Way of the Warriors

Holy Mother of Sarunas*!

2008-08-01T13:58:00.000-07:00

*I was going to use the former Warrior's last name, but realized that: a) I was too lazy to try and spell it, and b) I was too lazy to go to Google and see if I could search out how to spell it.

Caught myself wandering over to this site, and check out the sidebar -- look at the difference in those faces from a couple of years ago! Only Monta Ellis and Andris Beidrins are left from that team, those of the shiny new $60+ million contracts.

Maybe I ought to update the roster, huh?

How could you tell?

2006-03-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

Okay, so perhaps this season wasn't the best time for me to start a Warriors blog.

Between a lack of time and my teeth-grinding frustration with the team, this is the first new entry on this site in 2006.

Sad. Not Flavor Flav reality-show sad, but sad nonetheless.

But, good things I'm taking away from this season:

Jason Richardson is all growed-up. To say he isn't one of the premier off-guards in the league is a denial of reality. Sure, he still has holes in his game, but the things J-Rich does well he does very, very well, and the holes in his game aren't as large as they were two or three seasons ago. Many thought he'd never blossom, thought that he'd fade somewhat since Baron Davis' arrival, but no -- it's Richardson's team, now.
Here's to hoping Mike Montgomery sees the writing on the wall, and stops screwing around with Andris Biedrins' minutes. Let him play, because the franchise needs to hope that he'll be an answer to their big-man woes either in 2007 or 2008. While starting him might be a bit much, realistically it wouldn't hurt a thing. At least, as long as Andris stays away from the free-throw line. Yech.
Monta Ellis is going to be a player. It's just a matter of when. Hopefully, it coincides at the exact moment that Baron is no longer with the club, whenever that might be.

We all were jumping the gun with the optimism for this season, obviously, but hopefully Chris Mullin can see that Baron, Richardson, and Mike Dunleavy aren't going to be the new version of Run TMC, and go out and fix the problems the team has (which mostly revolve around bench depth and the center position).

Way to start the road trip

2005-12-20T14:48:00.000-08:00

The next six games will be a big test for the Warriors. If they can manage it 4-2, or at least 3-3, maybe we won't have to panic over the two manhandlings the non-awe-inspiring Nets and Celtics put on Golden State in their last two games. But...

Three of the six are at Detroit, at Dallas, and at Philadelphia (no, Philly isn't awe-inspiring, either, but the Warriors have just dropped two in a row on the road to this kind of team, remember). They play Boston again, and they also play what must be an ever-increasingly desperate Denver squad. Throw in an improving, although now Yao-less Houston team, and there is a lot of potential for the Warriors to start January right about .500 if they aren't careful.

The other problem they have is that everyone else in the division is playing better (well, except Sacramento, but I'd hesitate to count them totally done yet). The Warriors have to clean up outside of their division (especially in the East), so that losses within their division won't hurt so much -- and believe me, with the way they looked against Phoenix and the Clippers earlier this year, each divisional game will be a dogfight.

Oh, and by the way, Mike Dunleavy is making me nervous again. For those of you (yes, I mean YOU, Pops) who wanted to compare and equate Dunleavy to the Pistons' Tayshaun Prince, there is no comparison at this point. Go look at Prince's sparkly, pretty stats, then go look at Dunleavy's dull, uninteresting statline and tell me how the two compare -- keeping in mind, of course, that Prince plays much better perimeter defense in addition to having the statistical edge...oh, and that Prince is doing it for what is currently the best team in the NBA, too.

Well, alright, the difference isn't night and day, but Prince is playing much better than Dunleavy is to this point, which was my point.

C'mon, Mike. Play better. Please.

Anybody queasy?

2005-11-30T23:34:00.000-08:00

I mean, besides me?

Why am I queasy, you ask? Well, it's because I am now convinced the Warriors are indeed a good team after winning their fourth straight last night, 113-106 over the used-to-be-nemesis Sacramento Kings.

