Wow... GS is SO much better with Craxette gone

I agree with one out of three: RR. As far as Cohan, yes he sucks but at least he's forked over money and stayed out of the way. I don't like Cohan but he's not the problem either. As far as Nellie, if he indeed is trying to go with a youth movement and team skills like passing/defense/rebounding, then he's won me back 100%. Either way though, you have to remember that a few years ago, Nellie and Cohan were doing fine with Mullin calling the shots. Yes, we have our gripes, but we went to POs and we had some momentum built up. Even last year, we won more games than the PO year, it was just a fluke season in the West. We would've been like the 4th seed in the East or something.

What has changed? Robert Rowell. As far as GM skills, the guy is hot ass-muffins. He may be good techhead silicon valley guy... maybe he should get a job at Circuit City? As far as basketball, all he's proven so far is that he knows how to alienate people, bomb contract negotiations and make checkers moves when he's playing chess...

Yes, RR is a painful burden on this franchise...

I disagree. I think CJ Watson can totally play it full-time. I think he's doing great right now. However, Watson + Monta will have trouble guarding bigger SGs, so while I think Watson is evolving into a future full-time PG, that might not be the ideal backcourt for our particular roster.

I like Watson + Morrow, though...

But as far as needing Jax at the PG, I sure hope not. Frankly, that was a disaster. Yes it's gimmicky, and unique, so it's kind of neat for the fans for a while, but then it just grows plain terrible. Jax at PG? The same guy who lead the league in Turnovers for much of the season? He's slow. He can't run a fast break very well. He takes a long time getting up court and running a play. Smaller guards pick his pocket. And then, when he finally crosses mid court, he bombs a three instead of running the play!

That Jax at PG experiment was just awful. Watson is SO much better at that position. So is Monta. It makes much more sense to keep the Monta PG experiment alive, with some hope, than to try to beat the Jax-PG-experiment to death when it's pretty obvious to me it's no bueno.

I dunno. We now have one of the best shot blocking teams in the league. I think Nellie is going to change his philosophy. I think we'll see a lot of Randolph at the three. And, even if play sets stay the same, a Randolph/Turiaf/Beans front court will instantly improve defense. Just by going bigger, you improve team D with this squad.

Nelson will limit his minutes? I think every coach in the league would agree that Randolph is ready. I mean, not only is Nellie playing him tons of minutes because of the youth movement right now, but he's calling Randolph's number and leaning on him for production. I think it's obvious that Randolph is a centerpiece of this team's future, and I honestly believe that Nellie feels the same way.

My prediction? Randolph and Beans lead the team in minutes next year.

Anyone notice anything different about the Utah game, when the Warriors just pounded the usually-dominant Jazz into submission?

Keith Smart coached the entire game. And that squad on the floor played some tough-ass defense. At one point, Smart threw out a lineup of:

Morrow
Randolph
Kurz
Turiaf
Biedrins

And they maintained the lead. Do you think Smart has any problems going big? And going defense? Of course, GS was short-handed, but still, Smart seemed to be on top of the world that night, coaching his ass off from the sidelines.

I think Smart's influence will continue to grow. Not only has Nelson "passed on" defensive responsibilities to Smart, I think he's going to defer to Smart more and have him more involved. I think Smart is going to keep the momentum he's created.

Why is Smart having such a good time? Well, for the first time since he got here, there are no veteran ego players for him to defer to. It was probably hard for Smart to try to get into Baron or Jax's grill, seeing as how Smart only played in 2 NBA games for the Spurs during 1988-1989 season. He probably had a hard time earning their respect (even though Jax is a good guy, he was still the "2nd" lead dog under Nellie, not Smart).

Well, now Smart is coaching his summer league team from this past off-season. They all respect him from Summer league probably. They're mostly young and eager to win minutes. They are playing as a team and Smart has their attention. This is why it seems to me like Smart is a big part of the feel-good groove that I am sensing from GS right now, and maybe why subconsciously I think the groove is due in part to Craxette being gone.

With Craxette out, Smart can exert his influence more. And the club is responding.

Randolph, Turiaf, and Beans as a 3-man front court? Tell me that ain't rebounding and defense...

