SB Nation User Blog: warriorsscore110

2011-2012 Season should be the End Game

warriorsscore110 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:34:56 -0000

The Warriors are in midst of another season where we are headed to another high lottery pick. Nothing new here, but what do we do to fix the problem? Making 1 trade or firing our coach won't make us an elite Western Conference team. We need to establish a long term plan. 2011-2012, that season should be our end game. We are not going to the playoffs this season, and odds are that we won't make it next season either. Let's start formulating a plan to make to the playoffs in the near future and a plan to stay there. Plan of Attack:

This Season

-Trade Corey Maggette

Sounds impossible, right? It just depends what we are asking for. A combination of Maggette and expiring contracts for 2011 expiring contracts could be enticing to many teams especially if we agree to take back worthless players. Examples

-Maggette and expiring contracts for Eddie Curry and Jared Jeffries, and possibly Wilson Chandler.

-Maggette and expiring contracts for Michael Redd.

-Maggette and expiring contracts for Peja Stojakovich

The idea is if we are asking for no talent back, and contracts that don't expire till the end of next season and offering those teams salary relief at the end of this season, it might not be as hard to move him as thought possible.

-Trade CJ Watson

If we offer expiring contracts plus CJ Watson and be willing to take back contracts that don't expire till 2011, getting a late first rounder will be simple, we might be able to score additional first or second round draft picks.

Off Season

-Seek replacements for Nellie and his entourage

Nellie is a great coach and he is going to be gone after the 2010-2011 season at the latest. If there is a better coach available at the time, pick him up. If not a suitable candidate is available, simple wait till the end of the following season. When Nellie leaves, it's time for Riley and Smart and the rest of the Nellie regime to leave as well. The general manager position would have to be filled to, so start looking for candidates either this offseason or next.

-Draft the best player available

Take the player that has the most overall talent available and worry about fitting our pieces together. It's time to take the risky high potential players.

-Give Anthony Morrow the QO

By giving Anthony Morrow the QO, he would still be a restricted free agent at the end of the 2011 season with a cap hold of fewer than 2 million dollars. If a team signs him to an offer sheet, we will have to match it, but hopefully we can skate by with keeping him on the books for cheap at the moment. In the 2011 summer, we can sign him to a long term lucrative deal after exhausting our cap space.

-Don't use the Mid-Level or Bi-Annual exception to sign a long term deal

Save our cap space for the following summer. Fill out the roster with veterans at the minimum and D-Leaguers. Use the MLE only if a player is willing to sign for only 1 season.

-Try to trade Monta Ellis

In the much hyped 2010 free agent ‘bonanza' there will be many teams that walk away empty handed. If any of those teams want to grab Ellis for expiring contracts and draft picks, it might be the perfect opportunity to sell while Ellis's stock is at its highest.

Next Season

-Trade Vladimir Radmanovic, Ronny Turiaf, Brandan Wright, and Kelenna Azibuike

Trade these guys during the season to any contenders that want some help. Pick up expiring contracts and draft picks. If unsuccessful at trading them, they will come off the books at the end of the season. Radmanovic can have some value as a backup wing player. Turiaf is signed for the following season at a little over 4 million (PO) but that's not an overpay for a quality backup big man. Wright would still only be 22 and any team that picks him would have him as a restricted free agent at the end of that season. There might be a few teams that would give an end of the first round pick for Wright. Azibuike can net us a late first rounder as an expiring contract and as a solid swing man.

2011 Off Season

We would hopefully have a couple of draft picks in this draft; ours would almost definitely be a lottery pick. By the time free agency comes around we would have only the following number on the books: Biedrins, Curry, Randolph, and Morrows QO number, along with 2 or so draft picks form the 2010 draft, and 2 or so draft picks from the 2011 draft. 2011 free agent class will not be as stocked as the 2010 free agency class, but there will be several young good players to add to our young nucleus, especially if we are one of the few teams that have the salary cap space available to make a run at these players.

Will this happen, probably not. Rob Rowell and Chris Cohan don't have the desire to see a loss at the gate for a better future, and they both definitely don't have the clout to ask the Warrior fans to be patient. While Nellie and Riley speak a good game when talking about preparing the team for the future, I find it hard to see Nellie embrace a complete rebuilding project his last 2 seasons as a coach. But since the Warriors are only a successful team in my imagination land, here is my scenario to fix the Warriors in an imaginary scenario where I the Warriors both wanted to be a successful franchise and was consulting me on how to do it.