Don't get me wrong -- I could still go my usual pessimistic route, citing that of Golden State's four straight wins, none were against teams over .500, and none of those wins came on the road. I could state that I still see the team having trouble putting teams away, and that the team still has rebounding and shooting percentage issues (shooting percentage issues largely stemming from the team's gratuitous use of the three-point shot).

But while those things are indeed true, I actually have found the ability within myself to withstand these barrages of negativity, and counter them with well thought-out counterpoints (a technique called "talking to oneself" by the uneducated).

The Warriors should have been favored to win these last four games against mediocre competition (well, mediocre and whatever the Raptors are, exactly, I dunno), and they should have won those games. And...they did. It took them a half, but they handled the Raptors and won convincingly, and they controlled the game vs. the NOK Hornets (New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets, to be exact, but that NOK thingie is catchy).

Also, I'm not convinced we've seen the best the Warriors can offer on a game-to-game basis. Mike Dunleavy can obviously play better than he has so far this season, and coinciding with the Warrior win streak, his game seems to be coming around a bit. Baron Davis, while he's done his job in running the team from the point, has obviously started very poorly in the shooting department, something that I just can't see continuing.

So...dreaded optimism, and a feeling of queasiness that comes along with it, fearing I could be wrong in my assessment that the Warriors are currently the 4rd or 5th best team in the Western Conference, depending on one's view of the Memphis Grizzlies.

Oh, and on other thing...

FIRST PLACE, BABY!!! OH, YEAH!!!

Nevermind that they are still in 2nd place by percentage of wins, but when you look at the standings, the Warriors have that little dash to the right of their team name where one is usually accustomed to seeing a very large and insurmountable number for the majority of the season. To a Warriors fan, being kinda sorta tied for 1st place is just as good as 1st place -- which usually means, for me, that some sort of loud, raucous celebration cheer is in order. For instance, the following phrase was written by yours truly, and goes a little something like this:

FIRST PLACE, BABY!!! OH, YEAH!!!

And for those that would like to point out that I had already written that very thing only a paragraph previous in this body of work, I'll point out that the first one was merely a trial run. Gotta see how the words rolls off of the tongue before officially committing them to the air for all to hear (and Laker fans, especially).

First. Place. Baby. Oh. Yeah.

Now hopefully that won't be rendered untrue in the next couple of days.

12.2%

2005-11-19T07:08:00.000-08:00

That's about how much of the season has been played. Ten games, in other words. Not a lot, but enough games that stories are beginning to develop, and the season is beginning to take shape.

2004 - 13.4 points/game, 2005 - 7.1 points/game
2004 - 5.5 rebounds/game, 2005 - 4.2 rebounds/game
2004 - 2.6 assists/game, 2005 - 2.1 assists/game
2004 - .451 field goal % (.388 on threes), 2005 - .276 field goal % (.235 on threes)

Folks, that's the shape Mike Dunleavy's season is taking, and I don't like it. Every single statistic of his is down from last year except blocks. Every. Single. One. If a stat or two is down through 10 games, I don't bat much of an eyelash. But all of them? After 1/8th of the season? For eight million plus per year?

If the Warriors want to make the playoffs, this player must get better. Right now, this is by far the weakest link in the starting five. While I have seen some defensive improvement, it gets engulfed in the offensive problems he's going through.

The Official Mike Dunleavy Fidget-O-Meter is getting a boost from 3.5 to 5.0. No, it isn't panic time yet, but another 10 game stretch like this one and I'm going to start to wonder if he should even start. Mickael Pietrus is playing seven minutes less per game, but plays better defense, is averaging four more points a game than Dunleavy, and shooting a much better percentage.

While I personally think Pietrus at this point is still a bench player, there isn't any doubt that he's playing much better than Dunleavy through 10 games. If this trend continues, the Warriors will have to ask themselves if they're hurting the team by starting Dunleavy, 44 million dollar contract or not.

Hello

2005-11-17T17:04:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lack of posting recently, but I neglected to tell you all that I had to take a trip to Reno for my new job, and thus wouldn't be posting for several days.

