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Hey guys, hope you still remember me, hehe. I

oh boy

p.s. Welcome Back!

Cohan is scrooge

Nelson is the devil

Baron is Dracula

Monta is super man

There you go....welcome back!

Hmmm... I suddenly find myself overloaded with information...


I guess it's not worth the typing... How about a relative link or somesuch?

The little engine that could.... ran out of gas. Plain and simple. Big games, big players, every one of them the Warriors lost. Televised game in Dallas, L. Game in Denver, L. Game in NOR, L. It was a slow death, death by brick via Jackson (he became Foyle) and Baron (he became Dunleavy). Not a total let down (well it was); you could see the team grinding to a halt. Team just looked really really tired.

Team showed its weakness; lack of depth.

Everything goes back to Fisher tackling Monta and him getting tagged with a foul...

I've been catching up to the NBA season the past few days and, well, this is a freak period for the the Western Conference. We could easily have been a 2-3 seed with a chance of getting to the Finals if Oakland had been closer to New York than it is to Hawaii.

It's all about the results. None of the above gripes would matter had we been a 55-27 team in the East.

In my opinion, this was probably a very good effort in an insanely competitive environnment.

That is fair to say, but having missed the games, you wouldn't have seen how our level of play declined over the last month of the season. We were not nearly as good a team in March as we were in January. We took our only real blowout, throw in the towel, run off the floor shellackings of the season in the last 10 games. That is very meaningful. We would not have beaten Atlanta in 7 games at the level we finished the season at.

The "result" is as much about how we finished as it was about the final record.

People were pencilling in the 50 win total for a while.

To me the decline happened after the All Star break. Baron sulked for some game.

Monta took it to another level though, which was very good, but everyone ran out of gas.

Nellie wanted help but the FO wouldn't part with their precious cost saving TE. I understand, but I don't understand.

Of course there were many reasons for why the roster never got addressed, but the FO really just let us wilt on the vine.

As a franchise, we failed.


Key points to the season:

- Baron staying healthy (CHECK)
- Baron staying in shape /motivated (FAIL)
- Control Jax' chucking (FAIL)
- Develop Monta's passing (CHECK)
- Find out if Monta's a PG (FAIL)
- Andris = Winning (FAIL)
- Al retains his jumpshot (FAIL)
- Continued ballhawking D (FAIL)

We only thing we really learned this season is that Tay can carry a team... 18-9 in Feb/March. Very little help those 2 months as well. The rest of the stuff (Baron quitting, Jax chucking, Al's dead legs, Beans getting the PT shaft) was all stuff that various posters warned about in the preseason.. thats what makes these "stay the course" softies so entertaining

I'd just like to add that the W's didn't have the same bench production from last year and the team/starters didn't have that "me against the world type of effort".

The only positive this season is Monta Ellis. He can flat out play in this league They had a better road record this season but didn't capitalize on the must wins AT HOME to get there...

Rebounding continues to be a problem especially against teams like Utah and San Antonio.

So, would you guys recommend changing our smallball style? Even to a lesser extent?

Because from what little I've seen of Monta, he can only thrive in an open game , half-court sets don't really fit his so well since he's a tweener.

Baron and Jackson would chuck even more when faced with organized defenses, and furthermore we have absolutely no decent rebounders (except Biedrins) and inside scorers.

So the only option is to make radical player changes. But if we do that, do you really think that having a team with low understanding and chemistry, even if it's good on paper (and that's an important IF, depending on the moves we make) can make an impact next season.

Or are you all about blowing the team up and starting over. This seems excessive, given this team has only been around at it's current shape and form for 1 1/2 years.

Monta showed last year that he could get into the lane at will even when we were being zoned up. He displayed good passing skills and finishing when in half court situations.

He was the very bright spot this year and is a tweener in the best sense of the word. He can excell at either position.

Small ball is fine in certain situations, but not as your main weapon.

Running style is something I'd like to hold onto. We just need more length on the floor, but still maintain our running gunning style.

Wright's the type of guy who can get us longer and still be effective in a running style.

The problem is the bench depth. Baron and Monta need a third guard who Nellie will have confidence in to shoulder some minutes.

