With Cliff and Davis gone, Biedrens has to get SOME PT. And if BDavis can catapult us to some blow out wins maybe Biedrens will play the last 5 mins of garbage time. If I was Monty I would at least try this lineup... Davis Fisher Richardson Dunleavy Murphy Depending on how well Murphy and Dunleavy do down low I would have Pietrus be the first off the bench then Foyle, then Biedrens. Fisher has been playing great at the 2 so that is why I would put him there, but otherwise I would rather have this lineup... Davis Richardson Pietrus Dunleavy Biedrens
I think the time of Biedrins only playing in blowouts is over. The Warriors have to figure out what realistic expectations they can have for him next year. And by playing him more will make him better prepared to contribute next year. The Davis trade gives the Warriors something of a respite the rest of this season in terms of wins and loss. Everybody realizes the Warriors have no chance to make the playoffs this year, but with the trades they have energized their fan base and their players and are poised to enter next season - barring any serious injuries - as a serious contender to finish in the top eight and finally make it back to the playoffs. Therefore, the Warriors should take a longer term view than just winning games this year. The Warriors have to find out which ones are worth keeping, and they have the rest of the season to do it. That doesn't mean tank. It just means that some of the young players have to find their way into the rotation earlier than with 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter of a 20-point game. And Mullin has basically stated as such. He said he expects Biedrins to play more...and that they will try to get a look at the Denver prospects as well.
I don't think we have much of a choice, either. We aren't exactly a deep team anymore. When Murphy, Dunleavy and Foyle get tired, someone has to come in. I really can't see Zarko or Skita logging huge minutes without Beans getting some run.
Also you know how the Warriors love to blow leads in 4th quarters. I'd rather trust Biedrens with protecting the basket than Skita or Zarko. A warriors lead is never big enough so there is no such thing as "garbage time" unless... we're getting our butts kicked all over the place.
One thing you can always count on is GM's wanting the young guys to get playing time so they can develop and coaches wanting to bench the young guys in favor of the guys that give the team the best chance to win. My guess, which a lot of you have already stated, is that the Warriors use the remaining games to evaluate their new team. I'm guessing we'll see a lot of experimenting with different line ups as well as getting the new guys out on the floor to see who has chemistry. Think of the remaining games as the '05/'06 pre-pre-season...
If anything, I'd hope the Warriors do most of their playing of the young players on the road, especially back-to-backs...which makes this upcoming stretch of 8-straight games on the road key. At home you want to please the home fans by putting a good team on the floor and rewarding the fans for showing up by competing...but once this team gets on the road I think that's when they should really test some of their young players. I don't think Montgomery will play the Denver guys much until he's had some practices. But Biedrins should get significant minutes.
I'm real excited that we will have Andris play a lot more than he used to. It will be fun seeing White, Skittles, Zarko, Andris, anmd The Flying Frenchman getting big time. B-Diddy and J-Rich will be an extremely, fun, good backcourt. Dunleavy at the SF, Murphy at PF, and Foyle at C having Andris getting time behind him. This is what I think the Warriors should look like. Starting PG- Baron Davis- 25-30 minutes throughout game Starting SG- Jason Richardson- 25-30 minutes at SG. Starting SF- Mike Dunleavy- 10-15 minutes at SF Starting PF- Troy Murphy 25-30 minutes at PF Starting C- Adonal Foyle- 15-25 minutes throughout game Backup PG- Derek Fisher-15-25 minutes throughout game/ Mike Dunleavy- 5-10 minutes throughout game at PG Backup SG- Mickael Pietrus- 10-15 minutes throughout game at SG/ Derek Fisher- 5-10 minutes throughout game at SG Backup SF- Jason Richardson- 10-15 minutes throughout game at SF/ Rodney White- 10-20 minutes throughout game/ Mickael Pietrus- 5-10 minutes at SF throughout game/ Zarko Cabarkapa- 5-10 minutes at SF throughout game Backup PF- Mike Dunleavy- 20-25 minutes throughout game at PF/ Zarko Cabarkapa- 10-20 minutes at PF throughout game/ Nikoloz Tskitishvili- 5-10 minutes at PF throughout game/ Andris Biedrins- 1-5 minutes at PF throughout game Backup C- Troy Murphy- 5-10 minutes at C throughout game/ Andris Biedrins 15-20 minutes throughout game at C/ Nikoloz Tskititshvili 1-5 minutes at C throughout game. Sorry Cal you aren't really in plans for the future while he have 9 guys 25 or younger.
Calbert was a great, underrated role player who had a knack for screwing up like a rookie on occassion, but at the same time provided the work ethic, good influence, stability to a franchise that's been known for it's share of headaches. And Wtwalks right on about the kind of system where it puts Montgomery in a situation where he feels he needs to win in order to build team confidence and keep star players happy, but then Mullin wants to see what projects, Andris Biedrens and Skita is all about. Skita is an unrestricted free agent so it might not be worthwhile to bother with him. Let the market set his price and we could retain him for cheap. I think he could be really good, but I think his value is as low as Dasagna Diop, another project. Anyway, I'm feeling good about Biedrens. The kid wants to be good and he's the type to play with emotion.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">Anyway, I'm feeling good about Biedrens. The kid wants to be good and he's the type to play with emotion.</div> I liked the driving move he made from the high block in the Toronto game. The defense wasn't exactly stellar, but if he gets smoother moves like that will be tough to stop due to his quickness and length. There is a clip of it on gswpete.com under the Toronto game ("Beans scores"). I'm not going to link directly to the movie in the interests of saving his bandwidth, so if you are motivated, check it out.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting GSWScruff:</div><div class="quote_post">I liked the driving move he made from the high block in the Toronto game. The defense wasn't exactly stellar, but if he gets smoother moves like that will be tough to stop due to his quickness and length. There is a clip of it on gswpete.com under the Toronto game ("Beans scores"). I'm not going to link directly to the movie in the interests of saving his bandwidth, so if you are motivated, check it out.</div> It wasn't a power move, but it was good because it shows he has finesse to his game and soft hands. You noticed how he finished with his left hand? He's a righty I believe. If he can score with his left almost as good as his right, that's a good sign. Players whose job is to score near the basket, should be able to finish with either hand so they can work out different angles to attack and have some options on which shoulders to lower and turn when going up and under against a post defender.