Thankful at ESPN

warriorsscore110 — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:07:36 -0000

Thankful at ESPN

Thanksgiving's Daily Dime had 9 ESPN basketball writers write a few lines on what they are thankful for in the young basketball season. Most talked about Kobe, Celtics, Hawks, Nash, parity, and other exciting issues. However 3 of them did happen to drop the Warriors in their basketball thanks:
"We should be thankful that Golden State didn't draft Brandon Jennings because we wouldn't be witnessing one of the finest rookie performances in years. Nellie would probably have him in and out of the lineup, 35 minutes one night, six the next (i.e., Anthony Randolph)."-Chris Boussard
"...the Golden State daily drama,"-Chris Sheridan
"I'm thankful for any time I turn on a Golden State Warriors game and Anthony Randolph is actually playing. He's one of the most unique players in the league, and yet Don Nelson insists on playing him only 21 minutes a game, making Randolph sightings unexpected surprises -- like flipping through TV late at night and catching 'Cheaters.'" - J.A. Adande
Nice to know that if writers can talk about one thing the new NBA season, the joke that are the Warriors are high on their list.

Pessimism at its best, (read at your risk!!!)

warriorsscore110 — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 07:17:13 -0000

This season looks very bleak. The near future of this franchise looks very bleak. The generally friendly bay area media and the east coast sports biased do their best to keep the absolute dysfunction and debauchery of the Golden State Warriors off the top headlines (being ridiculously unsuccessful the last 15 years helps as well) on ESPN and other sports related news outlets, but most of us stubbornly hardcore Warrior fans either know the truth or pretend we don’t know the truth.

I am a die hard 25 year old pessimistic Warriors fan that has very little faith in this current assemblage of players and even less faith in the front office. If you are a fan that still believes that we can make a serious run at the 8th seed (and that would be worth it) or that our youth movement is on the right track this time around, I implore you to stop reading at this point.

Reasons why this is going to get much worse before it gets better (in no specific order):

Monta Ellis and Stephan Jackson's dissatisfaction with the front office

Jackson and Ellis are the 2 best players on the Warriors. Jackson has not made any effort to hide his disdain for the Warriors and their recent moves. From a second round playoff team to a 48 win team, to a 29 win lottery team this team has gotten worse every year Jack has been here. He has seen JRich, Baron, Air France, Mohawk Barnes, and TMNT, all get ungraciously tossed to the curb by this franchise. While many of us did and still do (me included) make great reasons for why those moves were necessary, none of those moves were followed by any moves that made any sense. While many of us didn't not want to see the team built on a flawed 8th seed gimmick team, almost all of us would have preferred that to being a lottery team that is a complete joke across the country. Jackson has been very upfront for a trade to a team that resembles a winner, and has come out and said that he played ‘Bobby' Rowell for a contract extension because it was the smart thing to do. Jackson has no allegiance to this team and will look for his first opportunity to get out of here. While Jackson has been a great teammate on the court and a terrific performer (at times), no one will ever confuse Jackson with a consummate professional. This is a pile of dynamite that Jackson is tossing lighter fluid on. On top of that Nellie, Riley, and Rowell are trying to persuade the fans that this is not that big of a deal. It is a huge deal and this is going to get much worse before it gets better. Either it leads to a horrible trade for us or Jackson slowly burning the locker room down to the foundation.

Then there is Monta Ellis. Monta Ellis, the same guy that was the future face of the franchise one long year ago. How times change. Monta Ellis has been spending the summer has been working out hard this summer with Stephan Jackson and working on his game. Good news for us is he has stayed away from mo-peds and other low speed 2 wheel devices and has been working out. Bad news is that Monta Ellis is clearly not going to let bygones be bygones after ‘Bobby' let the void threat hang over his head all season last year. Monta Ellis is clearly not pumped up about having Stephan Curry being his running mate. While most fans and observers know that having two 6'3" scrawny guards running around together in the backcourt, Ellis has come out and pretty much laid it out that he has no doubt that it won't work and will not lead to winning. The subtext is very clear, our former franchise player doesn't want to play for Nelson or ‘Bobby' AND that Nelson prefers Curry to run his team and ‘Bobby' is going to continue to blame last year's fiasco on Ellis's mo-ped adventures. After Jackson is out of town, I look for Ellis to go grab his own gas can. Ellis can play, but he isn't a point and this is going to get worse before it gets better.

