While it's nice that we're winning, we only decrease our chances of landing in the top 5 of the draft lottery. We need a impact player in the range we're picking like a Baron Davis (only less injury prone and more skilled and level headed like Chris Paul). Usually the sure thing ain't there in the top picks unless we get the steal of the draft like a Danny Granger or a Paul Pierce. Also we need to keep building up Biedrins, Wright, and Randolph or trade our power forwards for somebody that can hang with Biedrins. Oh and get rid of Nelson if he refuses to play a real power forward next to a center. Example: we have Biedrins and Bosh and neither are in foul trouble or logging heavy minutes, and Nelly subs in a small forward to play power forward and makes Bosh play center. Groan....
Just putting it out there, but Anthony Randolph impressed me tonight. Kid is an athletic freak and looks like he's going to be a pretty damn good player once he develops an offensive game that doesn't completely rely on his athleticism.
Kobe gets those almost everywhere he goes, so you shouldn't feel too bad that you're crowd was chanting it. Plus, a good few thousand of those fans there were Laker fans tonight.
He impressed me too, hes been playing well lately and putting it together. Still only 19 yet hes been wrecking shop on some teams lately in limited minutes. His stupid rookie mistakes and TOs are down a lot, hes playing under control, dude's rebounding like a fuckin maniac, hes doing a pretty solid job bodying up on bigger PF/Cs, jumpshot hasn't been too bad. Hes bringing the energy, rebounding, hustle, and making some things happen on offense while keeping his mistakes down- even Nellie said after the game hes earning minutes. BTW how about a couple sweet post moves in back to back games now? I'm not gonna lie, if he keeps up the rebounding he could easily be ahead of Wright on the depth chart pretty soon here. Hes developing at an alarming rate. Yeah, not to mention there's plenty of LA/socal natives living in the Bay Area so of course many of them are going to come to Oracle to see their team play. I don't think anyone knows for sure except Nellie. After having a very good month in January he hasn't had almost any run in February. Part of it could well be the team getting healthier- Monta, Mags, Jack, Craw, and Beli were all out for long stretches that allowed Morrow to play more. The team is also shooting better from 3 lately, probably largely due to all the home games but also guys are getting their stroke more. Pretty much every other swingman on our team provides other key skills that Morrow can't provide. For all his great shooting he has many flaws as a SG- mediocre athleticism, especially laterally when defending, poor handle, not a good passer. Teams are keying in on him a little more and hes really not that hard to shut down. Since our other guys are shooting the ball at a good rate we don't need to bring him in to spread the floor since the other players also provide ball handling, athleticism, defense, penetration ability, etc. That being said, a lot of our starters are really burned out and it'd be nice for Morrow to get at least a few minutes if for no other reason than to keep our guys reasonably fresh. Marco coming back and Azu likely coming back soon doesn't help his case. As mentioned above, both are very good 3 pt shooters, perhaps not as good as Morrow, but the difference isn't enough to sacrifice the other skills that Azu and Beli possess which Morrow can't provide.
I loved Randolph's energy. What I didn't like is him trying to show up the coach. When he made his outside shot he held his hand up, and when he missed the 2nd one, he did as well. That bugged me. Other than those 2 shots, and a couple of the reckless plays, he did well to earn more minutes though.
You guys put up an awesome fight last night. The defense on Kobe was some of the best I've seen in awhile. Loved the MVP chants from him, but like Moo said, Kobe gets them almost everywhere. Fuck, two years ago he got them in Boston.
I don't think there's anything wrong with Morrow and I don't think Nellie has soured on him, mostly just Monta coming back. That's 33 minutes coming out of a team already jam packed with guards, so basically almost double the amount of minutes Morrow was getting prior. It's a shame, but I just don't see how he'll get much time until we move some players out, and since the trade deadline just passed, that doesn't look to be happening anytime soon. Belinelli is not as good a sharpshooter, but he's pretty good, and does more for the offense than Morrow (Morrow needs to be set up for shots whereas Beli creates for himself and others), and Nellie is, as we know, all about the offense. Watson also shoots a high percentage and dishes more assists than Morrow, so it's just not looking too good for him. This team is frustrating because it's almost like we're too deep. We don't have anyone who can dominate on a regular basis, yet the bench is loaded with talent down to the end with players who would be getting a lot more PT on many teams. Basically we have 5 guys who you could argue should be getting big minutes (32-36+) based on talent and/or contract: Ellis, Biedrins, Jackson, Crawford, Maggette. Then you have Azubuike and Turiaf, who have both been better and more valuable than they were supposed to be, and you probably want to be playing them at least 20 minutes per night. Azubuike's been playing 31 per night, I think 25 would be better but much of that is due to injury needs. At 34 minutes each for the first group, that adds up to 210 out of 240 available minutes. That only leaves 30 minutes to split among Belinelli, Wright, Randolph, Watson, and Morrow, or an average of 6 minutes each. But Nelson plays Jackson and Crawford way too much (40 and 38 minutes, respectively). The only good solution is to get rid of one of those players. Let's say you can ditch Crawford, that immediately more than doubles the amount of available time for those "final" five.
