Days until 2010-2011 starts!
By Sonet Yee
Instead of months, the regular season is set to start in about a week and half. And I couldn’t be more excited. From the display the Warriors have shown in the pre-season (minus that loss to the Kings, in which they should have won), this seems more promising than most seasons. Now that Steph Curry has more experience and a world championship under his belt, I am sure he will assert his leadership qualities this year and continue to be dominate as he was last year. I’m excited to see how newcomers David Lee and Dorrell Wright help our team with more productive bigger men. Andris Beidrins has been complaining the past few years on how little time or help Nellie has given him and I assume that he will contribute more this season as well as be a factor on defense and offense. We have yet to see new guard, Charlie Bell have any contribution and I think he will be the X factor for the Warriors.
Finally, though I love Monta Ellis and his ability to be explosive and take over a game, I think it will be a matter of time before he is traded. He is an amazing player, but he is beginning to show signs of Allen Iverson, where individually, no one can stop him, but he can not form into a great team player, and as AI’s record has shown, Ellis may not stay with the Warriors to help them win a ring, even if he the greatest player on the team. I think that the Warriors may trade Ellis while he still has trade value. There are several factors on why Ellis will be shown the door. One, management have stated that Curry is their franchise player for the future. This is two years removed after the Warriors let Baron Davis go, traded Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson and it looked like the Warriors were going to build around Ellis. Second, Ellis and Curry make a very undersized back-court. Although Ellis and Curry can be productive on offensive, it is a factor for defense as bigger back-court guards will certainly take advantage of their height. Finally, Ellis has a huge contract. Right now, he is in his second year of his five year contract extension and the ability to find another team to take his hefty contract will be difficult. Unless the Warriors can get someone like Joe Johnson from the Hawks (who also just signed a nice lucrative long term deal) it is unlikely the Warriors will be able to move Ellis. Most likely, Ellis will end up playing for the Warriors for either the term of his contract or be traded with a year left or contract year, since his expiring contract will be a tempting offer and the Warriors will still want to get something from Ellis since he’ll still have trade value and the Warriors know they won’t be able to resign him.
With that heart wrenching news, the new season is upon us. Although it is unlikely the Warriors will win the West, it will be an improvement if the Warriors compete every night, not get injured and make it to the playoffs. I still have that awesome feeling of when the Warriors knocked out the Mavericks and then Baron Davis threw that monstrous dunk on Andrei Kirilenko.
Go Warriors!!!!