<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">With the season being a month old, now is a good time to catch our breaths and run inventory. Fortunately for you, since surely you've been caught up in the commotion of the new season, I've been taking notes and making observations: What in the world is up with ... ? Stephon Marbury? He's averaging just 10.1 points and 4.5 assists per game, half his career averages (20 and eight). However, in what perfectly illustrates Marbury's career, the Knicks are playing better. ? The Clippers? Last in the Pacific entering Thursday, all because they can't win on the road (0-6), and because they're shooting 29.7 percent from behind the arc (27th), and because Chris Kaman isn't producing like he did last year. ? Erick Dampier? He's playing some ball, coming up big for Dallas. Damp's worked his way back into the Mavericks' starting lineup and already has four double-doubles, compared with seven all of last season. Don't know what's more interesting ... ? That Chicago Bulls center Ben Wallace expressed his unhappiness by breaking the team's no-headband rule, or that coach Scott Skiles had a no-headband rule in the first place. ? That free agent Doug Christie and his wife, Jackie, were on "The Tyra Banks Show" together talking about NBA groupies, or that Banks was crying to the Christies over ex-boyfriend Chris Webber. His team is bad, but can anybody slow down ... ? Michael Redd? Through Wednesday, he was third in the league in scoring with an average of 30.4 points per game -- on 47.8 percent shooting (42.9 from three). The Bucks star already has 57- and 45-point performances. ? Zach Randolph? He averaged 25.4 points and 10.3 rebounds in his first 10 games, all in just 35 minutes per. Only twice has the Blazers star finished below 20 points. Here's some good news ... ? At this rate, Steve Nash won't win MVP again, bringing suspicion back to the race. Here are my top candidates after the first month: Carmelo Anthony, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Andris Biedrins. ? Lakers owner Jerry Buss bought his own NBA Developmental League team. The Los Angeles D-Fenders play at the Staples Center and Tex Winters helped install the triangle offense, so any player they send to the D-League -- such as second-year swingman Devin Green -- can grow in the Lakers' system. This could pave the way for other owners to do the same, and the NBA can have a real minor league system. Remember the name ... ? Yakhouba Diawara (ya-KOO-ba DEE-a-WA-ra). The Denver Nuggets rookie swingman is a natural scorer and tough perimeter defender. After going undrafted out of Pepperdine in 2005, the Paris native parlayed a season in the French League into a two-year, $1.8 million offer from Dallas. But he turned it down for a two-year, $1.2 million deal with the Nuggets. He is averaging 5.3 points in 18.1 minutes. ? Dorrell Wright. The No. 19 overall pick by Miami in the 2004 draft, Wright is starting to realize some of the potential that got him drafted out of South Kent Prep High School-Lawndale (Conn.). He entered Thursday averaging 6.1 points and 6.4 rebounds in 25.3 minutes, including three starts. Still trying to figure out ... ? What warrants a technical foul. There have been situations where a questionable stare warrants a whistle in one game, but it takes a full-on temper tantrum in another game. The league doesn't want to make it a no-tolerance policy, but they might as well. At least that would be fair and clear. ? Why Kobe Bryant changed to 24. Yeah, I know he wore that number as a high school freshman. I've heard the basketball "24/7" line. But what's the real reason? Was it really to stick it to adidas, which was reportedly resurrecting Bryant's old sneaker, KB8, without paying Bryant? Was it because of the new heated rivalry with Phoenix? Bryant's favorite player when he was living in Italy, Mike D'Antoni, wore No. 8, but he can't pay homage to D'Antoni anymore, right? There has to be some secret motive we haven't heard. Here's some advice, Kobe: Switch back to No. 8 after the All-Star Break, then your No. 24 will become an instant relic, a trivia answer, like Michael Jordan's No. 45. Wait a second. Maybe that was the scheme all along. One last thing... ? Is it fitting or cruel that Biedrins might become an All-Star before Warriors teammate Jason Richardson? With Pau Gasol injured, there's no better center in the West.</div> Source
Funny, Biedrens a MVP candidate and Biedrens being mentioned in the All Star Game, while Jrich might not make it... What scares me is our record is 9-7 after a month, and last year we started off faster with a 12-6 record. Second of all, we had this huge stretch of home games and favorable scheduling and our record is not any better than last year. Third of all, are we going to go into a funk after 2 last second shots made us lose winnable games...
That is pretty funny. J-Rich will come around and be our best score producer and hopefully, depending on the W's record, he will make the All-Star team, finally. I wouldn't worry too much about the record right now. Be happy that the W's have been tough competitors in all but a couple games. This year's W's are playing the entire 48 minutes.
<div class="quote_poster">Kensaku Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">That is pretty funny. J-Rich will come around and be our best score producer and hopefully, depending on the W's record, he will make the All-Star team, finally. I wouldn't worry too much about the record right now. Be happy that the W's have been tough competitors in all but a couple games. This year's W's are playing the entire 48 minutes.</div> I disagree, this year warriors at least play 47 minutes...
