For the past couple of weeks, ESPN has been running a pretty cool countdown where they rank all 500 players in the NBA and count them down via Twitter (and also post it on ESPN.com).

I’m sure you’re wondering how it’s possible to rank every single NBA player. To quote ESPN directly:

“We asked 104 experts to rate each player on a 0-to-10 scale, in terms of “the current quality of each player.”

You’re probably also wondering what’s up with the hashtag. Well,

“#NBArank is the Twitter hashtag to use if you want to get involved in the discussion or just follow along.

You can also follow along here: @NBAonESPN“

They’ve just about crossed the halfway point with the countdown so I thought it would be a great time to look at the Warriors who have made the list, their ranking and their overall score from the experts.

I’ll also include whether I think they should be higher or lower  than they’re actually ranked (as well as the reasoning why) and any notable names that they are ahead of.

Here we go.

#499 – Kent Bazemore, 1.46

The undrafted rookie out of Old Dominion is a very unknown commodity to the majority of the NBA universe (unless you’re Bob Myers or Kent’s mother) and this is likely why he didn’t get many favorable scores. However, Bazemore dazzled Warriors execs at Summer League with his tenacious defense, which was on full display against the Bulls’ Summer League team where he put up 11 points, eight rebounds, two steals, and seven blocks. For a guy who’s only 6’5, registering seven blocks is pretty spectacular and was enough for Golden State to take a flyer on him and ink him to a partially guaranteed contract. Perhaps if his contract was fully guaranteed he would’ve moved up a few slots.

Higher or lower: Higher (The dude had seven blocks in one game. Seven. I know it was SL, but still. Seven!)

Notable players he’s ahead of: Eddy Curry (#500)

(Yes, you may commence laughter and any Eddy Curry jokes you know off the top of your head)

#429 – Festus Ezeli, 2.32

Ezeli was selected #30 out of Vanderbilt by the Warriors in this year’s draft and figures to play a prominent role in the frontcourt almost immediately (as Bogut’s backup). While his game offensively is fairly suspect, his defensive prowess is what caught the team’s attention. He averaged 2.6 and 2.0 blocks per game in his final two years at Vandy and has a big body that will be useful in clogging up the lane and rebounding.

I’m assuming the Warriors are hoping that over time he develops some semblance of an offensive game. But if he protects the rim the same way he did in college and shows the same toughness and hustle that was on display at Summer League, he can shoot with his feet for all they care.

Higher or lower: About right

Notable players he’s ahead of: Dan Gadzuric (#430) , Luke Walton (#431)

#394 – Jeremy Tyler, 2.60

Watching Tyler play basketball is somewhat of an adventure. You don’t quite know what to expect out of him. That probably has a lot to do with him dropping out of high school to go overseas and play professionally. Obviously, there is the red flag of inexperience and lack of learning more about the game and developing his talents at the high school and college level. But then there’s a part of you that thinks, “Hey, this guy played professionally with other…professionals and therefore should be better than we’d think!”

After about a year and a Summer League of watching him play, the arrow is pointing more towards the “inexperienced” side rather than the “diamond in the rough” side. On both sides of the floor – more often than not – Tyler looks extremely lost and tries to hide that by giving 112% energy. Unfortunately, that results in a lot of bad footwork and some very questionable shots.

There is obviously some potential with this guy which is why the Warriors took a chance by purchasing his draft rights in 2011 but it remains to be seen whether or not he will reach a fraction of that potential. Expect to see a lot more of Festus this season than Jeremy.

Higher or lower: Lower (Until he can, at the very least, catch the ball cleanly with any consistency, he’s too high)

Notable players he’s ahead of: Johan Petro (#397), Tony Battie (#399)

#370 – Charles Jenkins, 2.77

Jenkins proved a lot of people wrong toward the end of last season when he was thrown into the starting lineup following the plague of injuries that struck the Dubs’ locker room. At the very least, he showed that he was a capable backup point guard in the league which is basically what you hope to get out of a guy when you take him in the second round. The knock on him is that he is less of a traditional point guard and more of a scoring one (which was evident his senior year at Hofstra when he averaged 22.6 ppg) and also seems to love the long two-point shot.

