FanHouse DonNelson

Conventional wisdom to this point has Golden State looking point guard at No. 7 in next week's NBA Draft. As I joked a few weeks ago, everyone but Monta Ellis realized this season that Monta Ellis is not an NBA point guard, even for a team as epileptic as the Warriors. With a stable of young big men (Andris Biedrins, Anthony Randolph, Brandan Wright) and wings (Stephen Jackson, Jamal Crawford, Ellis), an offensive ringleader for this crew is what's needed. I think.

But Ellis still thinks he can be that dude. Hence the problem. Both DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony and the San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami reported within hours of each other that Warriors coach Don Nelson and GM Larry Riley recently flew back east this month to diffuse the (re-)budding clash with Ellis. According to Kawakami, the team may have promised Ellis it would not draft a point guard. Givony thinks Golden State might prefer Arizona power forward Jordan Hill to the likes of Brandon Jennings and Jrue Holiday anyways.

By theory, the NBA Draft Lottery (Tuesday at 8:00 PM ET) is left to randomness. But what if a set of malevolent Basketball Gods, hellbent on upsetting the Order of the League, driving the depressed into further hopelessness, and rewarding only those with misguided or evil intentions, dictated the results? (Note: These malevolent Basketball Gods are responsible for Bruce Bowen, General Manager Isiah Thomas and the Vancouver Grizzlies.)

Close your eyes and imagine how the ping pong balls would bounce if malevolence ruled tonight's lottery ...

The Warriors finally got around Tuesday to doing something they probably should have done back in October.

They announced that executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin wouldn't be returning for 2009-10, and that Larry Riley would be the Warriors' new general manager.

The reality of the situation is that most in the Bay Area and around the league -- Mullin included – knew he was a goner back during the preseason. That's when team president Robert Rowell (pictured, right) made it clear to the media that he and Mullin had had a fundamental disagreement over how to handle Monta Ellis' moped accident.

The writing was on the wall. It was sloppy, oddly colored, and held no defense from the elements, but it was still clear as day. And now the punctuation mark has been cemented.

Chris Mullin is out as the Warriors' General Manager.

Technically, Mullin wasn't ousted. His contract wasn't renewed. Which is a lot like when your high school girlfriend didn't actually dump you, just kind of let things end when you both went to different colleges. Only with millions and millions of dollars and the ability to tell Anthony Randolph what to do.

Wasn't Anthony Randolph supposed to have an attitude problem? Wasn't there talk of immaturity and a questionable work ethic from the Warriors' 19-year-old?

Well then, something doesn't quite add up because the Randolph you see on the court and the Randolph you talk to these days sure doesn't seem like any kind of problem.

In fact, if you're talking Warriors, this kid looks like the solution.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.



-- David Lee recently appeared on PBS's The Electric Company, apparently co-starring with the GEICO gecko's less successful brother. If this NBA thing doesn't pan out, maybe Lee fall back on acting? I'm dubious about that.

NBA Essentials provides the must-see links, quotes and videos of the day.



[via TrueHoop]

Ah, it's that magical time of the season.

When the stars of lottery teams shut it down.

Stephen Jackson is shutting it down because of a nagging toe injury. If there's one guy you can't fault for calling it a season, it's Jackson. He's battled through injuries, through an embarrassing season, through the complete lack of a plan formulated by the franchise heads. And with the playoffs long ago a dream, there's just not much point in pushing what is probably a pretty painful injury any further.

But what are the long term goals of this club anyway? And how does this affect Jackson's future?

As teams get eliminated from the 2009 NBA playoff picture, Fork 'Em figures out what went wrong.

Stuff definitely went wrong for the Golden State Warriors this year. The only real question is whether the trouble started when Baron Davis left or immediately afterward.

There will be an eternal debate in the Bay Area about whether or not the Warriors should have kept Davis, or at least made a better effort to keep him. Instead, Davis signed with the L.A. Clippers in July, and the Warriors' 2008-09 was irreparably altered.

If you follow the NBA, you've probably heard a lot of different things about Warriors guard Monta Ellis.

You probably know that Ellis was a budding star before injuring his left ankle in an offseason moped accident. And you likely remember that the Warriors fined Ellis $3 million for the transgression, and still claim they hold the right to void the remainder of the $66 million deal he signed only weeks before the accident.

You also might have heard that Ellis is angry about that, and that he isn't too fond of coach Don Nelson, either.

Here's something you might not have heard: Monta Ellis is back.