All Star Weekend: The Real Snubbing

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 17, 2006 6:24 PM PST in News Comment 7 comments

The great All Star Weekend has come upon NBA Nation! It should be a fun weekend featuring an exciting Slam Dunk Contest, a smooth 3 point contest, and a dazzling All Star Game. Sure there are no Warriors in ANY event this year (even the Celebrity Contests), but we'll continue to drop Warrior science all weekend long here at Golden State of Mind.

Tonight the annual Rookie-Sophomore competition tips off and... it's got me worried. The Warriors have not had a participant in the Rook-Soph game for the past two years. For a team that it supposed to be so young and promising shouldn't the Dubs be well represented in the junior festivities?

Of all of the Warriors' problems this season, this should have Warriors Nation the most worried. Warriors management is grossly overestimating the potential of their youth. This year Andris Biendrins joins Mickael Pietrus as Warriors who were not selected to the game in their rookie or sophomore seasons. Warriors rookies Ike Diogu, Montay Ellis, and Chris Taft did make the cut for tonight's rookie roster either.

Pietrus, Biedrins, Diogu, Ellis, and Taft are all favorites of Warriors Nation, but they aren't amazing, rising superstars. It's ridiculous that Chris Mullin deemed rookie Ike Diogu "untouchable" in trade talks for Artest, but he didn't even get selected to the Rookie game.

I'll take off my Warriors (mis)management goggles for second. Here's my projections for the projects:

Mickael Pietrus
MP2 has earned the starting SF spot on the Warriors, but that's only because he's outplayed one of the worst #3 picks of all time. In his peak Pietrus will be a 17ppg 4rpg swingman who can defend very well at times. Nice, but not someone you build around.

Andris Biedrins
After Fantasy Junkie called him the "One Minute Man" Biedrins has cut down his inane fouls and played better. Make no mistake, Biedrins is still incredibly raw. He's got the hustle, but he seems to be too much of a project to ever pan out. Biedrins has next to no offensive game. Have you ever seen him shoot a free throw? In his peak Biedrins will be a decent backup center.

Ike Diogu
Ike has an impressive arsenal of post up moves. The problem is he's just not athletic enough to stay on the floor. His rebounding is pretty poor and his defense is porous. In his peak Ike will be a solid backup forward a la Corliss Williamson.

Chris Taft
Taft has been sidelined by some painful back injuries for most of this season. He needs to get in shape, but he's in the unenviable situation of constantly dealing with injuries. It's tough to train and work on your game when you're always rehabbing from injuries. Not to be the voice of doom, but he probably won't be in the league in 3 years because of all these nasty injuries.

Monta Ellis
Monta is young, quick, and athletic. It's really tough to project how good he will based on his limited playing time and youth. Honestly who knows how good he will be? But, do you really think he's going to be an elite guard? Probably not.

The Warriors should be looking to deal some of their youth along with their bad contracts. None of these players will ever make an All Star game. Remember this is a young league. Lebron and Melo are both under 22. The real All Star snubbing is the Warriors management trying to convince themselves and fans that their youth are potential stars. It's just not going to happen.

Pietrus, Biedrins, Diogu, Ellis, and Taft all seem like good guys and I hope I'm completely wrong with my projections. Actually let me stress that again- I hope I'm completely wrong. I just don't think the Warriors should be banking on them to be franchise saviors.

What are your thoughts about the Warriors' youth?

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Comments

Very interesting

Very harsh and coldly accurate observations! You're piercing the love we Warrior fans have for our young upcoming stars. But yeah, you must be right if Ike and Monte nor Biedrins were selected to play in the All-Star soph-rookie challenge. That obviously means there are a lot of talented young players in the league more talented in some eyes.

However, I think MP is better than what you gave him credit though he does make questionable decisions at times. Wow, I thought you liked MPs game.

Biedrins is still a teenager like Ellis. Both are still young and not everyone can be a Lebron or Carmelo. If Monty had played Ellis more I think he'd probably be playing in the All-Star soph-rookie game; he's doing just as good if not better than the other high schoolers who turned pro. You might be right about Ike and I think I agree with you; I argue all the time with my co-worker who swears Ike will be a star.

by kirkkazas on Feb 17, 2006 10:34 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Hopefully I'm wrong

You're right I'm a big MP fan. He's far from being a complete player, but I love his charisma and fun attitude.

Let's hope I'm wrong! It has happened once before. (Hahaha, just joking)

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 17, 2006 10:46 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Hopefully you're wrong...

