[h2]
The Warriors don't need to trade Pietrus (and don't really want to, either)[/h2]
By Tim Kawakami
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008 at 2:43 pm in
Warriors,
NBA.
Random note: I've been away from Warriors typing for a long time, but I have to mention this-in two losses to the Warriors this year, have you noticed that Yao Ming is a combined -37? Fascinating. He just looks awful against the small Warriors swarm. The Warriors' best playoff match-up, I think, would be Houston. The Rockets are just bedeviled by the GSWs.
As in all things involving Chris Mullin's happy trigger finger (oh, I just typed the "
trigger" word-Mike Nolan is so jealous!), this post may be rendered null almost the moment I post it.
Doesn't matter. Still going to do it, even if Mullin trades Mickael Pietrus for two piles of old NBA media guides in the next two blinks.
Because I hear all the murmuring about the Warriors and Pietrus, who came back on a one-year tender under severe protest.
I see that Pietrus is providing a lot of the trade murmurs. I understand that Miami has always liked him-though I know not exactly why.
I get that the Warriors are down a back-up point guard after Troy Hudson's hip flare-up and subsequent shutdown.
However, that doesn't add up to an imminent need for the Warriors to trade Pietrus, who is eligible to be traded this week through the Feb. 21 trade deadline.
In fact, if I had to guess, I'd say that the Warriors won't trade him. I'd predict that Mullin will just let him play out his contract-for good or ill-become an unrestricted free agent this summer, and probably wave bye-bye.
Here's why I'm guessing this (pending Miami offering somethiing serious-say, Dorrell Wright-but I don't see the Heat budging from its offer of junk and more junk for Pietrus)…
* Pietrus actually has and can continue to help the Warriors, possibly even in many playoff scenarios.
Look at the roster make-up: Pietrus and Kelenna Azubuike are Don Nelson's only big back-up "two guards," meaning if Nelson wants to match up with an opponent who has two perimeter scorers, Stephen Jackson gets one of them and… either Azubuike or Pietrus has to get the other.
When Jackson takes a rest-and I believe he has to get some more rest time, he's definitely wearing down at 40 minutes a night-it's
only Azubuike and Pietrus (with Pietrus as the better option) to defend the better, bigger two-guards.
If Azubuike's having a bad night-and he has them-then Pietrus (who has many bad nights, too) is one of the most important players the Warriors have. And if one of those nights coincides with a Pietrus good game (about one in three), then he's HUGELY important.
Remenber, good two-guards can kill you in this league. You must defend them.
Monta Ellis can't defend many of them-he's too small. Baron Davis shouldn't wear himself down defending them-he's too important on the other side and he's not a very good defender most nights, anyway.
If the Warriors trade Pietrus without getting a mid-sized perimeter defender back in the deal… then Nellie is very thin at one spot he has determinedly kept deep in his time here. That's a
big deal that is not being mentioned.
* I hear time and again that the Warriors need a back-up point guard. Yes, they do. But not more than they need options at the back-up wing spots, not in Nellie's system.
There is only one essential point guard in this system and he wears No. 5. The Warriors aren't going to get anybody like Baron to back-up Baron, OK?
Right now, Ellis is OK serving the point in the 8 to 12 minutes that Baron rests. If not Ellis, then Jackson gets time there. Matt Barnes, too. Eventually, possibly, Marco Belinelli can get time there-probably in a year or two.
Adding a bad veteran point guard does not aide this rotation much. Hudson was worth a try, but really, he wasn't going to be very significant even if he stayed healthy.
-If Baron is healthy, he's the difference at point guard. Nobody else is.
-If Baron gets hurt, nobody the Warriors get is going to make a bit of difference.
* The Warriors are a pretty good team right now because they're deep at the wing and can fill around Baron and Jackson-their only two essentials.
Strip down the depth at wing, then you have some problems.
As of now, the Warriors are one of the best 6 or 7 teams in the West, and that's saying something. 11 road victories already? That's the pace of a 46- to 48-win team.
Do you really want to mess with that just because Pietrus is a fickle force?
* The point guards the Warriors might be able to acquire for Pietrus are more problem than they are solution.
I mean, if you understand Nelson's system, you have to know that Gary Payton is NOT THE ANSWER. No way. Too old, too slow.
-Tyronn Lue: Covered him. No. (Anybody who needs 10 dribbles to get a shot-except Baron-is out.)
-Jason Williams: Expiring contract, Miami probably offering him… but no. A turnover machine who can't finish.
-Smush Parker: Another Heat special. No chance.
-Earl Boykins: Too expensive, too stubborn, not even close to a Don Nelson kind of guard, would cause Baron to either mutiny or challenge to a cage match. No chance.
-Darrell Armstrong: Now we're talking. In fact, he was the Warriors' top choice last summer, but they couldn't get Indy to cut him in time. The Pacers conveniently waited for the Warriors to sign Hudson, then the Pacers cut Armstrong, who ended up with New Jersey. Hadn't played much for a while, but recently has gotten some decent minutes. Probably not available.
Anyway, none of those guys are worth Pietrus. Picture it this way: If the Warriors draw Dallas or Phoenix in the playoffs, would any of those guys help? Not really. But Pietrus could get key minutes guarding Josh Howard, Jerry Stackhouse, Grant Hill or Shawn Marion. Maybe he won't do it wonderfully, but he could do it.
* It's standard NBA fare: You must have a back-up point guard! Must! that's Isiah Thomas thinking. That's just the way dumb NBA people think.
(And the way Mike Montgomery thought. These guys are just crippled unless they have a guard who dribbles 12 times while everybody stands around and the coach calls a play.)
I like the way Phil Jackson and Don Nelson think: You should have other players who can take up the point guard responsibility if the stud point guard is missing or needs a break.
Good players can do multiple things. Bad players can only do one thing. People scream for the guys who can only do one thing because you see them doing it-they want SHOOTERS! They want REBOUNDERS! They want BACK-UP POINT GUARDS!
But good teams have guys who do all that stuff, at different times, and the Warriors should be good enough that they can fill in the gaps without ONE VETERAN BACK-UP POINT GUARD.
If Baron goes down for a little bit, Ellis and Jackson can fill in. Maybe you fake it with Belinelli or Barnes.
If Baron goes down for a lot… nothing will save the Warriors anyway. Certainly not a Pietrus trade.
Now, if you can get something decent, not necessarily just a back-up point guard… that's something else entirely.
* The Warriors are OK with letting Pietrus play out his deal and leaving for nothing as a FA. They've already dared him to go once… Why wouldn't they be able to suck it up for a few more months now that it has gotten this far?
Pietrus isn't very valuable-he has already found that out. The Warriors aren't going to take back anybody's problem for Pietrus-they've already proven that.
Likeliest possibility: They share each other's company for the rest of the season, maybe Pietrus gives them key minutes in the playoffs, maybe not, and they part ways in the summer.
Or else Mullin finds a good deal today or in the next few weeks, and this column gets deleted from my memory cells.