Who are the keepers for this team? It seems to me that the roster is filled with a bunch of pieces, but nothing solid. The rebounding for example was very poor last year, despite having some young potential and somewhat respectable bigs. What's the deal with Brandan Wright and the Warriors? Do you think Wright is a trading piece?
Injuries and lack of a strong point guard are what killed the Warriors last season. If Ellis didn't get hurt, the trade for Crawford would never have been made, IMO. Jackson is wasted at the SF position, he's big and strong and hard to stop for almost all SGs in the league. Maybe this depth chart is the best they can do: PG: Ellis/Crawford SG: Jackson/Crawford C: Biedrens/Turiaf SF: Magette/Azubuike PF: Randolph/Wright
Agreed, and I think that is the lineup we'll see this year. The only exception being Azu starting and Maggette coming off the bench
I would disagree a little bit (though I agree a PG would help) and say that for certain the lack of rebounding on the team is what killed the Warriors. We can see what poor rebounding will do for you by watching the Nuggets/Lakers series. It doesn't matter how much talent is on a team, if you can't rebound you're going to be in a big hole, trying to win games. The Warriors gave up and incredible amount of offensive rebounds, making their already crummy defense look much worse. The strange thing is that I like the bigs on the team. It just seems like they aren't what we need for rebounding. Biedrins was among the league's best in rebounding, but Turiaf, Wright, and whoever else was at the 4 really didn't do much at all to help the rebounding, besides Randolph here and there (but he may be too small right now to be that type of 4). Should the Warriors try to go for a Drew Gooden? He seems to be a decent rebounder, post player.
Looking at the Warriors' stats, their bigs have very good per 36 minute rebounding numbers: Biedrens 13.6 Randolph 11.6 Wright 8.2 Turiaf 7.6 Some combination of them should grab you 20-25 boards. I am a Gooden fan. He was not much of a defender, but he was good for double double kinds of numbers for the Bulls given 30+ minutes.
My keepers are Monta, Randolph, Turiaf. I'll include Jack because I don't think we'll see any trades with him where other teams give him what we would want in return for him. Hes more valuable to us than he is to other teams I would think and I don't think hes going anywhere for at least a few years. You can't underestimate the value of a guard who can score at a 50% clip. Monta has a ways to go with learning to be a floor general but I love his scoring ability. People often seem to label him as a typical combo guard but hes a) got a fantastic FG% and b) not a ball hog like Craw, Mags, Jack at times. Hes continuing to show improvement as well and hasn't leveled off. I list Turiaf here as well because he seems to be a major team leader, plays really good defense, and Nellie likes him better than Beans when closing out games (I think I do too as long as we're rebounding ok). Randolph is an obvious untouchable. Guys who are kinda borderline are Beans, Azu, Beli, and Wright. Mostly these guys are young, mid-range type prospects who will probably turn into role players. Beans is obviously very good right now and really helps us from getting completely killed on the glass but I was kinda underwhelmed with him after the hot start last year. Put up great numbers but his D sucked IMO. Turiaf certainly can't rebound like he can but he does play defense and protect the rim better, plus hes got a decent jumper, hes more of a leader, Nellie uses him to close out games a lot more and hes half the price. Beans paid fairly but if hes they key in trading for a top shelf big man then I say pull the trigger. Its easy to forget how young he is but I just don't see a ton more room for improvement from him. I think we might perceive him as being better than he really is. Wright is a head scratcher for me though. Randolph makes him a lot easier to move. On the one hand he seems to have some real nice moves to score in the post, hes athletic, good attitude, etc. But on the other hes really unaggressive, weak, crappy rebounder, seems to struggle finishing when strength is required thus forcing him to take harder shots near the rim. Hes also really young though. Like Beans, if we had to move him to get a star, I'd do it, but I wouldn't look to just move him for any average player. Azu is good for the price but I'd like to see more defensively from him. Hes a guy I think we might take for granted though, I think every team in the league would love to have him. Most nights, when our big scorers are playing he picks his spots and plays very efficiently but hes also a guy who can really take on the scoring load when you're missing a big player. Rebounds like a friggen maniac. Finishes well, doesn't pass well but overall a good player to have. I view Beli in a similar light but more with ball movement than scoring. He plays solid D, passes well, moves the ball, can score when given opportunities but doesn't force it. Forgot about Morrow too, he fits in somewhere there.
I see what you're saying, but I think you might be underestimating his value to the team here. The combination of Beans and Turiaf is very valuable. Just Turiaf, not so valuable. Turiaf is a great spot starter, but not a full-time starter. And, I understand you're not dubbing Turiaf the starter if Beans were to go, but if we were to get a "top shelf big man," I don't think it would be a quintessential center. There are none available. Well, maybe Boozer, but I'm not sure I'd give up Beans so we can rent an injury prone, expensive, disloyal, borderline prima donna. Anyway, I think Beans actually plays good defense. He's not the shot blocker that Turiaf is, but that's good. He doesn't jump at everything. He sets good screens, rolls to the basket extremely well, and finishes very well (although, his FG% was below expectation last year). I think you need to give Beans another chance here. As you said, he's very young. He brings a lot of intangibles that most players in the league don't.