However, in the last 5 games of the 2011-12 season he averaged 8.8 assists to go along with 15.2 points proving that he can be a playmaker when he needs to be. With Jarrett Jack as the primary option to backup Steph Curry, Jenkins likely won’t get the same opportunities he did last season but as far as third-option point guards go, he’s not a bad one to bring off the bench.

Higher or lower: Higher (He’s shown he can be a viable backup in the league)

Notable players he’s ahead of: Greg Oden (#372), Maurice Evans (#374)

#334 – Draymond Green, 3.08

My first reaction to seeing Green’s name here was that it was a tad high for a second-round pick who hasn’t even played his first regular season NBA game yet. I’m assuming that the majority of the voters went off of his reputation that he established during his career at Michigan State. It’s hard to blame them though. Green averaged a double-double his senior year with 16.2 points and 10.6 boards.

He slid into the second round of this year’s draft likely due to not having a defined position in the NBA (the dreaded “tweener” label) but clearly people still think he can overcome that and become a productive NBA player. He brings the willingness to do whatever it takes to win, whether that means playing defense, rebounding or diving for a loose ball which is exactly what the Warriors need. He does possess a little bit of long-range ability but with names like Curry, Thompson, Barnes and Rush on the roster, I doubt he’s going to have any opportunity to show that.

With a loaded frontcourt and wing position, it’s hard to see right now how Green will carve out playing time but if he can continuously bring the intangibles Shane Battier-style, Mark Jackson will find a place in his rotation for him.

Higher or lower: Lower (he’s unproven)

Notable players he’s ahead of: Donte Green (#336), Chris Wilcox (#340)

#284 – Andris Biedrins, #284

Lower! Lower!

Okay, breathe.

Maybe I’m rushing to judgement here but it’s hard to justify this guy being towards the top half of the league when: 1) he forgot how to play basketball, 2) he appears to not care about not being good at basketball and 3) he’s getting paid $18 million over the next two years to not be good at basketball.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Biedrins was an up-and-coming big man who the Warriors thought could be a cornerstone of their franchise. Somewhere along the way, either the Space Jam aliens came and stole his talent or he personally took his talent, dragged it into a dark alley and shot it right in the face.

The narrative the past couple of seasons has been the hope that Biedrins would find his game and become at least a shadow of who he used to be. That hope is now all but gone and the man formerly known as “Goose” will likely ride off into the Latvian sunset when his contract ends in 2014.

At least he’ll have left us all with some good memories like his gelled hair and awful free throw form. That alone is worth $63 million.

Wait, no it isn’t.

Higher or lower: Lower (Have you seen him play?)

Notable players he’s ahead of: Derek Fisher (#288), Chris Anderson (#297)

As more Warriors names get released, I’ll be sure to keep track and post another one of these for you.

To see the complete list thus far, click here.

Until next time.

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#JENKOnIt… Check out the Charles Jenkins Rookie Season Highlight Mix

Fresh off their 40-point beat down on the Lakers last night, the Warriors’ Summer League team continued their impressive start in Las Vegas with their second consecutive blow-out victory over the Nuggets, 95-74.

Yes, it’s Summer League and the result of these games means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of things, but it does give us a glimpse of what we can expect from a few of the rookies and second-year players on Golden State’s roster.

Here’s a quick look at how the notable names looked in these first two games.

Klay Thompson

In case you didn’t know, this guy can flat out shoot the ball. He hit nine shots from three-point range in the two games and continued to display the confidence in his game that he displayed toward the end of last season. He also showed the ability to create dishing out five and four assists respectively which has to make the Warriors’ brass very happy given their need for a second playmaker outside of Curry this season.

