By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

Turns out that changing course with an NBA team in the middle of a season is not all that simple.

After the Warriors’ 119-108 defeat to the Houston Rockets on Friday — a game in which Golden State shot just 37.2 percent through three quarters, 40.2 overall — it’s easy for fans to say, “Look, the ball movement experiment failed.”

But in addition to just plain bad luck — such as Stephen Jackson’s missed dunk attempt — there were plenty of instances of Warriors pulling up for jumpers that clanged off the iron without the benefit of a pass to set up the shooter.

In the first 8 1/2 minutes alone, Jackson, C.J. Watson, Kelenna Azubuike (twice) and Jamal Crawford (twice) were all guilty of such infractions. Five of those six shots were misses; the only make was when Azubuike ducked behind a ball screen from Andris Biedrins and knocked down a fading 17-footer.

There were some positives: Several Warriors were aggressively using up-fakes to get past their man at the 3-point line — a place the Warriors, the NBA’s next-to-worst 3-point shooting team (30.3 percent), shouldn’t be firing from — and then stepping in for open 15- to 18-footers.

And kick-out passes made a reappearance, including a couple from Azubuike, who tied his season-high with four assists (a level he hadn’t reached in more than a month).

** The absences of Brandan Wright, Ronny Turiaf and Corey Maggette forced Jackson into spending 31 minutes at power forward, which was doubly damaging to the Warriors: Their best individual defender was relatively wasted shadowing Luis Scola while a rookie (Anthony Morrow) was tasked with shutting down Tracy McGrady. When you include the fact that Jackson is possibly the worst rebounding 4 in NBA history, you can see why it’s a problem.

** I will say this for Jackson at 4: He made some superb rotations defensively, including the first-quarter play to draw a charge on Yao Ming. The rest of the team was nowhere near as successful. Even when one player would make the right move — such as when Marco Belinelli came across the lane to shut down a drive by Luther Head, who had gotten past Jackson on a screen-roll play — a teammate would fail to make the next necessary rotation — i.e., Crawford not sliding down to the baseline to cover Shane Battier, who drained an open 12-footer.

** Crawford still needs to…

Tim Kawakami posted a nice analysis of Golden State’s defense — or lack thereof — and to amplify his point, I thought I’d highlight a couple of first-quarter plays from the Warriors’ 131-112 loss to Houston on Friday that illustrate the woeful nature of “defense” they’re playing right now.

With 8:15 remaining, the Rockets’ Rafer Alston elevated for a 17-footer over Jamal Crawford, top key left.

While the ball was in midair, Crawford floated out towards the 3-point line on the Rockets’ left wing (presumably in anticipation of an outlet pass) and Corey Maggette, who was responsible for Shane Battier, drifted all the way in from the 3-point line on the right side (where Battier was stationed) and got to within 8 feet of the hoop.

Neither of them gave a thought to boxing out Rockets center Yao Ming, who stood unmarked at the free-throw line, in perfect position to collect the (unsurprisingly) long rebound and feed it to Battier for a 3-pointer that Maggette couldn’t be bothered to contest.

The, in the final minute of the period, the Rockets set up a simple screen-roll on the right wing, with Ron Artest setting a pick on the inside of Crawford. From the broadcast, it didn’t look like there was much contact, if any, between Crawford and Artest. But it was enough of separation to allow Von Wafer to roll unimpeded to a 10-foot floater over Andris Biedrins, with Crawford trailing ineffectually behind.

It wasn’t so much the fact that the Warriors were out of position, or unable to counter what the Rockets wanted to do offensively. What was disturbing was the fact that, in both instances, neither player seemed to care enough to make a noticeable effort.

We’ll see if that changes in San Antonio tonight.

– Geoff

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

There’s been a fair amount of statistical data collected that shows the Warriors have fared better in the short stints where they’ve played their two centers, Andris Biedrins and Ronny Turiaf, together on the floor.

That’s why, in Golden State’s 131-112 loss to Houston on Friday, Rockets center Yao Ming tried to break that pair up as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, Turiaf helped Yao push him to the six-foul limit.

