By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — The running joke about Warriors forward Al Harrington concerns his resemblance to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This summer, however, he felt like a different green character of cartoon fame:

The Incredible Hulk.

“I had a lot of anger built up over different situations,” Harrington said. “And it’s hard to come to work that way.”

Instead of going the Bruce Banner route, Harrington took a page from the Dr. Phil handbook and confronted the source of his enmity: Namely, his boss, Golden State coach Don Nelson.

“We spoke this summer, very openly,” said Harrington, a 10-year NBA veteran who was clearly stung by the way his playing time yo-yoed last season. “I told him how I felt about everything, and he told me how he felt about everything. As men, we talked about it and squashed it. . . . It was definitely necessary.”

Almost as necessary as Harrington is to the Warriors’ plans. If Golden State is to salvage any chance of moving up in a stacked Western Conference field where 48 wins fell short of the playoffs last season, a large part of the push will have to come from Harrington, who averaged 13.6 points per game last season and shot only 43.4 percent from the floor, his second-lowest figure since his rookie season.

“I can’t see us having much of a chance to win unless he plays at a high level this year. So he’ll have every opportunity to do that,” said Nelson, who last season often switched up Harrington with now-departed Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes in an attempt to goose production at power forward. “I’m not as deep as I was a year ago, so if he has an off game or two, we’re going to play through it this year. I’m not going to beat around the bush: He’s going to have to be productive.”

So far, he has been. Harrington, who is on a quest to earn 35 solid minutes each game, has had arguably the best camp of any Warrior. It reached the point Friday where Nelson came out for his meeting with the media and launched into an unprompted soliloquy regarding Harrington.

“Mentally, he’s sharp,” Nelson said. “From opening day, he’s been ready to roll. . . . I’m really happy to see that he’s approaching the season the right way.”

Harrington hasn’t been a primary offensive option since he co-headlined two terrible Atlanta Hawks teams, averaging 17.5 points per game in 2004-05 and a career-high 18.6 ppg the next year. But the svelte Harrington, who looks lighter than his listed 250 pounds, foresees no problem regaining that touch on a team that lost the scoring punch of Baron Davis (21.8 ppg), Pietrus (7.2), Barnes (6.7) and, at least for the short-term, Monta Ellis (20.2).

“I feel like I’m in the prime of my career,” Harrington said. “I’m 28 years old. This is the time when everything is supposed to come together.”

Harrington complained publicly last season about his transformation in Nelson’s scheme from all-court player to 3-point specialist — the 701 treys he’s taken since arriving in Oakland in January 2007 represent more than 60 percent of his career attempts behind the arc. To help change that imbalance, he worked diligently on his post-up moves this summer.

The payoff has been an ability to score with more ease from various spots on the floor, best exemplified by one sequence during the Warriors’ scrimmage Thursday night when Harrington planted Anthony Randolph on the right block, used his right elbow to secure leverage, pivoted around him and spun into the lane for an easy jumper.

That work should bolster Harrington’s shooting numbers between the low block and 3-point arc. Harrington’s accuracy in that range last season was 36.2, down from 37.6 the year before. In the mid-range (15 feet and out), it was down to 34.3 percent.

“I’ve been in this league 10 years, and I’ve always been considered a good player, and it wasn’t because of the 3-ball,” Harrington said. “So where was I scoring? I wasn’t scoring in transition, because I never played on a fast team. I scored in the mid-post. So that’s always been my game. I just want to get back to it.”

Harrington would prefer not to go back to playing center — something that the signing of Ronny Turiaf should make immaterial — but is more than willing to do so if that’s what it takes to get off the bench.

“I’m looking forward to my opportunity to be out there and play significant minutes,” Harrington said. “I promise I’m going to produce.”