First Place Warriors?

[ColinCoby]

City, what is your opinion about the use of Ezeli so far? I understand that yesterday he got in foul trouble, which explains his limited minutes. But against Orlando, the Warriors were getting dominated on the inside, and Jackson continued to play Jack, Steph, Thompson, Lee, and Landry for long stretches. Didn't make much sense to me.

The last couple of games have shown the impact of the loss of Rush and Bogut. Luckily we won one of them!

 

[CitySushi]

City, what is your opinion about the use of Ezeli so far? I understand that yesterday he got in foul trouble, which explains his limited minutes. But against Orlando, the Warriors were getting dominated on the inside, and Jackson continued to play Jack, Steph, Thompson, Lee, and Landry for long stretches. Didn't make much sense to me.

The last couple of games have shown the impact of the loss of Rush and Bogut. Luckily we won one of them!

Festus is serviceable thus far on defense, but I can understand MJax reluctance to use him in late game situations. He's just a rookie and doesn't have nearly the experience just playing the game of basketball as many others do on the roster. My gripe is that if you're not going to use him, you're already going small in the front court and you can't compound that by his usage of 3 guard lineups.

It gives the opposition a real advantage in 2 ways: 1) While you may be a bit more skilled on the offensive end, you're giving up way too much in terms of rebounding and shot blocking on the defensive end. It creates more of a disadvantage to your team, especially when playing with a lead. 2) With no shot blocking or interior threats in the game, you allow the opposition to attack the basket late in the game and either get a ton of high percentage shots or draw the Warriors into foul trouble.

Festus is still a project. He's shown he has some skill around the basket, but he has terrible hands and his defensive instincts still aren't that great. Case in point is when he was out defending Monroe 18 feet from the basket, and got a foul for reaching. That simply cannot happen and is a rookie/unexperienced player mistake.

Against Orlando, it was probably correct to not play Festus. The problem was that Orlando was hot from the perimeter and their guards were doing most of the damage. Jackson should have went a bit bigger on the perimeter using Barnes or at least Draymond at the 3 to play along with Klay and Curry. The reason being is that the length of Klay and Barnes/Green would have been much more effective in closing out on their shooters and not allowing them easy drives to the hoop. In that game it should have been about eliminating everyone other than Davis to hurt you. That wasn't the case as Redick had a huge game.

Against Detroit, Jackson waited a bit too long for my own comfort to go big at the 3 again. Barnes has shown he's a decent defender and rebounder already and would have provided much more value on the court than Jack. In this game with Landry not being as effective, I wouldn't have minded playing Festus down the stretch if he wanted to keep Jack on the floor. Barnes or Green needed to be in there though when Tayshaun Prince was killing us.

 

[Yoshi]

Festus is serviceable thus far on defense, but I can understand MJax reluctance to use him in late game situations. He's just a rookie and doesn't have nearly the experience just playing the game of basketball as many others do on the roster. My gripe is that if you're not going to use him, you're already going small in the front court and you can't compound that by his usage of 3 guard lineups.

It gives the opposition a real advantage in 2 ways: 1) While you may be a bit more skilled on the offensive end, you're giving up way too much in terms of rebounding and shot blocking on the defensive end. It creates more of a disadvantage to your team, especially when playing with a lead. 2) With no shot blocking or interior threats in the game, you allow the opposition to attack the basket late in the game and either get a ton of high percentage shots or draw the Warriors into foul trouble.

Festus is still a project. He's shown he has some skill around the basket, but he has terrible hands and his defensive instincts still aren't that great. Case in point is when he was out defending Monroe 18 feet from the basket, and got a foul for reaching. That simply cannot happen and is a rookie/unexperienced player mistake.

Against Orlando, it was probably correct to not play Festus. The problem was that Orlando was hot from the perimeter and their guards were doing most of the damage. Jackson should have went a bit bigger on the perimeter using Barnes or at least Draymond at the 3 to play along with Klay and Curry. The reason being is that the length of Klay and Barnes/Green would have been much more effective in closing out on their shooters and not allowing them easy drives to the hoop. In that game it should have been about eliminating everyone other than Davis to hurt you. That wasn't the case as Redick had a huge game.

Against Detroit, Jackson waited a bit too long for my own comfort to go big at the 3 again. Barnes has shown he's a decent defender and rebounder already and would have provided much more value on the court than Jack. In this game with Landry not being as effective, I wouldn't have minded playing Festus down the stretch if he wanted to keep Jack on the floor. Barnes or Green needed to be in there though when Tayshaun Prince was killing us.