Dumping Marco Belinelli for Devean George

AND CLAIMING that George was brought here to play!

The trade itself is not a good one as we traded a player that can kind of play, for a guy that can't play. The thing that makes this worse is that Riley and Nelson making statements that George will not be a staple at the end of the bench but an actual contributor. It is quite obvious why this would be a horrendous move. George is horrible and he would take away minutes from the better younger players on the Warriors roster. Hopefully that was just Riley posturing and trying to justify the trade. It would have been much better if Riley came out and said that it was a salary dump and George would never play except for blowouts or injuries. Hopefully Nelson can carry that out.

Drafting Stephan Curry

I didn't like the draft pick of Curry when Jennings, DeRozan, and Williams were still available. But that's water under the bridge. Curry is a good player. He is a mature kid with a great head on his shoulder that will definitely be productive.

Curry Positives: Shooting, Creating his own shot, and Scoring

Curry Negatives: Defense, Rebounding, and Passing

Um...wait a second. Taking the best player available when you are as big of a ‘suck' as the Warriors is good idea, but it is awesome (not) when we draft a player that directly exemplifies our weaknesses and duplicates your strengths. I like Curry, don't get me wrong. I hope he has a great career with the Warriors. I just don't see him pairing well with Ellis and fixing any of our immediate needs.

Brandan Wright waiting for his plane ticket out of town

Short and sweet, Nelson is not a fan. Wright is sitting behind Randolph. Wright has been ridiculously effective when he has played. Jackson is going to be hard to trade, and Wright will inevitably be a throw in a trade. Good luck in the future Brandan.

Nobody wants to be here

Amare said it straight up. We have seen other players demanding way more money or rejecting the Warriors offers straight up in the last few years. The one that really stings is CJ Watson. A backup point guard that found a semi decent NBA career in Golden State declared that he didn't want to be here, then took less money in the hopes that he can leave the Warriors sooner than later.

Don Nelson

Don Nelson is a good coach. A great coach who will get us the most wins out of this team. It's the off court stuff that has to worry the Warrior fans. No one knows yet whether Nelson is really content and happy with ‘Bobby' and Chris or if Nelson is going to make a run at ‘Bobby's' job. Nelson is cerebral but he has a history of burning franchises to the ground on his way out. We know of Nelson from his 10 years here (over his 2 stints) and his other antics on other teams, we can't really believe a word out of this guy's mouth.

Nelson taking on his players is a much bigger problem than a potential problem with ‘Bobby.' Last year Nellie took on Crawford, Harrington, and Randolph directly in the media and on the court and several others behind the scene (Wright, Ellis, Belinelli, Morrow, Williams, Kurz, and Watson). With Jackson and Ellis already making the locker room quite volatile, we will just have to wait and see what self inflicted problems Nellie brings this season.

Robert Rowell

Is there a guy that you don't know (that isn't a terrorist or a criminal of some sort) and hate more than this guy? He is the worst, no explanation needed for Warrior faithful. Chris Cohan also deserves quite a bit of blame. Hey Cohan, you have owned this team 16 years and NEVER have finished in the better half of the teams in the Western Conference. Never. NOT ONCE. How is that possible?

Salary Cap Lockdown

Thanks to Maggette's and Jackson's lucrative contracts we will have nothing but the mid level exception and draft picks (lottery no doubt) to improve this team's talent.

There are many more reasons why this season will be another disaster for the Warriors, but here is a short closing paragraph wrapping up my thoughts. The Warriors (Rowell) is already making it clear that his 2 primary goals are to bring a marquee player or make a desperate run for the 8th seed to sell some tickets. Hopefully Nelson is being truthful and honest when he says this team is young and is building for the future, and hopefully developing our young talent and making this team a legitimate contender in the future. However nothing in Don Nelson, Larry Riley, Robert Rowell, and Chris Cohan's history shows that they have the willingness (Nelson) or ability (the rest of the guys) to make that happen.

Projection for 2009-2010 season 34-48, 11th seed in the West

Team USA Snub

warriorsscore110 — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:13:08 -0000

The entire summer buzz has been about Anthony Randolph destroying the Summer League competition and subsequently getting to try out with Team USA.

