Mbenga - Good Sign for Warriors

sets picks rebounds and listens to what Nelson needs him to do

POB is as good as gone next year

and still i disagree. There is no way, this guy name DJ Mbenga should get as many minutes as he's getting. Now I'm only basing my information on what i've seen in games but, why draft O'Bryant with the 9th pick and never use him? Its basketbal idiocracy its what it is. This sort of thing is exactly why i can't wait for Nellie to retire. With a young team we need a player's coach. I hope Keith Smart is that guy.

I hate the fact that we put 4-5 guys 6'8'' or under on the court at any one time. I grew up a Spurs fan so maybe i'm biased towards traditional banging lineups. It makes me cringe each and every time. But i've digressed already.

POB has shown, in spurts, that he can play in the NBA. He's already a better player than DJ. Dj had a good game, but not a game changing impact on the game. Biedrins played way better defense holding his ground on Bogut and altering at least 5 shots by shorter players in my view. The one thing he needs to get better at is adding strength to his body because he got abused by Bogut on the boards imo. He needs to seal off his man and maintain position and not get pushed under the basket. I digress again.

POB had a great game against the Clippers, which i thought would be his breakout game. nu-uh. Nellie proceeded to give POB the nefarious DNP-CD status the next game. Since the Clipper game he has not gotten consistent minutes. Now, you can tell me that POB still fouled out in about 12+ minutes of play, which is why we signed DJ and released Lasme in the first place. But that still should leave POB as the backup center with Mbenga as the 3rd center in case both POB and AB get in foul trouble. You cannot possibly tell me that in the short amout of time that DJ gets per game, that POB would do worse.

Mullin is an idiot for not picking up the option on POB. Why? It'll cost you next to nothing to keep him? The only thing i can think of is upper management telling Mullin to cut costs at every corner and get more salary cap relief when resigning AB, Monta, or Baron. But by doing this he's going to leave this team with very little depth as i'm assuming POB, MP, Thud, Cro and maybe Barnes will not be re-signed. In fact we probably can't re-sign Barnes if we sign AB and Monta to deals.

Nellie has directly influenced Mullin and turned his back on POB. Nellie is sabotaging POB for us and for other teams in terms of trade value. Nellie's not giving him PT, and Mullin's not gonna pay him. The worst thing about this is that we haven't even been given an explaination as to why Mbenga is getting minutes over the (arguably) much better O'Bryant.

Maybe i'm biased, i'd always rather go young than go old. In 5 years, or shoot, maybe 2 years, this could potentially be a move that has us calling for Mullin's resignation. But it all depends on how big of a chip O'bryant has on his shoulder and how bad he wants to show up the whole Warriors organization and especially  former coach Nelson (who will be smoking a cigar on Maui by then). And for one thing, I wouldn't blame him.

Against Miami they will need all three, unless Nelson wants Harrington or Croshere to get abused. Hopefully this causes a situation were Nelson sees how POB plays in comparison to Mbenga.
POB gives us an offensive threat along with the rebounds and blocked shots. Why not give him some minutes each night instead of leaving us horribly undersized while Biedrins gets a breather?
I have to agree that not picking up POB's option was a bonehead move. We have nothing to lose with picking up his option. We get him cheap and let him continue to develop. With big men with a shooting touch a wanted commodity, I think there will be a few teams ready to take him off our hands.

that POB and Wright, when given the time, are very effective rebounders. Look at their rebounding rates for the amount of minutes they play. I think they are quite good.

We don't see them in practice; Nelson does.

Not to say Nellie's always right, but saying he's an idiot because he's not playing a kid that's done nothing...is not the smartest thing in the world to say.

and compared POB and Mbenga

POB plays 7% of his teams minutes while Mbenga has played 6% of his teams minutes, overall very close.

When POB's on the court he gobbles up 9.5% of his teams offensive rebounds while Mbenga grabs 7.8%. On the defensive end POB is grabbing 16.9% while Mbenga is grabbing 15.1%. When POB's on the warriors are grabbing 66% of the defensive rebounds compared to 58.5% when Mbenga is on.

However Mbenga has the edge in block per fouls: .71 > .42

POB score much more but i think we could all tell that without looking at stats.

seems to know his role in this squad: go out there and be a big body on defense. i just don't know about taking charges from guards at his size.
POB seems to be more offensive minded and will want the ball here and there, although it would be nice to see him gain a little more PT.
Aside from Biedrins,the W's don't need another center that wants to score.. there are four more guys on the floor who can score well enough so that the center doesn't have to.

i dont know if this relates but Don Nelson DID coach DJ Mbenga with the Mavs in 04-05

He's a defensive specialist that gets defensive specialist minutes and pay.

I'd say we have nothing to complain about, and even a little bit to cheer about (our front office being smart, for once).

just doesn't have the consistency to play more minutes right now. Mbenga is doing what he was brought here to do which is Mbang the mboards and take up space. POB is a taller version of Wright as far as strength down low. If the warriors can continue to blow teams out early then POB will get his chance to prove to nellie that he is worth getting minutes. It takes longer for centers to develop in the league anyway. And with the warriors style of play they don't really need a center but a bruising forward. There aren't too many good centers in the NBA for us to focus on a center.

I like how when someone happens to throw him the ball he has stone hands and either fumbles it or fumbles it.  He tries to take charges against players that are 6 feet tall and always gets called for the blocking foul.  Just what the warriors needed, another player playing smaller than he actually is.

Between the missed dunks and put backs, the taking of would be charge calls last year and the lack of overall game awareness, he's a liability on both ends.  So he did what he's supposed to do every night against the Bucks (with their D league performance), I'd be interested to see what he can do against a real NBA team.  But oh wait, Nelson already gave him minutes against half way decent teams and he did nothing positive.  I would have liked to see Mbenga try to do something against Boozer or Milsap and see how he did.  If he can contain players like that for short periods of time, he might prove his worth, other than that, he's just another waste of money.

I dunno.. I like the dude's name, and I like the fact that he's a big strong 7 footer, but I just don't know yet if he should be getting as much PT as he should be.

In 55 minutes, the Warriors are -7 with MBenga on the court, and +3 with him off the court.  Sure it's only 55 minutes, but a -7 is pretty bad in only 55 minutes.

He's an absolute liability on offense.  Yeah he's big and strong, but statistically he doesn't block more shots, get more boards, or foul less than POB has this year.  And whatever flashes of defensive talent from Mbenga I've also seen from POB this year.

Hopefully Nelson's trying to light a fire under POB's ass.. I doubt it though, Nelson's just notoriously tough on young players.

Like why is Belinelli in street clothes?? Does he not even get the chance to play in the garbage minutes?  And what happens when Monta or Buke get injured during a game and Belinelli's in a suit.  I dunno it feels like Nelson's going a little overboard with the punishment.