With the way he played against the Lakers and Nuggets and his involvement with the U.S. Select team, it’s safe to say that Thompson won’t be playing much, if at all, for the rest of summer league. He should be giving more of the guys on the bench more playing time anyway. Did you see how many of them are sitting there? It looks like an elementary school team where everyone who tries out makes it.

Harrison Barnes

The top pick in this year’s draft proved that his shot was as good as advertised against the Lakers scoring 23 points in what could have been a “whatever you can do, I can do better” mini-battle with Klay. Although he struggled against the Nuggets, he’s been perfect from long distance over two games hitting all six of his attempts. If he can find a way to expand his game and get his teammates involved more, he will be a very dangerous weapon for the Warriors.

Charles Jenkins

Jenkins carried the Dubs’ offense in game two dropping a game high 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting. His mid-range game was absolutely on point thus earning him the nickname “Mr. Midrange” from teammate Stephen Curry on Twitter. It’s likely that he will also see less and less minutes as SL progresses since the team more or less knows what to expect from him, but with the recent acquisition of Jarrett Jack, he might want more court time to prove that he belongs in the mix at point guard this upcoming year.

Jeremy Tyler

To put it nicely, Tyler hasn’t gotten off to a very good start. As of right now, he’s committed more fouls than he’s scored points (seven to six) and still looks absolutely lost whenever he’s in the game. He’s been relatively invisible so far with his only highlight being a sequence where he didn’t catch the ball, managed to recover it…and then traveled. Womp womp.

Festus Ezeli

The rookie out of Vanderbilt has showed flashes of why the Warriors were thrilled to grab him with the number 30 pick in this year’s draft. He’s a big body who can clog up the lane but he’s also very active as demonstrated by his three blocks today (one of which I’m convinced almost broke the backboard). His offensive game isn’t much as of right now but if he provides the defense that he’s showed so far, he’ll get his fair share of court time this season. He might have already passed Tyler on the depth chart.

Draymond Green

Green appears to be a jack-of-all-trades-type of player. He’s rebounded well, made good decisions with the ball, played decent defense, and even showed off some of his long-range capabilities. With his long arms, his role this season will ultimately be to rebound, rebound and oh yes, rebound.

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Last Sunday, the Golden State Warriors (23-41) put themselves in a rather large hole on the road against the Minnesota Timberwolves (26-39). They were faced with a 20-point deficit early in the game and then managed to come back in the third quarter to make a game of it.

Ultimately the Dubs would prevail in this contest thanks in large part to Charles Jenkins’ mastery of the point guard position, as he went Chris Paul on the Wolves and put up 24 points and nine assists on 12-for-22 shooting from the floor.

Jenkins set up teammates perfectly and knew when to assert himself offensively and deliver the goods.
Continue Reading…

Photo by Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images

The Golden State Warriors (21-32) are coming off an exciting late game finish in Minnesota that saw Charles Jenkins send off the Dubs to a victory with a clutch basket with a little over 20 seconds left in the ball game.

Tonight, the Warriors will be playing their fourth straight road game when they enter Energy Solutions Arena to take on a struggling Utah Jazz (28-27) squad.

It’s no secret that Warriors are tanking and consequently their win against the Timberwolves might have seemed like a treacherous act; nonetheless nothing gets players and fans more excited than winning games.

Indeed, in the second half against Minnesota, the Golden State players brought the superior effort and showed a great amount of energy despite being the road team.

David Lee was terrific and Klay Thompson complemented him quite well in the third quarter while Charles Jenkins was the steady calming influence that stirred the ship. Nonetheless, the absence of Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut leaves the team with more questions than answers.

There is no doubt that they are now the best players on the team but their absence makes it impossible to evaluate what kind of team the Warriors currently have. How will the rest of team fit around them? It’s a question that the front office will only truly be able to answer next season, but the Dubs are not alone in this dilemma.

