By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Warriors center Ronny Turiaf has an easy fix for Golden State’s problems when it comes to securing defensive rebounds:

“Plain and simple, go get the ball,” Turiaf said. “That’s it.”

Except that hasn’t been it, of course. Not by a long shot.

Including last night’s horrific 20-offensive rebound performance for the Indiana Pacers in their 127-210 victory, Golden State has chalked up a defensive rebound rate (DRR) of just 67.0 percent through its first 26 games.

The DRR — a team’s defensive boards divided by the sum of a team’s defensive boards and the opponents’ offensive rebounds — is a rough ratio of how many defensive rebounds a team gets (it doesn’t include team boards, so it’s not as exact as you would want).

At 67.0, Golden State ranks last in the NBA by a wide, wide margin. There’s a chart to illustrate that point below, but here’s some specifics as well: The Kings are 29th in the league at 70.5 percent and the league average is 73.1. The top-ranked Spurs are at 77.8.

Consider: Even if the Warriors closed half the gap between their DRR and the league average . . . they’d still be the league’s worst, at 70.05. So the data begs the question:

How bad are the Warriors, historically speaking?

Well, how about this: They’re the second-worst defensive rebounding team this century.

OK, I realize the 21st century is only in its ninth year, but still, the last time a team posted a DRR lower than 67.0 was in 1999-2000, when the Dallas Mavericks — put together and coached by familiar, white-haired adherent of small ball by the name of Don Nelson — pulled down 66.1 percent of their opportunities.

In an attempt to solve that team’s failings — both on the floor and at the ticket office — Nelson and new Mavericks owner Mark Cuban brought in a 38-year-old Dennis Rodman. Though the Worm helped somewhat — Dallas’ DRR in 12 games with him was about 3.5 points better than in the 70 without — it wasn’t enough to make it worth dealing with his particular brand of crazy.

I’m sure that Rodman would be game to pull down more NBA coin, but let’s assume for the moment that a washed-up, 47-year-old ex-husband to Carmen Electra isn’t the answer for Nelson & Co. this time around.

What can the Warriors do to solve this problem, which keeps biting them at critical junctures (such as the…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Like Goldilocks, the Warriors tried three different types of lineups Sunday. Only one was just right — but it wasn’t the one that ended up on the floor in the final minutes of Golden State’s 89-81 loss to the 76ers.

The small ball attack that Don Nelson has been favoring lately — starring Corey Maggette at power forward — fell behind by eight points in as many minutes. The group one step up, with either Ronny Turiaf or Anthony Randolph on the floor as a legitimate power forward, couldn’t keep the Warriors from falling 17 points back.

But when Nelson put together a frontcourt consisting of Turiaf at 5, Brandan Wright at 4 and Randolph at 3, with 1:49 remaining in the third quarter, he had finally found a group that was capable of putting together defensive stops in bunches. That trio — along with Stephen Jackson and (mostly) Anthony Morrow — took over what had been a 72-58 deficit and turned it into an 80-78 game with 4:26 left.

Even Maggette admitted it after the game: “I think we should have gone bigger earlier.”

The largest group made a difference through its defense; the 76ers, who were on pace to score 102 points before Golden State went tall, shot 3-for-18 during that stretch.

Turiaf’s ability to jump the pick-and-rolls that had been plaguing the Warriors earlier in the game was a huge benefit, as was the shot-blocking of Turiaf (who had two of his five in this stretch) and Wright (who had two but was only credited with one). And Randolph’s long arms turned Andre Iguodala’s jumpers into adventures.

“It’s good because we all have long arms, and we all like to box out and play defense,” Turiaf said. “I think the other guys know that. We’re trying to protect the paint.”

That the protection didn’t extend to the final stretch was due in part to the youngsters’ mistakes at the other end of the floor. Randolph and Wright combined for three turnovers in their last six possessions together. That included a wildly optimistic one-handed, 50-foot skip pass from Randolph that skittered out of bounds, and a travel on Wright with 4:26 remaining when he was caught by 76ers point guard Andre Miller and forced into a travel while trying to push the ball upcourt.