Are we forgetting about are BEST player and the player that represented the Warriors in the USA Select team last?

Monta Ellis had a horrible year last year on and off the court. Destroying his ankle on a moped Monta Ellis destroyed his opportunity of becoming our point guard and our team leader. Most of the news and articles about Ellis last year were about his off court drama, from the moped injury to the Rowell versus Ellis in the contract voiding issue, and Nelson versus Ellis on whether he was a point guard or not. Last year was a major step back for Ellis and this franchise.

However this summer there has been very little buzz about our franchise player, our 66 million dollar man. Lest take a look back at Monta Ellis and how he became our franchise player

	Games	MP	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	PTS
05-06	49	18.1	.415	1.7	.341	1.2	.712	2.1	1.6	0.7	1.2	6.8
06-07	77	34.3	.475	1.9	.273	4.6	.763	3.2	4.1	1.7	2.9	16.5
07-08	81	37.9	.531	0.6	.231	5.1	.767	5.0	3.9	1.5	2.1	20.2

Monta Ellis was the Most Improved Player in 06-07 as a 20 year old. Monta became one of premier players the following season, including a nutcase February where he shot over 60% from the field. Monta Ellis did return to court last season and did alright, considering the fact that he was recovering from a major ankle surgery and he hadn’t had a chance to go to go thru a training camp.

	Games	MP	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	PTS
08-09	25	35.7	.451	0.3	.308	3.8	.830	4.3	3.7	1.6	2.7	19.0

However those stats don’t do justice to how much Monta Ellis recovered. Ellis came back and played 13 games and did ok, but didn’t show his usual explosion. It is important to point out that the Warriors did go 7-6 and were playing better basketball at the time. Ellis shut it down for about 3 weeks and came back looking like the Monta Ellis that we are used to seeing. Here were Ellis’s stats for the last 11 games he played last season.

	Games	MP	FG%	3PA	3P%	FTA	FT%	REB	AST	STL	TO	PTS
--	11	37.4	.493	1.2	.200	4.1	.867	4.5	4.4	1.5	2.8	23.5

One thing Monta Ellis is known for his is his renowned work ethic. If his speed is back to 100% and he has been working on his passing skills and his defense, Monta Ellis might finally be ready to take that step to superstardom and lead our team to the post season. Is this overly optimistic? Probably. However let’s not forget about our best player and franchise player.

Make a Move for a Veteran and Push for the Playoffs, or wait it and be Patient….

warriorsscore110 — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:07:02 -0000

The chatter from Team R/R (Riley and Rowell) during their press conferences and conference call was that anything less than making the playoffs would be a disappointment and that with a healthy team and an addition or 2 would be a playoff team. While we can all understand why Team R/R would want to go all out and make a desperate grab for the 8th seed (seeing how the fan base reacted after our last brief playoff appearance and the debacle that was the 08-09 season both on and off the court) is that the best plan for the franchise?

-Problem, we won 29 games last year. What can we expect from the youngsters? A healthy Monta Ellis will obviously help the most. A healthy prepared combination of Wright/Randolph can solidify the 4 position. We also have a stable of under 25 players (Biedrins, Turiaf, Morrow, Belinelli, Azibuike and possibly Kurz, Davidson, and Watson if they are brought back) but can we really expect giant improvement from any of those guys. Not sure that even with a trade where we give up some youngsters and try to upgrade with a proven veteran would make us a team that can compete for the playoffs.

If that’s the plan where do we go? The obvious move would be trying to move Belinelli and Wright along with either Maggette or Crawford for an upgrade at some position. What can we get for that, in this economy and the possible mega 2010 free agent class, teams might be wary on taking back a contract like Maggette or Crawford. But there are a lot of possibilities, with a plethora of young players and the 7th pick of the draft there are several possibilities.

When you’re a 29 win team you should obviously be blowing up the phones seeing what type of options are out there, maybe the best plan is just to wait it out. We have a couple of really good looking young players (Ellis and Biedrins) and a bunch of other young players that can possibly be really good players (Azibuike, Wright, Morrow, Belinelli, and definitely Randolph). Quick fixes don’t work very often; maybe it’s time to accept the fact that we are not a playoff team. Let the young players develop, find out who can really be an impact player in the NBA, and look to shop either Maggette or Crawford (with some young players) for some expiring contracts. Taking a step back for the next year or 2, might actually make us a really good young team 3 years from now with a decent amount of cap space (see Portland and New Orleans; soon Minnesota and Oklahoma City). It probably won’t be the most popular idea, but it might be the best idea if we want to become a franchise that can compete deep in the playoffs one day.

