SB Nation User Blog: myk

Decision time: upgrade our talent or wait for ours to develop?

myk — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 23:15:18 -0000

I've come to the sad realization that we do not posses the talent to be a successful NBA team (I mean in terms of wins not dollars, Cohan!). Not just now, when everyone is injured, but even 100% healthy we'd only be able to manage to get swept in the first round by the Lakers. So this post is about a decision that our front office is in the process of making. Upgrade our talent or wait for ours to develop.

Looking ahead to next year, barring any trades or free agent aquisitions, our team is fairly solid. I'd say Andris, Buike, and Monta are the only players we have that would start on a top 10 NBA squad. That is a problem, a big problem. We do have an excellent 6th man in Maggette, Turiaf is also a great player to have coming off the bench, so are Randolph, Wright, Morrow, and Curry. The problem is that 2 of them have to start. I believe if Wright can stay healthy, he will be better than Randolph next year. He is in a better place mentally, and he also understands the limitations of his game better than AR. Brandan could be a wild card for us, he has an efficient offensive game, and he plays solid defense. Even assuming that Brandan lives up to these expectations, and no one misses significant time, we'd still only manage to get about 45 wins tops. That's probably an 8th seed, maybe the 7 spot. Which means we would be playing the Lakers, Nuggets, or Rockets with Yao, any of those teams would sweep us.

However, we do have a collection of really young players witha lot of potential. We can hold on to them and see what happens with that potential, or we can use that potential to try and aquire one big piece. Many trades have been suggested, Boozer, West, Bosh, and Amar'e have all been mentioned. Bosh is the only one of them I could see as a great fit for this team. There is also the free agent market next summer that has a lot of really good players available. The one player that would best help us, and that we also could realistically sign, is Joe Johnson.

Most people around this site and those in the know with the Warriors seem to think that our biggest upgrade needs to come in the frontcourt, I disagree. As established, Buike, Monta, and Andris are starters on a top level NBA team. Ronny and Corey are great 6th/7thmen on a top level team. So that leaves us next season with Curry, Morrow, AR, Vlad, and BWright. Out of those 5, BWright is the best at what he does, and he is our best low post scorer, which is something we need. Monta, Steph, Buike, A-Mo, and Corey are our only guards, and Nellie would never use Corey as anything but a forward. Our frontcourt has AB, BW, AR, Ronny, and Vlad, we could also easily retain Mikki. When you consider that Buike's contract is up after next season, and we need another all-star player who can take over a game to help Monta, Joe Johnson seems to bee the perfect fit. Nellie would continually start Monta, Joe, and Andris, our collection of other players would allow him to play mismatches as he sees fit. This also gives Morrow and Steph time to develop, since they don't seem capable everyday starters yet, and they're probably a year or 2 away as it stands now. Plus Johnson is a solid ball handler, he passes well, excells in the up tempo style, and he plays good defense.

So that's my solution, as painful as this year will be, that seems to be the most logical solution going forward. Just the same the ticket sales are down. Us fans are sick of losing, and we're only more likely to avoid the oracle as this gets worse. Plus there is a feeling that we're waisting Monta. The pressure is there this season for them to fill seats, but the injuries have also ruined this season. What would you do?

Poll

Pretending that this FanPost is going to be read by the Warriors front office, what is your message to Larry Riley regarding the personnel of this team?

20 games into the season, 6 wins. How many will we have when it's all said and done?

myk — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 03:36:42 -0000

So we're about a quarter of the way through the season, our record is 6-14, and we just came off a very embarassing loss to OKC. Monta is an all-star, and Morrow will be at all-star weekend to shoot 3's, other than these 2 facts, and a couple surprising victories, this season has been awful!

Luckily this mostly has to do with injuries and the amount of road games we've played. I expect Biedrins and Ronny to miss the rest of this roadtrip, I also expect us to go 1-3 for the rest of this roadtrip. We'll get a slight boost when Ronny and AB get back, but right now we have little to no production from our PF's. This is at least true on the road. Luckily the second half of the schedule is littered with home games. So, I expect us to turn it around a little bit and basically go .500 the second half of the season. This is assuming we don't make a trade, this is also assuming Biedrins and Turiaf make full recoveries relatively soon. If they don't and we have to keep running with Monta and the NBDL all-star's this could be a very long season...

