After looking at a list of all the possible players, and not being sold on either one of Brewer or Carney because of who we already have, I'm thinking either Sheldon Williams (if he is indeed 6'10 in shoes with a freakish wingspan) or Patrick O'Bryant. Those are my two. If none of those guys are available I'll take Brewer just because he's so versatile.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Clif25:</div><div class="quote_post">Pietrus has had three seasons so far. He's still 24 years old. As a starter last season he put up matching numbers to the starting and higher paid SF on the team. Not only does Pietrus have the intangibles to be a star, but he has had the games as well where he has been the star. Last season was a mess and several players played below the expectations and their potential. The two seasons before, Pietrus showed his great potential and lived up to it for stretches of the season. I am willing to give Pietrus at least until next season's all-star break to show what he's all about. That is unless there is some wonderful deal that pops up between now and then. I am not for trading Pietrus for draft picks, unless possibly if it could land Rudy Gay, since he is a SF and would fit better on this team because of it. Deng for Pietrus would be fine with me as well.</div> I often find myself in agreement with Clif,I guess we are the patient optimist wing? Monty sucks. His suckage especially has hurt some players including Pietrus and Murphy and for many the result is each has only 60% of the market value they should have. Pietrus,unlike Dun did NOT get to play in the relatively polished US high school scene,As I recall he came to France from a 3rd world island where the game is not real developed. In Frace,the Euroball thing is young athletic guys wait their turn to get minutes. Boom--- he's drafted...and so is a raw project on our bench. As of now he has about a dozen games as a starter..and that's it. Dunleavy got years starting ....STARTING...in the ACC and for the Warriors. As the son of an NBA player,naturally,he got opportunity from HS on. Net result? I'd tend to say Pietrus is nevertheless about equal with Dun as a SF right now. Pietrus has so little history of having a set role or starting minutes his evolution as a player is just about even with a lot of rookies. That Monty chooses to let teams pack it in as Fish = Dun play catch 25 ft out is not gonna bring out MP's best. That Monty plays lots of gimmick ball-chasing pseudo zone wastes Pietrus abilities to be a lockdown defender in Man-D. Murphy is also FAR better in MAN-D as are half the guys on this team,but Monty is like dragging an anchor He's a collerge coac and to him the Montyball system is supreme,individual players talents are irrelevant. We will be wanting to clean up some Mullin contract blunders. That means Foyle-Fish-Dun..and the disposal costs will hurt. If Mullin pays too much to move mistakes-it highlights and amplifies how bad the mistakes were and if he also is gonna hang onto Monty..... then Mullin's job is on thin ice. So...Pietrus could be the cost of cleanup and disposal,and that...frankly...sucks I hope Mullin can surprise. Murphy is getting underrated by some W's fans. There was a stretch in late Jan,early Feb where he got a "role adjustment' got to get back inside to rebound,got to play man on man D against the elite PF's in the West...result? Against a group including Dirk,KG,Duncan,Zack R,K Mart,Brand...Murphy came out on top,more pts,more boards,holding All-Star and MVP types under their averages playing tough,with 15-20 rbd games... ,and yet,Monty was sleeping as usual so as was ALWAYS the case. Pietrus..Ike..Murphy..Biedrens..Ellis..Zarko..I have seen each display a lot of ability beyond what this turkey of a coach lets contribute to a typical game. Having Monty as the coach is like having a 250 lb fat chick ride your horse in the Kentucky Derby...don't blame the damn horse
I tend to agree on Sheldon and Pat O being ther best bets at #9,with a chance either goes earlier,but Thomas or Gay falls to 9. If I wanted to take a chance I'd think about a trade up to 3 with Morrison in mind. His ability to make what appears to be an off balance/well defensed shot is pretty fascinating. This draft is generally speculative up top,but after #20,there are a LOT of productive-smart-efficient players. They won't tend to have superstud upside but several can step in right now and help,some can soon be role guys who are real good at some skill. I was MUCH impressed by Boston College F Craig Smith and U Cinn F/C Eric Hicks. both may be there for our rd 2. Smith is 6-7 250+ and his inside postup,use the glass,use muscle skills are like Ike or Sheldon W...real sweet. He is a rebounder,but what's rare..for a wide body he really can pass + dribble well. My thing...trim him down to about 240 so he can play SF. Erick Hicks was a 6-6 C playing in the Big East. Just the same he was a compact Ben Wallace,had a triple double against Marquette,7 blocks vs U Conns group of NBA-futures,had 2 games of 10+ OFFENSIVE boards,was #6 natinally in blocks,#2 in offensive boards. He did not shoot perimeter much but did hit about 40% from 3...so ,at 6-6 245 he's about the same size as Artest. Maybe he also needs to get a tad lighter-quicker to play as a SF,but I really would like the alternative of sitting marshmallow soft Dun and having Smith or Hicks step in and be an animal at SF.