It’s not always easy to find players that seamlessly blend in together; and that can quickly turn a winning roster on paper into a losing one when the games are played. Evan Hall of Salt Lake City Hoops, the Utah Jazz ESPN TrueHoop Affiliate blog touched on this in his most recent post about the Jazz’s recent woes:

“This is absolutely not to say to that the team is not trying. Quite the contrary: almost every player on this roster kills himself every night, most especially during this losing streak in which the team is mired. These players care a ton, and one trip to a post-loss locker room removes any doubt that they don’t want to win. Yet they continue losing. This is not due to a dearth of legitimate talent. Teams all over the NBA would love to have Hayward, Millsap, Jefferson, Favors, Burks and Harris on their roster. This team, when broken down into the individuals, is good. Really good. Unfortunately, the pieces are not complementary.”

And then Hall offers this last gem:

“Sadly, this is par for the course in the NBA. Very rarely do teams find a set of players who complement each other beautifully. The thing about chemistry is that you don’t know you have it until your team is out there on the floor.”

In a nutshell, the Jazz’s situation basically gives us a perfect illustration of what Mark Jackson and the Warriors’ front office have to deal with.

Every time the Dubs trot out their small lineup or play zone defense, one cannot avoid thinking what those coaching decisions will mean for the big men on the team going into next season. For instance, is Dominic McGuire a keeper or not? His defense, size and toughness certainly would lead you to believe that his services should be retained, but with Lee, Bogut and Tyler on the team, he may end up being the odd man out.

Teams with borderline .500 records are often quite similar in their makeup and the questions they are faced with, and the Jazz and Warriors are no exception on this front. When both squads meet up tonight, it should be a hard fought contest determined by the team that is most capable of getting easy baskets; but it’s also a one of the many games in which role players will be determining their own value to their respective franchises.

A fringe playoff team and team completely outside of the playoff picture are asking themselves the same questions…

Go figure.

Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them in the comments section or you can contact me by email at [email protected].

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Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images

The Golden State Warriors traveled to the Target Center last night to take on the Minnesota Timberwolves in what many expected to be a good duel of power forwards as David Lee and Kevin Love were matched up head-to-head.

On this night, the battle lived up to the hype as both players had impressive scoring nights against each other.

Kevin Love looked like an All-Star throughout the contest, registering 29 points, 12 rebounds and five assists on 12-for-28 shooting from the floor. He struggled from deep, going 0-for-7 from 3-point range but was nonetheless impossible to defend. The Wolves big man made shots from midrange, on the block, off put backs and finished off after receiving passes from teammates at the basket. He was a handful as he made shots off catch and shoots, bankers and also sizing up his defender, jab stepping and then shooting and converting.

David Lee was just as productive against his counterpart, posting 31 points, eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks on 13-for-25 field goal shooting. Lee’s production may seem awfully similar to Love’s but his game was much more different. There were occasions in which he created offense for himself, but for the most part his points came off post ups where he was able to get to the basket and teammates found him cutting directly to the hoop where he finished. Indeed, the former Gator is at his best when catching the ball in the lane on the move and heading straight to the basket.

And yet, the night belonged to Charles Jenkins.
Continue Reading…

Golden State Warriors

78

Final Recap | Box Score

102

Indiana Pacers

	David Lee, PF 30 MIN | 5-11 FG | 2-2 FT | 6 REB | 4 AST | 12 PTS | -24 Lee was ineffective for most of the night has he matched up against David West and Jeff Foster, who were physical with him and never allowed him to get comfortable on the block.
	Dorell Wright, SF 18 MIN | 1-8 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 1 AST | 2 PTS | -23 Dorell looked tentative at times and failed to give the Dubs much of anything on this night. He consistently misfired from just about every spot on the court and got lit up by Danny Granger as he failed to adequately fight through screens.
	Andris Biedrins, C 13 MIN | 0-2 FG | 0-0 FT | 4 REB | 0 AST | 0 PTS | -19 Biedrins failed to provide any resistance at the rim and on the block while guarding Hibbert. In addition, he failed to give the Warriors any semblance of production at the center position and mostly played the role of spectator for most of the night.
	Monta Ellis, SG 28 MIN | 7-19 FG | 0-0 FT | 5 REB | 2 AST | 14 PTS | -23 Monta was able to get of to a hot start, scoring 10 points in the first quarter; but once the perimeter jumper went cold, that was all she wrote. Indiana doubled and triple teamed Ellis on side pick-and-rolls and forced him to give up the ball to players who could not make the defense pay.
	Charles Jenkins, G 18 MIN | 0-5 FG | 2-2 FT | 2 REB | 2 AST | 2 PTS | -9 Indiana helped off Jenkins to make life tough for Monta and unfortunately for the Dubs, Jenkins could not make them pay.

