Latest rumours

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Been a surprisngly busy rumour day concerning Brandon Wright and Al Harrington both who have and had been linked in trade possibilties. Lets get to Wright first. Even though Mullin categorically stated they would not trade J-Rich and look what happenned Wright ESPN reported the Wright for Yi deal is basically dead

"A Warriors representative shot down an assertion made in a couple of my columns that the team was looking to move Brandan Wright. He especially took umbrage at the report that the team coveted Milwaukee's Yi Jianlian. I've been assured that Warriors GM Chris Mullin, who makes the final decisions at Golden State, isn't trading Wright for Yi."

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The one I'd like to talk about though is Wright for Varejao once again touted about by Chad ford. I don't know where Chad ford is getting all this strange info. Mullin flat out thinks he can be a great player. I don’t think they’re misleading me about this. They are not contemplating trading Wright and they won’t do so unless it could get them back a sure-thing forward (my interpretation) and that’s not Varejao. The prblem with Varejao ala Sideshow Bob is he can’t shoot, a major up-tick on the front line. He’s not a Nellie-style forward, and really, could you play him with Biedrins?. The short answer is no. I alo think that with the 14th pick you can possibly get a player similiar if not better then Varejao Robin Lopez, Marreese Speights, JaVale McGee and then you can ignore the 12 million he's due over the next two seasons a sum of money he's not worth

The last one once again involving the Cavs is Harrington. News Herald have the lowdown

"

If the Warriors made forward/center Al Harrington available, the Cavs might have an interest. Harrington, 28, averaged 13.6 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Warriors last season. The 6-9, 250-pounder will be entering his 11th season in the league.
He will earn $9.2 million this season and $10 million next year. It would take much more than Varejao to coax Harrington away from Golden State, however."

I'm not Harringtons biggest fan by any stretch but would hate to see him go. He seems like one cool guy who cares about the community. I'm the last one to criticize Nellie since I think he's one of the few guys in the Warriors basketball operations who actually knows what he's doing. But I really think Nellie misused Al this past season and was way too unforgiving if he made any mistakes. But again can you really question a legendary coach who took this flawed and under talented team (by West standards) to 48 wins?

Irish Warriors 2007-2008 Report Card: Baron Davis

So good he owns former MVP's

He averaged 21.8 points in 39 minutes, his highest marks in those categories since 2003-04, whe averaged 22.9 points in 40.1 minutes. He also set a career high in rebounds, 2.7 to 1 assist to turnover ratio, 33% from 3, 4.7 rebounds per game. were all impressive stats compiled. Yet what held baron back was the lack of a true backup PG which meant unfortunately he was ran into the ground. To an extent you can't blame Nelson one bit you play your best players and hope they can mantain their athletiscm but during the Nuggets, Spurs and Dallas games Baron wasn't the Baron of last season looking totally wiped out as he completed the unusualness of completing a injury free season

But where Baron falls short — and this is only a shortcoming because he is expected to be elite — was being a point guard. Baron proved two things this season: 1) he is still a top-notched scorer and 2) he can stay healthy (though that is relative). Unfortunately for the Warriors, they only need No. 2. Golden State doesn’t need Baron to be a dominant scorer, but a playmaker. They are better when he’s not the leading scorer. His assists (7.6) dropped under 8.3 for the first time since he joined the Warriors. His field goal percentage also dropped (42.6) fairly significantly off last season’s career-best 43.9 percent. They needed him to make stuff happen for everyone else, not get his. Last year, he played like Chris Paul. This year, he was Gilbert Arenas. They are much tougher to defend when he’s racking up 15 assists than when he’s scoring 40. Plus, he was bad down the stretch.

Oene lingering question this year is whether Baron should opt out. If he remains a Warrior, we have little incentive to move him. He’ll be motivated in a contract year and, should the Ws decide to part ways at the end of next season, the team would gain tremendous cap flexibility. There’s also the lingering basketball issue of how poorly this team played without Baron on the court for long stretches and the absence of another true point guard ready to fill the role. I’m not denying that the team has problems with Baron running the show, but they’re still not as large as those when he’s completely unavailable. Baron gets one more year of Cohan’s money, the Warriors have one more year of taking the good with the bad in Baron’s game, and then everyone gets to sort things out for real next summer.