Seems to me that you are saying you'd trade most of these players for upgrades besides Monta Ellis and Anthony Randolph, who you think will or at least have a good chance of becoming stars. I think that is a fair assessment of the roster. I think Andris Biedrins really just ran out of gas half-way through the season. He had a busy summer, played so well at the beginning where he was doing everything, and then all of a sudden he did fade away some. Then of course there was so much drama and other things perhaps taking away much motivation to make anything of this lost season, which probably helped Biedrins not show that well the last couple months. I think he will have a good season coming up, since I don't think he'll be doing much international stuff this summer (though I may be wrong about this). I wouldn't put off possibilities that Biedrins could be dealt for a top big, such as those Bosh rumors. At the same time, I have no problem seeing the Warriors deal Turiaf, if it returns a strong candidate for a starter like a Drew Gooden or something like that. So I guess this is where I'd differ with your views.
Well said. That's a fair assessment of AB. I'm not saying I wanna dump the guy, hes a good C and he does a lot of things really well. I'm just saying that I think if you can get an all-star type player in a package revolving around him you gotta do it. Same goes for Turiaf, I would upgrade him if I could, but I'd put him in a similar category as Jackson in that they're both probably more valuable to GS than they are to any oth er team. Any offer we would get for them would probably not be enough for us to move him. AB, however, has a lot of value around the league and a package with him could net something more worthwhile for us. I wouldn't trade Ronny for Gooden though. Gooden is certainly the better rebounder and probably scorer but I love Ronny's on-ball defense (not to mention help defense), passing, and leadership/attitude. Ronny's just a really great fit for us aside from the lack of rebounding but I'll live with that assuming we've got AB/AR there to gobble up boards like maniacs.
A lot of these players grab offensive boards, which is good. But it inflates their rebounding numbers and does not show the team's defensive board problems. Only one player averaged 5.0 defensive boards or more for the season, and that was Biedrins at 7.6. Randolph is the team's second best rebounder, and is pretty solid, but he's still pretty thin and probably not the most reliable defender at the 4, particularly if the other team's four is big and can overpower him. Of course Nelson's early season rotations with a guard/forward as the PF did not help the team's rebounding stats. Yet to defend him a little bit, when he did try to put in people like Turiaf, Wright, and Randolph to help get more boards, the players usually failed to improve securing the boards by much significance what so ever. Again Randolph was probably the best of the three and finally emerged as the rest of his game came along as such.
I was actually impressed with how well Randolph handled larger players. I think he plays larger than his thin-looking frame indicates. He fights for position and surprisingly doesn't get moved out easily, like Wright does. I mean it's not like he's flattening Shaq or anything, but he does well. And he certianly outquicks most of them.
The Warriors played a bigs by committee sort of lineup. When you have guys playing 20 MPG and grabbing 4 defensive boards, it's pretty good. When you have 2 or 3 of those guys, it's 12+ boards for the 48. That's my thinking.
Question for Warrior fans. From the limited games I have seen of Azubuike, it seems he shoots everytime he gets the ball. I rarely see him pass, and it's even more rare to see him make a pass that will get somebody else an easy shot. Also, it seems that he can get hot, but he starts to take some really bad shots that barely graze the rim. I've yet to figure out what kind of player he is, since whenever I've seen him play, he seems to be either really good or really bad, or really good and then takes bad shots and then he can't throw a rock into the ocean, yet he seems to be one of the most popular Warriors. Anyone want to shed some light, it'd be greatly appreciated.
Azubuike is all of that, but he can play a range of positions fairly well, if unspectacularly, and is relatively cheap at less than $3M per year. #4 in the NBA in 3 point % last year, decent scorer with a good shooting %, knows how to take the ball to the rack, good foul shooter, and good rebounder. Plus just has a cool story being pulled out of the D league and turning out to be a legit NBA player. Basically, he gives you a lot of what Corey Maggette does at a fraction of the price. If Azubuike were making $10M a year he wouldn't be nearly as popular, believe me, and he wouldn't be starting as often if the Warriors hadn't had so many injuries to contend with last year. I don't like him playing huge minutes, but I definitely like him off the bench, he had a good year for the Warriors.
You must have seen him on some really off nights. You're pretty much right about the passing. He pretty much never makes plays for others off of his penetration or drops any dimes. Hes not a ball hog though, he doesn't force up bad shots often at all, he'll move the ball if nothing is there. That's one thing I really like about him- he knows his role. Hes a really good shooter when spotting up, can drive to the rack decently, finishes pretty well, rebounds as good as anyone in the league at his size. His pull up J from mid-range isn't bad but hes not a guy who can hit fadeaways or overly tough pull up shots from anywhere on the floor. Overall hes just a really good role player. He plays within himself. Hes not too aggressive but also not too timid. Passing leaves a lot to be desired but there's a reason why hes a role player and not a full time starter. Defense is ok, he had one really good game defending Kobe like a season ago that got him a reputation for being a good defender but hes not. Hes certainly not bad, but hes not good either. Hes average- not a layup line but also not gonna lock many guys down, certainly not a liability and even makes a great block on help defense every so often. And, like I mentioned above, his main pros are scoring and rebounding. Scoring wise, hes a very good 3 pt shooter when spotting up, has a decent mid-range game, and can also drive to the rack and finish well. Hes not a really explosive 6th man type scorer but more of a guy who quietly gets his points and, also mentioned previously, he knows when to look for his shot and when to defer to others. His rebounding is fantastic.
I agree. If an obvious upgrade is available that will instantly make the Warriors better, it's a no brainer. I would say there is no such thing as an untouchable. We'd like to say Randolph is one, but if a move can be made that can guarantee an improvement of the Warriors' situation for years to come, then yes, everyone is expendable. It's just that there are seldom guarantees when it comes to this kind of thing.
