Wow, lots of news today for the W's. First a confirmed event - Mark Jackson is announced as the new head coach. Not 100% sure of the success of this choice but it does mix things up a little bit (not necessarily a bad thing). However, without any NBA coaching experience, Jackson will have a tough road ahead of him leading a team that is not the most disciplined. Up tempo may be exciting to watch but doesn't always lead to many championships.
As for the Ellis for Iguodala trade rumors, that one might be interesting. Of course, Iguodala is not as dynamic a scorer as Ellis but he does have size, can rebound better, and may fit better with Curry. However, he is a year older and $11.1M more over the next 3 years ($2.5M, $3.7M and $4.9M). If he plays like he did in 2006-2008 then this could work. However, if he's more like his 2009-2011 numbers then this is a bad trade. Still, it'll be hard to see Ellis go. He was definitely exciting but in the long run, there was no way the Warriors could win with two undersized guards.Posts for Tag: nba
Jerry West joins Warriors front office as adviser
The Golden State Warriors hired Jerry West on Friday to work with the front-office team in an advisory role and be a member of the executive board. West will assist the basketball operations staff and the business arm of the team, reporting directly to new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber.
via sports.yahoo.com
This is HUGE! Just look at what he did for the Lakers and Grizzlies. A big step in the right direction.
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...
LeBron James interview: Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert gave him 'motivation' - ESPN
And Clevelanders, because they were the bigger-city kids when we were growing up, looked down on us. ... So we didn't actually like Cleveland. We hated Cleveland growing up. There's a lot of people in Cleveland we still hate to this day.
This is an excerpt from a GQ interview with LeBron. Of course, I don't agree with his method of leaving Cleveland (The Decision) but I never had an issue with him wanting to go somewhere else to play. It's a free country and he can go any where he wants. As we know loyalty is only skin deep when it comes to players and owners.
The above quote should give people some insight into LeBron's mind though as it relates to Cleveland and his true hometown Akron. I hear a lot of folks bash LeBron because he turned his back on his hometown. But that's simply not true because LeBron never considered Cleveland his hometown. A more closer to home example for me would be if someone from the East Bay called San Francisco their hometown. It ain't. Two different cities that might as well be separated by 100 or 1,000 miles than just 10 culturally speaking.