Baron is improved,Dun is improved. Beans,Monta,Pietrus went from bench guys to impact starters. Barnes is like found money. Ike will have a major impact when Nellie gets him up to his max. We are REGULARLY getting 4-5 assists from front court guys. We are beating the best when the team has just a month of experiance at Nellie's game,and when we have had guys out or recovering. J Rich and Murphy will be better than you have seen them. Whenever we get healthy-we will actually be able to push the tempo a bit more. The W-L is good-and figures to rise further. Enjoy it. Eventually,being the Warriors----it will all implode. My hope is we have 4-5 great years before that happens.
<div class="quote_poster">REREM Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Enjoy it. Eventually,being the Warriors----it will all implode. My hope is we have 4-5 great years before that happens.</div>See here you have one of those Star Trek style paradoxes because if the Warriors have 4-5 great years...then they are no longer "those" Warriors...and therefore needn't inevitably implode...but...if they are no longer the Warriors we know and love, the ones who fail as faithfully as the tides ebb and flow, then clearly someone has been tampering with the space-time continuum...and we can no longer trust what we are seeing...meaning, we can't trust that we actually saw 4-5 years of great Warriors basketball at all.
<div class="quote_poster">HiRez Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">See here you have one of those Star Trek style paradoxes because if the Warriors have 4-5 great years...then they are no longer "those" Warriors...and therefore needn't inevitably implode...but...if they are no longer the Warriors we know and love, the ones who fail as faithfully as the tides ebb and flow, then clearly someone has been tampering with the space-time continuum...and we can no longer trust what we are seeing...meaning, we can't trust that we actually saw 4-5 years of great Warriors basketball at all.</div> Einstein felt that time is relative. Space may be "curved" or not. There may actually BE Wookies and we might draft one someday. Nature/the Universe,is typically about cycles. Big Bang...Big Implosion....Big Bang...Big implosion-forever. The Warriors will always have a certain essence...a Warriorness..that given enough time and pressure will again result in trading wilt Chamberlain or Robert Parrish. Just as time and pressure turns carbon into diamonds. Time,however-is relative. Our lifespans are a linear event. We will miss the universe collapsing into a black hole- -with luck we might miss the next Monty,the Next Felton Spencer,the next Sprewell. So what IS reality? If the Warriors beat Seattle and it was not on cable-did it really happen? You can find the answers in a Bob Dylan song.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> One last thing... • Is it fitting or cruel that Biedrins might become an All-Star before Warriors teammate Jason Richardson? With Pau Gasol injured, there's no better center in the West. </div>Well... if Jrich was a power forward or center, the guy would be dynamite all-star with his above the rim style of play, post moves, and rebounding ability. Plus, we could not fault his bad free throw shooting, because his %'s are bad for shooting guard standards and decent for big men. But Jrich is flagged in as a shooting guard, when he's not a shooting guard and there's too many all-star shooting guards that deserve to go before him. Plus, in all these years, Jrich wasn't much of an impact at shooting guard on defense or offense compared to other all-star twos. As a shooting guard emulating a small forward, he was a scoring type threat more geared for the wing. He wasn't quick against most all-star guards, but he could overpower a number of them and outhustle them. He's handled Redd/Allen/Kobe okay, but those guys are all-stars way before Jrich. Jrich has so much competition to face and he's just not skilled enough IMO to compete. Even Ginobilli beats him because he's got a dribble/passing instinct like that of a real guard, he knives his way inside with ease, and he's clutch and has defensive ability, as well. There's more to Jrich's intended position than scoring. He passes okay, rebounds well, and does other things but all-star guard level requires more on certain skills. Especially when it comes to ballhandling and decision-making as a setup guy. He's improved greatly, but he's dealing with a lot of competition that do better in the two categories of playmaking and ballhandling. And if we add a third category, it has to be free throw shooting. Jrich has pretty good ability to convert tough plays from anywhere on the court and decent ability to get to the foul line if he asserts himself and stays under control with the ball, but the free throws just ruin his chances to make impact there because he misses them. He and Baron and other guys probably cause more teams to rough us up on purpose because they know we miss them a lot. Maybe if Jrich was a high assist guy with terrific handles and dominant one-on-one play, he'd be in despite bad free throw shooting.
I think the most suprising aspect of the season thus far is that even though the Warriors have a winning record, I still can't convince my local delicatessen to put "Monta Meatloaf" on the menu, a "hearty serving of the loaf you love" at low, low prices.
<div class="quote_poster">Montaman Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think the most suprising aspect of the season thus far is that even though the Warriors have a winning record, I still can't convince my local delicatessen to put "Monta Meatloaf" on the menu, a "hearty serving of the loaf you love" at low, low prices.</div> ---with a side of Biedrins Bake Beans?
<div class="quote_poster">Montaman Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think the most suprising aspect of the season thus far is that even though the Warriors have a winning record, I still can't convince my local delicatessen to put "Monta Meatloaf" on the menu, a "hearty serving of the loaf you love" at low, low prices.</div> Great, it's near midnight and you guys got me all hungry for meatloaf and chilli beans. I don't like baked beans that much.
