Hello and welcome to the opening week of the We Believe
Warriors season 28! Or was it
29? It’s the start of a new era of
Warriors basketball and through one week it has been pretty much status quo in
Oakland. Andrew Bogut, our most
important player is back on the shelf with a Stephen Curry sized ankle. Brandon Rush, our most versatile player
off the bench and the guy who should probably be the starting small forward, is
gone for the season with an exploding knee. Now Mark Jackson is coaching a team with more excuses built
into it than the arena in San Francisco has parking spots planned.
The saying goes that that those who cannot learn from
history are doomed to repeat it and most of what the Warriors front office has
done over the last year seems to show they’ve learned a thing or two. Even if this team isn’t a contender (or
maybe even a playoff team) they will surely be counted on to be the squad that
breaks the cycle of mismanagement, misguided PR campaigns and general dysfunction.
The only real reminders left of
our tortured past are Bob Fitzgerald and Gary St. Jean on the TV side, Steph
Curry’s ankle on the court and the cadaver of Andris Biedrins on the bench
(making two free throws won’t change that).
Now the season is finally rolling and low and behold it’s
the same old storylines emerging and I’ve outlined what I think are the main
ones here today.
Andrew Bogut
How awkward was it to see a legit 7 footer who can walk and
chew gum out there on the court in a Warriors uniform even if it was only for a
few minutes. If you blinked you
might have missed it but Andrew Bogut got about 60 minutes of court time before
shutting himself down for 7-10 days.
My question is why did he have to shut himself down in the first place? If I’m running a team and I see my 28
year old franchise player out there moving like a 35 year old Arvydas Sabonis
I’m going to be the one pulling the plug.
Don’t get me wrong, an old Sabonis is better than anything the Warriors
have had at center in decades but Bogut is being paid $13 million a year to be
an all star or at least something resembling one.
The idea that a week off is going to make a difference after
being out almost all of last season is ludicrous. Now that timetable has been extended through the upcoming
road trip but why keep extending it by days? Call it a month and let people be happy if he can come back
earlier already. If everyone
involved could do it all over again, Steph Curry wouldn’t have played another
game after that first ankle tweak until it was fully healed last year. See what listening to the player did in
that instance? Now it looks like
there is a similar situation brewing whether anyone on the teams payroll wants
to admit it or not. I may be alone
in my opinion but I say shut him down for months if that’s what it takes to get
the guy we traded Monta Ellis for.
Brandon Rush
After all of the tanking in 2012 there were three focus
points for the team’s brass in the offseason. Add an asset through the draft, add a back up point guard
without ankle issues and bring back Brandon Rush. The front office did great job of scaring off any potential
suitors for our top reserve and got him back (as well as Carl Landry) at a
great price in the process. I was
one of many who thought that Rush should have began the season as the starting
small forward because Harrison Barnes should be forced to earn every minute he
gets. He is also the better player (right now) if that counts for anything. None of that matters anymore now that
Rush’s knee is resting in pieces.
The loss of Brandon Rush hurts but it shouldn’t affect the
outcome of this season one bit. If
you think you’re a playoff contender an injury to your 6th man
cannot be the reason you’re proven wrong.
If you want to describe yourselves as a deep and balanced team then
you’ve got to go out and prove it when the inevitable injury crops up. As great as Brandon Rush fit on this
team, every single one of his talents is replaceable. Even if they aren’t, it’s time for this group of guys to
show they’ve got the kind of depth and toughness they’ve been talking about for
months now.
David Lee and Carl
Landry
I’m not sure if there is a better one two power forward
punch in the league. Sure, one
superstar is better then two really good players but we’re getting 48 minutes
of solid production out of our 4 spot and not many teams can boast that. You know what else I’m not sure
about? Who the Warriors best power
forward is! I know which one is
overpaid and which is underpaid. I
know which one is on all of the billboards, which one is on the all star
ballots and which one the owner jocks but I honestly can’t tell you which one
should be starting right now at least.
Did anyone see this argument coming three weeks ago? Nobody has mistaken David Lee for an
all star since he was mistaken for an all star in New York and even though I
predicted a big (contract) year from Landry I didn’t expect to wonder why he’s
not starting. Mark Jackson has
been taking a lot of shit for being an anti-small ball coach who’s being a poor
man’s Nellie in Bogut’s absence but what is he supposed to do? I’ve got one thought, start Carl Landry
and let David Lee outhustle guys in the second unit until he gets his act
together or permanently if Landry can keep this up. This needs to be explored further even if Joe Lacob might
fire Coach Jackson for pulling Captain Lee from the starting lineup. Hey, this might be a better idea then I
thought.
Full Disclosure: Advanced metric stats are not my
thing. I like traditional numbers
and the age old tradition of the eyeball test because I spend too much time
yelling at my TV when I watch the Warriors to do that kind of research but for
this argument I’m pulling out the big guns.
Traditional stats through 7 games:
David Lee: 14.3 points, 9.9 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 42%
shooting, 1.1 steals, .3 blocks, 2.3 turnovers, 37 minutes
Carl Landry: 16.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 60%
shooting, .3 steals, .4 blocks, 1.9 turnovers, 26.7 minutes
Advanced stats through 7 games:
David Lee: PER 13.3, True shooting % .474, Rebound % 14.3,
WS/48 = .085
Carl Landry: PER 24.5, True shooting % .628, Rebound % 16.5,
WS/48 = .231
WS/48 - Win Shares Per 48 minutes: An estimate of the number
of wins contributed by a player per 48 minutes (league average is approximately
.100). Please do not ask how in the hell these numbers are
calculated and if anybody has the numbers on our best statistical lineup
combinations please educate me below...
Mark Jackson
I already mentioned the mini controversy surrounding his
small ball lineups but that is just one of many things Jackson is taking heat
for after losses. He doesn’t call
timeouts to stop runs, he just stands there with his hands in his pockets and
Mike Malone is still calling the plays! Those are among the tweets I’ve seen accompanied by the
#FireMarkJackson hash tag on Twitter in recent days (I may or may not have
tweeted a couple of those myself).
I honestly don’t know that any of these things matter and do believe
that Jackson deserves a shot with a real roster but the fuse is getting shorter
that’s for sure. Everybody around
the Bay Area and across the country knew that this wasn’t a playoff team
without a healthy Andrew Bogut so nobody should be surprised that we’re sucking
wind out there right now. Pastor
Jackson has no control of that no matter how good his relationship with god is
and it really doesn’t matter what crappy plays Mike Malone is drawing up if the
shots aren’t falling.
After careful consideration and intense, angry eyeball
analysis this team currently has two fatal flaws and won’t be cracking the top
eight in the west until they’re corrected. The first is our 7 foot Australian on a bum ankle. Bet you didn’t
see that one coming. The other is
that this team has zero penetration or aggression on offense. This team is playing slow, there are no
drive and kick opportunities, no easy buckets in the lane and no prospects of
fixing it anytime soon. Bogut will
help the inside out game but he won’t fix everything. Until somebody decides that attacking the rim and getting to
the foul line is a priority this is going to be just another jump shooting team.
#FireMarkJackson might pick up
steam as the season roles on and I’m not opposed to the notion but Bob Myers
has bigger fish to fry in the short term.
