Golden State Warriors “Live Forever”

Even if your not a Warriors fan, I bet you’ll find this video above pretty cool. It even gave me a few goosebumps along the way. If you didn’t like that one, maybe you’ll like the Kings version. A few days ago I wanted to write a state of the Warriors address, but in the end you can sum up this years team in two words, “very disappointing”. Also, if I put myself through evaluating all the players on the team, I might piss myself off too much, so here’s an abbreviated rant on what baffles me the most about this team. I never thought they’d be a playoff team this year with the second youngest roster in the NBA, which is why I didn’t put them on my list for our Western Conference predictions, but I thought they’d be better than they have been. They’ve had a few good wins here and there, but the bad so far has heavily outweighed the good. It’s becoming more and more apparent that Curry and Ellis aren’t that great of a pairing in the back-court together as neither seem to be all that consistent, and while one is doing damage the other seems to be standing around watching too much. Should we bring one of them in off the bench? Try it, why not for a game or two, because it’s not working as currently constructed.

The more glaring hole in the roster for the past four seasons though is their big men. David Lee can’t be their only inside presence on offense and defense, and every game it becomes more apparent. Kwame actually did look good for the seven games he played, which says a lot about our other options at center, but once he went down we were stuck with nothing at center. Why the owners decided to use the amnesty on Charlie Bell and his expiring contract instead of using it on the ever eroding “I don’t draw contact because I’m scared to shoot free throws” Biedrins will baffle me for years to come, but with Larry Riley as your GM, it’s about all you can expect. Seriously what was the point of bringing in Jerry West as an advisor if you were going to still let Riley make the final decisions with the personnel? The new owners promised change, yet stuck with a used car salesman in Riley who couldn’t sell Monta a moped. Ok Riley, I’ll give you Brandon Rush for Amundsen as a solid trade, but other than that, he’s made one mistake after another giving up assets for poo poo platters, and he IS the reason we might not have a first round draft pick if we are outside the top 7 picks in one of the deepest drafts in recent memory. Don’t be surprised if there’s a fire Larry Riley post highlighting his years of crapping on the Warriors roster before this season is over. I can’t stand anything about this guy anymore, his choices, his face, his voice. We went from “We Believe” under Chris Mullin as GM to “We’re picking between 7th and 10th in the draft every year, but are just good enough to never be in the top 3”. Well played Riley, well played.

Oh, there is a bright side to the big void in the middle. My new mancrush, 20-year-old Jeremy Tyler, has played some more minutes over the last few games, and looked pretty solid when he has been in the games. He’s made some mistakes, but definitely more controlled than let’s say Anthony Randolph’s type of mistakes. At least he showed he can hit a jumper and finish strong with a dunk which is more than Biedrins has done for at least three years. Also, the other rookie, Klay Thompson, after a rough start has looked like what everyone thought he’d be a versatile player that can defend and hit shots from all ranges. Same as Tyler, he makes mistakes, but let these kids grow since we aren’t going anywhere. It’s not much of a consolation considering the owner and coach promised the playoffs over the off-season, but both might have been foolish to make those predictions. Oh, and I do like how Mark Jackson has gotten them to play better defense, but maybe he needs to run some offensive practices too because they turn the ball over way too much. Yes, defense wins you games, but empty possessions where you don’t even get a shot up loses you as many games as not playing good defense.