Now that the preseason is officially over, I wanted to get a thread going on what starting lineups and rotations everyone thinks will be most effective this year. 

First, some background reading, with comments from Nellie regarding the starting lineup:

• MTII's blog post on Ws vs Hornets
• Rusty Simmons column on SFGate

However, if history is any indication, Nelson's comments about starting lineups should be taken with a grain of salt. He is one of the most fickle coaches in the league (maybe of all time), and you can be guaranteed he will continue to tinker with the lineup all season. In 3 years as head coach of your Golden State Warriors he's used 35 (06-07), 23 (07-08), and 47 (08-09) DIFFERENT starting lineups. As a footnote, with 15 healthy players, there are actually
( 15! / ( 5! * (10 - 5)! ) ) = 3003 possible starting lineups, and you know Nellie will consider each and every one of them.

My vote for the most effective rotation is:

PG: Monta / Curry / Watson
SG: Jack / Morrow / Curry
SF:  Magette / Buike / Law
PF: Randolph / Turiaf
C:   Biedrins / Moore
PINE: George, Claxton

With a minor tweak against teams with big front lines, like Utah:

PG: Monta / Curry / Watson
SG: Jack / Morrow / Curry
SF:  Randolph/ Buike / Law
PF: Turiaf / Magette
C:   Biedrins / Moore

As usual, this year's Warriors team is guard-heavy and lacks size.  BWright would have given us a lot more depth at the 4.  I expect see Nelson trot out 3-PG lineups all year long: Monta + Curry + Law or Monta + Curry + Watson, until we get demolished on the boards.

As the great Tim Roye would say: It's going to be a Rotation Sensation!

The first week power rankings are out and the Warriors are ranked 18th (10th in the West).  Here's what ESteinPN had to say about us:

With Baron Davis in L.A., Monta Ellis out indefinitely and unmistakable tension in the front office, Golden State is asking its famously patient fans to be understanding again. At least there's some good young talent here.

At least he has the Clippers at 19th!

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/powerranking?season=2009&week=0

 

Call me crazy... but what about Kirk Hinrich? Al Harrington straight up for Hinrich works on the ESPN trade machine.

Why the Bulls might go for it:

1. Chicago just drafted their future PG in Derrick Rose.
2. Harrington only has 2 years left compared to Hinrich's 5 years.
   
3. Chicago would probably like to get Hinrich's contract off their books.

Why the Bulls might not go for it:

1. Harrington duplicates a lot of what the Bulls already have in players like Nocioni, Deng (if he stays), and Gooden.
2. The Bulls GM made a comment after the draft about Rose not being ready to start right away, which might mean they're not ready to give up Hinrich just yet.

Considering the available PGs (free agents or players other teams would be willing to trade), there really aren't a lot of options.  Anyone (especially if your name is Chris Mullin or Don Nelson) have a better idea?

Poll

Hinrich for Harrington - straight up?

57%

No, that would be a horrible trade.

59 votes

42%

Yes, Hinrich as the new starting PG.

44 votes

103 votes | Poll has closed

How does everyone see the season ending?  At this point, it's basically a 3-way race between the Warriors, Dallas, and Denver for the 7th and 8th spots.  

In case anyone doesn't remember from last year, here's how the tiebreakers work:
1) head-to-head record
2) division record (if head-to-head is tied, and teams are in the same division)
3) conference record (if head-to-head is tied, and teams are not in the same division)
4) winning % vs. playoff teams in the same conference

In your posts, copy and paste the remaining schedules for each team, and replace the '?' with a 'W' or 'L' to make your predictions for how this crazy race will finish.

Poll

Where will the Dubs end up?

55%

7th

19 votes

38%

8th

13 votes

5%

9th

2 votes

34 votes | Poll has closed

Continue reading this post »

After watching Monta's outstanding game against the 76ers I started thinking about why he's not starting.  True, that was his first really dominant performance of the season, but in general his numbers are only slightly down this year:

06-07 vs 07-08
MPG: 34.3 vs 32.7
PPG: 16.5 vs 14.5
FG%: 47.5 vs 44.4
3P%: 27.3 vs 26.3
FT%: 76.3 vs 68.3
RPG: 3.2 vs 2.8
APG: 4.1 vs 2.8
TOs: 2.87 vs 1.58

Last season he started in 53 of the 77 games he played in.  Maybe Nellie is trying to motivate him to earn the starting job?  Even though his personal stats don't look great, his +/- numbers have been pretty good.  He's in 13 of the Warrior's top 17 5-man +/- rotations (from nba.com):

Do you think Monta's play thus far has earned him the starting job?
     

