|
|
|
|
|
In the midst of Warriors skid, Ellis only bright spot
By David Zizmor February 9, 2010 |
||
|
|
|||
|
OAKLAND--The Warriors are not entirely the worst team in the NBA but their darn close. New Jersey who is sitting at 4-46 are threatening the Philadelphia 76ers all time worst NBA record, New Jersey is clearly the NBA's worst in the league this season. When you go 4-46 there is no argument there. The Warriors are not doing a good job of separating themselves from the Nets, the Warriors are sitting at 13-37 and they are percentage points are ahead of the Pacers and Timberwolves who are 13-38. So here are the Warriors sitting with a 13-37 record and are half way through the season. There has been no sign of any improvement going on with this team, so you kind of have to wonder what’s going on here and the answer is not much. Their just playing out the string, I will give them credit that most of these guys have not given up. They aren't going through the motions and certainly they are playing hard. The Warriors are just not a very good team and part of it has to do with the coaching, a lot of it has to do with the front office and their inability to put together a coherent team, because while the Warriors battle you look up and down their roster they have a few talented players here and there they are not short on talent. This is just a terrible team in the sense that all the parts just don't add up. You look at all the different guys on this team and there is certain talent but you put them all together they just don't work as a unit. This is a big problem in the NBA and it kind of just proves that with all the talent in the world you just can't really whack together a team. You have to have some kind of plan and team president Robert Rowell and owner Chris Cohen and head coach Don Nelson in terms of constructing this team do not have a plan and have not had a plan and there is not much hope that they’re going to have a plan in the future. Which is one of the reasons why you’re seeing the Warriors attendance numbers start to drop after being up for so many years, despite the badness being played in Oracle Arena. The W's and I'll give them credit Monta Ellis is a very exciting player, he's fun to watch, a great young scorer in the NBA. I have been saying it for a couple of years, Ellis is good enough to win a scoring title, he might not do that if Kevin Durant keeps up doing what he's doing for Oklahoma City. Monta Ellis is certainly in the discussion. He's hitting 46% from the floor and he's actually improving in his three point shooting and averaging 26.2 points per game with a 33% clip. Ellis is having a fantastic season, on top of his other offensive stats he has 100 steals, he's averaging 5.5 assists, this guy is really good and talented and the real shame of all of this is he will be around the Warriors for a couple more years because of that contract they signed. Ellis is upset, he doesn't like the ownership and we all know that Monta is looking for the first chance to bolt this squad. So unless the ownership changes and he can get him to stick around that's just another good young player the Warriors could eventually lose to free agency. The other thing the Warriors could have done is do a dumb trade, there are already stupid trades including Ellis going to the Celtics for Ray Allen which was an absolutely an absurd trade rumor because it does nothing to help the Warriors and it does everything to help the Celts. It has all the markings of a crazy trade rumor started by a Boston writer. The problem is that the Warriors have made so many dumb front office moves in the last few years you can't just discount a rumor like that. You just have to wonder about what the W's are thinking. If you watch the Warriors play one of the things you have to enjoy is Ellis and he's one of those few joys on this team. Stephen Curry, he's looking very good, but he has a ways to go to be a real star on this team. He's a good basketball player, he's hitting his threes and is hitting with an outstanding 42% rate. He's just one of those good young ball players that has great basketball sense. Curry is not too far off on the assists side which everyone was sure would happen and the W's have some good young players besides those two. You have Anthony Randolph, Anthony Morrow, and some of these guys they brought in from the B league are doing okay night in night out you just can't win with those guys and that team is just not going to work and I don't care if you have a lot of injuries that's no excuse they're playing in the NBA who have dinged up players. If you look up north to Portland they have players getting injured left and right and they're still competing at a very high level in fact Portland is sitting with a winning record. So the Warriors have a long, long way to go. We'll have more next week. Dave Zizmor covers Warriors basketball each week for Sportstalk Radio |
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||