The One That Didn’t Get Away

       Ever since Chris Cohan took over as owner of the Golden State Warriors, the team has strictly adhered to a kindly old fisherman’s rule: you can catch stars, but always be sure to throw ’em back.  If you happen to be a fan of the team, you can probably recite the list of ex-Warrior stars faster than you can recall your own address.  Precious few players are given long-term contracts around these parts, and even fewer live up to the expectations that come with their deals.  This summer, Adonal Foyle and Derek Fisher each signed 6-year deals worth the equivalent of Master P’s bicuspids, which is no small chunk of change.  Apparently the names Danny Fortson and Bimbo Coles mean nothing to the people running this franchise.So when Chris Mullin inked Jason Richardson and Troy Murphy to 6-year deals for Monty Burns-type money, Warriors fans’ pH level rose considerably (that’s player-Hatin’, for those of you who never took science).  Not only had Mullin failed to realize that he could change the number of years on the contract template left to him by Garry St. Jean, but he forgot to convert their salaries from pesos to dollars.  How else to explain the infant GM’s dubious signings?  As expected, Fisher and Foyle have performed about as expected: poop.  Murphy has been a very nice surprise, averaging 16 points, 12 rebounds, and shooting a death-defying 48% on three-pointers.  Richardson, on the other hand, was the signing that was going to make or break Mully as a GM- 6 years, $70 million.  That’s leading man money for a man who’d shown only Ben Affleck skills up to that point.  So, in typical Warriors fashion, guess what happened: J-Rich has been worth every dime.

        Over the first 2 weeks of the season, Richardson got paid more per brick than Super Mario.  The Warriors started out 2-8, essentially burying their season before it ever had a chance.  And while that type of play makes it easier for me to write columns, it’s not a lot of fun to watch.  So I stopped.  Some time in early November, I stopped watching the Warriors altogether.  I’ve seen every type of losing basketball team there is by now, and I had this one pegged already: the kind of team that loses, isn’t fun to watch, and has no chance of getting better anytime soon (it’s a great time out, though).  But the torturous W’s pulled me back in at the close of 2004, when they rattled off 4 wins in a row, 3 against playoff teams from last season.  Said the Kings’ Chris Webber after the win #2 of the streak: “The difference in the whole game was Jason Richardson; it’s that simple.”  Now, if this was said about any other team’s best player, their fans would hardly bat an eye.  But for Warriors fans, it’s like finding a $50 bill in your jeans.  We’re not used to having those types of players, guys who make the difference BETWEEN WINNING AND LOSING!  Sorry, just got done watching “Any Given Sunday”.  Great speech at the end by Pacino.  But back to the column….

        Before the season, I would have rated Jason Richardson’s chances of becoming a star only slightly ahead of Napoleon Dynamite’s brother’s chances in a cage fight.  It was just 2 years ago that J-Rich was the fourth-best offensive option on his own team, and got to watch the 4th quarter of every game from his very own spot on the bench.  If it wasn’t for the back-to-back dunk championships, it would have been easy for J-Rich to get completely lost in the shuffle, which is saying something considering he was the #5 overall pick.  But J.R. stuck with it, and has set himself apart from the team’s last huge re-signing, Antawn Jamison.  Aside from his scoring, Richardson is now making his teammates better, and all 11 players on the roster now defer to him, something that never happened when Jamison was around.  And unlike Jamison, Richardson scores his points at important times- not just in the final minutes of a game, but in the first 3 quarters, preventing other teams from going on big runs while he’s on the floor.  If Jason’s gone more than 2 minutes without scoring, he now has that internal buzzer that goes off and reminds him to drop in a few points.  That’s something the Warriors haven’t seen since Sprewell took his mustard and his 2×4 to New York.

