I haven’t posted a blog in a while and I have to make a decision on whether or not to keep my domain going for another year. It’s a $15 decision that’s been weighing on me like a few extra grams of coffee beans on my scale. But, I wanted to get this out there because I ran into a bunch of Warrior enablers; a group of people who are okay with losing and perhaps a partial reason why the Warriors are who they are.
Warrior Enablers
Posted: May 6, 2011 in Don Nelson, Golden State Warriors, Monta Ellis, NBA, Stephen CurryTags: golden state warriors, hyperdunks, joe lacob, monta ellis, nba, nike, stephen curry
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Being a Warriors’ Fan: An Exercise in Futility
Posted: February 8, 2011 in Chris Cohan, ESPN, Golden State Warriors, Joseph Lacob, Peter GuberTags: chris cohan, espn, golden state warriors, joe lacob, peter guber, trade machine
Last night’s game against the Phoenix Suns was yet another indication that this Warriors team is too flawed, top to bottom (including the coach…maybe especially the coach), to make anything out of the seldom witnessed win. Giving credit to this team is an exercise in futility spawned from the re-births of inspired off-season hopes.
Joe Lacob might be smartly evaluating this team with patience and VC-savvy, but meanwhile, his investment is going to shit. He’s certainly leaning on what Chris Cohan has leaned on all these years: a loyal, naïve, and turn-the-other-cheek type of fans that have haplessly herded themselves into Oracle Arena looking for a great time out, or something.
But will he have the same Cohan-luck, where ticket sales stabilize what is the proverbial rudderless ship through failure? New ownership has the burden of making a difference and that will play negatively into their decision making as the current team struggles; it’s much easier to make smart decisions when your company is doing good, or to put it another way, no matter what you do, you’ll receive a harsher form of criticism if you’re a team defined by mediocrity.
Something tells me that he and Peter Guber have grander plans that would–that should–catapult ticket, merchandise, and food sales upwards but the plan needed execution like, yesterday. I would think that Mr. Hollywood would have a say in their TV contract, getting more national exposure, better ratings, and more advertisers that matter in the grand scheme of the NBA. All of these little things impact how and when management decides to make changes. You can be patient, but patience has its consequences, especially when it’s applied towards an already tired fan base (although I was sorely disappointed that there weren’t enough boos last night at Oracle).
While smart fans can fully support smart decisions that aren’t for the sake of making a change, I don’t know how much longer they can take this torture. Not the SF Giants kind of good torture, the bad kind where you’re sub-.500, losing badly against a team you need to beat to gain ground in the standings.
This current team isn’t going to make the playoffs, as Matt Steinmetz implores to fans. Therefore, to make anything out of whatever success this team finds in its current state is frankly a big waste of time. The only thing this team has done successfully is cultivate and nurture a desperate group of rosterbators that have the ESPN NBA Trade Machine set as their internet browser homepage. I’ve never read “it works in the trade machine” more than I have this season.
Changes need to happen, but the changes have to be calculated so it actually improves the team so they can win more than they lose. The question is: do they have the chips to make that happen? Does management have the skill to make it happen? And if the answer is no to either: is Joe Lacob & Co. the answer? If you happen to answer “no” to the last question, then please visit this blog for all your answers.
The Lost Art of Throwing in the Towel: Still Lost
Posted: January 27, 2011 in Acie Law, Brandan Wright, David Lee, Dorell Wright, Ekpe Udoh, Golden State Warriors, Joseph Lacob, KNBR, Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Vladimir RadmanovicTags: brandan wright, david lee, dorell wright, golden state warriors, joe lacob, keith smart, monta ellis, stephen curry, vladimir radmanovic
Sorry for the hiatus—“things have been busy,” “life got in the way,” “my dog ate my homework.”
I just wanted to touch on the Warriors very quickly. Their long home stretch—which has been dubbed the stretch that will determine their playoff hopes—is on the tail end. They’re lost three in a row, in which the last two were home blowouts.
Well, the final scores might not indicate that, but if you watched the games, it was just one of those stat-padded losses. These are the times when we get to hear Bob Fitzgerald touch on the “positives” like David Lee getting 20 and 10 and Dorell Wright having a career year and Monta Ellis for All-Star!
Whatever individual accolades are being garnered, they’re not contributing to wins, not even close. It wouldn’t be so bad if Keith Smart learned the art of throwing in the towel. You know, where you pull your injured and ailing starters for bench guys who need the playing time. Like, Brandan Wright instead of Lou Amundson. But no, he’s living last season’s dream of having 8 active players. I guess the trauma of being chronically injured has a lasting effect. Everyone, including the owner, knows Keith Smart’s rotations stink, but what he does at the end of games they’re clearly going to lose is baffling.
When the game was already out of reach in the fourth quarter last night against the Hornets, he rested Monta Ellis for the first time at the 9:58 mark—who never came back into the game and happens to be the one guy that is unaffected by heavy minutes—but decided to run with an ailing Stephen Curry, Dorell Wright, and David Lee for the majority of the fourth quarter.
During this time, we also saw Acie Law and Vladimir Radmanovic get extended minutes off the bench but not once did we see Brandan Wright. The Brandan Wright who leads the team in TS% and is fifth in points scored per 36 minutes—basically, he makes an impact every time he hits the floor. Now, he may not be a go-to guy or a guy you can depend on to stay healthy, but when he plays, he plays well. For some reason, he never plays, even in blowouts. He must have stolen Keith Smart’s deodorant or something. If there’s a Keith Smart doghouse, Brandan Wright is in it.
And that’s what makes no sense, because he clearly has no problem playing Vlad or Law (when is Jeremy Lin going to be recalled, by the way?), who you practically have to put into a Juiceman to extract any sort of productivity. Keith Smart’s shotgun approach to his rotations are both an insult to his starters, who he’s running into the ground by playing meaningless, stat-padding minutes, and to the player (singular) who actually makes a consistent impact on the court. Somehow though, Brandan Wright is not part of his shotgun munitions.
I told myself I would reserve judgment on Keith Smart and his rotations until Feb. Well, I was presuming we’d see some incremental improvements. Hey, whatever happened to “defense travels well” and all the talk about defense? That sure died down quickly given how the Warriors have panned out to be (probably) the worst defensive team in the league (haven’t checked this but I presume we’re at or near the bottom).
So during this very important home stretch, the Warriors have gone 5 – 6. Where’s the sense of pride and urgency? I know the Hornets are playing out of their minds but this is Oracle and we beat them at the Hive a few weeks ago.
There are zero excuses right now. I blame everyone. And on this note, Joe Lacob is about to take calls from fans on KNBR.
