What happens if we DON'T make the playoffs this year?

I was thinking...

What if everyone stay relatively healthy and we dont make the playoffs this year? What would we do next year? What would we do to improve? I mean drafting does not help unless you get lucky. We wont have the cap space to sign a big name free agent. Do we even resign guys? What's the point? Do we fire the coach and get some big name coach?

 

If we don't make playoffs this year, Monty is gone. The Warriors have to make it, bearing injuries.

 

Is Silas still available?

 

Montgomery may be fired if the Warriors don't make the playoffs, but I think it would be a HUGE mistake. An almost universal truth is that for a bad team to make the transition to a good team, it needs to keep the coach and front office together.

The only good team I can think of over the last 15 years that has changed coaches more than once over a five year period and stayed good is Detroit, but they had the players to do it and the replacement coaches were both proven winners.

I don't know how many times I've said it, but look at Minnesota, Dallas, Sacramento, and San Antonio. These four teams were all very bad in the late 90s, but they stuck with their coach, got a few players and turned it around.

What would have happened in San Antonio if the Spurs dumped Pop after the '97-'98 year (the year they drafted Duncan)? I guarantee they wouldn't have won the championship the next year.

What about Adelman in Sacramento? The Warriors kicked him to the curb just prior to him taking over the Kings. The Kings weren't any better than the Warriors at that point, but they stuck with Adelman and he turned them into one of the league's best teams. The same goes for Nelson in Dallas and Saunders in Minnesota. Of course the other common thread for these squads is that they all had an all nba player help the coach turn the team around. But the Warriors have Davis.

I'm telling you guys, even if the Warriors don't make the playoffs this year, firing Montgomery would only hurt the team, both in the short and long term.

 

I understand where you coming from but in Monty's case he has to go if we miss the playoffs. We need someone to pull in the reigns on all the threes and prepare our team better defensively to take that next step. I dont think we need to look around at all, Elie seems ready to take over in a year or two. I don't think we will be able to take the next step with Monty. I agree with some others on here tht BDiddy def doesn't listen to him that much. We need a stronger-willed coach to give the team more discipline as far as d and shot selection. We need to take quality shots and make defensive stops.

 

If Warriors fail to make PO this season, I think it will be a deathblow to the franchise. With 18-8 and 14-5 with Davis starting, expectation is the highest since Webber's 2nd year, and you have to say the size of expectation is not normal for a team that missed 11 straight years. I mean, which pro sports team with 11 straight years of misery suddenly experience shape increase of season ticket sale? The expectation is so bloated for this club, making PO would be bare minimum for this season, and casual fans are really expecting something big from this club, such as making 5th or 6th seed in PO and 50+ wins. The expectation may not be fair for the club, and judging from preseason, Warriors may have to work hard to reach PO, because there still are number of significant holes to fill. But, that's the reality Warriors are facing right now, and if they happen to miss PO this season, everything may blow in front of their face. I agree with WT that firing Monty will hurt this club in short term and long term, since this team really can use some sort of stability. But, he may be fired as a sacrifice to ease massive disappointment among fans. To make things worse, unlike Muss, Monty really doesn't have a follower, so even if he is fired right now, not many casual fans will go nuts.

Also, as I said number of times, our long financial view isn't that bright to say the least. So, if we want to make a splash, this is the year to do so. If this group isn't enough to make PO this season, we may be in trouble for long time...

 

I'm with Walker and Kwan on this one. I believe not only would missing the playoffs be a huge blow to the franchise and the team, but getting rid of our coach and not sticking with the system we have would be a huge mistake. We don't dribble well enough to create our own offense. We don't score inside enough to set up the perimeter shooters. We need any coach that has a game plan where we can set up people off the ball so they don't have to dribble. I may disagree with Monty's timing on things, but remember it was his rookie year as coach. He's got tremendous fundamentals and I wholeheartedly believe he will succeed despite the criticism and diasagreement over his policies. There's a lot of bias against him because he's a college coach and many people felt we should have gone the Musselman route (a team who has open court play but no organization whatsoever). Let's follow the example of what the Spurs and Jazz do. We need to be open court as well as halfcourt so we can set the tone. Maybe over time Pietrus and Andris Biedrins develop into great defensive players like Artest and Marcus Camby (hopefully with Cliff Robinson/Kurt Thomas type post defense.)

 

You guys probably heard this but during the game last night on TNT the commentators motioned that Baron Davis guaranteed that the Warriors will make the Playoffs, so personally I expect them to make the Playoffs. And in essence of possibly not making the Playoffs the commentators gave their opinions on this. From what I remember they said maybe trading guys like Dunleavy and Richardson might be the key to getting out of that 9, 10, 11 spot in the West. Would you Warrior fans ever approve of this?

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AnimeFANatic:</div><div class="quote_post">Is Silas still available?</div>
I believe he is doing some commentating this year.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Avery:</div><div class="quote_post">From what I remember they said maybe trading guys like Dunleavy and Richardson might be the key to getting out of that 9, 10, 11 spot in the West. Would you Warrior fans ever approve of this?</div>I don't think we have to trade these guys to end our playoff woes. As long as this team is able to stay healthy and mature, we should be alright.

 

I believe that the lack of a great small forward is holding us back. We need a special player at that position. Almost every team in the playoff picture has either a strong rebounder, great defender, or a great scorer. We have mediocraty at best. Until we bring in an athlete who can defend or score (although we don't need another scorer), we're going to be mismatched on most nights. Guys like Bowen, Battier, Artest, Prince, are what we need.

