The Warriors announced today that they are parting ways with their coach Keith Smart. I wasn’t overly impressed with the job he did coaching, but didn’t feel he did enough to get let go, and wouldn’t have been upset to see him at the bench one more year. It’s probably for the better though. The new owners need to move as far as they possibly can from the old ownership, and so far they haven’t really done much maybe this is a sign of changes to come. I’m pretty realistic about my teams, and I didn’t think the W’s would make the playoffs this year as their roster was constructed at the beginning of the year, which I guess isn’t much of a bold prediction since they rarely do anything. Maybe if everything came together perfectly they would’ve had a shot to make the playoffs, but that didn’t happen, and management decided it was time for their first big change.

Smart did a few things that I questioned during the season, like keeping Biendris out there when he obviously didn’t have anything to contribute. Sure, we didn’t have a lot of options at center, and the team is paying Biens a ridiculous $9M per season, but Smart should’ve seen what we all saw, a player that just didn’t have the heart or desire to be out there more than ten minutes a game. His second mistake in my mind was playing Ellis way too many minutes. Sure he was out best player, but 80% of the time at the end of the game he’d be too tired to make an impact. His elevation wasn’t there because he played about 5 too many minutes, so we’d lose. I loved how Smart was a players coach, but maybe he was a little too much of a players coach. I mean, he let Acie Law talk himself into the lineup regularly. You just can’t let that happen! I wish Smart the best of luck, and hope he finds another home. He was our assistant from 03-09 and our head coach last year, which is actually a pretty long tenure in the Warriors organization.

I have no idea who they will end up with as their coach for next year, but I’m hoping it’s Rick Adelman or at least someone proven. I’d hate to give the job to someone that has no experience again. We are a very young team that needs someone that can keep their attention and respect. Not so sure Smart had that from them. He had their respect, but not so positive about their attention.