Two worse things that the Warriors did this season.

[turk3d]

What were the two worse things (amongs the many) that you think the Warriors did this season?

You could say, not playing Biedrens enough, you could say playing Baron too much, you could saying playing small guys in the power positions, I suppose some of us could even say not playing POB and cutting loose Lasme or perhaps not playing Wright (or inserting him into the lineup sooner).

There's probably a number of others which could be inserted here, but here is my two (one by Nellie, and the other one by the FO):

1) (Nellie) Picking up C-Web and inserting him into the starting lineup. This was probably the biggest mistake made by Nellie all season. Picking him up for insurance purposes and using him to backup Biedrens on occasion and more importantly to get some solid minutes out of the Power Forward slot behind Harrington would have been fine and probably would have been a good thing. However, by inserting him into the starting lineup he basically resulted in a couple of things which turned out bad for us:

a) it disrupted the team in that they were probably playing their best ball of the season (if you recall) before he chose to make Webber \the starter.

b) In the process of installing CWeb, he took Biedrens out of the starting lineup and put Webber in his spot (on his gimpy knees and all) at Center which would be harder on his knee and then expected him to log starter minutes against bigger and stronger guys who would put more stress and strain on him than most power forwards would. Plus, Webber was certainly not able to give us the defense and interior presence that Beans gave us (arguably our most consistent defender all season long).

c) This seemed to destroy the chemistry and sync which had apparently just come around and which never seemed to be regained again. After Webber went down, Nellie turned to the Barntruskie experiment which would lead to our ultimate demise (sans the Baron/Jack meltdown).

d) Probably 'c' above is what led to Webber breaking down so quickly. He should have brought him along slowly (rather than rushing him into the fray) finding him just "spot duty" early on, allowing him to slowly get into shape and "regain" some stamina and strength beofre "throwing him to the wolves" (especially when they were playing so well at the time). This (in my estimation) was a huge mis-calculation on Nellie's part. By rushing him, he basically broke down in practically no time at all, thus making it more or less a total loss. Not only was Webber unfortunately washed out completely, but it was enough to do significant damage to the team chemistry and became further exacerbated by Nellie continuing to keep Biedrens out of the starting lineup (he inserted Al inthere who was like Webber in that he was grossly out of position) and more importantly going to the Barntruskie contingent at the power forward. I believe that we were never really able to get back in sync after the C-Web debacle.

2) (FO) Exercising Nellie's option before we clinched a playoff spot.
Had they not extending him when they did, I believe that Nellie would have had to make the necessary adjustments to win but after receiving his extensision, the motivation was lost, as it then became more his ego which became his primary concern, and not getting us into the playoffs. He may have even felt somewhat that he'd be better off not getting in as he could then use his newfound lottery pick (manna from the sky) as trade bait for part of his summer move(s) to get the player (or players) he really wants.

At the very least, had we not extended him, and he did not get us in, we would be in a position to pick up one of the "blue chip" coaches who are available (or to be available) this offseason.

Other thoughts? These are my two.

[Abyss Impact]

Well heres my two...

1.Not playing Pietrus more really killed us.

2.Not playing the bench really killed us also.

[turk3d]

I'm sorry Abyss. Not playing Pietrus more should have been the third one. I forgot that one. My bad.

[Abyss Impact]

Not only that, he should be a starter over guys like Jackson. He usually gets off to good starts if he starts, usually is cold when he comes in when benched.

Do we really need Jackson playing 35+ minutes? He isn't even that good, and is only good in the clutch. Why not cut it down to 25 and play Pietrus some to help rebounding and defense, because everybody knows Jackson sure does not play defense. Hell, how does he even play defense when he is on the other side of the court arguing to the referees about how the call was wrong.
Stephen Jackson has very very low basketball IQ compared to my hero, the beast, Mikael Pietrus. Pietrus hustles back to the other floor to play his lockdown defense because he is smart, and that you don't always get what you want. How many technicals does Pietrus have? Barely any.
Also, how many times have you seen Jackson chuck those long two pointers off the his crossovers? He thinks his opponent will bite, and chucks up a long two pointer and bricks it. Killing all the ball movement.
In conclusion , Pietrus > Jackson.

[turk3d]

Well, why don't you start a new "Dump Jack" or a "Jack Sucks" thread Abyss?

edit: don't start a "Jack Sucks" thread, it'll probably get you in trouble with the mods. Being in trouble with posters is alright, but not with the mods.

[GswStorm3]

Turk two was big, we could have had a shot at Avery Johnson right now. Just a huge mistake picking up Nellie's option so early.

[Sleepy51]

Isn't he great ladies and gentlemen?

[FNQ]

What were the two worse things (amongs the many) that you think the Warriors did this season?
1) (Nellie)
2) (FO)
These are my two.

