Nelson says his plan for the 2010-11 season was to play David Lee at center, because he considers Lee a good power forward and an All-Star center.

“I told (management), ‘Look, I want (Anthony) Tolliver. I’m gonna need a power forward who can shoot.’ They wouldn’t give me Tolliver. He was pretty cheap (Tolliver signed with Minnesota for $2.2 million). I didn’t ask for much. That’s when I knew I was gone.”

Thunder v. Nuggets Update and Game 2 Preview:

I won my game 1 bet, getting +5.5.  They’re down to +4.5 in tonight’s game, and Afflalo is still out, but I’m still betting it. The Nuggets want this game.

Hoping for an adjustment on Durant.  Stop letting him go left and shoot over his right shoulder, for pete’s sake!  Nellie knew how to guard him: Push him right, and make him turn left shoulder.

For those looking for me to take back my evaluation of Westbrook, game 1 simply confirmed my opinion of him.  He got more shots for himself than all of his big men COMBINED.  A selfish gunner, with no vision or court sense.  Not a great point guard.

If Westbrook cools off, which his season averages suggest he will, the Thunder will struggle for scoring.  I sincerely doubt at the very least that he continues shooting 75% from three.

But if the Nuggets ever get Aaron Afflalo back healthy in time to make a difference in this series, Mr. Westbrook’s life could get very difficult indeed.

One thing I failed to take into account in this series: How much David Stern and the NBA want Durant to advance and become the new face of the NBA. We may have seen this in that ignored goaltending call late in game 1. (What are the chances that play was missed by 3 officials? What else could they have been looking at?)

I have a rule never to bet against David Stern, which I unwittingly violated with this pick. But in for a penny…

I have catalogued several instances this season where I thought Keith Smart demonstrated a losing mentality.  When, for instance, after the David Lee injury, he started Dan Gadzuric alongside Andris Biedrins.  When he refused to run the ball, and told his team on the sidelines: “To win this game you have to win the rebounding battle!”  When he had his guards walk back for handoffs after rebounds.  When he refused to let Dorell Wright and Monta Ellis leak out, because “What’s the use of them waving their hand for the ball if we don’t get the rebound?”  When he wanted to run motion offense instead of pick and roll, “because we don’t want to fuel Utah’s fast break.”

Always letting the other team’s coach dictate matchups and style of play to him. Remember? A losing mentality.

I have also catalogued several games, particularly recently, where Keith Smart demonstrated tremendous growth in this regard.  The Warriors have begun running.  They have begun matching up small at key times.  Ellis and Curry have been given greater freedom.  The pick and roll has come alive. And the Warriors have begun winning.

And I have begun harboring hopes that Keith Smart had turned a strategic corner, for good. That he’d turned into a winner.  A coach that knew how to seize the jugular. Who played to win.

This game destroyed those hopes.  Once again.  Has anyone counted how many flip-flops this has been for me?

Under Don Nelson, the Warriors had beaten the Celtics at home the last 6 seasons. 6 straight home wins against the Celtics.  Obviously Don Nelson knew something about how to beat them.  He possessed the blueprint to beating them, that enabled him to beat them with teams far worse than the one that Keith Smart commands.  With rookies and D-leaguers, in fact.

Do you think that Keith Smart absorbed Don Nelson’s blueprint?  Do you think that he absorbed the lessons Nellie imparted to him over several long seasons about how to beat bigger, stronger teams?

Well if he did, he failed miserably at demonstrating it in this game.  I’m sure regular readers of this blog know what’s coming.  The way that this Golden State Warriors team, visualized and assembled with great care by Don Nelson, can beat the Boston Celtics, is by going small.  By pulling the Celtics’ big men out of the lane. By spreading the vaunted Celtics defense out to the three point line. By putting four three point shooters on the floor, with one big man, and scoring three points to the Celtics two.  By creating open driving lanes for Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry. By pushing the ball.  By creating early offense.

By running the Celtics’ old men off the court.

Yes, Smart and the Warriors caught a bad break in that they caught the Celtics with fresh legs after the all-star break.  But it shouldn’t have made one damn bit of difference.  We saw it in the second quarter didn’t we?  When Biedrins and Lee left the floor, and the Warriors went small with Udoh at center, and Vlad Rad or Dorell Wright at four, the Warriors reeled off a 10-5 run to seize a 52-45 advantage.  Keith Smart immediately gave that lead back, by bringing back Lee to play alongside Udoh, instead of replacing Udoh with Lee, and continuing with the Warriors’ best lineup until halftime.

Even assuming that Keith Smart has forgotten every single thing that Don Nelson ever taught him, don’t you think that this emphatic second quarter demonstration would have given him a clue?  Did he really believe going into the second half that the Warriors could beat the Boston Celtics by matching up big?

After 1:30 of the third Q, Kendrick Perkins tweaked his knee and was replaced by Big Baby Davis, who was already in foul trouble.  GAME OVER. That’s what I shouted at the Thaiblonde.  Surely Keith Smart, schooled at the knee of Don Nelson, couldn’t miss this opportunity, could he?  This was the perfect time to go small, with David Lee at center and Dorell Wright at the four!

How could Kevin Garnett and Big Baby Davis guard these two players without fouling?  Do you put Garnett on Lee?  We already saw Lee blow by Garnett three times in the first half for layups or free throws.  Can Big Baby Davis guard Dorell Wright out at the three point line?

No, obviously you have to guard them the other way around.  But didn’t we see David Lee destroy Big Baby on a pick and roll at the end of the first half?  And wouldn’t Dorell Wright be pulling Garnett, the Celtics best remaining defender at the rim, all the way out to the three point line?  Wouldn’t the entire floor open up for Monta and Curry and Williams?

Well, you might ask, but wouldn’t this lineup get killed on the boards?  Do you mean worse than the 52-35 drubbing they actually took?  The Warriors can’t worry about that when matched up with teams like the Celtics.  They have to take their chances with Lee on Big Baby, which is a matchup I like, and DWright on Garnett, which is a matchup I would be very intrigued to watch.

And they have to take their chance with offense. Their best offense. They have to, as Jim Barnett puts it, play to win.

It got worse. Far worse. At the 6:00 minute mark of the 3rd Q, Glen Davis went to the bench with foul trouble. And Doc Rivers started trotting out giant meatballs.  Like Semih Erden.  And Luke Harangody.

OK, this was the moment, right? Surely Keith Smart couldn’t miss this one!!?  Oh yes, he could.  Despite the fact that the Warriors offense had been stuck in reverse against the ramped up Celtic defense ever since the start of the second half, Keith Smart refused to try to create matchup problems for the crippled Celtics.  He stayed BIG throughout the third Q, which the Warriors lost by 10 points, to go down 88-78.

Smart finally went small to start the fourth Q, and what happened?  The Warriors immediately went on a run to pull within four.

And then, at 8:47 the game reached a turning point. Big Baby steamrolled Udoh for the second play in a row, resulting in free throws.  He made both to put the Celtics up 6, but more importantly, Doc Rivers hustled Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett into the game for crunch time.  Did Smart come back with David Lee and Monta Ellis for crunch time?  Did he get Udoh away from a difficult matchup?  Did he get his best lineup on the floor?  No, Smart dithered, as he has done all year long, “coaching the score.”  And this time it bit him and the Warriors in the ass:

• 7:54 The Celtics leave Acie Law unguarded at the three point line. He bricks it, as he is supposed to, and the Celtics run it out and dunk.
• 7:25 The best shot the Warriors can get is a Vlad Rad midrange pull-up off the dribble.  Another run out.
• 7:00 Keith Smart finally calls timeout with the Warriors down 12.

