Oh man, that blows. Apparently Comcast doesn't carry ESPN 360 where I am. Grr. Is it on anywhere else?
Oh, wow. I thought they only played the one game there and came back. Well, now maybe we'll get to see how that game would have gone without the jet lag. That game was pretty ugly. Looks like Andris and SJax are back in the starting lineup and whoa! Randolph starting at PF! That should be interesting but it's a bad sign for Wright.
Not a bad sign for Wright. It's just Nellie messing with lineups since it's the preseason. Wright played pretty good tonight along side Randolph. Randolph is going to have to get his PT with his defense (4 blocks tonight) and Wright will get plenty of opportunities. I think we'll see a lot of them together since their wingspan combined take up the entire court!
Exciting finish with Kurz's two 3's including a buzzer beater. - PGs: God help us. I know we will suffer from letting Davis go. But the entire team didn't look fluid and played without a poise, largely because none of our PGs come close to lead the team. M. Williams was MIA from the beginning, Watson had worse PG instinct than Nelson, and Dickau just wasn't good. While Nelson will never be mistaken for Davis, he looked pretty decent as a player, I will make him a starter at this point. Overall, our pgs made this team like pre-Davis era. - Jackson: His shots were falling, and it's always a good sign. He looked same as ever. - Maggette: With Davis gone, our running game will be less efficient. Maggette will be a life saver in half court set. He knows how to play in half court and draw fouls very well. He will fill the stat sheet for sure. He is not known for clutch shooting though, so I will keep my finger crossed. - Randolph: He has a long way to refine his game. Once the competition went up, he struggled quite a bit. But, at the same time, he can still handle the ball, and with pure athleticism and willingness, he swatted impressive 4 blocks and got 9 rebounds in 20 mins. Randloph has super potential, athleticism, and a drive, which will probably serve him well in pro. If he controls his temper and practice hard, he will be a star in this league. - Biedrins: As effective as ever, and involved in offense bit more. His fts didn't fall though. - Wright: After lukewarm summer league, he played well during the preseason. I am surprised to see that he can handle the ball from a distance. I would like to see more than 4 rebounds in 28 mins though. With his length, he should be able to get more rebounds. - Kurz: Perfect shooting night including the buzzer beater. He is a big man who can shoot the ball, and if he is lucky enough, he will get a roster spot somewhere. - Hendrix, Morrow, Marco: Didn't play long enough to leave an impression...
I had the same observation from the game last night. The Warriors didn't have the explosiveness of Baron pushing the ball up the court and putting the defense on it's heals. You can sense the team isn't used to playing with one another because the timing is off and like said, the offense isn't fluid. The Warriors relied on a lot of isolation plays and they were getting stripped whenever they got into the paint. Brandon Wright showed some flashes of what he can do on the court. His best play of the night was facing up on Bogut and then doing a quick crossover enroute to an easy layup. Wright has a very quick first step and knows how to use his length to finish around the rim. He also looks smooth shooting those turnaround baseline jumpers, but he needs to keep his concentration and keep his balance when the defender hand checks him. I was impressed with Randolph's activity last night. He finished with 4 blocks and helped out on the glass. He connected with Maggette after securing a rebound, looking up court and throwing a perfect pass for Maggette cherry picking on the other end. It's a good sign when your big man can make those full length court passes for easy transition hoops. The Warriors have two more games for preseason. They play Milwaukee AGAIN tonight in Beijing, it's on ESPN2 again, then they're off to face Italian basketball club Lietuvos Rytas on Tuesday for their final preseason game.
Certainly the team is going to lose all fluidity this year from last year without a major move. I was kind of interested in Ridnour since he is pretty decent at distributing the ball and handling it, though I guess he had somewhat of a pricey contract. The team last year was horrible at getting the ball around when Baron was on the bench, since everyone preferred one-on-one/isolation ball, hence the large amount of minutes he played. Hopefully something emerges. Perhaps Demarcus Nelson is the answer, but that may be a little bit of a stretch. But he has been playing well. It's good to hear that a lot of players are looking good. It's just that last PG piece that may be keeping this team back a bit.
What!? Are you sure about that? I can't find that on the schedule. According to nba.com, last night's game was the China "finale". Next game I see is Tuesday vs. Italy, then New Orleans and Toronto to finish up the preseason.
I don't know about all the doubt at the PG position. From what I observed at the Warriors vs. Thunder game, I saw a lot of fluidity. The team was forced to share the ball a lot more and find the open man. With Baron, we always had the threat of him doing something (good), but also the worry that his demand to have the ball in his hands (to be effective) took away the rhythm of the game. Bringing the ball up the court is not a big task. It might not be as sure handed as with Baron, but from what I can tell, the Warriors still can run a fast break pretty damn well. Also, Baron sat a lot last year while Ellis manned the PG position and I never noticed a lack of fluidity. Then again, we don't have Ellis right now. I just think we shouldn't panic just yet about the PG position based on the games you saw in China because what I saw from the Thunder game, they did quite well. Then again, they were playing the Thunder. LOL
Yeah, the Thunder should be playing in the NCAA. But I am thinking of the times where Stephen Jackson is depended on to make plays and create something, and often it doesn't always end up well. The same goes for Al Harrington. I am not so sure about how Maggette will help distribute the ball, and Biedrins is no Divac by any stretch. So I am thinking that a PG will be important. Apparently Demarcus is the best on the roster according to Don Nelson (I believe I read this somewhere) at getting to the hoop off the dribble and he is starting to drive and dish real well too. If he is able to keep that up, maybe he will be the PG that we need. He's strong defensively which is a plus.
