Warriors recap #29: GSW 104 - LAC 97. Ekpe's undefeated as a starter!

Not all that surprising? He’s been shooting 40% all year and then suddenly he scores 19 efficiently. That wasn’t surprising?

And Udoh will probably never cost half of what Griffin eventually will.

That’s a really good point. No matter how world-beating Udoh looks by the various forms of plus-minus — Evanz’ latest ranking has him the second-best player in the NBA, lol — as long as he’s averaging 8-10 points and 6-8 rebounds per game on <.450 fg% (about where his counting numbers are likely to settle, given starter’s minutes), he’s going to command far less $$$ on the open market than an empty 20-10-ish scrub like Al Jefferson or Brook Lopez (or, you know, David Lee).

Of course, the flip side of that is he’s also likely to command a lot less the trade market than a guy who performs really well by your grandmother’s metrics (Greg Monroe, e.g.) But if you can lock down a young big man with Udoh’s great attitude and consistently, overwhelmingly positive impact on the game for a $5-6M a year, that’s a piece you probably don’t want to trade. If the chasm between the “ESPN numbers” and the plus-minus results continues, Udoh could end up the ultimate moneyball player.

And if it turns into something they can sustain, a lot of credit has to go to Mark Jackson. He’s come under some legitimate fire sometimes on this board, but if he actually helps those two guys figure out how to synch up their games, that’s a major, major accomplishment.

roofed him

Hah, hadn’t heard that term. Perfect description. On the first bad call I thought he got a fair amount of body, but that second one was a thing of awesome beauty — no way on earth that should ever be called a foul. For once, Bob Fitzgerald’s second-grade whining was totally justified there (though I still want to slap him 98% of the time for being such a whiny homer).

I’m not too worried about our wings, I’ll take any combo of Rush, Wright, with a little dash of Klay

He’s also a under team control because he’s a RFA, which raises his trade value.

BTW I thought that we should have traded Wright while his trade value was high last year, too.

is that even though he’s kind of timid about putting the ball on the floor and driving to the hoop, he’s actually a decent amount better handling the ball than Rush. I think some of that is lost when he spends a lot of his minutes on the court with our starting unit. As far as match-ups, Rush might be a better fit because of his better defense and spot-up shooting. Coming off the bench, Dorell would get easier looks and more opportunities to handle the ball.

I’m really not sure who I’d want starting or even who the better player is at this point, but I think, just as far as the match-ups go, we might benefit from swapping the two. I’d definitely at least take a look at it. We don’t get Rush on the court with both Monta and Steph much, and similarly we don’t get to see Dorell with the bench unit. If I was Jackson, I might start playing with that a little bit during the game, gauging the success without actually having to “demote” Dorell to the bench. If it worked out, then you could try to change the starting lineup.

Even if Dorell was the better player, you could still give him the minutes he’s getting now, and slot him in at the end of games to get your best players on the court.