Anyway, this post is here so people can estimate a win total for this team, and give some reasons in support of their opinion. I'll get it started. Assuming Ronny/AB come back soon/100%, and AR/Curry/Morrow improve, I'm estimating 33 wins for this team.

33's my number, what's yours?

Sefolosha to guard Monta, Morrow delayed in Detroit...

myk — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:07:41 -0000

Sefolosha to guard Monta, Morrow delayed in Detroit...

Looks like Monta will have to deal with another Ariza-like defender tonight. Didn't go so well against Houston. Morrow was delayed in Detroit as of 1 p.m., he might not get to the arena til the 2nd quarter.

Jack trades, based on his requests. Then mine...

myk — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 22:53:02 -0000

Cap'n Jack wants out, so I thought of ways we could let him go while getting decent value back. Since he had some specific requests, I'll address those first, then move onto some other trades I find worthwhile. There are some trades that involve dumping Maggette as well. There are still a lot of trade restrictions that don't go away until Dec 15, so this is a post that assumes Jack will get traded before the season starts. All suggested trades are trade machine approved.

Cleveland/New York: I looked up and down these rosters, outside of LeBron, there's absolutely nothing I would want from either team. I wasn't looking to make a salary dump with no value in return so I decided to forgo making any trades with these teams. This doesn't mean that the front office won't make a salary dump to appease Jack, although I don't know why they would.

Texas

Dallas: Jack+Acie+BWright for Josh Howard

I think this is an awesome trade for us, and for Dallas. We lose front court depth, which sucks. But we get a player who is just as good, if not better than Jack. On top of getting Josh Howard, we also get his contract, which expires at the end of the year.

Losing the front court depth BWright adds makes me apprehensive, but not as much as replacing a leader on and off the court like Jack with Josh Howard. His behavior and motivation have been in question several times in his career, with our young team I'm not sure that's a very good idea.

Dallas just aquired Marion's bad contract, and they still have Dampier's contract for 2 years, so I'm not so sure they want to take on another long term contract for an expiring. However if they want to win this year or the next Jack is the better post season performer. Plus they probably wouldn't have the money to keep Josh Howard after this year, so this ensures they get something back for him. Throw in BWright as an added bonus, Dallas may very well go for this.

Houston: Jack for Battier + Joey Dorsey

Being from Port. Arthur, Jack would love to go to Houston. We get front court depth in Dorsey, we get help on D and with rebounding in Battier. I honestly don't really like this trade. Battier has 2 years left at around 7 mil a year. Dorsey has 3 left, but he is on a cheap rookie contract. If we made this trade, I would see Maggette starting and Battier being a 6th man, Nellie wants the starting lineup to score. This is the best trade that works for us that I could also see Houston going for, this trade isn't that good. I don't see Jack going to Houston.

San Antonio: I have two proposals for San Antonio, they focus on the same player, one just involves dumping Corey

Jack+Speedy+ either Acie or George (can't be traded 'til Sept 30) for Richard Jefferson

This trade allows us to trade Jack for another veteran SF who has great offense and solid defense. San Antonio loves Jack, Timmy loves him, Pop loves him, the fans love him. They would probably go for this trade. RJ has two years left on his contract at ~15 mil a year. I'm not sure how I feel about this trade, I wouldn't be disappointed in the least, at the same time I wouldn't be ecstatic about it.

Jack+Corey for RJ+either Finley or Mason Jr.

San Antonio wanted Corey before we signed him, that's not the contract they wanted for him, but getting Jack, who is virtually as good if not better than RJ, for half the money makes this deal. As the dubs we obviously ask for Roger Mason Jr, San Antonio obviously suggests that we take Finley. Both are solid vets on the last year of their deals. Mason Jr is better, Finley is a seasoned vet and a good teammate, good for the locker room. I've only suggested these two trades because Jack wants to be traded. Although I don't think this trade makes us any worse than we are now.