Three Things We Saw

1. The Warriors second unit went to their zone as they usually do and forced a couple of missed shots throughout the game; however the guards failed to understand their responsibilities at the top of the zone and eventually allowed easy 3-point looks as well as the free throw area to be vacant on far too many occasions.
2. Golden State’s inability to make open 3-point shots led to Indiana packing the paint, which essentially decided the game. The Warriors had no driving lanes, no post up opportunities and very chances at the rim that did not come directly from fast breaks.
3. As the game began to unravel for the Warriors, Klay Thompson displayed questionable shot selection. As Jeff Van Gundy often says, good teams are in fact good because they have good habits that they practice and preach daily. It will be important for Mark Jackson to recognize that on film and point it out to the rookie and the rest of the team to ensure the team tries to play within the structure of their system going forward.

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Another game, another strong performance from Klay Thompson. Jerry West’s guy went 4-6 against the Suns, 5-10 against Houston, and 8-11 against Denver. The kid’s showing out.

Klay Thompson came out of school with a dubious statistical resume. Beautiful as his jumper flew, deft as his use of screens was, he never shot over 40% from behind the college arc. Shooting defined his NBA appeal, so this was a concern.

The season started off poorly for Klay, worse than the awful numbers indicated. He chucked 20% in his first four games, all the while “looking lost,” as the saying goes. Many of these jumpers weren’t even close. He would hurl tries over the rim, like man returning fire in a frenzied snowball fight. During bad games, he would give the ball up while somehow simultaneously projecting the combination of “nervous” and “dejected.” Thompson soon received the dreaded a consensus, “He’s not ready tag,” a phrase that’s usually code for, “He never will be.”

And yet he played. And played. And played. Thompson never had a stint of over 30 minutes, but he also never had a stint less than eight. The run has been steady, rarely deviating much from his 16.7 minute average. He looks like a different player now, splashing jumpers at key moments. At a .470 FG % and .493% three point mark, the kid is displaying some considerable shooting talent. But his defense is even better, an uncanny quality for a rookie.

It is possible that Klay’s learning curve is a mirage, that he would have eventually played well without consistent minutes. I doubt that, though. Consistent experience is important for building expertise at any job. Without steady run, I’d hazard that Thompson’s learning curve would have bounced and lurched about like Jeremy Lin’s had a year before. And perhaps we’d think Klay talentless.

A narrative surrounding Lin is, “How could everybody have missed on this guy?” Let me disabuse new Lin observers of the notion that JL was some gleaming presence that no one dared look at. He had immense flaws, flaws that were ironed out after hours upon hours of D-League experience and practice time.

“Time” is key here, though New York’s pick and roll system probably accentuated Jeremy’s natural skills. Lin simply had no time to learn on the job, mostly because Keith Smart (correctly) feared losing his job. There were pressures beyond overlooking some guy because he went to Harvard and hailed from a different sort of ancestor.

To better develop young players, a team must sacrifice games. Jackson insists that he isn’t doing that with Klay Thompson, that Klay is the coach’s best option in those minutes. I am inclined to believe him, because rookie PG Charles Jenkins rarely sees the court. But what if Jenkins is the next Lin?

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