Posts for Tag: milwaukee bucks

Why I should never be an NBA GM

We're experiencing some pretty amazing times in Bay Area sports (Raiders and 49ers aside). Giants are up 2-0 in the World Series and looking stronger than ever and the Warriors just opened the season with two good wins. Going into the offseason, I had my ideas about what they needed to do and of course, I had my opinions about the moves they made. Obviously, the biggest news was the sale of the team which trumps pretty much all other news. On the personnel side, they picked up David Lee but lost some players in Anthony Morrow and CJ Watson to free agency and Maggette to a trade to the Bucks. They also drafted Ekpe Udoh with the 6th pick.

Overall, I thought the moves were good. Getting Lee was great - a solid workman like 20-10 guy. Maggette was always going to be a defensive liability and never really made any team he played on better (a hollow 18-20pts a game). Udoh was a head scratcher but there wasn't anyone drafted after him that stood out. Plus with him being hurt, his grade is an incomplete for now. The one that I disagreed with the most was letting Morrow go and replacing him with Dorell Wright for virtually the same money. Why would you let one of the best young 3 point specialist go and pick up a scrub that never scored more than 8pts a game? Well after watching Dorell play in 2 games, I can begin to see the reasoning. He's not a flashy player but he's smart. Though he's a career 36.3% 3pt shooter, I saw him pass up a bunch of threes and instead pump fake and step in on his defender for easier mid-range shots. Morrow may be more accurate from outside but I doubt he has the maturity to take what a defense will give him. He'd rather force up a three as oppose to getting that closer shot. Though it's a long season, Morrow's currently averaging 8.5pts a game versus Wright's 19.5pts. But the reason I have more faith in Wright is that he doesn't seem like he's forcing anything. Plus he plays much better defense - something the Warriors need to focus on to make it to the next level. We'll see how he and the W's fare against their biggest test to date - at Staples against the Lakers on Sunday...

Baffling move from the W's...

The Warriors just pulled off a trade with the Bucks. Baffling is the only word I can think of. I understand the motivation of it was primarily financial but you couldn't get at least something serviceable in return? Charlie Bell and Dan Gadzuric will offer ZERO impact on the court. If the W's resign CJ to back up Curry (which they should) where does that leave Bell? And Gadzuric has been disappointing for a long time even when he was at UCLA. The only saving grace with Gadzuric is that his contract comes off the books next year but Bell is on the hook until 2012.

What bothers me the most about this deal is that Maggette had value. He wasn't a disruption in the locker room, did what he was told, and in general played well. 20 points and 5 rebounds from a 2/3 swingman is nothing to sneeze at. Plus he got to the line a lot (and shot a decent %) which meant he often put the other team in foul trouble. If you're going to give away your 3rd best player, at least get immediate cap relief or something in return like a good rebounder which the W's sorely need. Baffling.....

I owe Stephen Curry an apology...

Stephen Curry joined an elite list in Wednesday's win over the Clippers, becoming sixth rookie to post a 35-point, 10-rebound, 10-assist performance in NBA history.

A few months ago, I lamented the drafting of Stephen Curry by the Warriors. I thought he was just another undersized guard who dominated a weak conference in college and would create a log jam for an already guard heavy team. Fast forward 8 months later and I'm eating my words. Curry started slow but with the injuries to many key players (including Monta Ellis), he's stepped up his game as of late. Right now, it's a 1-2 race between him and Tyreke Evans for Rookie of the Year. Given tonight's performance against Sacramento, I'd say he's made up a ton of ground. I still think Evans will end up winning unless he really stinks it up the final few months of the season. But I wouldn't trade him for Brandon Jennings given his recent free fall and inconsistencies. Curry seems like he can only get better with experience and a good coach (not Nellie). Here's hoping Avery Johnson follows Nelson again like in Dallas...

Another one that gets away ...

So it's still relatively early in the NBA season and of course the Warriors are not looking promising. However, tonight's game versus Milwaukee was both encouraging and discouraging. First the good part, the W's played a pretty spirited game against a pretty good Bucks team. They actually had a chance to win it in the final seconds but of course, it got away from them. Now here's the bad, Brandon Jennings went off on them tonight for 55. Not only that, he did it in only 3 quarters (didn't score in the 1st). In this young season, Jennings looks like the steal of the draft at #10. He's averaging over 20pts, 4rbs, and 5asts and those stats will be going up after tonight's game. Before this year's draft, I hinted that Jennings at #7 would have been good for the W's as a play maker. I even hinted that they should have traded Curry to New York. It's not to say that Curry is bad (jury's still out) but it's clear that Jennings is going to be a good, even great player. I guess another in the line of Warrior draft gaffs...

Maybe I was a little too harsh on Curry given that we could have drafted this...

Though I still have my reservations about Stephen Curry, at least he hasn't pulled a bone-head act like Brandon Jennings. Man, you never really know nowadays who is taping what - The Sporting News reports that Brandon Jennings was caught on tape saying some inflammatory statements about his teammates, Ricky Rubio, etc. This is after Jennings said some unflattering things about Rubio and then had to back pedal. One can say he's just got a lot of youthful confidence and how we talk to "friends" is a lot different than how we would talk to a reporter. Still, he seems to have dug himself a pretty big hole with team management and some of his teammates. Again, he may turn out to be miles better than Curry but his mouth has written a pretty big check that his ass will need to cash in about 4 months.