Turiaf lasted only 22 minutes, and Biedrins 32, before they both fouled out. In the 17 minutes and 35 seconds Biedrins and Turiaf were able to team up, the Warriors outscored the Rockets, 39-34. In the remaining 30:25, Houston topped Golden State, 97-73.

Warriors coach Don Nelson made clear earlier in the week that he wanted to use Biedrins (who is not very effective when giving up a large weight difference) on Yao only as a last resort. So it was no shock that Turiaf earned his second start of the season and drew the unenviable duty of serving as Yao’s speed bump.

But the fact that Turiaf had five fouls in the first half — and was done for the night with 21:30 still to play — was not entirely attributable to the bulk of Yao. Some of it was Turiaf — who averages 5.7 fouls per 36 minutes over the course of his NBA career — not being able to contain himself.

Here’s a breakdown of Turiaf’s six infractions:

First quarter, 6:08 remaining: Turiaf defending on the right block behind Yao, who takes an entry pass from Rafer Alston. Corey Maggette and Stephen Jackson both come on a double/triple, but Turiaf it whistled for bodying up too hard.

First, 1:49: Alston loops around the backside of an inattentive Jamal Crawford to steal the ball, setting off a 3-on-2 break with Crawford and Turiaf as the defenders. Turiaf fouls Carl Landry on the trial layup try.

Second, 7:54: Von Wafer rebounds Crawford’s missed 3 from the left corner and dribbles into the frontcourt. With Crawford (who toppled backwards into the Warriors bench after the miss) late getting into the play, no one steps up to stop the ball and Wafer slices straight down the middle of the lane. Turiaf eaches in with a no-hope swipe at the ball and gets caught. Turiaf was pulled at that point, but came back in after a rest of only 2:15.

Second, 3:00: This was probably the one foul Turiaf could most legitimately complain…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — After joining his teammates for the final 15 minutes’ worth of scrimmaging on Thursday, Warriors swingman Kelenna Azubuike is expected to play Friday against the Houston Rockets.

“It’s still a little tender, but it’ll be alright,” Azubuike said of his sprained left ankle, which had sidelined him since Saturday.

Azubuike said the ankle is probably 80 percent of full strength. It troubles him more going side to side than it does going up and down the floor.

“I thought he looked OK, for being out and not being on the floor for a while,” Warriors coach Don Nelson said. “It’s good to see him back out there.”

Azubuike’s return gives Nelson plenty of options in terms of potential starting lineups. The coach has started 10 different players currently on the roster at one time or another, and all of them are now (for the most part, at least) healthy.

One thing you shouldn’t expect to see, however, is the sight of Corey Maggette filling Al Harrington’s role as an undersized center nipping at Yao Ming’s size-18 heels.

“At the 5?” Nelson said of Maggette. “He’s got enough trouble playing 4.”

Nelson used Harrington to great effect against the Rockets over the last couple of years, forcing Yao into the uncomfortable role of chasing a 3-point shooter rather than staying home in the lane. Harrington made the plan work defensively by being able to front Yao, with a double team coming any time Houston threw over the top.

At 6-10 and with enough heft not to get pushed over by Yao, Harrington was able to force Houston’s entry passes so high that it gave help defenders adequate time to shut down Yao’s route to the basket or go for a steal. At 6-6, Maggette probably wouldn’t be able to emulate that success, meaning that the Rockets would be able to get the ball to Yao much more quickly, thus negating any help Nelson gave Maggette.

In other words: How does one say “dunk-a-thon” in Mandarin?

“I can’t,” Nelson said of recreating a Harrington-style lineup against Yao. “I can’t do that. I don’t have the personnel. You have to have a unique kind of player who’s quick and can front and make Yao play some guessing games.”

Besides, there were signs that the gambit of fronting Yao was beginning to wear thin, even before Harrington’s departure last month. After averaging 12.3 points and 9.0 rebounds in his first three…

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…