Al Thornton to the Warriors

by tom88gsw on Mar 1, 2011 10:06 PM PST

Al Thornton has been bought out and will reportedly be joining the Warriors so long as he passes waivers.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=6172273

Corey Maggette junior would make a nice contribution to the bench so long as he is more willing to pass the ball than he has been thus far in his career. Also, in regards to this deadline, I think its important for Warrior fans to realize how much the Cohan regime has set the Lacob regime back. There was no way to get a legit trade through this year when the Warriors are unable to move a draft pick for the next three or so years. Maybe we can get thornton to sign for prettty cheap and for a few years. Depth is huge in the NBA, especially for a team without a superstar. This upcoming offseason is when we'll really find out some important things about the Lacob Guber regime

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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At first I thought

it read, “Al Jefferson”…and I said, NO WAY!
but then I read it again…meh.

by jimmycaps on Mar 1, 2011 10:52 PM PST reply actions

at 2nd thought

when i first read it i though al harford, but at last i remembered were the warriors and read more carefully. we went from extra power forwards to extra small forwards how about a center (size medium/large)

by DRU2DUBS on Mar 2, 2011 10:15 PM PST up reply actions

Al Thornton is horrible.

Riley and LAcob suck.

Steph Curry and Reggie Williams all day baby!

by GovernorStephCurry on Mar 1, 2011 10:58 PM PST reply actions

There Are 2 Fanshots On This. Why Did You Make This Fanpost?

by giantsrainman on Mar 1, 2011 11:02 PM PST reply actions

Egotistical lol. jk.

Steph Curry and Reggie Williams all day baby!

by GovernorStephCurry on Mar 1, 2011 11:09 PM PST up reply actions

ya ya ya

i rarely ever look at fanshots. Wondered why someone hadnt posted on fanposts.

by tom88gsw on Mar 2, 2011 2:51 PM PST up reply actions

I like this trade

He’s big. Physical. (those are direct quotes from my man David Lee) and he’s beefy enough to guard big 3’s. Wright can stay with the quicker of them and Thornton could get some post-game going. Heard he’s actually interested in staying with the Warriors even longer. Going to be about $600K prorated ($200K probably) to keep him for the rest of the season. Does’t hurt to add to the bench.

Oh and watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAl_Wf0bV8k

Golden State Warriors fan since 1984. The Filipino sensation!

The loudest Warrior fan in Section 208, Row DS, Seats 15-16.

by RayAlmeda on Mar 2, 2011 12:28 AM PST reply actions

haahaha i remember watching that game on tv

by GSdubsfan41 on Mar 2, 2011 1:48 AM PST via mobile up reply actions

Well I can't say I like this pick-up...

But I’ll withhold judgment until I actually see him play. I just have my misgivings about taking a guy who’s been dropped by two bottom-feeders and passed up by any contenders…
This might be a setback for the Bring Back Buike movement.

by Fuu on Mar 2, 2011 12:45 AM PST reply actions

i really see no harm in doing this

the more physical this team can get, the better. three years ago this kid averaged 17 a game on one of the nbas worst teams. throw him twenty – twenty five a game he’ll throw down 8 ppg and 5 rebounds. that’s more productive than most of our bench and ill take it. except it cant happen if it takes time away from reggie – i’d honestly like to see them play together.

and thornton’s young…. its only his fourth year in the nba. there’s nothing but upside to this signing so i’m more than pleased the front office actually made a move.

do we have to cut anyone? or did we have that slot open because of murphy?

It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(

by j-spliff415 on Mar 2, 2011 8:17 AM PST reply actions

No cuts.

by Lacob's Ladder on Mar 2, 2011 9:54 AM PST up reply actions

three years ago this kid averaged 17 a game on one of the nbas worst teams.

The problem is that his 17 a game were a big part of the reason they were one of the NBA’s worst teams. 17 a game on .502TS% is KILLING your team. Guys with a TS% that low need to not shoot, ever, unless they’re all alone underneath the basket.

If Thornton doesn’t understand that, he’s going to hurt us far more than he’ll help us.

by Ronaldinho on Mar 2, 2011 10:00 AM PST up reply actions

throw him twenty – twenty five a game he’ll throw down 8 ppg and 5 rebounds.

Problem isn’t the minutes it takes him to get 8ppg, but the number of shots he’ll have to take. He’s well below average efficiency.

