New GSW Ownership Shouldn't Clean House

We all sit here with bated breath, clinging onto every Tweet by the likes of Marcus Thompson, Tim Kawakami, and Matt Steinmetz, looking for that instant confirmation that the hope that’s been the underlying life-support for all fans will finally be realized.

Yet, as of yesterday morning’s BREAKING NEWS that the Golden State Warriors would announce their new owner, we were thereafter left with a huge void of silence. And as it turned out, no announcement was made and our underpaid, overly criticized, and overworked beat writers waddled back home with empty notepads and hundreds of “WTF” Tweets from their loyal followers.

The news may come today. It may not. Either way, this gives me time to respond to comments I’ve been reading on fan forums. The one that once new ownership arrives, they need to clean house. From the head coach to the general manager to the president to the TV announcer…everyone must go!

I don’t think that cleaning house is the first thing the new owner should do. I believe there will be a transition period, whether it’s during the finalization of the sale or after, but there are a few people the new owner should keep. We have to consider that the main product - the players - are real people. They need to feel comfortable and they need to trust the people that manage them.
It’s possible that the new ownership would instill trust right away but we don’t know that. What we do know is that most of the players know the coaching staff and the general manager. They are the ones that work with them on a daily basis and they are the ones that put the group together with a purpose.

That isn’t to dismiss that Larry Riley said he isn’t constructing the team for Don Nelson since this is Don Nelson’s last year of his $12M contract. But from all the comments we hear from the players, they expect to play in an “up-tempo” system. We don’t need to speculate what that means. It means they expect Don Nelson to coach the team. It means that the players like playing high-octane offense with little regard to defense, although they would never admit to the latter.

Besides that, I feel that Larry Riley has done a decent job. I feel the current players genuinely look forward to playing for Don Nelson and that Don Nelson wants to retire from coaching with a bang. I feel that the current team, with a few more tweaks, can make some noise in the upcoming season. Because of all that, I feel that it would be wrong to completely clean-house with new management and new coaches.

I agree that eventually the house does need to be cleaned, but not immediately. I think that new ownership would be smart enough to acknowledge the good (and the bad) that has happened recently. When big banks takeover little banks, they don’t clean house. They inherit the good and the bad and need current staff to help with the transition and eventually everyone is gone or in new positions. What the Warriors have now is more on the good side. Players are not clashing with Don Nelson; when things are good for Don Nelson, teams seem to win. And Larry Riley is making some bold moves to help the team win now with little regard to his future employment. You have to admire that.

They deserve to stick around for a little while longer, even in a reduced role. I think the players would like that rather than seeing a ruthless ownership tell them everything up to this point has been wrong.

New GSW Ownership Shouldn't Clean House

 

With all due respect........NOOOOOOOO! I know you've been following the team closely, but the past 16 years have been a disaster (exception of 2007). There is institutional failure. There is a reason that smart NBA people have said that the GSW franchise is undervalued, the management in place. That includes in large part, Nellie and Riley. Keep Nellie? What long term building has he done the past 3 years? What young player has he developed? Outside of Curry (who fell into his lap and he was forced to play and develop when no other veterans were healthy), Nellie has not developed anyone. NOOOOO.

 

I respect your opinion and actually can't argue with it. I just think that there is little to lose with a guaranteed last year of Don Nelson coaching. The players seem to really want to play for him as evidenced last season toward the end when they won meaningless games for him. We shouldn't judge what he's done in the past (good or bad) when it comes to coaching this team this year. I want to see what he can do in his last year.

Don Nelson has developed plenty of players. Let's not get into that pointless argument.

 

Yeah Run, I'm with you too. I wouldn't mind seeing Ellison or whoever totally clean house. I don't know if that's his style or not, but some considerations need to be made.

1) What coaches are out there that would be right for the roster we have?

2) Even though I said don't bring in history, but recent history shows that Nellie has had success with Biedrins (bigman), Monta (50%+ FG), and winning (regular season).

Whatever the case, I'm sure smart decisions will be made (presuming it's Ellison).

 

It's a great time to clean house. New management has a new plan and changes in store. We can't get rid of Cohan-Rowell-Riley-Nelson fast enough! We'll still play run and gun because the Suns have shown that we can't just change the style of play overnight and need a coach who understands that while he incorporates more defense and giving the youngsters more of a chance to play. We won't be a playoff team next season, but we will put a stamp on this team that we'll be there the following year and for years to come.

 

Just getting rid of Cohan and Rowell will be a big step. Bringing in Jerry West to make some of the other decisions on the general manager and coach will be huge. But I lean toward Doctor Kajita on this, but would certainly allow someone like Jerry West to persuade me to consider otherwise.

