| False Hope For The Warriors? Authored by Payam Jahromi - October 20, 2006 - 1:12 pm
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I learned my lesson last year, when they broke many hearts. Going into last season, the theme was playoffs or bust. Not only did they miss the playoffs, but they weren’t even close.
Coming off a 34-48 year, the Warriors parted ways with Mike Montgomery, brought Don Nelson back, and it’s obvious this will be a different team in 2006-07. May not be a better team, but definitely different.
Nellie announced that Troy Murphy will be the starting center, Mike Dunleavy at power forward and Mickael Pietrus at small forward. Not only is Adonal Foyle no longer starting, but his new nickname should be “DNP” if the preseason is any indicator.
It appears that Nellie prefers Andris Biedrins and rookie Patrick O’Bryant over Foyle. Pietrus has won Nellie over, newcomer Dajuan Wagner has been a bright spot, Baron Davis is in shape, Jason Richardson is still recovering from off-season surgery and the Warriors are scoring a ton of points and winning preseason games.
So what does all this mean? Who knows. After all, preseason results don’t count, but they seem to be a better indicator in the NBA than other sports. That’s one potential bright spot.
The question is, how optimistic should Warriors fans be?
The players are saying all the right things. They’re all in great shape. Then again, doesn’t every player from every team say the right things in October? I’m not getting sucked into that again.
But there’s something about the team with Nellie that is different. He has made it clear that he wants to run, run, run. He won’t put up with bad free-thrown shooting and too many 3-point attempts. He appears to have the full respect of the players, unlike Montgomery. And most of all, we know Nellie can win. The last time the Warriors made the playoffs – 12 years ago – Nelson was the coach.
So the Warriors will end their playoff drought, right? Not so fast. The West is still very tough and the Warriors haven’t proven anything. The roster is the same. I do believe they will be better, but they need to be at least 10 games better for playoff contention.
I’m not holding my breath. Not after last year.
I feel like a guy who’s had his heart broken and is scared to commit. I want to be excited about this team. I want to think they can make the playoffs.
But we’re talking about the Warriors. Breaking a losing culture is maybe the hardest thing to do in pro sports. When the Arizona Cardinals blew a 20-point lead to the Bears last Monday, my friend said it perfect when he said “it was a case of Arizona being Arizona.”
That’s what scares me about the Warriors. Despite the new coach, the talent and the good vibe I get, I’m afraid to get too excited because there’s a strong likelihood of “the Warriors being the Warriors.”
If you have any questions or comments, you can reach me at pjahromi@sbcglobal.net |
