Warriors World
The Warriors finished the week 2-1 with wins @ Minnesota and at home vs the Kings. The lone loss came in heartbreaking fashion as the Nuggets beat the Warriors following a rather suspicious foul call on Monta Ellis which gave J.R. Smith three foul shots with less than a second remaining. Ellis had converted a nifty lay-up the possession prior to give the Warriors a one point lead and the opportunity to pull off a big road win.
The victory was not meant to be as Monta Ellis was whistled for a foul on J.R. Smith as he began his shooting motion for a potential game winning shot. Ellis made slight body contact but it was the big swipe he took over Smith’s head which caused the zebra’s to blow their whistles.
Here’s Bob and Jim breaking down the final sequence.
Down goes Randolph, down goes Randolph
Tell me if you’ve heard this one before… A Warriors player is injured and out indefinitely. Anthony Randolph suffered a left ankle injury early in the game vs the Kings on Friday. Latest reports on Randolph indicate no “acute fracture” with a MRI scheduled for today. For the latest on the Randolph injury, check out Matt Steinmetz’s article HERE.
Photos Courtesy of : Csnbayarea.com
Cartier Martin to the Warriors
The Warriors called up Cartier Martin from the D-League this weekend and he will be in uniform tonight vs the Cavaliers. Martin has one practice under his belt with the Warriors but still expect him to play about 20+ minutes tonight and get the unenviable task of guarding LeBron James. Here’s the press release from the boys over at 1011 Broadway.
“The Warriors signed swingman Cartier Martin to a 10-day contract, the team announced Sunday.
The 25-year-old Martin is a call-up from the NBA Development League’s Iowa Energy, where he averaged 14.4 points and 4.3 rebounds in 12 games this season. The 6-foot-7 Martin, who went undrafted out of Kansas State in 2007, began last season with the Energy before being called-up by the Charlotte Bobcats, for whom he played 33 games and averaged 2.6 points and 1.0 rebound in 8.1 minutes per contest.
Martin was with the Warriors during the Summer League in Las Vegas, where he averaged 19.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 1.33 steals and 1 block in 29.3 minutes over three games.
The Warriors’ roster now stands at 16 players. The Warriors are able to add Martin to the roster under the NBA’s hardship rules, which allow a team the ability to sign an additional player if that team already has 15 players on its Active and Inactive Lists and has four-or-more players unable to perform playing services due to injury or illness for an extended period of time.”
Homer v Non-Homer
Geoff Lepper (of 48minutes.net) and I do a little role-playing…No, not THAT kind… I take on the roll of a “Homer” and Geoff represents the “Non Homers”.
Rasheed: Chris Cohan has never shied away from spending on players, he pays to keep his players and doesn’t meddle or become obtrusive as other NBA owners tend to do. Yet he continues he receive hate and backlash even though he has a successful product in terms of business. The negativity towards Robert Rowell and Cohan is off base, is it not?
Geoff: Hey, Rip Van Winkle, how was 2005? Did you bring back some jobs for us all? We all know Chris Cohan spent into nine figures to keep Adonal Foyle, Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy and bring in Derek Fisher. The team has long pointed to those moves as proof of Cohan’s conviction.
But the last of that crop of big-dollar deals was handed out to Dunleavy four years ago. Since then, the Warriors have been all about hard-line contract negotiations and “salary protection,” as Bobby Rowell so famously dubbed it.
Keeping together the “WE BELIEVE” crew would have been expensive. It almost certainly would have pushed the Warriors into luxury tax territory, and that would have had a deleterious effect on Rowell’s bottom line. But keeping that team together and augmenting it with further talent also would have provided the Warriors their best chance of getting past the second round of the playoffs since 1975. (Assuredly, it would have been the only chance with this coach. Mismatches all over the floor, 3-point gunners everywhere — that was the perfect team for Nellie-ball.)
Instead, of course, Richardson was dealt for Brandan Wright to help make sure the team stayed under the luxury-tax threshold. Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes were chiseled down in their salary demands and eventually walked in response. If you believe the reporting, they balked at giving Kevin Garnett a max extension and handing major money to Amare Stoudemire, helping torpedo those negotiations.