The trip went okay, although Reno is quite boring to me. I'm not one for shows, and there isn't any snow yet, so I fail to see why anyone would go there willingly -- yes, there's gambling in Reno, but there's gambling all throughout California before you ever have to cross the state line into Nevada.

Ah, well. Nevermind.

I did see the game last night. The only comment I'll leave is something that's probably becoming a familiar song by now; I see just enough bad things out of the Warriors on most nights (even during wins) that it's difficult to get behind these guys at the moment. The only difference between teams of the past several years and this one so far is that this year's team manages to win some of the games where they could lose, whereas previously they would find a way to lose almost all of the close ones. That isn't a better team, it's just the law of averages finally tipping the way of Golden State for a stretch.

But I'll not go into detail at the moment.

Tomorrow's my first day at work, in the sense of my first day at the location I'll be working at for the next month and a half. I'm going to BART into the City for the first time in a long time, and I'm even going to use public transit to get to BART, which is a big-time change for me. Wish me luck in my elbow-exchanges with the commuters.

A win, great! Maybe.

2005-11-12T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Warriors are 4-2 behind a win last night over the New York Knicks, 86-84.

It's a win, yes. But, should we be happy about this? There's the normal reaction from me, reacting from a win from a team that has been losing for 10 years -- I'm happy after any win.

However, there are expectations of this team, and there is the simply fact that the Warriors could have a 1-5 record, a 6-0 record, or anything in between.

I could depend on one's opinion of the Knicks. If one believes the Knicks are a decent team that has just been unlucky to go winless in seven games thus far, then one is fine with the Warriors record and believes it indicates a good team. If one believes the Knicks are a poor team (like say, I do), then one might realize that three of the Warriors four wins have come against teams who have yet to win a game.

Two against the Knicks, one against the Hawks. Let me tell you why I'm a little apprehensive about the Warriors right now:

Way too many three-pointers being shot. The Warriors lead the league in three-pointers attempted by a full shot over the second place team (the 1-4 Supersonics), and by almost six shots over the third place team, the Suns. Why? They're 14th in percentage of made threes, and have never been a big-time three-point shooting team. This means there are too many guys sitting on the perimeter waiting to cash in from penetration, which usually only comes from Baron Davis.
They're getting outrebounded by an average of five rebounds a game, and are 26th out of 30 teams in giving up offensive rebounds. Only four teams are worse than Golden State in giving up offensive boards.
They're 28th in free throw shooting percentage.

Now, on the flipside, they are playing good team defense, but those offensive rebounds they're giving up will negate that to some degree. They're first in the league in turnover differential at +.8, meaning that even though they're turning over the ball too much for my liking, they're getting almost a turnover more from the other team.

I've been getting the feeling that the Warriors are better than all the teams they've played against, but for whatever reason, they let the inferior/poor teams hang around too much, either because of turnovers, poor free throwing, letting the opposition have too many offensive rebounds, or taking too many three-pointers.

Let's call it: playing to the level of their competition. They were getting smacked around by the Hawks in the first half of that game, and played a hell of a second half. They had no chance to rest against the Bucks because Milwaukee was playing good basketball in that game. That's when we've seen the best out of this team -- when there's been no choice. In the other games, the Warriors haven't had to play their best basketball because they other teams (the Bulls and the Knicks), weren't a real threat to pull away. They did just enough to win against the Knicks, and just enough to lose against the Bulls (and I'm skipping the Jazz game because of Davis being out that game).

So we'll see something tonight, I think. On the road against a high-scoring team again, a team in Phoenix who has had more problems than the Warriors in rebounding, and plays almost non-existent defense. It will certainly be interesting, but I think the Warriors really need this win to back the Milwaukee win up -- two victories against quality teams on the road instead of just one will solidify their current standing of second in the West.

On the Map

2005-11-09T08:29:00.000-08:00

Alright. This is the one we were looking for. On the road against an improved Milwaukee Bucks team, a team which much of the basketball world was taking notice of. What did the Warriors do?

Beat 'em, that's what. 110-103.

