Bleacher Report - Articles by Safa

An Open Letter to the Golden State Warriors' Front Office

Safa — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:51:40 -0400

The Warriors' Media Day is officially in the books, and while most teams are busy hyping the upcoming season, introducing new players, revealing strategies, and getting the fanbase excited about the upcoming season, the Warriors do things differently.

Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis took the opportunity to drop a torpedo on the franchise, publicly airing their disillusionment with how the team is run. Let's look at their comments in brief.

After getting fined by the NBA for publicly requesting a trade, SJax avoided saying the words, but he danced around the issue far better than he dribbles through traffic.

"What I said is how I feel. Point blank," Jackson said. "And that's not going to change."

"As you know," Jackson said with a shrug, "this organization's unpredictable. Very unpredictable."

"Every year I've lost somebody that I felt helped me get to that, with Baron (Davis), Jason (Richardson), Al (Harrington)," Jackson said. "It felt like I'm next. You know what I mean? It feels like we're not getting better."

SJax added, "We've been taking steps backs since that year we beat Dallas."

While it's pretty disappointing to hear the team's captain and leading scorer say these things, he's got a point. After a starving and loyal fan base was rewarded with a team that made the second round of the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, the team was slowly broken up. And each year, the record started slipping a little.

And then there's Monta Ellis: "(Management) say we can, but we can't," Ellis said. "I just want to win. We're not going to win that way...It's different when you're trying to compare me and Stephen (Curry), when you're trying to go back to when me and BD (Baron Davis) were playing, it's a different situation. You've got a veteran who's been in the game, who understands the game, knows how to play the game, and he's a big body.

"You can't put two small guys out there and try to play (point guard) and (shooting guard) when you've got big (shooting) guards in the league. You just can't do it. OK, yes, we're going to move up and down fast, but eventually the game is going to slow down. You can't do it."

And then there was this:

Q: "Don said you’re going to be a captain. What’s that mean?"
ME: "I don’t know. What’s different from being a captain? I don’t know. It’s just a title to me.

The face of the franchise and potential future All-Star doesn't understand what leadership means? Uhhh, so why make him a captain?

However, both players have legitimate gripes. Let's briefly review the front office's last couple of years:

-After making the playoffs for the first time in 13 years, JRich was immediately traded away for a project power forward who has yet to pay dividends. This after Richardson's loyalty through the "bad years," his veteran leadership, and his great shooting.

-After letting Baron Davis opt out and sign with the Clippers, the front office offered Elton Brand and Gilbert Arenas big money that was turned down. And then they signed Corey Maggette for roughly 50 million. Not only is this more money than Baron Davis was requesting, but Maggette is just as injury-prone (if not moreso) than Baron. And the team already had a glut of swingmen.

-Also, Pietrus was let go for nothing in return, and Matt Barnes was not resigned, even though he provided defense and grit, something the team needed.

-After Monta Ellis injured himself in the offseason in a stupid accident, the front office overruled the team's GM (who had managed to put a pretty good roster together) and hung the spectre of contract voiding over Monta, inspiring bad feelings all around.

-Stephen Jackson, in a non-contract year, is extended for three years at a hefty price. Keep in mind he's over 30.

-A first-round draft pick is traded away for a pass-first point guard with no offense who saw about 20 minutes of playing time before being cut loose for nothing in return.

-Al Harrington, after publicly requesting a trade (for which he was not fined) was sent to the Knicks for Jamal Crawford's bloated and longer contract. Jamal is a great guy, but plays possibly the worst defense of anyone on the team. And that says a lot.

-Crawford gets traded for two expiring contracts who will most likely never see the floor this year.

-Chris Mullin, a player favorite and the one who drafted our best young players and engineered the trades for Baron, Jackson, and Harrington, is made a lame duck and then unceremoniously fired.

-A trade for Amare Stoudemire is jettisoned in favor of an unproven rookie with exactly the same body as the guy the team just committed six years and $66 million to (even though I like his potential).

-Marco Bellinelli, a young first-rounder who began to show promise and did everything coach asked him to do (yet inexplicably still didn't get much PT) was traded away for an aging veteran defender and "cash considerations," a definite downgrade in talent for a guy who will probably be starting in Toronto.

I could go on, but you get the picture.

So Robert Rowell, Chris Cohan, I ask you, what is your plan? I am not a business mastermind, nor a basketball genius. But I see no rhyme or reason to these decisions. It's not that you don't have a plan. It's that your plan is haphazard and inarticulate. The players don't know it, the fans don't know it. Does the coach know it? I question even that.

So, two seasons after the explosive "We Believe" movement, you have managed to sink the team to the basement of the Western Conference.

The Bay Area has the best fans in the NBA. Oracle Arena consistently sells out for a mediocre product. And one that keeps getting worse. Warriors fans deserve better. I predict that season ticket sales are down, correct?

