Definitely. I was in the "WTF is Bochy thinking?????" camp for virtually all of his time as G's manager but damn if his moves didn't work out absolutely flawlessly at the end. I'm not that hardcore into baseball and learned a lot about the art of management from Bochy this season. Its fascinating how he can manage the mental and physical makeup of players over the course of so many games. And to be quite frank I have been a fan of what Smart was doing prior to last night. I like that he sticks with the bench and lets them play it out but last night it got well beyond the point where the starters could have come back in and been fresh the rest of the game. He let the bench guys play some of the ugliest ball for way too long (some of those plays are shown in the highlights). In general I like that Smart is giving all the bench guys opportunities to play and let the players determine how the rotation will shake out. Sadly I don't think any of those guys have come out and taken a stranglehold on any spots in the rotation- Reggie Williams included. Gadz is the only guy who I'd say should be penciled in with a role (as backup C) because hes been consistently making an impact. And Vlad, IMO, has played his way out of the rotation but we're going to keep seeing him since we're so thin up front and Adrien/Gadz have zero skill. I made sure to only watch the ESPN broadcast since Hubie Brown was doing color commentary. I usually stream the games so I get the opponents' feed a lot of times. Fitz is godawful but we're damn lucky to have Barnett. Most teams have a Fitz along with a former player and both sound like moron homers. Barnett is rather insightful and very well spoken. Also Fitz' homerism isn't that bad compared to a lot of others. The Utah Jazz guys especially stood out- its like they're living on a whole different planet where Utah is the center of the world. They had a poll question which was "who is the second best PG in the NBA" with Rondo, Paul, Nash, Westbrook, etc. listed. The Utah Fitz said "well we all know Deron is the best PG in the league but who is number two". They referenced Deron as the best PG in the league several times throughout the broadcast. Its not that eggregious to say Deron is top 3 or perhaps the best but they were acting like hes head and shoulders above the rest and shitting on rondo, Nash, Paul, etc. Also Raja Bell had a pathetic flop at half court and the guy was creaming himself and yelled "this is the kind of toughness Raja Bell provides!". Fitz is a fuggin blowhard but at least he'll call our own big guys out for trying to draw charges instead of block shots and he'll at least admit when guys do some acting or get a favorable call. Hes bad but DAMN the competition makes him look pretty acceptable.
I don't mind Fitz's "homerism." I've actually thought the opposite. It's Barnett that's been super annoying at times. He's a big homer too. But he also has good moments with his quirky but specific insights into the game. However, throughout the years, whenever he has given praise to GS players, sometimes he has made ridiculous Bill Walton comments. Whether it was Bob Sura, or Adonal Foyle, or Nick Van Exel, or Antawn Jaimison, or Ike Diogu, he would say ridiculous things like "Bob, he does that better than anyone else in the league" when you know whatever it is he's talking about (boxing out, going back door, finishing underneath) that player doesn't do it better than Kobe/Duncan/Garnett/Paul/Nash/Gasol etc... But all in all I like our duo just fine. At least they know the team inside out. What's annoying is on national broadcasts when the guys calling the game have watched like 2 Warriors games all season, and they're praising Maggette for being one of the most efficient scorers in the league, when you know you're thinking to yourself that these guys have NO clue what Maggette's real impact on the team has been all season. It's like that forum poster earlier who came in an dropped something like "Monta's a good scorer but that's all." Immediately you know that this person hasn't actually watched many, if any, Warriors games.
I agree with you Run. I think Smart is really learning a lot by trial and error especially without Lee. But it's always easy to bash coaches at any level with who is and who is not playing. With this team it happens a lot over the years perhaps because we never knew who each player was, until they were gone. But there is no reason not to play Curry during the fourth quarter. I kept snoozing during the game but perhaps he was in foul trouble for most of it? I was frustrated with all the PT Vlad was getting but maybe Smart is learning and adjusting. What I don't like about Bob Fitzgeral recently is all his repetitiveness about fouls and other teams lighting the warriors up. Maybe it's just that the warriors are not aggressive enough to the hoop which does not produce free throws for the team. Also maybe if the Warriors contested shots better the opponents won't shoot as well. One of my favorite Hubie Brown comment last night in the first quarter was, "I'd be upset if I were Keith Smart, they just got scored on by back-door cut for the third time." Granted Hubie had a different position with color, but a lot I hear from Fitz are statistics and borderline whining that gets old, at least recently. One set of broadcasters who I enjoyed were from Toronto. They were good and commented very educatedly and respectfully about the opposing team and talked a lot about basketball. Also Run, do you have NBA Broadband or have any interest in it?
