By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Don Nelson focused his (quite brief) post-game comments after Washington’s 118-109 win Friday night on how the Warriors couldn’t stop Gilbert Arenas, but frankly, as his own team has proven, one player often can’t win by himself, regardless of how good he is individually.

Case in point, obviously: Monta Ellis has quite simply played his ass off since Stephen Jackson left, and the Warriors have nothing left to show for it expect for fourth-place status in the John Wall Sweepstakes.

Did Arenas close out the game, scoring 10 of the Wizards’ 14 points in the final 5:13? Sure he did. But all Washington did in the fourth quarter was nurse home the seven-point lead they had brought into that period. And that lead was built on the back of Caron Butler straight-up abusing the smaller, weaker defenders Nelson kept throwing at him in an orgy of smallball fun.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I can’t decide which injury Monta Ellis’ stiff left ankle – which will keep him on the bench tonight in Los Angeles, as well as against Charlotte on Friday and Utah on Sunday – brings more readily to mind.

Is this like Baron Davis’ sprained ankle in 2005-06, when he ended up shutting it down for the remainder of the season?

Or is it like Jason Richardson’s arthroscopic knee surgery of the following season, when he ended up pushing too fast for a comeback and looked terrible — until a broken hand forced him to rest for several more weeks, and then he came on to play a huge role down the stretch?

Based on the Warriors’ record, the obvious answer is to treat Ellis’ setback as the former. He’s shown that he can at least take the floor, and occasionally reached for the level he was at last season – although it was only for a play or two a night, with two dozen instances of rust and regression for every highlight.

But everything hinges on the one thing Ellis has not shown much of: The ability to get lift off of that left leg.

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Something to tide you over from Tuesday’s practice while I work on a longer piece about the Warriors’ defensive rebounding problems. . .

** Despite the video evidence of his fairly obvious displeasure concerning (and vocal reaction to) a pair of mistakes made by forward Brandan Wright in the third quarter of the Warriors’ 112-102 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder, Golden State coach Don Nelson said the performance of his second-year forward made him “happy.”

Here’s a transcript of the relevant portion of the post-practice gaggle:

Q: After you took him out in the third, he never did make a return.

A: There were five guys on the floor at all times.

Q: Did you think at all about bringing him back in the fourth when things got tighter?

A: Possibly. Do I have to tell you what I’m thinking all the time?

Q: I’m asking about one specific guy.

A: Of course. He’s sitting down there. Of course he’s an option that I have.

Q: He had two errors just before getting pulled that, based on the TV broadcast, you weren’t happy about–

A: I was happy with his performance. Everybody’s going to make errors. I thought it was one of his better performances, the first half.

** C.J. Watson plans to slowly start weaning himself off the brace he’s worn for more than month to help stabilize a torn ligament in his right elbow. He’ll take it off some in practices, although he still plans on wearing it in games for the foreseeable future, a more low-key version of Detroit’s Richard Hamilton, who continues to wear a clear plastic face mask long after his broken nose has healed.

“I’m going to . . . keep playing with it in games because I’m used to it right now,” Watson said. “My arm’s not really healed yet.”

In fact, Watson said it would still be a month or two before the ligament is fully repaired.

** I asked Nelson, in light of his pronouncement that the Warriors weren’t playoff material, what he’d say to fans who feel the team should therefore tank the season.

He didn’t want to play along, however: “I’ve already made that statement. I’m not going to talk about it anymore.”

– Geoff

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

My take hasn’t changed from what I wrote several weeks ago on the subject of Stephen Jackson’s extension with the Warriors, which after weeks in the works was finally signed Monday.

In terms of pure production, Jackson deserves to be the highest-paid player on this team (or perhaps second-highest, if Monta Ellis had kept himself healthy). It’s almost an insult that he’s slated to pull down the fifth-highest salary this season behind Ellis, Al Harrington, Andris Biedrins and Corey Maggette.

But by extending Jackson now, the Warriors are tossing aside their previously iron-clad rules of dealing with a player only when the team has used up all of its possible leverage. I’ll be fascinated to hear the explanation for this exception, if any is forthcoming on the matter.

One interesting note: Jackson told me a couple weeks back that he wasn’t asking for the max, but the reported numbers — three years for $28 million — don’t reflect any money left on the table. The most the Warriors are allowed to give Jackson under the Collective Bargaining Agreement is $27.8 million — $8.45 million in 2010-11, $9.26 million in 2011-12 and $10.06 million in 2012-13.

Outside of the reasoning for why the Warriors would break with their own philosophy, here’s the biggest question: How will the signing impact the Warriors in the summer of 2010, when a whole raft of top-notch free agents is scheduled to flood the market?

There is no real hope that a player with the stature of LeBron James will be willing to come to Oakland when the lights of New York are beckoning to him. But having maneuverability in that timeframe — when teams will potentially be looking to offload players in order to make a run at UFAs such as Paul Pierce, Jason Richardson, Josh Howard, Dirk Nowitzki, Tayshaun Prince, Yao Ming, Kobe Bryant, Michael Redd, Amare Stoudemire, Tony Parker, Chris Bosh or Caron Butler — would afford a franchise the opportunity to recast its core, if that was deemed necessary.

With Jackson in the fold, the Warriors are set to spend $51.5 million in 2010-11 for an eight-man core of Jackson, Ellis, Biedrins, Maggette, Kelenna Azubuike, Ronny Turiaf, Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph.

Based on the trend line of the last few years, my guesstimate of the 2010-11 cap number would be roughly $64 million. (That’s assuming the league’s revenue total continues to ramp up, which is probably on…