There’s no debating that Baron Davis’ departure leaves the Warriors as a very different ball club; one with less experience and probably less ego.
High-level ranting aside (I’ve heard enough of this over the past three weeks via local news), let’s jump into some specifics on what the Dubs will miss about Davis, and what they might not.
To me, Baron Davis brought three very important qualities to the table:
1. His ability to operate a Nelly-ball offense efficiently, keep turnovers down, and ensure that possessions resulted in shots, despite the fast-paced, frenetic play.
The Warriors led the league in scoring average last year (111.0 per game), and shot 46% from the field (good for 12th in the league).
Despite their approach to “organized chaos”, Golden State turned the ball over just 13.0 times per game (8th least in the NBA), and had the highest disparity between OWN turnovers, and OPPONENTS turnovers in the league (3.2). Toronto was second was at 2.1.
To put this in perspective, at 16.2 per game, Warriors opponents averaged significantly more turnovers than the sloppiest team in the basketball (the Kings), who turned the ball over 15.2 times per game.
How are the Dubs going to keep this up without Davis at the helm?
Let’s just say that none of the following individuals are known for distributing the ball with a tremendous amount of success, especially late in games:
Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike.
So is Marcus Williams going to see significant minutes? We’ll just call this a concern.
2. He's one of the top closers in the league.
Baron Davis makes big shots at the end of games...over, and over, and over again.
The Warriors won a lot of tight battles during the past two years, and now someone besides Baron will have to step up and fill the void.
Given Monta Ellis’ not-so-stellar record of coming up in the clutch, it’s seems likely that Golden State will need Maggette to emerge as the go-to force late in games.
Nothing against Monta, but thus far, he seems to have more Chris Webber and Kevin Garnett in him than Sam Cassell or Mike Bibby: Great for the first 42 minutes, absent the last six.
3. He's absurdly tight.
Golden State fans rallied behind Baron, in a way they haven’t rallied around anyone since Tim Hardaway.
Davis made it cool to wear a Warriors jersey. He brought a swagger to not just the team, but to the entire Bay Area fan-base.
Can this team capture the affection of the fans, and keep the momentum up? Can Ellis or Maggette be the force that the crowd rallies around, the guy that sets the tone night in and night out?
And what about the off-court presence? Who’s going to do TNT specials at McDonald's, and invest in local start-up companies?
Tough guy to replace…
Read on to hear Dave’s thoughts on the upside of Baron taking his ball, and going home (To Los Angeles—that terrible, terrible place in Southern California where vanity and bad air quality rule every day).
4 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Steven Resnick 11 months ago
I think the Warriors will be just fine without Davis. Not that I wanted to see him go, but it was obviously that Davis was slowing down last year. That's why he was so ineffective towards the last few games of the season. He's also got the problem of being injury proned even though he played in all 82 games last year he also wasn't 100 percent either, no one is but he had nagging little injuries. Monta Ellis stepped up last year shooting over 50 percent, is one of the best finishers in the paint for a guard, and he became a very good distributor at the end of the season as he got to handle the ball more and Ellis is a solid rebounder just like Baron. It's also not like Ellis turns the all over either he averaged only 2.1 turnovers compared to Davis's 2.8 turnovers per game. Ellis also has been known to hit the game winning shot as well.
I think Maggette will get a fine reaction from Warriors fans. He's something the Warriors haven't had in a while and that is a slashing type combo player who can either play shooting guard or small forward. Keep in mind Maggette finished last year with a career high in 3 point field goal percentage at 38 percent, he averaged 22 points and 6 boards per game and for his career he's always been a solid rebounder in his rookie year he averaged 8 boards per game last year was his second lowest reboudning mark in his career at 5.7 and for his career he's averaged 6.2 boards per game. So I think once Warriors fans see that he's pretty much Jason Richardson without the thunderous dunks they will be fine with him. Maggette's ability to draw fouls is also going to help the Warriors win games and Maggette's most important aspect to the team is that he makes free throws he's a solid free throw shooter something the Warriors have been lacking and what will not let us go far in the Playoffs, with Maggette on the team he makes the Warriors even more dangerous.
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Baily Deeter 11 months ago
The Kings are the sloppiest team in basketball?
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Zander Freund 11 months ago
Great to see you writing again Finkoveire—excellent analysis here.
A few comments:
1) "Let’s just say that none of the following individuals are known for distributing the ball with a tremendous amount of success, especially late in games:
Monta Ellis, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike.
So is Marcus Williams going to see significant minutes? We’ll just call this a concern"
That's a good question: who IS going to distribute the ball? WHAT THE HELL WERE WE THINKING?
2) "The Warriors won a lot of tight battles during the past two years, and now someone besides Baron will have to step up and fill the void."
As you point out, Monta is simply not a closer. The guy who's going to have to fill the void is clearly Stephen Jackson...
SCARY.
3) "Can this team capture the affection of the fans, and keep the momentum up? Can Ellis or Maggette be the force that the crowd rallies around, the guy that sets the tone night in and night out?"
Monta Ellis a tone setter? This guy is softer than a downy quilt covered in baby powder and rose petals.
None of the players on the current roster will rally the fans the way Baron did. Again, Stephen Jackson is probably the go-to guy in this regard.
SCARY.
IN CONCLUSION: We are in a very, very bad position right now with Davis' departure and our inability to find anyone to replace him as Bay Area celebrity/ball distributor/clutch shot maestro.
I wish I could say something positive but I just can't think of much...
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alan anderson 11 months ago
Baron is a romantic hero, no, a super-hero, and I and most other Warriors fans will always love him for it. He breathed life into the chilled corpse of the Warriors and thrilled sports fans across the nation with clutch plays and underdog exuberance. Even so, the heroic path has its problems.
To be a super-hero like Baron requires heroic situations and heroic action. As noted above, in heroic situations, Baron was among the best at heroic action. He was clutch. However, when the Warriors were blowing out the other team, lazy defense, poor shot selection, etc., brought the other team back to where Baron once again felt alive - heroism was needed. A weak start conceding a big early lead to the other team activated desperation-underdog-superhero mode relatively early and maintained it until finally catching up in the last minutes. When the situation just required workaday execution, as when the Warriors had a small lead at the end of the Utah game, Baron was out of his comfort zone and lost focus (turnovers, missed free throws).
On average, even with superior talent, this approach is very unlikely to yield outstanding results. Look at his departure as a sterling example: took a huge swing and opted out; got probably the best contract possible and a very good chance at playing with Brand; lost Brand; got Camby. Coulda been amazing for him (Baron, Brand, Kaman, Maggette, huge contract), ended up pretty good.
You don't need a hero when you are blowing out teams by 30 points like the Mavericks were before being felled by the Warriors. You do need one to go deep into the playoffs, because no matter how hard you try to avoid it, you eventually will face a heroic situation as the competition gets better and more desperate. Now hopefully the W's can imitate the Mav's during the regular season and in the process bubble up some heroic character from one of their stars and some contributing heroism from the equivalent of Eddie House or Rajan Rondo.
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