Mine too.

[Left*My*Heart]

1) poor use of assets
2) poor coaching and FO work

[Manly35]

I agree with Abyss Impact EXCEPT I think Nellie should have played Bellinelli more. He could definitely give a team 10 to 15 points (or more)
consistently off of the bench. He's a International player who deserve much more playing time than Nellie gave him.

[St.Nick]

I would like to say that before the season we should have picked up a better FA for our front court but look at the crap that was available...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2654216

Sadly, Webber looked like one of the better players to sign on that list.

We could have tried to draft a PF in the draft at 18 but how much would a guy like Jason Smith have helped this season? And besides, to draft two PFs in one draft seems a bit silly.

Perhaps we could have worked something out for Scola or PJ Brown...but would these guys be seen as an upgrade over Al Harrington at this time last year? I dont think so.

Basically what happened to this team is that they had poor depth. Our bench was either too young (Brandan, Marco, Kosta), too dumb (POB and Pietrus), or simply not of a very high caliber (everyone else not named Kelenna).

Since our goal was to make the playoffs Nellie had to run our starters ragged. This resulted in Baron, Stephen, and Al crashing down the stretch. Also, dont forget that Andris had his appendix removed and it took him some time to recover.

Could Nellie have leaned on our bench guys like Brandan, Marco, and POB for more support? Perhaps. Would it have made us a better team? That is uncertain and probably unlikely.

But to definitively blame the Chef (Nellie) for not making a gourmet meal despite the fact that he was not given the proper ingredients is wrong, wrong, wrong. Also, its hard to blame the restaurant for not getting the proper ingredients when last years FA crop was rancid.

Sometimes, people, things just dont work out the way that you would like them to. Instead of trying to find blame you should just chill out and hope that things will be better next year.

With the improvements of Monta, Brandan, Andris, Marco, and Kosta I think that we can expect better results next season.

[old rem]

Not only that, he should be a starter over guys like Jackson. He usually gets off to good starts if he starts, usually is cold when he comes in when benched.

Do we really need Jackson playing 35+ minutes? He isn't even that good, and is only good in the clutch. Why not cut it down to 25 and play Pietrus some to help rebounding and defense, because everybody knows Jackson sure does not play defense. Hell, how does he even play defense when he is on the other side of the court arguing to the referees about how the call was wrong.
Stephen Jackson has very very low basketball IQ compared to my hero, the beast, Mikael Pietrus. Pietrus hustles back to the other floor to play his lockdown defense because he is smart, and that you don't always get what you want. How many technicals does Pietrus have? Barely any.
Also, how many times have you seen Jackson chuck those long two pointers off the his crossovers? He thinks his opponent will bite, and chucks up a long two pointer and bricks it. Killing all the ball movement.
In conclusion , Pietrus > Jackson.

well.....

I fully agree that Jax gets over-rated here and Poetrus underrated but usually Jax is the better player. BB IQ? Not either's best quality. Jax has more skills but both operate more on intensity and emotion than technical precision. You may actually be right that MP can make the most impact starting with Jax a 6th man-but playing more actual minutes. MP has always needed a bit of stability in his role while Jax can exploit matchups at either G or F. Might have been worth trying. All the same....Pietrus is no more than 50% odds of coming back. I think Nellie will want him but the plan up front is for us to not re-up guys for much $ and I think there's teams that can offer $5 mill, give or take a half mill. We will keep Azu. We may decide that we can have Barnes AND Croshere for the $$ Pietrus gets.

The W's front office/master plan is typically hard to figure. Never assume the obvious.

Webber may not have been the "worst" move...just the dumbest.

The Worst had to be the bizarre reluctance to make use of TWO #9 picks -B Wright and POB. We snatched Watson from the D League,Mbenga from the scrap pile-played them....and NEITHER really had much NBA experiance...yet guys we INVESTED in as BLUE CHIP, we treated like they were walk - ons.... with contageous diseases.

Meanwhile we play a fast pace game where we can use 10-12 man depth to advantage.

If the last draft is included-picking Belli over Jason Smith still looks pretty weak. Belli is pretty low on the depth chart. Smith could have been used a lot at both PF and C.

THud wasn't a "smart" move. The Wolves PAID him to go away. That's a red flag considering they were going with Tellfair at point.

We had Lasme. We could have signed B Bass FA instead of THud. We could have grabbed Fazekas mid year for free. We HAD cheap options to patch up our chronic lack of rebounding and inside game...yet the guiding principle seemed to be "CHUCK!"

Seems to me that the more long range low % shots you try-and miss,the MORE you want SOMEONE to grab those misses. How basic is that?

[old rem]

I would like to say that before the season we should have picked up a better FA for our front court but look at the crap that was available...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2654216

Sadly, Webber looked like one of the better players to sign on that list.

