The lower echelon of the Western playoff picture revolves around the fortunes of four or five teams. We have two of them today. How you call these teams, plus maybe
GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Record: 48-34, 3rd in Pacific Division, 9th in Western Conference
Statistical Comparisons
Notable:
1st in the league in scoring (111.0 ppg)
30th in opponent scoring (108.8 ppg)
26th (tie) in opponent field goal %
2nd in steals
1st in opponent turnovers
Others:
13th in ppg differential (+2.2 ppg)
12th in field goal %
23rd in three-point %
16th in free throw attempts per game
18th in free throw percentage
8th (tie) in assists
19th in blocks
8th in turnovers
Good offensive rebounding team
Very Poor defensive rebounding team
Movement
Significant Additions: Corey Maggette, Ronny Turiaf, Marcus Williams, Anthony Randolph (R)
Significant Subtractions: Baron Davis, Mickael Pietrus, Matt Barnes, Patrick O’Bryant, Austin Croshere
Roster
Coach: Don Nelson
Key Players
PG: Monta Ellis, Marcus Williams
SG: Stephen Jackson, Marco Belinelli
SF: Corey Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike
PF: Al Harrington, Brandan Wright
C: Andris Biedrins, Ronny Turiaf
Comments
Call me a fool, but I don’t like what happened to the Warriors over the summer. I wasn’t exactly married to Baron Davis, whose brilliance is marred somewhat by on-again, off-again tendencies. But the devil you know is often better than the one you don’t. I do like Corey Maggette for what he is: one of the league’s more underrated scorers. The Clippers always had a love-hate relationship with the guy. I never saw that much of a problem. Nevertheless losing Baron and getting Corey seems like a wash for a team that needed to go forward, not sideways. They have Monta Ellis at point, which is great for scoring but will take some adjustment as far as passing goes. He’s not a great three-point shooter either, which is a useful attribute for a ball-handler. Basically those wing players run scorer-scorer-scorer, which is great if you’re playing the slots, but not usually that productive in the NBA. I know all about Don Nelson, but even for him this may be a little much. Of course he won’t have to worry about fitting in those three guys for at least a third of the season, as Ellis is out, which leaves a decent-sized hole at point.
The frontline is interesting. I believe Andris Biedrins is going to be one of the better non-star centers in this league for a long time. He’s the kind of Rik Smits player who might get an All-Star berth at some point but isn’t going to be mentioned alongside the best big men of his generation. He fits well into
That’s pretty much the story with the Warriors. You can’t bag on them…they’re good. But with this much effort, with this system, with the talent they’re trying to acquire you want more than “non-baggability”. When you walk away from a fireworks show you want to be saying, “WOW! That’s the best display I’ve ever seen!” not, “Yeah…you can’t really find fault with that.” I fear Golden State will trend more towards the latter than the former. The scoring should be there. The opportunism should be there. But the uncontrolled opposing offense will probably be there also, plus the rebounding issues, plus the shooting issues. The Warriors just aren’t in as good of a position as they were two years ago in depth, record, or execution, and they seem to be treading water instead of reversing the trend.
Read more about the Warriors at the eternally popular GoldenStateofMind.com.
Record: 55-27, 2nd in Pacific Division, 6th in Western Conference
Statistical Comparisons
Notable:
3rd in the league in scoring (110.1 ppg)
1st in field goal %
1st in three-point %
4th in free throw percentage
1st in assists
2nd in blocks
Others:
6th in opponent scoring (105.0 ppg)
7th in ppg differential (+5.0 ppg)
13th in opponent field goal %
21st in free throw attempts per game
22nd in steals
17th in turnovers
20th (tie) in opponent turnovers
Very Poor offensive rebounding team
Very Poor defensive rebounding team
Movement
Significant Additions: Matt Barnes, Robin Lopez (R)
Significant Subtractions: Gordon Giricek, Brian Skinner
Roster
Coach: Terry Porter
Key Players
PG: Steve Nash, Goran Dragic
SG: Raja
SF: Grant Hill, Boris Diaw, Matt Barnes
PF: Amare Stoudemire
C: Shaquille O’Neal, Robin Lopez
Comments
One of the recurring themes of the training camp report that ESPN’s Marc Stein filed from Phoenix this year is that the Suns, behind new coach Terry Porter, are all but abandoning the premature ejaculation offense that made them both prolific scorers and sure sell-outs around the NBA. The move was all but mandated by the acquisition of the mature, plodding version of Shaquille O’Neal last year, but it doesn’t take a bloodhound to smell the admission that
You’d have to have skipped the last four NBA seasons to miss what is right about
So let’s throw out all of the stats and the blitzkrieg offense and try and project what the Suns will look like in a more conventional game. As long as Shaq is active their rebounding should go up. They’ll create more misses and be in better position to grab them, which is all to the good. The Suns do need to keep moving so they can’t afford to stall at the opponent’s end trying to corral the ball. Their shooting game and unselfishness should also remain intact. These are veterans who have nothing to lose and everything to gain by playing together. Grant Hill and Steve Nash aren’t going to mess up your team with ego. They aren’t going to make many mistakes either.
On the down side, I’m not sure Shaq and Amare are compatible in a halfcourt game. Both are best in the post. It’s not Zach Randolph and Eddy Curry, but you wouldn’t expect both to score 20. In fact we don’t know what Shaq can do, period. He’s nowhere close to the dominant force he used to be. If he has a disappointing season then that front line gets thin quickly. The Suns may be forced to return to small ball in that case. On the defensive end you have some slow feet. It’s one thing to adopt a defensive philosophy. It’s another entirely to put it into practice. I don’t think the players will have any trouble picking up the new system conceptually but when you’re not used to playing a style it doesn’t come easy. That mental game will get even interesting if
The best chance for
It’s hard to imagine
Read more about the Suns at BrightSideoftheSun.com.
--Dave (blazersub@yahoo.com)