SB Nation User Blog: warriorsvictim

Why arent we looking at Bruce Bowen?

warriorsvictim — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:20:32 -0000

On a team filled with scorers, why havent we heard about the Warriors looking at defensive minded players like Bowen? (Please do not insert Nellie jokes here)

He is scheduled to make only $4MIL this year and may get a $2MIL buyout from Milwaukee by August. That means he will probably be available to be had at a discount.

His shooting has deteriorated a bit and his defense is not as good as it was, but on a team like ours, a slightly old defensive specialist seems like a great match. We could potentially say goodbye to those last minute OT losses and BS lucky shots by opponents at the end of games.

I know we are guard heavy and I would hate to see Morrow lose playing time he deserves this year (assuming Belinelli will be traded somehow - otherwise him too), but there are times where a defensive line-up would be awesome:

Bowen

Jackson

Azibuike

Turiaf

Biedrins

Picking up expensive players other teams are running from

warriorsvictim — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 19:00:21 -0000

I have seen several blogs recently talking about how hard it would be for teams to pick up expensive players in the current economy. Generally that is an acceptable statement, but that should not be applied to the Warriors.

Our team is in a unique position based on the fan base that continues to support the team regardless of whether they win or not, and how many crazy ass decisions come out of the front office. I would wager that the Warriors will rank much higher on the Forbes list of NBA team value this coming December because we will continue to sell-out the arena through the economic down-turn unlike many winning teams (e.g. Atlanta and Miami).

I understand that Cohan has thus far refused to spend on players and/or approach the luxury tax, but there is no reason that could not change if there is a wholesale shift in attitude in the front office under Cohan. The Warriors' managing personnell could see this as a great opportunity to shift the direction of the club as more and more players are shopped around the league to save money and position for 2010 free agency. Especially considering how over spending a little bit right now could put the franchise on solid ground for many, many years to come and provide opportunities to under-spend down the line.

I think this team is so unpredictable that this is as likely as anything else. Am I crazy?

Jax attitude sucks...let's start working on it today

warriorsvictim — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:25:15 -0000

Stephen Jackson was second in the NBA this year with 18 technicals (1 behind the leader) with 2 ejections thrown in for good measure. He had countless moments where he allowed his frustration level to take him out of a play. I say "frustration", not referees or opponents, because we saw way too many plays where he didn't actually get fouled or he made a bad move and was embarassed about turning the ball over. Even if the ref did make a bad call, in my book 1 or 2 bad calls can happen in a game due to the human factor and you have to let them go.

We need to start a push today to send the message that this needs to be turned around. There is no way he can get his emotions under control alone or during the season. He needs help and a lot of it.

Here are my suggestions, I am looking for more. We cannot have the leader of our team saying the right things off the court and acting like a baby on it.

1) Nelson threatens to bench him every time he falls behind a play due to whining and complaining (after an initial grace period of 5 strikes). Nellie then has to man up and actualy bench the man. This will draw a ton of media attention and Jax should have too much pride to be called a bitch in the national media.

2) Hire a sports psychologist to work with him from now all the way through the season. Jax needs to work out his issues now and have a shoulder to lean on after games to reflect intelligently on what went down.

3) Hire someone like Jerry West to mentor the whole team as a team on what it takes to be a winner. If the whole team becomes more emotionally intelligent, it will really help the individuals who lag behind. I dont care if it costs $10 million for one season of coaching, if Cohan is serious about having any success, it would be worth it.

4) Force Jackson to ref games in lower level leagues. We have a couple in the Bay Area that are very competitive. After Jax gets shouted at a few times he might start to see how difficult it is to make the correct call every time and why a ref won't bail out a player on a bad move.

5) Reward success. If he starts to pull it together it should be a big deal to everyone in the Warriors organization, media, fan base, everything. The Mayor of Oakland should announce a freaking Stephen Jackson day if he finishes the first half of the season with 5 or fewer technical fouls, no ejections, and very few failures to get back on defense.