Not only was this a good game from the standpoint of a win and the type of win it was, it was a great game from the aspect of seeing the Warriors fix critical shortcoming from their first three games. Like:

Rebounding - no, it wasn't good, but it was better -- the Warriors were only outrebounded by two. Offensive rebounds given up was still high at 15, but I wanted to see some improvement, and I did. I believe part of it was coach Mike Montgomery going with a smaller, three-guard lineup for much of the 4th quarter, leaving Derek Fisher in the game down the stretch. Fair enough.
Free throw shooting - at 73%, much, much better than any of the previous three games, and about where it needs to be for this team to win these tough road games.

But all that crap aside, what a game. Troy Murphy took most of his offensive game outside, and was putting daggers in the Bucks heart all night, scoring 25. One play I particularly like from him was a three-point play, but on a drive. After stroking it from outside all night, Murphy took a pass from Baron Davis and seemed to know he'd get a defender flying at him, so he immediately drove to the hoop and converted a tough, inside bucket.

Jason Richardson was his usual self, scoring 23 along with 14 rebounds. His outside shot has become silky smooth, and he seems to be able to get himself into the best shooting position even when a defender is on top of him (those crazy hops help a bit there). Announcer Jim Barnett made a very good point in observing that Richardson's scoring hasn't dropped off despite the presence of Baron, and in seeing these first several games, I now don't expect it. He's a star, and looking like he may be in the transition to becoming a superstar. He was also, much to my delight, instrumental in keeping Michael Redd's activities to a dull roar. Redd got 21 points, but only went to the line twice and was almost non-existent in the 4th quarter. After the first three games Redd was averaging 31 per contest, so this sends a nice little message that the Warriors are capable of containing the opposing team's superstar.

Ah, and then there's Boom Dizzle, Mister Davis. Fifteen assists, 20 points, and some clutch shots. Yawn. Another day at the office. It's hilarious -- the Bucks had to know what Baron was doing everytime he got a pass on the blocks, but they couldn't stop it. He'd back down T.J. Ford, or whomever was guarding him, drive towards the baseline or to the middle of the key, and pass the ball off to a cutting/waiting player around the basket after drawing a double team. It was methodical, it was deliberate, and it was beautiful.

The Mike Dunleavy Fidget-O-Meter will stand pat at a modest 3.1 for now. He didn't have a good game, really, but he was a factor in the 2nd half with a couple of nice shots.

So, they pass the "test", but have another one today in the Chicago Bulls in the 2nd half of a back-to-back against a dangerous team. Perhaps Mark Stein of ESPN.com will finally give the Warriors a bit of credit if they go 3-0 on an East Coast roadie.

Then again, who cares what he thinks?

EDIT: Craving for attention, I end up seeing a load of talk about Kobe Bryant instead. Yes, surely, the Lakers are an early season story, but then, so were the Bucks. And the Bucks just got beat by the up-and-coming Warriors at home, yet this seemed to garner little notice. Well, they'll have no choice but to notice if the Warriors come back to Oakland 4-1.

Go Warriors!

Are the Bucks found money?

2005-11-08T15:00:00.000-08:00

The Warriors will have tip-off with the unbeaten Milwaukee Bucks in a bit less than three hours from now. Another tough road game, as the Bucks have been impressive in the early going. Are the Bucks just hot right now, or ought we to pencil them into a playoff position this year, and for a victory tonight?

The Bucks have a fairly impressive and youthful first six players. Starting with the explosive scoring talents of Michael Redd, the Bucks have several emerging talents in T.J. Ford, Bobby Simmons, Andrew Bogut, and Maurice Williams, all of whom are 26 years old or less. They also have Jamal Magloire, a nice inside presence to add some scoring, rebouding, and a bit of defense.

After that? I can't, for the life of me, figure out what's happened to Joe Smith, who should've figured prominently somewhere in all this. It's pretty much peanuts after that, although Toni Kukoc used to be able to score some.

