Nelson ready to shake up the Warrior

by Fantasy Junkie on Sep 17, 2006 6:34 PM PDT in News

An interview with Don Nelson in The Press Democrat, "Nelson ready to shake up the Warrior" showed some of Nellie's honest opinions on some of the key Warrior players. It's awesome to see a coach this open to complimenting and criticizing his players (even before the first practice).

Coach! Coach! What are your thoughts on the Golden State Warriors? (Photo: ESPN)

On Troy Murphy,

"He's a skill player who rebounds. He'll achieve career highs for me -- 10 rebounds, 20 points. He's difficult to guard. I'll move him to center, and I don't know which centers can guard him. We've got to agree to it -- otherwise it won't work. If he says `I'm not a center,' like Chris Webber did, it won't work."

I interrupted Nelson, couldn't help myself.

"Can Murphy guard centers?"

"No," Nelson shot back. "He can't guard forwards, either. We'll give him help."

On Mike Dunleavy

"He'll have his best years for me. He's a natural four, not a three."

"He won't have to worry about guarding smaller guys," Nelson said. "I see him as a unique piece, a point power forward running my team."

On Adonal Foyle,

Adonal Foyle is 27 pounds overweight. He's immediately gone to the third team. You need to run and move in my system."

And to cap it all off, Nelson on BDiddy,

Nelson got back to Davis, said losing weight will help him avoid injury -- the guy always gets hurt.

"He'll be All-Star caliber again."

This will not be your Mike Montgomery Golden State Warriors. They'll be running, gunning, and playing a little defense. Expect some big offensive numbers from the key players and I'm sure we'll see the role players settle into their well-defined situations.

Sure it's a lot of hype and optimism from Nellie, but he also knows the limitations of this players and isn't going to let that be exploited.

What do you think of Nellie's projections for Baron, Dunleavy, and Murphy?

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On Point.

I like he subtley finds a way to let everyone know... that Foyle is useless and will not see much playing time.

by ZombieWarrior on Sep 17, 2006 7:24 PM PDT reply actions

What Nelson says <> what he does.

Nelson's comments were refreshingly blunt. Since they agree with some of my prejudices (e.g. Dunleavy's never been a SF, never having played there regularly in college or high school and being at his best average there in the pros) I enjoyed it.

That said, take everything he says with some skepticism. This is the guy who managed to pull Sprewell out of thin air, who managed to sucker Milwaukee into trading Robert Traylor for Nowitzki. It's interesting that he seems to have completely passed over Richardson's name in almost every interview. This probably means that he's got big things in store for JR.

Based on his comments, I fully expect Foyle to start every game this based on Nellie's comments. Hell, he'll probably have him running the point and launching threes.

Nelson

by jae on Sep 17, 2006 7:48 PM PDT reply actions

Sounds fun!

Every interview I am more intrigued as to how we're going to play this year. With Nellie ball that we're going to play, what is our lineup going to be, assuming everyone is healthy?

BD
J-Rich
Pietrus
Mike D
Murph

Monta at PG/SG
Ike at PF/C
Biedrins at C
...a couple minutes splashed around to the other hacks.

that puts us at an pretty standard 8 man rotation (for the majority of the minutes). Nellie keeps talking about Murph and Dun-Dun moving to bigger positions, but who's going to slide into the SG/SF hole?

Sounds fun though!

Top 7 of '07 draft = Warriors only chance of being good over the next 5 years

by jgodoski on Sep 17, 2006 7:51 PM PDT reply actions

Shake it up!

Monta/BD
Jrich/Pietrus
Ike/Dujuan
Dunleavy/Biedrins
O'bryant/Murphy

McLeod/Dajuan
Monta/Owens
Dunleavy/Carbarkapa
Ike/Murphy
Murphy/Ike

Monta/McLeod
JRich/Dajuan
Dujuan/Ike
Dunleavy/Taft
O'bryant/Foyle

Dajuan/BD
Jrrich/Monta
Carbarkapa/Ike
Murph/Dunleavy
Ike/O'bryant

BD/Monta
Dujuan/McLeod
Dunleavy/
Ike/Biedrins
Murphy/Foyle

Nelly has invited Matt Barnes to camp per NBAHoops Rumors/SacBee:

Barnes already has been given early directives from "new" Warriors coach Don Nelson, hired last month for his second go-round in Oakland.

"I talked to him (Thursday), and he told me they're looking for a player like me who plays hard and rebounds, so hopefully I can build on that," Barnes said.

Add a couple more possibilities to the top combos.

DN's comments of getting Dunleavy defensive help aren't so far fetched if you look over some of the floor combinations possible. Hell, he can have O'bryant play the defensive end only to intercept players that get through and to sling rebounds downcourt to our fast break guys for a couple cheap dunks. If it works well with O'bryant DonN can do a call out to Kosta Perovic!

