Originally posted January 30, 2006 by Fantasy Junkie
Which Warriors player personifies a "One Minute Man"? Take a guess. My vote goes to Andris Biedrins since he cannot stay in the game for longer than a minute without fouling.

There's got to be a foul somewhere.

After all Ron Artest trade talk and how the Warriors didn't want to give up some of their young talent, namely Ike and Pietrus, I was a little surprised to hear Biedrins' name as one of the young players Mullin is having trouble parting with in a trade. From what I've seen, there has been little if any improvement in his game from last year to this. This may be a little premature considering he's only 19 (will be 20 in April), but trade this guy away while he still has some value and upside. Most players his age show flashes of potential and play well over the course of a couple games. I've never seen Biedrins do that. Physically, he's gotten stronger and he shows flashes of skill on offense and defense on one possession or another, but over a prolonged period he cannot put together a decent effort. It's not even consistency that he lacks, if there was something to be consistent with, then he would lack it. He lacks skill and right now he's not improving.

Let's look at his numbers from this year versus last season. In his rookie year, in 12.8 minutes per game he averaged: 3.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 0.8 blocks, shot 57.7% from the field, 47.5% from the line and 2.9 fouls. Now this year in 10.4 minutes per game, he's averaging: 2.3 points, 2.8 rebounds, 0.5 blocks, 63.3% from the field, 38.5% from the line, and 2.2 fouls.

First of all, he's playing less minutes in his 2nd year than his first. Sure Ike has come in and played to take some of his minutes, but Biedrins should be taking minutes from Foyle and Murphy. He's got to earn those minutes and should be averaging more minutes per game. This has affected his other numbers. His points, rebounds, and blocks are all below last year's miniscule averages. What's more is that he hasn't scored or rebounded in double digits the entire season. Oftentimes, he has games where his points plus rebounds don't add up to double digits. I'm not really sure where this guy has improved from last year. You expect your first round draft choice to improve from year to year, especially if he's a project. There's a four letter bad word that can describe him, it begins with an "F" and ends with a "P".

Everyone knows about his propensity to foul in limited minutes, 2.9 fouls per game last year and 2.1 per game this year. It's always fun to see what someone's averages might be if they played all 48 minutes. So this year, if he were to play 48 minutes and there was an unlimited number of fouls you could get, he would be averaging 9.7 fouls per game. It's funny when he comes into the game and we try to predict when he's going to get his first foul (usually within a minute), but it's hurting the team. First off, if he collects two fouls in a couple minutes, he's already helping put the other team in the bonus quickly. This leads to more free throws and since the Warriors are an uptempo team it hurts them by slowing the game down. The second reason this hurts is that Monty can't play him for extended minutes to give Foyle and Murphy a break. Those guys need rest. Foyle should not be playing more than 25 minutes per game and Murphy shouldn't be playing more than 35 which is right around their averages. But when Biedrins gets into foul trouble these guys have to play extended minutes which tires them out later in the game. There are times that he shows he can play defense effectively without fouling, but more often than not, the whistle blows and the ref is calling out Biedrins' number as the culprit. Another one of the funny stats is his free throw percentage this year, 38.5%. I know he doesn't take many shots, but you have to make more than 2 out of 5 free throw attempts. I'd like to see some improvement the 2nd half of the year from Biedrins in all aspects of his game because the Warriors are going to need him to eat minutes so Adonal and Troy aren't on the floor for extended minutes.

I cannot see a reason that Mullin would not be willing to trade Biedrins if he's offered a tough veteran to help the team this year and next. The biggest problem the Warriors have is down low on both offense and defense, and Biedrins is no help on either end of the floor. Please Mullin, trade away the big man for a tough defender down low, a marksman from 3, or a backup point guard. You need to make a move before the season gets away from you. Biedrins is not one of your cornerstone players for the next decade. You already have Foyle and Murphy signed to long term deals plus Ike and Taft as two big men to develop. Either bring in a coach for the big man to improve his game or trade him while you can. For the Warriors sake, I hope the big man proves me wrong and turns into a very good player that can soak up 30 minutes per game at center, but I haven't seen anything in his short career that would lead me to believe he won't be another failure in the Warriors sorry draft history.