By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

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Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Eons from now, when they sing songs of the Warriors’ greatness in Valhalla, the Ballad of Raja Bell will ring forth and be heard.

(Of course, that’s not going to help Golden State in the here and now, as Bell is still set to undergo wrist surgery that probably, knowing this club’s luck, will cost him the rest of his season.)
Also: Ronny Turiaf’s bad knee would be in great shape if only the NBA were played on a straight line, kind of like this game.

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Everybody feels good about losing because they’re close losses. We’ll see how long that lasts.

WEB MEDIA

NBA.com (Couper Moorhead): Kevin Garnett tries his hand at creating his own Yogism: “Nellieball is something different. It’s always been effective when it worked.”

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Your daily guided tour through the national and local media coverage of the always-entertaining Golden State Warriors.

PRINT MEDIA
Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): Brandon Jennings’ double-nickel forces a retraction from Stephen Jackson (no, not on the topic of being traded): “I take my words back about Tyreke Evans being rookie of the year. I think Brandon Jennings definitely has that locked up.”

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Don Nelson flatly refutes Ken Berger’s CBSSports.com story from Friday that he’s going to be consulting in a week’s time. Oh, and Stephen Jackson is not exactly pleased at being a bit player in the Warriors’ final real possession: “All I know is that I’m one of the best scorers on the team, and I was taking the ball out. That’s all I know. My job was to pass the ball inbounds.”

Dime: The Warriors dominate the daily “Smack” feature. Just not in the way you want to. “(I)f Monta Ellis was worried about he and Stephen Curry getting lit up by bigger guards, what did he think about skinny 6-1 Young Money carving ‘em up like Manny Pacquiao did Miguel Cotto?”
Hey, at least Curry is still prettier than Cotto.

Santa Rosa Press Democrat (Lowell Cohn): Don Nelson never offered me a watch. Truthfully, I’m a little bitter about that.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

The 2009 NBA draft is already destined to go down as the Year of the Point Guard. In much the same way the 1983 NFL draft was headlined by John Elway, Jim Kelly and Dan Marino (among six first-round QBs), this year’s crop of fresh basketball talent skewed heavily to the point; 10 of the first 21 selections, in fact.

The Warriors were obviously ecstatic on draft day to find Stephen Curry falling into their laps at No. 7.

But will they eventually regret passing on the chance to grab Brandon Jennings?

After a week, Jennings — selected 10th by the Milwaukee Bucks — has established himself as the (very) early leader in Rookie of the Year race, averaging 22.0 points (on 48.1 FG%, 50.0 3FG%), 5.3 assists and 1.7 steals through three games.

When Jennings worked out for the Warriors, the consensus jibed with that of most scouts: terrific passing skills, arguably the best pure PG in the draft, but hampered by a weak jump shot. That’s why Curry ranked so much higher in the estimation of most teams and certainly in that of the Warriors.

So far, though, Jennings is 15-31 on shots outside of 16 feet, according to NBA’s Hot Zones data. And his toughness — perhaps a byproduct of his year spent in Europe, where he went after his academic eligibility at Arizona was cast into limbo because of poor test scores — was on display in the final minute of the Bucks’ 83-81 loss to the Bulls on Tuesday.

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