        J-Rich actually showed flashes of becoming a go-to guy last season, but he was never able to string them together over extended stretches.  The near-win at Sacramento and the game-winning shot at Minnesota stand out, but Richardson still seemed like he was trying to force himself into a role for which he wasn’t suited.  But now Jason’s becoming a legitimate star in his fourth season, averaging 21.5 points and 6.2 rebounds per game, dragging his team kicking and screaming to each victory they earn.  The best part about Jason are the improvement he’s made to the deficiencies in his game; the knock on Richardson was always that he couldn’t get past his defender off the dribble, and he couldn’t guard his man at the other end.  So J-Rich improved his defense, to the point where he’s at least making opposing 2-guards work for every point they get.  And on offense, while he still isn’t adept at getting all the way to the basket on his own, Richardson has improved in other areas.  His low-post game is markedly better, and he’s now earning 1 or 2 extra baskets per night by moving better without the basketball.  Things like this don’t just make him more likeable or more worth the money, they make the games more exciting to watch because they spread throughout the entire team.

        Aside from Richardson, the outlook isn’t quite so rosy in Golden State.  The Warriors as currently assembled have 2 gaping holes: the lack of a low-post presence, and the dearth of scoring off the bench.  The Warriors are a sieve defensively, mainly due to the fact that they have no one inside who can both rebound and defend.  The lack of a center also hurts them on offense, because there’s no one who can score inside and set up J-Rich, Murphy, and Fisher for outside shots.  But because quality centers are the rarest of NBA commodities, Golden State needs to try and prevent people from ever arriving at the black hole that represents their defense of the rim.  This would require an athletic small forward who can prevent his man from getting to the hoop, something the Warriors don’t currently employ in their starting rotation.  And who might the current starter be, you ask?  Who is manning the toll booth and allowing opposing swingmen to take the express lane into the paint?  One Mister Mike Dunleavy, Jr.

        Dunleavy the Junior has taken his share of abuse from Warriors fans, especially lately, and I’ve always tried to lay off the guy.  But I’m finally at the point where I’m ready to admit that Dunleavy is hurting the team.  If Junior could make up for his lack of defense with points on the offensive end, he’d skate (see: Arenas, Gilbert).  But his abundance of potential and lack of production is starting to piss everyone off, teammates included.  Clifford Robinson now engages in almost nightly on-court screaming matches with Junior, and part of me wants Cliff to smack him, just to see how Dunleavy would respond.  Dunleavy is now starting to remind me of the countless Honda Civics I saw in college at UC-Riverside, tricked out to look like something they’re not.  No matter how hard their owners tried or how close their cars came to looking like an NSX or a Z3 or the Batmobile, they were still always Hondas on the inside (not that there’s anything wrong with that- I’ve got one myself).  And no matter how tall he is, or how well he handles the ball, or how pretty some of his passes look, on the inside he’s still Mike Dunleavy (and there IS something wrong with that).  Dunleavy needs someone he trusts to take a hard stance with him and whip his bony asphalt into shape.  Basically, if there’s one guy who was born to marry Janet Reno, it’s Mike Dunleavy.

        Lil’ Dun has shown a maddening tendency to put up monster numbers in the first half of games, only to wilt in the second half, content to let the show go on without him.  You can almost picture Uncle Cliffy, upset over a missed defensive assignment, challenging Dunleavy to a fight in the locker room, only to have Dunleavy counter with a thumb war offer.  And when the 4th quarter rolls around, who’s getting the crunch-time minutes at small forward?  You guessed it: Calbert Cheaney.  Calbert freaking Cheaney.  If you’re watching Calbert Cheaney take your 4th quarter playing time and you’re not even putting up a fight about it, maybe it’s time to start rethinking a few things.  And if you’re Chris Mullin, maybe it’s time to start making some phone calls.  It wasn’t too long ago that J-Rich and Arenas were riding the pine late in games due to their lack of defense, but this seems different somehow.  Jason and Gilbert were young offensive stars who were expected to get better defensively once they got more experience.  Dunleavy, on the other hand, is best suited as the 6th or 7th man on a playoff team, one of those guys who can come off the bench and do all of the little things against players either too old or too green to stop him.  But right now, he’s one of the 3 guys being counted on to carry a stuck-in-the-mud franchise to the playoffs.  Maybe a huge 6-year deal is just what Dunleavy needs to turn things around.  You listening, Mully?

