Website: Golden State of Mind
Author: Atma Brother #1
Jason Gurney of lowpost.net/blog fame dropped a phenomenal, chart-topping, interactive Golden State Warriors preview for the 2006-07 NBA Blog Previews. Your boys at GSoM thought the best contribution we could make to the legendary NBA Blog Previews would be to drop a little WikiWarriors segment. Think of it as a Wikipedia style preview of the Warriors. If you click and read every link, this preview should take you, oh- 12 hours to read (in honor of the Warriors playoff drought!). Here goes…
Golden State of Mind’s 2006- 07 Golden State Warriors Preview
WikiWarriors
Last Years Record: 34-48 (one of the Hypeless Losers of 2005-2006)
Key Losses:
- Coach Mike Montgomery
- Derek Fisher- “Fish got thrown in the Salt Lake“- from GSoM’s Golden State Warriors Preview for Dime
- Calbert Cheaney and his AMAZING towel-waving skills
- Assistant Coach Mario Elie moved to the front office
Key Additions
- Coach Don Nelson
- Nellieball
- GM Don Nelson (seriously, Chris Mullin needs help badly)
- Dajuan Wagner the feel good story of this NBA preseason
- Patrick O’Bryant aka Project O’Bryant
- No more insane contract extensions or free agent signings
- Keith McLeod, Matt Barnes, and Anthony Roberson (final roster cuts haven’t been made yet)
What significant moves were made during the offseason?
Let’s see…
- Allen Iverson? Nope.
- Jermaine O’Neal? Nope.
- Lebron James? Nope.
- Al Harrington? Nope.
- Chris Wilcox? Nope.
- Drew Gooden? Nope.
- Corey Maggette? Nope.
- Jamaal Magloire? Nope.
- Tyson Chandler? Nope.
- DerMarr Johnson? Nope.
- Melvin Ely? Nope.
- Gerald Wallace? Nope.
- Andrea Bargnani? Nope.
- Kevin Garnett? Nope, but we’ve got nothing
but luv for KG in the Bay!
Okay, so none of those trades went down. This is virtually the same roster that drove fans crazy last year plus a player who might get sent down to the NBDL (Notorious POB) and a comeback player who’s got a nice little floater. Good thing our Vice President didn’t romise any changes… oh wait, he did.
In the 2006 NBA Draft Chris Mullin and his crew (there’s no bigger old boy network in the NBA right now than the Warriors’ front office) elected to take not one, but two big man projects in Patrick O’Bryant aka The Chef and Kosta Perovic aka Kosta Coast. Warriors Nation wasn’t that pleased, but you can bet Coach Nelson was even less impressed.
Oh well, at least now we’ve got Nelly- ooops, I mean Nellie.
What are the team’s biggest strengths?
- A future hall of fame coach. It might not seem much, but trust us we’ve been through a lot (see The Dirty Dozen- Part I | Part II | Part III)
- Jason Richardson has arrived
- A possible All Star (it’s been a long time) center in Troy Murphy
- Gimmicks, gimmicks, gimmicks
- A backup center who can throw it down like no other
- Plenty of highlight jams from the BoomRich backcourt
- More projects than Business School. There’s no budding superstars, but there’s some nice pieces in Mickael Pietrus, Zarko Cabarkapa, Ike Diogu, Andris Biedrins aka the One Minute Man, Monta Ellis, and Dajuan Wagner.
- A team that can draw comparisons to Grey’s Anatomy.
- The unique distinction of passing up Kobe Bryant and Tracy McGrady in consecutive years in the NBA Draft
- A provocative new name for the Arena: The Oracle
- Fun press conferences
- Momma Iverson is the new owner of the Warriors… oh, wait that’s not us!
- The best TV crew in the bidness!
- Cool local writers who drop science on the regular
- They can’t possibly suck more than Golden State of Football (GSoF): the San Francisco 49ers and the Oakland Raiders
- A fanbase that knows how to dress
- Fan who keep themselves entertained year round with stuff like The Yi Movement
- Warriors Girls, Thunder, Inflatable Thunder, Jr. Jam Squad, Weekend Warriors, and the GTOE Band- we’re not kidding
- The flyest cheerleaders in the league! STRAIGHT UP.
- The best fans in the league PERIOD and we’ve got the body ink to prove it
What are the team’s biggest weaknesses?
- Defense: There isn’t one above average defender on this roster aside from maybe Mickael Pietrus who has yet to become a consistent defensive force in this league
- Free throws aren’t free: There’s some ghastly shooting on display at the charity stripe every night at the Arena
- Falling in love with the 3pt ball: Baron’s in love with jacking up 3′s when triple teamed and Dunleavy can’t knock them down when he’s completely wide open
- On court leadership: B Diddy couldn’t handle all the pressure last season, JRich is a quiet leader who leads by example, and Dunleavy likes to talk, but hasn’t walked the walk to talk the talk yet. Maybe it’s time to bring in Charles Oakley.
- Unathletic front court: The Troy Murphy-Mike Dunleavy 4/5 combo scares nobody… except Warriors Nation.
- Injuries galore: These Warriors aren’t exactly built Ford tough.
- A stubborn insistence to forever justify drafting Mike Dunleavy #3 overall in the 2002 NBA Draft and giving him that ridiculous 44 million dollar 5 year extension (see 44 Reasons why giving Mike Dunleavy 44 million wasn’t the brightest idea Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV )
- Contracts that even Dolan’s Knicks wouldn’t take on:
- Adonal Foyle: 6 years $42 million
- Mike Dunleavy: 5 years $44 million
- Troy Murphy: 6 years $58 million
- The NBA’s most inept owner in Chris Cohan (SELL THE WARRIORS!)
What are the goals for this team?
There’s this rumor going around in the Bay Area that the NBA season doesn’t stop in early April. That’s basically it: playoff action in the Bay Area. It’s that simple. Nellie’s got one million reasons to take us there too. Plus, the Magic 8 Ball is saying YES!
Got any more links for us?
Just one more: www.goldenstateofmind.com
Predicted Record:
- 41-41 as presently constituted with an injury free season
- 34-48 as presently constituted with significant injuries
- 45-37 with a few trades for some shooters and an athletic 4 or 5 near the
February trade deadline
Jésus!
[...] Update: The mighty GSoM has a linkage heavy preview [...]
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