In their first three games, the Bucks have rebounded well, and attempted a lot of 3-pointers, which one might expect with the bulk of their scoring coming from the backcourt. They've probably turned over the ball a bit more frequently than coach Terry Stotts would like, but they've managed to beat two questionable teams in New Jersey and Philadelphia, and one good team in the Miami Heat -- who were without Shaquille O'Neal.

So it's a bit hard to evaluate them at this point. They've managed to win three without losing any and they're at home, so this will still likely be a tough assignment for the Warriors. With the Bucks likely to outrebound the Warriors, Golden State must at least try to limit second-chance points for Milwaukee, as offensive rebounds have been a huge issue in the early going. Also, the Warriors will not be able to afford shooting a poor percentage from the line again in this game -- that's got to be fixed tonight.

I'm looking at the matchup at the shooting guard position with Redd and Jason Richardson and wondering how much they will let J-Rich actually guard Redd. I'll going to assume Mike Montgomery will want to give his best on-the-ball defender on the team, Mickael Pietrus, as much time on Redd as possible to not only up the defense on Redd, but to avoid fouls and the tiring out of J-Rich.

Better to win ugly...but boy, that was u-g-l-y

2005-11-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm officially on a Rampage.

The Warriors officially have a problem with free throws.

Yesterday, in their 83-81 victory over the equally-as-free-throw-inept New York Knicks, the Warriors left about nine points unscored from the line in a thoroughly convincing imitation of Shaquille O'Neal, shooting a rim-damaging 47% (I'm gleaning that number of points figuring from the league average of 75% - the Warriors actually missed 15 free throws yesterday). Luckily the Knicks were only a tad more competent, shooting 52% themselves.

I can only assume this is a huge anomaly, as the team shot 72% last season, and no longer have two of their poorest free throwers from last year in Uncle Cliff Robinson and Eduardo Najera.

But it's getting old very quickly. The team's free throw percentage from the first three games read like this: 64%, 58%, and the 47%.

Also wearing out its welcome is the way the Warriors are getting dominated on the glass, especially in the category of offensive rebounds. Let's review the games thus far:

Against Atlanta, they were outrebounded 47-38, and gave up 20(!!!) offensive rebounds to the Hawks.
Against Utah, they were outrebounded 48-41, and gave up 16 offensive rebounds to the Jazz.
Against New York, they were outrebounded 51-40, and gave up 14 offensive rebounds to the Knicks.

This team, as it stands right now, will not be making any playoffs. You can't consistently win giving up a 17% disadvantage from the free throw line and getting outrebounded by an average of eight boards per game, which is the team's dilemma right now. They ought to be very happy they've won 2 of 3, and that they had a decent chance to win vs. the Jazz, too. At the same time, they must play better. Good news is, they are playing excellent defense, but constantly giving up those offensive rebounds will negate that advantage to a large extent.

Mike Dunleavy is quickly becoming a problem, too. He looks very much the same as the previous seasons, although I admit it's still obviously very early. However, shooting 26% from the floor, 18% from the three-point line, averaging just under three rebounds a game, having an almost even turnover-to-assist ratio while scoring less per night than last season...

...that isn't how I wanted to see him start after the Warriors gave him 44 million. Can you blame me for being fidgety? Heck, why aren't you fidgety? Fidget, damn you! I am absolutely certain that owner Chris Cohan is fidgeting his ass off right now.

Until Dunleavy starts playing better, I'm staring an Official Fidget Meter, which will track just how uncomfortable the Warriors fanbase and front office should be over Mike's on-court performance post-contract. Scale of 1-10, decimals used freely, with ascending fidgetiness as the number gets higher.

If it continues to be a problem over the course of 20-30 games and it looks like the Warriors do have a shot at the playoffs, it could grow into the Start Mickael Pietrus campaign in a hurry. Pietrus gets lost on the floor almost as frequently as Dunleavy, but has two things over Dunleavy to bail him out occasionally: better energy, and better athleticism. He also plays much better defense. Dunleavy is a much better ballhandler, passer, and shooter in theory, but can't seem to translate that statistically. We'll see how it pans out.

