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Lot of Warriors News today:

http://www.mercurynews.com/warriors/ci_7901850

Mbenga out; will Warriors sign Payton?
BACKUP POINT GUARD NEEDED; MORE WORK AHEAD FOR O'BRYANT

By Geoff Lepper
Bay Area News Group
Article Launched: 01/07/2008 02:00:18 AM PST

Warriors backup center DJ Mbenga will be waived before the remaining balance of his contract - roughly $460,000 - becomes guaranteed, the team said Sunday.

The move will open a roster spot that can be used in several ways: The Warriors can take part in an unbalanced trade, receiving one more player than they send out, without having to cut someone; they can call for reinforcements from the NBA Development League; or they can bring someone in on a 10-day contract to audition for a permanent place.

"It's a possibility, all those different scenarios," Warriors executive Chris Mullin said. "Everything, really, is just to leave open some options."

Mullin said the team was more interested in guards or big men rather than swingmen, so one name sure to come up is that of Oakland native Gary Payton. The 39-year-old point guard, who ranks third all-time among NBA players in steals and seventh in assists, is unsigned after spending the past two seasons with Miami.

But Mullin isn't certain the Warriors want to go down the path of veteran help again. The two experienced players the Warriors brought in this season - point guard Troy Hudson and forward Austin Croshere - have been hindered by injuries.

"We want to stay away from what happened with Troy," Mullin said, "You're looking at him to avoid injury and he gets injured. That becomes the decision: A young guy that has the energy and low risk of injury - does that make sense, or does it make sense to get a guy who you know what he can do?"
That being said, Mullin acknowledged the need for another point guard behind Baron Davis, who is averaging 39.4 minutes per game, 13th in the league.

"We've got to get (Davis) some downtime," Mullin said. "Etching out seven (more) minutes (per game) of rest over the haul, I think it means a lot."

Mbenga averaged 1.2 points and 1.9 rebounds in 8.1 minutes during 16 appearances with the Warriors, and quickly moved past second-year center Patrick O'Bryant on the depth chart. But it wasn't enough.

"DJ was fine," Coach Don Nelson said. "I was very happy with he way he played, his progress was fine, his knee was sound. It's just one of those unfortunate issues."

Nelson said the backup job will fall back to O'Bryant, who has played just three minutes since a disastrous appearance against the Los Angeles Lakers in early December.

"He's been working hard, he's kept a good attitude," Nelson said of O'Bryant. "Even when Mbenga was ahead of him, he kept working hard. I still think he'll make it one day. Whether he's ready or not now, I don't know. He'll get an opportunity once in a while and we'll see how he does."

Additionally, rookie center Kosta Perovic is being recalled from the team's D-League affiliate, the Bakersfield Jam, although Mullin said that's more to get conditioning work than to serve as a replacement for Mbenga.

I'll give the warriors credit..Nothing gets by them...They've now figured out they should get the ball more often to Andris Biedrins..Nothing gets by this organization...Only took them 15 months and 42,000 whiney internet message board posts to figure this one out...


Sign Pippen

LF75 wrote:I'll give the warriors credit..Nothing gets by them...They've now figured out they should get the ball more often to Andris Biedrins..Nothing gets by this organization...Only took them 15 months and 42,000 whiney internet message board posts to figure this one out...


Sign Pippen

I'm counting on Kosta shutting down Duncan tonight.

Isn't that stupid... Mulson cost us a player to rent MBenga.

Mulson better sign Benson from the NBDL so we can be happy again.

LF75 wrote:They've now figured out they should get the ball more often to Andris Biedrins.

For real? Was that on radio, or is there a link?

see the "Option B: Biedrins" thread Flopp.

marthafokker wrote:Isn't that stupid... Mulson cost us a player to rent MBenga.

Mulson better sign Benson from the NBDL so we can be happy again.

Even if mully did sign Benson it's not like nellie would play him.

The W's have the tools but not the depth. Baron is playing his ass off and every time I read someone on these boards suggesting we trade him I get a bit frustrated.

We need to find a way to cut down Baron's minutes so he has some juice left at the end of games and so the youngsters can develop confidence before it's too late.

Signing mediocre or over the hill players isn't the way to do that so I like the signing of a guy like Watso with nothing but upside more than that of a veteran such as Payton. Basketball is not like football so don't expect Payton to come out of the gates like Moss did this year.

We would do best to give Belinelli / Monta and Wright more minutes at the positions we need them to play, 1 and 4 respectively, if we are going to see any returns this year. Also, when Wright is playing the 4 there is no reason for him to be playing against 2s as he as the other night against Mo Pete.

I like what they are doing asfar s the new aqcuisitions are concerned (Mullin seems to be back on the job, for a while I thought he might be taking a vacation) which is good. But I think one of the big keys for us is if O'Bryant can give us what he showed he was capable of during the preseason and at the beginning of the season. The reason for this is that now it looks like the brass has made some positive moves to give Baron a few blows, I believe that we are going to need to do the same for Beans, especially after his last performance when he logged atotal of 35 minutes. If he's going to get this much run (which he imo deserves) we need to be concerned with a potential fatigue problem that he might have as the season wears on. Considering his frame and the intensity with which he plays, he will have a tendnecy to wear down (which I observed last game) when he's playing some of the bigger Centers such as Chandler, Howard and Shaq. This means that O'Bryant is critical in regards to spelling Beans, even if it is only 5-10 minutes a game. As for Harrington, I'm in hopes that he will be playing less 5, more 4 and maybe even some 3 on occasion (Beans, OBee, Harrington front line).

turk3d wrote:As for Harrington, I'm in hopes that he will be playing less 5, more 4 and maybe even some 3 on occasion (Beans, OBee, Harrington front line).

For all the credit I give Nellie this is one of his shortcomings that makes me question him this season. Is he hesitant to try a big lineup because he knows something we don't or because he likes to stick with what he knows?

I'm not saying we should switch our style of play completely, but when we are getting pushed around by the bigger teams we should use what little size we do have to our advantage.

O'Bryant looked great tonight against Duncan.

jrhester wrote:O'Bryant looked great tonight against Duncan.

To be fair to Nellie this time around, POB got as much playing time as MBenga recently. Okay, maybe 2 minutes more.