Dec. 14, 2010
STEINMETZ ARCHIVE
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Matt Steinmetz
CSNBayarea.com
Asdemoralizing as the past month or so has been for the Warriors1-12since mid-Novemberthe reality is that theyre not really far offfrom the team many expected.
At least the team I expected.
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Yes, the Warriors are 8-16, which extrapolates to a 27-55 season orright about there. And that would be a major disappointmentinessence, a season pretty much as awful as last year.
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But I dont think the Warriors, losers of seven in a row, are really asbad as theyve been lately. Just like I didnt think they were a goodteam because they began the season with a 6-2 mark.
I thought the Warriors were going to be better than last years 26-56team, but not dramatically improved enough to make the playoffs. I hadthe Warriors for 33 wins, and still feel like theyre headed towardthat number.
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The problem is this though: It doesnt seem like the ride to30-whatever wins is going to very fulfilling. It would be one thing ifthe Warriors won, say, 34 games this season, and then you knew theydbe able to bump that up again in 2011-12.
But there are certainly no assurances of that. Yes, the Warriors areyoung, but if your core is Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry and David Lee,theres not a lot of room for significant improvement there.
Ellis and Lee essentially are the players theyre going to be; andwhile Curry is a nice player and will likely improve, were not talkingabout an elite, difference-making point guard here.
The real question is whether or not new owner Joe Lacob, with his teamheading toward 30-ish wins, will address issues in the offseason orwhether he wants to deal with them now.
Hey, the Warriors are probably going to win some games in the next fewweeks, but its still not likely to be the majority of them. It surelooks like the writing is on the wall for another playoff-less Warriorsseason.
So, if thats the case, when do you start making movessooner or later?