by Mike
With the new league year starting today, time to dust off the ol’ blog again — and see if I can figure out the php code I wrote last year to get the stats engine updated for the new season. Oh, and did anything happen in the NBA in the past 24 hours?
by Jake
Marcus Thompson has a Biedrins trade rumor post up. The deal would be Biedrins for Hasheem Thabeet and Jordan Hill. First wow, those were some amazing busts especially Thabeet. Even if you thought Thabeet was not the #2 player in the draft (I was in this camp) you could not have thought that he would never be a serviceable back-up defensive center.
I have to admit that at the time of the Biedrins signing I thought it was a great signing. The right amount of money and the right terms (non-escalating). It was obvious that Baron was a huge part of Andris’s success but I would have never predicted he would become so awful upon the loss of BD.
I have to admit that getting expiring contracts for Biedrins sounds like a great deal. Get him off the books after 2012 and start over. My gut reaction was DO IT NOW!!! But after 5 minutes of thinking of it I can see why the Warriors may not want to make that deal. As MTII points out they don’t have anyone one better to replace him with and he can only improve from his disaster last year. Maybe Jackson thinks he can do something to bring back a bit of the old Beans working out in Oakland during the off season, I don’t know. I really want him to get better and be the 10-10 guy but I just don’t see it happening.
I would make this trade but it is not a slam dunk no brainer. Or maybe it is and I am over-thinking it. DO IT NOW!!! or maybe next week after mulling it over again.
Photo of a Photo by Rineke Dijkstra
Posted by Jake in trade rumors, Uncategorized
by Mike
Despite the universally acknowledged lack of quality, I find this draft fairly intriguing in terms of how it will all shake out — especially over the ten picks preceding the Warriors. Rusty’s sources are feeding him 5 names to focus on: Vesely, Valanciunas, Thompson, Singleton, and Biyombo. It seems unlikely that either of the first two will be available at 11, and I’d generally be satisfied with either of the latter three.
I watch a lot of ACC basketball and am a big fan of Singleton — he would immediately step in as the Warriors’ best perimeter defender, and my recollection was that his offense, while hardly his calling card, was usually well-timed. Biyombo also has the chance to be a major defensive presence, though the complete lack of offense and somewhat duplicative skill-set with Udoh raises concerns. Still, I think it’s fair to say that the Warriors need all the help they can get on defense, especially inside if they’re going to keep the small, reach-prone back-court.
I’m a bit more unsure on Thompson — sounds like he’s ready to step in and be an instant-offense guy off the bench, though his “lack of lateral foot-speed” seems to close the door to him ever being more than an adequate defender at best. I’m a bit more intrigued by Alec Burks who sounds more athletic overall, though he’s not close to the shooter that Thompson is.
The other guy who intrigues me is Keneth Faried. Yeah, he played in a small conference, but the dude put up massive numbers in terms of rebounds, a stat that usually translates well to the NBA. Wages of Wins pegs him as the most productive college player in the draft, with the (big) caveat that his numbers are inflated by the conference he played in. Perhaps the biggest issue there is that taking him at 11 would be too high, as he’s expected to last until the 20′s.
Overall though, I can’t say this is a very high-pressure pick — you’re not going to get a difference-maker at 11, and with the Warriors’ new brain trust I have more faith in their ability to avoid the stupid mistake (Fuller! Diagu! O’Bryant!) and at least get a servicable rotation player. Just as long as they don’t pick Walker or Fredette, that is — the last thing this team needs is another 6′ 2″ combo guard.
Outside of the 11th pick, there are a few other potential story lines: trades, buying another 2nd round pick, and getting into the tail end of the 1st round could give us an indication as to how aggressive (and eager to open the wallet) the new ownership will be going forward.
Posted by Mike in Front Office
by Mike
Via GoldenStateofMind, Jonathan Givony at DraftExpress is reporting that the Warriors have offered Biedrins, Ellis, and Udoh to the Magic for Dwight Howard. I’d have to imagine it will take more than that, though in the end it will depend on what other teams offer (Lakers/Bynum?) if the Magic decide they can’t afford to see Howard walk — a distinct possibility considering how much Shaq fleeing to LA with no compensation seems to still needle the fan base.
