Does it really take injuries to your *cough* starters to find out what your lotto picks are worth? GS should have already discovered this long ago, but hopefully they now realize that Bellinelli > Maggette
I know I wish I had. I was pretty much doom and gloom with our chances on the road. But Nelly surprised me. He actually played guys I liked that seemed to fit together.
That was Belinelli's best game as a pro. Take away that one against Memphis last year because this game was tougher. He was playing with a bunch of new guys who have never played with each other. He was efficient, spaced the floor nicely, and made the right passes at the right time. Oh, and he put his best effort yet on D.
I know we are just a bunch of clowns writing blindly in cyberspace but how dense can Nellie be about the players he's trotting out there who play as selfish as the Knicks of Curry/Randolph of old (oh yeah that includes on certain Warrior)? Damn I'd rather lose with youngsters than overpaid retreads.
Nelly Traditionally plays players when they earn their spots. Sometimes it comes in short minutes, other times when given an opportunity because of injuiries to other players. Belli will get minutes here until he blows it. I was bummed out that Wright lost his focus in the game yesterday. He needs to focus on the boards and run the floor. That's how he'll stay on the floor. he was doing a great job in the first half until he got a little carried away.
Wright made a mistake or two, sure, but I don't think he deserved to be benched for the rest of the game for it, without even a word from Nelson. He was 5-6, I'd say that's worth leaving him out there to play through mistakes. If the Warriors benched anyone with a blown defensive assignment, they'd have to forfeit the game early in the first quarter of every game. Almost everyone on this team is terrible defensively, swiss-cheese, matador, call it what you will. Everyone gets caught looking away from their man, lets people blow by them as they watch helplessly, reaches and hacks, rotates late, whatever. I don't see Wright being any worse than any of the others, and he does bring a lot to the PF position that we simply won't get from any of Nellie's small-ball fill-ins.
It's one of those scenarios where Nelly wants him to work on one thing, and he does it well for awhile, then loses focus and goes right back to his bad habits. Nelly didn't have to tell him a thing, and Wright knew exactly what he did to get yanked.
I agree. At this point, it's too late to still be trying to wean Wright along and make him earn the chance to learn in the NBA. For the sake of the franchise, they need to put him out there for heavy minutes and just get it over with already. Of course he's going to make mistakes, blah blah blah... we all know the "play the rookie" argument, but at this point he's not a rookie anymore. He's probably about ready to bolt for San Antonio or the Lakers if Don Nelson can't get his head out of his ass and just give him 30 minutes a night.
A big fear I have is that the Warriors give up on their young talent now to suit Nelson, and then he just walks/retures anyway. I feel we've already made some bad decisions to accomodate Nellie's game, but if Nelson leaves having ruined or traded away pieces like Wright, Randolph, Hendrix, and Belienelli, it's going to be a disaster for years to come. You could argue he's hurting Biedrins, too, by insisting he be the only inside presense needed.
I think by now everyone on this board knows how I feel about Nelson. I feel he's sucking so badly, we'd be better off with coach Montgomery because at least Montgomery would put Biedrins/Turiaf in a position of winning. He didn't have the luxury of a polished Biedrins back then, and he had Foyle and Murphy as his big men. Where are they now? Those guys suck as starters because they only play one side of the floor. Turiaf + Biedrins start with defense first and they have some offensive punch and they look to pass. Can't find that with butterfingers Foyle or no-pass, no-defense Murphy. Muss would preach x's and o's. We need a coach that doesn't just talk and actually gets his guys to follow set plays.
I agree. He's a gimmick coach, not an all-around coach. I don't care how many regular season wins this guy has, it ain't meaningful to make the playoffs going small all the way. It's like the whole spear vs a knife example. You hope depending on the situation, you know how to use either weapon effectively because both weapons have their advantages and disadvantages. You can't expect to play just the spear and hoping to win every time when the knife guy gets you in close. What happens when the battle ground doesn't give you the range of movement to use a spear effectively. This is my problem with Nelson. He's strictly a spear fighter. Doesn't know what to do with a knife when he's got one. The spear is his only weapon and when there's no other options, he's dead. His opponent might be more willing to adapt and is a true tone setter. I believe it's why teams with decent, athletic big men will effectively destroy Don Nelson's vision of what a team should be. As long as the opposing team's bigs don't start outside in, like a Dirk Nowitzki, they'll pound the inside relentlessly which causes the perimeter to open up. And we cannot defend the perimeter worth crap if we have to help out inside constantly. Man F Don Nelson. He's totally ruined the season for me. I've already had low opinions of Rob Rowell and Chris Cohan to begin with.
I'm all for bashing Nellie at this point but I disagree with him being an all time overrated coach. He played big with the Bucks and won with Sikma/Old Lanier/Mokeski and a young Terry Cummings inside and Paul Pressey/Marques Johnson/Moncrief outside. It wasn't like they rolled over for the Sixers/Celtics, they took them to at least a Gm. 6. He laid the foundation for the 2006 Mavs; I'm not so sure Avery was that big a component of them getting to the Finals; maybe the players just tuned out Nellie but that's not Nellie's fault. Today? Yeah he's bad; see Charley Rosen's conclusion at the end of his article (I posted under Unbiased Review).
I think Nelson succeeds when he has a good PG to work with. He did well as a coach with Avery Johnson, Tim Hardaway, Steve Nash, and Baron Davis. Stephen Jackson is not a PG. CJ Watson is once in a while. I am thinking that he's waiting for management to give him one. Maybe Crawford is the one. But it doesn't look like it too much, so far - but it's still early.
I hate the argument that just because someone plays well in a game that they should've been playing all along. There are so many factors in development and maturity that need to be handled correctly.I'm not trying to say that Nelly is the best coach in the league by any means. What I do know, is that he eventually gets the best out of strong-willed players. Weak-minded players have no place in this league. You may disagree with his methods, but watching Belly play these last few games, he's playing disciplined basketball with grit and confidence. Playing a guy, just because he's talented isn't necessarily the best thing for that player (if he has a high ceiling). We'll see what comes of this team, but removing Magette from the mix seems to be the final spark that got the team playing together. We'll see what happens to these guys. I think that Wright is working much harder on his game to earn a spot than he would've had he been playing big minutes all of this time. I think he's still a short bursts of pt kind of guy. Eventually, he'll push Buike out of the mix, he's just not ready yet. Be patient people, the young guys are coming along well. Hopefully the front office finds a way to move Mags this season for a player or 2 that have a work ethic. I like what I see whenever Regrette's off the floor.
