A Response to the Article, Improving the Warriors in Seven Easy Steps

In an article titled "Improving the Warriors in 7 Easy Steps", Tim Kawakami had some good points in what the Warriors should do to help the team progress and get experience for their young players. 

Here's a list of the seven steps that Kawakami points out.

Step One: Fire Don Nelson

Step Two: Hire Keith Smart

Step Three: If Keith Smart doesn't play Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright, find a coach who will play both. 

Step Four: Trade Monta Ellis 

Step Five: Don't repeat with what the Knicks did a few years ago trading away under performers for a team's mediocre larger salary players. 

Step Six: Grin and bear that the Warriors will go 24-58 this season.

Step Seven: Hope for a good pick in the lottery. Blake Griffin out of Oklahoma. Make a run at Flip Saunders or Eddie Jordan.

Tim has some good points in the article, specifically the first one. The firing of Don Nelson and his $15 million that is owed to him. Except, again, Tim has missed the point.

Robert Rowell has given Nelson a contract extension and the only way he's going to leaves the Warriors is if he resigns, which one can only hope for. 

The second point doesn't even make sense, considering he is talking about putting Smart as a interim coach to see if the Warriors defense improves. Well, Nelson already has Smart on the defensive side of the ball and after the last few games, Smart has failed miserably. 

Maybe if Smart was running the team by himself it could be better, but I don't see that happening. The Warriors' coaches do not spend enough time on the defensive side of the ball and the same mistakes are made game after game. 

According to step three, Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright needs to gain experience in games. If Smart doesn't play either of them many minutes, then he should be gone as well and a coach who will play the young players will be hired. 

This goes back to step one the firing of Don Nelson. Which again isn't going to happen, considering Nelson has repeatedly stated he is going to be the coach of the Warriors. So, this doesn't really make sense. I can see Randolph only getting playing time if he starts playing well in practice and doesn't miss the defensive rotation. 

Quite possibly the stupidest idea of all the steps is Kawakami's call for Robert Rowell and Monta Ellis to patch things up so Ellis can be traded in February. I'm sorry Tim, but this is the worst idea.

Ellis is the future of the Warriors' franchise. He can easily make the transition to the point-guard position. Unfortunately, it won't be until next year because of his ankle injury suffered from the moped accident. 

Ellis and Biedrins need to be kept together. Part of the reason why Baron Davis is gone is because the priority was to get Biedrins and Ellis signed. They did that but unfortunately the injury to Ellis occurred. Most importantly, how does trading Ellis help anything? The answer is that it doesn't, it just makes things worse. 

Part of the reason why (as Kawakami stated) was the fact that the Warriors have a ton of shooting guards on their roster: Marco Belinelli, Jamal Crawford, Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike, and Stephen Jackson.

Sorry Tim, C.J. Watson is not a shooting guard and lumping him in with why it would be hard to find playing time for Watson isn't really a problem right now. He's the backup point guard who's being forced to play since the Warriors lack one right now.

With Ellis back, Watson goes back to the backup point guard role where he did a pretty good job. 

Jamal Crawford is under contract for the rest of this year and has a chance to opt out, which he's most likely to do. Part of the reason why the Warriors traded Al Harrington for Crawford is because he was only going to be a Warrior until the end of the season.  

Trades, well, apparently, from other articles I've read, the Warriors are staying put after the rumor of a possible return of Baron Davis. But, of course, that rumor was just spread by Jackson. 

The only way the Warriors should even think about trading for a player is if they are going to immediately improve the Warriors' defense. If not, then there's no reason to make a trade absolutely no need to. 

The second to last step of grin and bear has been a reoccurring theme for the Warriors before their last two winning seasons. The Warriors' fans know how to grin and bear; we don't have to be reminded on how to do it.

It's just amazing how a solid team now is a retched team, thanks to a team president and an owner who doesn't care about his team. 

The last point of trying to hire Flip Saunders or Eddie Jordan is wishful thinking. Again, this goes back to the same point I've made earlier in the article. The only way this will be able to happen is if Don Nelson resigns or retires and it doesn't look promising that it will happen. 

Oh and hoping for the lottery, it's pretty much a given now that the Warriors will be in it, it's just a matter of where. The Warriors need a point guard, not another low-post player, considering the fact that on step three that Kawakami was wanting to see Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright in the lineup. 

With Wright and Randolph, where would Griffin go? Would he take minutes away from both Randolph and Wright? Biedrins is the center, he's not going to lose minutes. So that's calling for bigger problems then because the Warriors already have two young power forwards who aren't getting any playing time.

Although it would be nice to get Griffin, I see the bigger need at the point-guard position. The Warriors need someone who's able to create off the dribble and not turn the ball over. 

Stephen Jackson has been the point forward and has done an adequate job, but sometimes his passes are just way too predictable that lead to turnovers and points for the other team. It's nice to see that Jackson is averaging just over six assists per game, but his turnovers are up. 

In reality for the Warriors to take seven steps to make the team better it should go like this. This is going to be for the Warriors under Nelson because again he's staying put. 

Step 1: Trade for a defensive presence on the perimeter, someone like Shane Battier. Put a package deal of Jamal Crawford and a pick to get Battier. 

Step 2: Continue to give Marco Belinelli minutes. Even though he had a bad game against the Thunder, his all around game has improve drastically. 

Step 3: Keep starting Brandan Wright, eventually he will learn to use his feet and stop committing silly fouls. 

Step 4: Give the ball to Biedrins and Wright in the post more because they have excellent vision and can locate the open player or score on the inside. 

Step 5: Rest Stephen Jackson more. He's having a terrible season shooting the ball and Kelenna Azubuike has been solid recently, especially from beyond the arc.

Give him some of the minutes that Jackson has been getting so he can rest his injured wrist and be more fresh in close games as well. 

Step 6: Put more emphasis on defense in practices. If the Warriors could even show at least half the effort they had against the Celtics, they could improve mightily on defense and actually become respectable. 

Step 7: When the season is over and the Warriors are drafting, get a player that they need. If there's a point guard coming out who's a solid defender, get him. The Warriors need defense on the perimeter.