No surprise that Lacob would want in on this action — he saw how much of a difference a bona fide superstar can make when his Celtics acquired Kevin Garnett. I would certainly agree — and would do this trade in a heartbeat if the Magic gave the green light (this trade doesn’t work as-is salary-wise, so I’d assume the Magic would dump a bad contract in there as well).
I’d just be happy that someone is taking Biedrins, Udoh would become much less necessary with Howard prowling the paint (though how fun would it be to see them play together?), and while Ellis would be missed, there’s no question that Howard is by far the better player.
But what if the Magic want more? Is there a better combination that would work for them — and wouldn’t be too painful for the Warriors? There’s the #11 pick (I believe the Warriors would have to draft the player for the Magic and then trade him, since they can’t outright trade the pick before the draft), and of course, Curry is the other name that they’d surely be asking for (would they want also want to replace Biedrins with Lee in the deal, or would Lee’s contract scare them off?). Would you include Curry in a trade if it meant getting Howard?
I would, provided that Howard signed an extension. Howard is a clear top-5 player in the league, and some systems rate him as #1. If the Warriors could sign him to a long-term deal, I’d trade anyone to get him.
But if it’s just for the 1-year rental, then I’d keep Curry out of the deal. Sure, he didn’t make the leap many of us expected/hoped for, but he still has more potential for growth than anyone else on the team at an incredibly valuable position.
So we’ll see. I’d have to imagine that the Magic will get better offers, starting with the Lakers. But you never know — maybe the more “likely” trade partners get cold feet, in which case working aggressively to get in the game as the Warriors appear to be doing could just pay off.
A fan can dream, after all…
Posted by Mike in trade rumors
by Mike
Well, the early rumors about Mark Jackson being the front runner for the Warriors job weren’t the smokescreen I thought they were. I was initially a bit disappointed, but after letting it sink in for 24 hours — and learning of the Mike Malone hire — I’m definitely feeling a lot better about things. I like that he will have credibility as a former player; I like that he should be a hell of a PG coach for Curry; I like that he isn’t a retread; and I like that he appears maniacally driven to succeed in this new role.
(Of course, he also has no coaching experience of any kind.)
(Also, I found this article by Steinmetz interesting — in particular, the notes about how at the end of the regular season, it seemed like Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, Erik Spoelstra and Mike D’Antoni could become available. Just like this year’s draft class, the available coaching pool was severely limited this year).
Reading the transcript of Jackson’s chat with reporters tonight before Game 4 of the finals makes me feel a bit better about his inexperience — he’s aware of his limitations, but confident that he’ll overcome them. He’s expecting 100% effort on the defensive end, and I think that’s a different 100% than Smart demanded.
Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be the offensive and defensive scheming, and on that front the Mike Malone hiring is huge — and I love the reports that Lacob made him an offer he couldn’t refuse to keep him from rejoining Mike Brown with the Lakers. Now that is the sort of aggression and smart money-spending that we never saw under Cohan.
So consider me cautiously optimistic. I like the front office team that Lacob has put together (especially the West hire), something that has made me want to trust the team’s judgment more than I have in the past.
Throw in the reports of a potential Monta Ellis for Andre Iguodala swap — something I would do in a heartbeat — and we could be looking at a very different Warriors team by the end of the month. One can only hope — after all, even if Jackson proves to be the best coach in history he won’t get very far unless the Warriors upgrade the roster.
by Jake
Photo by Flickr user markybon used under a Creative Commons License.
The Warrior’s have a 0.8% chance at the number one spot thanks to their late season surge, but here’s hoping the NBA is happy to fix the lottery the Warrior’s way and they can at least move into the top 3.
Use this as a lottery open thread if you wish.
by Mike
It’s official: Keith Smart has been fired. I’m fine with the move, if — and this is a big if — they make an upgrade and don’t just swap him for a retread. Names currently being mentioned include Mike Brown (ugh) and Jeff Van Gundy (intriguing, though I’d rather have his brother), and Brian Shaw is also a name I’ve heard talked about in the past. That said, Shaw is currently an assistant with the Lakers so he can’t be hired yet, and my assumption is that they wouldn’t have fired Smart without a plan already in place. I guess we just have to wait for the other shoe to drop — more speculation from Steinmetz on potential options here.