No I don't have NBA broadband I just stream whatever feeds I can find around the internet. Don't they black out local games though? I live in Santa Cruz but don't have any TV so I'm still local. I'm pretty sure with the NBA's league pass and broadband service and all that stuff they still black out local games and force you to watch them on TV. Not totally sure on that though. Fouling is definitely an issue for us though on both sides of the ball. We foul a ton and we never get FTs on offense. That's a bad combination. Un-aggressiveness is certainly the biggest factor but I also feel like Monta, Reggie, Lee, Curry, etc. don't get calls that a lot of players/teams get. Its certainly an art form to draw FTs and I feel like Reggie is the only one who has any type of understanding of how to draw contact and get FTs (DW does it on jumpshots but thats it). Monta, Curry, and Lee always try to finish and typically there is contact but all the stars in the league really force a lot of contact and sell the foul in addition to getting the shot off. It sucks that you have to stoop to that but thats just the nature of the league. As for our troubles with not fouling, its kind of hard to put your finger on one issue. I have no idea what Smart's defensive philosophy is. Yesterday Hubie brought up how Dorell was pissed off at one point because he had no help on a play. Seems like coming from Miami they have more advanced team defense schemes. The best coached team do this- Celtics, Spurs, Lakers, etc. I believe Smart has some type of scheme in there but I'm just not sure what it is and how well the team is executing on it. Monta and Steph gamble constantly which means a lot of hand check and reach in fouls as well as allowing their man to get by them and charge at Beans/Lee with a full head of steam. Also have to call out Lee especially as he just looks so lost on defense sometimes. You can tell I'm no defensive expert but sometimes I'm screaming at the TV over Lee's defensive position or technique. This team is still very much built for up tempo style ball though. We have a lot of awkward pieces that make a defensive scheme difficult to execute; two small guards, a terrible defensive PF and a lightweight C who doesn't defend well in the post. We don't have the great size that the elite teams have. I'm having a difficult time determining if the defense is an X's and O's issue or if we just don't have the roster to execute it or if the players are just not picking it up or playing undisciplined.
Smart - He's benched and subbed in the right players pretty much right on (my) cue. "Sit down, Carney you dumbass!" <*bam* done> "Wright get in here!" I think Smart got his hands full because of the injuries to his lineup and he's having to deal with a very thin backcourt. He's got to buy minutes for the starters and he has very little to work with off the bench. It's understandable that we can't play Curry/Ellis 42+ minutes a game like the way Don Nelson did because there's diminishing returns with risk of injury and fatigue. We need energy to play defense, and we need healthy power forwards/centers clear of foul trouble to play with size. These are things Don Nelson did not worry about. Fitzgerald - Great voice. He's mostly a football guy. He didn't even know about the rule that the shotclock starts as soon as the inbound ball is touched by another player. He was complaining about the shotclock not starting. How long has this guy been calling pro basketball? This is common practice in most games where the point guard, who receives the inbound ball, lets the ball roll passed halfcourt before he picks it up. It's to save time on the 24 sec shotclock and the game clock. Also, he is a big homer, but it's cool. That's what Barnett is there for. He's supposed to provide balance and to correct Fitz anytime he starts complaining about something he just doesn't know about. "The Warriors aren't getting to the foul line!" Well duh, nobody is driving towards the hoop, they're settling for threes, and when they do drive, the ball handler is initiating most of the contact. What's the defense suppose to do? They're just standing there clogging the paint hoping the Warriors will shoot their busted three point shot. Barnett - The guy is fair and balanced. He sometimes gets too caught up into nba trivia rather than focusing on the game at hand. The height of annoyance was how he talked up Mike Dunleavy Jr. when he didn't even do much of anything his rookie or sophmore season! It's like shut up about your son already. When he is wide open he is missing badly, no need to explain for him. He just sucks in a warriors uniform and in scary game situations.
