There's been a lot of bitching about War-flops coach Mike Montgomery lately, and we've certainly been a voice in that chorus. One of our main beefs is that the guy just doesn't seem to have much imagination, especially when it comes to lineups. Look what Jerry Sloan has done with Kirilenko, Okur, and the rest of that group of castoffs in Utah, and imagine what he could do with the War-blues roster.
One major problem is that Monty only feels comfortable going about seven to eight guys deep, so when he does reach down for Monta Ellis or Chris Taft, it is only for isolated, disjointed minutes. Same with Andris Biedrins and, until recently, Diogu. What's the game plan Monty? What's the rhyme or reason to your insistence on giving huge minutes to Foyle and Dunleavy?
It's time to try out different combinations and schemes.
Playing Chris Taft in only five games since Thanksgiving doesn't do anybody any good. You're telling us there aren't some minutes available for a 6' 10", 260 guy with good strength and instincts?
And 15 months later, everybody is still wondering what we've got in Biedrins. Give him minutes. It's time to see what this guy can bring. A recent online survey showed that War-rut fans think the most important building block not yet signed long term is Biedrins.
By SFist the Truthmaker, contributing
Zarko is getting some PT, but we've seen no D or toughness from the big Euro, a former first round draft pick of the Suns that the Wah-hoos picked up in a meaningless trade last year. If the Wah-pahs make any trade this season, it should include Zarko. This team needs defense and toughness and when we look into The Count's eyes, we're not seeing Ben Wallace in there.
Here's the lineup that we think gives the War-blings their best chance to succeed:
PG Davis
SG Richardson
SF Pietrus
PF Diogu
C Foyle (as much as it pains us)
And here's some ideas for getting more out of the roster.
- Play Diogu at freakin' power forward, not center. The only reason Monty isn't playing him at PF is that it's Murphy's spot. Time to rethink the dominant paradigm Monty. Monty says there were "mixed results" from starting Diogu for nine straight games at center before reverting back to Foyle. Flash to Monty, center is not the right position for Diogu; try power forward.
- Bring Murphy in as a designated shooter when the team needs some points. Defensively, he's just an overgrown Steve Kerr anyway.
- Split time evenly between Foyle and Biedrins at center, and start running some actual plays for Biedrins. Just having him out there for a couple of random minutes with no real role is never going to flesh out his real potential. Yes, Biedrins is undersized for an NBA center, but so is Foyle. How long are we going to sit on Biedrins waiting for him to magically develop his game while getting only four minutes a game a couple of times of week?
- Use Dunleavy as a sub for SG or SF behind Richardson and Pietrus, and don't use him as a ball handler--that's what guards are for.
- Get Monta Ellis some PT. Widely recognized as an incredible athlete with great potential, Monty should get him minutes whenever and wherever possible. Try him as a shooting guard. Try a three-guard rotation every once in while with Monta in there. Do something to get him in the game.
- Encourage Biedrins, Taft, and Zarko to rack up five fouls every game by banging down low and getting physical with the other team's bigs. We need some toughness. When this team is getting worked over in the paint and on the blocks, why is Monty leaving 15 fouls on the table? Against the Lakers last Saturday, BDiddly had a triple double, JRich blew up for 37 points, and the War-droops still lost. NBA whipping boy Kwame Brown torched the War-limps frontcourt for 18 and 12. Ouch. The backcourt can only do so much, and if Mullinicks isn't going to trade for help, then Monty needs to be a lot more imaginative in using the players he has.
Should Monty go? That's a tough question. On the one hand, he deserves at least a couple of years to try to figure things out, and he is somewhat hampered by an inexperienced and weak GM and a culture of losing. On the other hand, the team appears to be getting worse over the past month or so, playing horrible defense and displaying a disorganized, undisciplined offensive strategy that can best be described as "just keep shooting the three." Monty is feeling the heat, but he's determined to stay the course, and in this country, we all know where course-staying can get you.
Some Monty supporters argue that there are no better coaches out there to be had. We disagree. In fact, we've always wondered why Keith Smart didn't get a chance to lead this team two years when Monty was hired. Smart has paid his dues in the CBA and sooner or later he'll get his chance in the NBA. And what about Mario Elie? He knows what it takes to win championships and has the kind of gritty, hard-nosed mentality that helps make champions. Why couldn't he bring that toughness and determination to the War-dribbles?
