After Chris Webber-Don Nelson feud, Warriors descended into decade-long bleakness; DeClercq, Welsch, Gatling, LaRue, Farmer, Owes, Delk, Jimmy Jackson …

Posted on January 24, 2017 by Steinmetz

Guess I’ll call this unwritten book. I’ve been putting some old Warriors’ stories here — along with all my other usual type stuff. If not here, then where …

Back in 1995-96, Warriors fans had no idea what they were about to endure. They were still in the immediate aftermath of the Chris Webber-Don Nelson selfishness-fest that had completely sabotaged the previous season. Sure, they missed the playoffs after Webber had been traded and then Nelson had been fired in ’94-95, but it wasn’t like the franchise was going to miss the playoffs for the next 11 seasons, right?

Nelson and Webber had just set the franchise back a decade, but nobody knew it at the time. Dave Twardzik was the new GM and Rick Adelman was the coach of the Warriors in 1995-96, fresh of a successful stint in Portland, where he guided two teams to the NBA Finals.

Owner Chris Cohan’s new ownership was in its infancy, a deer-in-the-headlights period that would last far past Y2K. …

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The Warriors went 36-46 in ’95-96, with Latrell Sprewell and rookie Joe Smith leading the way. The following year the Warriors would go 30-52, but after that it was a five-year period of staggering bleakness — when the Warriors won 19, 21, 19, 17 and 21 games, respectively.

In other words, long before Stephen Curry ever arrived on the scene.

Here are a few notes on some players back then:

–Chris Gatling: What I remember about Chris Gatling, in addition to making one NBA All-Star team, was that once on defense, when he couldn’t find his man and was worried about an illegal defense call, he sprinted to the baseline corner, where nobody stood.

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‘Warriors WrapUp’: Waiters’ 3-pointer gives Heat 105-102 win over Golden State; Warriors struggle from beyond the arc; late rally from 10 points down falls short

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Steinmetz

 

This one looked like the past three games for the Warriors — up until the third quarter, that is. The Warriors didn’t have any of their usual after-halftime magic on Monday in Miami, and the result was an unexpected 105-102 loss to the Heat.

In the past three games, Golden State has been spectacular in the third quarter, outscoring their opponents in a big way on their way to easy victories. But the Heat stayed deliberate and locked in, and not only did Miami hang around, it went up 98-88 with four minutes remaining.

The Warriors stormed back and drew even on Kevin Durant’s dunk with 11.7 seconds left, but that just set up Dion Waiters’ game-winning 3-pointer over Klay Thompson with six-tenths of a second left for the victory.

Link to “Warriors WrapUp,” the postgame show on 95.7-FM The Game.

Waiters finished with a career-high tying 33 points on 13-for-20 from the field. In Wednesday’s win over Oklahoma City, the Warriors outscored the Thunder 37-22 in the third quarter on their way to a 121-100 win. On Friday, the Warriors outscored the Rockets 37-22 in the third quarter on their way to a 126-91 win over Houston. And on Sunday, Golden State outscored Orlando 42-24 in the third quarter, winning 118-98.

In the upset within the upset, the Warriors shot just 8-for-30 from beyond the arc (26.7 percent). Miami went 13-for-30 from 3-point range (43.3 percent). The loss snaps the Warriors’ seven-game winning streak.

Despite the loss that drops the Warriors to 38-7, coach Steve Kerr is back as the coach of the Western Conference All-Star team. It’s his second time in the past three years coaching that team.

 

 

 

 

 

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Stephen Curry almost went to Phoenix on draft day, then walked into a s**t storm on Day 1 of Warriors’ training camp

Posted on January 23, 2017 by Steinmetz

If you’re going to start with Stephen Curry in our book that will never be written (don’t worry, we’ll have some older Warriors’ stuff down the line), you’ve got to start with the 2009 NBA draft. In addition, you must go back and look at the Warriors’ draft history — previous picks like Joe Smith, Antawn Jamison (I know, actually acquired in a draft-day trade), Anthony Randolph, Mike Dunleavy, Adonal Foyle, etc.

You’d also have to include that the Warriors were considering trading Curry to Phoenix for Amare Stoudemire on draft night. Or that David Kahn, the Minnesota GM at the time, gifted Curry to the Warriors by selecting Ricky Rubio and Johnny Flynn ahead of him.

You’d also have to take a look back at the NBA draft lottery, and document how the Warriors were almost always a part of it. The Warriors didn’t used to go to the playoffs so those ping-pong balls held a lot of allure for the fans and franchise.

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