Other Trades

Atlanta: Jack+Corey for Joe Johnson+ Mo Evans (I know, pretty unrealistic)

This is obviously wishful thinking. Both Johnson and Evans are entering the last year of their contracts, and they should have enough money to sign both next season. Obviously we do this because we get two vets, Johnson is a beast, and they are both expiring deals, which would mean we would have over 20 mil in expiring contracts heading into next season. Atlanta probably wouldn't do this trade, I promise this is the most unrealistic trade I propose.

Boston: Jack+Corey for Ray Allen

I really have no idea whether Boston would go for this. Jack isn't that much worse than Ray, plus they also wanted Corey for a 6th man role before we signed him. They aren't worried about having cap relief in the next few years, they are already built to contend for the championship for the next few years. This just adds to their bench scoring and their D. Ray Allen is Ray Allen, but even better he is Ray Allen on the last year of his contract, which would mean we would have over 20 mil in cap space heading into next season. A Monta and Ray Ray backcourt would be Nellie's dream. I love this trade. It also gives more PT to Buike, Steph, and Morrow.

Chicago: Jack for John Salmons

Salmons' contract is expiring so we would obviously do this, it's also 500,000 or so less than Jack's. Chicago probably wouldn't do this, they obviously are looking for cap relief to sign D-Rose long term, this move would definitely be counterproductive.

Orlando: I also have a couple different trade proposals for this one

Jack for MP2, JJ Reddick, and Ryan Anderson

I know there are a lot of Pietrus haters who would definitely be opposed to this trade. However, he is on a 2 year deal at 5 mil for this season, it may go up or down, I don't know. JJ and Ryan Anderson are on 1 year deals, so more cap relief.

I don't know why I am even putting this next trade up I'm not sure I like it, nor do I think Orlando would go for this

Jack+Corey+BWright For Rashard Lewis+ JJ Reddick

Yuk!!!! I love Lewis as a player, but his contract is wack , and would be counterproductive to clearing cap space. However, having AR and Rashard playing the 4 and the 3 for the next four years would make for an interesting take on Nellie Ball. If we wait until Dec 15 we could have Barnes instead of Reddick. This move would force Orlando to play BWright, Bass, or Gortat as their PF. However the additions of Jack, Vince, and Corey, as their 6th man, would mean that Lewis' offense would not be missed. I wouldn't be pissed if this trade went down, I'm just not sure it makes us better.

Phoenix: I would first just like to say that I have never proposed reaquiring J-Rich, and have never supported a deal that would do so.... until now.

Jack+Corey for J-Rich and 2 players out of Tucker, Dudley, and Lopez, or we can wait and have Pavlovic at the end of Sept.

We dump Corey and Jack's contracts for J-Rich, and expirings, or one expiring in Pavlovic's case. Phoenix would probably do this. This is decent for us, we all get to wear our J-Rich jersey's to the response of smiles not sad faces.

Jack+BWright+Acie for J-Rich

J-Rich returns, but we lose frontcourt depth

Jack+Speedy for J-Rich

This is the best trade for both teams. We don't give up anything besides Jack and 5 mil in cap relief. Phoenix recieves 5 mil in cap relief towards keeping Amar'e. I would be down for this trade. Monta J-Rich Azu AR AB with Steph Ammo Corey BW Ronny off the bench. That's a good trade for us.

Utah: Jack+Speedy+BWright for AK47

This is the same trade that has been thrown around, except we take out Maggette and add Jack. Sure we have to take on AK's bad contract for 2 years, but I think this trade is lateral at worst, and could actually be a positive. We would start Monta either Buike or Morrow with AK47 AR and AB. Corey comes in for any player between the 2, 3 , and 4 because AK can play the 4. I don't really see us losing anything on offense, Kirilenko in Nellie's system would do wonders for his offensive output. We would see a vast improvement in D and rebounding though. I don't see why Utah wouldn't make this trade, not only do they get Jack, they also get 5 mil in cap relief next year, and they get BWright. This is a good trade.

