Mullin: Montgomery will return to Warriors next season

Kwan,
I didn't say Muss' team was more talented... But the talent complimented each other better. I think Mullin made some really bad decisions. I was against the Muss firing, and I think Mullin made some bad moves. However... I think that this year is the true clean house year. I think there is more tradeable talent on this roster than 2 years back. Now, the contracts Mullin gave out were pathetic. I just think that there are plenty of potential moves out there. If this roster comes back in tact... I will be the first person on the Fire Mullin Bandwagon.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CohanHater:</div><div class="quote_post">Kwan,
I didn't say Muss' team was more talented... But the talent complimented each other better. I think Mullin made some really bad decisions. I was against the Muss firing, and I think Mullin made some bad moves. However... I think that this year is the true clean house year. I think there is more tradeable talent on this roster than 2 years back. Now, the contracts Mullin gave out were pathetic. I just think that there are plenty of potential moves out there. If this roster comes back in tact... I will be the first person on the Fire Mullin Bandwagon.</div>

The talent compliments each other poorly? I respect your opinion, but I don't agree with it. In some ways I can see your point. The team is filled with players who aren't the greatest defenders. The team couldn't necessarly find a great dominant low post player this year. I am not sure what else is missing, but when you add the style of play that they used, their talents really didn't blend. The team used mainly just a jump shooting and very little passing offense that exposed everyone's weaknesses and didn't get enough other players involved, that need to be more involved. The roster really isn't the most conventional lineup that has stepped on a basketball court, but they did have their pieces and skills that I believe complimented each other well.

The missing piece to the Warriors is actual winning leadership, which I said in my earlier post. How are the Warriors going to find this leadership? Cleaning house is an option. It depends however upon who the team is actually getting while cleaning house. If it's Kevin Garnett, then I may be pleased. But if it is Nick Van Exel and garbage like it was three offseasons ago, then I am against it. The easiest way to bring leadership to a young roster with little winning experience is by having a winning coach with leadership. It's similar to what has happened in Denver when the team transitioned to the proven winning NBA head coach George Karl from their previous coach, who wasn't bad, but not what the team needed for the next step.

To go back a second about talent, I say that this roster is as fine as one can wish for. The team has a great backcourt and a very solid front line with defense from Biedrins, Foyle, and Taft, and offense with Diogu, Murphy, and Caparkapa, and rebounding from most of these guys. The trio of Baron, Jason, and Murphy is huge in talent. The bench with Monta, Mickael, Andris, and Ike also show great production, along with Zarko and Fisher. I have nothing against this roster at all, and would be satisfied if the roster is the same going into next season. Maybe under certain situation Mickael could be dealt at next season's trade deadline. But other than that, what moves are out there to be made, unless if it's for KG or Jermaine? The Warriors in my opinion won most of their games purely on their talent. Many of the lineups and rotations were costly to the team's production, such as continuing to place Dunleavy at the PF position for more PT than Diogu and Andris would get, even though the team continued to struggle on the boards and defensively and would not pass the ball enough inside because there was no Ike on the court.

I would expect that the Warriors would look around for possible other coaches that could be available to take over Monty's position. But to already say, without looking at other candidates that there will be no coaching change, kind of shocks me.

 

I don't think we had the pieces at all to make the playoffs. Foyle and his "dipstick" comment about the Warriors winning in late April last season was misleading. Like that bum has ever seen the playoffs to know what a playoff team is. Generally, teams are what they are in the first half of the season and the middle, not the late season when things are already decided. This Warriors team had a weak foundation and it smelled funky right from the getgo with Foyle/Fish as starters in the offseason of 2004-2005 and reliance on rookies to step up over mediocre vet presence (all the good vets go to playoff teams because they want rings, not to babysit). This whole thing was just a steaming pile of dog crap. And you know, we can't really mask the odor of dog crap once its been laid. If this team could have won more games with another coach, I don't think it would have been enough to beat Utah's record. I keep telling guys they are living in a dream world if they thought this team was playoff worthy. Definitely not without Baron Davis healthy and guys like Dunleavy and Foyle, Pietrus sucking more than usual.

