http://www.mercurynews.com/sportsheadlines/ci_11352495?nclick_check=1 Basically it seems to me like Kawakami up to his old tricks of just throwing noodles at the wall at seeing what sticks, but look at this one: I do wonder if there's some friction there, at least on Rowell's part. Ellis has accepted the initial fine, but does anyone know what the latest is on Ellis and his lawyers and/or agent with regard to Rowell's Double Jeopardy stance, hinting that he could void Ellis' contract at any time over the course at his own discretion? If he's sticking to that, then yes, I can see that driving Ellis away, and if that's the case, things will get ugly and his trade value to the Warriors will go down. So should we be looking at this? For the record, I'm not in favor of it unless it becomes necessary, in fact very much against it, but who could we get for Monta? Kawakami suggests nothing. At the very least, would he be enough to dump all these bad contracts we have (at least Maggette and Crawford)? As long as he doesn't come back crippled, I can't imagine there wouldn't be a lot of teams who'd be happy to have him start immediately for them, and give up some talent or take a bad contract in return.
Please explain to me why kawakami is paid to give his opinion? There isn't one line in this article that has any real information in it. I think we could come up with a better article daily without any access to the orginization than he does.
Somebody pass me a Prozac because I agree with Kawakami for the most part. (Imaginary) Step No. 1: Get the 20 percent minority owners to buy out Cohan and run this like a normal NBA franchise after his 14 bizarre seasons. Sorry, Cohan probably isn't selling. If I had a penny for every time a Warrior fan had said Cohan sells the team, then I'd be in the highest income tax bracket. (Imaginary) Step No. 2: Get Cohan to fire Rowell and reinstall Mullin as the unchallenged hoops chieftain. I'm told Rowell is infallible in Cohan's eyes and the Mullin shove-out is basically a done deal. I do not get it because any basketball executive or Warrior fan will tell you Mullin is >>>>>>>>>>> Rowell, but these are Cohan eyes we're talking about. To reality now... Step 1: Fire Don Nelson and eat the remaining $15 million or so on his deal. He was the right coach for Davis' team. But Baron is gone. Now Nelson is an albatross. Nothing moves forward until he's gone. I've been saying without Mullin to keep Nelson in check, Nelson is a disasterous influence on the team. Step 2: Hire Keith Smart as the interim coach and see what happens. He'll play Wright and Randolph and he'll probably get the Warriors approximating some version of defense. I think Keith Smart will play Wright and Randolph more and teach them some defense as well as the rest of the team. It's time. He deserves a shot. Step 3: If Smart won't start Wright or Randolph, or Wright and Randolph, then hire somebody who will. If the Warriors are going to lose, it's useless to lose without getting both young forwards plenty of experience. I think Smart is an improvement over Nelson and won't be cancer on the Warrior players like Nelson can. See step 2. Step 4: Come to a quick compromise with Monta Ellis, who probably should be traded by February (if he's healthy) just to dump his contract and get him out of Rowell's hair. Ellis and Rowell probably can't coexist, and Marco Belinelli, Jamal Crawford, Watson, Kelenna Azubuike, Jackson and Corey Maggette fill up the backcourt, anyway. I'm not against trading Monta because I don't think he's a PG. But I don't understand Rowell because why did he get rid of Baron if he thought Monta was going to be able to take over? The latter is more important than the former. Step 5: Don't repeat what the Knicks did for years; don't make a terrible situation hopeless by trading your own underperformers for someone else's larger-salaried mediocrities. Hold on to Maggette until he can be handed back to the Clippers in a year or so. Hold on to Jackson for another year or two (and pray he doesn't detonate) until his Rowell-gifted contract becomes more workable. Agreed. Unless that miraculous deal comes in where we can dump Mag's contract. Step 6: Grin and bear it. Accept that 24-58 is coming. No panic moves. Agreed. We already went through the panic when Baron opted out and then the Warriors tossed money at Elton Brand and Gilbert Arenas. Neither of those guys were going to sign here. They just used the Warriors as leverage. Step 7: Get lucky in the lottery. Draft Oklahoma's Blake Griffin, a physical low-post scorer. Take a run at hiring Flip Saunders or Eddie Jordan. If either guy wants to move out assistant general manager Larry Riley as a precondition, all the better. Agreed, but I rather take Ricky Rubio and give Keith Smart a chance.
I've been seeing that Brandon Jennings looks like he may slip to #10 or so. If that's true, and the Ws don't miraculously end up with the #1 pick, I'd like to get him instead of another big. I think he may be able to fit nicely with ellis, playing the point on offense and 2 on D. Even though he hasn't gotten much PT, he's definately talented and, assuming we don't get rid of Nellie, he may do well in an uptempo system. I think our 4 and 5 are/will be pretty solid with Beans/BW starting and Turiaf/AR off the bench. Monta is not and never will be a PG and without a PG there's no point in even trying.
I can see a 2 guard helping us provided the lockdown D, shooting, passing is there. I think that's what makes Brandon Roy so valuable is he operates like a prototypical shooting guard (pass, shoot, handle, vocal leadership), but he plays defense like an all-star swingman. He's not that quick, but he's strong and very fluid. He's got like a Joe Johnson quality except he'll probably be better than Joe Johnson in a lot of areas soon. Any kind of leadership that can force Sjax to take a complimentary role in some games is fine by me. If we want our 4/5 or 1 position to make an impact Wright/Biedrins will have to get bigger/tougher and more consistent at finishing inside in traffic and Ellis will have to cut down on the turnovers that I'm sure he'll rack up if he's made primary ballhandler and setup guy. His outside shooting will probably need to improve, but I think if used properly he can make it so the midrange game is his game (I think Ellis will still be a high % shooters because of his uncanny ability to finish at the rim even when he's bumped). He probably won't need screens to get a clean shot off, but he'll probably be even more effective with screens. His shooting off the dribble is money. I think Ellis could be a very good defender, but we'll see... I haven't seen too much evidence of Ellis playing defense the right way. None of the current warriors play spectacular all-around D and I think this is where the troubles start when it comes to playing team defense... All in all, if Ellis, Wright, Biedrins work solidly in the next year, two guard would be the need. The 3 could be occupied by Randolph or some guy that could play a Quinton Ross / Grizzlies era James Posey type of role.