Do D-League teams do enough to market their players?

warriorsvictim — Thu, 14 May 2009 18:39:51 -0000

Promoted from the Fanposts. I left my opinion... What's yours? -- Scott

I have heard very little to nothing about D-League teams having someone on staff who markets their players to NBA teams to help them get a chance to play.

This could be the result of a lack of interest from the media or the fact that teams expect players to have an agent handle the task, but I thought I would put it out there to the Ridiculous Upside crew anyway for comment.

If I was a team owner, I would have someone on staff who is pushing to get my players in the news, in front of NBA coaches, maybe even in front of European coaches. The more players you successfully send up, the more people will become aware of your team and league. I would hope this would increase the fan base in addition to giving more deserving players a shot.

As mentioned in another post, opportunity seems to be the one primary factor in a role player getting a shot in the NBA. Sometimes, you have to create that opportunity off the court, not on it.

Would it be better if Cohan was a more visible fan?

warriorsvictim — Mon, 11 May 2009 20:34:29 -0000

Mark Cuban got busted for trash talking to Kenyon Martin's mom http://www.comcast.net/articles/sports-nba/20090511/Cuban.051109/

I kind of like this. It could be considered a bit low class, but it sounds like Mom can dish it out, so she should be able to take it. You gotta think the mother of a player like Kenyon is used to some loud mouth-ism and knows how to deal with it.

What if Cohan was visible at the games, swearing and stressing over every call? Talking trash to fans and opposing players? Calling out the refs for bad fouls or missed calls damn the fines?

We would still be a losing team, with bad concessions, and no direction in the front office, but we would know his heart was in it. That would make a huge difference for me the more I think about it.

Why even bother to own a team if you are not going to be a die hard fan? There are better ways to make money than owning a (losing) sports franchise.

Poll

Trash talking at 'yo Momma owner

Better

26 votes

Just low class

24 votes

Doesnt matter when you lose as many games as the Warriors do

23 votes

73 votes | Poll has closed

Buying into the D League

warriorsvictim — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:28:20 -0000

In case you havent been following the discussion, there has been talk about what it would take to buy/run a D League team over at the Ridiculous Upside and Rufus On Fire blogs elsewhere on SBNation.

Rufus, I think, proposed that there be an employee ownership plan where everyone buys in for $10k or something, even if that means they take out a loan conditional upon employment. This would generate the cash necessary to take over a failing team and ensure employee pride in the product.

I dont see any way that could really happen based on the tight purse strings at banks right now and the employee/owners' likely lack of ability to repay. There arent going to be any dividends or profits that allow repayment of a loan, and the salaries are not that great in the D League.

When I really stop to think about it, I dont see any way the league can be successful unless the NBA takes a larger ownership stake in the league as a whole. They need to back it financially at a larger level and have a voice in daily operations of every team to ensure the teams are run in a way that mirrors the NBA's professionalism as much as possible. Otherwise the teams just become a sideshow instead of a true path to the NBA.

Let's open this up to discussion here where there are more people with opinions.

How would you run the team or the league as a whole if you were handed the reigns? (seriously, no Jackie Moon stuff! Do you want to love me sexy?!)

Warriors franchise value climbing!?

warriorsvictim — Fri, 01 May 2009 23:03:27 -0000

So I just answered my own question from a previous comment, the Warriors were the 18th most valuable team in the NBA as of December per FORBES.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/32/nba08_NBA-Team-Valuations_Value.html

I am willing to bet that despite our super-losing season, the value will remain steady and we will climb the list throughout 2009 due to the economic downturn.

Four NBA teams that made the playoffs this year and had All-Star players all came in below us:

New Orleans, Atlanta, Denver, and Portland.

...and these areas are being hit harder by the economy than the Bay Area.

Here we are writing poems to Cohan to express our hatred for his ability to own a team and he is raking in more money than 63.3% of the other teams.

There is no way Cohan will ever sell this team unless we frame someone for fighting children like dogs and take the most hated athlete in sports title away from Vick. We need such a tremendous controversey to turn the team's economy around that you cant even imagine the circumstances.

Someone please tell me you have pictures of Cohan banging male hookers with a Nazi uniform on!