 

CR2... I'm not against getting another coach.. I jst think we should have the replacement in place before cutting Monty. In no way am i diminishing Muss' job. In fact, I don't want to do to the team in Monty what we already did to them in Muss. It wasn't fait to the team to just get rid of muss for the sake of dumping him without a distinctly better coach waiting.

As for a better put together team, you can't deny that Muss' team was a more balanced team. Once that hustled and had defenders. I've been saying the addition of a 4 that can play defense improves the overall team 10 fold for awhile. That's just my opinion though.

It should be noted that even Muss' more balanced team never made the playoffs either.

 

Indeed Muss' 2nd year team was more balanced than Monty's this year's team. However, that doesn't mean that balanced high school team should do better than unbalanced college team. This year's overall talent simply blows Muss' team away.

Speedy vs Davis: Speedy is a nice player and probably can start in some ball club. But, his play making skill is just bit better than Fisher, and that's not saying much. Also, he also missed 22 games, which knocked us out of the PO race by causing 9 game losing streak.

Richardson two years ago vs Richardson now: This year's Richardson

Dunleavy two years ago vs Dunleavy now: Dunleavy in two years' ago by a hair. But, he was bad back then and he is bad now.

Robinson vs Murphy: The way Murphy played this year, I would love to have Robinson back.

Dampier vs Foyle: Dampier by landslide.

Maybe people can argue that starting line up is evenly matched. But, when it comes to the bench, this year's club had far more talent than Muss' one.

Two years ago, we lost Murphy 2/3 of the season and even in 1/3 of season, he was nowhere near 100%, averaging just 21 mins. Same goes with Foyle. He only showed up half of the season, and even rest of the season, he was injured and ineffective. Also, NVE only showed up in first 1/3 of the season, and he was vanished. So that leaves Cardinal, Cheaney and Pietrus, a rookie, a player who wasn't supposely in NBA and a marginal veteran. Heck, we had no back up PG, either Richardson or Dunleavy had to play PG position. Because we had no healthy players, we had to bring players like Lampley, Langhi, Park, LaRue, Jones and Bremer, players who didn't deserve to be in NBA. But they played very hard every game, and that has been a character of Muss' club, no matter the situation. To me, noting that this club also didn't make PO is out of the line, because this club just didn't have enough talents to make PO to begin with, and with their talent level + massive injuries, they shouldn't even be in PO hunt to begin with. Despite that, this club still managed to squeeze 37 wins.

In contrast, this year's club had Fisher, Pietrus, Diogu, Ellis, Biedrins, and Zarko, far better than two years ago. Also, other than Davis injury (which he missed most of the games when we were realistically missed PO), this club was healthy, so Monty had full deck of card to play, instead of shuffling and patching the roster due to injuries like two years ago. In terms of talent level, this year's club has far better talent than two years one, and probably enough to make PO with right coaching. But that just didn't happen. Also, in two years of span, other than when we just acquired Davis, this team really never came out to play hard like two years ago. That's why we had horrendous first quarter collapse for not two games, not two weeks, but two months, where allowing 40 pts with 70% fg was very common.

