Posts for Tag: dorell wright

Warriors Sign Free Agent Forward Al Thornton

via nba.com

This is a wait and see kind of signing. I remember when Thornton used to torch the Warriors when he was with the Clippers. He's fallen off the face of the earth with his exile to the Wizards but let's hope a change of scenery will improve his numbers. It'll be interesting to see where he'll find his minutes. He'll most likely come off the bench to spell Wright and could fill the same niche that Corey Maggette and Al Harrington had a few years ago. He could bolster a thin bench that only really has Reggie Williams and Vladimir Radmanovic.

Why I should never be an NBA GM

We're experiencing some pretty amazing times in Bay Area sports (Raiders and 49ers aside). Giants are up 2-0 in the World Series and looking stronger than ever and the Warriors just opened the season with two good wins. Going into the offseason, I had my ideas about what they needed to do and of course, I had my opinions about the moves they made. Obviously, the biggest news was the sale of the team which trumps pretty much all other news. On the personnel side, they picked up David Lee but lost some players in Anthony Morrow and CJ Watson to free agency and Maggette to a trade to the Bucks. They also drafted Ekpe Udoh with the 6th pick.

Overall, I thought the moves were good. Getting Lee was great - a solid workman like 20-10 guy. Maggette was always going to be a defensive liability and never really made any team he played on better (a hollow 18-20pts a game). Udoh was a head scratcher but there wasn't anyone drafted after him that stood out. Plus with him being hurt, his grade is an incomplete for now. The one that I disagreed with the most was letting Morrow go and replacing him with Dorell Wright for virtually the same money. Why would you let one of the best young 3 point specialist go and pick up a scrub that never scored more than 8pts a game? Well after watching Dorell play in 2 games, I can begin to see the reasoning. He's not a flashy player but he's smart. Though he's a career 36.3% 3pt shooter, I saw him pass up a bunch of threes and instead pump fake and step in on his defender for easier mid-range shots. Morrow may be more accurate from outside but I doubt he has the maturity to take what a defense will give him. He'd rather force up a three as oppose to getting that closer shot. Though it's a long season, Morrow's currently averaging 8.5pts a game versus Wright's 19.5pts. But the reason I have more faith in Wright is that he doesn't seem like he's forcing anything. Plus he plays much better defense - something the Warriors need to focus on to make it to the next level. We'll see how he and the W's fare against their biggest test to date - at Staples against the Lakers on Sunday...

Warrior's lost a good piece of the puzzle

Looks like the Warriors are letting Anthony Morrow walk. At a time when the fortunes of the team were looking up, they lost a pretty good piece of the puzzle. Granted, Morrow is not a premiere player but he served a very important role - dead-eye outside shooting (he was one of only 4 guys last year who shot more than 45% from 3PT land).

Ever team needs a guy who just hangs on the perimeter to knock down open 3's. With David Lee as an above average passing big man, Monta Ellis driving and kicking out, plus Curry creating open shots, the Warriors needed a guy just like Morrow. Plus at only $4 million a year, he's great value considering guys like Reddick and Korver were getting $5M - $7M. Compounding the issue is that the Warriors signed Dorell Wright, who by all measure (other than height) is inferior to Morrow, to the same exact three year $12M contract. He scores less, grabs fewer rebounds, and doesn't shoot as well from the floor or the free throw line. The only way I can envision the Warriors letting him go is if he expressly asked to leave and the Dorell Wright move was in reaction to that. Two steps forward, one step back.  At least we get a trade exception out of it.