Golden State Warriors: After Year 1, David Lee Experiment a Failure

David Lee was the Golden State Warriors biggest free agency signing since the NBA started allowing free agents, and he was finally going to give the Warriors the post presence that they hadn’t had since the NBA started using the shot clock. 

With Don Nelson out and Keith Smart replacing him, Nellie ball would go on, and with Lee coming from the same system in New York, he was the perfect ft. How could Warrior fans not be excited that David Lee was coming…this couldn’t miss. 

However, just like every other time you use that phrase (when it’s not sarcastic), it misses.

Lee was going to give the Warriors a high scoring rebounding machine post presence that they sorely needed. However, it didn’t really work out all that well.

The year before Lee arrived, the Warriors were dead last in rebound rate.

Lee came in and last season the Warriors were dead last in rebound rate.  

For an already potent offense, Lee was going to be the offensive threat for a team that featured Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf in the post, and that's it! Well Mikki Moore too, but c'mon.

The Warriors averaged 108.8 points per game the year before Lee got there and 103.4 points per game with Lee. They were able to stop the other team from scoring by three points per game, but that still only left three teams that gave up more than them last year.

Lee ended up with his lowest field goal percentage of his career and it wasn't even close, his rebounds per game dropped by more than two from the previous year, and he proved what we knew already, he can't play any defense.

So I'm not just piling on him, Lee had absolutely no help at all last year, none. Andris Biedrins was actually worse than he was the year before, while Lee dealt with injuries all year. Including having Wilson Chandler's tooth inside his arm, which is even tough to read. After that, he and the Warriors never got on track and we saw that as constructed, the Warriors weren't going to be contenders under Keith Smart and Nellie ball.

The Warriors seemed determined to make a back-court of Stephen Curry and Ellis work, that's fine, they tried it with Lee in the system that he is most suited to play in and it didn't work. Sure, they improved by 10 games over the previous year with him, but that still left them 10 games behind the eighth seed.

It doesn't look like things will be getting any better either.

The Warriors hired Mark Jackson to bring a defensive mentality to the defensively challenged Warriors, which is great, but where does that leave Lee? He is not a good defender by any means; I'm sure he is capable of improving, but to what extent?

Ellis and Curry are going to have players get by them, it's just going to happen. A team could be able to mask that by having stout defenders down low, but when your best and highest paid post player can't play defense, and his teammate is Andris Biedrins, how is any coach going to be able to able to do anything with that?

Lee was supposed to be the piece that was going to put the Warriors into playoff contention while maintaining their style of play, after that didn't happen switching philosophy might just make things worse if that's even possible.

Right now could you even even give Lee away? Would any one NBA team take him off their hands and absorb his contract?

Look, a lot of teams would want last summer back, Atlanta and Joe Johnson, the Denver Nuggets and Al Harrington, the San Antonio Spurs and Richard Jefferson, and the Phoenix Suns and everyone they signed last summer, so the Warriors aren't alone. In fact, this signing actually looks good compared to those others, but it still doesn't make it a success.

Lee's contributions from last year, his contract, and now with the direction that the Warriors seemingly want to take with Ellis and Curry, combined with Lee's defensive inadequacies, makes the signing from last summer a regrettable and a lasting one.