Ok, I thought, there’s still time to get your best lineup out there.  But no.  Smart came back with Andris Biedrins alongside Lee.  And at 4:40, with the Warriors still down 12, still within reach, Smart replaced the injured Biedrins with Udoh.

Game over.

By lacking the courage to attack this Boston Celtics team with what he knows is his best lineup, by lacking the courage to play to win, and let the chips fall where they may — Joe Lacob be damned — Keith Smart forced his Warriors team to eat yet another blowout on their home floor.  How many times did Don Nelson get blown out at home in his last two seasons, coaching rookies and D-leaguers?

I’ve taken a lot of heat over the years for my “obsession” with Don Nelson. Inexplicable to many. But at the heart of it was something very simple. Don Nelson never believed he was going to lose. Every single time he set foot on the hardwood, he coached to win. Every time. He may not have had championship teams, but he himself was a champion, with a champion’s heart.

During the post-game press conference, Keith Smart was asked: “What happened to the Warriors’ offense in the second half?”  This is what came out of his mouth:

“The Boston Celtics.”

He elaborated: “Nothing you can do is going to surprise them.”  ”Everyone has to play great. That’s what happened [when Don Nelson beat them 6 times straight], everyone played great.”

Do you see the theme here? If Keith Smart truly dared to look at himself in the mirror after this game, this is what he would see staring back at him:

A losing mentality.

Before the game, Ray Allen was caught on camera telling his teammates:

“This team here, they don’t belong on the same floor with us.”

He got it wrong. It’s not the Warriors players that don’t belong on the same floor as champions.

It’s the Warriors’ coach.

I’m going to get to this great Warriors win. But first, in honor of Christmas — which is my favorite holiday on a spiritual level, and now also on an NBA basketball level as well, thanks to the decidedly unspiritual David Stern — and also in honor of Don Nelson, whose style of basketball was greatly honored today — I’m going to gift-wrap you some bonus coverage.

Something very special happened today, something that must have Joe Lacob and the Director of Basketball Operations scratching their heads in befuddlement. Their cherished Celtics Model got crushed. In all five games that were played.

And it was a lot more significant than just these five games. Because today a loud Liberty Bell was rung. A thunderous cannonshot of revolt was fired. A resounding, reverberating signal was sent around the NBA that is going shake to the establishment of the league to its core.

On this Christmas day it became clear that a new order is ascendant in the NBA. An unconventional, perpetually out-of-favor, yet surpassingly beautiful style of basketball emerged out of the mists of the past — like the very ghost of the Havlicek-Cowens Celtics, or the Showtime Lakers, or RunTMC, or the Nash-Nowitzki Mavs, or the Nash-Stoudemire Suns, or We Believe — and once again asserted its dominance on the hardwood.

And a new World Champion was all but crowned.

I’ve got news for the number-crunching, walk-it-up-and-dump-it-in-the-low-post-loving Owner-GM of the Golden State Warriors.

Something wicked this way comes.

Nellieball.

BOSTON CELTICS 78  ORLANDO MAGIC 86

In just the second and third games since they overhauled their roster with two blockbuster trades, the struggling Orlando Magic busted the San Antonio Spurs’ 10-game winning streak 123-101, and the Boston Celtics’ 14-game winning streak 86-78.

The biggest reason for these resurgent victories did not have to do with the additions of Gilbert Arenas and Jason Richardson (for Rashard Lewis and Vince Carter). Those players, who will eventually be very good for the Magic, are currently lost in the Magic system, and having their minutes and roles restricted.

The biggest reason has to do with the player that was overlooked in these trades. The player who has suffered through one and a half miserable seasons playing for the over-matched Toronto coach Jay Triano, who had no idea how to use him, and for the over-matched GM in Phoenix, who had no clue that he was a terrible fit alongside the ball-dominant Steve Nash.

Hedo Turkoglu.

When they picked up Turkoglu and Arenas, the Magic overnight went from having two score-first combo guards and zero point guards, to having three score-first combo guards, and one point-forward. Coach Stan van Gundy frequently runs the Magic offense through Turkoglu, because he is a fantastic play-maker and distributor. He is especially terrific at getting the ball to Dwight Howard in the paint, something Jameer Nelson and J.J. Redick (and Arenas) are miserable at. Turkoglu was the most important piece the Magic were missing after they let him go in free-agency. And he has stepped seamlessly back into his old role, putting up two terrific games in a row, much to the shock of the national media.

The second biggest reason behind Orlando’s resurgence is that they have transformed themselves overnight from a grind-it-out halfcourt basketball team that emphasized defense into a running team that will emphasize offense. They are now pushing the tempo, to match their personnel.  Before the Spurs game, van Gundy left a note for Arenas on his chair in the locker room. It said, “Go out there and play your game. Just push the ball.” And that’s what Arenas did, to the tune of 14 points and 9 assists off the bench.

The Orlando Magic are now a Nellieball team.

You might find that a strange thing to say about a team with Dwight Howard in the middle. But it’s true. Don Nelson’s best teams have alway featured shot-blocking defensive anchors at the 5. Of course, he never had a monster like Dwight Howard. But he did have Bob Lanier, who wasn’t too shabby.

Now take a look at the rest of the roster. Brandon Bass got the bulk of the minutes at the 4 against the huge Celtics. Bass is an athletic, sweet-shooting, undersized power forward in the mold of Jeff Green and Anthony Tolliver. He doesn’t shoot the three yet, but his jumper is good out to 20 feet.  It was good enough to draw Kevin Garnett out of the middle, which allowed Bass to drive right around him. Bass put up 21 points and 9 boards going against Garnett and Shaq. I think van Gundy might feel he found something there.

But when Bass is off the floor, the Magic go to Turkoglu, a true small-ball player, at the four. And in certain matchups, as against the Spurs, Turkoglu may even get the bulk of his minutes there. Which would move Jason Richardson to the three.

Nellieball.

As for the rest of the team, well, they shoot the three. Man, do they shoot the three. Turkoglu, JRich, JJ Redick, Nelson, Arenas, Quentin Richardson off the bench — lights out.  And let’s not forget their backup center now that Lurch, errr… Gortat, is gone: 6-10′ Ryan Anderson, 36% from three.

And they run. Man, do they run. Even Dwight Howard is going to run. And that is truly scary.

Nellieball.

I’m still not sure if the Magic will be good enough to beat the Celtics this year. It’s too hard to handicap right now, as they probably would have lost this game if Rajon Rondo and Kendrick Perkins had played. But the Magic are going to get a whole lot better too between now and the end of the season.

They’ve got a puncher’s chance now against the Celtics. The same kind of chance that Run TMC had against the David Robinson Spurs and the Stockton and Malone Jazz — and the Nash-Nowitzki Mavs had against the Duncan Spurs — and We Believe had against the number one seed in the NBA.

