In between his writing for AOL FanHouse and TV work on CSN Bay Area for the Golden State Warriors broadcasts, we somehow managed to catch up with Matt Steinmetz for his thoughts on the Dubs. Matt is a busy man and we're really lucky to have him on our show.
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In this installment we've got Matt's take on the "Captain" Jack situation.
Golden State of Mind: You covered the Warriors when they were forced to trade Latrell Sprewell for pennies on the dollar back in the late 90's. How much do you think Stephen Jackson's value is worth at this point? He's been acting kind of like a jack... well you know, and all the front office, fans, and probably even players have turned on him. Are the Warriors going to have to sell low again like they did with Sprewell?
Matt Steinmetz: Well, unfortunately, it's his contract that actually hurts his value more than his behavior. If Jackson were on the last year of his contract - like he should be - there is absolutely no doubt he would have significantly more value than he does right now. The Warriors would be taking calls left and right. Instead, they're kind of waiting around. It's pretty easy to see they're going to move Jackson at some point, but they're probably not going to get nearly the player(s) back in return that Jackson is. If they can get back somebody with a shorter contract, it would help. If they could get an expiring contract, that would be more than acceptable. But when it comes to the actual player they get in return, he or they aren't going to be as good as Jackson. Ideally, they would get one expiring contract and then one player who could help, even a little.
Golden State of Mind: In his interviews Stephen Jackson doesn't seem to be making much sense- whether it's calling out the Warriors management or Coach Don Nelson or his teammates for "not having his back", saying he's as good as Kobe Bryant, saying he doesn't regret the malice in the palace, that being a captain doesn't mean much to him (despite saying he was incredibly honored when Nellie bestowed that titles on him last year), and that all he cares about is winning (yet he left the Spurs to sign on with a loser Atlanta Hawks team, continues to rack up technical fouls which hurt his team, doesn't get back on defense when he's arguing with the refs, and extended his contract with a perennial loser again that was in the midst of going through some rebuilding). What do you think is going on his head? Can you make sense of what Jackson has been saying?
Matt Steinmetz: I'm going to let go what I think is going on in his head. As for trying to make sense of what he is saying, I think, in general, he sees the writing on the wall and he doesn't like it. He's 31 or whatever and he realizes he probably won't be playing for a championship anytime soon, and he sees other players he's comparable to having a lot more success. And he's competitive. People wonder how he can sign that extension a year ago and do what he's doing now. He doesn't look at it like that. Signing that extension is what you do. He's a player and the Warriors are the organization. One thing has nothing to do with the other in his mind. That might be hard for some people to understand, but to Jackson signing an extension and then wanting out a year later are two entirely different things.
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More to come in our Q&A with Matt...
For up to the minutes updates on the Stephen Jackson drama here in Dubs Land and all the juicy trade rumors (99% of which will never happen) check out the SB Nation.com Story Stream currently titled Is Stephen Jackson headed to Cleveland?