I understand that your depth really hurts Morrow, but I thought you'd want to see how this young player progresses and develops before completely phasing him out of the offense. I'd thought he get 10-15 minutes a night like Sasha Vujacic.
Oh, hey, I for one have been absolutely puzzled that Morrow is out of the lineup. I mean, Stephen Jackson is averaging 40 minutes a game for the season. Even in blowouts, Jackson and Crawford both play 40 minutes. I mean, CJ Watson averages 24 minutes a game, and Azibuike averages 30 minutes a game. They're good shooters, yes. But Morrow is the BEST shooter on the team, and he's also the most consistent. When Malik Rose is getting 5+ minutes of garbage time in a blowout NY loss to GS, but Morrow only gets 52 seconds in the win because Jax/Craw both play 40+, something's wrong. I don't care about any of the other arguments, myself. Because they don't really hold water. The only reasonable explanation -- that the team is trying to build "chemistry" with their vets -- makes sense, but the problem is there's still room for Morrow to get 10 minutes without affecting that. So, I'm still puzzled. Of course, it's a rookie, and it's Nellie, so what should I expect?
The trade deadline is over and the team has no shot at the playoffs. We'll start to see Jax minutes drop a bit and guys like Morrow ill get a shot. Especially with Beans and Wright coming back in the near future.
I think Maggette should be moved considering Nelson has this tendency to play him at PF. We got this guy Davidson and we don't even use him. There's just certain things Maggette can't do that a bigger guy can just like how a guy over 6'6 doesn't really make the best point guard (the player would have to be Magic Johnson or Scottie Pippen or somebody to be remotely as effective as a real prototype-sized point guard). Morrow is 6'5 or 6'6 he could be the small forward a la Michael Redd. That's not too bad considering two inches is nothing (6'7-6'9 small forwards), it's all about arm length. Just look at Wright/Randolph stand next to Biedrins. It's hardly noticeable until they put their arms up.
I don't remember if I read it or heard on KNBR, but in an interview a few days ago Nellie said he was going to go down to an 8 man rotation and Morrow and Beli were not going to be getting any regular minutes. If he's serious about only 8 guys, I guess this means CJ and Wright won't get any either.
That's a brilliant strategy for Nellie. No more Mr. nice guy. He's really gotta tighten his belt for the playoff run. The only mistake he made is he should have traded Randolph/Wright/Bellinelli/Morrow/pick for Kenny Thomas and Malik Rose so he could get some proven vets to help him with the immediate push for the playoffs. If he's going to win the next 30 games straight, he'll need two more centers to back up Biedrins, Turiaf, Kurz, Maggette, Jackson, and Azibuike. You can never have too much depth at the C position. Morrow can't get it done. We've given him plenty of opportunity to prove it. He got 52 seconds in the blowout over NY, and what did he do? He didn't even make a shot. He didn't even take a shot! C'mon, from a guy who is supposed to be the best shooter on the team and the best 3pt shooter in the league, that's not good. He had his chance, and he blew it. He proved Nellie right. So Morrow needs to go, quick. Get me Malik Rose NOW!
According to Nellie (via MTII), there will be more of a focus on developing the young guys down the stretch; Of course he could be lying. I do think he'll remain relatively true to his word though because I do believe that Nellie wants to develop these guys and get them ready for next year. Oh yeah and I'm sure Nellie wants a nice draft pick as well. This being said, I don't think Nellie is a believer in giving minutes to young players for no reason. He wants them playing the right way and to be positive impact players. Throwing guys out there at random creates bad habits. As frustrating as it was to see Randolph, Wright, and Beli sit on the bench they've been pretty good and relatively mistake free since they've gotten playing time. IMO thats the right path to breeding winning players and a winning atmosphere.
We all want to see the young guys play, some more than others. But I think in hid-sight, there's something to be said about being patient, working hard, and waiting for your opportunity. Nelly understands more than anyone that it's a LONG season. If the only thing that the kids learn is that they have to be prepared and ready to play on any given night, then Nelly helped them with the most difficult lesson to learn, work ethic. The trade deadline has come and gone. Banged up players will be coming back, and it's Nelly's time to expirament with lineups. Like he said, probably the last 20 games or so, they'll get extended minutes. All-in-all, the guys that were extremely raw (Wright and Randolph) and the guys that were trying to do too much (Buike, Bellinelli, and Morrow) Have made HUGE progress this season. If they can iron out the bumps down the stretch, and the team can pick up one more big and a point guard, this team will be in an ok place next year. If only Rowell hadn't committed so much money to Jax, it'd be a great position.
How nice was it to see Jackson and Maggette make multiple TOs and miss shots at the end? Meanwhile Marco makes the steal and the nice pass for a monster slam to Maggs, plus hits the 3, then oh yeah, have a seat. That's what I call developing the youngsters.