As you can see from below, Thunder game was the best game in terms of assists/TOs. Rest of games weren't that great, and our four PGs didn't demonstrate that they can be starting PGs in this league. And, all Jackson-to-PG or Marbury rumor reflect our current PG situation as well. I have to disagree on Davis sitting a lot since he averaged 39 minutes (9th in the league) for all 82 games. The main reason Nelson had to extend his minutes was because our back up PGs were horrible, and the drop off from having Davis to not having Davis was considerable. Nelson overused Davis in the beginning, and Davis eventually got burnt out after All-Star. I was hoping that some PGs would step out and at least play like NBA starter, but so far, it still feels like 4 back up wanna be PGs are running the club for 48 minutes instead of last year's 9 minutes. Last season, Warriors averaged 22.4 assists and 13 turnovers. In five preseasons, Warriors averaged 21.4 assists and 20.2 turnovers Hornets: 22 asts / 19 TOs Blazers: 20 asts / 15 TOs Thunder: 27 asts / 19 TOs Bucks: 16 asts / 20 TOs Bucks: 22 asts / 28 TOs Granted that this is just a preseason, and once the season starts, TOs should go down significantly. But, who will make that to happen? Last season, we have Davis to fall back. But in this season, can anybody mimic what Davis did? Or at least come close to do it? In five preseaons, four Warriors PGs averaged 6.4 assists and 4.0 TOs combined (Davis averaged 7.6 assists and 2.8 TOs). 4 asts / 3 TOs 4 asts / 2 TOs 10 asts / 4 TOs 5 asts / 4 TOs 9 asts / 7 TOs And, those are combined stats for five games. Watson: 11 asts / 9 TOs Williams: 6 asts / 2 TOs Nelson 13 asts / 5 TOs Dickau: 1 asts / 4 TOs I don't know how Watson recorded 7 assists in yesterday's game, because once he got the ball, the only thing he thought about it was scoring. Without last game, he committed 4 assists and 7 TOs, and even with last night's game, his stats are not what any PGs should be. Even in last season, he averaged 1.1 asts and 1.0 TOs, and he failed to dish more than 4 assists in last season. He recorded 4 assists twice and zero 3 assists, meaning out of 32 games he played, he recorded 2 or less assists in 30 games. Minutes? He played more than 20 mins 7 times, and more than 15 minutes 13 times. He is an undersized scorer, and he really shouldn't be considered as a PG. Williams is known for passing, and he does have the best assist/TO ratio in short preseason. The main problem is that he is not good at basically everything else. I do not know he lost an interest, expect to start regardless of the preseason or is just a bad player. But, at this point, the only reason we are keeping him is because we invested 1st rounder. I wonder if Mullin kept the receipt... Nelson has been the best PG in the preseaon, and it's really sad to say that 'former' SG with 2.6 assists per game is kicking all pgs' butt. He is probably the closest player to be a starting PG. Dickau should be cut. No reason to keep him. Sooo.... Should we be worried about our PG situation? Absolutely. They are all fighting for their jobs in preseason, and even in preseason, they proved that they are nothing more than a back up in this league (other than Nelson, they don't even deserve back up PG job). Once regular season starts and things start to get tighter, they will probably struggle even more. Then will Monta be a solution? I am not sure either. We are banking on a player, who never played PG and have no PG mind. Another problem is that Monta's game relies on efficiency, meaning once he gets the ball, he quickly outmaneuvers his defender and either shoots midrange jumper or goes to the hoop. Even in his offense, he generally does not survey the court to see what's out there. If Monta tries to do PG's job, his offense may suffer, and if Monta tries to play his best game, he may have to abandon his PG duty. In addition, he missed the camp again, and it's nearly impossible for Nelson to implement Monta-to-PG project in the middle of season, and Monta never has a chance to taste PG's duty. The bright side is that he is lightening quick (hope post-moped Monta is as fast as before), and he is rather good passer for SG. My prediction is that it will be a very bumpy ride for Monta and his quest to be a PG with a good chance that it will crash and burn as well...
It's all speculation and you have to realize that things (stats) that happen in preseason hardly ever pan out in the regular season. It's all about the regular season. Presuming we don't get an addition at PG, Nelson/Williams/Watson rotation will bring more positives than negatives until Monta returns...and yes, let's hope Monta can do well once he comes back. I think it's valid to worry about the PG situation but not based on the preseason. I think we can worry after one month into the regular season. I have to rephrase my comment about Davis sitting a lot last year. I meant to say, when Davis sat, Ellis played the PG the majority of the time and there was no lack of fluidity, rather, there seemed to be more ball movement. Monta to Biedrins was an oft play that succeeded.