Also, success/failure of role players are largely depending on the coach and the system. That's why we see some role players flourish in one system and completely bombs in another system. In two years, we really had no successful role player, who did more than what we expected and impact the game significantly. Fisher is doing whatever he wants to do, Dunleavy, Pietrus and Zarko actually took huge steps back, Diogu had one excellent night, then he was shown bench for next 10 games... Really, only improved players in two years are Biedrins. And, it's a coach's duty to create a successful system according to what you have. One thing I liked about Muss was that when he had scorers like Arenas, Richardson and Jamison, the team ran, ran, and ran like there is no tomorrow. Then when he lost Arenas and Jamison in one offseason, he turned the team around and created half court defensive club. But, in two years, we really don't know what Monty's system is, and Monty failed to create a semi-effective system with what he has. NBA is all about adjusting to the given situation, and when our run-gun-shoot-3-pts don't work anymore, there should have been an adjustment. But throughout the season, we never made an adjustment and after 12-6 season, we ended up with 22-42, 34.3%. Maybe, he will indeed set up his system once we receive a big man. But, he showed that he is awfully slow to adjust in NBA, and I just don't have a confidence that he will make a better adjustment in the future to save the ball club.

This type of the comment belongs to a rookie coach in training camp, not to two years NBA coach.

Q. After two years coaching in the NBA, is Mike Montgomery getting across to the team? Are you listening to him, trusting him, believing that he can lead you back to the playoffs?

A. Yeah, I think so. We talk to Mike a lot. It's just like a rookie who comes into the NBA. You don't know what to expect. You got your eyes wide open, trying to learn so much in a short period of time. That's how it is with him. It's just a matter of him understanding the game.

http://insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_3726018

Even when players and coach had horrible relationship, there were bounded to be few "Yeah, he did a good job" type of lipservices from players. So far, I had none of those from this year's players, and even classy guys like Richardson or Foyle couldnt' drop a single empty compliment to Monty, and while politically correct, they basically say "we have no idea what Monty is doing".

The thing I would like to know the most is exactly what's reasons to keep Monty to next season? I mean, not outside reasons, such as stability of teams or he didn't have a balanced team to manage, but what positives Monty did in two years of span, so that we should consider hiring him? Yes, he did have significantly flawed team, but no team in NBA is perfect, and it's a matter how to adjust in a given situation. And, other significantly flawed team like Suns, Nets, Lakers and other teams can gain success if used right. This really is the first time I want our coaches to be fired in twelve years, but I have to take this side, because I just didn't see enough positives in two years span to keep Monty around...

 

For those who think Monty is not to blame...

If we had Jerry Sloan, would the Warriors have the 34-48 record they have right now?

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AnimeFANatic:</div><div class="quote_post">For those who think Monty is not to blame...

If we had Jerry Sloan, would the Warriors have the 34-48 record they have right now?</div>

if you guys have sloan i would think similar record would pile up because sloan doesn't late inconsistent and non committed players

and golden state got tons of them

result: BENCH or suspension


golden state is talented but they just lack that consistency and the focus a winning team SHOULD have, and monty not making the players perform as a team should be blamed

musselman did quite well in keeping players' focus and bond toward each other, i still think it's wrong to just say au revoir to him

A suggested improvement would be to bring Hyori Lee as assistant coach
the players will get fired up by then despite monty's lack of coaching skill

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting CohanHater:</div><div class="quote_post">Kwan,
I didn't say Muss' team was more talented... But the talent complimented each other better. I think Mullin made some really bad decisions. I was against the Muss firing, and I think Mullin made some bad moves. However... I think that this year is the true clean house year. I think there is more tradeable talent on this roster than 2 years back. Now, the contracts Mullin gave out were pathetic. I just think that there are plenty of potential moves out there. If this roster comes back in tact... I will be the first person on the Fire Mullin Bandwagon.</div>

While, I just do not wish to risk our supposely revamped roster in hand of Monty, I do agree that Mullin will do whatever it costs to change the roster and make a significant moves. We do have enough chips, such as Richardson (although I would absolutely hate to see that happening), Murphy, Fisher, Monta, Diogu, Biedrins, Pietrus and lottory pick first rounder to deal, and I do believe players like KG and J O'neal may change their uniform. And, whenever there is a potentially big trade, Mullin was always involved, such as Davis, Curry, Artest and other big name players. So yeah. I do see some changes. Of course, if this year's roster is intacted, I will torch the Arena, and I am sure I won't be alone...