Just trade all our draft picks

warriorsvictim — Fri, 01 May 2009 22:48:06 -0000

I have been away for a while, maybe I missed it, but I am surprised no one has posted a request to just trade all of our draft picks this year plus players if necessary so we can get a solid veteran.

What the hell are we going to do with another rookie or two? We are the youngest team by far already and cannot deal with another player who has 1 or 2 years of college and serious holes in his fundamental understanding of NBA basketball.

There has to be a team out there who would trade a solid player for 3 draft picks plus a crawford or belinelli. At least Detroit, Toronto, Clippers, Bucks come to mind as all need to make some serious changes this year or next, plus there are probably several other teams who would also fit the bill.

Somebody please school me on the NBA's contractual restrictions on trading picks for veteran players. I am sure there are limitations on how you value a player versus a potential contract.

I just dont see the logic in grabbing another young guy with upside.

Was Monta's scooter accident covered by insurance?

warriorsvictim — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:25:03 -0000

After the collective bargaining discussion in another post, I started reading through the CBA on the NBA Player's Association website.

There are provisions that state a player's contract can be terminated for participating in activities that "a reasonable person would recognize as involving or exposing the participant to a substantial risk of bodily injury" or in specific activites that are banned in the player contract. The team can also decide to just fine the player as was done in Monta's case.

There is some language in the CBA that discusses the fact that the team may choose to take out an insurance policy on each player and that the insurance policy would ban certain activities. Basically it looks like the team would take out an insurance policy for on the court or other team sanctioned events that result in injury.

I searched through as much media coverage as possible for a mention of a Warriors insurance policy on Monta and whether it could have covered injuries outside of basketball. I found none.

There are acceptable activities such as swimming and hiking that are allowed in his contract, but could still be dangerous under certain circumstances. I wonder if the Warriors would have received a payment on the insurance policy if Monta hurt his ankle hiking for example? Mopeds are not mentioned specifically in the contract, although motorcycles are, and one could argue that a reasonable person would not expect moped riding to be dangerous (especially on a residential street)

Is it possible the Warriors fined Monta for missed games and will get that money back from isurance as well? The Warriors would basically make a profit off of Monta's injury.

Does not seem like a ridiculous question based on Nellie and Mullin stating that they didnt think this was a big deal. Maybe they were speaking on financial terms knowing the insurance company would pay out, not on terms of Monta missing games and hurting the team.

The Longest Contract in NBA History - Tool or Joke?

warriorsvictim — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:06:44 -0000

In 1981 Magic Johnson was awarded a 25 year contract worth $1 Million per year by the Lakers. As far as I know this still stands as the longest contract ever signed in the NBA.

Looking at that in today's terms, that is only $1 million applied to your cap space per year while guaranteeing one of the best players ever will play for your team forever and your team will have cap room for other high profile/high impact players. That player should be happy because he is getting a ton of money, he just has to wait for it to accumulate over a longer period of time.

Considering that NBA money is guaranteed unlike NFL, why hasnt this tactic been used more often? I doubt anyone here is a collective bargaining agreement expert, but I wouldnt expect there to be any language barring this type of contract.

A player like LeBron who is going to make a ton of money off endorsements now shouldnt have any problem taking a long view approach to his NBA contract in order to make sure he gets A)in the city he wants, B)with the coach he wants, C)with the ownership he wants, and D)other players around him.

Considering the current situation, the Warriors should use a tactic like this to go after a series of players available in 2010 and just pay them for a really long time. If you arent paying them too much in any given year the team would not have to worry about Cap restrictions down the line (like the 49ers) and any negative financial fallout from a long contract would be well overshadowed by the legacy the team builds during the prime playing years of the team.

Imagine if the Warriors went after two amazing players who agreed to take long contracts like Magic....They would likely win multiple championships, entice other players to want to be here, and when they moved on a new crop of great players would be in place. The ownership would have to make a lot of good decisions as time passed to ensure they dont screw things up (something our current front office is likely to do) but it doesnt seem impossible.

So hoops experts, any idea why this doesnt happen or wouldnt work?