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting REREM:</div><div class="quote_post">Having Monty as the coach is like having a 250 lb fat chick ride your horse in the Kentucky Derby...don't blame the damn horse</div> It can also be said that it's like having a horse with no legs. Blame the horse, not the jockey because the horse is the one doing all the work not the damn Jockey. Our roster sucks because we have no center and our main star playmaker got hurt, our small forward sux, and we got no reliable bench. No matter what coach we bring in is not going to solve the problem. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting REREM:</div><div class="quote_post">I often find myself in agreement with Clif,I guess we are the patient optimist wing?</div> If we TRULY want to claim "patience" because of guys like Pietrus not getting the chance we also wait for the coaching system to get some real talent that fits together, can run plays, that can play as a team and do other stuff like defend and shoot free throws and make good decisions with or without the ball. This includes having a good center starting center or an anchor in the middle to make that a reality. None of our guys bring that tough interior play on defense on either end of the floor, so I can't expect any coach to suddenly start winning by running the ball without Baron Davis in the lineup and playing no defense. What's Dfish or Baron going to do? Pass to Foyle? The guy can't even f-ing catch the ball let alone make a dunk or layup. That type of crap just ruins any prospect of a fluid offense. The same goes with Biedrins not being able to stay out of foul trouble or hold his position or make free throws. Then there's Murphy who is clearly not an inside player or a guy who can create offense to draw double teams away from the perimeter. It's a lose-lose situation because of our flawed team design and the even worse leverage that Mullin put the franchise in with Fisher/Foyle/Dunleavy type signings. If we put together a smarter, more polished team that makes sense inside and out with better individual defense, then we can talk about coaching because right now we can't expect our team to win by playing a different style. We have no style to rely on and there's definitely no substance to go with that style. A rookie coach that inherits a bad team on a franchise that for years hasn't made the playoffs doesn't deserve more blame than Mullin's awful signings of Foyle/Fish/Dunleavy + nothing to bring off the bench. I mean what are we going to do? Play no defense and continue to run fastbreaks without Baron Davis running the middle of it and shoot low % 3-pointers and not rebound? C'mon here. That doesn't work unless we got a frontline worthy of the Suns. I'm sorry but you can only modify a Honda Civic so much, but you can't call it a sports car. The Warriors are a Honda and they are not a sports car and its not going to compete against other sports cars. I can agree on drafting a big man like Sheldon Williams, Patrick O'Bryant or a swingman suited for small forward or BAP small forward, but I can't agree that Montgomery is the sole problem why Murphy can't defend the rim or understand the offense and Pietrus/Dunleavy can't ever do anything consistent, hit free throws, make good decisions with the ball. The French guy doesn't even understand when to foul and not to foul and how to avoid getting into dumb charges. And the coach's son has sucked for years and still got a big deal even when we didn't even have to re-sign him. That's bogus management and franchise history repeating itself. I'm not for trading Pietrus or Murphy, but what other trade chips do we have? Foyle, Dunleavy or Fisher? Who the f wants those? Sorry for getting heated, REREM, but damn dood I cannot stand hearing Montgomery as a scapegoat for why the Warriors didn't make the playoffs and all those smiley faces and emoticons and analogies used to diss one guy who doesn't even play on the floor and its not all his fault our guys repeatedly suck year after year and don't get the job done. The Warriors weren't a playoff team to begin with and if you thought they were I'm sorry you were misled because the 82 game season, with all those missed free throws, standing around and bad decision making and not being able to create a shot, proved the Warriors aren't a playoff team. I've never seen any other team struggle with set plays and other basic fundamentals of the game so much, especially with something as simple as catching the f-ing ball. Foyle! Nobody wants to pass to that guy, or Dunleavy because they know they're going to f-up. And with Murphy they know they have to take the foul because he certainly won't do that dirty work on defense. Then on offense Murphy's going to hoist it because he doesn't look to get others involved. He's got few dimensions and nice defensive rebounding numbers. That's all. He's no star that's going to push us into the playoffs. What the heck does he do besides rebound and shoot threes? It's like with Foyle. WTF does he do besides block shots? Almost nothing. These guys don't average assists, steals, blocked shots, offensive boards the way most frontlines do. Memphis kicks our ass in the frontline when it comes to teams with supposedly less talent.