When Mullinitover finally decides to pull the trigger on a trade, it should include Dunleavy, Zarko, and Murphy, especially now that Dunlivit is starting to heat up and might actually have somebody interested in taking on his ridiculous salary. In return, the War-winks need to get a ferocious defender who can play SF or SG and an experienced big body to play the post. Rather than Mully's ill-conceived toe-dipping into the Ron Artest pool, he should have been busting his ass to make every Warriors fan's dream come true by working a deal to bring Kevin Garnett to Oakland.
So let's kick start some dialogue here. Give us your starting five, your best blockbuster trade (check out the trade checker site just to see if your wildest fantasies are even remotely possible given the NBA's Byzantine contract considerations), your thoughts on whether Monty should stay or go, and who should replace him if he is cut loose.
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Dude, just a couple weeks ago Murphy, Foyle, and Dunleavy were coming over to your house to barbecue and move furniture. What happened?
Starting Murphy and Diogu together was an experiment that had to happen, but Montgomery doesn't win any points from me for (1) taking so long to start it and (2) staying with it for too long. It was pretty obvious early on that the pairing was awful on defense, which was directly responsible for the Warriors falling behind at the start of almost every game. On offense, Diogu had trouble establishing himself deep enough on the block (the same trouble that Troy has). He also received far too few entry passes from Baron to make his time in the game worthwhile.
(By the way, it doesn't matter if Montgomery calls Diogu a "center" or a "power forward" -- he was still playing on the low post on offense. The problem was that he should have been covering the opposing power forward more on defense because of his height while Murphy covered more centers.)
Murphy is being paid too much money to come off the bench even with his defensive deficiencies -- he just has to make more of an effort to set himself up on the block when his outside shot isn't falling and when he's on the floor at the same time as Foyle or Biedrins. Despite his recent slump, I have faith in Troy. The scouting reports have caught up with him and he's not getting very many open looks now as he was at the beginning of the year (the same thing has happened to Fisher) so he's just got to vary his game more.
Foyle is who he is. Awful on offense, but he usually makes a statement on defense. He doesn't have to play a lot of minutes, but I think it helps the team if he can help get them in a defensive mindset at the beginning of the game.
Dunleavy is important to the Warriors offense. As I've said before, he's the second-best playmaker on the team and he gives the offense a different look when he has the ball. It's too predictable when Baron is the only player initiating the offense, especially when Baron goes into 1-on-1 "street ball" mode. It's no accident that the Warriors' offense has clicked better the last couple games because Baron has let Mike have the ball in his hands more. Mike also does a credible defensive job on opposing small forwards (Rashard Lewis 10 points, Lamar Odom: 2 points).
It's encouraging to see Pietrus play so well in his two games back from injury. However, I'm re-thinking whether or not he should be in the starting line-up. I'm not sure how much better Pietrus would do against the star shooting guards in the league (Wade, Kobe etc) because they are always going to get their points. The biggest defensive problem in the backcourt has been Davis (Luke Ridnour: 18 points, Smush Parker: 24 points) and if Pietrus covers the opposing PG then there are still mismatches if Jason is on the SF and Baron is on the SG. Like I said above -- Dunleavy hasn't really been hurting the Warriors on defense as much as Baron has.
Having Pietrus back means that Fisher doesn't have to play as much and Jason can rest more. I think J-Rich's mini-slump was caused by all the minutes he has had to play catching up to him. He plays so hard every game, but you could tell he will slack a little on defense if he knows the team needs him more on offense.
Everyone else: Taft has been inactive because of back spasms -- it would be weird for the Warriors to lie about that. I've said that Biedrins needs to play more. There is no need to play Zarko. The power forward and center spots should rotate between just four players: Murphy, Diogu, Foyle and Biedrins. Those guys should be getting consistent minutes in each game. Biedrins hasn't been getting much playing time, which is weird since he was playing so well at the beginning of the year (he's pretty good at making slashes into empty space and finishing around the basket). Bring in Zarko only if Murphy and Diogu get in foul trouble. Bring in Taft only if Foyle and Biedrins get in foul trouble.