Festus is not only a project in the defensive end, but oh boy, this guy needs some work offensively. I don't expect him to be that type of center, a la a Roy Hibbert, who's a threat to almost get you a double double night in and night out, but hopefully he can contribute here and there with his progression. I remember he was blocked by Hibbert twice in the ORL game and both times, he did not use a pump fake to fool his defender.

You're right about ORL being hot from the perimeter with both Afflalo and Redick having good nights. Additionally, ORL scored 48 points in the paint compared to the W's 32. Furthermore, Redick was interviewed after the game and this is what he had to say:

"The problem with staying small is then you start getting into junk defense and switches and maybe you lose your man. I think that actually helped us. They were always having to put someone small on Glenn [Davis] and that created a lot of problems, where we were able to get into some drive and kicks, guys hit some 3s. It opened things up for us."

ORL gave the W's some serious size problems and it may have been wise to play Festus more than what they did. Granted, it was a tough night for the W's because ORL had their way with them both from the inside and the outside. Davis and Vucevic scored 38 points against GSW that night and to be quite frank, they were either stronger or it looked to easy for them in the paint.

 

[ColinCoby]

What's funny is I've found Ezeli to be much better on offense than I expected, with a variety of nice, quick moves around the basket. Perhaps this can be explained by watching Biedrins play over the last two years!

And yes, he's made some stupid plays at times at both sides of the floor. But I wonder if there is a stat out there for how many times he's altered a shot/drive to the basket so far this year. The dude has quick feet for a big man and is damn aggressive. God knows Lee/Landry aren't great defenders; if it were me, I'd rather a talented kid fail because of inexperience than vets fail because of lack of ability...especially against sub par teams like Orlando that has a size advantage against us.

Good points by both of you. I fear that Jackson is convinced that you win in the 4th quarter with vets. I think this is almost always true...but if they vets aren't getting it done on defense, you got to shake it up.

 

[TobyTyler]

Three staraight on the road? Wow! Did the Warriors even win three road games all season last year?

 

[ColinCoby]

From Marcus Thompson:


But, until Bogut gets back, I will question Jackson’s refusal to play centers when the game matters most. It nearly cost the Warriors the game on Wednesday.

It’s no coincidence that the one quarter the Warriors don’t play a center, the Pistons shoot 60 percent for the quarter.

I know. I know. I know. Landry and Lee are the Warriors’ best healthy big men. I understand the logic they are better all around and Festus and Biedrins are just defensive presences. I do believe they can make up for some of the lack of size in the frontcourt by being aggressively defensively in the backcourt. But in the fourth quarter, that’s what you need, a defensive presence. That’s when opponents (especially the good ones) look for higher percentage shots, which are usually inside. And you just know their confidence increases on offense when they see two 6-foot-9 guys back there instead of a legit center back there.

 

[SFAnthem]

From Marcus Thompson:


But, until Bogut gets back, I will question Jackson’s refusal to play centers when the game matters most. It nearly cost the Warriors the game on Wednesday.

It’s no coincidence that the one quarter the Warriors don’t play a center, the Pistons shoot 60 percent for the quarter.

I know. I know. I know. Landry and Lee are the Warriors’ best healthy big men. I understand the logic they are better all around and Festus and Biedrins are just defensive presences. I do believe they can make up for some of the lack of size in the frontcourt by being aggressively defensively in the backcourt. But in the fourth quarter, that’s what you need, a defensive presence. That’s when opponents (especially the good ones) look for higher percentage shots, which are usually inside. And you just know their confidence increases on offense when they see two 6-foot-9 guys back there instead of a legit center back there.

Yup, and need that post presence on offense for the kick back out for jump shots.

Every close game and OT, I'm thinking how nice it would be to have Bogut to anchor down low.

 

[TobyTyler]

14 and 7, a four-game winning streak and only a half game out of first? Are these our Warriors?

 

[TobyTyler]

It gets a little tougher for the Dubs in the next three road games but then they've got 4 easy ones back in California.

 

[ColinCoby]

It will be interesting to see how they perform over the next three games. It will be an early XMas present if they can somehow take 2 out of three. Gonna be tough.

Would love to see them avenge the loss to Orlando.

 

[Yoshi]

It will be interesting to see how they perform over the next three games. It will be an early XMas present if they can somehow take 2 out of three. Gonna be tough.

Would love to see them avenge the loss to Orlando.

Gonna be hard with the ATL game being at the back end of a back to back with ORL and their heavy frontcourt. If the Warriors go 5-2 on this road trip, I'll be pretty ecstatic.

 

[ColinCoby]

Gonna be hard with the ATL game being at the back end of a back to back with ORL and their heavy frontcourt. If the Warriors go 5-2 on this road trip, I'll be pretty ecstatic.

Time to be ecstatic!! 5-0

 

[TobyTyler]

Back in first place again! God I hate lebron James! So glad we beat him.