I personnally don't think Ike will only be a very good backup PF. He is not that far from that now. He will at least be a crappy starting PF just like who we have now.

I agree with you about Pietrus but the thing is that I don't see him being at his peak with the Warriors. We already have J-Rich and we don't have any money to keep him unless Cohan is going to make us fans happy by paying the Luxury Tax.

Biedrins right now should start just because I like Foyle's energy off the bench. Biedrins is really raw and I think he will be a serviceable starter in 6 years when he's like 25.

Taft really showed me his potential when he was playing. He can definitely be an okay backup if he doesn't stay injured.

Ellis I'm high on. I love how fast he is and his ability to score. He has a lot of time to develop since he's only 19. He should definitely be able to be like Earl Boykins is right now. Hopefully he learns to be a good point guard.

I guess I'm too optimistic. We did have One representative this weekend, Thunder was jumping around in the background of the Celebirty game.

by DaAzNJRiCh on Feb 18, 2006 12:28 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Rookie/soph game nothing to get excited about

I got to at least show a little disagreement here...
The rookie/soph game featured guys like Luol Deng, Ben Gordon, Luther Head and Charlie Villanueva. Now let me think, which of those teams represented do I think have a greater upside than the Dubs? It's certainly not the Bulls though you might be able to make a little bit of a case simply becuase they might end up with the number one overall draft pick via NY. It sure isn'y Houston or Toronto, I think the GSW young guns are going to be fine given the floor time. Ike will def most show big time once he gets past the whole rookie foul thing, I agree with the last poster that starting Biedrins should be considered and Ellis and Taft are still youn and atheletic and ready to bloom.

by symapleleaf on Feb 18, 2006 1:41 AM PST reply actions 0 recs

Really?

Serious? I'd take Deng, Gordon, and Villanueva over Biendrins, Ike, Taft, and Monta.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 20, 2006 10:50 AM PST up reply actions 0 recs

Seriously?

My take on the above 4 players you just named: Gordon is a one-skill player (he caan shoot and that's about it) who is too small to gauard his position. Villanueva is fine on a team that's going nowhere aka Toronto but has also been a problem when it comes to coachability. You see any raps games? The guy to me has Troy Murphy's body type and game without T-Murph's heart and don't eveen talk about defense. That leaves Deng who I admit is aight. Let's comparee that with the 4 guys you are willing to give up on. Did you see Biedrens the last couple of weeks? You mean to say that an athletic 20-year old with good hands and who is hyperactive on defense (and learning how to play without fouling) is more valuable than a lazy 21 year old with a history of being disruptive (Charlie V.)? How about Taft? Another kid who runs thee floor and is able to finish and is what? 21? Let's move on over to Ike for a minute and let me preface this by reminding folks of how tough it is for young big men who are new in the Association. The call always goes against you until you've proven game to the refs. You remember the calls that used to go against Adonal until he proved that he was a shotblocker? And then the calls started to go his way? Ike will be just fine and I say that as someone who's seen a ton of Pac 10 games and believes in a brother. So that leaves Monta and if you deny the man has skills even as a player just out of HS, we've been watching a different game.
No disresepct here Atma Brotther ONE: we are both wearing the same colors here and I look forward to debating this with you some more! I'm just down with being optimistice after too many years of boring hoops at the Arena. I hope to post more ofter heree and you will disagree at times I'm sure but the Dubs are my Boys.
Peace out,

by symapleleaf on Feb 20, 2006 8:32 PM PST reply actions 0 recs

Nice points symapleleaf

Don't worry man- all of us at Golden State of Mind love a great discussion. You're just like us. We all bleed... well Thunderbolts? Something like that.

Good analysis on those non-Warrior players. Let me stick to the Warrior players since that's who I've seen the most (it's shocking that the Raptors aren't on national TV more- haha):

My biggest worry with Biendrins, Taft, and Ike is that they aren't athletic enough. Biedrins can only dunk. He doesn't have a post up game and his shooting form is awful. It's just poor coordination. 14 year olds can have good form. You either got it or you don't. It's tough to change your shot.

Ike's got some nice spin moves, but he looks slow especially for rebounds. He's not a quick leaper.

I'm worried Taft will unfortunately just have an injury plagued career.

You're definitely right- it's all about optimism. Probably 90% of our articles here are funny and positive. Every now and then we have to drop a more realistic look which is what this article was. Keep reading Golden State of Mind and spread the word. You'll laugh! You'll cry!

Good times.

by Atma Brother ONE on Feb 20, 2006 9:56 PM PST up reply actions 0 recs