SANTA CRUZ — After the Warriors announced that knee tendonitis would keep Andrew Bogut off the floor this weekend, I decided to venture down Pacific Coast Highway 1 Friday night to see what kind of insight a brief sojourn with the team’s D-League affiliate in Santa Cruz could provide into the Western Conference leader’s plan on filling their valuable man in the middle’s roster spot in case of a prolonged injury.
With Festus Ezeli assuming Bogut’s role as the starting five, there would be an open roster spot among the team’s big men. Santa Cruz’s best option to fill the vacancy would come in the form of James Michael McAdoo or the resurgent Joe Alexander.
On this particular evening the Sea Dubs — as they are affectionately known as by their passionate local fanbase — were taking on the Spurs’ affiliate from Austin (plus Hawks’ rookie Adreian Payne, as the Hawks have no affiliate and run a system under Gregg Popovich disciple Mike Budenholzer, almost identical to the Spurs).
Alexander certainly looked like the better option of the two starting bigs. The former Bucks’ lottery pick dominated the game’s opening minutes, taking a pass from shooting guard Sean Kilpatrick straight to the rack for a thunderous dunk on the first possession and scoring on some crafty post moves. He was forced to exit the game by a split lip opened up while jockeying under the glass with Austin’s Adrian Payne and Josh Davis, but picked up right where he left off upon his return. On one of his first possessions after being reinserted, he received the ball at the elbow, jab-stepped toward the middle of the lane before darting down the exterior like a sprinter coming out of the blocks, past his defender who had bit on his jab to the middle and p for a thunderous one-handed dunk plus the foul.
McAdoo was far less impressive. In a game his team would end up dropping 112-93, the first-year power forward out of North Carolina produced well under his nightly average of 17 points, nearly nine rebounds and over three blocks. His night of 13 points on 50% shooting was a bit misleading, as he missed his share of point-blank looks at the rim and lost out on offensive rebounds within his grasp that could have easily led to more looks from the same range. While not his gaudy 3.4 average, the two blocks he did have displayed his impressive length.
However, no Sea Dub post player had an answer for Austin’s JaMychal Green. The former Alabama forward had 16 first half points on 7-10 shooting to go seven boards. He would finish with 24 points and combined with teammate Josh Davis for 29 rebounds, eight of which came on the offensive glass The career D-Leaguer’s dominance did not bode well for Santa Cruz’s two “call-up” hopefuls.
Although their respective positions are at capacity on the parent club’s roster, the D-League Warriors’ two best performances Friday night came from swingman Elliot Williams‘s 23 points and the steady play of point guard Aaron Craft. While Williams has averaged over 21 points while hovering around a triple-double in his nine games with coach Casey Hill’s squad and will more than likely find an NBA roster to call home this season, the likelihood of making that leap as part of Golden State’s crowded group of wings is miniscule at best. The chances of Craft doing so in arguably the NBA’s most talented and deep backcourts are not much better. Nevertheless, the tenacious defender out of Ohio State could be a viable option in a pinch for the team with which he spent training camp. Over his last five games the rookie floor general has dished out 47 assists and coughed up just three turnovers.
Following the team’s 19 point loss, Coach Hill was less than optimistic about his talented front-court’s odds of catching on with his associates in Oakland.
“I haven’t really talked to recently about who they’re looking at in the D-League,” said Hill. “Obviously they would probably look at James Michael , because spent training camp with them and understands their system. But, Joe has been playing really well and that’s another guy.”
“I don’t anticipate them to go the D-League route, but you never know,” he continued.
During his four or five highlight-reel throw-downs, it was difficult to avoid drawing optimistic parallels from Alexander to the Sun’s Gerald Green. Like Green, Alexander was a high-flyer who upon entering the league struggled to translate his hyper-athleticism into significant success. After spending years overseas and in the D-League, Green has recently refined his game enough to carve out a nice spot for himself with the Suns as 20-plus minute a night double-digit scorer.
While Alexander had a much shorter initial stint in the league and has been out of it longer than Green ever was, another crack at the league might still be in the cards. After working with various specialists, he looks more explosive than ever, and was recently named D-League player of the week. Nearly 28 and without mention in an NBA regular season box score since tallying three free-throws with Chicago in March of 2010, what a story it would be if Alexander suddenly found himself making the short trip north to join the best team professional basketball currently has to offer.
As his coach said, you never know.