Yeah, well, what'd you expect?

2005-11-06T07:36:00.000-08:00

No Baron Davis, no chance, right?

Well, no. That is, yes, there was no Baron Davis, but yes, the Warriors had a chance.

Whatever. 91-85, Jazz over Warriors.

Now, there's good news here:

The Warriors lost by six but missed 16 free throws for the night, so they could have won the game with better free throw shooting.

But, of course, there's bad news:

The Warriors lost by six but missed 16 free throws for the night, so they could have won the game with better free throw shooting.

If you'll recall the recap from Thursday, I shrugged off the Warriors poor free throw shooting in the first half of their game vs. the Hawks, partially because the Warriors won that game, and partially because they shot better from the charity stripe in the 2nd half.

But this, this is a problem. It's a problem that has to be fixed immediately, because it has already directly lead to a loss after only two games of play. Can we reason that they Warriors missed free throws because of the absence of Baron? To quote Dr. Evil, "No, not really. I can't back that up."

Was that the only problem? No, not quite -- the Warriors shot very poorly from the field (37.2%), and hit their three pointers at an anemic 23.8% clip. Can we reason that this was because of Baron's absence? Yes, I think we can. The Warriors just don't have a reliable playmaker without Davis, which is why this team was flawed to begin with. Lots of decent-to-good support/complimentary players on the Warriors (yes, Jason Richardson is a complimentary player, but a very, very good one), but no real playmakers.

So, without Davis, the Warriors shots just aren't as open, they don't come within the flow of the offense as often, they become very reliant on their outside shots falling, and...

...they're the same team as before he came. One that wins at around a 30% clip.

Does this game worry me? No, because we all know this season is predicated on Baron playing the vast majority of it -- think Barry Bonds to the Giants as Baron is to the Warriors, and you'll about have it.

We'll see if Baron laces 'em up this morning vs. the Knicks. Frankly, I'm all for resting Baron against the lower eschelon East teams, as the Warriors of last season without Baron had a 6-7 record against Eastern non-playoff teams, a group to which I'd believe the Knicks belong again this year. If he's really recovered, fine, but if he's not, why push it against a team that the Warriors may actually be able to beat without him?

Will the real sleeper please stand up?

2005-11-04T14:00:00.000-08:00

The Warriors are a very popular dark horse pick to make the playoffs this year. Not as popular of a pick, the Utah Jazz are, however, seen as a team with some high hopes as well.

These two "sleepers" square off tonight in a battle of youth and potential.

After seeing the results of their Opening Night manhandling of the Dallas Mavericks, one cannot help but wonder just how much sleep is really in the Jazz.

Younger than even the Warriors, the Jazz will rely heavily on players in their 4th years or less of experience. Their frontcourt of Mehmet Okur, Carlos Boozer (when he returns from injury), and Andrei Kirilenko is a dangerous one, and from the looks of the game vs. the Mavericks, rookie Deron Williams may be a significant contributor right away, tallying 18 points, 3 assists and 3 rebounds in the Jazz' first game. Kirilenko is the most experienced of that group in his 4th season, while both Boozer and Okur are in their 3rd years.

Their bench could be a problem, though, as the Jazz don't seem to have a lot of firepower beyond their starting five besides Matt Harpring. Both Greg Ostertag and Jarron Collins provide some veteran stability, but neither are going to do more than provide rest for the emerging frontcourt, while the rest of the bench has unimpressive careers thus far, though many of them have two years or less of experience.

So, who's the real sleeper? While Utah's frontcourt is intriguing and there is high hopes for Deron Williams, the Warriors have two bonafide stars in Baron Davis and Jason Richardson, potential youth in Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Ike Diogu, and solid bench contributers in players like Derek Fisher, Mickael Pietrus, and Calbert Cheaney, each of whom has a year or more in the past where they have proven what they can do. Unless their bench steps up or their starting five really clicks, the Jazz look like they'll be sleeping for another year or so, to me.

The Warriors could be wide awake this very season.

