Town Syndrum's Warriors Mid-Season Review

Contributed by Sean Brekke-Miesner aka Town Syndrum

The most glaring issue the Warriors have had to deal with this year is injuries. We all knew going into this season that our new star and leader Monte Ellis would be out for the majority of the first half because of an injury he sustained in a moped accident (smooth kid). Personally, I thought that this would give the rest of the team time to gel and have other guys step up, but injuries have occurred to nearly everyone on our roster. Currently Ellis, Stephen Jackson (aka Captain Stack Jack), Brandon Wright, and Marco Belinelli are inactive. Thankfully Jackson is slated to return in the next couple games, because without him our team looks like a bunch of lost puppy dogs.

I am tired of watching Corey Maggette intentionally run into people to draw fouls just because he has had a superb free throw percentage in his career. But as he showed in the Kings game his plan does not always work. He missed 8 free throw attempts, which led to booing from the fans. Thankfully the booing ended when he fouled out, at which point they cheered. But my point is this, the Warriors can only be competitive when they are at full strength. Technically they can win if they play perfect basketball, but they have shown they can’t do that with any consistency. It is fun to watch these young guys develop, but we need our everyday troops out there, so Monta, please hurry back.

The other issue that has been on everyone’s mind lately is the on going beef between Coach Don Nelson’s and rookie Anthony Randolph. Coach Nelson has repeatedly said Randolph is not ready to play big minutes and must mature if he wants to play for him. It was even rumored that Nelson told Randolph to search out a trade because he would never play for him. When Randolph has gotten in the games his minutes are never predictable, as I saw against the Kings. He started the game and played the first 7 minutes and then barely saw the floor the rest of the game until Nelson was forced to put him in due to foul outs. Many are frustrated with Randolph’s lack of playing time, but I don’t blame Nellie, because it’s clear that Randolph has a lot of growing up to do. He has freakish abilities and looks like he is on a pogo stick when he jumps, but he makes stupid mistakes and flails his arms a lot. Then again, with the aforementioned injuries to our stars it seems as if Randolph should get some on the job experience. Randolph is part of the future of the Warriors organization, not players such as CJ Watson, Anthony Morrow, Ronnie Turiaf, or Rob Kurz. Each player brings a piece to the puzzle and all have had some kind of impact, but Randolph has a franchise player type skill set. I would ease him in slowly and see what he can contribute on a nightly basis.

Overall, the Warriors have been a disappointment, but the development of Belinelli, Morrow, and Wright have been fun to watch and show promise for our future. I think the second half of the season will be fun to watch if nothing else, but I hope that our defense and team chemistry can improve. We Warriors fans are quite used to mediocrity and bootsyness when it comes to Bay Area basketball, but our last couple of seasons have made us hopeful. We need to continue to “Believe,” but also be realistic about our chances this year. We won’t be leading the pack, but hopefully these kids will learn to have fun together, and we will learn to rally around their development. Oakland is used to the underdog mentality, so lets stand with our boys through the thick and the Randolph.