Warriors stick with vets in loss <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When it was suggested that he could possibly give more playing time to rookie Mickael Pietrus and second-year forward Mike Dunleavy -- considered part of the Warriors' young core -- Musselman said: "We'll finish the season like we started it." Apparently, that means with most of the team's young core on the bench at crunch time. Despite the Warriors' (35-44) having been out of the Western Conference playoff race for upwards of a month, Musselman has continued to rely heavily on veterans Calbert Cheaney and Clifford Robinson -- and point guard Avery Johnson before his recent hamstring injury -- often at the expense of Pietrus, Dunleavy and third-year power forward Troy Murphy. That was the case again Friday as Dunleavy and Pietrus rode the bench when it mattered most in the fourth period, and Murphy was pulled with five minutes, 36 seconds remaining -- and the Warriors down 10 -- in favor of Robinson. Musselman put Murphy and Pietrus back into the game with 2:22 remaining and the Warriors down 16. Dunleavy, who sat most of the second half, came in for Cheaney with 4:29 left in the game and the Warriors down 86-72. Musselman was asked after the game if he has given any thought to playing Dunleavy, Pietrus and perhaps Murphy down the stretch of games, particularly now that it is late in the season. "We think about it all the time," he said, then abruptly left the interview room after answering that lone question.</div>
I don't understand what Musselman's trying to do here. Since there's no chance of us making the playoffs, and the only thing we can do for the rest of this season is develop our young players, why not play them? How else are they going to get experience and get better than playing in the 4th quarter? And not playing them against the Wolves was especially bad considering that we were down at least 10 and didn't really have a chance to win.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting kobeonfire:</div><div class="quote_post">I don't understand what Musselman's trying to do here. Since there's no chance of us making the playoffs, and the only thing we can do for the rest of this season is develop our young players, why not play them? How else are they going to get experience and get better than playing in the 4th quarter? And not playing them against the Wolves was especially bad considering that we were down at least 10 and didn't really have a chance to win.</div> Probably Musselman knows he is going to be gone so he's using his most consistent veterans to help him increase his win numbers.
