Golden State Warriors Coach Don Nelson Helps Anthony Randolph Grow

The Warriors are having a bad year and the media is giving coach Don Nelson much of the blame.

The Warriors have been plagued with injuries and the inconsistancies of a roster filled with young talent. Nelson is being unfairly victimized and many fans are falling for it. 

I don't question the methods behind the Mad Scientist's madness because they work.

The best example this year is Anthony Randolph.

Randolph is a young rookie with tons of potential who has only one year of college experience and still needs to refine his game.

Nellie has faced tremendous amounts of criticism for limiting Randolph's playing time, as if he was sitting him without purpose.

While clearly a rebound and block machine, many fail to see that Randolph has an equally amazing ability to turn over the ball.

Randolph has the worst turnover ratio for small forwards with 16.1 percent of possessions ending in a turnover, according to J. Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating (PER). Perhaps Randolph wasn't being benched in vain.

Nellie understandably wanted him to practice harder and learn how to protect the ball, which Randolph was seriously offended by, showing that his ego needs some work too.

Let's take a look at Randolph's progression throughout the year (Randolph's average number of TO's per 48 minutes, average amount of minutes, number of games played per month):

November

5.4 TO, 13.8 Min, 11 GP

December

5.2 TO, 13.0 Min, 12 GP

January

2.5 TO, 11.3 Min, 10 GP

February

4.5 TO, 15.1 Min, 7 GP

March

4.2 TO, 25.0 Min, 5 GP (As of March 8)

It looks like Nellie has been working his magic.  In a little more than two months since December, Randolph's average number of turnovers went from 5.3 to 3.7. Not only has Randolph decreased his turnover rate, but he has increased his playing time in the process.

On the Mad Scientist’s team, there is a negative correlation between turnover rate and minutes played.  It's a standard coaching maneuver done to help the team win and encourage young players to improve their ball handling skills.

Is that so wrong?

Coach Nelson is great at dealing with egos and developing young players, even though the youngsters don't always understand or appreciate his methods.

He is like my eighth grade English teacher. She was so strict, she once gave me detention for passing white-out to a fellow classmate in need, but she taught me more about writing than I ever could have imagined.  I didn't appreciate her at the time, but as I sit here and type this response, I surely do now.

Young players consistently improve under Nellie’s supervision. Players like Brandan Wright and Kelenna Azubuike have made tremendous strides in only a few seasons.

Azubuike, who could have been lost in the D-League if not for Nelson, is shooting 47.4 percent from the field and 46.2 percent from three-point range this year.

People often cite Wright as evidence to Nelson’s hindrance of the youths’ development. They seem to forget that Wright, an efficient player who ranks fifth in John Hollinger’s PER (a per minute statistic) for small forwards, was in the starting lineup before getting injured in early January.

Matt Barnes was barely hanging on to a job in the NBA when Nellie took him on and made him into a solid role player who now plays a key part in the Suns’ rotation.

After breaking up with Nelson, Baron Davis can hardly be called mediocre, shooting 36.5 percent from the field and 29.8 percent from three-point land.

Following a tough rookie season, the Warriors’ 18th pick in the 2007 draft, Marco Belinelli, has shown great improvement this season.

Patience is a virtue, especially when it comes to the development of young players in the NBA.  Coach Nelson, a virtuous man by this definition, is trying to improve not only the individual players themselves, but the team as a whole. He disciplines players for being careless with the ball and gets criticized for it.

Nelson is helping Randolph grow.  When Randolph collided with Lamar Odom against the Lakers this season, Nelson caringly examined his wound before guiding him towards the bench to recover.

Coach Nelson is fine tuning Randolph to prepare him for a long career of greatness, and maybe one day, Randolph will be thankful.

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