MIAMI HEAT 96  LOS ANGELES LAKERS 80

As the great Ralph Lawlor would say:  ”Oh me Oh my…”

World-class athletes running and finishing on the break. Pushing the tempo. Looking for early offense. Looking for the quick three.

In the half-court, a sweet-shooting power forward built like a gazelle, spreading the floor, beating his man to the hoop. An ancient center who stands 20 feet out, draining jumpers. A point-forward averaging 7 assists a game. Two offensive geniuses freed to create by means of simple high picks, surrounded by deadly three point shooters stretching the defense. Never once a low-block post-up.

Is that Nellieball? You bet your ass it is.

Some sound-bytes from the game:

“Our speed, USE IT. We just have to keep being active with our speed.” – Erik Spoelstra in the Heat huddle.

“That’s not set offense, that’s getting a rebound and pushing the ball down the throat of the defense.” – Mark Jackson on the Heat offense.

“Don’t try to walk it up, that’s when they were a bad team. Put pressure on the defense by pushing it down their throat. You have the best players in the world, force the issue offensively.” — more Mark Jackson on the Heat.

“They’re just running one screen-roll back to another screen-roll.” – Phil Jackson, in his mid-game interview, his voice laced with contempt.

“Look at how they’re swarming!” – Jeff van Gundy, describing all the problems that Jackson’s post-up triangle offense created for the Heat defense.

“Our big guys did a great job on Gasol, Bynum, and even Odom. We didn’t have to help much.” – Dwayne Wade post-game, describing all the problems that Jackson’s post-up triangle offense created for the Heat defense.

Let me pose a few questions to my readers. If Don Nelson were coaching Kobe Bryant and a front-line of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom, on a roster that included Shannon Brown, Steve Blake and Matt Barnes, would he walk the ball up the court? If he had the most offensively-gifted off-guard of his generation, and the most offensively versatile 7-footer of his generation at his disposal, would Don Nelson mire the off-guard in a passing offense, and insist on posting up the 7-footer in the paint against behemoths that outweigh him? If Don Nelson had one of the best pick and roll combinations in the history of the game at his disposal, would he refuse to run pick and roll?

Well Phil Jackson is not Don Nelson, and he never will be. Phil Jackson will never allow the Lakers to be a running team, he will never free Kobe Bryant to create with simple high picks (except when losing in the fourth quarter), and he will never run pick and roll with Kobe and Pau Gasol (except when Gasol is growing sick of being frozen out). Because if he did that, he would no longer be Big Chief Triangle. He would just be the guy who lucked into Jordan and Pippen, and Shaq and Kobe, and Kobe and Gasol.

That’s the reason Phil Jackson lost to the Celtics with the best team in the 2008 Finals, and that’s the reason why he’s going to lose to the Heat with the best team in the 2011 Finals.

On the very first day of last season, I predicted that Lebron’s last Cleveland Cavaliers season was dead on arrival, and that the Boston Celtics would come out of the East. But the defeat that the Cavs suffered on their home court on that day was nothing, nothing, compared to the soul-crushing, eye-glazing massacre that the Lakers suffered in Staples against the Heat today.

I’m a little late this season, because it’s taken this long for the newly assembled Miami Heat to face the Lakers. But after watching this game, I am now completely confident that if the Heat come out of the East, the Lakers will not three-peat. There is no way the Lakers can beat this Nellieball Heat team.

Not with Phil Jackson as coach.

Portland Trailblazers 102 Golden State Warriors 109

I tried to keep this recap short and sweet, to keep my faithful readers’ eyes from glazing over like the Lakers’ in the fourth quarter, but on this glorious night of this glorious day, I just couldn’t do it. So with apologies for my effusiveness,   let’s begin, with the hero of the game.

Keith Smart: I’ve been awfully hard on Keith Smart this season. But after watching this game, I’m ready to admit that I may not have been doing him justice. It’s possible that he really does know exactly what he should be doing with this great Nellieball roster. It’s possible that he just wanted to test out a few wrinkles. It’s possible that he lost confidence in the team’s capabilities when first Lee and then Curry got injured, and he turned around and saw he had no replacements on his Lacob-designed bench. It’s possible that he suffered some game-management growing pains.

And it’s very, very possible, quite probable in fact, that this rookie coach with a one year contract and his career on the line has been walking a political tight-rope, trying to balance his team’s needs with the needs of his incompetent, meddlesome Owner-GM. It’s possible he had to demonstrate to Lacob that Andris Biedrins is not a low-post center. It’s possible he had to demonstrate to Lacob that David Lee is not a low-post power forward. It’s possible he had to demonstrate that Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry are phenomenal creators when given a simple high pick, but mediocre when mired in a passing offense. It’s possible he had to demonstrate that the Warriors are far better running the ball than walking it. To demonstrate that the Warriors are not, in fact, the Boston Celtics.

We’re going to find out soon whether this game was just a mirage caused by the absence of Andris Biedrins, but Keith Smart got everything right tonight. Everything. The Warriors pushed the ball throughout the game. The pick and roll was unleashed. Monta Ellis was unleashed, and allowed to carry the load. Vlad Rad got 17 minutes at the four, alongside David Lee at center, including the exhilarating four crunch-time minutes in which the Warriors seized the Blazers by the throat.

And David Lee was obviously instructed to play LaMarcus Aldridge soft in the first half and stay out of foul trouble. Lee didn’t pick up a single foul in the first half, and Aldridge romped to start the game. But that all changed at the start of the third quarter. Lee bodied Aldridge all the way out of the key on the Blazers’ first possession, and that set the tone for the second half. Lee and Udoh wound up holding Aldridge to 15 points on 7-21 shooting, playing him straight up.

A dastardly trap worthy of Don Nelson.

Monta Ellis: He’s now an obvious superstar, a finisher, a team leader, a distributor, a dangerous defender, a closer with an instinct for the big play at the right time on both offense and defense. No play in this game was bigger than his steal and fast-break finish in crunch time.

Will David Stern let this superstar play in the all-star game?

Stephen Curry: If he had his legs and his shot, this game would have been a blow-out. But look at those 11 assists against 2 turnovers. If Smart gets the Warriors offense right, my prediction that Curry’s assist numbers this year will astound the pundits will prove correct.

David Lee: The jump shot blew up. The pick and roll blew up. David Lee is about to blow up, in the greatest offense he’s ever played in.

And the passing. That open-court touch pass back to Monta at 9:25 2nd Q? Better than a sip of Lagavulin.

He played some pretty good defense, too, for the second game in a row. As predicted by absolutely nobody. By nobody, that is, but one lonely, obscure blowhard with a blog.

Lou Amundson: I’m about to say some nice things about Lou, for a change. But first I need to talk to Joe Lacob about something.

Hey Joe, what was Lou’s Lacob Quotient (rebounds/min) for this game? And what was his Lacob Quotient on the defensive boards? (Unless your computer can handle infinite numbers, it’s bursting into flames right now.)

The nice things: Lou is extremely quick, as he demonstrated on a great dive cut, and a couple of nice isolation face-ups and drives around Marcus Camby. (Hey Coach Smart, how about using Biedrins the same way?)

I’ll also say this about Lou Amundson:  He tries very, very hard.

