Last year’s lack of bench was something of a self-fulfilling prophecy… Brandan Wright was good then, too, and there’s no reason why ‘Buike couldn’t have spelled Jack more than he did. Biedrins also didn’t play nearly as many minutes as he should’ve. A lot of Nellie’s roster problems were self-created.

I like Nellie. I think he’s a good coach, and he brings an entertaining style, both to the court and to the press conference table. But he’s far from perfect, and he has not been getting the most out of this roster. His addiction to versatility is really hurting us.

Stephen Jackson is a flawed player, who only gets more flawed when he fatigues. Nellie has him leading the league in minutes by a comfortable margin. Why? Because Jack is versatile, and Nellie loves that.

Brandan Wright should be starting… barring that, he should be getting consistent minutes, to the tune of at least 25 a game. Anthony Randolph shouldn’t be playing, at least not more than 5-10 token minutes a game. Nellie has them playing roughly the same number of minutes. Why? Because Randolph is more versatile than Wright, and Nellie prefers him for that reason. Never mind that Wright’s production has been elite and Randolph’s has been awful… Randolph’s tall and has a handle! That’s exciting!

This is one of the reasons the addition of Crawford worries me. Jamal Crawford is a fairly good player, but an extremely versatile one — he’s far more “versatile” than “good”. The combination of Crawford and Jack, in particular, is versatile as all get out. It’s a combination that probably won’t win many games — doubling up on inefficient shooting and horrible rebounding isn’t a good way to go — but I’m not convinced that Nellie will realize that right off the bat.

The Warriors have given Nellie a good roster here. There’s a solid starter-level player at every position, there’s real depth, and there’s a distinct lean towards speed, just the way Nellie likes it. Maybe he doesn’t have as many lights-out shooters as he’d like, but what NBA coach does? It’s a good roster, particularly when you add Monta back into the mix. If you divide the minutes up like this…

PG: Monta Ellis (35), Jamal Crawford (13)
SG: Stephen Jackson (30), Jamal Crawford (18)
SF: Corey Maggette (23), Kelenna Azubuike (25)
PF: Brandan Wright (30), Corey Maggette (10), Ronny Turiaf (8)
C: Andris Biedrins (35), Ronny Turiaf (13)

…you’ll win some games. But it’d mean giving a lot more time to Wright and Turiaf, and a lot less to versatility hounds like Jack and Randolph. Is that a move Nellie’s capable of making?

It’s still early. Monta hasn’t played yet, and he may cure a lot of our ills. And Nellie finally came around on Biedrins’s game this year, so maybe he’ll come around on Wright in the near future.

But as things stand, he is making some obvious coaching mistakes. Too much small-ball. Too much Jack and Randolph, not enough Wright and Turiaf. I mean, these mistakes aren’t subtle; watching the substitution patterns of these recent games makes you want to tear your hair out.

I continue to believe that brighter days are ahead for our Warriors. But Nellie needs to make some adjustments for those brighter days to arrive. Is common sense too much to ask for from a legendary coach?