 

I disagree that the small forward position is holding us back that badly... but it could stand to improve. If anything's to criticize it's our depth and quality of big men at the 4 and 5 spots (primarily inside presence on both ends). Foyle may be a great shotblocker at 6'9/6'10, but he's no Ben Wallace or Erick Dampier on the glass and he tends to play away from the basket with a hook or short range baseline jump shot. Troy Murphy is a great rebounder, nice shooter, but he's clearly not a 4 or a 5 that sets the tone the way a starter should. Did I mention Foyle really slowed down since 2002? I remembered the guy being more awesome for some reason. He was great in that preseason Lakers game, though. Now his knee is coming apart again.

If we had some inside big men that could kick out to the wings or some team off the ball movement, scoring would be a lot easier than just running it all the time. That's why our offense is night and day with/without Baron running the break and drawing double teams. We need more playmakers who are creative with the ball than we do scorers. That's why if Dunleavy could do his thing with the dribbling and passing it would be great. But unfortunately he's kind of a bit slow and tentative at times with what he wants to do to make the team go. He could dribble the ball but he doesn't have that explosiveness working against more athletic matchups. What he can do is attack power forwards from the outside and he can beat most players in transition just by faking them out. I mean he schooled Jamal Tinsley and James Posey a couple of times which was funny.

 

You make some good points Custodian. I was pointing out the small forward position, because a.) Ike, Biedrins, Foyle, Murphy, and Taft is a nice combination, which will only improve as time goes by. b.) the guard positions look ok with Baron, Rich, Pietrus, and Ellis/Miles. Fish stinks but is not useless.

c.) the small forward spot is getting burned game after game. As I watch these games for the last few years, the small forwards are torching us constantly. Dunleavy has some good aspects to his game, but we need a dominant defender or someone who adds something special to our lineup.

The small forward position is killing us.

 

Unfortunately all the T-Mac's, Dirk's, and LeBron's are taken ;-P

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting mylie10:</div><div class="quote_post">You make some good points Custodian. I was pointing out the small forward position, because a.) Ike, Biedrins, Foyle, Murphy, and Taft is a nice combination, which will only improve as time goes by. b.) the guard positions look ok with Baron, Rich, Pietrus, and Ellis/Miles. Fish stinks but is not useless.

c.) the small forward spot is getting burned game after game. As I watch these games for the last few years, the small forwards are torching us constantly. Dunleavy has some good aspects to his game, but we need a dominant defender or someone who adds something special to our lineup.

The small forward position is killing us.</div>
True mylie, but on a.) Biedrins, Ike, and Taft are relatively unproven as far as setting the tone goes. If you watch Biedrins he's more like a power forward that plays close to the basket than a true rough and tumble center.

Small forward is one reason I was hoping we'd draft Gerald Green (missing piece of index finger and all) or Danny Granger, but I guess no matter how good those two might be in the long run, we need the rebounding, inside scoring, and defensive toughness and to build a good playoff streak. If we don't have a legit starting big man that can do what all the other Western Conference playoff teams do, we need at least some kind guard/forward shooting team like the sonics with plenty of offensive rebounders on the squad and at least a few playmakers. We've only got one vet playmaker and our best shooter is more inconsistent than Rashard Lewis starting out. Also where is our version of scoring, passing, rebounding Nick Collison or Jerome James in terms of inside scoring role players? I hope our rookie big men come through this year.

We also need better defenders to back up Richardson and Baron Davis. Forwards keep putting up career highs against us it seems.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Warriorfansnc93:</div><div class="quote_post">I was thinking...

What if everyone stay relatively healthy and we dont make the playoffs this year? What would we do next year? What would we do to improve? I mean drafting does not help unless you get lucky. We wont have the cap space to sign a big name free agent. Do we even resign guys? What's the point? Do we fire the coach and get some big name coach?</div>

i would end up killing myself

 

With Ike, Murphy, Foyle, Biedrins, and Taft we have a future. There's improving young big guys with a veteran shotblocker mixed in. Foyle might be dealt down the road, but as far as the west goes, The only real centers are Yao (soft), and Dampier (Foyle can handle him) . Nobody's gonna stop Duncan, Nowitzki might be considered a power forward or small forward.

Small forward is our weakness, now and in the future. Granger might have been good here, but he's in Indiana so let's move forward. We need to make a deal with Fisher, Dunleavy, Foyle, picks, or some kind of package to get a small forward who can play tough defense. If there was a way to pry Jared Jeffries away from the Wiz I'd make that deal.

Your right that we are relying on three young guys to provide the rough and tumble, but Biedrins, Ike, and Taft appear to have that style of play. Given time at least 2 out of those three should pay dividends.

Besides getting a quality big man is much tougher than getting a tough three.

 

It's still a fairly young team. I'm pretty sure we're going playoffs if we don't have a lot of injuries Young players are often less consistant,as are teams that have a lot of player and coaching changes.

I've been in favor of Pietrus at SF,with Dunleavy a multi-role 6th man. Pietrus is a lot quicker,which is part of why he's better on D. He has less basketball background,but that can mean he gets quite a bit better. Right now I don't see a quick fix trade that is going to work. I'm wary of dealing several young rising talents to get an established star at his peak. Just a few years ago,you could have traded a LOT to get Penny Hardaway,Chris Webber,Alan Houston and Mo Taylor. Only Webber is still a starter and his talent has declined,but his paychecks haven't.

At one time,dealing for those 4 might have seemed a good idea-though most of our current team would have been the price,and we'd be dead meat now. No doubt there IS a possible GOOD deal out there,and it's one we'd agree the OTHER team would never do. Every year there is a surprise trade.
The next draft looks pretty thin-so far but there are always a couple of guys who turn out far better than expected. Drafted rookies don't have a definite talent ceiling as NBA players,and sometimes the draft's gem is a guy few expected to do much. You seldom get that with a free agent. Often it turns out like Fish,you get a guy at his peak,pay for his past achievements-and keep paying as he fades.