DWright: I’ve been pretty hard on DWright this season too, and like Keith Smart, it’s possible I’ve treated him a little unjustly. Watching this game, it struck me that DW’s forte on defense is as a help defender. He has a lot of responsibilities given Curry and Ellis’ occasional difficulties, which sometimes force him to neglect his own man. He’s also great at reading the passing lanes and coming up with steals. And in this game, for once, he also helped out big time on the boards.

But once again, DW’s strong defensive effort came in a game in which he had his offense rolling. I’d like to see him give a similar effort in the games in which he can’t hit a thing.

And the Warriors need even more from him. They need a stopper.

Vlad Rad: Who had the best +/- on the Warriors in this game? The incomparable Monta Ellis? Nope, it was Vlad Rad, at +11. And that was no accident. Lee at 5 and Vlad at 4 is currently the Warriors’ best lineup.

But that may be about to change, due to…

The Nightmare: LaMarcus Aldridge’s offensive troubles began in the 2nd Q, when Ekpe Udoh picked him up. Udoh shut him down man-to-man. A rookie in his what, fourth game, against an all-star. Just shut him down. Aldridge’s shots against Udoh, when they weren’t blocked outright, missed badly. Udoh’s arms are extraordinarily long, he moves his feet extraordinarily well, and his anticipation is extraordinary.

Udoh is going to be an extraordinary player. A defensive star. There is no doubt in my mind now. Three blocks in 16 minutes. He did struggle on the boards, as I believe Frank predicted, but I think that had a lot to do with him being drawn out of position as a help defender. And also a little something to do with the great Marcus Camby.

Udoh is also, I think, going to be an extraordinary offensive player. It’s a bit of a stretch to see right now, as a lot of the time he appears lost in the offense. But we saw two great moves against big-time defenders tonight, a spinning feather-soft jump hook with the shot clock expiring, and a short turn-around jumper, also off the dribble.

But what’s really going to make Udoh extraordinary on offense is the same thing that makes David Lee extraordinary. Intelligence. Vision. Passing.

This already intriguing Warriors season has now taken on an intriguing subplot.

Thank you, Don Nelson.

Jim Barnett: When, with a two point lead and 2:30 left in the game, the Warriors pushed the ball after a rebound, and Monta Ellis drove the lane and passed out to a wide-open Reggie Williams, who buried the early-offense three, the great Jim Barnett let it rip:

“That’s what you do! You play to win!”

I love you, Jim Barnett.

On Basketball and Computers: The Warriors lost the rebounding battle to the Blazers by 53-32, yet won the game by 7. The Knicks lost the rebounding battle to the Bulls 48-44, yet won the game by 8. The Thunder somehow managed to outrebound the Nuggets by 1, but put the game away down the stretch with an undersized frontline of Serge Ibaka and Jeff Green against Nene and Kmart.

How in the world could this happen?

Kirk Lacob’s computer is smoking. The hard drive is grinding. The Windows operating system has frozen. It can’t find the answer, and never will.

But we already know the answer, don’t we?

Nellieball.

It’s too bad Adrien’s performance was wasted in a game that was botched from the start.                                                   

When Keith Smart opened the game with the twin tower look of Biedrins and Gadzuric, my first thought was: “He’s conceding the game before it’s even begun.” Smart was trying to match up with the Bucks, on their terms, instead of forcing the Bucks to match up with the Warriors, on the Warriors’ terms. We all know what Don Nelson thought about that.

Do you think that Golden State’s 16 point first quarter was an accident? A simple case of players gone cold on the road? That’s letting Smart off the hook too easy. Smart’s lineup made it easy for the Bucks to match up with the Warriors skill players.  Easy to cross-match MBam on Monta. Easy for Jennings to stay glued to Curry. Easy to pack the lane and deny penetration.

We all know what Don Nelson would have done.  He would have started Vlad Rad at the four. Or he would have started Dorell Wright at the four, and Reggie Williams at the three.

And the floor would have opened up for Monta and Curry like the parting of the Red Sea.

But could Vlad Rad or Dorell Wright guard Drew Gooden? Could they rebound? Those are interesting questions. But what about these questions: Could Drew Gooden guard Vlad Rad or Dorell Wright out at the three point line? Could the Milwaukee Bucks rebound with Drew Gooden out guarding the three point line? Those are the questions that Don Nelson would have asked of the Milwaukee Bucks. Those are the questions that Keith Smart failed to ask, and that is why this game was over before it began.

Without David Lee, what is the Warriors edge against opposing teams? It is the extraordinary speed, skill and shooting ability of Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Dorell Wright and Reggie Williams in the open court. Keith Smart will need to recognize that if the Warriors are to get through the next two or three weeks with a decent record.

Maybe he does recognize that. Maybe it’s just more important to him to add this 79 point Buck’s performance to his defensive resume, than it is to win. Maybe it’s more important to him that he demonstrate to Joe Lacob his commitment to playing big, and slowing the game down with motion offense, than it is to win.

I sure hope not. I’m used to better.

Random Thoughts:

• I wonder if Don Nelson ever coached a 79-72 ballgame? If he did, I can guarantee you it wasn’t in a loss.
• Jim Barnett: “If you want to play half-court offense against this defense, Scott Skiles will win. They need to get shots in the open court and transition.” Amen, brother. Another example of why you are the best. Speak truth to power.
• The Warriors are 26th in the league in turnovers, playing at a slowed-down pace. Last season, with a rookie point guard, 7 man squads of D-leaguers, and playing at the fastest pace in the league, they were 4th. Why is this Warriors team of highly skilled veterans turning the ball over so much more than last year’s D-Leaguers?  Think about that for a minute. Here’s a hint: Undo the loco motion.
• Can not turning the ball over be considered a form of defense? It was in the wily mind of Don Nelson.
• Monta Ellis gave a hell of a defensive effort in this game.
• Stephen Curry is obviously not right. But even when healthy, he should never be forced to guard super-fast guards like Jennings or Rose.  Monta Ellis should guard them. Who should Curry have guarded in this game? MBam, with DWright on Salmons. Would Scott Skiles want to run his offense through MBam to punish Curry? Another question Don Nelson would have asked, that Keith Smart never got around to.
• Reggie Williams was freed in this game. He just didn’t get it done.
• I love Luc Richard Mbah a Moute. I love the way his name rolls off the tongue. I love his nickname M-Bam. I love that a man who’s an actual prince in his home country (Cameroon) could have such an appetite for dirty work. I love his freakish ability to guard Monta Ellis, at 6-8″, even as he’s killing my Golden State Warriors.
• The Milwaukee Bucks are a blue collar team in a blue collar town.
• Rodney Carney’s Low-IQ Moment: The bailout foul at 7:00 of the 2nd Q.
• Vlad Rad’s Brain Fart: The pick and roll with Monta at 4:25 of the 3rd Q, where he forgot what the roller is for. He wouldn’t have seen the pass coming if Monta bounced it off his head.
• Jim Barnett after Brandan Wright blew a rebound: “Just grab that ball!” Barnett couldn’t help himself. I love Jim Barnett. Have I mentioned that?

Let’s end with the good stuff. Beautiful Jeff Adrien moment number one: Before he capped Drew Gooden at 9:00 of the 4th Q, Adrien bodied him off his dribble and forced him to fade away. Ever seen Brandan Wright do that?

Moments number two, three, four and five: Boxing out 7′ 300 lb. Andrew Bogut. (Do you buy that 260 lb. listing?)

