OAKLAND — Warriors coach Don Nelson said Tuesday that the team will be extending another 10-day contract to second-year forward Jermareo Davidson.

Davidson, who was originally signed on Jan. 5 from the Idaho Stampede of the NBA Developmental League, has played in one game so far, getting 4-plus scoreless minutes against Portland on Saturday with one turnover and one missed shot.

With Brandan Wright expected to miss the remainder of the month, at least, due to his partially dislocated left shoulder, a second 10-day for Davidson was no real surprise. The key decision will come on Jan. 25, when the Warriors have to either guarantee Davidson a deal worth roughly $350,000 (the pro-rated portion of the minimum $711,517 due to a second-year player) or cut him loose.

– Geoff

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Warriors guard Monta Ellis participated Tuesday in his first 5-on-5 drills of the season, mostly of the half-court variety. And with the team announcing that Marco Belinelli would miss 10 days, at a minimum, because of his badly sprained right ankle, the idea of seeing Ellis get on the court must be growing that much more alluring.

Ellis played on the White team (the reserves), in a small ball lineup alongside C.J. Watson, Marcus Williams (back from the flu), Jermareo Davidson and Rob Kurz. Ellis still wasn’t going 100 percent — this was the portion of practice where the Warriors work on individual sets, so it was a clear step down from the level of effort in a full-court scrimmage — but it is the closest he’s come to full-speed work since tearing up his left ankle in an August moped accident.

Ellis guarded Corey Maggette at the 3, and his mid-range jumper looked as smooth as ever as he dropped it in from 18 feet over Jamal Crawford and Anthony Morrow.

On the occasions when the teams would sprint downcourt (which would happen after the defense came up with a stop and a defensive board), Ellis often remained in the middle of the pack. But there were flashes of the player who was one of the two biggest reasons behind Golden State’s 48 wins last season. . .

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

With Brandan Wright set to miss a minimum of three weeks because of a posterior dislocation of his left shoulder, the Warriors might want to think about adopting the Clash’s “Clampdown” as their new theme song.

After all, Joe Strummer hits it on the head with his opening line:

What are we gonna do now?

There aren’t a bevy of options for Warriors coach Don Nelson to select from, and the ones he does have hold little appeal, as a group. Since I had all the lineup data already in the computer, I thought I’d sort through and do a +/- breakdown for the Warriors based solely on who’s filling the 4 spot defensively:

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Get ready for the Monta Ellis Watch to kick into high gear.

Warriors coach Don Nelson said Tuesday that Ellis is “chomping at the bit” to get back on the court with his teammates, and that the fourth-year guard would have been playing weeks ago if it were up to him alone. Ellis has missed the season’s initial 36 games while recovering from an ankle injury incurred while riding a moped during the summer in violation of his freshly minted six-year, $66 million contract.

“He wants to play, and we’re being very conservative with him. But he’s getting close to having a practice,” Nelson said. “He feels he’s ready. And I think you treat the patient; the patient is the guy who knows more than anybody, but we want to make a good decision here and not hurry him back too fast. . . .

“If we’d have rushed him back, he’d have been playing two weeks ago, because he wanted to play. But we felt that we better be conservative.”

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

The frontline void for the Warriors is kind of like the U.S. school system: You can throw however much money and manpower you want at it, and it just doesn’t seem to make a whit of difference.

The latest attempt to stem this tide is Jermareo Davidson, who was originally selected 36th overall in the 2007 draft by the Warriors but was traded before the night was out to the Charlotte Bobcats, along with Jason Richardson, for Brandan Wright.

Davidson, brought in today on a 10-day contract, essentially replaces Richard Hendrix, who was cut loose on Dec. 18 when Monta Ellis had to be transferred back from the suspended list to the inactive squad. It’s a funny coincidence, since they played together at Alabama for two seasons and were the two leading scorers on the Tide’s 2006-07 team. Here are the stats from that season (and remember that Hendrix was a sophomore, while Davidson was a senior):

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