A mixed year for Baron but there was no doubt he was excellent before he was run into the ground. Here's hoping we pick up a dependable backup PG to avoid this scenario

Overall Grade B-




Irish Warriors 2007-2008 report Card archive
Chris Mullin C+

Kelenna Azubuike C-

Matt Barnes D-

Marco Bellineli D+

Andris Biedrins A-

Austin Croshere C-

Monta Ellis A+

Irish Warriors 2007-2008 report card: Monta Ellis

He really took his game to another level this year. His became a reliable offensive weapon, partially filling the void left by Jason Richardson. There’s no question this dude has the potential to be the next. But looking at just this season, he was atrocious on defense, and that hurt the Warriors in the long run. If Baron is going to play 40 minutes, Monta has to guard the Allen Iversons, the Chris Pauls, the Tony Parkers, etc. He couldn’t this season. His best defense was getting 30 himself. Plus, Monta has the tendency to force offense and take quick shots at the wrong time. He was excellent on the boards, though, and he’s already a much better ball-handler than he used to be.

During the middle third of the season, when the Warriors often struggled against average to poor teams, Ellis was the player most often arriving with clutch shooting or spectacular drives to bail out the team. He grew during this stretch from just one of the Warriors’ options into their go-to scorer when points became hard to find. His mid-range jump shot has become a thing of beauty, the death-defying thrill of his drives still hasn’t worn off, and he played for most of the season with a good sense of his strengths and weaknesses. Davis, Jackson, Harrington, and Biedrins all stumbled at points this year. Monta never let up.

The ultimate question for Monta is no longer will he be a superstar, but rather what type of superstar. He’s already one of the most effortless scorers in the league, able to shoot over small, quick players and blow past taller, slower ones. It became clear at the end of the season, however, that Monta scoring at will is not enough for the Warriors to succeed against the best teams, particularly with Davis struggling. For Monta to be a marquee player — the type you build your team around — he needs to improve his playmaking and defense. The prior area I’m not too worried about. Monta is still terrifyingly young, showed improved court vision and decision making this year, and steadily took over the responsibility of running the team as the season progressed. He’s not a born distributor but shows clear signs of being able to hold down the point spot the same way Iverson and Wade have

Overall grade A+

Irish Warriors Report Card Archive

Chris mullin C+

Kelenna Azubuike C-

Matt Barnes D-

Marco Bellineli D+

Andris Biedrins A-

Austin Croshere C-

SB Nation Lottery Mock Draft 2008

We've been mocking you x2 already (see We're Mocking You: NBA Mock Drafts 2008 1st edition and 2nd edition now we're going to take it to a whole 'nother level. The SBNation hoops fam and some friends from the best hoops blogs around are selecting players and supplying a little science on their selection in a blogger mock draft



All the mock fun is hosted at Ridiculous upside on a great NBA site that has no affiliation with an NBA team but this draft class is loaded like Pacman Jones on a night out in the town

The first 12 picks of this mock draft are in the books

1. Chicago Bulls select Derrick Rose (Blog a Bull) Seems to be the unaminous first pick and to be fair it's hard to see why the Bulls would pass on a Guard that would turn Chicago into more than a collection of skilled parts.



2. Miami Heat select Michael Beasley (Peninsula is mightier) Can't argue here. Wade, Marion and Beasley could easily make the fans forget about the disaster that was the 2007-2008 season



3. Minnesota Timberwolves select OJ Mayo ( Canis Hoopus) It could be said that if OJ is gifted from the perimeter and Jefferson continues to prove Minnesota got some value in the Garnett trade the T-Wolves could be a sleeper in 08-09 should Brewer shoot aboe .400 and Foye stays healthy. It's a big if though


4. Seattle SuperSonics select Eric Gordon
(Ridiculous Upside) A slight reach considering Green and Durrant control the midrange and perimeter and something tells me he will be a sleeper pick in the lottery. Would be better then drafting another potential draft bust ala Brook Lopez


5. Memphis Grizzlies select Kevin Love (3 Shades of blue) Last thing I see Memphis doing is picking another Guard but his skills mesh well with the post Gasol Grizzlies.


