image credit: http://europebasketball.net

A few thoughts about the Golden State roster and potential moves quick hit style:

1) It looks like the Warriors are going to sign Nate Robinson.  Ughh.  I hated the guy at UW. I hated him even more with the Knicks.  He can quickly become a ball hog who is not nearly as good as he thinks he is. I don’t care that he is a 5’9″ slam dunk champion. I don’t care that he has a chip on his shoulder. We don’t need another selfish offensive minded guard.  Boo. I don’t think this is a play-off year so I would rather see what Ish and Jenkins can do.

2) DeMarcus Cousins may be available.  Sounds like the Warriors are not interested, but I certainly am.  I just got done saying the Warriors don’t need another selfish player, but for Cousins talent I would be willing to make an exception.  I want to think that Jackson would have more credibility with Cousins than Westphal does for the reasons of NBA experience, age, and hell I will just say it, maybe even race. I would trade Biedrins and take on Rudy Fernandez’s bad contract for Cousins in a heart beat.  I would think about including Udoh too.  However this would all rely on Jackson being okay with the trade.  If he says no go then I would trust him on this one.

3) TK suggests trading Monta to Chicago for one of their four bigs: Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, Omer Asik or Luol Deng. I gotta say I am not in love with any of those four guys.  I haven’t liked Noah’s antics since his time at Florida and while Taj Gibson is an interesting player I just think Monta for Gibson straight up is not enough.  Deng … meh … $12M, $13M, $14M over the next three years.  Way too much money for my taste.  Monta is cheaper and better.  I am sure Chicago would jump at a 1 for 1 trade giving away any of those four named.  I would not do it from the Warrior’s end.  I know they need to do something different and trading Monta is probably the best way, but I don’t like the value in any of the above trades.  Also, I am less and less sure that Monta is the guy that has to go rather than Curry.  I am starting to think Curry’s ceiling is no where near a Steve Nash, and probably more around a Monta Ellis (albeit a different player).  Curry has a lot more value on the trade market.  The Warriors need to explore what they could get for Curry, compare that to what they can get for Monta and they may find out that they can get much more for Curry, to the point that they could be a better team with Monta + new additions, than they will be with Curry + worse new additions.

Thoughts?

Once again, I’ll be watching the matchup between the 5th and 6th players taken in this year’s draft. While Ekpe certainly has a lot to work on this summer (offense and rebounding in particular), he’s been a presence defensively and has even looked a bit better when shooting in recent games. Cousins has had his own ups and downs, but I still can’t shake the feeling that he’s exactly the sort of inside presence that the Warriors really need. So it would be nice to see Udoh win the matchup and give us something to feel good about tonight.

With Cousins coming on strong the Warriors bigs will need another good performance, but if they can bring similar energy to what they did last night the team should be in good shape. I think Evans is still out so that should dampen the Kings’ scoring abilities a bit, so another strong defensive performance is there for the taking.

Just like last night, this is a game against a team the Warriors should beat handily. Nothing less than a win will do — and maybe they can do it without last minute heroics for once?

• Play like the better team — this time, for reals. Perhaps it was a bit much to expect a blowout on Wednesday against a well-coached Pacers squad, but tonight there really are no excuses. Sacramento is on a slide, and with a game tomorrow night in LA against the Clippers it would be great to give the starters a bit of rest.
• More of the Wright stuff. Brandon Wright was the surprise contributor against Indiana, with 6 points and 12 big minutes. Let’s see if he’s the first big off the bench, or at the very least gets some run in the second quarter. I’d still be shocked if he ever becomes a consistent contributor for the dubs, but at the very least I’d love to see him build his trade value up from its current negative value.
• 5 vs. 6. I don’t expect Udoh to get much in terms of minutes, but when he’s in there I hope to see him guard Cousins. Could be a good matchup for Udoh, as Cousins’ relative rawness means he won’t be pulling any crafty veteran moves on Udoh. A solid block or two could go a long way toward easing the pain of last season’s late “run” that gave the Warriors the 6th pick instead of the 5th.

A diagram of the W’s game tying 3 to send the Sacto game to OT. I think the author may be giving Smart et al. too much credit but it worked so credit where credit is due.

Joe Lacob answers a Warrior’s fan’s e-mail.

Despite making choke signs and then choking himself, Demarcus Cousins may be starting to get it.

Rod Benson is back to the blogging thing and publishes his diaries from Indiana Pacers camp.