Monta Ellis is an enigma. It was nice to get a look at him in the Suns game. He is going to be a nice player, but it's hard to see him finding enough minutes behind Baron, Jason, Fisher, Pietrus and Dunleavy. Although I think it would have been nice to see how he would have done defensively against Ridnour and Smush.
I'm not sure how replacing Montgomery will solve any problems. No coach can force Baron to make the extra pass when he goes into "street ball" mode for a whole game -- if you bench Baron for significant minutes as punishment, who are going to put in? The biggest problem I have with Montgomery is his substitution pattern, and who know if a new coach would do any better?
As far as trades go, there's not a whole lot out there. Sure, everyone would love to have Kevin Garnett, but it isn't happening. Give the Warriors a few more games to make something happen with the current roster. At least let's see how they do against the Cavs on Friday.
I also like Pietrus starting at 3 since, at this point, he probably brings better defense and offense than Dun-Dun. The option of running Chateau Pietrus at 3 (or Chupacabra), was one of the big reasons why I didn't understand resigning Dun-Dun for fairly big money.
That said, at this point, with so much invested in Dun-Dun, perhaps there's a front office directive to give him all the time he needs to come around (and hopefully he does).
Still: if we take money out of the equation, I definitely put Pietrus in at 3.
But I probably don't start Diogu at 4. He's not really ready yet, as his fouls-per-minute-played ratio is still alarmingly close to 1:1. With the weakness we sport at 5, we need Murphy's consistency at 4.
If we were politicians Ja'cob, we would say that the comment you referred to was taken out of context, but fortunately we're not.
We did indeed write that Foyle, Dunleavy, and Murphy are great guys, we'll fess up to that. But our point was that they're great guys to help us move furniture or have over for a bbq, not necessarily win an NBA title. Additionally, we were comparing them to Ron Artest.
So if the question is would we rather have Foyle, Dunleavy, and Murphy instead of Ron Artest, the answer is yes. (And to everybody shaking their heads about that comment, how many NBA or NCAA titles does Ron Artest have? And how many multi-game suspensions and mental meltdowns has he had in his career? Exactly.)
Integrity does still matter for something (however little) in this country.
But if you're asking us if we'd rather have Foyle, Dunleavy, and Murphy instead of Kevin Garnett or Emeka Okafur, we think the answer is obvious.
And Chestrix, baby, you hit the nail right on the head. No doubt Duns' huge contract has ALOT to do with his minutes. We've complained before that players like Foyle and Dunleavy seem to get unlimited minutes to learn on the job, while less well-paid players like Biedrins and Ellis are left to languish on the bench.
So we ask again, what is the long-term plan for this team? Is it committed to winning or is it more interested in justifying bad draft choices and idiotic contracts?
Not quite, T'ruth. The rest of your point was that their being great guys (I see the evidence for this w/ Foyle; not so much with the other two, but whatev) was a reason to keep them on the squad. They were part of the team's "long-term goals," and they made it "fun to root for," to provide a little more context. But you seem like a good enough guy--why aren't you running the point?
And EMEKA OKAFOR? I mean, there's a chance Minny would trade KG, though if he has a no-trade clause (I don't remember, but it seems likely) he'd probably veto a trade to the W's, but Okafor's about as likely to be traded for mediocre nice-guy players and cap room as Amare (drafted after Dunleavy), Arenas (drafted after Murphy and Richardson, of course), or McGrady (drafted after Foyle). Why not just flip Dunleavy for LeBron, straight up?
Look, I think we agree about these guys, more or less--I just want to know where all this hand-wringing was when the Warriors were off to a good start and I was surrounded by people who thought they (i.e. the W's) would still hang around the top of the division after game 20 or so.
If you are going to wish for a young PF, why Okafor? I'd rather have Chris Bosh or Dwight Howard.
I guess we'll see more of Ellis on Friday night with Baron suspended for one game. Montgomery has said that he eventually sees Monta as a PG, so Ellis should back-up Fisher against the Cavs. Pietrus will probably still be the first wing player off the bench.
Look at the post above this one crapping the bed about bad research and then figure out what Biedrins real first name is.
AP, what are you talking about?