6. New York Knicks select Russell Westbrook (Posting and Toasting) Thought he would be heading to the Clippers but because of Starburry's contract the Knicks would be desperate for any kind of rebuilding considering how far they are over the cap. Good pick


7. Los Angeles Clippers select Jerryd Bayless (Clips nation) Westbrook will probably end up here but Bayless would provide leadership at the 1 or 2 something the Clippers have lacked since the abrupt departure of Cassell



8.Milwaukee Bucks select Anthony Randolph Brew Hoop What are the best the Bucks select an overhyyped big man for the third consecutive season see Andrew Bogut and Yi. I'd say pretty good



9. Charlotte Bobcats select Joe Alexander (?.( Queen City Hops)
Always a tough pick to project he would be a decent fit with Oakfor but the question is would the Bobcats chance their arm on another Power Forward after the Morrisson mistake


10. New Jersey Nets select Brook Lopez ( Nets Daily) Aside from DeAndre Jordan he has the biggest potential for bust in this draft. Enough said


11.Indiana Pacers select DJ Augustin (Indy Cornrows) The Pacers have yet to fully embrace a rebuilding year, but replacing Tinsley with Augustin and finally pulling the trigger on an O’Neal deal would go a long way towards overhauling a team that proved to be good, but never good enough. During the frustrating days for Warriors fans that will inevitably occur this off-season, just remind yourself that you could be attempting to build a team around Danny Granger and Mike Dunleavy with little hope of being under the cap until 2010-11.


12 Sacramento Kings select Maresse Speights Sactown Royalty Good backup to Miller for a few years. Will definetely be a double double player within few years.

13. Portland Trailblazers select Brandon Rush Blazers Edge Brandon Rush + Brandon Roy + Greg Oden + LaMarcus Aldridge = anotther Western Conference playoff team for the Warriors to worry about

14. Golden State Warriors select De Andre Jordan ( Golden State Of Mind) He's got the same upside as POB and we all know how that worked out. Should Mullin draft another big man and turns out to be a failure we'll be looking for another big man. Silly pick here

A big big bust here

Keep checking the excellent Ridiculous upside to see what the savy Hoops GM's sorry bloggers have to say about the upcoming Hoop Draft Picks I mean to see how the rest of this FANtastic inaugural SBNation NBA Mock Draft plays out. It should be extremely interesting given this loaded draft and assembly of clever mock-GMs.

Irish Warriors report card 2007-2008 Austin Croshere

For the vet minimum Croshere was a steal. However since he's in a contract year as well estimating his salary over 44 games rather then 82 becomes a chore for the Front office. Despite his back being the source of his problems and reducing his potential productivity Croshere gave energy off the bench with scoring, rebounding and attempting to play Defense. Bad backs, however, rarely get better with age. The Warriors could use a player they can rely on for more than half a season of basketball.

Depending on how the Warriors’ off-season shapes up, it might be worth bringing Austin back again just to have another veteran on the team. This year, however, the young guys will be a year older and less in need of veteran supervision (and maybe the youngsters should have been supervising Baron at his birthday bash). Croshere’s return to this team will likely come down to (1) whether he wants to come back and (2) whether the Warriors find someone in the summer league or training camp that makes enough of an impression to trump the quality 10 minutes the Warriors can count on from Austin 30-40 times a season.

He was big in spots this year when he did play. He often was key energy off the bench. But his shot was suspect (sorry, I expected him to be a shooter and his injury prone demaeanour meant his grade dropped considerably since the midterm reports

Overall Grade: C-

Irish Warriors 2007-2008 Report card archive

Chris Mullin C+

Kelenna Azubuike C-

Matt Barnes D-

Marco Bellinelli D+

Andris Biedrins A-

Irish Warriors 2007-2008 Report Card: Marco Bellinelli

See the resemblance?

