Warriors Game Day Links #47: Golden State Warriors 96 vs Utah Jazz 81 - 4th qtr garbage time... in Warriors favor!

Ah, well said in that first part. I think we’re on a much clearer level of understanding now. I definitely wasn’t interpretting your words on the system that way before. Makes a lot more sense now.

As for Smart, a couple of things have made me relax on the criticisms of the rotations. First, earlier in the year, we were all flipping out about Vlad. He was the poster boy of Smart’s bad rotations. I was as frustrated as anyone. Well? Smart stuck with Vlad and it actually worked out. Looks to me like he had a better understanding of any of us what to expect ouf of Vlad going forward, even if he wasn’t performing to start the season. A little dose of humility helps sometimes. I took mine. :) I’ve also started to see some of the things Smart sees in Vlad. He does some little things that are good on both sides of the floor, even if his lack of rebounding and on ball defense still frustrate me.

Next, I tried to think of things from Smart’s point of view. Why might he make the rotations he’s making? What might I do differently? Thinking about it some, I’ve actually come to think his plan, for the most part, really does make sense. Dorell plays a lot because we flat out don’t have a replacement for him. Curry/Monta/Reggie is a brutal combination. Our top minute getters are: Monta, Dorell, Lee, Curry, Biedrins, Reggie, Vlad, in that order. Makes a lot of sense to me, especially since the two starters at the bottom of the MPG (Biedrins/Curry) are our two starters who foul the most. Next two are Acie (don’t have a backup PG!) and Lou. Still makes sense to me. It might have taken a little bit to figure this rotation out, and it’s going to change some on matchups and foul trouble in any given game, but it looks to me like overall that’s a pretty reasonable rotation.

Gadz really hasn’t played much either in total or in the games he’s gotten time. We gave Carney a shot before realizing he’s not adding anything, something we realized at an apprpriate time (balance between giving him as much of a shot to show what he has as possible and maknig sure he doesn’t play so much he hurts the team). I think overall, that allocation really isn’t that bad. I’d like to see Monta play a little less, Reggie a little more, and Brandan a little more (with Vlad probably playing more wing than big going forward), but those are mostly minor quibbles over a few minutes here or there. I also don’t like playing all our subs at once. I wish that would stop. Probably my biggest concern, but I’m still not sure I can convince myself it’s a big deal.

A couple other things of note: I don’t like the iso calls for Monta in the two games we won. I also think we’ve relied too much on Monta creating shots in general. Look at how well we played last night with Monta playing completely within the flow of the offense. Great stuff. Of course it could have been because of our opponent, or because it was a single game, or a combination. But we really do have a decent amount of offensive talent among our starters, and if Andris is attacking the rim like he was last night, we have a very good offensive squad. We don’t need to be so Monta-centric, especially since Monta does some very nice things in the flow of the offense. So I’d like to see a more diverse offense that puts Monta in less creation situations overall. So those are my complaints. At the same time, I have no major complaints about our scheme besides less Monta as primary ballhandler – I understand we haven’t run PnR that much, but I think we haven’t shown we can run it effectively, either.

I guess overall I just see solid reason for a lot of what Smart’s doing. I have quibbles, but I don’t think they’re huge deals. I don’t think most of the quibbles are all that important, either, and the important stuff is all the behind the scenes things I don’t get to see. I’m not necessarily pro-Smart, I haven’t seen anything that makes me all that optimistic on him, I’m just not really anti-Smart, either. I’d still probably lean towards replacing him at the end of the season because I don’t see a reason to settle for anything less than the best. Let’s try to find our own Thibodeau. I’m just not too upset about the job he’s doing in the meantime.

Oh, I don’t really mean trade down. I mean the trend seems to be that physical specimens with no basketball abilities tend to get picked in the 2nd round. Guys like Deandre Jordan, Hassan Whiteside, Devon Hardin….and we decided to pick one top 10! Bad move. I guess those guys all came after POB – maybe he’s the reason teams don’t pick that kind of player until the second round?

As for Rondo, he dropped because of character concerns, I think. He tested off the charts at the combine, and was young, fairly good, and on good teams. At least that’s what I remember.

Your beef with that play was that he was dribbling up to his chin? Yes it leaves a lot to be desired, especially for a guy who is primarily a “slasher.” But the old Monta would have kept driving into that double team without recognizing it. Instead he found the open man, who made the extra pass, which led to an easy bucket.

But seriously, we have a bunch of guys who should be able to move well – Lee, Biedrins, Monta, Curry have all been effective at moving off the ball in half court sets at points in their career. Dunno about Dorell yet, but I’m not saying he can’t! Curry and Dorell are shooters. We got backups that can do stuff. We have the personnel to be that kind of team. I hope we can get a more balanced, team orientated offense going in the future. Hopeless last nights game was a stepping stone to better things.

That’s what practice and film sessions are for!