 

LOL. You can't be serious (in my best John McEnroe impression). What Nelson says and what he does are two different things.

 

Actually, I can be serious. People assume that he hates playing bigs and stock piling smaller players. Look at what the Warriors had at the beginning of the season. The only player in the front court that was around last year. All the others were unproven. It's much easier to push the ball rather than play D when you don't have the tools (Just look at Sacramento) Theus tried to play traditional ball with a team that didn't have the players to do it. I'm betting that if Nelly coached that team, he'd cut a few of the players that can't play D, rebound or pass, and "upgrade" them with D leaguers who can. He'd put out a much more entertaining team, that actually has a chance to win every night.

Would that be his preference, I don't think so. Nellie hates losing. His preference would be to have Kobe, James, Garnett, Duncan, or any other game changing force to build around. But that's not what he has. And does it make sense to just put guys out there because they're the "right size"? I heard people crying and whining about Henrdrix and other scrubs who aren't worth the investment. Their upside is what? In 5 or 6 years they might be as good as Millsap?


I'd listen to that interview if you haven't (Barbieri and Tolbert interview). Nellie was as candid as he gets. He'll make statements to the press in order to play head games. But this was an honest breakdown of the team. It was definitely worth listening to.

A word of advice that my grandfather taught me a long time ago (probably the single best advice I've ever gotten)... just because you don't like someone, doesn't mean that they don't have anything good to say. If you can put your emotion aside and listen, you might surprise yourself and learn something.

 

Yeah, I have to adopt this thinking for half the people on this forum!

JK (sorta)

 

I agree with your grandpa, but you missed my point. No head games. I'll wait until I see what does.

 

So Claxette is the new Danny Fortson, Erick Dampier, Antawn Jamison, Jason Caffey mix from ten years ago? All of these mediocre players with big time contracts who we are expecting to take us to success. The Warriors would be in a very good position right now for a team in the West if they had more cap flexibility. They've got good young players and a chance at a very high draft pick. Just add that cap flexibility that we could have had after Baron left, and this team could be in full control of its destiny. Now we have a head coach pleading for one of its "star" players to opt out of his contract. Only with this organization will this happen.

Maybe there's a way to turn this around like the Celtics did? Trade a bunch of young players and a high draft pick for big time players? The Warriors would probably only be in this position if they get very lucky in the draft...

 

It just kills me to think we had SO much cap flexibility once we knew Baron bolted. Then we signed Maggette...then we signed Jax...then we traded for Crawford (maybe not in that order).

This is what kills me more than Jax, Craw, and Mags actually playing.

 

Nelson (aka Nelsonus)? I'm not saying he's the direct cause, but it seems these things happen because he's around, i.e. team gets bad karma and Nelson gets fired and makes millions.

 

No. Bad things happened before he was here as well.

 

Well, you can blame 'karma'. But, I tend to blame those who actually made those decisions. And, if that bad karma can cause one of the greatest upset in sports history or 48 wins season, I will take it. Besides, Nelson's karma is nothing compare to Cohan's one. Talk about everything goes wrong...

Yes, Maggette and Crawford is our new Fortson/Caffey/Dunleavy ect, and fans will hammer them till they are shipped. And, it doesn't seem like Jackson is far behind either. Well, it would be nice if we can pull what Boston did. But, unfortunately, Boston had massive expiring contracts to get those players, and none of Jackson, Maggette, Crawford are anything close to expiring contracts. And, there is no KG type of franchise players either. I don't think we will trade Jackson, and Maggette probably will not be traded for a garbage with 2 or 3 years remaining contract. In normal circumstance, Crawford (2 years remaining) could be traded for an expiring contract, but this year's expiring contract is especially valuable because of 2010 FA market. To me, the most likely scenario is that Crawford will not opt out, and we will end up buying his contract out, if we can't find a taker...

 

Actually, many fans love Crawford and Maggette. I think it's only the real die-hard Warrior fans that notice Maggette and Crawford aren't great players. Especially when you go to a game at Oracle, fans are in love with Maggette. I could understand Crawford but I don't know about Maggette.