Moment number six: That point blank jump hook, in crunch time (1:35), over Drew Gooden.  The difference between a Jeff Adrien jump hook and a Brandan Wright jump hook? It’s not pretty, but he can get it off with a body on him.

Yo, Adrien!

If it weren’t for that injury, I would have been beyond pleased with this win. Monta Ellis had a beautiful game on both sides of the ball, and his efficient offense — 28 points on 10-17 — was largely the reason the Warriors surged to a 19 point lead in the third quarter.  And Stephen Curry’s extraordinary playmaking ability and supernatural clutchness down the stretch sealed the win. His rustiness showed in some bad turnovers.  His bad ankles showed in his matador defense on Jarret Jack, who abused him for 24 points on 7-13.  But Curry’s ability to pour in 34 points on 12-21 shooting, 16 of which came in the fourth quarter when it counted the most, while playing hurt is…  I mean what can you really say about it?  You just have to watch. Curry scored in the fourth quarter in almost every fashion imaginable, spot up threes, pull back Js off the dribble, crafty slow-motion forays into the lane.  On one leg.

I know I’ve said it before, but what else is there to say?  Stephen Curry is a basketball genius.  Not just a special player, but Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, John Stockton and Steve Nash special. (The athletically challenged savants that Curry resembles most.) We are indescribably lucky to be able to watch him in a Warriors uniform.

Keith Smart: If it weren’t for Monta’s fall, and Curry’s extraordinary fourth quarter, I would have led with the job that Keith Smart did in this game. I’m pretty sure that Keith Smart has never heard of me, and I’m dead sure that he doesn’t read this blog, but when I watched the Warriors offense in the first quarter, it was as if Smart had taken to heart every criticism I have written so far this year, and in particular the criticisms I posted in the comments after the last loss.

I have been begging Smart to stop posting up Biedrins to start the game, and get David Lee involved instead.  I have been begging him to scrap the Jerry Sloan motion offense and simplify.  I have been begging him to initiate the offense with simple high picks and isolations, and let his Big Three — three of the most offensively gifted players in the entire league — do their thing.  And lo and behold, that’s what happened in this game.  Watching the first quarter was for me like…  well, although my love for great basketball is unbounded, I should probably stay away from sexual similes… let’s just say it was an intense experience of spiritual bliss.

Here’s a rundown of the Warriors’ opening possessions:

• First play: Curry and Lee pick and pop (airball — who cares?)
• Third possession: ISO Lee, missed J (who cares?)
• Fourth possession: Curry and Lee pick and pop. Curry threw the pass away. Note that Lee should have rolled instead of popping, but also note that Biedrins wasn’t properly spaced.  But regardless, the play was wide open. (OK, someone please make a shot. Warriors down 8-0)
• 9:45, after the timeout, Monta gets a simple high screen and bingo, wide open layup. (Yes!)
• 8:10, same high screen for Monta, same layup.

It was not until 7:20 that Biedrins got a play called for him.  When it was unpredictable. And after the Warriors had already established their offense. And after David Lee got the feel of the basketball.  Lee went on to make several sweet jumpers in this game.  And then it continued:

• 4:10 Monta iso’d on Barganani, drive and dish for a DWright three.
• 3:15 Curry/Lee pick and roll, Curry layup (missed).
• 2:40 Curry/Biedrins high screen, Curry open J (made).
• When Jeremy Lin came in, the Warriors used simple high screens to spring him free for two beautiful drive and dishes.
• 0:15, to close the quarter, high screen for Monta.  LAYUP.

yes, yes, yes, Yes, Yes, YES, YES, YEEESSSSS!

The Warriors followed this simple offensive game plan throughout the game, and when Toronto made its run and the game got tight in the fourth quarter, these were Keith Smart’s playcalls:

• 2:40 High screen for Monta. Drive and dish to wide open Curry in the corner for three.  (How easy was that?  That play will be open all day long, all season long.  Unguardable.)
• 2:15 Vlad Rad high screen unleashes Curry in the middle for an acrobatic finish.
• At 1:05, after the Ellis injury stoppage, and with the game on the line, a simple top of the key iso for Curry, who feints penetration and pulls up for the wide open J.  Money.

Yes.  Thank you, Keith Smart.

For what it’s worth, I also think Smart did a masterful job dealing with the Warriors’ foul trouble and matching up in the fourth quarter.  But I’m trying to keep this to a recap, not a novel.

David Lee: Finally broke out that sweet J.  But this Warriors offense won’t really start clicking until he starts building chemistry with Curry in the pick and roll.

The Warriors held Toronto to 19 points in the first quarter.  Did David Lee have anything to do with that?

Another 12 rebounds, like clockwork.  It will never, ever, get old.

Andris Biedrins: Another good performance from Biedrins, albeit against a lousy front line. The 6-6″ Reggie Evans had no chance rebounding against him (nice cross-match by Smart).

A good performance, that is, until Triano broke out the Hack-a-Beans, and we were treated to a little glass-shattering.  A note to small-ball haters:  The Warriors will never be able to play Biedrins in fourth quarters of close games.

Brandan Wright: There was some good to go along with the bad tonight from Wright.  We saw the late rotations, the fumbled passes, the outside brick, the offensive foul.  But he also had some contested rebounds, some nice finishes, and a couple swats.  I won’t mention that he was playing against a lousy front line.  Oops.

Unfortunately, what never changes for Brandan Wright is the miserable defensive rebounding. If you want to know why I persist in believing that Wright will never be a playable NBA player, rewind your tape to 11:45 of the second Q and watch him blow a point blank defensive rebound with inside position.  And then he did it again almost immediately.  At 10:10, Wright blew his second point blank defensive rebound, with inside position, when he let Amir Johnson stuff him in his baby carriage and walk him under the basket.

It’s a mystery. A mystery of the human heart.

Lin looks at loose balls like the Thaiblonde looks at steak.

Jeremy Lin: Never having seen him play, I had some built-in expectations for the Asian kid out of Harvard.  I expected an extraordinary basketball IQ and an advanced skill set.  Both of which Lin has.  What I didn’t expect was that he would be a tough-nosed competitor.  Lin is one tough hombre, the diametric opposite of Brandan Wright.  Which he showed at 10:00 of the second Q by ripping the ball out of Amir Johnson’s powerful mitts, and starting the fast break.

Lin likes to stick his nose in on defense. 2 steals and 2 blocked shots(!).  And he is already proficient at running a couple of sets off the high screen.  He made some beautiful dishes off drives.  What he can’t do is hit shots or finish.  But that might not matter to Keith Smart, given his intangibles.

I fear for Reggie Williams’ minutes.

Rodney Carney: Hit some big shots, but I continue to question his basketball IQ on the defensive end.  He needs to make better rotations, and become a bigger factor on the boards.  Nevertheless, Smart clearly favors his length and defense over Reggie Williams’ superior offense at the three.

Vlad Rad: When he’s on his game, Vlad doesn’t need to hit a shot to help the Warriors.  He has a total floor game.  Vlad helped the Warriors big time in this game with some key minutes at center in crunch time.  His defensive flashouts were fantastic, his rotations superb: he even blocked a three point shot leading to a Warriors possession in crunch time.  On offense, he handled the high screens, and his ability to spread the floor contributed directly to the ease with which Ellis and Curry penetrated the Raptors defense down the stretch.

