By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Things have gotten so ridiculous in the Jamal Crawford-Don Nelson power struggle that it’s prompted a first in the (admittedly short) history of this site: The retraction of an earlier entry.

Back in November, when the Warriors swapped unhappy forward Al Harrington to the Knicks for Crawford, I wrote that it was the best deal Golden State could have made at that time.

My position was that since the Warriors had already cashed in their future salary-cap space by giving a maximum-allowed contract extension to Stephen Jackson, throwing away Harrington’s expiring deal wasn’t a horrible move it would have been for some teams.

[Sidebar on the Jackson deal: It still boggles the mind that the Warriors agreed to that extension some 18 months before a decision needed to be reached. There still has not been any adequate explanation (check that, no explanation AT ALL) by anyone at 1011 Broadway (including, most notably, team president Bobby Rowell, who hashed out the contract details with Jackson) about why Golden State abandoned two years’ worth of tough-as-nails negotiating stances with every member of its roster, then threw a pile of cash in Jackson’s lap.]

And exchanging someone who had no intention of playing here again for a guy in Crawford who can create off the dribble and shoot from distance could only help in the short term.

But after four months of watching the Jamal Crawford Era in Oakland, I can say this with certainty:

The Warriors should have eaten Harrington’s contract rather than pull the trigger on that deal.

Read the rest of this entry…

One of my favorite pieces from any NBA writer last season came from ESPN’s J.A. Adande, sizing up the Suns in the wake of their February acquisition of Shaquille O’Neal, and what it meant for Phoenix.

Under Mike D’Antoni’s theory of basketball, a team should need only 7 seconds to get a shot off. Under Shaq’s theory of basketball, 7 seconds is the bare minimum to creep his way past the half-court line. The two views were patently incompatible, a fact Adande — spinning off the revolution once promised by D’Antoni’s system — wryly noted by saying, “La revolucion esta muerta.”

There’s a little bit of that same “end of an era” vibe to the Warriors’ decision not to pick up the fourth-year option on point guard Marcus Williams.

It’s not that Williams is likely to blossom into an All-Star next season for another team. But ridding themselves of Williams in this fashion, with no regard to salvaging even the slightest hint of value, highlights the fact that the apparent tug-of-war between team president Robert Rowell and executive vice president Chris Mullin for control of the franchise’s direction is threatening to take the team on a road to nowhere.

It’s one thing to have a coach come in and decide that he doesn’t like a certain player. Happens all the time.

To decide that a player whom you’ve just acquired a few months earlier — at the probable cost of a future first-round pick — is not worth a single season at $2.1 million is unusual.

To decide that without seeing the player participate in a single regular-season game on your behalf is just ludicrous.

Even Patrick O’Bryant, whom Nelson had no use for from the jump — and vice-versa — had a full season to prove himself before the team decided to deep-six him by similarly declining their option.

It’s kind of astounding to look back at the volume of players who have failed, in two short years, to live up to Nelson’s standards. One item from Al Harrington’s various pronouncements on Tuesday that I really do believe is something he told Marcus Thompson II:

“We all know how Nellie is. We all know his history. If you’re not one of his dudes, you ain’t never going to be one of his dudes.”

O’Bryant can back that up.

So can Ike Diogu.

And Troy Murphy.

Or Adonal Foyle.

Even Sarunas Jasikevicius.

And Kosta Perovic.

Heck, even some guys who started out as Nelson favorites — hello, Matt Barnes…

ANALYSIS

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — It’s no secret that Stephen Jackson, the Warrior with the greatest responsibilities on the court but only the fifth-largest paycheck, is seeking an extension to his current deal. Acting as his own agent, Jackson has been in negotiations directly with team president Robert Rowell on a pact that could keep him in Oakland until age 35. Since Jackson is already under contract for two more seasons, at a total of $14.8 million, the most he can hope to get tacked on is three seasons worth $27.8 million.

Talks have been steadily progressing, and though this is just as an educated guess, I’d say it’s a better than 50-50 proposition that something gets done before the Warriors’ season opens Wednesday.

Does Jackson deserve to be paid an average of $9 million per year?

Absolutely. This is a guy who can score 20 points a game, can defend the opponent’s best player, almost regardless of position, and rarely misses time due to injury.

Does it fit into the team’s philosophy, as it’s been practiced over the last three years?

Absolutely not.

With Monta Ellis out, there is no question that Jackson is the Warriors’ most important player, and if they do make a return to the playoffs, it will undoubtedly be in large part because of Jackson dragging them there with a combination of scoring, playmaking and defending similar to what Baron Davis gave them down the stretch in 2006-07.

But if the Warriors choose to give Jackson an extension in the next week, then there will be some serious explaining for Rowell to do — because such a move would represent the antithesis of every salary-related choice the Warriors have made since Oct. 31, 2005.

That was the day the Warriors handed a five-year, $45 million extension to Mike Dunleavy, a forward with three middling seasons under his belt, to cap a spending and trading spree of more than $300 million in which Golden State netted long-term rights to the services of Dunleavy, Davis, Derek Fisher, Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle and Jason Richardson.

However, after that well-compensated group led the franchise to another 38-44 season in 2005-06, Rowell ushered in a new era of fiscal responsibility. Underperforming players with oversized contracts — Fisher, Foyle, Murphy and Dunleavy — were traded or bought out. Richardson was dumped for draft pick Brandan Wright in part to help free up cash.

The idea was not just to stay under the…

Thanks to the efforts of Warriors assistant coach and video guru Travis Schlenk, I got a chance last night to watch a DVD of the team’s exhibition opener in New Orleans on Sunday.

My initial reaction? If this had been the regular season, it would not have been a three-point game. Instead, the Hornets would have won by 12-15. At least.

My second reaction? My God, where has the Warriors’ offense gone?

Without Baron Davis and Monta Ellis, Golden State no longer has a player who can be relied upon to take his man off the dribble with regularity. Remember the days of drive-and-kick fondly — you’re not going to see much of that until Ellis returns.

In the absence of those old standbys, the Warriors are going to be posting up far more than ever before in the previous two seasons. Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette, Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf all got their chances Sunday to turn their back on a defender — mainly in the mid-post range, 10-12 feet from the hoop — and try to force the defense to double-team, opening up shots for other players.

For some guys, such as Turiaf, things worked out great. He notched a team-high seven assists, as Adam Lauridsen pointed out, although the degree of difficulty on a few of those passes was not that high: three were simple handoffs out of the high post for 20-footers from players who were using Turiaf’s bulk to screen out their man.

The others were more demanding. One came on a pick-roll with Jackson that turned into a give-and-go; immediately after receiving the ball, Turiaf fed it back to Jackson for an open 18-footer. The remaining three were passes that rewarded teammates — specifically, Maggette, Harrington and Marco Belinelli — for their nice cuts to the rim.

But the absence of dribble penetration was stark, and it highlighted exactly why Anthony Randolph has jumped from 19-year-old know-nothing to possible rotation player. Randolph gobbles up territory on the move, and has enough handles to beat most 4s. One memorable possession: Randolph went up to collect a long offensive rebound, turned to face the hoop from 17 feet out, got David West to bite on an up-fake, and then needed just one dribble to get to the cup.

Unfortunately, the Hornets responded by having West use his superior bulk to pin Randolph 6 feet from the hoop on two of their next…