i’ve seen your other posts. was just trying to be funny. pretty damn good grammar rulez!

i think another plausible reason is that neither the team nor Nellie really has a sense of how this team fits together… they made all these moves that kind of go against each other… and ended up without a true identity. in a way, some of the players are “pieces” for one puzzle and others are pieces for a totally different puzzle. when push came to shove and when Nellie looks for answers (or a quick fix) – he goes to small ball. with it’s failure in regards to this team, we’ll see if he makes good on trying the big ball.

i think Nellie forgives fatigue mistakes and mistakes made out of anger or frustration. he doesn’t seem to mind mistakes made from trying to make a play. he seems most likely to get out of his chair when you make mental mistakes.

you make a good points of comparing Wright’s position holding vs the swings – i assume Nellie doesn’t look at it that way. here’s my thinking – Nellie knows the swings will have difficulty, but feels they’ll balance that by giving him some advantage somewhere else (for example, faster guys, faster close outs or rotations). w/ Wright, he needs him to hold his position in the post and defensive rebound to justify (in his own mind) Wright’s being out there.

i drew some of these conclusions from outside of the games – this quote made in the beginning of December: "Now, we’re trying to get Brandan Wright to rebound, but he is what he is, I guess."

http://www.examiner.com/x-441-Golden-State-Warriors-Examiner~y2008m12d2-Big-or-small-Nellie-says-Wright-Warriors-arent-rebounding-well-enough

for me, of course i’d rather see what Wright & Marco can do as starters for the rest of the season and pick up as many ping pong balls as possible only b/c i knew it was going to be very difficult for the dubs to even be in 9th place – i wasn’t as sold on these overstated Spurs, Mavs and Suns declining statements, yes they are declining but from 1-6 to 4-9 and even though i have this lingering thought that somehow management will screw it up even if we do rebuild into a playoff team, i’m aware that the dubs chances of getting there next season are improved the better the player they draft is. Nellie will play a rookie if he’s ready (CWebb, Hardaway, Spree, Josh Howard, Devin Harris, Big Vic, Gatling, Owens, Tyrone Hill etc).

still i can understand (assuming Nelie’s doing it for the right reasons) sitting Wright until he’s had enough, gets serious about putting on 20-30 pounds and a commitment to defensive rebounding to make sure he gets on the court. you can only do this to young players. in all walks of life, the older ppl get, the more set in their ways they get.

i’m pretty sure Nellie knows Jack & Maggette & Crawford can’t change. they are iso players. then why go to the drive and kick? i assumed it was for one reason. to teach the young players how to play basketball – mainly, i believe, to teach Randolph how to play basketball. it’s two birds in one stone. it’s an experiment to see who fits in what and a teaching tool on the game of basketball. it’d drive the veterans crazy, but they should probably switch offenses as much as possible, get them in UCLA, Princeton, Motion, Triangle, dribble/drive. get these guys’ basketball IQs up – especially the 1 yr guys. obviously, you don’t want to lose too much b/c it’ll drain guys and might cause them to tune you out, but it’s important to raise the IQ of this team. so when nellie or the next coach says i want to attack this defense with “this”, the young players will actually know what the hell he is talking about.

i know i’m assuming a lot – but i think they’re reasonable.

But equally hard to teach is shot selection and judgement which is something that Randolph lacks and Wright seems to have an abundance of. Both guys have their strengths and weaknesses but Wright’s weaknesses don’t hurt the team nearly as much as Randolph’s.

Wright is a soft rebounder but still a respectable one. He is an extremely efficient scorer and takes good care of the ball.

Randolph is a very good rebounder, but he has as absolutely horrible FG% for a big-man (not good for a guard either) and turns the ball over at an alarming rate. I’m not saying he won’t be a player. I’m still hopeful that he’ll put it together, but he has some big hurdles ahead of him if he want’s to become a good player in this league.

good observation & true, but one thing to keep in mind about the rebounding.

Randolph seems to get most of his defensive rebounds, swooping into the hoop. meaning he was guarding a guy who was out on the perimeter and he comes flying in to snag the rebound. when he’s put in the same position as Wright boxing out a man down low – he also has difficulty holding his position and corralling the rebound. i do think Wright can be a good “in his area” defensive rebounder if he can just put on some weight.

but energy and aggressiveness do seem to favor Randolph. he’s already a good “out of his area” defensive rebounder… he too just needs enough strength to hold his position down low.

otherwise, it’s going to mean we’re going to have to outjump and be able to tip the balls out down low and restrict the fast break (basically restrict Monta) by having everyone “crash in” and be aggressive at grabbing loose balls.

I couldn’t blame him.

  That’s a big positive, Means Rudolf’s got a bit of Iverson in him.

medication might help.