 

Here's ESPN's note:

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/features/rumors

 

A bird in hand is better than 2 in the bush, as they say. If it were these current Warriors, I would say you have a point. But to have a new team with a new billionaire owner (think an heir to the Steinbrenner/DeBartolo dynasties), a fresh front office (ie. he wouldn't be going to work for Robert Rowell), a loyal and engaged fan base that will fill the seats and is hungry for and appreciative of success, strong possibility of a new downtown SF stadium being built....all taken together it should be an alluring offer. To me, that sounds perhaps more attractive than taking over the Lakers because Shaw would, after waiting for Jackson to get bored enough to retire, end up with an aging team with bloated contracts and a jaded fanbase with unrealistic expectations (win the championship every year or we'll go to the beach...and we'll still leave halfway through the third quarter).

 

The thing that the ownership needs to do is clean up the image. Practice facilities need to be upgraded, move to a new arena ultimately (Ideally SF). If those things happened, free agents would start to want to come here.

 

I don't want to get my priorities out of whack, but if he doesn't bring back jim barnett i might cry. he's been calling the w's games since i was in my early years of elementary school. I know he's a cornball, and he's overly optimistic, and all that other shit....but Barnett IS the warriors. Fire everyone else. I'm not sure how serious I'm being.

 

I'm not sure how much respect Barry would be given considering even his kids didn't speak with him until recently, but knowing Ellison, I wouldn't put it passed him to bring him in

 

I sort of agree with you, and yes, Barnett is cornball and a bit out of touch (ie. old) but I don't mind him. At least he played the game and has some decent analysis. He can talk about things like positioning, player intent, potential offensive sets and defensive responses, how one player can take advantage of another, shooting motions, and so forth, in other words all the technical intricacies of the game, much of which he knows from having done it himself. He can tell you, for example, "Here's what they were trying to do here, and here's where they went off the rails and screwed it up") and I appreciate that.

Fitz, on the other hand, I cannot stand. What an unctuous, self-loving, suckup blowhard. (And guess what Fitz, I still don't care how Notre Dame did today!!) I would be so thrilled if they brought Greg Papa back to replace him.

 

Ok, perfect world scenario, Ellison opens the wallet and raids the Spurs. Brings back Papa, Duncan and Papovich

Ok, I can wake up now.

 

Love Jim "Crazy Horse" Barnett. He's the Warriors Mike Krukow but less corny.

 

Rick Barry is on record saying he would love to coach the Warriors. This is when he had his show on KNBR. I really like the guy but apparently a lot of people that are more important than me hate him.

 

I'm not more important than you, DK, and I don't hate Barry -- but all indications are he's just...not...how do I put it...a people person. He's annoying.

He sure as hell annoyed me with his radio show. He was the king of using 14 paragraphs to say something simple. For example, instead of saying "the Warriors will win tonight," he would give exactly the same amount of information but take 5 minutes.

Hey Rick, will GS win tonight?

Rick: Well, if they can go ahead and do the types of things necessary in order to put themselves in the best possible chance to go ahead and be successful on the basketball court (has he said anything yet?), if the coach can put the players in a position where they have the opportunity to do the types of things they are capable of doing in order to win basketball games (still?), then they will be in a position to go ahead and do the types of things necessary to go ahead and have a chance to be successful.

Apparently he's just not a desirable personality to work with NBA players. He even tried to linger around the team for a while there and work individually with a few guys, but nothing came of it. I think he's just too confrontational and stubborn. He had a run-in/meltdown with Ralph Barbieri shortly before leaving KNBR. He accused Ralph of having NO right to say anything about basketball because he had never played the game at a high level. Absolutely 0%. He said something like Ralph was incapable of knowing ANYTHING about the game of basketball because of this. The confrontation lasted a few days, and even after Rick began looking silly for his obviously paper-thin argument, he refused to back down from his precarious stance. That was pretty much the downfall of his credibility, and it was the subsequent downfall, IMO, of his job with KNBR.

No, I wouldn't want him to coach.

 

Personally, I'd love Lawrence Frank. He's a very hardworking coach who lives and breathes the game, has players work hard on defense, and basically would be the opposite of Don Nelson. I don't think he's the long-term answer, but he would be a great teacher to a young team like this for 2-3 years.

It's too bad we missed out on some of the other coaches this season. I would also consider giving a chance to someone like Marc Jackson or Mo Cheeks. Both are former PG's who'd probably help Curry's development; Cheeks seems to have helped Westbrook as a assistant in OK and has more experience.

I don't think Barry would be a good coach. There's more anecdotes than just those. I don't mind him being in the organization, but as coach it's a bad move.

As far as GM, I think TK actually had a blog with a good list of candidates. At this point, the owner is really the most important change, and I hope that Cohan stops being a greedy ass about it.