The 2007-08 season has just begun and the Golden State Warriors appear to be in trouble. They had an amazing run in last years playoffs upsetting the first seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round and losing in a shootout with the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semifinals. The tumultuous playoff run looked like a set up for another good season for the Warriors, but some things didn’t work out too well in the off-season, which has led to a winless first opening week for the Warriors. Baron Davis was destroying the opposition like the Patriots offense in last years postseason. Because of his high performance he felt he deserved a mega star sized contract extension, which didn’t seem like a good idea to the Warriors front office. One reason his extension plan was denied is obviously his age; he is almost 29. He is already injury prone and he’s not even thirty yet, soon he will be, will his body break down even more? Another reason they didn’t give him the extension could be his style of play, can you go deep in the playoffs if your point guard dominates the ball and shoots twenty-five plus times a game? It hasn’t happened yet, neither Davis nor Gilbert Arenas has made it to their conference finals, so that might not be the direction that the Warriors want to go.
If you look at Davis’ previous team, the Hornets, it seemed as though he wore out his welcome part way through his tenure with that organization, the same thing might be happening with the Warriors. He has also looked like he isn’t trying very hard to play defense; already this season he has been lit up twice by Deron Williams of the Jazz. The second game it looked as though Davis gave up and quit trying, Nelson even pulled Davis out of the game because of his lackluster effort on November 3rd in Salt Lake City.
If the Warriors don’t start winning some games soon expect Davis to become a very disgruntled employee and start to hurt the team more then he is helping. If things don’t get better in the next month or two the Warriors could start shopping his expiring contract around the league. Certainly there is a team out there that would be willing to take on that expiring money and try to turn it into a few good months of basketball, maybe a team that has a shot at the playoffs that is lacking talent in the backcourt. The way the season is going there is a good chance Davis is gone by the trade deadline in February.
If the Warriors do part ways with Davis they will be depending on the young, fragile shoulders of Monta Ellis to carry the load and run the offense. He might be capable of running the offense for this team, but he has yet to show that he is a real point guard. The Warriors have played him as a two guard and he appears to be comfortable with shooting the ball and scoring. He would have to take over as the main point guard because Troy Hudson isn’t a feasible option for them as a long term solution playing heavy minutes at point guard, unless Hudson can magically turn back the clock about six years that would be a bad idea. With all the scorers on the this team they need a pure point guard, so unless one is included in a potential Davis trade they might have to draft one in the future.
Nobody expects this team to play lock down defense, but they will have to put a little effort into it at some point if they want to win some games this year. It is very early in the season, but their defense has been worse then Notre Dames football team. So far the opposing teams’ big men have eaten them alive. Chris Kaman and Carlos Boozer have ripped apart the Warriors interior like a savage dog. Boozer had 30 points and 15 rebounds against the Warriors and Kaman also exploded for a huge double-double with 26 points and 18 rebounds; Mehmet Okur also had a huge game against them scoring 28 points. This team does get a lot of blocks and steals, but they are very predictable, one ball fake and the opposition has an easy basket. This team has serious discipline problems on defense and it is killing them so far, if it doesn’t get fixed their winless opening week record will look good in December.
One reason the Warriors have started out poorly is because starter Stephen Jackson is currently serving a seven game suspension from the gun toting strip club incident when he was with Indiana. When Jackson returns it will give them another scorer, but more importantly, someone who might be an average defender. They could use his help right now, but when he returns there could potentially be more problems. Jackson has been an off-court issue with every franchise he has been a part of so far. When he returns will he be able to stay focused on basketball and only basketball? If he can then he might be able to help stop the bleeding that is slowly killing this team. If he doesn’t stay out of trouble then things will fall apart and they may want to try and trade Jackson as well, but it is way too early to tell what will happen with him, it all depends on his attitude and commitment towards the team.
Another reason they are reeling right now is because they traded away their most consistent and reliable scorer who was also their best shooter, Jason Richardson. The player they acquired from that trade, rookie Brandan Wright, has yet to be active for a game yet. Since trading Richardson no one has stepped up and become a dependable wing player yet, though rookie Marco Belinelli looks like he could eventually fill that role. Actually, Belinelli is one of the few bright spots so far on this time. Belinelli has knocked down shots and shown that he can contribute to this team, but they need more than just a rookie and Al Harrington to step and play.
One of the biggest question marks surrounding this team might just be concerning Head Coach Don Nelson. In the off-season he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to come back and coach the team. He was leery of returning not because he can no longer drink during post game press conferences, but because there were so many question marks surrounding this team, including the aforementioned Jackson and Davis issues as well as the Richardson trade. This past off-season Matt Barnes and Michael Pietrus both wanted to sign with new teams, but because they were restricted free agents teams didn’t pull the trigger on either of those players. Those two were a huge part of the Warriors success last year, had one of them got away it would have really messed up Nellie’s rotation. For now his team is set but it seems like he might try and shake things up a little later in the season.
The season is brand new and there are many games to play before the Warriors season is deemed a failure, but they need to step up their game and unite as a team if they want to get on track and move this season in a positive direction. There is a lot of work to be done but if they make a few changes it can turn out to be another great year for the Warriors, but they need to get to work soon before it is too late.