Golden State Warriors:
Montgomery, Fisher, look to get Warriors back into contention

The Golden State Warriors haven't exactly been the Yankees of the National Basketball Association but the team has had a few extended periods of time when they got to shine. In 1975, the Warriors were led by Rick Barry and he took them to a 48-34 record which earned them the number one seed in the Western Conference for the playoffs. The Warriors blew by the Seattle Supersonics winning the series 4-2 then just barely got by the Chicago Bulls with a series tally of 4-3. In the NBA Finals the Warriors met up with the team with the best record in the league, the Washington Bullets, who finished the season with a 60-22 record. The Bullets were heavily favored and no one thought the two future Hall of Famers Wes Unseld and Elvin Hayes could lose to Rick Barry and his group of nobodies. The Warriors shocked the world when they took down the mighty Bullets in four straight games. Barry was named the MVP of the NBA Finals due to his strong play. The last time the Warriors made it into the postseason was in 1994 when they finished the season with a 46-36 record which put gave them the six seed in the Western Conference. The team was led by Chris Webber, Latrell Sprewell, and Chris Mullin and was coached by Don Nelson. The team was matched up with the number three seeded Phoenix Suns who were led by guys like Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson. The Warriors fell to the Suns in three straight games and haven't made it back to the playoffs since then.

Last season was a bit disappointing for the Warriors when they finished with a 39-43 record which was six games out of making the playoffs. The team did have some bright spots during the season though. In their third game of the year the Warriors came out and put a beating on the Lakers by outscoring them 87-72 in a game the Lakers wish they could forget and the Warriors wish they could play like every night. The Warriors’ star point guard Nick Van Exel was out for most of the season and only played in 39 games which explains why the team didn’t live up to its playoff potential that it had at the beginning of the season.
In the off-season the team knew they needed to shake things up to make it back into the playoffs and back into contention for an NBA crown. The team then fired their head coach Eric Musselman and brought in Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery. Montgomery was one of the few coaches in NCAA basketball that was bigger than the program itself. He is thought of the man who built up the Stanford program to where it is as is Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski or Arizona’s Lute Olsen. The team also traded away troubled star point guard Nick Van Exel to the Trail Blazers for third year point guard Dan Dickau and center Dale Davis. The team also picked up three time NBA champion Derek Fisher who has converted plenty of clutch situations for the Lakers during their championship run. However, the team did lose a couple of their core players. The Warriors weren’t able to resign Erik Dampier and Brian Cardinal and will miss their defensive toughness.

The team only had one pick in the draft and the Warriors made sure that they made the pick count. With the 11th pick in the draft the Warriors selected Andris Biedrins who is only 18 years old and has been playing professional basketball in his home country Latvia for a couple of years now. At 7’ and 240 pounds Biedrins has the makings of an NBA body but needs to work on his offensive moves to become a good scorer in the NBA. He was touted as the best European prospect in the draft and should be a big contributor in the coming years.

The Warriors starting five is one that will be one with a good amount of promise this season. At point guard will be Derek Fisher, at shooting guard will be Jason Richardson, at small forward will be Mike Dunleavy, at power forward will be Troy Murphy and Adonal Foyle will be the starting center. The team will have a good amount of experience (Fisher, Foyle) paired up with young up and coming talent (Richardson, Dunleavy and Murphy) that should propel them into the playoffs.

The Warriors should have one of the deeper benches in the West. Backing up the guards will be Speedy Claxton and Mickael Pietrus. Claxton could start for a number of teams and Pietrus was called the “European Michael Jordan” during his playing days overseas. Behind the big men will be Cliff Robinson and Dale Davis who will bring a veteran presence to the court whenever they are in.

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