Nelson brought Kelenna Azubuike back in at that point, replacing Randolph. The 76ers went 3-for-5 the rest of the way…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — If 3-pointers represent the fast food of NBA offenses, then last season’s Warriors were, collectively speaking, a cholesterol-choked, fat-filled heart attack waiting to happen.

Golden State’s gunners jacked up 2,185 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc in 2007-08, establishing a new all-time NBA single-season record in the process. The total would have probably been even higher if they hadn’t made a draft-day deal that sent Jason Richardson to Charlotte — where he launched 599 treys for the Bobcats, tops in the league.

This season, the Warriors’ attack looks like it’s on a double-strength regimen of Lipitor. And it’s Dr. Don Nelson who’s writing that prescription.

“Hopefully, (the 3-pointer) won’t be as big a weapon,” Nelson said. “I thought we fell in love too much with the 3 last year occasionally. The guys that can shoot it, when they’re open, they have a green light when they have a rhythm shot, but we’re not going to set up plays for it.”

Golden State – which has led the NBA for two years running in 3-point attempts — ranked eighth among NBA teams in terms of 3-point shots taken during this year’s preseason, more than 50 percent behind the league-leading Knicks of Mike D’Antoni.

Where the ‘07-08 team counted six legitimate 3-point threats among its eight regular rotation players, this year’s edition has only five in the top nine. And that math is misleadingly close, because this year’s crop of shooters includes Al Harrington (who detested his niche as a 3-point-shooting big man last season), Corey Maggette (who said Monday that he would rather drive than hoist from distance), and C.J. Watson (who’s taken all of 26 treys in his NBA career).

That leaves just Stephen Jackson and Kelenna Azubuike to uphold the traditions of the NBA’s most prolific long-range squad, which lost Baron Davis (525 3-point attempts last season), Matt Barnes (181) and Mickael Pietrus (182) this summer.

“I’m not really thinking about it like, ‘We lost a bunch of (guys who shot) 3s, so I’ve got to get some more 3s up,’” Azubuike said. “I feel like we can score in different ways. I feel like I can score in different ways. I don’t have to shoot 3s all the time. . . . Make the right play, take the right shot. Don’t force a 3 because you feel we need to get some up.”

Having taken a big jump to a career high…

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…

Thoughts from the Warriors’ 98-94 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in Guangzhou, China early Wednesday morning (thank you, TiVo).

** I would love to ask what the hell was going on with the Warriors’ final inbounds play, when they were down by four three points (EDIT: It seemed they were down three points. Apparently, the scorekeeping was so faulty that they were actually down four) with 1.8 seconds remaining. For those who didn’t see it: DeMarcus Nelson took the ball out of bounds deep on the left wing, near the mid-court line. Marco Belinelli came from below the hoop, curled around the top of the key and headed away from Nelson, hoping to catch a long lob from Nelson and fire up a game-tying shot. Except Belinelli was looking over his right shoulder for the ball and Nelson threw it over his left, where it bounced and skittered out of bounds on the opposite sideline.

** Nelson looked OK at point guard on the break (he had one very nice drive and kick out to an open Corey Maggette, who missed from the right corner) or in scramble situations (he grabbed an offensive rebound, cruised into the lane and fired a bullet to Kelenna Azubuike for an open layup) but had a pretty rough time running the half-court sets and was not very effective on screen-rolls. Whatever scoring he’s going to do will come in transition or from breaking down his man.

** Maggette really has fantastic body control. He’s able to pivot away from an attempted charge, create glancing contact for a blocking foul and still have the momentum to get off a decent shot attempt. I haven’t heard much one way or the other about Maggette’s rep in the Warriors’ locker room, but if he’s such a cancer (per his L.A. reputation), why was he working so hard to give Azubuike some last-second advice before the Warriors’ final play?

** Solid game for Azubuike, coming back from the sore hip. He looked even better compared to Belinelli’s diffident outing.

** Not a good night for Dan Dickau, who started the second half. He lasted only 3:13 before being yanked, never to be seen again, and here were the final four possessions with him on the court:

Ill-advised corner-to-corner pass by Dickau, meant for Belinelli but easily picked off by a lurking Luc Mbah a Moute;
Luke Ridnour drive right past Dickau for a running 12-footer;
Maggette miss;
Ridnour again…