48minutes.net

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 — ended up buried. Williams is just the latest victim on Nelson’s discard list.

The coach has consistently derided Williams, even on the days when Williams played well in practice. A couple weeks ago, Williams was draining shots from all over the floor, busting up DeMarcus Nelson, and the coach responded with: “I don’t need him to score.”

OK, but — even though Williams has played poorly on defense — he’s the one healthy point guard on the roster who can fill some of the scoring void left by Baron Davis and Monta Ellis, so why not take advantage of his strengths? Isn’t that the point of Nellieball, to maximize and exploit mismatches?

When the Warriors made their best move of the past three years – the January 2007 trade of Murphy, Diogu, Mike Dunleavy and Keith McLeod to the Pacers for Jasikevicius, Harrington, Stephen Jackson and Josh Powell — it came about from the confluence of three competing drives:

** Rowell’s desire to shed the big-money extensions that were threatening to hamstring the team for years to come.

** Nelson’s instant dislike for most everything Murphy and Diogu did on the floor.

** Mullin’s ability to wamboozle Donnie Walsh into giving him two shorter, cheaper contracts — and two better players at the same time.

The whiplash nature of Marcus Williams’ tenure in Golden State is a sign that members of that triumvirate are now pulling in opposite directions. And that ever-so-brief dalliance with relevance?

Looks like it’s esta muerta.

– Geoff

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 luxury-tax threshold, but also to maintain maximum flexibility while doing it. No longer was the team willing to be locked into a bundle of long-term contracts that left it with no room to maneuver.

Free agents felt the squeeze as the team followed Rowell’s course: Mickael Pietrus and Matt Barnes were made to eat one-year deals before leaving for greener pastures. Andris Biedrins, who was signed to a six-year, $54 million deal this summer, had to wait a year to get his security after the Warriors tried to get him in 2007 for roughly $45 million over five years, according to sources at the time.

Most famously, Rowell was reportedly unwilling to commit a fully guaranteed $39 million to Davis for the three seasons after this one, prompting Davis to opt out of the final year of his deal and jump to the Clippers for a five-year, $65 million contract.

Basically, everyone had to earn their pay up until the moment they signed their deal. If Jackson gets three additional years while still having two on his current deal, that streak will be dead.

I asked Jackson earlier this week, why should you be the exception to the rule?

“Because I think I’ve proved myself since I’ve been here,” Jackson said. “For a perfect example: This team didn’t have a winning record until we got here. We didn’t make the playoffs in what, 12, 13 years? They didn’t have 48 wins in 13 years. So I think since I’ve been here, I helped turn this organization around. And I’m not saying I did it by myself, but I had a big part in it.

“I just think that I’m one of those guys that, if a guy deserves something, I think he should get it.”

Since arriving in Golden State, Jackson has rehabilitated his image, and in doing so, has become the Warriors’ ace in the hole, not just on the court, but from a public-relations perspective as well. Rowell is closer to Jackson than any other player in the locker room, and Jackson has more love for the Warriors — who provided support for Jackson’s recently opened charitable foundation — than he has had for any of his other NBA employers.

Maybe all those reasons, combined with Jackson’s play on the court, are important enough to convince the Warriors to set aside their guiding principle.

We’ll find out soon enough.

Contact: geofflepper@48minutes.net

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 three possessions, and Nelson pulled the rookie to prevent him from fouling out in 6 minutes or less.

POSITIVES:

** As he has in practice, Harrington looked good. He had a great swat from behind on Hilton Armstrong, moved his feet quickly enough to draw a charge on West.

** Turiaf was solid. As opposed to last season, when Nelson was often forced to play Harrington at center because the team was bereft of other options behind Biedrins (Adonal Foyle having been bought out and Patrick O’Bryant all but banished from participation), Turiaf should take care of that role easily.

** DeMarcus Nelson has no fear as a defender, stepping in the way of a flying Julian Wright to take a charge. He also made a great darting steal off a kick-out pass. Too bad that came immediately after he senselessly dribbled into a corner, got trapped by a double-team and threw the ball away. Don Nelson claims “I can put up with some deficiencies when a guy guards every game,” but DeMarcus may push that to the limit.

** Belinelli hit several open shots, something he didn’t do nearly enough of last season. If he can repeat that with regularity, he will find time on the floor.

NEGATIVES:

** Neither C.J. Watson nor Marcus Williams had a performance worth remembering at the defensive end. Both of them were torched repeatedly by Chris Paul (who looks like he won’t be denied the MVP award this season), which is somewhat understandable. However, Williams couldn’t come close to even slowing down Mike James, and that’s a very worrisome fact. Because of the Hornets’ ease of ball penetration, the Warriors had to do an awful lot of scrambling to try to recover defensively, affording New Orleans far too many easy looks.

** The Hornets were all over the Jackson-Biedrins screen-roll play. It worked the first time they ran it, and then got stopped cold the rest of the night. Given how important that’s been to the team in the last two years, that’s a bad sign.

** Davis may be gone, but the dribble-dribble-dribble-hoist-an-off-balance-20-footer play remains in full effect. There were way too many of those, especially from Jackson.

** The Warriors were credited with only 10 fast-break points, and even that felt like too many. Without Ellis to streak downcourt for uncontested layups and lacking Davis’ savvy in picking the most efficient option in transition, the break didn’t have much of a pulse.

Presumably, when matched up against a team without a first-team All-NBA point guard, the Warriors will force more turnovers, leading in turn to more fast-break opportunities. Golden State better hope so, because the half-court options are none too appetizing at the moment.

– Geoff