One more great call by Keith Smart.

The Warriors Bet: The Detroit game didn’t do anything to change my mind, but this game should have made it completely obvious to all that the bookies don’t have a line on this Warriors team yet.  And then, of course, Monta Ellis went down.

Stay tuned.  The Warriors Bet will be a game-time decision on Wednesday.

I. Joe Lacob

We’ve heard a lot of different explanations and insinuations why Don Nelson is no longer coaching the Warriors.  I’ve sifted through the lot of it — “pitchforked” would probably be a better word — and think in the end it really comes down to this:

There can be only one Godfather.

Don Nelson had a pipe-dream, of coaching the new and improved Warriors he helped build back to respectability this season, and then retiring into the role of franchise Godfather. The kind of role that his mentor, Red Auerbach, filled for so many years with the Celtics. I and many other fans shared that dream. How sweet would it have been to see Nellie march the Warriors into the playoffs one last time? How poetic a vindication? And how nice would it have been to have Nellie continue to shape the Warriors roster, as only he could, after his retirement?

Unfortunately for Nellie and for us, that dream disappeared in a puff the moment the Warriors were sold.  Because the role of Godfather to the Warriors franchise was something that new owner Joe Lacob coveted for himself.

From the very first moment Lacob opened his mouth after the sale, it was made clear that he intended to be an NBA owner in the Mark Cuban mold: in other words, not just the owner but also the de facto GM of the Golden State Warriors. I noted it in my analysis of his first interviews.  He offered some strong basketball opinions in those interviews: to wit, that running teams can’t win in the playoffs, and that the “architecture” of the Warriors needs fixing.  And oh yes, that Stephen Curry and David Lee were the core of the Warriors, and Monta Ellis something else.

Other sources provided additional, if indirect, confirmation that Joe Lacob is the new Warriors’ GM. Nellie’s agent John O’Connor had this to say about him: “He’s got — how should I say this? — el cojones grande.” Larry Riley put it this way: “He’s full of energy and got his own thoughts.” My translation: Joe Lacob is comfortable substituting his own judgement for that of his basketball people.

And then of course there is the direct confirmation: the signing of Jeremy Lin.  I offer no basketball opinion of Mr. Lin, other than that I was somewhat impressed by his summer league showing against John Wall.  I’m rooting for his success.  But I think it’s universally acknowledged that Lin was signed to the Warriors personally by Joe Lacob, and that if it weren’t for Lacob’s mandate, he would not be on the roster. The NBA-ready Jannero Pargo would be on the roster.

The Lin signing was followed by the decision to let Anthony Tolliver go, and sign Lou Amundson in his stead. This might seem like a rather insignificant decision, involving low-salaried bench players. But replacing the undersized but tremendously gifted and versatile Tolliver with the larger but seriously underskilled Amundson was an obvious cannonshot across Nellie’s bows, a clear signal that his was no longer the controlling vision of the franchise. Lou Amundson is the type of player that Nellie has always wanted the other team to put on the floor. The kind of player Nellie made a career out of destroying, by forcing him to guard quicker players, and pulling him out of the lane, and beating him down the court. The kind of player that Nellie would ruthlessly foul on the offensive end, to send his 48% free throw shooting butt to the line. The kind of player that would hand Nellie wins.

I think that was probably enough for Nellie.  Nellie had his fill in Dallas when Mark Cuban decided he wanted to become the GM, and let Nellie protege and soon-to-be two-time MVP Steve Nash walk, and replaced him on the payroll with Eric Dampier.  Amundson for Tolliver is nowhere near that class of blunder, but I’m sure it, on top of the Lin signing, was enough for Nellie to realize that his pipe-dream was dead.

With Nellie still holed up in Maui like disgraced caporegime Frankie Five Angels in the federal pen, and Larry Riley playing the Tom Hagen role of mouthpiece, the new Godfather of the Warriors delivered his message.  Nellie was brought to Oakland one final time to discuss terms, and then fell on his six million dollar sword.

Joe Lacob, for all his many business achievements and great wealth, has spent his career in relative obscurity. Certainly compared to the many famous businessmen  of his era.  The name over the door of his venture capital firm doesn’t say Joe Lacob, it says Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. I’m sure that anonymity has eaten at him over the years.

Well, that’s all changed now. Now Joe Lacob is the Godfather of an NBA franchise.

And he just made his bones, on a Hall of Famer.

II. Larry Riley

If there was anything amusing about Warrior’s media day, it was watching Larry Riley and Keith Smart go from paying Don Nelson his due, to climbing over each others’ backs trying to distance themselves from him.  Riley spent a lot of time during his interviews trying to convince his listeners that he arrived independently at the conclusion that Nellie had to go, and that all of his roster moves this off-season, starting with the Lee signing, represented a conscious departure from Nellie’s vision for the team.

Ba-loney.

Riley admitted in his interview with Ralph and Tom that he had been trying to trade for Lee for over a year.  In other words, beginning around the time that the Warriors’ draft-day deal for Amare Stoudemire collapsed after Stephen Curry miraculously fell into their lap. Was Riley operating independently of Don Nelson back then?  Of course he wasn’t.

The feeling that the Warriors were not big enough or tough enough or veteran enough on the front line was Don Nelson’s feeling — as anyone who heard or read his comments in the press on Brandan Wright and Anthony Randolph knows — and it was a feeling he had well before last year’s injury disasters.  It is self-evident that Don Nelson was intimately involved in the decisions to pursue Stoudemire and Lee, and in all likelihood the primary instigator. Both Stoudemire and Lee are perfect Nellie big men. And when those moves were initiated, Larry Riley was still his boy.

Nor was there anything in the signings of Dorell Wright and Rodney Carney that signaled a move away from Don Nelson. As I’ve noted several times recently, both Dorell Wright and Rodney Carney are quintessential defensively-oriented Nellieball wing players, on a roster devastatingly devoid of them.  So much so that I predicted in advance that the Warriors would be making a move for a player of their kind. And on the very day that the Warriors declined to match New Jersey’s offer to Anthony Morrow, which opened the door to the signing of Dorell Wright, I watched from courtside as Don Nelson and Larry Riley huddled together in the bleachers at the Las Vegas Summer League. Quite obviously, they were still working closely together at that moment, and indeed Nellie’s very presence at the summer league indicated that both men believed at that time that Nellie would be returning this season.

The move away from Don Nelson came after Joe Lacob took charge.  It came when Lacob left Nellie without a back-up point guard by nixing Jannero Pargo and dictating the Lin signing, and when Tolliver was mysteriously rejected in favor of Amundson.  In other words, it came after Larry Riley discovered with certainty the side on which his bread was being buttered.

I’m sure Larry Riley is a very competent basketball man. His resume as a coach and personnel man is extensive. He is certainly a very congenial man, a great communicator, and possessed of a large rolodex. And of course Nellie himself liked and trusted him. But I simply don’t believe that Larry Riley had the power to operate independently of Nellie prior to the sale of the Warriors, and I don’t believe he has the power to operate independently of Joe Lacob now. All evidence is to the contrary.