And so I ask you, please, for the love of basketball, SELL THE TEAM. To someone who cares.

Golden State Warriors Sign Davidson, Waive Nelson

Safa — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 08:13:53 -0500

This just in: Warriors-Examiner~y2009m1d5-More-bad-news-for-Anthony-Randolph-Warriors-sign-Jermareo-Davidson">The Warriors have signed Jermareo Davidson to a 10-day contract and waived DeMarcus Nelson.

If you're at all like me, everything about the Warriors lately has you scratching your head in confusion. They've gone from one of the most exciting up-and-coming teams in the league to bottom-dwelling tank machine in less that two years. Golden State is on track to becoming the Miami of last year.

In the spirit of all this, we have this latest move. Now its obvious that the Warriors lack a true point guard. While I don't really agree with Steinmetz's Marcus Williams love (cited in the article above), it's true that the Warriors need a true point. In the limited minutes he has gotten this year, DeMarcus Nelson has looked far better than Williams. And he's one of the few Warriors who actually tries on defense.

But, you might say, the Warriors have a glut of guards. The other reason this move is troubling is the waiving of never-seen draft pick Richard Hendrix. He was hanging out in the D-League when he was waived to make room for Rob Kurz. This move screamed sacrificing the future for the here-and-now.

Kurz is more NBA-ready than Hendrix, which would make sense if the Warriors had a team in playoff contention. But Hendrix is a true post banger, a dirty-work kind of player. And the Warriors desperately need toughness at the 4-spot.

In comes Davidson, a known commodity. Now granted, he's only in his sophomore year, but you pretty much know what you're getting with him—a role player. He's 6-foot-10, athletic, and will probably be about a 10-and-5 type of guy.

On the flip side, Hendrix was loaded with potential. True, he's not ready for the NBA, but the squad this year is going nowhere. Why not see what you have with the kid rather than throwing him under the bus for someone who is mediocre at best?

Worse still, this move will take minutes away from star rookie Anthony Randolph, the Warriors' prized first-rounder. Now there are reports of a clash between him and Nellie, possibly an attitude problem ... but the kid's gonna be a star. And his average already beats Jermareo's. Work it out, management. Work it out, coach. That would be the logical thing to do ... if this were any team but the Warriors.

Develop for next year. Sure, games will be lost, but at least the fans would get to see what the team has, and the team would develop the rookies. The argument of hurting a rookie's ego by letting him get burned by bigger, better players all the time doesn't fly here because the rookies don't get much burn. I won't rehash the old "Don Nelson hates rookies" arguments here, but it rings truer and truer by the day.

Of course, as I said, the Warriors are on track to become the Miami of last year. The upshot of that is this: Blake Griffin. It's a gamble, but if we can tank without appearing to tank, which may be the strategy (to keep bodies in the seats), then Coach Nelson is doing a pretty good job. The risk he runs here is frustrating the entire team and ruining the chemistry, which is what looks to indeed be happening.

But as a Warriors fan, I guess I'm naturally impatient. After suffering 20 years of mediocre basketball, I got a glimpse of the possibilities. And they were exciting. I'm ready now, dammit.

Small Ball Not Working In Golden State

Safa — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 10:41:00 -0500

At this point, most Golden State fans have realized what the head coach hasn't. Small ball doesn't work.

Everybody from the ESPN analysts (who I grant are sometimes incomprehensible) to bloggers to my friend's six-year old son ("daddy, why is that basketball player short?") have realized this. Or rather, it works for a short time, not as the crux of your game strategy.

But if you're Don Nelson, you do it backwards. Geoff Lepper of 48minutes.net did an excellent +/- analysis by-the-minutes, and found that GSW gets consistently outscored when they go small, and outscore their opponents when they go big. And in a big way when Biedrins and Turiaf are both on the floor.

But this we know. The burning question is: What is Nellie doing? If he were just tanking, why would he sit our most promising young bigs—B. Wright and Randolph?

If he were trying to win, why give free rein to our highest volume shooters when they're shooting poorly (Jax and Maggette, I'm looking at you)? And again, not play the young bigs?

Taking this tidbits, the erratic substitution patterns, and the fact that he just named Keith Smart, his pre-ordained successor, as the "defensive coordinator," all points to one thing:

Nellie wants to get fired.

Yup, that's the only logical conclusion I can come up with. I'm pretty sure he's getting too old for this, he's obviously frustrated and has lost the ear of his young team. So he's putting in his notice early and letting K. Smart take over.

And why shouldn't he? He just got a fat contract extension so he gets paid whether he works or not. Now he just dreams of the new lawn furniture he can buy while chilling on the bench.

Speaking of bad contracts, I just heard the greatest new nickname for Corey Maggette (courtesy of Basketbawful): BAD PORN. Because there's penetration and scoring, but it's not fun to watch.