5 rebounds in 20-25 minutes? How do you figure? I see that as nothing more than wishful thinking. That’s about 50% better than he’s ever averaged in the past. Toss him 36 minutes and he’ll get those 5 rebounds. Of course, if you give him 36 minutes, expect many of those to be garbage time, as if we’re playing him that much, we’ll be far behind with a quarter to go.

Not a good shooter. Not a good rebounder. Not a good passer. I see nothing to recommend him. “More physical” is buzz wordy. It’s meaningless if it is accompanied by "more inept at shooting the ball, rebounding the ball, and passing the ball.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 10:40 AM PST up reply actions

he played alongside guys like

randolph, kaman, and camby. camby inhales the rebounds. randalph is innefficient with it, but still manages to bring down 12 a game. i dont blame him for having only 5 per 36 – he played with giants.

the kid is adequately sized, strong, and not a string bean, which should be good to finally see at the forward position.

limit his minutes, play him with monta and/or curry, his shot total will not be as high. i see this as being productive.

It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(

by j-spliff415 on Mar 2, 2011 12:14 PM PST up reply actions

he played alongside guys like …

no man, you are missing the point…
the guy couldn’t even make the bench..THE BENCH..on the Wiz

he is at best a 10th or 11th man

"There’s no such thing as off the charts, just get a bigger piece of paper. If you can’t figure that out you shouldn’t be charting anything" - Skep

by Duby Dub Dubs on Mar 2, 2011 2:23 PM PST up reply actions

That’s a lame excuse for his rebounding problems and one that doesn’t really have factual basis to support it. There’s an effect of playing alongside good rebounders in suppressing rebounds. That effect is much, much smaller than you seem to be implying. It’s rather small. This isn’t opinion. It’s fact. This notion that guys have numbers that are heavily suppressed or inflated because of teammates has ridiculously little support in reality.

Thornton may have played with ‘giants’ at times, but his first two years in the league, the Clippers were heavily outrebounded. His teammates weren’t grabbing many boards. They were a terrible rebounding team. And if you actually look at who played for the Clippers that year, they had one “giant” (Kaman) who played in more than half their games. And he only played in . Brand played in 8 games that season. Camby played in 79 games, but they were all for the Nuggets. He wasn’t a Clipper yet. Neither was Randolph. The team didn’t have good rebounders to steal them away from Thornton and, though it was his best season on the glass (less than 1 per/ 36 above his career rate, it was still pretty lousy. If he can match that rate, a rate when he played almost half his games without anyone of note in the middle grabbing rebounds, and the other 50 or so with exactly one rebounder of note, when the team was drop dead pathetic on the boards, his rate would still require 30 minutes to get the 5 rpg you’re suggesting, not 20-25 minutes.

It was his best rebounding season, but it wasn’t good.

The excuse that his rebounding that year was not very good is as lame as his actual rebounding.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 2:41 PM PST up reply actions

I would add that a player needs to be effective rebounding when the ‘giants’ are on the opposing team. Which seams to be 100% of the time for the Warriors.

by KillaContract on Mar 2, 2011 3:15 PM PST up reply actions

Ehhh

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Raider fans copy & paste 140515624726 in Ebay!
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by JonDoe on Mar 2, 2011 10:11 AM PST reply actions

Would rather have BW

by Only In Fairfax on Mar 2, 2011 11:35 AM PST reply actions

I’d rather have Turiaf back
maybe even Randolph

"There’s no such thing as off the charts, just get a bigger piece of paper. If you can’t figure that out you shouldn’t be charting anything" - Skep

by Duby Dub Dubs on Mar 2, 2011 2:23 PM PST up reply actions

i miss rony

we could use his hustle and d

It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(

by j-spliff415 on Mar 2, 2011 3:24 PM PST up reply actions

True word regarding Turiaf.

Our last season was so bizzare that I think that many of us didnt notice what Turiaf did for the team.

by Only In Fairfax on Mar 3, 2011 10:37 AM PST up reply actions

The key losses for the W's were Turiaf and Morrow.