The front court has an opportunity to get longer in this draft. The late first round to mid second round has some guys in there who can play at an NBA level and if we can find another pick or 2 in this range we might find some cheap help there.

Small ball is not the way to go with having Pietrus, Barnes, and Azu at the power positions. Wright will help alot, but we need to be creative and get our bench strength up to par with some of the elites around the league.

D-Weaver wrote:So, would you guys recommend changing our smallball style? Even to a lesser extent?

Because from what little I've seen of Monta, he can only thrive in an open game , half-court sets don't really fit his so well since he's a tweener.

Monta took people to the rim, at will, in half court sets... for a "running" team, we sure didnt run very often after February...

@ stereotypes.... they ruin this board.

To answer your other question, you shouldnt completely scrap smallball with this team... they are able to run it pretty decently.

The thing is, smallball requires a lot of high energy players... I'd prefer to run smallball with our 2nd unit (oh, and by the way, we'd have to get a 2nd unit before this whole plan worked ) so the people playing 10-12 minutes a game will go out there and play their hearts out for that time... the starters could do it very sporadically, like maybe another 10 minutes...

If used as a change of pace, it would be a lot more effective... when its used as our signature, it can get brutal.

510Reggae wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Monta took people to the rim, at will, in half court sets... for a "running" team, we sure didnt run very often after February...

@ stereotypes.... they ruin this board.

Only saw limited games this season (canned), and he was certainly more assertive. But I still think he's too short and skinny to play 82 games in half-court sets. Plus he's not yet a PG, if he'll ever be. That smells 'tweener' to me.

Point here is, I don't stereotype 'tweener' to mean only negative things...

I'm not talking about the "tweener" stuff... buzzwords don't get me.

Saying he's not as effective in a half court set? I guess that's true because he's incredible on the fast break, but he's done good work in half court offenses too... he doesn't get any credit for it though.

510Reggae wrote:I'm not talking about the "tweener" stuff... buzzwords don't get me.

Saying he's not as effective in a half court set? I guess that's true because he's incredible on the fast break, but he's done good work in half court offenses too... he doesn't get any credit for it though.

I agree. But he's only had to treat half-court sets as a change of pace and not teh norm. Would he adjust having to slowball for 82 games? Would he be able to consistently be effective 5-on-5 come playoff time where adjustments happen way more often? This could be nitpicking, but I think not.

Somehow, and don't ask me why because it's just a feeling I get, I think that on a championship caliber team Monta can only be a fantastic 6th man. But hey, look at Ginobili... If we can get that out of him I'll be happy, but somehow I doubt we'll allow a 10+M per player to come of the bench.

D-Weaver wrote:-= original quote snipped =-




I agree. But he's only had to treat half-court sets as a change of pace and not teh norm. Would he adjust having to slowball for 82 games? Would he be able to consistently be effective 5-on-5 come playoff time where adjustments happen way more often? This could be nitpicking, but I think not.

If we're going to speculate, use a game where a team did that. Boston tried to slow Monta down, take away his midrange, double team him on the perimeter. He responded by finding open teammates, and finding his own shots, eventually taking over the game in the 4th.

Monta's weaknesses don't come from pace... his passing was becoming a strength, he was excellent at the pick and roll, as well as drive and dish/kick. The biggest problem he has is killing his dribble far too soon to prevent dribbling turnovers... his best move (where he dribbles the ball above his shoulder and plants his feet for a jump) sometimes causes him to lose control of the ball... he doesnt trust his handles in traffic, and shouldn't, yet.

Nice season...actually...Some great wins...some fun hoops...and just barely missed the playoffs....

I think the REASON Warriors missed the playoffs was Nelson refusing to play youth early in the season...thus having noone to trust towards the end.

Baron..Jackson..please..those guys were just flat out of gas. Notice that almost every game we played down the stretch the Warriors came out big and faded down the stretch...Hornets..we were up by double digits....Denver..up by double digits.... So it wasn't Baron's poor play....Jackson bricking...it was Nelson riding the starters into the ground...

The Warriors this year might have well have the Bells horse in this years Kentucky Dirby....