Hawks buzzard Josh Smith has famously wasted quite a few Atlanta possessions over the years by taking ill-advised three-pointers. That phraseology is actually redundant when it comes to Smith: it would be considered ill to ever advise Smith to take a three.
Thankfully, someone showed Josh the light, and he hasn't attempted a trey all season. He convinces when he tells the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hasn't even felt tempted to fire up a bomb. He found Basketball Jesus! Like a good son of the word, he should spread his experience. Which players would most benefit from a Brother Smith knock at the door?
SACRAMENTO -- It's not so much the Warriors' 1-4 start that's the problem. It's the teams they've lost to and the manner in which they've been defeated.
Nobody expected the Warriors to be among the Western Conference elite. But they shouldn't be a team that can't compete with the L.A. Clippers and Sacramento Kings. But they can't. Not now.
What a miserable weekend it was for the Warriors. And you could tell by taking one stroll through the locker room after their 120-107 loss to the Kings on Sunday that there's more to this tough start than just a tough start.
Warriors haymaker Stephen Jackson is againtalking to Yahoo!'s Marc Spears about the injustice of it all, in which "it all" is a $30-million extension from a bad team who has apparently broke its promise to stop sucking. Clearly, in the grand scheme of the Golden State's familiar foray into bleakness, Stephen Jackson is the victim, according to Stephen Jackson.
But he's also a cause, and not because of this latest impetuousness. The very fact that Jackson is considered the Most Valuable Warrior -- or even a valuable Warrior -- helped get Golden State into this mess.
FanHouse previews a player to watch from each NBA team in advance of the 2009-10 season.
Point forward. The final frontier.
These are the voyages of the... okay, that joke ran out of gas before it even started (much like the Warriors' playoff hopes. Hey-O!). The point is, the point forward position, the true point forward position is essentially the Holy Grail. Long rumored, we have specific evidence to support its existence (Magic Johnson), and often imitated (LeBron James), but no one has seemed to find it in years.
The optimists around the Bay Area like to say that the Warriors' 29-win season in 2008-09 was primarily the result of too many injuries and a very young roster.
The pessimists say that last year's significant step-back-- from 48 wins the season before -- was mostly the result of poor management decisions that yielded a mismatched roster with too much overlap on the perimeter and not enough bulk on the interior.
The goal in 2009-10 is to figure out which side was right.
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry weren't on the floor together at any point during the Warriors' 108-101 preseason opener against the L.A. Clippers on Sunday night.
That's going to change. Warriors' coach Don Nelson said so.
And you know what? Ellis, who at first wasn't crazy about the notion, seems to be coming around to the idea.
"You can't take anything away from him," Ellis said of Curry. "He can shoot, pass, defend, all of that. He's got the whole package. ... He's better than I thought he was."
Yes, it's a problem that Monta Ellis said on Monday he can't play alongside rookie Stephen Curry. But there's likely a bigger problem looming: coach Don Nelson might start to think Ellis is right.
Not only were Ellis' comments a shot at Curry, whom the Warriors selected with the No. 7 pick in the June draft, but he also seemed to be sending a clear message to Nelson. What Ellis essentially said was that the strategy Nelson was planning on employing this season was destined to fail.
On Friday, Warriors captain Stephen Jackson put himself on the trade block. By late Saturday, dots were being connected, and Jackson was being rumored to be a possibility for the Dallas Mavericks.
Mike Fisher of DallasBasketball.com reported that, separate from the Jackson rumor, Golden State coach Don Nelson had been talking to folks in Dallas about potential trades. Of course, Nelson's son Donnie runs the Mavericks front office, which would make this wholly uninteresting ... if not for the ongoing war between the elder Nelson and Mavs owner Mark Cuban, which makes this sort of aisle-reaching notable.
So, is it Jackson that Nelson is trying to peddle? Or is something else going on?
I have to hand it to you, NBA offseason. You've managed to outdo yourself this year. No long lulls of nothing. No prolonged sense of abandonment for us. Between Ricky Rubio, Michael Beasley, and now Stephen Jackson, you've kept us quite entertained. Bravo.
It's Friday in the NBA offseason lull, which means wacky things can happen. Like the captain of the Golden State Warriors saying he wants out of the team, pronto. Captain Jack is abandoning ship.
The Warriors surprisingly took Stephen Curry at No. 7, leaving supposed heartthrob Jordan Hill on the board. (Hill went one pick later to New York.) Curry had refused to work out for Golden State during the workout season, and the hubbub followed that the Warriors would avoid a point guard to avoid angering Monta Ellis, who fancies himself a modern day Cousy.
Hawks buzzard Josh Smith has famously wasted quite a few Atlanta possessions over the years by taking ill-advised three-pointers. That phraseology is actually redundant when it comes to Smith: it would be considered ill to ever advise Smith to take a three.
SACRAMENTO -- It's not so much the Warriors' 1-4 start that's the problem. It's the teams they've lost to and the manner in which they've been defeated.
FanHouse previews a 
FanHouse 
OAKLAND, Calif. -- 
Yes, it's a problem that 
On Friday, Warriors captain 
I have to hand it to you, 
The Warriors surprisingly took 