First Impressions

2005-11-03T08:05:00.000-08:00

Impressions of the Warriors first regular season game last night, which they won over the Atlanta Hawks 122-97.

We'll start with the first half, which saw the Warriors down 57-47 to the Atlanta Hawks:

Sloppy. Mike Dunleavy, he of the large new contract on which the ink is still dry, came out with six turnovers in the first two quarters, and looked just like I didn't want him to: lost. Opening night can have plenty of jitters and overflowing adrenaline for veterans as well as rookies, but Dunleavy looked to be having trouble figuring out just where he should be on the floor. The team had 13 turnovers in the first half, which isn't even a small number of turnovers for an entire game.
Free throws are free. Missed free throws are expensive. The Warriors got to the line plenty of times (23), but only converted 12. Not good, but I'll shrug it off for now.
Troy Murphy looked very good, but early foul trouble clouded his first half line of 13 point and seven rebounds.
Baron Davis looked good running the team, but couldn't finish his drives or hit his jumpers. 1-6 first half shooting.
Off the bench, Zarko Cabarkapa was very active, showing some nice athleticism, and Chris Taft made me feel much better about the Warriors inside defense outside of Adonal Foyle with a couple of nice blocks.
Both Bob Fitzgerald and Jim Barnett were spot-on in a comment at the end of the 1st half, saying that while it was obvious the Warriors could play much better, the same wasn't the case with the Hawks. They played their best basketball, the Warriors looked like they were near the bottom of their game, and the Hawks parlayed that into a 10 point lead. It was easy enough to believe they could come back.

Second half:

Poor start with more turnovers in the first couple of minutes, but the defense began to spark fastbreaks, and the comeback was on. Drives to the basket and three-point field goals were both there. After the comeback was complete, the rout was on. A 27-2 run saw the Warriors up by 15 after being down by 10. They ended up outscoring the Hawks in the 3rd quarter 39-16. Woo hoo!
Baron goes down with a leg-something-or-other, and every Warriors fan within 100 square miles of Oakland collectively rolled their eyes. I mean, I'm under the impression it wasn't a season-threatening thing, but to quote Steve Irwin, "Krikey!" Can't we watch this team for a week without this stuff?
To the team's credit, they kept rolling immediately following Davis' departure. Tell you what -- I heard Lakers' fans saying for years they wanted an upgrade of Derek Fisher at the point, but he makes a damn fine backup at the point. No, you don't want him starting, but off the bench you're not going to find better.
Dunleavy looked completely different in the 2nd half. He was live, active, and into the game.
Man, the Warrior Girls look particularly good this year, don't they?
Tyrone Lue is a punk. A little, annoying, punk. I've decided that I do not like him. Joe Johnson, while perhaps not a punk, made a punk play late in the game, along with Royal Ivey. I guess just being on the Hawks does something to you, knowing you won't win anything. All three fouls were flagrant, unneccessary, and stupid.
The youth of this team can and will be a spark at times this season. Taft, Aaron Miles, Mickael Pietrus...their athleticism and energy is evident. I like Miles' quickness -- he looks lightning fast, quicker than Davis, even. Both Taft and Miles were able to play significant minutes because of the injury to Davis and the foul trouble of Murphy. And think, Ike Diogu won't even lace 'em up for a couple of weeks.
Oh yeah, Jason Richardson. His scoring repertoire was fully utilized last night. Catch and shoots, feeds on the break, step back jumpers, drives to the basket, couple of post moves...very nice.
I'm wondering at the possibility of Pietrus eventually becoming a nicer, not-quite-as-tough-defensively Ron Artest. Just saying, you know? Just gotta polish off those offensive moves. Sometimes he looks...well, awkward.

It sure is nice to have garbage time for the team this early in the season, isn't it? It looks as if Davis' injury is a hamstring pull, not deemed serious at the moment.

They ended up shooting 58% from the floor (37% on threes) and had 24 assists, moving the ball around and doing a good job making sure the offense wasn't stagnant. Defensively, they shut down the Hawks in the 2nd half, only allowing 40 points and holding them to 42% shooting with 10 steals and eight team blocks. Very nice.