Washington: Jack+Azubuike for Caron Butler+Nick Young

I'm not sure Washington goes for this. Losing Buike sucks, I didn't realize he is in the last year of his contract, that's what the trade machine says anyway. We get Butler for 2 years, Young is in the last year of his contract. I would be down for this trade, but the Wiz would probably pass.

So these are just some ideas that I came up with after getting pissed about Jack's demands. I'm not putting up a damned poll because they are now overused, I'm more interested in feedback through comments

Amar'e Deal All but Dead According to MT II

myk — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:09:41 -0000

Amar'e Deal All but Dead According to MT II

"A source told MediaNews that Stoudemire thinks the Warriors would be giving up too much (leaving him with little left to work with) and that he doesn't want to play center."

Amar'e and I are on the same page. We give up too much, Amar'e is not a center. Maybe this means we trade for Kirilenko:

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2009/6/28/928411/wow-this-trade-would-really-help

Wow, this trade would really help our team

myk — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:16:45 -0000

Before the draft the word from the Warriors front office was that we had four players we were not willing to trade, they were labeled "untouchables". The foursome were Monta, Morrow, Randolph, and Biedrins. I agree that these four are "untouchable" and they are a great young core to build around. After listening to Larry Riley tell the media, on mutliple occasions, that we are looking to add a veteran player who can play the 3 or the 4, who can defend and rebound well, this trade came to mind.

http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=kk8jkv

Why we do it

Basically we get the exact type of player that Larry Riley was talking about, and we keep our "untouchaebles". His contract only has 3 years left, and AK47 is a great player. His offensive numbers, mostly his scoring, would increase by moving to the Warriors. Not only would he greatly improve our defense/rebounding, but he also moves the ball around really well. We'd basically be getting the opposite of Corey Maggette. One of the things that had been tripping me up about the Amare Stoudemire trade was the fact we were trading two of our big men and only getting one in return. This would make our frontcourt depth really weak, especially if Amar'e or AR were to get injured. With this trade we're giving up one big man and getting a solid vet who can play the 3 or the 4 extremely well.

I think Utah would do this trade because they don't really use Kirilenko to his full potential anymore, and they know it. Plus the current free agent situations of Boozer/Okur/Milsap could get messy for them, BWright is a great young PF with a lot of room to grow. Not to mention that one of his best games, if not his best game, last year came against Utah. Belinelli basically just sweetens the deal and gives them a talented guard who can backup either position and shoot the ball well, I think Sloan would really like to work with both of their games.

So what do you think?

Poll

If you're Larry Riley do you try and make this trade?

Yes. This is a great trade for us

108 votes

No. Because... (state in comments below, Please!)

94 votes

202 votes | Poll has closed

Does the proposed trade for Amar'e improve us?

myk — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 02:44:21 -0000

So the proposed trade for Amar'e would include Andris, Buike, BWright, and either Belli or Curry. Amar'e is an amazing NBA player, I'd love to see him on our team, more as a PF though. What were our issues as a team last year? Defense, Rebounding, and Health. Our lineup now looks like this

PG:Monta/Curry/Marco

SG:Jack/Morrow/Marco

SF:Buike/Maggette

PF:AR/BW

C:AB/Ronny

as opposed to...

PG:Monta/Curry or Marco (one is gone)

SG:Jack/Morrow

SF:Maggette/Morrow/Jack

PF:AR/Kurz?Davidson?

C:Amar'e/Ronny

This trade makes us worse on defense, especially around the perimeter and worse at rebounding, mostly by the absense of Buike. Also because AB is a better defender and rebounder compared to Amar'e. It also takes away our depth. After last seasons experience, I don't see why Riley would want to dump our depth. Imagine if Amar'e goes out for a month or 2 with an injury. Ronny and AR, with Corey back to playing PF, that sounds awful.

