Hah, April Fools!!! 15 days late. J Rich did some very nice things last night but at the end of the game for some reason he thought he should bring the ball up with Doug Christie on him. He promptly got picked and then nearly got picked (loose ball turned into bucket in lane by Richardson). Why? That's the question, why does he even think he's a PG?
The man has to get confident about handling the ball if he wants to be that dynamite shooting guard like Vince Carter or Michael Finley. If he can be like them or even deadlier in terms of the one on one game like Kobe Bryant or Derek Anderson I say let him get comfortable having the ball in his hands in a real game. I think he's going to practice this one along with his free throw shooting big time.
Yes I like his confidence but he almost gave that game away with that crappy pass to nobody that Bibby picked off and scored.
He could be trying to develope his game to add something else to his repetoire. He does attract double teams so working on his passing is not such a bad idea.
Yea, I don't have a problem with him trying to get better and be more confident, this was actually the best time to do it.
I agree he needs to do it, I just wanted the Warriors to win that last game and Christie must have been licking his chops seeing him bring the ball up.
The Warriors played several minutes over the course of the last three games without Dunleavy or a true pg in the line up. They can get away with that because of the nature of the open offense. Personally, I don't have a problem with Richardson brining the ball up the court, anything that makes him a better ball handler will only help the team down the road.
Do the warriors still run the open offense? I haven't seen too many games this year so I don't know, but I've had this notion that they stopped using the open offense because teams figured it out or something, for awhile. Don't know where I got this idea though. I don't think the warriors can be successful if they have to depend on J-rich at point guard for even a couple of minutes in games next year. Teams will start putting more on ball pressure on Richardson. Thats something I thought teams would do more of with dunleavy at the point. Dunleavy can handle ball fairly well but he doesn't have the speed to blow by anyone guarding him. I really think if teams just pressed the warriors, the warriors would not have been as sucessful as they were against late in the season.
Yeah, they still run it, though probably not as much as last year. If Musselman sticks around and the roster stays mostly in tact, I bet we'll see even more of it next year since team chemistry is such a big part of it. You might have gotten the notion that they stopped using it from all the complaining NVE did earlier in the year about not knowing his role in the offense. As for Richardson running the point, I don't think its something they'd ever do in games that mattered if Speedy, NVE, and Dunleavy were all healthy. If for no other reason than it being hard to imagine a time when one of those three weren't in the game.
I think this summer, both our shooting guards should work on their ballhandling, passing if they were point guards. Jrich and Pietrus will be constant pressure against the other team in terms of getting to the basket in transition, making plays (making their team better), and getting to the foul line so the other team goes over the limit.
^^ I agree with you that they should learn those skills and improve upon them, but next season I don't want to see J-rich or Pietrus forced to play point or else that is bad sign, that the warriors will not make the playoffs for yet anothe season. I hope J-rich continues improve his ball handling I don't want him to become like Vince Carter and take only jumpshots.
sorry, I meant practice playing the point, but not actually play the point. I just think a secondary point guard would do wonders for this team's offense flow if someone other than Dunleavy and the 1 could handle the ball and pass. If you watch the nets, Kerry Kittles kind of acts like a secondary point guard.
^^Well next year I guess Dunleavy could act as the secondary point guard with Claxton being the first option when their on the court. The problem when claxton is at the point is he dominates the ball a lot of the time. But I see what you mean, especially in fast break situations having point guard instincts will lead to a lot of easy baskets.