Poll

What do you want to see happen in the off season?

Assemble a roster that can atleast compete for the playoffs

61 votes

Build around the young guys for the future

81 votes

142 votes | Poll has closed

Warriors to make move on Bosh, do we keep Ellis or Biedrins?

warriorsscore110 — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:07:08 -0000

At ESPN.com, on their Saturday Dime, it says that the Warriors are expected to make another huge push at Chris Bosh:

There have been no firm indications yet about the Raptors' willingness to entertain trade offers for Chris Bosh this offseason, but plugged-in sources say it's a lock that the Warriors will try again to make a Bosh pitch at the next opportunity after the Raptors rebuffed every inquiry (including Golden State's) for the lefty Olympian before the Feb. 19 trading deadline….should the Raps decide that it's easier to try to start over rather than try again to assemble a team that's successful enough next season to convince Bosh to stay in Canada as opposed to leaving as a free agent in the summer of 2010.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dime-090328-29

So who should we give up Monta Ellis or Andris Biedrins? I know most of you are thinking, not this again but with Ellis’s return to prominence its worth looking at the argument again. Likely in the trade Toronto would like to shed the salaries of either Jason Kapono or Marcus Banks. Kapono is a better player with a slightly worse contract. To balance the rest of the deal, hopefully a package of Marco Belinelli, Corey Maggette, and either Anthony Randolph or Brandan Wright (we’ll have the debate again later) will work for both parties.

The Case to Keep Ellis

Ellis is back. Shooting at over a 50% clip and moving smoothly on the court. While it’s possible the ankle was bothering him when he first came back its more likely he was rusty and needed to work his way back into game shape. With an Ellis and Bosh tandem, we have the makings of a potential All Star combo. Ellis is never going to be that guy that can lead his team deep into the playoffs, but playing second banana to a perennial All Star might be his role on a contender. Bosh has played center for a good portion of the year, and it might not be necessary to keep Biedrins around. Biedrins is a steady player but by no means is he a star or have star potential like Ellis does. Traditional NBA logic will tell you the key to building a contender is having an inside/outside combination. With Jackson, Morrow, Turiaf, Azibuike, and either Wright or Randolph, this team might just be a role player or 2 from being a major factor in the west.

The Case to Keep Biedrins

Ellis is back. While we are all excited about that, let’s not forget the gaping holes in Monta Ellis’ game. Ellis will never be confused with Steve Nash in running a team’s offense. At this point there are concerns if Ellis can even masquerade as a point guard. His Ast/To ratio is horrid. His major second deficiency is defense. If anybody watched the San Antonio game on league pass, Sean Elliot was almost laughing at how easily Tony Parker was blowing by Ellis. Ellis doesn’t have the size to cover 2 guards so for Ellis to work on a contender; he would almost have to be paired up with a bigger point guard or an off guard who can share the point guard duties. While in Biedrins we have a rare commodity, a center that rarely gets hurt, and can give you a solid 15-12 every night on the floor with one of the league’s highest field goal %. With Biedrins, Bosh, Turiaf, and either Wright or Randolph we would have one of the most dominating front courts for years to come. Wing men are easier to find and replace in this league than centers. Since Ellis is not a point guard our best bet might be to look to free agency (Bay Area native Jason Kidd?) or the draft for a true point guard to run this team.

Poll

IF, we can get Chris Bosh, who would you rather pair him up with?

Monta Ellis

492 votes

Andris Biedrins

370 votes

862 votes | Poll has closed

Are We the Youngest Team in the League?

warriorsscore110 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:39:38 -0000

Hi guys,

I am from Golden State of Mind. In the Bay Area press and all over the Warriors blog, we are refered to as the youngest team in the NBA, which we are by definition at 24.1 years. But I decided to weight age against playing time instead of just taking a raw average age. I compared the Warriors to the Portland Trail Blazers, Memphis Grizzlies, MinnesotaTimber Wolves, and The OKC Thunder.