        The Warriors actually have some decent trading chips to add to a Dunleavy deal (namely, Cliffy and Dale Davis’ combined $15 million in expiring contracts), which would hopefully bring a big man to Oakland.  Samuel Dalembert, Jamaal Magloire, Jeff Foster, and Nazr Mohammed’s names have all been mentioned in trade talks throughout the league, and any of these guys would be an upgrade over the dunk contest the Warriors’ defense is currently sponsoring.  Not only would a deal involving Dunleavy the Junior improve the D, but it would also allow the Warriors to move Mickael Pietrus into the starting rotation at small forward.  Pietrus is a bit short for the position, but he has the length and athleticism for it, and he also happens to be the best defender on the team.  Adding another playmaker to the starting 5 and improving the perimeter defense is a move that should probably be made whether Dunleavy is traded or not.  

        Of course, Pietrus has his share of faults as well, but they seem almost charming in comparison to Dunleavy’s.  Where Dunleavy lacks the heart to become a great player, Pietrus seems to lack the focus.  His defense is far less notable than it was last season, and you never know when he’s going to take a mental vacation.  Some nights, Pietrus looks like a star in the making; other nights, he turns invisible.  But because he plays so hard and shows such an eagerness to get out on the court, Warriors fans give Pietrus a much longer leash than they give Dunleavy.  It helps that Pietrus does things like participate in Warriors commercials about the players’ hometowns, only to explain with a smile that he can’t describe where his home country of Guadaloupe is.  All we know about Dunleavy’s background is that he went to Duke, and that’s nothing to be proud of.

        Moving Pietrus into the starting rotation would help heal one of the Warriors’ ailments, but it would shine a spotlight on the other: the fact that no one on the bench knows how to score.  Speedy Claxton would be perfect coming off the bench, but Fisher isn’t good enough on either end of the floor to start.  And because Fisher has 5 more years left on his deal, Claxton is the most likely point guard to be dealt.  Both points dominate the ball when they’re in the game, and rarely put their teammates in position to score if they can help it.  Most of the Warriors’ movement without the basketball comes when Richardson or one of the big men has the ball, and of the two floor generals, only Claxton is able to get to the hoop.  If you had been watching only Warriors games for the past decade, you might not know any better, but that’s not how the position is supposed to work.  Point guards should be setting up the rest of the team, which is why either Claxton or Fisher needs to go.  Claxton is nearly an identical salary twin of Utah’s disenfranchised young point guard Carlos Arroyo, and a swap would probably benefit both teams.  Speedy can play the defense Jerry Sloan requires, and Arroyo would do a better job of setting up the offense.  Of course, Fisher running the offense equates to watching him hoist threes from half-court whenever he feels he’s got the hot hand, so just about anybody we receive for Speedy would end up looking like John Stockton.

        There are a few things working in the Warriors’ favor here, most notably that J-Rich and Murphy seem to be getting better as a duo every time they hit the floor together.  They’re finally backing up all of their talk from the preseason about becoming the leaders of this team, and it’s great to see them busting it every night to earn their hefty new paychecks.  Also, the road to the Western Conference playoffs is now more of a windy road than a labyrinth.  Denver, Utah, Memphis, Minnesota and the Lakers have all slipped since last season, and Houston isn’t exactly blowing anybody away.  This season is already a lost one for Golden State, but they stand a decent chance of nabbing the 8th seed in 2005-06.  And because the Warriors will once again miss the playoffs this year, they should be able to draft either a big man, point guard, or high-scorer off the bench in the lottery.  And as the Warriors improve, they’ll see more national TV exposure, which means more Doug Collins and less Bob Fitzgerald.  Any way you look at it, that’s an upgrade.

        Mullin built this team in Memphis’ image, a team whose biggest strength is its depth.  Well, that plan works a hell of a lot better when your roster doesn’t feature a catalog of backups at both point guard and center.  But Richardson and Murphy actually represent (I hate to say it) a nice core to build around, or as Garry St. Jean would say, “We’ve got a heckuva group here, we’re just trying to assemble as many puzzle pieces as we can.”  At the very least, the Warriors have at long last found a leader and a sidekick this season, which is no small feat.  Golden State has finally moved past the doormat stage in their 54-year rebuilding plan, and now it’s time to take the next step.  If the Warriors want to get serious about making the playoffs, they still have a few moves to make.  But for once, those moves no longer include the words “re” or “building”.