What I believe is that if Riley is still around next season as the nominal GM of the Warriors, it will be as the Little Donnie Nelson to Joe Lacob’s Mark Cuban. I think Riley understands that, and his furious spinning to the media simply shows that he is trying very hard to keep his job.

III. Keith Smart

Expectations are high in the media that Smart will lead the Warriors in a very different way than Don Nelson. Specifically, it is expected that the Warriors will play with bigger lineups; that the Warriors will focus more on the defensive end; that the starters will play fewer minutes; and that the chemistry of the team will improve under Smart’s kinder, gentler guidance. Naturally, these expectations are highly annoying to me, not so much because they imply criticism of Nellie, but because they are completely bogus.  I’ve already covered a lot of this territory, but I can’t resist commenting:

If the Warriors play bigger this season it will simply be because 1) They have better big men, and now can play big and win; and 2) Their big men stay healthy. Don Nelson proved throughout his career that he preferred playing big to playing small. But above all, he preferred winning.

I should also throw out a third possibility: or 3) Because Keith Smart wants to keep his job. But I don’t want to consider this possibility yet. It is insulting to Smart, and I have high hopes for him.

If the Warriors play better defensively this season, it will largely be because they now have the personnel to play better defensively. As Keith Smart himself graciously pointed out in his interviews. Nellie was a pretty darn good defensive coach with the right personnel, as the We Believe team (that held the Mavs 10 points below their scoring average in the four Warriors wins, while running the ball down their throats), and the 2002-3 Mavs (that lead the league in point-differential), should have proved to everyone. The media simply have never gotten that, because the idea that a coach could emphasize defense within the framework of a high-octane offense is simply too advanced a concept for them. Don Nelson was not after defensive statistics, he was after point-differential and wins.  And he got them.

If the starters play fewer minutes, it will be because the team can win with them on the bench.  (And given the thinness of the Warriors bench at point guard and center, I’m skeptical that it can even happen.)

If the chemistry of the team improves, it will improve with winning.  Winning is what builds chemistry.  How was the chemistry of the We Believe team?

The Warriors’ players all love Keith Smart.  He’s their friend, protector, mentor. That was the role he played as the intermediary between the players and grumpy old Nellie.  It is not an easy role to maintain as a head coach.

The players all loved Avery Johnson when he took over in Dallas.  Right up until he drove them over the cliff and they threw him under the remains of the bus.

Getting knuckleheads to play decent basketball, or good players to play championship basketball is not always about being liked. Just crack open David Halberstam to the chapter on how Phil Jackson treated Horace Grant.

I’m looking forward to watching Keith Smart coach.  I’m going into it with an open mind. I’m not going to judge him on the basis of what I saw him do last year. I don’t think that would be fair, both because of the limited personnel he was given to work with, and the difficult situation he was in as Nellie’s proxy. The book on Keith Smart starts now. I’m rooting for him.

I will say this, though: the bar I’m setting for Keith Smart this season is quite high. If Andris Biedrins is healthy, and stays healthy, then Smart is taking over a very talented roster.  It’s a roster that I believe Don Nelson could have taken to the playoffs, with a very few slight tweaks (Pargo and Tolliver).

But the bar I’m setting for Smart is also a very simple bar.  Whether or not he plays bigger, whether or not he increases the defensive focus, gets the starters more rest, gets the players to sing Kumbaya in the huddles, or renounces Don Nelson in the press and declares himself reborn — I will attempt to judge Keith Smart by a very simple standard that I learned from Nellie:

How good is he at winning?

Good luck, Coach Smart.  Let’s kick some arrogant Western Conference ass.

IV. Feltbot

Regular followers of this blog are probably asking themselves whether I’m suffering an existential breakdown now that Nellie is gone. It’s a valid question, at least with respect to this blog: this blog was inspired by my joy in watching a Nellie-coached team through thick and thin, and my desire to counter what passed for analysis of Nellieball on other blogs.

The truthful answer is I don’t know. For now, while I remain hopeful about Keith Smart, and I have Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis and David Lee to watch play beautiful uptempo basketball, this will remain a Warriors blog. But if something should change — if, for instance, Joe Lacob decides to draft the next Greg Oden or Hasheem Thabeet, or decides to trade Monta Ellis for the next Eric Dampier, as I fear he yearns to in his heart — then the direction of this blog will change in a hurry. I have a very low tolerance for mediocrity, that outweighs any sort of allegiance I might have to the Warriors. In the long years that the Warriors wandered in the desert between Nelson stints, I simply turned them off. I preferred watching Nellie create the Dallas Mavericks out of thin air.

While I have some curiosity myself as to the direction this blog will take, one thing I can promise is that I will be spending very little time going forward defending Nellie’s record.  When I bring Nellie up, it will be to use him as a familiar reference point in order to draw a comparison, or to make a basketball point.  It seems rather pointless to me to go on defending him in the abstract, now that it’s useless to do so. That game is over. I’m moving on.

Now that Nellie’s gone, it’s enough for me to simply remember the enjoyment I got from watching him work. I enjoyed struggling from afar to divine the secrets of his labrynthine mind and his champion’s heart. I enjoyed trying to learn from him the game within the game of basketball.  As a professional competitor myself, I learned from him the importance of defying conventional wisdom and being utterly fearless to try new things in seeking the path to victory.  And I learned the importance of never giving in: believing you can win no matter what the odds, game-planning to win, and on the day, doing whatever it takes to get that win. Like Larry Riley, I will forever believe that “If you had one game to play in your life, you’d want Don Nelson to coach that game.”

I’m filing Nellie’s work on my bookshelf of modern American masters, next to Thelonious Monk, Elmore Leonard and David Simon.

That’s the shelf I return to.

I don’t want to bore you too much with everything I know about Don Nelson as a GM, as for instance all the secondary players he drafted (eg., Paul Pressey (20th, ’82) and Scott Skiles (22nd, ’86)), or all of the secondary players he discovered and created out of the D-leagues (eg., Mario Elie, Avery Johnson, Matt Barnes, Kelenna Azubuike, CJ Watson, Anthony Tolliver).  Or the complete details of how he built four playoff franchises from scratch.

What I want to do is give you is a very simple list of ALL-STARS that Don Nelson has drafted:

• Marques Johnson (3rd, 1977)
• Sidney Moncrief (5th, 1979)
• Mitch Richmond (5th, 1988)
• Tim Hardaway (14th, 1989)
• Tyrone Hill (11th, 1990)
• Chris Gatling (16th, 1991)
• Latrell Sprewell (24th, 1992)
• Chris Webber (1st, 1993)
• Dirk Nowitzki (9th, 1998)
• Josh Howard (29th, 2003)
• Stephen Curry (7th, 2009) (I’m being presumptous here. Or am I?)

Do you think any other GM in NBA history has drafted 11 future All-Stars?  Do you think any other GM in NBA history has drafted a future All-Star in 6 straight drafts, as Don Nelson did for the Warriors from 1988-93?  Has any other GM in NBA history built four playoff franchises from scratch?

Don Nelson has a record as a GM that is unparalleled in league history, and which is likely never to be matched.

Joe Lacob, do you think you can do better?

And they are going to play with veterans. High basketball IQ veterans.

Amen.

