Call Me an Optimistic, Call Me Stupid, but The Warriors Are Screwed

The Warriors have now played 20 games so far this season. Their record is a miserable five wins and 15 losses. It's a record that I have to say is something I never would have expected, especially after a 48-win season a year ago and the playoff run two years ago.

Even with Baron Davis leaving, I still had high hopes for the season. Then the Monta Ellis injury and the debacle later on with him lying on how the injury occurred. I still had hopes the Warriors could hover around a .500 record.

The surprising thing is this is totally against what my personality is. I'm usually very pessimistic. I normally wouldn't have had any hope for the Warriors and I would be expected the Warriors to be the team they are right now.

I was excited about the signing of Corey Maggette. I figured the Warriors would become more aggressive offensively instead of settling for the deep jumpers. The reason why is that fans already know Maggette attacks the basket and gets his defenders or help defenders in foul trouble.

So far Maggette has struggled adjusting to the Warriors system and I think something that is still effecting him is the injury he suffered early in the season. He has the green light pretty much like any other Nelson player, but he still hasn't found his jumper. He also hasn't been aggressive enough attacking the rim.

During the first games of the years the consistent problem the Warriors had were finishing games. The reason a lack of a point guard, so when Al Harrington had his little fit and demanded a trade. I felt like the Warriors would go after a point guard and those problems with finishing games wouldn't be that much of a problem anymore.

Boy was I wrong! The Warriors instead traded Harrington to the New York Knicks for Jamal Crawford. Earth to the Warriors Jamal Crawford is not a point guard he's another shooting guard looking to score.

The Warriors problems don't stem from Crawford though. It stems from the team's total disregard for defense. The most embarrassing display was against the Knicks where the Warriors gave up 82 points in the first half.

I will say this I think the game in Boston took any confidence they had in their defense. They played extremely well against the Celtics.

In fact, it wasn't the defense that was the problem against the Celtics. It was the referees falling for every flop the Celtics took and that momentum shift was the end of the Warriors. I believe though if the Warriors had actually received a point guard for Al Harrington they would have been able to hang on.

After that game is where the Warriors season has fallen apart. The Warriors should have beaten the Miami Heat. I still say they did beat them, but it will go down as a loss. Udonis Haslem traveled on the game tying shot to send it to overtime, but even before then the Warriors should have been able to get the rebound.

Rebounding has been a problem as well for the Warriors. Part of the reason why the Warriors went out and signed Ronny Turiaf was to help out with the rebounding and they currently have the second leading rebounder in the league with Andris Biedrins.

Yet, in the closing seconds of a close game the Warriors could not come up with that rebound. Now all that optimism that I had at the beginning of the season is now close to being gone. The only good news that I see is that with the West being not as strong as last year the Warriors are only eight games out from the fourth place team.

One problem found with the Warriors is the lack of playing time for the younger players. Both Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph should be getting 20 minutes a night and if they are playing extremely well then they should get more minutes.

I think C.J. Watson is a serviceable backup point guard in the league. He's a very tough player he has a pretty solid mid range jumper, but he needs to learn to penetrate and dish the ball off instead of always going for his shot. 

I see five winnable games for the Warriors for the rest of December that means there are nine games the Warriors will more than likely lose. Meaning that by the end of December the Warriors record will be 10 wins and 24 losses.

If the Warriors could surprise teams like Miami, Orlando, Denver, and Atlanta the Warriors could have 14 wins and 20 losses. It could happen, it more than likely won't but for some reason I have a lot of hope still for the team.

That hope is slowly disappearing with the way the Warriors have been playing recently. I don't see it changing anytime soon unless Don Nelson starts playing the youth. Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph have shown why they should be able to stay on the floor with their hustle and aggressiveness. Sure they will make mistakes, but they shouldn't be removed from the game because of it.

So, here I am looking stupid for making comments on articles and message boards with comments of hope for this team. Now, I'm looking stupid more and more every game the Warriors play. The question that must be asked how does the cycle of horrid play stop? The answer is it's time to wave goodbye to Don Nelson.

So, there's absolutely no hope of that happening considering it was Robert Rowell who gave Nelson a contract extension even though Nelson was never really expecting it. The Warriors had a plan that at the end of the season this would be Nelson's last. Rowell would rather keep Nelson just so he can say that Nelson surpassed Lenny Wilkens for most coaching victories in NBA history.

So, with that fact all hope is gone. I feel stupid for having hope that the Warriors would actually be able to stick near .500 and with the way the season has gone who knows what's in store for the Warriors for the rest of the season?

All I know is this the man responsible for the Warriors downfall will get to stay and the one who is responsible for the Warriors recent success is going to be gone. So, this begs the question is there any hope for the Warriors beyond this season? The answer is no because Mullin is going to be shown the door.

So call me stupid for actually thinking Mullin would be able to pull of some magic once Mullin knew that Ellis wouldn't be playing until January at the earliest. Call me stupid for actually believing that a roster with Andris Biedrins, Stephen Jackson, and Corey Maggette could hang in there until Ellis was back.

Call me stupid for believing Nelson was going to use his young guys. Just call me stupid for believing in the Warriors.