if he didnt think he was god’s gift to the warriors.

Was Baron really a leader for us? I’m not saying he wasn’t… I’m just not sure.

Baron talked to everybody while playing because he was the point guard. He didn’t give pep talks to guys during free throws, take guys aside on the bench, anything like that. He led the offense, but that doesn’t prove he was a leader, in the inspiring, motivating, locker room sense.

Baron wasn’t as reckless as Jack in talking to the media… he was cagier about discussing contract extensions, losing streaks, etc. That doesn’t prove he was a leader. I doubt players really care what their teammates say in interviews. Did Baron call team meetings and the like? Possibly, but I can’t remember hearing about them off the top of my head. My sense is that both J-Rich and Jack do more of that stuff than Baron.

Did Baron set an example for the team with his play? Not really. He coasted on defense for long stretches… he took a lot of shots he probably shouldn’t have taken… he settled for isolation a lot, rather than trying to initiate teamwork on offense. I don’t really remember Baron leading by example.

I mainly remember Baron leading by kicking ass. By driving, scoring in the post, passing brilliantly, rebounding excellently for his position and getting boatloads of steals. The way I see it, Baron wasn’t a leader. He was better than leader: he was so good, we didn’t need one.

Jack, if anything, is more of a leader than Baron. He talks to guys more, shows more fire, tries to set more of a tone on defense… he does more boilerplate “leading” than Baron. It doesn’t matter, because we suck, and Jack’s leadership can only change that so much. Kevin Garnett couldn’t pep-talk this into a great team, no matter how much fire he spewed… we just don’t have the horses right now. Look at Jack himself. His own crappiness on offense hurts us more than his speeches could possibly help.

I’m not saying leadership is irrelevant. I’m saying it’s less important than talent. Right now we have the least defensive talent of any team in the league, by a comfortable margin, and our offense isn’t nearly good enough to compensate for it. Monta will help the offense a good bit, and he might even marginally help the defense just by racking up some steals, but he’s not going to fix everything by himself. We miss Baron’s offense, above all, and we miss not having guys named Crawford, Maggette and Belinelli on defense.

We’re being coached poorly, and you could reasonably call that a leadership issue… Nellie should be “leading” this team into somewhat better pick-and-roll defense, better shot selection, more sensible lineups, et cetera. That’s a genuine problem. But the bigger problem is that Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and Al Harrington for Jamal Crawford, Ronny Turiaf and a banged-up Corey Maggette wasn’t a good trade for us.

will be tha future vocal leader