Warriors Make The Playoffs!

Klay made his first 9 shots, scored 30, made the playoffs

Steph (7th pick) was fired up after outplaying Ricky Rubio (4th pick)

Congrats Dubs. Don't go to baggage claim yet because this is just a quick stop and you've got some more traveling to do.  The baggage robots running on IBM software will get your bags from your regs season plane and put them on your playoff craft (thanks, Coach Jackson. that was awesome).

You guys are excited and get to shave your beards now. In Steph's case, "thank the high and mighty lord Jesus" he's probably saying. Just because his face is now back to it's childlike, marketable state.  Hopefully you're mom will be in the crowd a few times this playoffs? I know she still does Seth's laundry and lives in Raleigh or something (wherever Dell resides while doing Bobcat games).

Klay Thompson had one of his best games of the year until he kept shooting in the second half. He started off 9/9 and was icewater.  His Washington State ass got into it with crazy Luke Ridnour the Oregon Duck in the 3rd quarter.  That was on the only time Klay changed his expression.  This year.  There's potential that Klay's mom is hot but she doesn't flaunt her goods like Sonya does.

This is Killa Klay and his Moms

Coach Jackson is a preacher and he loves to help and serve. He's been dropping dimes his entire life. On the hardwood he hooked his teammates up to the tune of  10,323 assists in the NBA. Just third on the all time list, yo.  He drops spirituality on his Van Nuys congregation with his wife. Preacherman preaches well. Except when some stripper was trying to extort him for some cash claiming she had nude pics of Coach. We all got skeletons though, right? It's what makes us interesting as real human beings. Don't hate.  You've done some pretty skeezie shit. Don't lie.  Now Coach has boringly motivated his team of kids n' vets to a playoff birth. Good on ya, here's a sprinkling of Coach of The Year votes.  Now trim up that neckhair with your players.

You guys deserve it. And grab a milkshake latenight.  There's a Barneys and a Nations within a couple of miles of the rOracle.  It'll be a subdued celebration, but still fun in a "all I care about is ballin' " and "praise the lord" kinda way.  I'm not hating. I'm just saying that this is in stark contrast to 2007 when they were spraying b-lights all over the Portlandia visitors locker room and Czar Stern eventually had to tell Nellie to not pound brew pones at the podium for post game interviews.  Something tells me that Jack and Landry play the veteran role by day but have secretly gone to about 55 strip clubs together this season.

This has been a pretty exciting season if you like defense and somewhat smart basketball. Even when the media tried to stir some controversy about the front office lying about Bognut's microfracture surgery nobody really cared. Bogut stopped smiling but has got his health up to where race-walking back on defense is fine. Bog's still shut down that Viking/defending Western Conference Player of The Week Pekovic last night.  I think Pek made just two buckets over The Big Hobble.  Limp all you want, Bogs.  You know how to play defense and it's finally making a difference for these dubs.

Good on ya, Warriors.  This has been a confidence building year. You guys belong here and this wasn't some crazy excitement PR hype BS like it was before. The plan is working.  We all know that This Guy is excited to be back in the Playoffs as a Dub.

Mark Jackson -- Biggest Coaching Flop So Far?

Bionic Blue Arms cannot help Dwight from the stripe....but that's OK

The Warriors played pretty well last night.  They jumped out to an early lead, inevitably lost it, and even came back to tie the score with under 1:30 left (if my memory serves me correct).  But Coach Mark Jackson may have made the biggest mistake in his short coaching tenure last night when he implemented "hack-a-How" in the 2nd quarter and then again deep into the 2nd half allowing Superman to attempt 39 free throws, an Association record surpassing the 34 Wilt Chamberlain attempted 67 years ago (or something pretty close to that).

Dwight was shooting about 45% from the line this year.  He's a 59.5% career shooter and you have to assume that when someone shoots 39 times from the line in one game he's going to revert more towards his career average than his season average (unless your name is Andris Biedrins).

As John Hollinger analyzes in today's PER Diem, 59.5% from the line leads to 1.19 points per possession.  If you are intentionally OK with this, then you are intentionally OK with the greatest offense of all time.  And this doesn't even account for the times where Dwight misses the back end of a 2 shot foul and his teammates secure the rebound for another valuable possession.

Bottom line, Hack-a-brick doesn't work on Dwight and Mark Jackson most likely just coached himself to a loss in a game that his team could have won outright.

And if you hate numbers, just know that the crowd's enthusiasm was completely sucked out of the rOracle last night.  I remember announcer Steve Kerrrrr mentioning this.

Mark Jackson; Warriors Head Coach

New Warriors Advanced Statistics Guy

The boo birds are all over the internets today regarding the hiring of Mark "I've Never Coached Before" Jackson. But before we get into it too much, let's throw out some randumb Mark Jackson facts via Wikipedia:

• Did you know that Mark Jackson's brother was the 500 lb baller Escalade of the And 1 Tour?  RIP Escalade.
• Did you know that there's a rule named after Mark Jackson?  Just Google "Mark Jackson Rule" and be amazed.
• Did you know that Mark Jackson is half Dominican? That's pretty cool.
• Did you know that Mark Jackson played at St. Johns with Chris Mullin?  There's some Dubs ties right there.
• Did you know that Mark Jackson played for 5 Hall of Fame coaches during his playing career (Lou Carnesecca, Lenny Wilkens, Jerry Sloan, Pat Riley and Larry Brown). Me neither.
• Doesn't Mark Jackson look a lot like Doc Rivers?
• I can't wait for Warrior Fans to start tracking the Jackson-isms that he spits out at press conferences throughout his tenure. 