Buike if healthy would also be much needed right now.

by Only In Fairfax on Mar 3, 2011 10:43 AM PST up reply actions

Not a big deal either way

But hopefully this move works out for us

by WestCoastWarrior on Mar 2, 2011 12:04 PM PST reply actions

decent backup

surprised he didn’t try to get on that miami wagon… wonder why he chose gsw

by Monta THE Boss on Mar 2, 2011 1:10 PM PST reply actions

Probably because he’s not decent. He’s a mediocre rebounding, low efficiency SF who doesn’t pass well. Why would Miami want that? It’s not an accident that two of the worst teams in the league gave up on him.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 2:58 PM PST up reply actions

our second unit should be

Lin
Reggie
Thornton
Lou
Ekpe

Not all at once obviously, or we would lose by 50+ points.

by Anonymous1337 on Mar 2, 2011 1:26 PM PST reply actions

ekpe

should start over biedrins soon. AB may just be the most unskilled player in the NBA

by tom88gsw on Mar 2, 2011 2:53 PM PST up reply actions

I dunno why people are so eager to want Ekpe to start. He’s not that good either. He isn’t even a better solution at C, really. The dude can’t rebound the ball. Yeah he blocks shots here and there and is titled as a “defender”, but our rebounding becomes even worst when he’s in the game.

by DubsFan408 on Mar 2, 2011 3:22 PM PST up reply actions

because

2.6 blocks, 7.7 points, and 6.4 TRB per 36 is not bad for a rookie bench player at all. the guy swats a fair amount of balls away. he’s got more blocks than howard per 36

It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(

by j-spliff415 on Mar 2, 2011 3:28 PM PST up reply actions

Actually, yes, those number are bad when said player is nearly 25 years old.

Particularly that rebounding number. It’s just god-awful.

There’s this huge denial going on about Epke’s rebounding. Something fundamental has to change about what he’s doing. To suggest that it’s a rookie problem implies that he was good rebounder in college, but he wasn’t.

by Ronaldinho on Mar 2, 2011 3:50 PM PST up reply actions

25 or not

its his first year in the nba. age has nothing to do with it, experiance does

It's lonely being the only Warriors fan at UMass :(

by j-spliff415 on Mar 2, 2011 6:21 PM PST up reply actions

It's nice to think so, but the evidence suggests that you're just wrong.

Age seems to be more relevant to how much improvement you can expect from a player than experience.

Udoh might be an exception – because it’s a general principle, not a law of the universe – but what particular reason is there to think he’ll be one?

Furthermore, his performance against college opponents is not that encouraging.

by Ronaldinho on Mar 2, 2011 7:12 PM PST up reply actions

age has nothing to do with it, experiance [sic] does

Age has something to do with it, quite a bit actually. This isn’t opinion. It’s fact, based on real evidence, something that’s much more reliable that gut feelings and naked speculation. Peak production age isn’t all that different for players with significant college experience as it is for those who entered the league much younger. Both groups tend to peak mid 20s.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 8:25 PM PST up reply actions

2.6 blocks, 7.7 points, and 6.4 TRB per 36 is not bad for a rookie bench player at all.

The blocks are good. Too bad of the three things you listed, the blocks have the least impact on wins and losses. The rest is bad. Very bad. It’s terrible actually. The rebounds especially. It’s not good for a starter or a bench player. It’s unacceptably poor. There’s very, very few guys his height who rebound as poorly, and that includes guys who are at the end of the bench. The guys who do are almost universally ‘camp out on the perimeter’ bigs who are really more like 6-10 swing men.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 4:21 PM PST up reply actions

Since Epke seems hyper focused on blocks and blocking shots takes him out of position for rebounds. I would like to see him coached to go for the block only half the time and position for the rebound half the time. After all the intimidation of the block can be as effective as the actual block. Better yet go for the block only early after he gets inserted and focus on rebounding for the rest of the time.

by KillaContract on Mar 2, 2011 4:37 PM PST up reply actions

And the reason you think a nearly-25-year-old player can completely rebuild his game is?

by Ronaldinho on Mar 2, 2011 5:32 PM PST up reply actions

Hes almost 24 not 25

Steph Curry and Reggie Williams all day baby!

by GovernorStephCurry on Mar 2, 2011 6:26 PM PST up reply actions

Sorry, you're right.

My bad.

by Ronaldinho on Mar 2, 2011 7:13 PM PST up reply actions

Better late than never. No time to loose.

We are talking about a Rookie arn’t we?

With all due respect, I am a Analyst Hall of Fame candidate. If you are offended by my comment, I did write "With all due respect".

by KillaContract on Mar 2, 2011 6:26 PM PST up reply actions

A rookie, but an older one than we’ve been used to, and one who didn’t have an overly impressive college career. I’m really not sure what caused him to go as high as he did in the draft. Not an amazing physical specimen. Not awe inspiring performances in college; only one good-not-great season. It must have been the suit.

I would love for him to be a better player, but I’m not going to squint hard and pretend that something’s there that isn’t just because he’s a Warrior.

by jae on Mar 2, 2011 8:29 PM PST up reply actions