| Will There Be Enough Minutes? Authored by Payam Jahromi - July 11, 2005 - 2:05 am
If the Warriors don’t make any moves this off-season, they’re looking at a team that is two deep at every position, possibly creating a problem for coach Mike Montgomery.
It’s a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. The Warriors are a predominantly young roster, and these kids are playing for more minutes and future contracts. It’s a potentially dangerous combination.
I know it’s early and I know injuries are inevitable, but this has been an issue the past several years. If your eighth, ninth and tenth players were veterans who didn’t expect much playing time, that’s one thing.
But that’s not the case here. Last year, backups Mickael Pietrus, Zarko Cabarkapa and Andris Biedrins showed outstanding potential off the bench but didn’t always get the minutes needed to develop. This year, or at least right now, the same problem exists except you can now add Ike Diogu to that mix.
Let’s take a quick peak at the roster. The starters are Baron Davis, Jason Richardson, Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy and Adonal Foyle. They should get their minutes. Foyle is the only one who will have his minutes cut if he’s not producing.
On the bench, you have Pietrus, Cabarkapa, Biedrins, Derek Fisher, and Diogu. That’s 10 players who need minutes, and I’m not even counting Chris Taft or Monta Ellis.
In theory, it sounds real good to be 10 deep with talent. But in reality, this theory doesn’t work. Memphis has found that out in recent years, and Portland found this out in the ‘90s.
If you look at this year’s finalists, the Spurs and Pistons were both 7-8 deep, as were most elite teams over the past couple decades.
Think about how the average person performs at his/her job. One would perform better if he didn’t have somebody looking to take his job and responsibilities. If he knew exactly what was expected of him and he had the job security, he would naturally perform better.
Same goes in the NBA. Basketball players are human beings too. When players know they are going to get a certain number of minutes game in and game out, they play better. It’s not rocket science. It’s human nature.
Another potential problem with this deep roster is the lack of a true backup point guard. Fisher is that guy, but he’s not a real table setter. The Warriors are one Baron Davis injury away from having a bunch of talented guys with no direction.
So how do you solve these problems? That’s not as easy to answer as it is to ask. Chris Mullin has done a nice job of acquiring talent. Now he has to make it work in terms of wins and losses.
As a fan, it’s easy to sit back and say “Why don’t they just trade three players for Jermaine O’Neal?” That sounds great, but it takes two teams to make a trade.
Those deals just aren’t there in the summer. At the trade deadline, those trades are more common (see the Baron Davis and Chris Webber trades from last year).
Injuries will happen and it’s not reasonable to think the team will be healthy all year, but unless there are at least three simultaneous injuries, this roster will face a problem with minutes.
The good news is that it’s July and the player movement moratorium will be lifted later this month. Nobody is predicting the Warriors to do much this summer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re involved in a trade or two.
You can reach me at pjahromi@sbcglobal.net |
