<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>I got the chance to rest a little bit, think about it, and wanted to come back," Nelson told the San Francisco Chronicle from the team's practice facility in Oakland. "It wasn't that hard. I just needed to get away for a few weeks. I'm ready for more action."</div> http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3423709
But is he ready to play Brandan Wright, not experiment with Pietrus at PF or C, and sit Al's butt when he's cold? Since I think Baron will still be here, it's a good thing Nellie is back. When Baron leaves, I'm not so sure. Mullin should definitely be spending this year evaluating and lining up a successor and not wait until next offseason to figure it out.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (HiRez @ Jun 3 2008, 11:05 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>But is he ready to play Brandan Wright, not experiment with Pietrus at PF or C, and sit Al's butt when he's cold?</div> So he says... <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Warriors coach Don Nelson leaned against the rooftop railing, smoking a cigar and watching the traffic below. A month in Maui had given him a slimmer, tanner profile, and Nelson looked as relaxed as ever as he explained his decision to return for another season with Golden State. "I got the chance to rest a little bit, think about it, and wanted to come back," Nelson said through a puff of smoke. "It wasn't that hard. I just needed to get away for a few weeks. I'm ready for more action." With that, the 68-year-old was back at the Warriors' practice facility in downtown Oakland on Monday, his first official day of work since informing team officials two weeks ago that he indeed would serve out the final year of his $5.1 million contract. It will be his 29th season on the sidelines, and Nelson, who needs 53 wins to surpass Lenny Wilkens as the NBA's all-time winningest coach, wouldn't rule out coaching beyond next season. "If they're happy and I'm happy, we might do it more, you know? Larry Brown's older than me and just took a four-year job," said Nelson, who actually is four months older than Brown, but that's splitting gray hairs. Nelson's slate Monday included checking with Monta Ellis and lunching with vice president Chris Mullin. The team will begin working out potential draft prospects Wednesday and continue to bring in players over the next three weeks. Golden State has the 14th overall pick in the June 26 draft, and Nelson said the Warriors have no plans to trade their selection. He believes the draft is deeper and bigger than a year ago, and made no secret of his desire to add a big man to his roster. "If we like a guy a lot, it won't matter, but if we had our druthers, we'd like a guy that can play and plays up front," Nelson said. Though he assumes that Baron Davis and the rest of the Warriors' core will be back, Nelson also admits that the new season will bring a new philosophy. Brandan Wright and Marco Belinelli, who rarely played during their rookie season, already have begun practicing in Oakland again, and Nelson insists they will be worked into the rotation. "Last year, we were very single-minded in trying to make the playoffs. It's what the organization wanted to do, to make the playoffs again, and we tried to do that and we failed," he said. "Part of my job next year is to bring these guys along, and if it costs us some games, which it probably will, then that's what it'll do. "I'll have to prepare myself mentally for that, but I think it's the right thing to do. They're the future of the team." Nelson will remain in Oakland for the next two months, interrupting his coaching duties only for his arbitration case with Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. The litigation is scheduled for June 24 in Dallas with more than $6 million at stake.</div> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?.../SP6D111S3G.DTL Of course you can never really trust what Nellie says will come to fruition, he does make a good point that least year there were more expectations and the one and only goal was to get into the playoffs. Now that we're back out there is less pressure to repeat and prove that the previous year wasn't a fluke. It was clear that Nellie didn't want to risk the young players costing us games last season. I think that this season if you give them the playing time at the beginning of the year, it may cost a few games but it could really pay off down the stretch to get good production from these guys.
I bet Nelson will step down on his own accord. Coaches of his level and age have no incentive to develop rookies. That's just my feeling.
Who knows about him playing Wright and Bellinelli but at least he acknowledged it. I'm glad he'll be back.
I really doubt anything changes. He knows that developing the young guys is a priority for the franchise but as long as he thinks it will cost them games I don't think it will happen. He might go into every game thinking "I'm going to play these guys" but when it comes down to it he's going to try to win the game and, in his mind, that means the young guys have to sit.
Given the concerns of Nellie's unwillingness to develop young players, I think the only thing that would change that is if Wright, Bellinelli, et al. actually help us win more games for us than lose. That's a possibility. Hey, if Wright can pull more rebounds than Harrington, then, uh, I think that's helping us win...or at least become a better overall team. I guess as long as they do more good than harm, we'll be in good shape...who knows. In crunch time, the ball is going to Baron, Monta, or Sjax. Those are the guys that should be on the floor regardless...I think it's possible to develop young players with that core.