I know Jackson is annoying in the announcer’s chair.  But when you listen to other coaches during the broadcasts in the huddles and locker room, these guys aren’t geniuses.  This tells me that it doesn’t take a whole lot of brain power to communicate to these guys.  Heck, Phil Jackson dumbed it down to the Nth degree when trying to get Lamar Odumb to catch a sugar high and play well.  Only Doc seems to successfully speak on a high level to his squad as evident in the awesome “The Association” series.

Going from a coach who made one shot while at Indiana to one who made 14 playoffs during his playing days is a huge upgrade.  Players respect coaches who have experience in The Association and Jackson has plenty of it. Heck, all the players probably think he’s great as an announcer, too.

Lacob "only" gave him $2mil/year for 3 years which had to factor into it (Nellie was making $6mil/year).  Since this is his first gig Lacob was able to pay him accordingly.

Read the Tim Kawakami blog which has a transcript of Jerry West.  West seems to like Jackson…a lot.  That same blog talks a lot about Mike Malone who is going to join Jackson GSW as an assistant.  Malone was on Monty William’s staff in NOLA and is some sort of defensive guru a-la Tom  Thibodeau and helped the Chris Paul’s become one of the best defensive teams in the league.  West was fired up about getting this guy. Plus, Malone provides a good option if Mark Jackson ever requires canning.

Warriors GM Larry Riley did say that "he's going to have some real strengths in communicating with players" and this seems to be a very strong theme of Lacob's hires: Bob Meyers was a successful agent before becoming Assistant GM, Jerry West is the frigging logo, and now Mark Jackson who is probably friendly with 90% of the players that actually matter in The Association.

Now let's look at the other options The Warriors had. I don’t like JVG.  He only cares about defense and slowing the game down limiting possessions.  The Knicks and Rockets of the past were turrible to watch even though they won.  He wouldn’t have fit the ID of the Dubs and even if he was hired and changed them around to be defensive focused, it would have sucked kinda.

And I’m still laughing that the Lakers got Mike Brown.  This dude is such a scapegoat and I'm not sure it is possible to wipe the Cleveland stink off of him.  I can't wait to see how him and Kobe get along.

Some people out there would have preferred San Antonio Assistant Tom Budenholzer or Mavs Assistant Dwane Casey.  Or perhaps Lawrence Frank.  The line of tried-and-failed coaches on Association Team benches is large.

The Warriors now have a direction, a focus.  It's on personality, being direct with the fans and media, and it's on defense. This defensive focus points to the Monta being shipped out for a true SG defensive stopper in Iggy being a possibility.  I’m not sure if I like that trade (because Iguodola speaks with a lisp) but I wouldn’t be pissed if it went down.  But the Sixers are being sold currently so this may hold up the potential swap.

Anyway, Warriors dot com has some solid audio and video HERE

Momma, There Goes That Man!

 
Notes on Grand Master Lacob's signing of "Hand Down Man Down" Mark Jackson as the new Warriors Head Coach:

• Cam Inman of The Oakland Tribune: "This is a familiar storyline to the Bay Area, and a recent one, too: A franchise stuck in a playoff drought just hired a first-time coach who happens to be a former player and licensed minister. Let's hope Mark Jackson doesn't bomb like Mike Singletary did in a 49ers tenure that goot extinguished before he could finish out the 2010 season. By reaching the playoffs in 14 of his 17 seasons as a player, Jackson obviously has ambitious goals for a franchise routinely absent from the postseason. ... Phil Jackson might have been a more convincing -- albeit unattainable -- choice considering his ring collection. But Mark Jackson's selection should bring energy and renewed interest to one of the league's most loyal fan bases."
• Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee: "The Warriors' hiring of Mark Jackson a few hours ago caught most Bay Area types by surprise. The sense was that the process would drag on for another week or so, with owner Joe Lacob waiting to speak with Dallas Mavericks assistant Dwane Casey after the NBA Finals. But Lacob just seems to love the drama. He loves the surprises. (See his hiring of Jerry West as a consultant). Whether he has a clue about successfully running an NBA franchise is another matter. This is a risky hiring, to say the least. ... Jackson's hiring surely seems to further the notion that the Warriors plan to bust up the undersized backcourt of Stephen Curry and Monta Ellis. It doesn't work and was never going to work. Ellis, who was skeptical from the start, was only telling it like it was. And is. Serious trade talks to continue."
• Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News: "As a coach, strategist and day-to-day manager of an often rocky locker room, broadcaster Mark Jackson is a total blank slate, an unknown, a great leap of faith. He has zero high-level coaching experience, so Jackson is a giant sideline question mark, in capital letters and triplicate. But the Warriors, it is clear, were not exactly aiming for any of those specific things when they surprisingly hired Jackson as their coach Monday. Co-owner Joe Lacob was going for something else, something less tangible and something a lot riskier: Headline-making, room-dominating personality. 'You want to have a guy who's strong enough to be in charge,' general manager Larry Riley said Monday night. 'Mark has a strong personality -- not abrasive, but he has a strong personality and should have the right mix to be able to lead our team.' Yes, even the Warriors have to couch this hiring with words such as 'should have' and 'we think,' because Jackson has a long career as a player and now offbeat announcer, but no track record as the boss. Nobody knows what kind of offense he will run, what kind of players he will lean on (other than the point guard) and how he will deal with the daily grind of the media and the like. ... The Warriors aren't an easy team to coach, and Lacob thinks a strong dose of attitude and confidence can overcome a complete lack of most other qualifying traits. It's a risk. Not a small one. When Lacob says he is willing to take them, he isn't kidding. It's just his personality."

Gracias to True Hoop for compiling the quotes in Tuesday's First Cup.