<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Whoever is calling the shots in the Warriors' front office these days -- whether it's general manager Garry St. Jean, special assistant Chris Mullin or owner Chris Cohan -- the following question must be answered: Who is their franchise player? Is Jason Richardson the franchise? No longer having to wait for Gilbert Arenas and Antawn Jamison to pass him the ball, Richardson has been productive being The Man, posting career bests in scoring (18.9 points a game), rebounding (6.4) and shooting percentage (.446). He even hit a game-winning 3-pointer to beat Minnesota on the road in December. Is Mike Dunleavy the franchise player? The former No. 3 overall pick fits the description skills-wise with his ability to shoot, rebound and pass the ball, but no one knows what Dunleavy is capable of because he never gets to play in crunch time.</div> And More here Does anybody know who is the warriors franchise player?Do they even have one?Is it J-Rich,Dunleavy,Dampier,Claxton,Van Exel,Cardinal,etc? Is anyone of them good enough?
LOL. Definitely not Cardinal. He's brings positive things to any ball club, but not enough to be called franchise worthy. A franchise player is in the special class of players that not only make their team better, but can bring consistency every night and threats that opposing teams always focus on. Example: Shaq. Teams focus on this guy so much they double team him and go zone just to keep him out of the paint, freeing up one player to take a shot. Another example is Dirk Nowitzki. This guy is a walking mismatch at 7 feet tall with unlimited range at the 3 spot. KG has the verstaility, strong defense, and scoring punch, plus he's fast for a near 7 footer. A 4th example is Allen Iverson, because he's so fast he's hard to guard (not so much this year because of injuries/aging). I think Jrich, Murphy and Claxton have the best shot at being franchise players. The warriors are so close to being a playoff team, but just have had bad luck with injuries. Murphy hasn't played all year and Claxton has been injured on and off. Jrich needs another year to improve his free throw shooting and his outside shooting consistency before he can be called a true franchise player (his jump shot technique is not very good when he's catching and shooting in place). Jrich however is great at shooting on the move and slashing toward the basket. His handles and defense have gotten much better. He is a player that can create for others and for himself and has gotten a better sense of court awareness. He's a nice guy too that other players can get along with. Speedy's speed is just dominating at times. You can't teach quickness. And his speed pays off on both ends of the court, whether he's getting the other team over the foul limit or he's picking off a slower guard for the steal. Should develop a consistent outside shot to keep the defense honest when they're cheating way off him. Murphy. Here's a near 7 footer that averages a double double (rebounding/scoring) and can shoot from the perimeter. He'll fight for those posessions to keep his team in the game. Once he develops some post moves and gets even bigger, look out.
I'd say that J.Rich as of now is the franchise player, but the Warriors need a solid core of players to take them far in the future. Murphy, J Rich, Speedy, Pietrus, Dunleavy- we need to decide which ones we need to keep and which ones to let go, as hard as it may be.
Well every team has a franchise player, it's simply their best player. I think in Golden State's situation it's Jason Richardson by default. With the departure of Jamison and Arenas he becomes the goto guy and he's likely to be sticking around if Golden State does infact resign him. I'm still not convinced he can be a legitimate first option on offense. Perhaps if they get more scorers around him it won't be a problem, but the way I see it is he'd be a tremendous second option. We'll see what they do in the future with free agency, either get J-Rich a solid low post presense that Golden State can drop the ball into down low, or get a 20 point + scorer that J-Rich can play off of.
I think its JRich right now but in the next two years I can see Mike Dunleavy taking over for the Warriors. This guy can do it all. Shoot the three, drive the lane, pass the ball and rebound.
The Warriors have no real franchise player right now. Jamison was, but the man he was traded for, Nick Van Exel, isn't. The Warriors are now a rudderless ship with no true leader to take them past opponents each night.
Jrich has the potential the be our franchise player more than anyone on the team. Next would be Speedy, then Dunleavy. After that no one else.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rudeezy:</div><div class="quote_post">Refer to kobeonfire's sig for the answer.</div> haha at first, i didn't put in the words "the franchise", but when I saw all these topics and all this discussion about it, I just HAD to put it in.
Right now, it's gotta be JRich as the franchise. MDjr can be dominant at times, but it seems he's a great team player setting others up, not really taking charge (hopefully next year he'll start doing that). As for Murphy, let's hope his foot injuries are completely healed.
Forget "Who's the Man", damn let's get everyone to start playing hard and together. Look at last night, who's the man for the Grizzlies? J-Will? Sure he dominated in the 3rd but he was barely out there for the 4th. Their best player is Gasol but he is not the go to guy. Posey? Bonzi? Let's concentrate on getting a go to team before we start labeling the players. A go to team plays hard, and somehow gets everyone the ball in the positions where they perform the best. I did not see any of that last night, especially in crunch time.
One thing about the Grizzlies is they have a good coach that can make an impact out on the floor after a timeout, a good general manager in Jerry West, and they have good bench that can all play defense well. Mike Miller/Shane Battier is a tough lineup at the small forward positions along with Wells/Posey at the shooting guard positions. All players that can step up and make an impact. The Grizzlies didn't have Lorezen Wright or Mike Miller either though so they struggled a bit on offense earlier in the game. The one area they could get killed in is the center spot which we tried to use. We just don't have anyone that can break down the zone or coordinate plays that don't result in a turnover. Jrich and Dunleavy just can't take care of the ball like a real point guard, especially Jrich when he's trying to do too much to be the go to guy.
When St. Jean's contract goes up, then we could possibly have a good GM in Mullin. I agree we need more of a coach that has that impact, like a Hubie Brown. The players respect him because he's been there and done that. Brown also calls plays every time they go down the floor, both defensively and offensively. I'm not so sure Muss does that all the time.
Please tell me that a little over a year ago you guys were all on board with the hiring of Hubie Brown. I admit I had my doubts but it sure is nice looking in hindsight that the hire was brillant. Please don't abandon ship on Musselman yet. He was nearly the coach of the year last year.
I knew something was up when he was named coach at the time (seeing that Jerry West had something to do with it), but didn't exactly go along with it. As far as abandoning ship on Muss, I'm leaning that way because of his crazy lineups and lack of impact at times. However, to show continuity with coaches (which hasn't a strong suit since the Nelly era), he should get another shot. I have a feeling that some of his lineups (e.g. not playing Damp or Cardinal in the second half) are attributed to management decisions.
Well they should get off Musselman's sack and let him coach then. Why hire a coach when you don't let him do his job.
Come on CR2, the GSW management isn't the brightest around right? Anyways, there's always some unforseen behind the scenes action going on that we don't know. Who knows, maybe the reason why Muss doesn't play Damp and BC is because we would like to resign them and not playing them in the 4th quarter brings their value down.