Here are the results

Team	Average Roster Age	Actual Playing Age	Minutes Leader
Golden State Warriors	24.1(24.3 17 man)	25.7(25.6 17 man)	Jackson(30) 1854
Portland Trail Blazers	26.3	23.8	Aldridge (23) 2013
Memphis Grizzlies	24.2	23.3	Mayo(21) 2093
Minnesota Timber Wolves	26.9	25.0	Foye (25) 1986
Oklahoma City Thunder	25.5	24.7	Durant (20) 2197

Here is the link to the full post at GSOM

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2009/2/23/769226/are-we-the-youngest-team-i

Let me know what you guys think.

Are We the Youngest Team in the League?

warriorsscore110 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:38:10 -0000

Hi guys,

Here are the results

Team	Average Roster Age	Actual Playing Age	Minutes Leader
Golden State Warriors	24.1(24.3 17 man)	25.7(25.6 17 man)	Jackson(30) 1854
Portland Trail Blazers	26.3	23.8	Aldridge (23) 2013
Memphis Grizzlies	24.2	23.3	Mayo(21) 2093
Minnesota Timber Wolves	26.9	25.0	Foye (25) 1986
Oklahoma City Thunder	25.5	24.7	Durant (20) 2197

Here is the link to the full post at GSOM

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2009/2/23/769226/are-we-the-youngest-team-i

Let me know what you guys think.

Who is the youngest team in the west?

warriorsscore110 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:30:39 -0000

Hi guys,

Here are the results

Team	Average Roster Age	Actual Playing Age	Minutes Leader
Golden State Warriors	24.1(24.3 17 man)	25.7(25.6 17 man)	Jackson(30) 1854
Portland Trail Blazers	26.3	23.8	Aldridge (23) 2013
Memphis Grizzlies	24.2	23.3	Mayo(21) 2093
Minnesota Timber Wolves	26.9	25.0	Foye (25) 1986
Oklahoma City Thunder	25.5	24.7	Durant (20) 2197

Here is the link to the full post at GSOM

http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2009/2/23/769226/are-we-the-youngest-team-i

Let me know what you guys think.

Are we the Youngest Team in the West? PART 2

warriorsscore110 — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 02:47:09 -0000

It is not your beloved Golden State Warriors. After doing some extensive math work, I devised a new stat that I call 'Actual Playin Age'(I know, not that clever). It is a much better way to mesure the age of team than raw age average. I decided to compare the Warriors to 4 other Western Conference teams: the Memphis Grizzlies, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Minnesota Timber Wolves, and the Oklahoma City Thunder to see where we stood.

When taking a look at the stats you can see that not only are we not the youngest team, but we are not even built as a young rebuilding and up and coming team. Observations on the other teams

Thunder's top 3 players in minutes played are Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook. 3 young guys they want to build there future around. The rest of the guys are supporting cast are veteran players and a few young role players to fill out the bench. Building around those 3, they can change the other parts as they get ready to make push in the West.

Grizzlies's have played their rookie OJ Mayo more than they have played anybody else. Followed closely by Rudy Gay. Both of those guys are potential future All-Stars. The next 5 guys that play are also very young players. Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Hakim Warrick, Kyle Lowry, and Darrell Arthur. The end of the bench is filled by veterans, in effect the exact oppostie of how the Warriors are constucted.

Timber Wolves's have Randy Foye and Al Jefferson, that is there future along with Kevin Love and Corey Brewer. Corey Brewer is out of the season, and the Timber Wolves are bringing along Kevin Love slowly and seeing if Ryan Gomes and Sebastian Telfair can make it as solid NBA players. The rest of the bench is filled with veterans and young a couple of young NBA hopefuls with Rodney Carney and Craig Smith.

Trail Blazers's are already an elite Western Confernce team. LaMarcus Aldridge and All-Star Brandon Roy are the team captains and lead the team in minutes. In fact other than veteran point guard Steve Blake and ridiculuos rebounding machine center Joel Przybilla, all their roatational players 25 or under.

The difference from those teams and the Warriors is that they have a plan and we do not. Maybe for the TWolves, Thunder, and Grizzlies it doesnt work out, but they are trying something and sticking to it.

What is the Warriors plan? If everything works out and we might get to fight for the 8th seed and a 1 and done in the playoffs the next 2 -3 years? It is nice to know that that is our BEST case scenario for our team.

