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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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

According to Chris Broussard over at ESPN.com, the Warriors’ one-game experiment with starting Ronny Turiaf at power forward is over, with Anthony Randolph set to move into the lineup tonight in Phoenix.

Somebody cue Jim Nabors, and be sure to employ the “sarcasm” HTML tag:

Surprise, surprise, surprise!

Don Nelson used Turiaf on Wednesday because the Rockets were a small, depleted team that looked like a good matchup. It didn’t turn out to be so, but even if it had, Turiaf would still be heading back to the bench, for a multitude of different reasons. The biggest is this one: With Amare Stoudemire and Channing Frye, the Suns have two legitimate big men on the floor, negating any perceived matchup advantage Golden State might get with a Turiaf-Andris Biedrins combination at the start.

Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Nelson puts Corey Maggette into the lineup for Game 3 against Memphis next Wednesday, looking to create a mismatch with either Marc Gasol or Zach Randolph.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Warriors coach Don Nelson said Wednesday that he wants to treat tonight’s exhibition finale against the New Orleans Hornets as if it were a regular-season game, with a typical rotation and a closing lineup meant to procure a win.

So when Nelson listed his expected starting lineup — which already featured Corey Maggette in place of the injured Anthony Randolph — it came as a bit of a shock when C.J. Watson was the first name out of his mouth.

C.J. Watson? A guy who strained the medial collateral ligament in his right knee three weeks ago? Really? Over a healthy Anthony Morrow, who’s been the Warriors’ best player in this exhibition season? Over a healthy Stephen Curry, who is already after three weeks as a pro Golden State’s best facilitator of ball movement?

Sure. This is Don Nelson, after all, whose motivational techniques never lack for bluntness. (Recall the Rob Kurz-over-Randolph situation early last season.)

I think there’s a two-fold dynamic in play here. Watson said Wednesday that his right knee is only back to 75 or 80 percent of full strength, and he’s logged less than 100 minutes of play in three exhibition games this season, so there’s a question of conditioning and using the last chance to really get Watson back into game shape.

There’s also certainly a component meant to keep expectations for Curry from getting out of control. There are going to be struggles for any rookie point guard, no matter how highly prized he may be — Steve Nash, for example, shot 42.3 percent from the floor as a backup to Jason Kidd in 1996-97, and committed a turnover just less than once in every four plays.

So to throw Curry out there on Opening Night as a starter, alongside Monta Ellis and (if Randolph still isn’t ready) Maggette in a lineup that will get slaughtered defensively, may not be the wisest course of action.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Gilbert Arenas can’t talk enough for the NBA’s liking. I’m betting that Stephen Jackson is talking way too much.

Arenas was fined $25,000 Tuesday by the league in response to avoiding two weeks of interview requests. (And when he did finally speak Wednesday, it wasn’t to say much.)

After a second consecutive day of musings and ruminations without much heed to ramifications, can Jackson’s second league fine of the season be that far off?

Twenty-four hours after renouncing his captaincy, Jackson took the opportunity Wednesday to expand the circle of blame for his L.A. meltdown, lumping the teammates who didn’t ride to his rescue in with coach Don Nelson.

(We’re not even going to delve into the ridiculous notion floated by Jackson, that he’s as good as Kobe Bryant.)

“Nobody reacted but me so the team didn’t have a reaction,” Jackson said of his five-fouls-in-10-minutes Friday. “It was only me standing up for myself. I don’t think anybody else stood up for me. But if the shoe was on the other foot, I would have stood up for somebody on my team. And they didn’t do the same for me.”

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I didn’t want this to get lost in the Morning Report shuffle. On the heels of Adrian Wojnarowski’s complete evisceration of Chris Cohan on Yahoo! Sports earlier this week, Tim Kawakami provides the second must-read piece for every Warrior fan:

Robert Rowell’s 25 fire-able offenses as Warriors colossus

– Geoff