It's been 365 days, one failed first round draft round pick, a new/old coach, a franchise-changing trade, and an improbable playoff run since last year's NBA draft, and guess what? The Warriors needs coming into today's 2007 NBA draft haven't changed one bit from last year.
They still need a big body down low that can board and command the paint, and they need a defensive stopper.
-In a GAME THAT MATTERED, the A's lost their opening game, 4-0 to the Mariners. It's too easy to make much out of the first game of the season, but it should be noted that the A's took 17 out of 19 games against the Mariners last season and the Mariners just halved that. What happened yesterday could basically be summed up by this: great pitching. Mariner’s wunderkind Felix Hernandez, all of 20 years old, gave up only three hits in eight innings and struck out twelve.
The Warriors' forward/Vice President Of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin is among the finalists for the NBA Hall Of Fame this year. Savor it, Warrior fans...
Miss Monta Ellis' last minute shot two nights ago? Here it is.
You can exhale Warriors fans, there is hope. The universe works in mysterious ways, and yesterday, it worked for the Warriors.
Just when the flagging team needed it, on a day when they could only suit up seven players in a loss to the Clippers (as predicted by our LAist comrades), the Warriors announced that they had pulled off an almost unbelievable eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers. And there is more good news. Some how, some way, VP of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin convinced his Indiana counterpart, Larry Bird, to take Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy. That's right! The Warriors unloaded both baby Duns and Man-o-War in one fell swoop. And it keeps getting better. In return, Mullin snagged Al Harrington to help bolster the frontcourt lineup and guard Stephen Jackson to, uh, help with the police lineup. Both teams also threw in a couple of redshirts to level out the financials and collective bargaining requirements, but even the redshirts are looking good.
After a weekend in which it felt like we watched about 100 hours of football, all we can say is Bill Belichick has some major cojones and one can only wonder what Marty Schottenheimer did in a past life to deserve everything that has happened to him in the playoffs.
Pacers 108 Warriors 106: In detailing the game, the Chron's Janny Hu actually uses the word "upset" to describe the Warriors loss. Now when was the last time those words have ever been said about a Warriors loss? Probably sometime last century. In this game, Al Harrington (who Chris Mullin tried to get in the off-season) sunk a last second three pointer to lead the Pacers over Golden State.
Here we go Warriors fans. It's been 12 years since our hometown hoopsters last tasted the sweet nectar of postseason. Will this year be lucky number 13? It depends on your expectations.
This is basically the same team that went 34-48 last season. Baron and JRich are the stars, Murphy and Dunleavy are gonna get plenty of PT, and the bench is long on potential but short on experience. That's not encouraging.
Look, we love the 90s as much as anyone. We loved the Smashing Pumpkins and the whole grunge thing and we loved Pubic Enemy and watching "BH 9'er" and "Melrose Place" back-to-back and we loved being in our twenties and partying all night in our tiny apartment in North Beach and actually being able to dream of a Democratic President. But as much as we love the idea of those days, we also realize we can't go back to them. Among other things, it's pretty much near impossible as we don't have a space ship we can slingshot around the sun with. And second of all, we're old enough to realize that, as a wise man once said, you can't go home again.
Which brings us back to the Warriors who this morning fired Mike Montgomery and re-hired Don Nelson. That Don Nelson. You know, crazy, eccentric, mad-genius basketball coach known for employing smallish lineups with an emphasis on scoring and well-known inability to go anywhere in the playoffs. That Don Nelson. The Don Nelson who helmed the last hey-day of the Warriors, the RUN-TMC Warriors. The one who accidentally started the whole free-fall downfall of the franchise when he got into it with Chris Webber. And yes, the one who coached the Mavs and couldn't take them to the Finals until he retired and handed the team over to Avery Johnson.
Unlike the Toronto Raptors, the Warriors have kept their plans for draft day close to the vest, which means they either have something up their sleeves or they still haven't figured out what to do yet.
Still without a clear idea of what Chris Mullin and company think the identity of this team is, Warrior nation breathlessly awaits (reg. req.) the results of today's NBA draft. With the 9th and 38th picks, there's a chance the Warriors could come away with a missing piece of the puzzle.
But InsideBayArea.com staff writer Geoff Lepper reports that when "asked to put a percentage value on the chances that the No.9 pick will make it to October training camp as a Warrior, Mullin demurred, saying, 'I couldn't answer that now. It's total speculation.'" That's confidence inspiring.