UPDATE: One more. Warrior’s assistant coach Stephen Silas is the new interim head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats. Cannot really say how big of an impact this will have on the Warriors but it is not usually a good thing to lose an Assistant Coach who is of head-coach quality to another team (although an argument will be made on whether Silas is qualified or got the job out of nepotism, but I don’t know enough to participate in that argument).

(Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)

Well, how about that! VladRad makes up for A LOT with that deep bomb to tie the game (not to mention 13 4th quarter points), and it was enough to forget that the Warriors gave up two monster runs to a horrible Kings team.

For the first time, they were able to fully climb their way out of a deep hole of their own making. Sure, the game shouldn’t have been this close, but I think Lauridsen put it best: “Meeting exceptionally modest expectations is still better than collapsing below them.”

I’m wondering if Smart started reading Feltbot, as for the second straight game the Warriors had 31 fast break points. That made up for getting beat on the glass, as the Kings managed to break into triple digits on field goal attempts — but only hit 39%.

Monta’s efficiency was way down but he still carried the scoring load for the team, and his circus shot near the end of overtime was one of his all-time best. Reggie Williams also regained his touch, scoring 24 points and almost making us forget his 1-3 from the line in the closing seconds of regulation.

The Cousins-Udoh matchup I was looking forward to didn’t turn into much: Cousins struggled from the field but was still a beast on the glass. Udoh cooled off from last night and didn’t score a point (didn’t even take a shot), and it’s pretty clear that he was winded by the end of his run (as any human being would be after playing nearly 50 NBA minutes in 26 hours after logging just 8 in the previous 8 months). While Udoh’s -9 was the worst on the squad, I still like his activity and great hands. Plus, he’s avoiding something that has plagued every rookie Warriors big man that I can remember: constant fouls (and it’s not like he’s avoiding physical contact).

So now the Warriors get a few days off before their Christmas night matchup against the Trail Blazers (think the NBA schedulers wish they could have this one back?). By all accounts Curry should be back, and hopefully we’ll see Biedrins back on the court as well. Maybe then we can get the minutes smoothed out a bit more — Law backing up Curry, Reggie subbing for Monta but still providing some scoring punch, Amundson down to the low-minute energy guy that he should be (how about his 6 fouls in 13 minutes tonight?), and maybe even some VladRad and Carney at the 3 to get Wright down to about 30 minutes a night.

But for now, good to get a win that the Warriors HAD to have. It was more stressful/exciting than it should have been, but at this point in the season, with postseason chances slipping away with every turnover (seriously, can anyone catch an interior pass on this team?), I’ll take it.

Things seem to be working out so far, with a rejuvenated and positive Monta leading a group that had a college-style team dinner before their first game. After nearly two decades of players avoiding the Warriors like the plague (and acting like they had it when they were here,) this would be a great turnaround that could make a big difference in terms of attracting free agents (though not as much as just winning consistently would).

As for how this relates to the Simmons, I guess I’ve been living under a rock but I didn’t realize that DeMarcus Cousins is already having attitude issues (not to mention some ridiculous foul problems). I think the draft was early enough that Lacob had no contact or influence with Reilly (where as the Lee trade occurred after they agreed to the sale in principle), but in an alternate universe where Lacob was in charge at that point I almost wonder if they would have pulled the trigger on Udoh (who really does sound like a great guy) even if they had the 5th pick.

Of course, if the Warriors are going to pull a KG-to-Boston type trade, the superstar they get will more than likely be disgruntled (otherwise, why would he be available?). So that could prove to be an interested test of just how seriously Lacob takes attitude (and, of course, attitudes can change when situations change as well). Would he roll the dice on a risky player with the hope of a Michael Vick-style outcome? Time will tell.

One more thing from the column — I enjoyed this blurb on the Warriors:

In the summer of 2007, Philly barely trumped Golden State’s lucrative Elton Brand offer, and then the Warriors got blindsided when Baron Davis fled for the Clips. In the summer of 2009, the Warriors backed out of a handshake deal with Phoenix that would have sent Biedrins, Brandan Wright and Curry’s rights to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire. Last summer, the Warriors turned down Memphis’ offer of O.J. Mayo and Hasheem Thabeet for Ellis. (Note: Everyone thought they were crazy. Me included. Now they look like geniuses thanks to Ellis’ scoring binge.) You know what’s great about this? The Warriors spent the past 35 years giving up the wrong guys too early and acquiring the wrong guys too late, always to the chagrin of their absurdly loyal fans. Somehow, they went four for their past four with big decisions/breaks. See? There’s hope for everybody.

Maybe we’re finally done shipping out future all-stars! Wouldn’t that be something — though the Lee-Randolph trade will probably let us know for sure…