Keeping Buike allows us to play Corey off the bench. (6th man of the year!). His absense also makes us very thin at the SF position. This trade is asking for too much.

If the trade was AB and Corey (to make the contracts work) plus Curry or Belli, then I would really be wrestling with this one. But the trade that is actually being proposed is too much. Especially when thinking about DEFENSE, REBOUNDING, and DEPTH. That's just me. What do you think?

UPDATE: According to Marcus Thompson, if they wait until after July 1st, they could do the trade without Buike, which is better, but I don't think Phoenix would do it without him...

Poll

Does the proposed trade for Amar'e improve us as a unit?

Yes: Because... (Specify in comments below)

185 votes

No: Defense,/Rebounding not improved, Depth severely weakend

154 votes

339 votes | Poll has closed

Do you believe in Monta's ability to be our PG?

myk — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:19:27 -0000

Many of us perceive the PG position as our biggest problem. Nellie has been saying for the last 2+ seasons that Monta needs to be a PG in this league in order to be successful, I agree. He is too small to be a great 2 guard. Many of us feel that Monta should be traded because he doesn't fit well in our backcourt. Others suggest trading back for BD, while others see no problem with Monta being our PG. Here's what I think.

Since BD seems to be everybody's preferred example for a great Dubs PG in Nellie's system, I will attempt to explain how easily Monta can "change" his game into one that is similar, if not identical to Baron's.

Many of us seem to think that Monta needs to become a "Pass First" player to be our PG. I'll submit that this idea is not true. First of all, I would not describe BD as a pass first PG, in fact, the only 2 active PG's I would describe in that manner are Nash and JKidd. Baron looked to get his shot more often than he looked to make a pass.

This is just true. Considering all the offensive threats we had on our team, including Monta, Jack, Al, MB, J-Rich, etc., Baron should have easily averaged 10+ assists in at least one season with us. Nash would have. Baron just simply preferred to score. Which was not (is not) a problem. If you can put up 20 points a game in the NBA, you should do that, especially playing for Nellie. BD was a perfect fit for this team because he wasn't a pass first PG, I don't think we would have won anymore games with Nash as our point. In fact the season where we won the most games with Baron, 48, he had his lowest assist average out of any year with the Warriors at 7.6.

Monta is a more efficient scorer than Baron, and more importantly he is a better shot selector. To me that is one of the main things a PG needs to know how to do to make his team better, when to look for a shot, when to pass. Monta is not one of our Dubs that makes us cringe when he pulls up to shoot, ala BD and Jack, so that is already an improvement. Monta will score more efficiently and more intelligently that BD. Part of the reason Monta does this is because he understands the limits to his game, he is not going to shoot off of one foot falling backwards from 23 ft out, he probably won't even shoot form 23 ft out very much. As stated, he understands the limits of his own game. Even though he is younger, I'd say he does that better than Jack or BD, that makes him a very valuable ball handler.

What else makes him valuable as the primary ballhandler? His quickness. BD may have better handles than Monta, Jamal certainly does, but Monta's quickness makes it just as difficult for a defender to steal the ball from him. Can Monta pass? Yes, he can pass well, that's why he is in the NBA as a guard. Can he pass better than Jack? I don't think so, Jack drops some pretty spectacular dimes, but as I said, Monta is a better decision maker than Jack. He doesn't force as many stupid passes as Jack, sure he has forced stupid passes, so has BD, so has Nash, so has CP3. BD was just coming out of UCLA at this age, Monta has already had 3 years of NBA defense to get used to passing around. If not next season, sometime in the near future, we'll see Monta average Baron's Dubs average of 8.2 assists.

Another point of this post, other than comparing Monta to BD, is to show that as a team, we don't need a prototypical PG. We simply need a solid passer and ball handler at the point. Being that we'll have Dre, AR, Buike, and Jack in our starting lineup it is even more crucial that we have a lethal scorer at the point. That's what Monta is. He is the best out right scorer I have ever seen in a Warriors uniform. I was only born in '88, and I blaze a lot, so my basketball memory doesn't really start til about '96. Since I was so young I paid most of my attention to Michael Jordan. So maybe others of you feel differently, but I still stand pat, Monta is the best scorer I have seen in a Warriors uniform.

