http://www.sbnation.comhttp://www.sbnation.com/users/WhatWouldTerryCummingsDo Posts made by WhatWouldTerryCummingsDo on SB Nation http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2007/7/14/8912/21763 WhatWouldTerryCummingsDo Sat, 14 Jul 2007 12:09:12 -0000 <p>This is not a KG thread though it's probably (very) loosely related:</p><p>I've been following the Dubs religiously since I was a kid watching Sleepy Floyd explode on the Lakers in the playoffs. Anything and everything Warriors related I've devoured without question, whether or not it was good for my health, That said, I've followed Don Nelson's career closely since then, and I've notived certain... tendencies, I guess. So many GSoMers post that we need to get KG now, and that Nellie won't come back unless it's for a "contender". But that logic is suspect, I feel, judging from what Nelson has done throughout his career.</p><p>Exhibit A: Nelson is "let go" from a team one year removed from losing Game 7 of the NBA Finals, though it is clear that he was never particularly enamored of this team to begin with, a team which was, back then, a "contender" in every sense of the word...</p><p>Exhibit B: Nelson "retires" towards the very end of the season, and names his assistant, Avery Johnson, head coach; strange, because they were every bit a playoff team, made the Finals the very next year, and had the best record in the NBA the year after that...</p><p>Unlike Larry Brown (who has a similar hunger for hopeless reclamation projects) Nelson is a personnel guy, and not just an Xs and Os guy, with a very clear, distinct (and singular) vision of what a basketball team should be. If he ever had the personnel (and size) he really wanted, he would blow everyone else in the league out of the water--at least, that's the rationale he always gives. The 1992 All-Star Game, in which Nellie was head-coaching against Phil Jackson, he won in the biggest blowout ever in that contest, by putting unorthodox lineups out on the floor (3 PGs and 2 centers: KJ, Hardaway, Magic, Dream, and the Admiral)--it was just an All-Star Game, but still, I've never seen a more dominating performance on any stage (except, perhaps the Mavs-Warriors series this year)...</p><p>But I don't think Nellie gets off on stuff like that. He took the Knicks job and learned quickly from that. It's not that he would much rather have no expectations whatsoever (which is what Cuban tried to claim about him in the wake of the Mavs playoff exit), but that he's so anti-establishment, that the second the media, etc, start to feel him, he wants no part of it. Witness the 94-95 GS Warriors, Sports Illustrated's so-called "dark horse" to win the championship. Witness his business dealings with his former and ex-current bosses (Cohan, Cuban, and Cohan again). &nbsp; &nbsp;He likes to buck conventional wisdom, stick it to the man, and find success in the unlikeliest of places more than anything else--even more, I dare say, than winning championships. He's won plenty of those with the Celtics as a player. He's 67 freaking years old--what's really in it for him? My guess is that it's fun. It's so much more fun exceeding humble expectations than trying to fulfill lofty ones...</p><p>That said, the team we have now seems tailor-made for Nellie: rife with question marks, loaded with potential but not too much in the way of expectations. I think he comes back for at least another year or two--with a restructured contract, that is. If we trade for KG, he probably steps down in February, and leaves Keith Smart to pick up the pieces... &nbsp;<br /> &nbsp;</p>