Side Note: Baron needs Jenny Craig like two months ago.

by Playoffs Drought on Sep 30, 2006 10:30 AM PDT up reply actions

:'( Awww....

Why'd I buy that Foyle Jersey!?

Run Foyle, Run!

DREAM TEAM!!!!

by Zorgon on Sep 17, 2006 8:17 PM PDT reply actions

Nellie

This is what I have been expecting W's coaches to do, put players in positions to succeed.

If this is so easy for Nellie and us fans to see, why couldn't Monty?

by goldenstatefan on Sep 17, 2006 9:06 PM PDT reply actions

Nellie on Adonal

Hahaha, 27 pounds overweight? How did he come up with that exact number?

93 'til Infinity: The Warriors' playoff drought?

by Atma Brother ONE on Sep 17, 2006 10:03 PM PDT reply actions

Good Question

And what the hell does he mean by "third team"?

He must not have received the memo about us having no other centers, or the one about how much Mullie loves his overpaid shot blocker.

by Jeremy Belvins on Sep 18, 2006 12:01 AM PDT up reply actions

LOL

He moved on to Mike Dunleavy.

"He'll have his best years for me. He's a natural four, not a three."

Nelson meant he's a power forward and not a small forward, which is unusual considering Dunleavy has the tensile strength of a feather.

Tensile strength of a feather?! LOL!

"I want the players to come in 5 pounds lighter than their lightest weight.

Considering Nellie became coach so late in the offseason, it doesn't leave them much time to shape up.

by unblinded on Sep 17, 2006 10:45 PM PDT reply actions

get ready for a whole lotta

zone defense from GS - that's good news and bad news:

the good news is our undersized 3-4-5's won't be out muscled every possession on the block, getting into foul trouble right away and giving up gobs of points at the FT line - that's what the Don means when he says giving help (and you gotta love the candor - Murphy cant guard centers or forwards!)

the bad news is most of the top 10 teams play little zone when it matters most and running teams rarely have a whole lot of success in the playoffs (Phoenix is the exception, not the rule)

of course, we have a ways to go to get there, we'd be happy not to be one of the bottom 10 teams this year and like to have the problem of being a running team in the playoffs ....

by hardcore on Sep 17, 2006 11:04 PM PDT reply actions

I love it

hahaha. hella straight up

by JRichIsStillAGodButBiedrinsIsABeast on Sep 18, 2006 12:00 AM PDT reply actions

i'm working to stay optimistic

though the eli firing hurt. i keep thinking marvin lewis turning around the bengals. mario went from CBA cast-off to championship ring holder. i'm thinking that Nellie has a whole lot easier time dishing it out to players than taking a little heat, or competition, for himself...

run & gun, though, baby.

Leon Powe could have been our next Larry Smith. Instead we have a couple more candidates for the next Joe Barry Carroll.

by OaktownWarrior on Sep 18, 2006 5:05 AM PDT reply actions

hyping me up.

this article is getting me all hyped up for the next season. to see what our team could be with this Hall of Fame coach. It also shows me that Nelson knows the guys' abilties that he's gotta work with. Maybe he'll help some of them get to their full-potential.

And maybe he'll lead Dunleavy into being the next Dirk .. well, maybe not.
and Foyle into the next Pavel Podkolzin (sitting on the bench).

by WarriorFanForLife on Sep 18, 2006 7:21 AM PDT reply actions

murphy

murphy cannot play defense at all and anybody can gaurd him cuz hes slow its only when hes wide open can he score on a jumpshot. plus he can't play any defense and who is going to help him against good centers dunleavy? give me a break. dunleavy is too slow to gaurd the sf and too weak to gaurd powerfowards. his ball handling is overrated and he can't shoot. now that dunleavy is playing pf how is ike, andris, zarko, taft, POB, and foyle going to get any playing time off of the bench. and who is going to back us up at the sf? pietrus in the starting lineup? i mean yeh he's athletic and he could surprise people this year but he played horribly last year and i dont think anyone should give him a starting spot right off the bat i like trust nellie and i hope these players prove me wrong but in my point of view things don't look that good atleast for our bigmen.

by travisl212 on Sep 18, 2006 8:54 PM PDT reply actions

optimistic

i usually try and stay optimistic about the warriors and i am still going to be optimistic j-rich baron and monta will carry the team with this reject group of bigmen playing out of position. im also optimistic to the fact that i dont think this will work but nellie will make adjustments and we will make the playoffs maybe even trade away a few of these stiffs

by travisl212 on Sep 18, 2006 8:57 PM PDT reply actions