Well I thought Wright looked pretty good last year and could help them win at least as much as Harrington or certainly Barnes or Pietrus would. Even with no NBA experience, Wright looked at least more consistent than Al. My feeling is Al is going to shoot you out of about as many games as he's going to win for you when he's hot. I don't feel like Wright is a guy who is going to bury your team out of a game. I guess I feel like this live by the 3 and die by the 3 has to go, because I think it hurts you as much as it helps you (especially since the Warriors are in the bottom 3rd of the NBA in 3PFG%), and all else being equal, I'd rather have the consistency and the rebounds (plus Wright looks like he's no slouch on offense either, even if he's not out on the perimeter chucking 3s).
I think we need some free agent help if Nelson plans to play more of the rookies. Players that won't settle for the three, can go inside and can rebound/block shots would be preferable. Guys that will support the rookies. How do you guys feel about these unrestricted FA's Ricky Davis SG/SF Lorenzen Wright PF/C Carlos Arroyo PG/SG Beno Udrih PG/SG Francisco Elson C We had a bunch of swingmen on our bench this season but I felt none of them really did much compared to earlier seasons. We just didn't have a sixth man. Maybe we should grab somebody that's a starter that can come off the bench like Arroyo or Ricky Davis or Udrih? I probably like Ricky Davis the best because he's a very talented all-around player and his specialty is rebounding and scoring. He has 3 point capability, he's a ballhandler, he can connect on alley-oop plays, he can make plays, and he can play D. He's also not as selfish as he used to be like in his Cleveland days. Hopefully, with the warriors he could be like how he was on the Celtics, a fan favorite. He's pretty flashy so some fans will like his style. Others might cringe when he attempts to do a studly Jrich show off style move and he fails. No Warrior was better at showing off than Jrich, he just made things happen. Ricky Davis... might get a little carried away, but he's still very good despite the antics. This lineup would look awesome to me PG: Baron Davis / Monta Ellis / FA SG: Monta Ellis / Marco B / Ricky Davis SF: SJax / Ricky Davis / Harrington / re-sign Cro PF: Al Harrington / BWright / FA / re-sign Cro C: Biedrins / Harrington / FA / Kosta Perovic PG/C would obviously be positions to think about. But one good swingman could replace two guys (Barnes and Azu)
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Custodianrules2 @ Jun 3 2008, 10:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This lineup would look awesome to me PG: Baron Davis / Monta Ellis / FA SG: Monta Ellis / Marco B / Ricky Davis SF: SJax / Ricky Davis / Harrington / re-sign Cro PF: Al Harrington / BWright / FA / re-sign Cro C: Biedrins / Harrington / FA / Kosta Perovic PG/C would obviously be positions to think about. But one good swingman could replace two guys (Barnes and Azu)</div>I don't know, it looks less than awesome to me, that team still has most of the problems last year's team did, even if everyone stays healthy. I mean sure, the Warriors need to beef up their bench, but they're going to need a lot more than that to compete in the West. And I'm still very skeptical as to how many import minutes Wright and Belinelli will play. Then again, for this year I'm only expecting another entertaining year that either falls short of the playoffs or gets beat in the first round. We need a more major retooling to go deeper IMO, which probably won't happen this year.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (HiRez @ Jun 4 2008, 02:46 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Custodianrules2 @ Jun 3 2008, 10:38 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>This lineup would look awesome to me PG: Baron Davis / Monta Ellis / FA SG: Monta Ellis / Marco B / Ricky Davis SF: SJax / Ricky Davis / Harrington / re-sign Cro PF: Al Harrington / BWright / FA / re-sign Cro C: Biedrins / Harrington / FA / Kosta Perovic PG/C would obviously be positions to think about. But one good swingman could replace two guys (Barnes and Azu)</div>I don't know, it looks less than awesome to me, that team still has most of the problems last year's team did, even if everyone stays healthy. I mean sure, the Warriors need to beef up their bench, but they're going to need a lot more than that to compete in the West. And I'm still very skeptical as to how many import minutes Wright and Belinelli will play. Then again, for this year I'm only expecting another entertaining year that either falls short of the playoffs or gets beat in the first round. We need a more major retooling to go deeper IMO, which probably won't happen this year. </div> i'm with you hirez. i'm not sure how many minutes wright and beli would play if you continue to get vets who don nelson will use. you already have gotten two fa's including davis and we'll be adding two draft picks to that. part of the problem i see is we already have gaps on the bench because we don't know which guys will have developed. from the past year, we were supposed to have azubuike and barnes (to a lesser degree), but now you're getting rid of both of them. mp is another guy we're getting rid of. same with pob. there isn't much continuity.
