What Steve Kerr thinks of Baron.

Kerr did the commentary on the game Thursday night with Marv Albert on TNT. He mentioned how he is boggled by the career shooting percentage of Baron Davis. Being powerful, quick and savvy with the ball, he wonders how Baron can only be a 41% shooter for his career.

I agree with everything Kerr says and thought this article was a nice window to how the rest of the NBA community is viewing the W's.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=sk-b...=yhoo&type=lgns

 

I agree with everything except the

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">When it comes down to it for Golden State, it's all about Baron. Golden State has some gifted players, particularly Jason Richardson, Monta Ellis and Troy Murphy, but Davis is The Man.</div> line, should have been Biedrins.

Anyway, Baron must've really awe'd Kerr last night to write such a huge column.

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">In one, 12-minute timeframe, Baron Davis looked like the greatest point guard in NBA history.</div>

Yeah!

 

Baron gets lazy.

 

This is pretty much what I have been saying all along. Jrich is a true Warrior, but he is not the dominant player Davis is. Davis IS the best player on this team and he may not lead the team in scoring, but he should be right up there with Jrich while racking up 9-10 assists per night...

 

Baron has just needed a coach like Don Nelson. It is like Kobe Bryant before Phil Jackson was his coach. True, there is a difference here since Kobe was right out of high school. However Kobe and Shaq couldn't get along and win basketball games. But Phil came and has made it so Kobe could shine while keeping a decent relationship between Kobe and Shaq at least for competing and winning basketball games. The same things could possibly be said for Mike Bibby before he came to Sacramento and was coached by Adleman, or Nash before he was coached by Nelson. Tony Parker wouldn't be the player he is today if he didn't have Popovic as his coach since entering the league. Scoring point guards and superstar guards need a good coach with structure to force them to execute the game plan. This way the team benefits from having an executing system, and also from having a superstar like Baron Davis, or whomever. The problem with Baron Davis and even Jason Richardson possibly in the past was that the coach had no structure. Because of this nothing and nobody showed Baron what to run. Instead Baron I think got the message from the coach that he just wanted Baron and Jason Richardson to use their talent to beat the opponent alone. Now Baron is using his teammates, especially players who weren't used last year such as Andris and Pietrus and Monta Ellis to really make things happen.

I think Pietrus helps Baron a lot as well, in particular the Kings game. That duo was money all game long. Either it was an alley oop or a drive and dish out to Pietrus on the outside for a three pointer.

(My writing right now doesn't appear to be very clear, sorry) But basically it's all about the coach. This is why I was never pleased when Mike Montgomery decided that the NBA is a "players league". Contrary to this theory that the NBA is a players' league, I believe the Baron Davis transformation and the Warriors this season is an example of how coaching is very important. Instead of just going out each game trying to win based solely on talent the Warriors this season are going out each day in practice and developing and in each game doing their best to run the system (it's amazing how many times after games the players emphasize running and learning the system). This is why we are seeing better basketball out of Baron Davis and better team basketball. It is because of the coach. The importance of strong coaching can also be seen by other top teams in the West so far with the Jazz and the Lakers who do not have the best rosters talent-wise, but know how to execute.

 

Clif, I disagree. Its not a coach's league, its a player's league and its the players' responsiblity to figure out how to maximize himself. Bird was coached by Fitch, K.C. Jones, and Chris Ford, hardly HOF coaches. Magic had Westhead and Riley. Now Riley's a HOFer now, he was only an assistant who happened to be there when he started. MJ had Phil, but that was a very green Phil.

Baron needs to get in better condition and have a better understanding of his strengths. He's showing it at the start, let's hope for 82 games.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Clif25 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">The importance of strong coaching can also be seen by other top teams in the West so far with the Jazz and the Lakers who do not have the best rosters talent-wise, but know how to execute.</div>

I agree -- don't forget about Mike D'Antoni and the Suns the last few years -- that guy could take any starting 5 available and turn it into a high-octane show with Steve Nash at the helm. I attribute Both Barbosa and Boris Diaw's success to D'Antoni. Even when they lost Stoudamire they were playing better than ever. Many teams would fizzle out after losing their centerpiece like that.

And, of course Popovich and the Spurs. I think they get overlooked because most people just assume they have an elite roster with Duncan, Ginobli and Parker, but I give alot of credit to Pop for running that ship -- he and Duncan are like one mind, and there isn't even a dream of a tiny possiblitiy that there could ever be dissention in their locker-room.

 

I see what you're saying Clif about coaches need to be able to get unmotivated players on the same page, otherwise the players don't want to play together. That's like any sport. But for the most part, the nba is a player's league because of the money investment involved in each player and cba rules. This is compared to college ball where the coach designs the recruiting program and the play system and he says who plays and who sits. In the nba, what's to stop Baron from being a primadonna and wanting out or what's to stop Foyle from absolutely sucking and we can't do anything about it to free up a roster spot because his contract/trade value is so bad? The somewhat high ego, shoot first, pass later, "ignore running plays" type of point guard, Baron Davis, is our best, most heavily invested-in player and that definitely affects the team because we're dealing with contracts, the media, the pressure to make the playoffs.

If we weren't dealing with such matters, I'm sure Dun, Foyle, Fish would have been sat a long time ago with the rookies playing sooner (granted that Monty didn't have this Larry Brown thing with productive rookies like David Lee/Channing Frye). When a GM signs backup players intended for starting positions for the next 6 years, a guy like Montgomery might figure Mullin must have really wanted those guys to play for him. I don't think any of those guys would have played college ball with him, unless he had no choice. They are just not good fundamental position players that can get things done. How can a center play starter when he can't catch or make a layup or pass. How can a SF be a SF when he plays a position smaller than point guard and can't shoot. How can a point guard be so slow at creating, bad at shooting off the dribble once in a while, blind at setting players up on the drive and kick, and also not even know how to run a fast break for high % points? Frustrating players, yet Montgomery was the rookie coach and he couldn't say anything because the guys he had were veterans (bad veterans or bad fitting veterans) and Mullin the GM has all the power over the coach to say which players stay or go. It was Mullin IMO that got the wrong players for this particular coach and he didn't know anything about what works in 5 man motion offense. The only thing they could run was out of bounds plays and that's it. The Warriors needed to have gone with a different coach in the beginning or held off on the lousy selection of free agents if we had to grossly overpay for three players that much... You keep your stars, you only keep role players when they account for your team's winning. We haven't done jack to overpay and make a run for the playoffs. And if we did, it was a different style of team that could run or defend and do all the things that we couldn't do in '04-05.

Very bad future planning IMO. Maybe, it is hindsight, but it is like the planners in world war 2 who designed operation market garden and tried to invade Holland by using paratroopers and didn't plan for little things like, "what if the radios don't work?"

We didn't know if Jrich was going to be a star, but for gosh sakes, who has the most upside and who can make him better? I don't think it's Murphy, Dun, or any of the Warriors. And we lost Jamison and Arenas. I'm glad Mullin found a point guard finally because I've been calling for Jameer Nelson/Luke Ridnour out of desperation (and they may not be good fits either). But now we have the dilemma of trying to find the biggest, hardest, most expensive position to fill... A true power forward/center... We can deal with the SF position last. There's bound to be some Bruce Bowens, Tayshaun Princes, Josh Howards or James Poseys out there for us that can swing between shooting guard and small forward.