Above all: l’affaire Baron.
The idea that Cohan should be allowed to avoid the cheap label because he spent a lot of money four, five and six years ago — deals which his team uniformly shed before their expiration — is ludicrous.
As for the notion that Cohan doesn’t meddle, I must concede that’s technically true. But Rowell represents all things Cohan at 1011 Broadway. And to say Rowell hasn’t been obtrusive is just plain wrong: He made the final call on BD, determined the penalty for Monta’s Moped Madness and personally negotiated the Stephen Jackson extension that has become a $28-million anvil chained around this team’s neck.
Business-wise, you’re right — the team has done well during Rowell’s tenure. They’ve consistently made money in that time-frame, and that’s what he gets judged on. Fans, however, judge a team by success on the court and on that count, the Cohan-Rowell partnership has been, with the exception of 15 months in 2007-08, a pretty dismal failure.
Rasheed: How do we move forward if we continue to dwell on the past? There’s been mistakes made throughout the years but to specifically pinpoint them on Cohan and Rowell is a cop-out. They’ve hired people who they’ve entrusted to do a good job yet those people have failed and management has not hesitated to replace them with new people in hopes of getting the job done right.
No doubt that Baron was the engine that made the “WE BELIEVE” team run but to go out and give him a extension worth big money knowing his history with injuries, motivation and reputation would have been the wrong move. Let’s say Baron got the extension he wanted, do you think he’d continue playing at the level he played in 06-07 or would he be on the injured list or mailing it in?
Geoff: How can holding the people who run the organization accountable for the mistakes of the organization be a cop-out? Especially when Rowell has become so intrinsic to the team’s contract decisions of late — and has in some cases put “salary protection” above the quality of the product on the floor?
As for “getting the job done right,” was the drawn-out dismissal of Chris Mullin a matter of him not getting the job done? Or of him disagreeing with Rowell on the best way to do that job? I understand that the Warriors would like us to believe the former, but all credible available evidence leads us to the latter.
I agree there was no guarantee Baron would remain healthy through the life of an extension. Then again, no player is a certainty.
Finally, how can you claim as fact that extending Baron was the “wrong move”? Doesn’t that mean what’s happened since then — 29-53, practically willful disregard and contempt for defense, a coach who looks disinterested at best, Stephen Jackson blazing his own Freedom Trail, no discernible plan for the long-term — is the right move? I would hope no one thinks that’s the case.
Rasheed: Stephen Jackson basically turned his back on the organization, the same organization who brought him in and allowed him to have his re-birth as a player. He’s achieved greater personal success and been given the freedom every player longs for on the court. As a sign of gratitude and wanting to build on recent success the Warriors gave him a 3 year extension when he still had 2 years remaining on his current deal.
To turn around within the same year and belittle as well as demand a trade shows a complete lack of professionalism and respect as he basically stabbed this organization in the back.
Actions speak louder than words and Jackson’s actions proved what type of individual he is.
Geoff: Well, you can flip that argument on its head: Stephen Jackson allowed the organization to have a re-birth, leading them to their first playoff berth in 12 years and then to a 48-win season, so the Warriors owed him a debt for that work.
But that really misses the point: The Warriors set themselves up for this situation. Jackson was on his best behavior when he first arrived in Oakland because of his past transgressions. By giving Jackson the extension with two full years left on his current deal, the Warriors took away any motivation Jackson had to remain in such a state.
Not only did the Warriors give Jackson more financial security than he had ever enjoyed before. They also made clear Jackson’s singular place in the organization: While everyone else had to suffer under the iron fist of “salary protection” and only got paid at the threat of free agency, Jackson was handed a deal while the Warriors still held him under their control. Basically, the hard-line contract rules didn’t apply to Jackson — so why should he think other rules apply to him as well?
Follow Geoff on Twitter, HERE and check out his site, HERE
Youtube’n It
J.R. Smith showing off his high basketball IQ
Sleeper candidate for the 3-point shootout
“Blood” Dizzle?