Things I didn't like was the Warriors getting outrebounded by nine (Atlanta had 20 offensive...ick) -- Foyle only played 21 minutes and Murphy had the foul trouble, so I'm assuming this had something to do with that. The turnovers were annoying in the 1st half, but they really cut it down in the 2nd half, so I won't gripe.

Can't wait for Utah on Friday...

Dunleavy overpaid?

2005-11-02T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yes. No. Maybe.

If you haven't heard, Mike Dunleavy's going to be a Warrior for a while longer. He and the team agreed on a 5-year, $44 million extension on Halloween night, which for some people, I'm sure, is a spooky thought.

Dunleavy has improved his statistics every year he's been with the club, but has had obvious holes in his game since day 1 with the Warriors. His shot has been inconsistent, and his defense has been non-existent. But he's been insistently persistent at every instance...oh, nevermind.

This year would have been a make-or-break year for Dunleavy, had the Warriors not jumped the gun and signed him. It is an interesting trend, lately, as the Warriors seem much more inclined to lock players up before free agency becomes an issue. Perhaps it's the influence of Chris Mullin, but owner Chris Cohan has opened up the wallet at every opportunity.

But is the deal good? We won't really know until after this year, but I find it interesting that as the Warriors have more options to take away minutes and shots from Dunleavy, they give him this contract. He averaged 11.5 shots per game last season, and I can't really see that total going up by much at all. One thing the Warriors need is more inside scoring, and this would lead Troy Murphy, and possibly Adonal Foyle getting another shot or two per game (hopefully not Foyle, though), and the team will need to start figuring out what they have in young hopefuls Andris Biedrins and Ike Diogu, when he comes back from injury.

Dunleavy's biggest asset and weakness is his versatility. He can play a few different positions if you need him to (off guard, small and power forward), but isn't particularly adept at any of them. He's slow for a shooting guard, having trouble separating from or guarding smaller guards on offense and defense, respectively. He's a natural small forward, but the quickness problem is still present there, too, and he's not quite a good enough ballhandler to create his own shot. He's large enough and a decent enough rebounder to be inserted at the power forward from time to time, but has strength issues there, and doesn't really have any inside scoring moves.

So, what gives? The size of this contract dictates that Dunleavy become a better player to earn the money, but the situation of the team makes that less of a possibility than it otherwise would be. He averaged about 32 minutes a game last year, but to earn that contract, I'd think he'd have to get much closer to 40 minutes a game to put up the numbers.

Does anybody see Dunleavy playing eight more minutes a game this year? They're not only going to have to find more minutes for Dunleavy, but also for Mickael Pietrus, who made a huge leap in development last season. Pietrus played 20 minutes a game, and I just can't see that not increasing by at least a few minutes a game. The odd man out would have to be Calbert Cheaney, but I'm sure they'll want him on the floor some to provide some veteran presence at times, so it's a bit difficult to see him shuffled to the end of the bench.

In any case, we won't really know how good or bad this contract is by the end of this season, but it is nice to see the Warriors spend some money.

Will this be the year?

2005-11-02T17:25:00.000-08:00

For many NBA teams, that question is asking, "Will they be able to win the championship this year?".

For the Golden State Warriors, it asks, "Will they be able to make the playoffs this year?".

This year is a huge problem for me. Normally, I'm quite pessimistic, and with the history of this team over the last 10 years...well, it's very easy to go with the flow. But while I won't just dump my pessimism yet, I will make one statement:

I want to be optimistic. And that's pretty significant in and of itself.

Tonight it begins against Atlanta, and while I'm not one to act like the first game of a season means more than any of the other 81, for this franchise, it would do a lot for the fanbase to get off to a quick start. Against the Hawks, at home is the situation for it.

Under Construction

2005-08-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

I may not open this blog for a month or two -- there's a lot of research I have to do on the team, and I am not totally certain that I will have enough time to maintain this blog like I would want to.

Stay tuned.