Posted by Mike in Front Office
by Mike
Trailblazers 86 |
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Warriors 110 |
| April 13, 2011 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
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Trailblazers | 28 | 17 | 24 | 17 | 86 |
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Warriors | 30 | 21 | 34 | 25 | 110 |
| Net | 2 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 24 | |
| Season Avg | -2.9 | 0.8 | -0.4 | -0.1 | -2.2 | |
| Compare to Season Avg | 4.9 | 3.2 | 10.4 | 8.1 | 26.2 | |
| Warriors Stats | ||||||||||||||
| FG% | 3P% | FT% | FTA | Fouls | OReb | TReb | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turns | POTurns | PIPaint | FBPoints | |
| Game | 51.1% | 43.5% | 66.7% | 15 | 21 | 9 | 41 | 33 | 15 | 7 | 11 | 14 | 58 | 24 |
| Season Avg | 46.2% | 39.2% | 76.1% | 20.7 | 22 | 11.6 | 40.5 | 22.5 | 9 | 5 | 14.1 | 17.5 | 42.6 | 18.6 |
| Difference | 5% | 4.3% | -9.4% | -5.7 | -1 | -2.6 | 0.5 | 10.5 | 6 | 2 | -3.1 | 5.5 | 15.4 | 5.4 |
| Net Comparison | ||||||||||||||
| FG% | 3P% | FT% | FTA | Fouls | OReb | TReb | Assists | Steals | Blocks | Turns | POTurns | PIPaint | FBPoints | |
| Net Game | 17.4% | 1.2% | -9.3% | -10 | -6 | -8 | -7 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 38 | 10 |
| Net Season Avg | -0.6% | 3.5% | -1.2% | -7 | -3.6 | -1.2 | -4.3 | -2.2 | 0.8 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 2 | -2.9 | -0.8 |
| Net Difference | 18% | -2.3% | -8.1% | -3 | -2.4 | -6.8 | -2.7 | 17.2 | 8.2 | 5.3 | 6.8 | 9 | 40.9 | 10.8 |
And thus the season comes to a close, with a nice little win in front of the home town fans against the Trail Blazers’ 3rd-stringers. And with that, the Warriors finish with 36 wins, a 10-game improvement over last year but still 10 back of the last playoff spot. The Warriors will have the 11th pick in the draft barring any lottery upsets.
Nice game all around, with Reggie Williams playing the full 48 and leading the team with an efficient 28 points. Curry continued his hot shooting with 18 points on 7-11 from the field, and Dorell Wright became the first player in league history to score more points in his 7th season than in his first 6 combined. And 8 rebounds for Udoh! (But only 3 points.)
The Warriors once again lost the rebounding battle (they finished last in the league in rebounding margin, again, and without even resorting to small-ball much), but at least they moved the ball around great — 33 assists for the team, 10.5 above the season average.
Despite the win, the real news was the hire of agent Dan Myers to be the new VP of Basketball Operations. Despite an extension for Riley, the expectation is that Myers will take over most of the day-to-day GM duties before long. More on this in the weeks to come — have to talk about something during what could be an extremely long off-season, after all — but suffice to say this is the best news I’ve heard from this team in quite some time.
So onto another playoffs without the Warriors, and the countdown to the draft lottery, and hope springing eternal, and all that jazz. I guess I’m kinda used to a postseason-less season at this point, but it still sucks.
