Are we the Youngest Team in the West? PART 2

I don’t see guys like Crawford, Jackson, Maggette on the other team’s roster.

Their notable vets are usually there because of salary and just waiting for them to get off the books. Most of them don’t even show up for team practice.

Meanwhile, the 3 guys I mentioned are big money makers for the Warriors. And they are, to a point, branded as franchise leaders.

you WOULD NOT trade Monta/Biedrins/Randolph/Wright for Durant/Westbrook/Green/Weaver? Is that what youre saying? Yes they have a horrible record, but thats because they are buoyed by vets like Maggette/Jax/Crawford. I’d swap rosters with the Thunder in a heartbeat. Barkley was talking on the Dan Patrick show today about how NBA franchises need to be dedicated to trying to win the championship with the core in place or dedicated to building a championship team and rebuilding while collecting top draft picks. He was talking about the Suns with their core of Nash and Shaq and what they should do with Amare in the offseason but it totally applies to us. Going half in, half out and half out while constantly picking at the bottom of the lottery does us absolutely no good. The Thunder have a very clear direction, a superstar to build their team around (Durant) a guy capable of being at least a 2nd or 3rd option on a very very good team (Westbrook) and several guys who look like they can at least be amazing role players (Green, Weaver, Krstic) Their future is a whole lot brighter than ours. We dont even really know what we have, but we certainly dont have a Durant, and we may not even have a Westbrook. And its not as if our current vets are going to be contributors on the next championship Golden State team. We need to model ourselves against the TRUE young teams in the West and determine which 3-5 young players we really want to build around and collect draft picks and cap space to pair them with. So, yes please do break down why you prefer Monta/Biedrins/Randolph/Wright to Durant/Westbrook/Green/Weaver. Unless, of course, a 20-37 record is the best support you can provide for your argument. In that case don’t even bother.

our rookies and other young guys are not good enough to justify starting or getting starter like minutes, while those other teams young guys are that good.

If we had 10 rookies (all rawupsidepotential lottery picks) on the bench and 5 30 year old journeymen who got the bulk of minutes, would you consider the team to be young or old?

We dont have 10 guys like that, lets break down our 12 young guys.

Category 1
Close to Topping Off-Biedrins, Ellis, Turiaf, Azibuike
How much better can these guys really get. I think what we see from Turiaf(which is fine) is what he will probably be for the next 6 or so years before he starts to slow down. Biedrins and Azibuike can fine tune their game and improve small parts of it and make themselves more effective players. But we probably should not expect any more quantam leaps from them. Azibuike can turn himself into a solid starter and Biedrins might be able to sneak into the All-Star game 2 or so times over his career. Ellis is still the wild card. First, we dont know if he can get his speed back and become the player that he was. Second, If he does than we have to wonder whether he can over come the holes in his game to become a All-Star. I just dont know the answer to either of those. Worst case, he lost a step and is a shell of himself, best case he gets his speed back, works on his defense, 3 pt shot, and develops point guard skills and becomes a multiple time all star. My guess is somewhere in between at the moment.

Category 2
Starter and Above Potential-Wright, Belinelli, Randolph
Wright can and will probably turn into an effective starter. Unless his defense greatly improves or he also improves a jump shot, I don’t see any All-Star games for Wright. Belinelli,has proven that he can be a nice backup off the bench. A combo guard with a good shot, he is a nice change of pace player. Not sure if he can be a quality starter in the league yeat, but if he does, thats about as far as he can go. Randolph is our ultimate wild card. We just don’t know what this kid will be in 5 years. All-Star maybe, but he can also just become a burned out athletic freak that never put the pieces toghether in time. We don’t know.

Category 3
Solid Bench Player-Morrow, Watson, Williams
Morrow right now is near the end of Nellie’s bench only playing when necessary of injuries. If he work the rest of his game he can become a nice option off the bench for years to come. Watson really is not very good. He is a classic Nelson player that if forced to play, because we just dont have anybody else healthy that can pretend to be a point guard. Crawford and Belinelli are masquerading as points currently and they are doing ok, so Watson is back to 15 or less minutes. During Ellis’s 13 game return Watson had a sharp drop in minutes. If Ellis and Belinelli were healthy at the same time, I dont think Watson would of played at all. His shot is solid, so if he can develop his point guard skill to atleast a passable point he might be able to hold down the backup 1. Williams has the potential to be a good backup pg, but he wont do it in a Warriors jersey so the point is moot.

Category 4
End of Bench Player- Kurz, Davidson
Right now these guys are 13-15th men. Davidson’s height and Kurz practice work ethic might keep them in the league for the next few years. If they find a way to develop their skills and improve greatly, they might be able to move up to like 9th or 10th man on the bench.

Look at it this way: If we had 10 rookies (all rawupsidepotential lottery picks) on the bench and 5 30 year old journeymen who got the bulk of minutes, would you consider the team to be young or old?

If we had 5 journeymen playing ahead of 10 lottery picks we’d have other issues. The Thunder have 5 journeymen on the roster, but they give them the bulk of their minutes because a) their young players are good enough to justify benching those guys and b) they are rebuilding the right way and the primary value of those vets to their team is the cap room theyll create over the next couple years or as cap room trade chips to other teams.

You think everybody’s drafted based on their ability to contribute right away? Heck no! Randolph was EXPECTED to be a few years away from really contributing, but he’s a great athlete, and he’s got some amazing physical tools. If he puts it together, he’ll be awesome. That’s why he was drafted. Because he could become awesome in 3 years. What does that mean? We’re sacrificing performance this year when we could have taken another player who was more ready to contribute. Which means that right now he’s “not good enough to actually get some playtime”. But in the future, he’ll theoretically learn a bit more and do more than just “earn playtime”.

The point I was trying prove is our youth isnt as good as those other teams. I dont even think its close.

If that was your point, why didn’t you say so in the first place instead of coming up with some statistical measure of how we’re not the youngest team based on minutes played?

And your assertion that our youth is not as good as that of Memphis and OKC is astounding… comparing our youth against two teams that have drafted in the top 8 the last few years while we’re drafting in the 9-14 range? amazing, what a conclusion. I wouldn’t have believed it until you pointed it out.

Those two teams have been actively trading all of their existing talent for draft picks and expiring contracts. Why not include a comment about how our old guys, despite their being 29 and having lots of NBA experience, are worse than San Antonio’s old guys?

Hey, did you hear the world is round and the Clippers suck?