One bad player can cause the whole thing to spiral down to a huge mess. The center is the most important position on the floor at any time as well as the point guard. Foyle + Fisher was what killed it and although Montgomery could have kicked these guys out, what was our bench depth like and what was the contract situation? You see? This is Mullin's fault. He messed up in his rookie year as GM and he made no good follow up moves to make it so Baron or even Fisher would want to pass the ball to guys like Dun and Foyle. Even if Monty could, I don't think the coach would dare to relegate his "starters" to the bench after what they've been paid, especially not after the ink is still yet to dry. It's one season and we're already making Fisher and Foyle and Dunleavy bench guys? OMG! Then with arguable starter, Murph you get blackhole like offense and perimeter shots. With Foyle you get bobble hands and horrible shooting. With Foyle + Murphy as starters and no other dribble penetrators who can create, it takes out Fisher's effectiveness. Then of course, Dunleavy can't shoot, but heck I think PF/C is a lot more important than Dunleavy or Pietrus missing a few shots. If we get better big men, Dunleavy + Pietrus won't be as much of an issue IMO. Just look at 2003 when we had Dampier and Clif Robinson. Those guys could at least protect the paint and pass the ball and score some. They weren't one dimensional and they at least were dominant in some forms of the game like post defense or post presence. With Murphy and Foyle the ball never comes back out because one can't catch and the other guy drifts on the perimeter or never passes and their overall defense is so minimal. Then Fisher never passes because he's a bad point guard with no creativity or mindset, also Dunleavy can't shoot or create his own shot against athletic players so who wants to pass to him, Pietrus is clueless on where to move to to receive the pass, Foyle can't catch (repeating myself), Murphy isn't actively moving to get open at times and he's going to shoot it no matter what. The list goes on... and on and on. That just leaves a lot of point guards like Baron Davis and Fisher who are just going to chuck it and ignore plays because the rest of the players can't even execute those plays by doing the job their position requires (fastbreak or halfcourt). It all just spirals down because of this poor design, players that don't fit, and positions we needed the most not doing their job. Mainly Center, PF, Small forward and then point guard. But heck, Fisher has succeeded on playoff teams before, but we're not a playoff team. The rest of the guys have never seen the playoffs because they suck or can't do more than two things well consistently like play defense and score. *pant* *pant* See, this is why we can't blame one guy as coach for not gambling on fouling intentionally or not having more rookies in there or whatever. Who f'n cares because the players are more responsible in this league for what they get paid to do. We want patience for the rookies, how about having patience in getting rid of these dumb contracts so that Monty can play the right guys and for the coaching and GM to come together and decide where they want this franchise to go. We definitely don't want Foyle/Dun/Fisher as starters, but Mullin didn't sign them to become bench guys so Monty is making them bench guys. If you ask me Montgomery was totally screwed over and set up to fail. If it was Musselman, he'd be screwed over as well and probably getting similar results because he has no freakin' center. We tried Murphy at center and OMG he cannot defend. I'd rather have Diogu there or even Zarko because at least Zarko can push the ball up the floor.
