OPINION: The Drunk Blog presents a western conference round-up

by tobin on Aug 10, 2007 10:11 AM PDT

GSoM faithful,

Some friends and I started a blog [http://livelifeandparty.blogspot.com/2007/08/looking-ahead-to-my-favorite-time-of.html] featuring talk about everything and anything that interests us. Lots of sports talk about the Warriors and 49ers to come.

I just completed a lengthy post about the Warriors chances of making the playoffs next year, my predictions for the standings at the end of next season and a breakdown of what every team in the Western Conference has done this offseason (except for the Dubs, b/c I think everyone and their mother on this site knows what they've done).

Here's a snippet:

Dallas Mavericks: The Warriors showed last season that they are a match-up killer for this team. Their season-series sweep was no fluke, and we all saw what happened in the playoffs. To shore up their defensive weaknesses the Mavs went out and signed...Eddie Jones? He doesn't seem like the answer to all their problems but he did come on the cheap. Other than Jones Cuban extended Jose Juan Barrea, who would absolutely KILL it if the NBA were a 6 ft and under league, and also brought back Jerry Stackhouse and Devean George. Stack's an assassin, and even at his age and with those knees I like bringing him back as an offensive weapon off the bench. George is an 8-year NBA veteran, has three championship rings and still manages to look lost to me out on the court.

It's a lengthy post, but read through it, and if you dig our blog come back b/c we'll be updating it often.

Thanks guys, and feel free to comment here or on the site with your thoughts.
http://livelifeandparty.blogspot.com/2007/08/looking-ahead-to-my-favorite-time-of.html

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

Tweet Comment 11 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

wow

nice breakdown. I love the part about the Lakers. If we could end up 6th in the West, I'd be happy. Keep up da good work.

The Mob

by tadams1080 on Aug 10, 2007 10:28 AM PDT reply actions

Perhaps an error, perhaps not..

Your analysis for Utah Jazz...

Karma points for letting your starting point guard leave under the circumstances, but uh, you usually don't let your starting point guard leave under any circumstances, right? Wrong (Baby head cancer was good enough for the Jazz). The Jazz shored up Fish's absence with Jason Hart and Ronnie Price. Right...that'll do.

Deron Williams is the starting PG for the jazz..you might want to fix that..

Fun read otherwise. Love the lakers quip.

by ThermoElectro on Aug 10, 2007 10:56 AM PDT reply actions

woops!

good catch thermo...thank you!

jusgo

by tobin on Aug 10, 2007 11:22 AM PDT up reply actions

also

fisher is over rated anyway.

by Proof on Aug 10, 2007 8:25 PM PDT up reply actions

Good Diary

You analysed the Western Conference well, writing about every team and giving readers a good idea of what we need to do this year to get a good spot in the playoffs. I hope we can come 4th or 5th in the Western Conference so we will probably face Houston or Utah, who I would fancy us to beat but more realistically I would look at us taking 6th, 7th or 8th and hoping that we face Dallas in the first round and if not, Phoenix (as long as we don't face San Antonio).

by zaki on Aug 10, 2007 11:16 AM PDT reply actions

Realistically

We could also be 9th or worse. Not saying it's likely, just admitting it's a real possibility -- much more real, for example, than a #4 or 5 finish.

by Sleepy Freud on Aug 10, 2007 2:36 PM PDT up reply actions

Opinion

Just think back to the way this team played the last 8 weeks of the season, now subtract J-Rich's up and down contributions and replace that with deadly shooting and savvy scoring of our favorite new Italian Stallion.

Do you think we are worse than the Lakers, Nuggets or Hornets?

I don't ... obviously, I mean you read the post :P But that's just me.

Thanks for the feedback though, Sleepy.

jusgo

by tobin on Aug 10, 2007 3:42 PM PDT up reply actions

it's a folly projecting the "8 week" run

to this year - so many people write that but it's just faulty logic

many teams were either playing out the string or protecting/resting players for the playoffs while we played everyone of those as make or break games, finally close to healthy and playing at a tempo few other teams cared to try to match at that point in the season. Mullin even said we should never be in that spot ...
the emotional high and motivation to do something as special as break a dozen year drought carried us for that stretch and isn't transferable. If anything it's just as likely there will be a let down
other teams will be fresh and their rosters strengthened while ours is largely the same (or weaker) as last season at this season's outset. Memphis for example is written off by far too many people - even if all other variables remained the same Memphis' rise alone should challenge us to make the 8th seed

by hardcore on Aug 10, 2007 5:18 PM PDT up reply actions

Did you mean to imply

That a rookie Belinelli will be an upgrade over even an 80% JRich? That's quite a stretch.

Will we be worse than the Lakers, Nuggets or Hornets? Hmm, I'd say definitely maybe. ;-) I'm guessing the fans of those teams think they can handle us as easily as we think we can handle them.

by Sleepy Freud on Aug 10, 2007 5:01 PM PDT reply actions

Being Realistic

It is quite possible that we will miss out on the playoffs this year as we no longer have J-Rich, we didn't make any big signings this offseason and we haven't got a superstar big man.

However, we now have Belinelli and Wright - two rookies with excellent potential. We now have Jackson and Harrington for the full season as opposed to DunMurphy. We have good team chemistry, we have lots of young talent as well as a few more experienced players.
Hopefully we can qualify for the playoffs comfortably this season but it will be far from easy. Yes, I agree; 4th or 5th place is maybe a bit unrealistic but I am just being a hopeful GSW fan.
I haven't ruled out the fact that we will finish 9th or worse because it is quite likely it will happen but lets hope it doesn't.

by zaki on Aug 10, 2007 5:04 PM PDT reply actions

I think we should stop looking at Beli

as J-Rich's replacement--they are entirely different players. Who we probably should start thinking of as J-Rich's successor is the very first person we signed after the draft/summer league was over. Not Beli, not Wright, not Barnes... that's right: Kelenna Azubuike.

He's a solidly-built, 6'5, 220 lbs, with a lot of the same rebound and shot-blocking ability that #23 has. I think the reason that Mullin was so quick to pull the trigger on the J-Rich deal was that he and Nelson felt he was expendable, mainly because they already had a younger, cheaper version of him waiting in the wings. J-Rich might've put up better numbers when he was 23 years old but that probably had more to do with him being de facto starter on a terrible team, while Buike was further down the depth chart on a playoff team. It'll be interesting to see what the kid can do with more playing time, but I see big things for him on the horizon.

by WhatWouldTerryCummingsDo on Aug 11, 2007 1:30 AM PDT reply actions