Quick thoughts:

• I am the only person in California without an HD TV, so I kept having flashbacks every time Bogut and Lee were on the court at the same time. I caught myself thinking, “huh Biedrins is getting some early minutes.” Thank god those are just flashbacks
• Hott damn Klay Thompson. That was impressive even if against a crap Lakers team. 38 points in 3 quarters. I almost wish the game hadn’t been so close so we could have seen how hott he could get, but in the long run I’d rather take a rested Thompson for tonight’s game against the other LA team.
• Iguodala is really hard for my dyslexic brain to spell, but he looked great on defense and that fast break give and take with David Lee was pretty.
• Back to Thompson, once Barnes gets healthy, this interplay between 5th/6th man is going to be interesting. I expect them to get roughly equal minutes, even if the hot hand gets more minutes during a single game. I just cannot decide who fits the 6th man spark-plug role better, but I think it might be Thompson.
• Anytime you can win a game and Steph Curry only score 10 points is a good day.
• I’m a Bazemore fan boi heavily influenced by watching him in Santa Cruz, so it was nice to see him hit a couple of 3s.
• Which one of the Euros becomes the human victory cigar? Should be an epic battle.

(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.