Golden State Of Mind, a Golden State Warriors community

Am I crazy to think Kevin Durant is a good candidate for this year's Most Improved Player Award? KD's Rookie Season: 20.3 ppg (43.0% FG, 28.8% 3pt) and 4.4 rpg KD's Sophomore Season: 25.5 ppg (47.7% FG, 42.2% 3pt) and 6.5 ppg MIA on Thorpe's list and a big red flag: Brandan Wright and Marco Belinelli

It will be interesting to see Jason Thompson (who Nellie supposedly wanted in this past draft) vs. Anthony Randolph (if he even plays) tonight in Oakland. Nearly half way through their first seasons, who has had the better rookie season? Jason Thompson Game Log | Anthony Randolph Game Log Going by the numbers it looks like JT's the king right now.

"Here's the thing about Wright and Belinelli: Most guys who play significant minutes in their second season already played decent minutes as rookies. In the last 20 years, there have been 663 rookies who played 376 minutes or less (376 being how many Wright played last season). Only 44 of those became rotation players in their second year (rotation=1,200 minutes). That's 6.6 percent. And that number's inflated by guys like Charlie Bell and Mo Evans who went to Europe for three years between their first and second NBA seasons. So in short, it's hard for me to think that the Warriors will bump one guy -- let alone two -- who didn't play as rookies into their rotation."-- Geoff Lepper ---------------------------------------------------------- I'll put the over/under on combined minutes of playing time next season for Wright/ Belinelli next season at 17mpg. Definitely check out the rest of Lepper's and MT's chat for more insights.

"Since he told me he recently watched a very impressive West Virginia’s Joe Alexander and had a session coming up with Syracuse’s Donte Greene, I’m presuming that Mullin will be happy with an offensive-minded wing man at 14 (like those two guys) even though he acknowledges that there’s a major void at power forward/center." -- Tim Kawakami Also check out Warriors likely to draft a swingman [Mercury]

"If the Warriors made forward/center Al Harrington available, the Cavs might have an interest. Harrington, 28, averaged 13.6 points and 5.4 rebounds for the Warriors last season. The 6-9, 250-pounder will be entering his 11th season in the league. He will earn $9.2 million this season and $10 million next year. It would take much more than Varejao to coax Harrington away from Golden State, however." -- News-Herald ------------------------------------------------------ I know Al really struggled this past season, but I'd really hate to see him go. He seems like one cool cat who cares about the community. I'm the last one to criticize Nellie since I think he's one of the few guys in the Warriors basketball operations who actually knows what he's doing. But I really think Nellie misused Al this past season and was way too unforgiving if he made any mistakes. But again can you really question a legendary coach who took this flawed and under talented team (by West standards) to 48 wins? 99% of rumors never happen, but 99% of them are fun to talk about!