On the tables below, pct refers to what percent of total playing time that player has played for the team. For the Warriors, pct A factors in Demarcus Nelson and Al Harrington, and pct B does not. We are still a very young team, but maybe not as young as you would like to think. Actual Playing Age is a much better way to represent the team's average age than just the average age of the players of the team.

Golden State Warriors

Player	Age	Minutes Played	Pct A	Pct B
Jackson	30	1854	.136	.140
Azibuike	25	1557	.114	.117
Biedrins	22	1549	.114	.117
Crawford	28	1492	.110	.112
Watson	24	1283	.094	.097
Maggette	29	1213	.089	.091
Turiaf	26	1099	.081	.083
Morrow	23	762	.056	.057
Belinelli	22	696	.051	.052
Wright	21	524	.038	.039
Randolph	19	507	.037	.038
Ellis	23	432	.032	.033
Kurz	23	243	.018	.019
Nelson	23	171	.013	-
Harrington	28	166	.012	-
Williams	23	53	.004	.004
Davidson	24	14	.001	.001

Portland Trailblazers

Player	Age	Minutes Played	Pct
LaMarcus Aldridge	23	2013	.151
Brandon Roy	24	1909	.145
Travis Outlaw	24	1480	.111
Rudy Fernandez	23	1406	.106
Steve Blake	28	1276	.096
Joel Przybilla	29	1212	.091
Greg Oden	21	1053	.079
Nicolas Batum	20	968	.073
Sergio Rodriguez	22	931	.071
Jerryd Bayless	20	495	.037
Channing Frye	25	458	.034
Ike Diogu	25	73	.005
Shavlik Randolph	25	16	.001
Martell Webster	22	5	.000
Michael Ruffin	32	4	.000
Raef LaFrentz	32	0	.000

Memphis Grizzlies

Player	Age	Minutes Played	Pct
O.J. Mayo	21	2093	.157
Rudy Gay	22	1941	.146
Marc Gasol	24	1646	.124
Mike Conley	21	1525	.114
Hakim Warrick	26	1408	.105
Kyle Lowry	22	1071	.080
Darrell Arthur	20	967	.073
Quinton Ross	27	834	.062
Darko Milicic	23	744	.059
Greg Buckner	32	571	.042
Marko Jaric	30	271	.020
Darius Miles	27	196	.014
Javaris Crittenton	21	44	.003
Hamed Haddadi	23	14	.001

Minnesota Timber Wolves

Player	Age	Minutes Played	Pct
Randy Foye	25	1986	.150
Al Jefferson	24	1836	.140
Ryan Gomes	26	1747	.131
Mike Miller	28	1448	.108
Sebastian Telfair	23	1339	.102
Kevin Love	20	1318	.100
Craig Smith	25	1001	.074
Rodney Carney	24	646	.049
Rashad McCants	24	636	.048
Kevin Ollie	36	429	.032
Brian Cardinal	31	368	.026
Corey Brewer	22	307	.023
Jason Collins	30	203	.014
Mark Madsen	33	61	.003
Calvin Booth	32	1	.000

Oklahoma City Thunder

Player	Age	Minutes Played	Pct
Kevin Durant	20	2197	.163
Jeff Green	22	2073	.153
Russell Westbrook	20	1786	.132
Earl Watson	29	1474	.109
Nick Collison	28	1261	.093
Desmond Mason	31	1064	.079
Chris Wilcox	26	719	.053
Joe Smith	33	691	.051
Kyle Weaver	22	579	.042
Damien Wilkins	29	520	.038
Nenad Krstic	25	461	.034
Johan Petro	23	342	.025
Robert Swift	23	245	.018
Chucky Atkins	34	84	.006
Mouhamed Sene	22	23	.002
Thabo Sefolosha	24	18	.002
Steven Hill	23	2	.000

Team	Average Roster Age	Actual Playing Age	Minutes Leader
Golden State Warriors	24.1(24.3 17 man)	25.7(25.6 17 man)	Jackson(30) 1854
Portland Trail Blazers	26.3	23.8	Aldridge (23) 2013
Memphis Grizzlies	24.2	23.3	Mayo(21) 2093
Minnesota Timber Wolves	26.9	25.0	Foye (25) 1986
Oklahoma City Thunder	25.5	24.7	Durant (20) 2197