So it would be criminal to take that out of his game and out of our team's game. We need Monta to score, we need him to do what he does best. Sure, as our PG he does need to ensure that ball movement is consistent, but I would say that it's more crucial for Jack and Corey to work on that. In order for the Dub's to be most successful as a team they need to have ball movement. Everyone needs to get touches. We have to stop letting Jack and Corey become black holes on offense. Monta does need to set that tone in some regard, but since he's had people telling him he needs to be a PG for almost 3 seasons, and he has had a large number of fans and the media questioning his ability, I believe Monta understands what he has to do; he's also motivated to prove he can do it. We have scorers in almost every position, we're the Warriors, that should make it easier for Monta to become a solid PG.

We are not a typical NBA squad, we don't need a typical PG, Monta is the perfect fit for our squad. The only thing BD does better than Monta is post people up, but now that we have AR, BWright, and Ronny, we don't need Monta to do that. Monta just needs to score when he can, but learn not to force it.

All of this aside, our biggest problem was perimeter D last year. Monta playing the point allows us to play Jack and Azubuike with a legitimate PF, thus greatly improving our defense from last year. Everyone says we need a superstar, Monta is our best shot, and our team is at its best when he is playing PG.

Poll

I have faith in Monta becoming a successful PG for our Warriors, do you?

Yes!! Monta is our future PG!!!

254 votes

No, Monta will never be a quality NBA PG, especially not for our team

173 votes

Not sure, we'll find out next season

245 votes

672 votes | Poll has closed

AR Puttin' in work. Next season starts now.

myk — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:18:04 -0000

AR Puttin' in work. Next season starts now.

Good article from MTIII. Gets me stoked to see what sort of form he'll be in and what sort of player AR is gonna be next year. Enjoy

Don't stress about the Draft, trust in Larry Riley!

myk — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:01:32 -0000

Not really, but don't worry because it doesn't matter. Everyone seems to be stressing about the upcoming draft. I don't know why. No rookie, none, will play a significant role for us next year. Unless of course everyone is injured like last season, but then it won't matter becasue we would just be heading back to the lottery. The truth is, in case you forgot, Nellie doesn't play rookies, unless he absolutely has to. I know pretty much everyone is praying for a PG. There have been some pretty lively debates thanks to Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holliday. But it doesn't matter.

We'll most likely be starting Jack and Monta with Jamal, Marco, A-Mo, and possibly CJ backing them up. Keeping in mind that Nellie doesn't play rookies , there is no PG, with the possible exception of Rubio, that would even play (unless we're in garbage time). Our backcourt is set next year, unless we don't resign CJ, than we need a 3rd string PG, I guess there's where a rookie comes in.

Monta/Jamal/CJ? or Marco

Jack/Marco/Morrow

Buike/Maggs/AR or Jack or Morrow

AR or BWright/ the other half of the twin towers/Maggs/Buike/Jack

Biedrins/Turiaf

Being that Nellie will only play 10 or 11 guys at most, I just listed all 11 (excluding CJ). Looking at that lineup actually makes me feel that we need another SF/PF. Someone had mentioned Portland trading up to get Curry. If we could get Outlaw and their 24, that to me is the best scenario. Outlaw off the bench is perfect for us. Plus we would get a quality NBA player guaranteed, none of these rookies is a guarantee. Being that this trade won't happen either, our 7 pick doesn't matter. Nellie probably likes this lineup anyway because the mass amount of SG/SF we have will allow him to play Maggs, Jack, and Buike some at the 4, which Nellie loves.

So while it is fun to imagine us getting a ROY or even a solid rookie who will be significant, the fact of the matter is that it's not going to happen. But hey, the season is over, we're almost 5 months away from the next one, at least this gives us an excuse to get together and talk about our Warriors.

Plus we were injured last year, there is reason to 'Believe' in next season.