FanHouse Warriors

Court Vision is your comprehensive breakdown of the weekly schedule.

This past week the schedule might have saved you a little. If you're in a weekly league there's a very good chance that you decided to sit Tony Parker, with the Spurs playing just twice. After Parker went down in game two, you really only technically got 1.2 games out of him. Thus is the importance of paying attention to the schedule. It can help you make those tough decisions a little bit easier. It's one thing to lose a player toward the end of the week during a four-game stint. But the schedule warned you this week to sit Tony Parker.

For those of you who did start Parker, consider this the schedule makers, or Tony himself, trying to teach you a valuable fantasy basketball lesson. I hate to break it to you, but you're responsible for Parker's injury. Send him a card or something, it's the least you can do. But make sure you set your lineup before you leave the house. Remember your priorities.

Before we turn our attention to the playoffs, let's talk about the way the season finished for the Golden State Warriors, a team that didn't make the postseason.

In case you haven't noticed, the Warriors are a long way removed from the "We Believe" team of two years ago. And they had a very fitting ending this week to a truly lousy season.

For Monday's home finale against the San Antonio Spurs, the Warriors dressed the league minimum eight players because of injuries. That was the case for every one of the Warriors' last half-dozen games or so.

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.

In our continuing theme of NBA players doing unfathomably stupid things, Monta Ellis confessed to the Warriors yesterday that he was not injured while playing basketball as he previously indicated. In case I wasn't clear, that would mean he lied to the people that gave him a 6 year, $66 million extension. A report in the Mercury Times indicates that Ellis contacted team officials and told them he did not injure his ankle in the gym and was not playing basketball when the injury happened. The injury occurred outdoors, which of course leads the mind to a variety of things that your mom would probably tell you to stop doing right now, since, you know, you just signed yourself a $66 million dollar deal.

The report indicates that Ellis and the Warriors are working to resolve the situation and put it behind them, but a lot of that depends on how Ellis heals. Odds are that everything heals okay, and it's not a big deal outside of a small fine and maybe a game or two suspension for violating the terms of his contract. But if, in a worst-case scenario, there's any long term damage stemming from the injury, go ahead and tuck it away that the Warriors have an out to void Ellis' contract.

Note to NBA players: It's understandable that you want to have some summer fun, especially in celebration of the largest contract you've ever had. But maybe go to the beach and sit. Buy yourself a nice book and a pillow. Or enjoy an exciting game of Scrabble with friends. Just don't do things that could lead to not only injury, but an embarrassment as you try and deceive the team that rewarded your efforts.

It's really kind of surprising that athletes tend to think they're not going to get caught when they lie about injuries. I mean, essentially when you sign that new $66 million dollar contract, you're putting a price on your body and what it can do. So when you damage that product, the people that paid for it are probably going to ask some questions.

It's beginning to sound more and more like Monta Ellis did that damage doing something he was specifically not supposed to do.

Following earlier reports that the Warriors were investigating how Ellis sustained his ankle sprain and torn deltoid ligament that will keep him sidelined until the start of next year, ESPN has learned that there's quite a bit fishy about the accompanying injuries Ellis sustained at the same time. It would appear that there are "cuts and abrasions" that aren't congruent to a basketball injury.

Ruh-roh, Reorge.

The consequences for Ellis could be costly, both financially and from a relationship with management standpoint. They rewarded his play with not only the contract, but the reins of the franchise as their star player and point guard of the future. And the injury is one thing, but injury in possible violation of the terms of his contract is quite another. If the injury was sustained in a way that was in violation of those terms, and Ellis was to have severe longterm health issues ... let's just stop there. TrueHoop, for one, wonders whether these kind of contract restrictions are positive or not.

By the way, somebody want to ask Shaun Livingston what he thinks about this situation?