By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

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

BLOGOSPHERE

Talking Points/San Jose Mercury News (Tim Kawakami): Setting the stage for Thursday’s potential showdown between Jeff Fried, Monta Ellis’ agent, and Warriors brass.

(Perhaps the NBA can hold a special “non-expansion dispersal” draft next summer to help the Warriors out after they sell off everything of value.)

Inside The Warriors/Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): This was from Monday, before Tim’s post, but now serves to amplify the depths of Ellis’ frustration.

Plus: Wrapup from the Cavaliers game.

Fast Break/San Jose Mercury News (Adam Lauridsen): Taking Ellis to task for not being willing to fill the void left behind by Stephen Jackson’s departure.

I don’t share his optimism, but Adam likes what he saw from the Jackson-less Warriors against Cleveland on Tuesday.

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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

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

WEB MEDIA

CBSSports.com (Ken Berger): The big winner of the day in the “Destined-To-Be-The-Most-Talked-About-Warriors-Story” sweepstakes. Now, a couple of points:

1) I don’t necessarily put a huge amount of stock into “a high-level coaching source” — the one that said Nelson could become a consultant, with Keith Smart taking over as head coach “by next week” — because there’s no indication of how connected this person is with what’s going on at 1011 Broadway. Kicking Nelson upstairs would mean kicking away roughly $10 million, and it’s hard to believe that Chris Cohan and Bobby Rowell are willing to eat that slice of humble pie. I will say that it’s been well known for a long time that Nelson wants to live out his days with such a consultancy in his pocket, to be the retired Don Corleone figure to some organization. It’s what he planned for in Dallas, before the fallout with Mark Cuban, and what he wants in Golden State.

2) I put a lot more stock into the anonymous source Berger quotes as saying “(Nelson) wants Monta out.” You can’t put guys on the block in this league without word getting around, and quickly. So I definitely can see heat to that fire.

3) “Rowell tries to be their friend, and they laugh at him.” No explanation necessary.

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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

San Francisco Chronicle (Rusty Simmons): Not much different than his earlier blog post immediately after the Ellis-Nelson confrontation. Apparently, Ellis didn’t get his ankles taped at the hotel, and therefore missed the start of practice, drawing Nelson’s ire. Or some such thing.

Contra Costa Times (Marcus Thompson II): More from the RSC. The money quote for me is the last one, where Nelson tries to absolve himself of all blame: “If you want to be any good, you’ve got to have good chemistry. … The coach can help when the players are willing.”

New York Post (Peter Vecsey): Mostly, it’s a column about Byron Scott’s ouster in New Orleans, but it includes this hilarious quote from Al Harrington: “Had I stayed with the Warriors any longer I felt for sure (Nelson) would have ended my NBA career.” Yikes.

(A Byron Scott aside: Did you see Baron Davis’ Tweet about the coach he battled with repeatedly before finally getting traded to Golden State? “B. Scott got fired… Sad to see that happen! Good Coach!” Talk about your BS for B.S.)

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

I thought I would link to my own column over at Comcast Bay Area’s site — CSNBayArea.com — discussing the fine line Stephen Curry has to walk as a rookie PG on an NBA team with some established veterans.

[Brief CSNBayArea.com tangent: You can find fresh columns there all week, from folks such as myself, Ann Killion (late of the San Jose Mercury News), Michelle Smith (late of the San Francisco Chronicle) and Dave Albee (late of the Marin Independent Journal). End of pimpage.]

There were a few observations that didn’t fit into the flow of the column which I thought I’d note here.

First things first: Curry gets it. He knows exactly what’s going on, sees the “I’m getting mine” attitude that pervaded the first couple of games — exacerbated by the Warriors’ over-reliance on one-on-one play — and how it’s totally anathematic to any consistent ball movement.

This is not a new problem, obviously. Golden State was 29th last season in AST/FG ratio. Only the Grizzlies were more parsimonious in helping one another — which makes Memphis’ signing of Allen Iverson even more hilarious.

It’s also interesting to note the one play that, for me, stood out the most from Monday’s practice.

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