also it's only 4 games. They need to look into putting perhaps a more motion type of system in or look to make Biedrins a serious option on that side of the court. Demarcus Nelson looked decent at PG when I saw him in the Nets game. My only concern is that he can't shoot, and I can see people standing 5 feet away from him, just to take away his driving ability, which is his best skill, which may cause some problems for him and the team in the future.
Jackson is a pure shooter though. I don't mind him taking "bad" shots as long the ball hits inside the cylinder. Let's just say he's closer most of the time compared to Baron taking bad shots and he gets to the foul line just as much in less touches. I don't mind those shots if Jack is playing D, passing, and taking it inside for foul shots. He does all that stuff. I've got more problems with Harrington taking shots because he doesn't help the team game much and he's a streak defender and rebounder. He's not a good foul shooter, he doesn't hit some people with passes soon enough, and if given the chance he can be a turnover machine. If there's any bad shots going on I'd say let it be Captain Jack. He does so much to run the team on both ends of the floor. He guards the other guy's best player and he is our primary playmaker on most possessions. I'd give him a pass considering we don't have a pure point guard to run the show. Plus we need a better small forward than Harrington and a better power forward than Harrington. It's all Harrington's fault is what I'm basically saying. He's like f#@$@#^% Troy Murphy. And that's why defensively and offensively we'll suck. The bad fg% coupled with poor defensive play (in transition and guarding weakside) is what will cost the Warriors dearly. And Nelson kind of sucks. We need CJ Watson to get healthy and get Monta Back. Watson and Monta ought to boost that fg % back up because they can take the shots which space the floor a little better. Problem solved (for the most part).
I know what you are saying, but jeez, he was 8-22 tonight, that's 36% (which is also, incidentally, his season average). There has to be a line somewhere. Additionally, Jackson is leading the entire NBA in turnovers per game right now, and by a wide margin. And he's in the top 5 in TO/48 of players playing more than 30 mpg.
Jax was 8 of 22 tonight, but look at his free throw attempts and makes (12 of 13) Jax was really taking it to the hole and I'm sure he threw some stuff up because he thought he was being fouled. Additionally he threw 7 assists. He had 5 turnovers, but some of the plays looked like miscues on the receiver's part. Others he just telegraphed or threw it badly. It's hard to be a point guard when he's not a point guard, but he's better than DeMarcus Nelson. The warriors as a team were terrible from downtown much like Denver was. I'm sure if Denver was nailing 3's we'd be in trouble. We didn't perform efficiently from the foul line, so made 3 pointers against us would definitely be painful.
Good points, CR2. I rather have SJax on the team than on the opposition (assuming it's a *reasonable* contract). We need to trade that cancer Harrington ASAP and while his value is still high. Get it done, Mully (and not Rowell). Nelson does suck if we're going young, but I still think if we have a PG who is solid starter and a PF who can play some, i.e. play more than BW for Nelson, then we can make it back to the playoffs. That should be our slogan for the GSW forum -- "Back to the Playoffs."
Uh, Jax was 1-9 from three point, so 8 of his 14 total misses were threes, not drives to the basket. I'm still glad he's on the team, but IMO the dude's got poor shot selection right now -- he's a chucker. When your big man is shooting twice the FG% you are, as a supposed "floor general" you better be getting him involved. I love Jax on the pick-n-roll with Beans, although he gets lazy with his one hand passes. But there are times during the game when it's obvious where the ball should go and yet Jax dribbles down with 19 seconds on the shot clock and jacks one from three feet behind the line without a single pass. Jax is a leader on this team, he just needs to tone down his shot selection and his pass selection. His porblem right now is that, whenever the ball is in his hands, he tries to make something happen (either pass or shot wise). Sometimes, he just needs to learn to pass the ball around and let it go, just get ready to rebound or get back on D. Just because you're the "leader" doesn't mean you have to "make the play" every time the ball touches your hands.
Jax did a decent job last night but he needs to start letting CJ bring the ball up, he's got better handles and instincts. Jax can still be the playmaker, that's fine. Yeah he's a chucker, but he made some huge shots the past two years, shots I had not seen made since the good Spree left, or maybe even back to Timmy and Mully. Al needs to be leave ASAP. Do not trade Brandon because pretty soon you are going to say where is our 4? Brandon and Biedrins are a great future.
^^i agree. at this point, i'd be really upset if we traded wright. biedrins, wright and randolph and 5, 4 and 3 would be NASTY.