Poll

Should Ellis be Starting?

75%

No - He's better as a 6th man

48 votes

25%

Yes - Give me more Ellis to the Rim!

16 votes

64 votes | Poll has closed

Want to get your mind off the 0-4 record or the frightening possibility that it could be 0-5 after tonight?  Yeah, me too.

I found the link on Damon Bruce's KNBR page to this song, which totally made my morning.  Here's the first couple lines:

God is a Warriors fan
Satan loves the Lakers
JRich has got the plan
Kobe is a rapist
Doesn't anybody feel like I do?
I hate Kobe, I hate Kobe
...

It's goes on from there.  There's a verse on the A's vs the Yankees too.  

Yesterday, Janny Hu wrote on SFGate about the current state of the roster:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/warriors/detail?blogid=39&entry_id=19205

Here's the depth chart from that article:

PG: Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Sarunas Jasikevicius
SG: Stephen Jackson, Marco Belinelli, Kelenna Azubuike
SF: Matt Barnes, (Mickael Pietrus)
PF: Al Harrington, Austin Croshere, Brandan Wright
C: Andris Biedrins, Kosta Perovic, Patrick O'Bryant, Adonal Foyle

We all know that Pietrus hasn't resigned yet and that if no other team wants to use their MLE on him, then we'll probably get him back on the cheap.  The name I was surprised to see missing from this list was Stephan Lasme.  Atma wrote a couple weeks ago that we had signed both Wright and Lasme at the same time:
http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/story/2007/7/16/161442/199

But looking on RealGM, it says that we only signed Wright:
http://www.realgm.com/src_recent_transactions/2008/07/

Personally, I'm really hoping Lasme makes the team somehow.  Maybe Pietrus will resign with another team or maybe Cabbages will head back to the Euroleague, as streetballer posted a few days ago:
http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/story/2007/8/6/112521/7728

Lasme's college numbers were impressive:
http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/bviewplayer.asp?Player=25794
Not to mention that he's one of only 3 players in NCAA history to get 4 triple doubles in one season:
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=270590113
(of course he got his triple doubles the hard way: rodmans + points + BLOCKS!)

What does everyone think about the state of the roster?  Is there any hope of getting rid of Foyle? (sorry Zorgon) How come we haven't signed Lasme yet?

This was on the Murph & Mac show this morning.  It's part 2 of the same song they did on their show awhile back.
Playoffs, playoffs, whoa, whoa, yeah, we comin' home.
Playoffs, playoffs, whoa, whoa, yeah, we comin' home.

The playoffs are here in sweet old Oaktown.
And the Warriors are gonna make Barkley look like a clown.
The arena will be rocking with the fans on their feet.
The playoffs are here and it feels so damn sweet!

Playoffs, playoffs, whoa, whoa, yeah, we comin' home.
Playoffs, playoffs, whoa, whoa, yeah, we comin' home.

David Simon on nba.com had some nice things to say about the Dubs.  Full story here: http://my.nba.com/forum.jspa?forumID=400012156

It's great to see the team and BD getting respect from someone outside of the local media.  Dig it!

ONE DUB!

Maybe we shouldn't be incredibly shocked by the Game 1 outcome. I mean, is it just possible that this Golden State team isn't your typical 8-seed? They have now won 17 of their last 22 games and I would suggest that they would be the favorite in a 7-game series against five of the 15 other playoff teams (Jazz, Lakers, Magic, Wizards, Nets) and probably a pick 'em against the Nuggets or Raptors.

So we're basically saying that they are as good or better than about half the teams in the playoffs. Maybe that makes them the equivalent of a 4 or 5-seed. Should we really be that shocked by a 4-seed playing a 1-seed tough?

The whole 8 vs. 1 scenario is clouding the issue. This is a fair fight.

This might be stating the obvious, but Baron Davis is really good. I guess we're just not used to seeing him healthy and at his best, but anyone who was watching their first NBA game on Sunday night would definitely be shocked to hear that Baron has only made the All-NBA Third Team once in his 8-year career (2003-04).