Thursday, December 6, 2007

The Inspiration for WTC


This post is exactly why I created this website!!!!!!!

I did not plan on posting anything else this week, but now I have to.

The following was taken out of a San Jose Mercury article after the Warriors pasted the Bucks on Wednesday:

Back in June, when the NBA draft came and highly touted Chinese forward Yi Jianlian went, some Warriors fans wondered aloud why their club traded up for raw forward Brandan Wright at No. 8 but wouldn't bear the extra cost to move a couple of slots higher and snag the more polished Yi.

Wednesday, those doubters received their answer. While Yi toiled fruitlessly for the Milwaukee Bucks, the team that plucked him with the No. 6 pick, the Warriors managed just fine without him. Golden State used some season-best numbers at both ends of the floor to post its widest margin of victory this season, 120-90.

Anyone who knows me knows how pissed off I am right now. I will try to harness my emotions to convey some lucid thoughts through this posting (I am so mad I don’t know where to start).


1) “the Warriors managed just fine without [Yi]”
Last time I checked, we have been managing just fine without Wright. The Bucks didn’t pick Yi because they thought they could go to the Finals this year with him, just like the Warriors didn’t pick Wright because they thought he was the missing link last year in the playoffs. How can you start an article arguing why the Warriors are better off not giving up a little more to get Yi and then make an argument that is completely irrelevant! The draft is used to build for the future in the long-term.

2) “Wednesday, those doubters received their answer”
I want you to find one doubter who was thinking – “If Yi comes here and we beat his team by 30, I will know we made the right decision, because everybody knows that how a rookie performs in the second of back-to-back road games in his first 6 weeks in the NBA defines his career.” I may be crazy but I think the doubters (including me) are thinking that a 7 foot power forward that runs the floor like a guard might have a place on the Warriors roster. Not to mention, he can shoot a 10 footer and make it consistently (I don’t think Biedrins can do that).

3) “[the Warriors] wouldn’t bear the extra cost to move a couple of slots higher and snag the more polished Yi”

The key assumption in this statement is that “the extra cost” to the Warriors would have outweighed the benefit of having a “more polished Yi” over a “raw” Brandon Wright. So let’s explore that “extra cost” …

The Bucks have a glut of forwards (Bogut, Villanueva, Simmons, Gadzuric) so adding Yi was not exactly a “need” pick (A need pick is when a team takes a specific player because of the position he plays as opposed to just taking the best player available).

Consider the following hypothetical scenarios this past Draft Day, June 28th, 2007:
a) The Warriors trade Wright, Belinelli (or the pick used to take Belinelli) and anyone not named Monta Ellis or Andris Biedrins to the Bucks for Yi.
b) The Warriors trade Wright and next years first round pick to the Bucks for Yi.
c) The Warriors trade Belinelli, Pietrus and next year’s first round pick to the Bucks for Yi.

Unfortunetly, all of these trades make sense for both teams and the “extra cost” for the Warriors would not have come close to outweighing the difference between having Yi over Wright.

The bottom line here is that one game does not make or break a career. Saying that the doubters got their “answer” is ridiculous. As a loyal Warriors fan, I would love to see Brandon Wright go the way of Chris Bosh instead of Cliff Rozier (how about that for an old Warriors reference), but I don’t foresee that happening. In addition, if you strapped Mullin to a chair, gave him a shot of truth serum, and asked him a question he would normally lie to (like “did you honestly think Patrick O’Bryant would be a great NBA player?"), he would most likely tell you that he regrets not making more of an effort to get Yi.

******I leave you with this (a shameless sales pitch for WTC)******
Isn’t it about time to hold these journalists accountable for their wildly inaccurate and borderline offensive articles?!?!

8 comments:

Unknown said...

If you are a TRUE Warriors fan, on draft day, you were thinking, "Please don't draft Yi, Mully. Dear God, Please don't draft Yi!"

I want to say if they had gotten Yi, it would have been "Same ol'Warriors".

P.S. We gave that Orlando game away.

Unknown said...

RT, did you see this? I saw it on TrueHoop on ESPN.com. Ah, memories.

Name the Warrior

Carly P. said...

You all probably don't care what I have to say regarding the NBA, I am going to post any way.

My favorite NBA team - the Clippers and to be a true Clipper fan you have to be ready for the worse every year. Once Brand went down, everyone knew the season was over. And it's pretty much come to fruition.

But the first few games of the season the Clippers were winning and I had to take that moment to talk shit, because I knew that it would be along time before I could brag about my favorite team. My co-worker reminds me of the Warriors - Clipper records almost daily. Awesome!

With the Clippers as bad of a team as they are, it's painful to watch games. So my basketball watching is at an all time low.

I will randomly watch KG when the Celtics are on National TV, but other than that I really don't care like I have in the past.

peace and I'm out.

RT said...

The Clippers are in a sad state. I have watched a few of their games and they are bad. They play with no heart or conviction. They have too mcuh talent to be this bad.

However, you take away the top two players (Brand and Cassell) on any team, they are going to be bad. You also have to remember that this post 0-6 run started with their win against the Clippers.

My only question is: Who hates the Lakers more - A Warriors fan or a Clippers fan?

Unknown said...

I have to go Warriors fans hate the Lakers more. It's hard to measure the SoCal-NorCal feelings, but I'd argue that hate is greater than the second banana complex the Clippers fans endure.

Although, I did have several friends, born in San Fraqncisco, who rooted for the Lakers during the Kobe-Shaq years. The Warriors were absolutely abyssmal those years, but that's hardly an excuse to root for the Lakers.

Overall, Clippers-Lakers is equivilent to Mets-Yankees, White Sox-Cubs, A's-Giants, Islanders-Rangers(hockey?). It doesn't matter how well those "second" teams do, the focus is on the other team. I mean, look at Angels-Dodgers. The Angels are making some inroads against the Dodgers, but the Dodgers are still the Big Dog even though the Angels have a Championship and more playoff appearances over the last decade.

I think it's interesting all the West Coast teams that have moved from other cities over the years. Giants, A's, Dodgers, Warriors, Raiders, Lakers, Kings(NBA), Clippers.

Carly P. said...

Who hates the Lakers more - A Warriors fan or a Clippers fan?

I think that is a great question. Living in both cities (LA and SF) I would have to say that Warriors fans hate the Lakers more than Clipper Fans hate the Lakers.

Warriors/No CAL fans have a deeper hatred for anything So. Cal. So. Cal only hates traffic. There is a distaste for the Lakers, but there isn't the same passion.

With the Kobe drama the distaste increased, but not comparable with the North.

Peace and I'm out

Unknown said...

RT, check out today's Daily Dime on ESPN.com

Does J.A. Adande know he's not writing for the LA Times anymore? THIS is why Warriors fans hate the Lakers. The whole piece seemed to be about bashing Nelson for no good reason. Anybody who watched the game knew Bynum had a great game, in fact, he played out his ass. Why wasn't mentioned? He shot like crap(9-23). Even the quotes Adande uses from Jackson and Fisher were Nellie bashing. WTF?

Unknown said...

Why wasn't Kobe mentioned.