Whether it was the differences between NBA and European ball, his young age, Don Nelson, or simply the hangover of summer league hype Marco's rookie campaign was a bust. It took 82 games before the Seattle contest showed some of the red hot shooting we knew he was capable off and made him a Summer League star in 07. That said it probably didn't help he was used as a benchwarmer for most of the season Did the final game against the Sonics show he needs time without the pressure of being yanked off the court or if the burst of scoring after a few lesser performances is just proof of his inconsistency. I'm guessing a bit of both

It was pretty obvious from the get go Marco was going to rot on the bench and his body language displayed very little self confidence. In the latter stages his appearances earlier in the season made it difficult for him to fin his rythym. ). I suspect we might have just caught Marco that final evening while he was hot, compared to the few other nights he wasn’t feeling it. On the other hand Marco whilst sitting in the disgruntled section of the Locker room (with Barnes, Pietrus and Harrington) never had the gauge to complain. I actually think he could be a decent 6th 7th man off the bench to help bust zones or shoot in the half-court but at the moment it is impossibly hard to think as him as a starter.

His main weakness is Defensively. There were quite a few ugly moments when he was on the court where smaller, faster players simply faced him and blew right past him. His lateral movement is far from impressive, although his sense of spacing and defensive timing improved as the season continued. Hopefully for next season he can learn Defense isn't about speed from Players like Jackson. By knowing when to commit and when to back off, a defender can minimize certain physical advantages. His hands look incredibly quick which can allow a little more room for error when getting back on Defense. Still, I can’t help but shake the image of an Ellis / Belinelli back-court giving up bucket after bucket as the Warriors’ guards either fail to fight through screens to challenge shooters or get abused by players facing the basket, looking to penetrate. Both are young, so I’m hoping it’s not too late for someone to instill some defensive fundamentals.

That said, like Perovic, he’s cheap, young, and full of potential. If the Warriors have to give him up to get something else bigger done, he could be gone.

Overall Grade: D+

2007-2008 Report Card Archive
Chris Mullin: Grade C+

Kelenna Azubuike Grade C-

Matt Barnes Grade D-

Report Card: 2007-2008 Season Matt Barnes

Despite the high energy play Barnes displayed last season with a reckless abandon to go after the loose balls and hit the Boards since it was his only means of staying in the League combined with a sometimes deadly outide shot meant he quickly became a fan favourite as he connected with fans. Granted the guy was streakly but with an uptempo style of Ball fans couldn't wait to see what sort of impact Barnes would make in his second season especially after his facial on Nowitzki.

Turn your speakers down it's Ante Up!

But then it all fell apart for Barnes when it was tragically announced his Mom died from Cancer. No question going by his standards that it totally shook him up on and off the court. As was a chance to earn a decent 2 year contract his court perofrmances remembered more for it's Flagrant fouls and 3 point averages which ballooned down to 29%. To be honest maybe it was the fact he didn't get the contract he wanted where he got a one year extension rather then the long term deal he craved and maybe he felt the pressure to do more to get that contract. Even though he may appear one of the more uncharateristic players Banres got an NBA contract with discipline being a devoted follower of Nellieball always pushing the ball and looking for that forward pass, even when it was ill-advised.

Unforunately it broke down this year his discipline wildly dissapapeared as well as his renowned Defense and became little more then a flagrant fouler. The all-out hustle, the blue-collar, do it all resolve he showed last season, especially during the playoffs was nowhere to be found. Yet there is no doubt in my mind should he get a contract he can turn it around in Nellie's system. He's a player built for it and for next season should he remain in Oakland hopefully the Barnes of 2008-2009 can regain the drive and passion we saw in 2006-2007 season. As much as richardsons departure bothered me it is undenaible that the absence of ball movement, defense, rebounding and three point shooting was the same of greater.

Overall Grade: D-




Irish Warriors Matt Barnes Archive
Mid term Report: Grade C-

Report Cards: 2007-2008
Chris Mullin: Grade C+

Kelenna Azubuike: Grade C