Who Mullin selects should be determined by what type of team he is trying to build, but therein lies the rub: what type of team is he trying to build? A high-flying fast break team? A half-court grinder? A team built around defense?
After a Q&A with less specifics than a Scott McClellan press briefing, we still don't know! Mullin doesn't have to tell us exactly who he wants to draft, but he could at least give us a detailed description of the type of team he wants to build. Otherwise, it just looks like the same old Warriors' game plan: draft the "best available player," muddle through another season of mismatched parts, flub a lottery pick, repeat.
We're sure the problem is that Mully just isn't getting enough opinions or input about who to take with the team's two picks. To give him a hand, we've drawn up a little primer that he can use to guide him through tomorrow's Kobiashimaru.
Top-secret photo of Warriors' hi-tech draft selection determination device from the San Luis Valley (CO) Museum Association.
It's less than two weeks until the NBA draft, and the Warriors' game plan remains, uh what's the word we're looking for, undetermined? undeveloped? or just undisclosed? Quick to point out what others are thinking, the Warriors are mum about their own plans. Rest assured though, they are "currently prepping by holding individual workouts and scouring over scouting reports." Phew, and we thought they were just watching ESPN and getting ready for the party.
As the Warrior faithful wait with desperate anticipation for a draft day that finally turns the tide for this woebegotten franchise, Chris Mullin and his hoops junta might consider the following.
Have a plan. That's a plan, not a strategy. A strategy is something general and nonspecific like "pick the best player available," which is what the Warriors have been doing for about the last 12 years -- how's that been working out? During those 12 years, the team has had a top-ten pick six times and drafted some excellent players, but has never assembled a team (you know, the thing that is greater than the sum of its parts). A plan identifies two or three specific players that offer specific qualities or assets the team needs to improve. A big man. A pure shooter. A defensive stopper. None of the players the Warriors have drafted in recent memory (with the exception of Jason Richardson) have yet benefited the Warriors long term -- though many have gone on to participate in the playoffs for other teams. That's what happens when you don't have a plan.
Warriors Draft Party graphic can be seen in its full glory on the official Warriors website.
On June 28, the Warriors have the ninth pick in the 2006 NBA draft. With anxiety over their drafting position now relieved, the Warriors can get down to the business of deciding who to choose with old number nine. First though, they ought to give some long, hard thought to who is going to do the deciding.
Unfortunately,the Decider is a bit preoccupied right now with his own messes, so GState's candidates for the next round of Medal of Freedom awards -- owner Chris Cohan, VP of basketball ops Chris Mullin, and GM Rod Higgins -- are going to have to handle things on their own again this year. Y'uh-oh.
Cohan is apparently dead set on supplanting Donald Sterling as the most inept owner in recent NBA history. Since becoming majority owner of the team in 1995, the Warriors have never finished above .500, have not made the playoffs once, have burned through seven head coaches, and have done jack squat with 11 straight lottery picks.
Y'uh-oh. With the season hanging by a thread, the War-rips were hoping to come out of their recent six-day break with some piss and vinegar, but instead, all they got was a little salty wine.
On Wednesday, the War-terloos were worn down and overmatched by the Miami Humidity, losing at home 110-96. Last night, they sleepwalked through their game with the Phoenix Sunburn like it was a preseason scrimmage, losing at Phoenix 112-99 and dropping below .500 for the first time all season. At one point during the Suns game, the War-bricks were 3-18 from the three-point line; they could muster no offensive energy or discipline at all in the second half. It was one of their more lackluster performances of the season.
While losing to the Shaq-led Miami Heat 98-91 isn't that much of an embarrassment, it being the Warriors' seventh loss in a row is. It's especially disappointing in that not to long ago, back in those halcyon days of late 2004, the Warriors had gone on a four-game winning streak and were making people think that maybe Chris Mullin knew what he was doing. Considering that at that point, the Warriors were about to go play a bunch of lesser-lights in the lesser-light Eastern Conference (the Joey Fatone Conference to the Western Conference's Justin Timberlake), people were even getting gosh darn excited about the Warriors' chances. Those were the days. Even worse is that in three out of the seven games in the losing streak, the Warriors actually were close at half-time, only to come out of the locker-room so refreshed and energized that they were blown out the moment the horn started.
