Nellie’s Plan for Next Season: Unleash the Kids
The Warriors won 48 games last year – not a bad season. But they still missed out on the playoffs, and that’s just not good enough. So now they’re looking to rebuild their squad by pushing their young players .. even if it means extra losses at the start.
“Our philosophy has to change a little bit,” Nelson said. “That could cost us some games, but that’s the way to do it now. That’s what our team wants. Mully wants me to develop those guys. … I played mostly my veterans last year, trying to get to the playoffs, and we didn’t do it. Playing those guys all those minutes, we still didn’t make it.”
So what does that mean for Baron Davis and some of the other guys on the roster who would be losing minutes to Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright?
“It’s got nothing to do with anything with Baron,” Nelson said. “He’s a young guy, so hopefully he’ll play seven more years. He’s not going to be replaced, I’m just not going to play him as many minutes. He played all 82 games (last season) and we feel very fortunate that he was able to do that.”
The plan has obvious implications for several other Golden State free agents. Second-year center Patrick O’Bryant made it clear during the season that he has no interest in returning to a Nelson-led team, and veteran forwards Matt Barnes and Mickael Pietrus might be pushed out in order to get the younger players more court time.
“I don’t know what it means (for Barnes and Pietrus),” Nelson said. “You can’t take minutes away from certain players in the press. That’s going to happen on the floor. But (Wright and Belinelli) have to play and are going to get out there.”
We’re definitely big fans of this shift in philosophy. It drives us crazy when coaches don’t play young guys just because they’re, well, young. We loved what we saw of Belinelli in the summer leagues and Wright had flashes of brilliance when he finally started getting tick at the end of last year. If they keep Baron around (and happy), it could only mean good things down the road for Golden State.
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June 4th, 2008 at 2:07 pm
Kudabeen says:
Wow…If we develop our young talent early they will be there to help us later…That is so brilliant.
Warriors should have given Wright, Pietrus, and Belinelli more early.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
B-DID says:
THE WARRIORS ARE COMING UP!!! WATCH OUT IF NELLY CAN CONTINUE TO HELP YOUNGER PLAYERS IMPROVE—LIKE MONTA ELLIS— THEN WITH THIS YOUNG CORE WATCH OUT IN THE NEAR FUTURE!!! LET BELINELLI HANG OUT WITH THE ALL TIME LEGEND BLACKEST WHITE BOY IN THE LEAGUE MULLEN HE WILL DEFINETLY START KNOCKING DOWN JUMPERS(SEE JASON RICHARDSON)–MORE PT WILL GET BRENDAN WRIGHT MORE REBOUNDS AND DUNKS—- AND WHO EVER THEY PICK UP IN THE DRAFT WILL BE PSYCHED TO BE IN THE FUNNEST GAME IN LEAGUE. I LIKE PIETRUS BUT HE DOESN’T GET PT FOR SOME REASON?!??!! GO W’S !! WARRIORS BASKETBALL ITS A GREAT TIME OUT!!!!!!!!
June 4th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
yallallreadyknow says:
this is the plan?…to give pat obryant more minutes? FOR WHAT!??!
to give brendan wright (a player with no position) more minutes?
to have a 1 dimensional player like belinelli with more minutes? …again…FOR WHAT?!!?
trade them youngins’ for an athletic big who can rebound, run the floor and defend the post a little bit. package a deal and send to denver for kenyon martin
June 4th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
shake&bake says:
Belinelli and Wright looked like they can be legit players in the league when they got their chances last year. They should be able to develop well playing with a great pg in a system with limited restrictions. Should be fun to watch again.
June 4th, 2008 at 2:31 pm
GEE... just do it, do it, do it! says:
Run Baron run away fast!
June 4th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Brown says:
Yall, are you serious? Kenyon Martin?????? Ain’t nobody trading for his fat-ass contract and bad knees.
Wright has a position, he’s a PF. He has a similar body type to Chris Bosh. I haven’t seen enough of his game to compare him to anyone though. Dude’s got length AND athleticism, something the Warriors lacked sorely last year.
O’Bryant will catch on with another team. He still hasn’t been given a chance to show his skills. If Darko can get $7 mill, Pat can at least get a look from another team.
Pietrus will get picked up by another team too. He never seemed like a good fit on the Warriors, even though he’s one of their best defenders. Barnes, who cares really. He’s always been a marginal player at best.
I hope Nellie’s change in philosophy also includes getting his players to play defense and holding them accountable when they don’t. I’m all for offensive freedom when you have creative players, but you need some sort of defensive gameplan.
I’ll believe this when I see it. I don’t know why it took Nellie this long to realize the only way the team would improve was to actually play the young guys.
June 4th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Chuck...Haters come in all fashions and forms so bear arms says:
@Brown
Yeah I didn’t understand the Kenyon Marton suggestion either?
Dude ‘s knees is shot, I could see one knee, but BOTH his knees is gone!
@Gee
Yeah, Baron better get the h*ll outta there unless he wants to. lose, lose, lose!!
June 4th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
Uhm... says:
what’s the point of listening to this crap? nellie always says one thing and does something else. he said he was going to limit baron’s minutes last year but that didn’t happen. this is all a bunch of crock
June 4th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
JDizzle says:
Uhm
That’s true, you can never believe what Nellie says in the media. I don’t think he’s going to let the young players cost him a game…He’s too competitive for that. I still think he could have played them more last year and still won the same amount of games. It’s not like Webber helped them AT ALL!! They could have had Wright in there all along. Belinelli has no D, but you never know, he could be the next Ginobili. Either way, I’m just happy Nelson is back. Their success is really dependent on him being there. And he even hinted at another year after next…Go Warriors!
June 4th, 2008 at 8:53 pm
Wikipedia says:
They definitely need to find more minutes for Belinelli. I still think Wright is about a year away from contributing on a regular basis. But you can always use someone that shoots it like Belinelli.
June 4th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Big V says:
Does that mean that Monta doesn’t want to go to NYK anymore????
June 4th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
frankie says:
Yallallreadyknow thinks that D Wade is the best player in the league and that K Mart is worth trading for. Maybe he thinks that they should suit Mullin up, too!