As most basketball fans are aware, Amundson is known as a hustle player off the bench.  You can’t say he’s great at any one thing, but he plays hard and he plays tough. He will never dog it. He will never, a la Brandan Wright, shie away from contact. He will never, ever, back down in the paint.  He is the answer to the question “Who will lead the Warriors in Melted Brains, now that Anthony Randoph is gone?”  As this video shows:

And while not a great shot blocker, he does have the ability to make his presence known in the middle:

What Amundson is not, in any way, shape or form, is an offensive player.  He cannot shoot at all, and is a disastrous 50% from the line.  I think its safe to say that Amundson can never share the floor with Andris Biedrins, and can never be on the floor at the end of games.  He needs to be paired with a shooter on the front line, which will make playing alongside Brandan Wright difficult as well. He does run the floor well, though, so maybe Nellie can get away with Amundson and Wright together for short stretches. But I think we will all enjoy watching Amundson play with Udoh a lot more.

A few more quick thoughts:

• Would Tolliver have been better?  From an offensive standpoint, definitely.  Tolliver can do almost anything you ask him to do on the court from the four position.  He is extraordinarily versatile, and a perfect fit for a Nellie team.  And it appears that the Warriors would have preferred to sign him.  However, I think the loss of Udoh takes some of the sting out of replacing Tolliver with Amundson. The Warriors needed more size to hold the fort until Udoh returns, and they got it.
• Why in the world would Tolliver choose the TWolves, of all teams, over the Warriors?  With the Warriors he had the beautiful Bay Area, a transcendant point guard in Stephen Curry, a system made for him, and a guarantee of significant minutes.  In Minnesota he has arctic blasts, frozen tundra and endless winter night, Michele Bachmann, no point guard at all, and the worst system in the NBA. What in the world could have possessed him?  I have wracked my brain over this, and this is the only thing I could come up with: David Kahn must have promised the 6-7″ Tolliver that he would get minutes at small forward, which is the dream of all tweeners (think Al Harrington, Matt Barnes, Brandan Wright and yes, Anthony Randolph). Kahn is just stupid enough to have done this.  Let’s watch and see.
• Brandan Wright’s quick hook just got quicker.  If that’s possible.
• As the Marc Stein ESPN article makes clear, the Warriors were able to outbid the Hornets for Amundson because of the shrewd cap management of Larry Riley.  Doesn’t it feel great to have real professionals in the Warriors’ front office?

Carney isn’t going to set the house on fire for the Warriors.  He has been a disappointment to past coaches in terms of his basketball IQ.  You only have to look at his poor assist and rebounding numbers to see that.  This is not a player who can make plays with the ball in his hands.

What he can do is run the floor and finish with authority, and spot up and shoot threes.  (Don’t pay too much attention to his 30% from three in limited minutes last year.  He was 35% in the previous year when he had a larger role, and should benefit greatly in confidence from Nellie’s up tempo, share the ball philosopy, and greeniest of green lights.  Which is not to mention Stephen Curry hitting him on his hands, in rhythmn.)

And he can defend.  Which is what Nellie is going to ask him to do, along with Dorell Wright, against the other team’s best scorer.

Does this move make Nellie’s return to the Warriors bench seem more likely?  I don’t know, but I find it interesting that every player the Warriors have added this summer is a quintessential Nellie player, starting with Udoh and Lee, multi-talented running big men with high IQs, and ending with Wright and Carney, long and athletic defensive swingmen who run and jump like deer.

And I find it interesting that Larry Riley says Nellie is returning to town next week (see my last comment on the previous thread).

First let me note that it was extremely smart of Lacob to do this interview with Kawakami. Going directly into the snake pit to draw the venom from the viper’s fangs. A strong move that indicates as much as anything else that the Chris Cohan era is well and truly dead.

Getting to the substance: One thing made clear from the interview is that Lacob has strong opinions on basketball and basketball talent, and believes like most fans that he has what it takes to be his own GM.  He wants to put his own stamp on the basketball team, starting with the draft and ending with trading for superstars, with the occasional personal signing of an undrafted home-town hero thrown in.  I can’t fault him for that. I would no doubt be exactly the same way if I had control of a franchise.  But it can be a dangerous trait in an owner, as Mark Cuban has repeatedly proved.  In a very short time, Cuban has become one of the very worst GMs in the history of the league — perhaps the only one to ever throw away a championship team out of hubris.

The interview also makes me fear for Don Nelson, and for the “architecture” of the team, as Lacob puts it.  Lacob recognizes that this team is very special in its running ability, but states in almost the same breath that he doesn’t believe a running team can win in the playoffs.  (He apparently doesn’t believe that untimely injuries or suspensions in the conference finals kept the 2003 Mavericks or the Nash/Stoudemire Suns from winning a title.  And he may not have watched Cowen’s (and Nelson’s) Celtics run Jabbar’s Bucks off the court in the 1974 finals. [Want a hint as to my age?  Watching Cowens battle Jabbar unto death was a formative experience for the young, undersized feltbot.])  Lacob wants low-post basketball.  That’s how his championship Celtics were built, that’s the conventional wisdom since the dawn of basketball time, and that’s what he understands.

I would like to say this to Joe Lacob:  Walk it up and throw it into the low post basketball is not the be-all and end-all  of playoff basketball that conventional wisdom says it is.  Don Nelson basketball  wins in the playoffs, and I can prove it.

It wins with greatly inferior rosters, as when Nellie’s RunTMC Warriors knocked both the David Robinson Spurs and the Stockton and Malone Jazz out of the playoffs, and when Nellie’s We Believe Warriors knocked  the #1 seeded Mavericks out of the playoffs.

It also wins with great rosters, as when Nellie won the World Championship with Team USA in 1994, and when he came within a heart-breaking Nowitzki knee injury in Game 3 of the 2003 Conference Finals of winning a title with the Dallas Mavericks.  Mr. Lacob, please go back and watch the first two games of that series, in which the Mavs seized home-court advantage from the Spurs, and consider who would have won the title if Nowitzki doesn’t get injured.  (The New Jersey Nets were a non-factor.  They were swept out of the finals by the Spurs, and would have been crushed by the Mavericks as well had they advanced.)

And while you’re at it, please go back and watch those great Phoenix Suns runs in the playoffs, and consider whether the Suns might have won a title if Joe Johnson and Steve Nash didn’t get their faces re-arranged, or if Amare Stoudemire didn’t blow out his knee, or if David Stern didn’t make one of the most ridiculous suspensions in the history of organized sport.

If that doesn’t convince you – and apparently it hasn’t – then consider this:   I predict that 4 out of the next 5 NBA titles will be won by a Don Nelson-styled running team.  A team that in fact plays SMALL BALL for much of the game.  That team is of course the Miami Heat, and the “architecture” that will win titles in crunch time is Chris Bosh at center and Lebron James at power forward.  With Bosh out on the wings spacing the floor, and Lebron playing point-forward at the top of the key.  That is the unit that is completely unstoppable, that is the unit that is going to run teams off the floor, that is the unit that is going to win championships in spectacular style. With nary a low-post player to be seen.

Nellieball is going to win titles, very soon, and for a long, long time to come.

I fervently hope you give it a chance here, Mr. Lacob, for we have the makings of a very special team this season, under the guidance of a very special coach.  A chance to convince you that the most beautiful and entertaining basketball on earth can also be winning basketball.

One last glorious chance.