| Portland Trail Blazers (48-34) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| field goalsrebounds | |||||||||||||||||
| pos | min | fgm-a | 3pm-a | ftm-a | +/- | off | def | tot | ast | pf | st | to | bs | ba | pts | ||
| R. Fernandez | G | 34:52 | 2-8 | 1-5 | 0-0 | -15 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | |
| C. Johnson | C | 40:19 | 1-8 | 0-0 | 6-8 | -20 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 8 | |
| E. Barron | C-F | 36:39 | 2-10 | 0-0 | 1-2 | -35 | 4 | 9 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| W. Matthews | G | 24:00 | 5-9 | 4-7 | 4-4 | -12 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 18 | |
| A. Miller | G | 07:05 | 2-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 | -11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | |
| A. Johnson | 34:46 | 5-12 | 0-1 | 2-3 | -15 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||
| L. Babbitt | 33:20 | 4-17 | 2-5 | 1-2 | -5 | 3 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 11 | ||
| P. Mills | 28:59 | 7-16 | 4-7 | 5-6 | -7 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 23 | ||
| L. Aldridge | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| M. Camby | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| B. Roy | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| G. Wallace | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 240 | 28-83 | 11-26 | 19-25 | 17 | 31 | 48 | 18 | 15 | 6 | 19 | 1 | 7 | 86 | |||
| 33.7% | 42.3% | 76.0% | team rebs: 9 | total to: 21 | |||||||||||||
| Golden State Warriors (36-46) | |||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| field goalsrebounds | |||||||||||||||||
| pos | min | fgm-a | 3pm-a | ftm-a | +/- | off | def | tot | ast | pf | st | to | bs | ba | pts | ||
| D. Wright | F | 36:00 | 8-21 | 3-9 | 1-2 | +20 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 20 | |
| D. Lee | F-C | 40:28 | 6-13 | 0-0 | 1-3 | +18 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 13 | |
| E. Udoh | F | 29:03 | 1-5 | 0-0 | 1-2 | +16 | 4 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | |
| R. Williams | G | 48:00 | 12-18 | 4-8 | 0-0 | +24 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 28 | |
| S. Curry | G | 24:09 | 7-11 | 2-4 | 2-2 | +16 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 18 | |
| J. Lin | 23:51 | 5-8 | 1-2 | 1-2 | +8 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 12 | ||
| L. Amundson | 12:00 | 2-5 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | ||
| V. Radmanovic | 04:09 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| A. Thornton | 12:00 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 2-2 | +4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| J. Adrien | 10:20 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 2-2 | +9 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 6 | ||
| C. Bell | DNP – Coach’s Decision | ||||||||||||||||
| M. Ellis | DND – Grade 2 Concussion | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 240 | 45-88 | 10-23 | 10-15 | 9 | 32 | 41 | 33 | 21 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 110 | |||
| 51.1% | 43.5% | 66.7% | team rebs: 11 | total to: 12 | |||||||||||||
inactive
technical fouls
scoring
arena stats
Posted by Mike in Postgame Box Score
by Mike
Portland
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Golden State
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Oracle Arena
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| 2010-11 Meetings | ||
|---|---|---|
| December 18, 2010 • Recap | ||
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Warriors | 95 |
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Trailblazers | 96 |
| December 25, 2010 • Recap | ||
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Trailblazers | 102 |
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Warriors | 109 |
| April 5, 2011 • Recap | ||
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Warriors | 108 |
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Trailblazers | 87 |
| April 13, 2011 • Recap | ||
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Trailblazers | 86 |
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Warriors | 110 |
This is it, the merciful end to the season. No matter what happens tonight, this has to be considered a year of deep disappointment for the Warriors. On the heels of a new owner and a big offseason acquisition, it seems like if anything the team regressed from last year (despite the increase in wins). At least last year there were significant disruptions (Stephen Jackson) and injuries to blame things on (I just don’t buy the argument that David Lee’s injury cost this team that many games — the stretch he missed was one the Warriors would have had trouble succeeding in anyway).
Instead, we have a new high-paid interior player who just isn’t that good inside, an owner who appears surprisingly accepting of treading water (when he isn’t stocking the bench with inferior players), and a team that STILL CAN’T PLAY ANY FUCKING DEFENSE. Top it off with the fact that our potential-star young PG didn’t take the leap forward that most of us expected this year, and it’s hard to feel that this franchise has turned much of a corner — much less put itself on the path to the playoffs.
Really, the only things to get excited about is that the players genuinely seem to get along for once (not insignificant, considering the history of the franchise) and that their draft pick doesn’t appear to be a bust (though the smart money is on him remaining limited throughout his career).
As for tonight, I’ll kinda be rooting for a loss. I don’t feel this team deserves the AWESOME ACHIEVEMENT of a 10-win improvement over last year, and they could potentially tie Milwaukee for the 10th-worst record in the league (I think the draft position would then be decided by a coin flip?). That’s unlikely as the Bucks would have to win but are playing their final game at Oklahoma City, and considering that Portland’s playoff position is set I doubt they’ll try hard.
So if they have to win, I’d just love to see something positive from Udoh and Curry. I just don’t trust this front office to get anything done, so if the Warriors are going to be any better next year I feel like those two are going to have to be the primary drivers of improvement.