We could have tried to draft a PF in the draft at 18 but how much would a guy like Jason Smith have helped this season? And besides, to draft two PFs in one draft seems a bit silly.

Perhaps we could have worked something out for Scola or PJ Brown...but would these guys be seen as an upgrade over Al Harrington at this time last year? I dont think so.

Basically what happened to this team is that they had poor depth. Our bench was either too young (Brandan, Marco, Kosta), too dumb (POB and Pietrus), or simply not of a very high caliber (everyone else not named Kelenna).

Since our goal was to make the playoffs Nellie had to run our starters ragged. This resulted in Baron, Stephen, and Al crashing down the stretch. Also, dont forget that Andris had his appendix removed and it took him some time to recover.

Could Nellie have leaned on our bench guys like Brandan, Marco, and POB for more support? Perhaps. Would it have made us a better team? That is uncertain and probably unlikely.

But to definitively blame the Chef (Nellie) for not making a gourmet meal despite the fact that he was not given the proper ingredients is wrong, wrong, wrong. Also, its hard to blame the restaurant for not getting the proper ingredients when last years FA crop was rancid.

Sometimes, people, things just dont work out the way that you would like them to. Instead of trying to find blame you should just chill out and hope that things will be better next year.

With the improvements of Monta, Brandan, Andris, Marco, and Kosta I think that we can expect better results next season.

I ain't buying that.

Other teams picked top 20 guys in the draft and found them playable. Other teams made better FA low $ pickups than THud and Webber. Other teams either played a slower tempo or used more of what's on the bench.

If B Wright was just a cub scout-how did he shoot 64% in the tough ACC as a freshman? Even then...we COULD have taken Noah,who,being longer can-DID play C. Noah ended his rookie year by beating out Ben Wallace for the starter job..B Right ended his still treated like an orphan.

We spent #18 on a volume shooter....then let him shoot less than once a week. How is that supposed to go anywhere?

Mullin had to balance off Nellie's tendancy to only think 15 min into the future. He failed. We EASILY could have had an EXCELLENT bench,but we FAILED to make the nessecery,obvious,effort to make it happen.

[St.Nick]

I ain't buying that.

Other teams picked top 20 guys in the draft and found them playable. Other teams made better FA low $ pickups than THud and Webber. Other teams either played a slower tempo or used more of what's on the bench.

Firstly, and this ties into your second paragraph, would you really have preferred that we take Noah over Wright just because he could have helped us more this season? To me its a no brainer that Wright be taken due to his ceiling being MUCH higher than Noah's. We made the right pick with Brandan and we knew that being 19 years old and 210 lbs likely meant spot duty, which he got when Al started wearing down and Andris got his appendix removed.

Secondly, which FAs should we have grabbed to help our woeful rebounding? Not many on the list, are there? You see, there are realities that come along with shortcomings most of the time. Its not a matter of simply missing out on some obvious upgrade.

We spent #18 on a volume shooter....then let him shoot less than once a week. How is that supposed to go anywhere?

Marco was not going to make a huge difference this year. Our guard play was outstanding for most of the season. To sit Baron or Monta in order for Marco to come in and hoist shots doesnt make any sense.

Mullin had to balance off Nellie's tendancy to only think 15 min into the future. He failed. We EASILY could have had an EXCELLENT bench,but we FAILED to make the nessecery,obvious,effort to make it happen.

So its Nellies fault that the following players underperformed...?

Barnes, Pietrus, POB, Webber...essentially our first unit off the bench.

Barnes is a scrub (and had family issues to boot), Pietrus is a flash in the pan moron, POB has no guts, and Webber has no knees.

Sorry Rem, you cannot blame the coach for everything, especially bad players playing badly.

[djdamon]

1 not getting a healthy backup point
2 not making the playoffs

[The_Believer]

Most of my stuff relates to the past offseason, but :
1. Getting a bunch of D-Leaguers to surround Baron, Monta and Jax and not doing anything about it. If we had a deeper bench and not like 10 D-League talents (Mbenga, Webber, etc) we'd be nearing 60 wins, not 50. Depth is what killed us at times, not size. Having CJ Watson or Pietrus or Barnes in there (when our Big 3 were exhausted) against NBA superstars just gave me nightmares at times.

2. It started last offseason - not getting a bigman or drafting one. We could have gotten Gasol, KG, or JO, or many others at one point, but never did. With a bigman, we'd be planning our championship parade instead of watching the Hawks potentially upsetting the Celts. This offseason, I expect several teams that fizzled in the playoffs to put their whole teams on the block. That means that a bunch of quality bigs will be available for us. If Nellie/the FO doesn't do that or draft big, I'd say we get him out of here.