Your Golden State Woerriors

Stephen Curry seems like a lock now to make Team USA, a pretty significant accomplishment. He beat out the reigning rookie of the year, Tyreke Evans, who was probably in a hurry to get out of there. He’s playing in pretty good company (Rondo, Billups, Rose, and Gordan being the other guards), and he’s arguably the best shooting guard (with Billups) so he should see steady rotation minutes. He’ll probably mostly play at the 2 (although he can obviously play point), and if the France game was any indication, he’ll probably pair up mostly with Rose.

So how does this impact the Warriors? Sure it’s a great thing for Steph, but will he come back broken down and tired? What if he gets hurt?

The Pros:

He’ll come back a better player - This seems almost a sure bet. His team now is almost to the equivalent of an NBA all star team, and most people play to the level of their competition. These guys are competing against international teams, but they are also competing internally against each other for minutes. They’ll scrimmage against each other. They’ll learn from some of the best coaches in the game. No doubt Curry comes back a better player.

He’s a good ambassador – He’s media friendly, personable, and well liked by other guys and coaches. If anyone can mend the damage created by Nelson & Co. the past few years, it’s Curry. In the past, good players wouldn’t think of coming here. maybe that will change with the likes of Curry and Lee.

The Cons:

The physical toll – it’s alot of basketball to be playing before a new season, but he’s young, and would likely be training and playing pick up ball anyways.

The risk of injury – This is the big one to consider. If he gets hurt before the season starts playing international ball, the season will be a wash

The Verdict: Given the limited minutes that Curry will likely play, and weighing that slight risk of injury against the benefits of improved coaching and playing at a higher level, I feel that it’s worth the risk. To hold him back from such an opportunity would limit his development, as well as probably create attitude issues. As the face of the franchise now, Curry has a chance to finally bring some positive attention to the Warriors, instead of the typical bad story about a player wanting out.

I don’t hate Don Nelson. I actually like the guy. I’m old enough to remember the days when he was actually a very innovative and good coach (with the Bucks and Mavericks). I recently saw the terrific 30 for 30 film “Guru of Go” about Paul Westhead and his coaching styles with the Lakers and Loyola Marymount, and all I could think about was this is Don Nelson. Same philosophy. In its purest form, it’s very enjoyable basketball to watch. And the Warriors have been a fun team to watch under Nelson’s watch. Marcus Thompson II recently wrote about why he thinks the new ownership group might keep Nelson around through this season. Bad idea. Very bad idea.

I don’t really have a beef with Nelson’s coaching style of the game. I have a beef with Nelson’s coaching style of his players. He seems fairly oblivious to the concept of managing player’s minutes, as seen by his overplaying of Baron Davis, Stephen Jackson, and Monta Ellis over the past 5 years to the point where it cost them later in the season due to injury and fatigue.

He gets into personal beefs with players, is unable to resolve the beef in a professional manner, and ends up trading whoever is on the receiving end of his pissing match for junk. It’s happened over and over. The list is just too long to name names. Jamal Crawford is a perfect starter, but he’s only one of many. Nelson has had too much control over personnel issues, and no real accountability for his actions.

These reasons alone are compelling enough to argue there’s no reason this man should coach the team this year. But there are far bigger reasons to consider.

Reason #1 – Keeping Don Nelson Screams Apathy to the Fans

Keeping Nelson around for another year says one thing to the fans. Cheap. Too cheap to pay this guy off and start over. Start fresh. When you buy a house from someone, you don’t sleep in the old owners bed.

Reason #2 – What are you waiting for?

Nelson by Lacob’s own admission is a “lame duck” coach. But Lacob says he doesn’t want to be a lame duck owner. Can’t have it both ways. Cleaning house tells the fans that the rebuilding starts now, and this will in turn at least soften the blow of the losses as the team tries to forge a new identity around Curry and Lee.

Reason #3 – Changing the dynamic while the team is new

With so many new pieces on the team this year, including a future marquee player (Lee). another new starter (Wright), and a new bench, this isn’t the time to bring back a disinterested, lame duck Nelson. It’s the time to let a new coach mold and gel a new team.

Joe and Peter, please, listen to the fans. Let Nelson retire and let’s move on with a new plan and direction. Gives the fans a year of hope to build on, instead of another year of “maybe next year”.

And I’m not talking logos here. With free agency moves pretty much done now, the team will look much different from last year.

Gone are Corey Maggette, Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike, Rony Turiaf. In return, the Warriors got David Lee and a bunch of junk. At least the junk (Bell and Gadzuric) was swapped for junk (Maggette), and the loss of 3 popular players for Lee will be judged for some time down the road. If Lee works well with Curry and they become the next Stockton/Malone, the trade will be accepted, but almost short of that, the trade will be scrutinized and Lee with be under the microscope.

Personally, I love the Lee trade. I just wished they’d swapped Ellis for Lee. Anthony Randolph is a wild card, given the right situation he might be great, but I look at his ceiling as LaMarcus Aldridge and more realistically, he’ll turn out like Travis Outlaw, athletic leaper but kind of a bonehead player. Azubuike was making great strides in his game until a bad injury. Turiaf is what he is, but a great team player and character guy. Lee will make up for that with Turiaf’s loss (anther great character guy by all accounts).

Warriors will still have 3 guys (Curry, Ellis, Lee) that can give you 20 ppg. Team rebounding should improve strictly with the difference between Lee and Maggette (a 6-7 board spread). Playing Biedrins/Lee together gives them 2 guys willing to crash the boards. D. Wright is a better defender than Maggette. And Brandon Wright is a big unknown, but should get steady minutes with Udoh out.

On top of that, the Warriors set themselves up for next year’s free agent class with 13 million in expirings between Radmanovic and Gadzuric.

The biggest concern: Monta’s attitude. He’s on borrowed time and he knows it. Winning makes everything better, but if the team starts losing, watch for Ellis to make some noise

So here’s how the roster looks now (in projected depth chart order)

Point Guard – Stephen Curry, Jannero Pargo, Jeremy Lin

Curry will see most of the minutes, probably 35-40 per game. I think Pargo and Lin will battle for his backup minutes.

Shooting Guard – Monta Ellis, Charlie Bell

Again, I think Monta will see a lot of the minutes if he’s around. Reggie Williams will also see time backing up Ellis. Bell will play.

Small Forward – Dorell Wright, Reggie Williams, Vlad Radmanovic

Wright will start, but Williams will see a lot of playing time, split between the 2 and the 3. Vlad may play sparingly.

Power Forward – David Lee, Brandon Wright, Ekpe Udoh

With Udoh out, Lee and Wright will both see a lot of minutes, with Lee also playing center occasionally.

Center – Andris Biedrins, Dan Gadzuric

With only 2 centers on the roster, Gadzuric is 3rd on the depth chart (behind Lee)

So did the Warriors get better or worse? They couldn’t have gotten much worse.