Something is fishy in Oakland, and it's not the smell off the Bay.Last night Warriors head coach/crazy old coot Don Nelson sat regular starters Stephen Jackson, Corey Maggette and Andris Biedrins, citing various injuries.
One problem: all three players were healthy enough to play on Wednesday.
Last night's starting lineup vs. the Pistons looked like this:
G Jamal Crawford
G Marco Belinelli
F Anthony Randolph
F Rob Kurz
C Ronny Turiaf
Gross. Almost as gross as that picture.
Anyway, the Warriors had just three dudes available off the bench (C.J. Watson, Anthony Morrow, and Jermareo Davidson). Not surprisingly, Detroit beat them easily. Sure the Pistons are hot right now, but it's not like they were facing the best possible lineup that G-State could have put out there.
Now there's controversy surrounding Crawford, arguably the only legitimate Friday starter. Crawford was apparently told by Nelson that if he doesn't opt out of his contract at the end of the year, that he would be traded.
Nelson also told Crawford that he would be benched for a few games in order to keep his statistics high.
Um, thanks?
When you add in that Monta Ellis has basically given up on the team and didn't even show up for the team photo, it makes for a pretty rotten team environment.
Nelson's defense is that he's trying to give the young guys a chance to play, but it's hard to believe him given what's been coming out in the press.
Aren't we getting to the point where the league has to step in and investigate this?
The NBA might be known for poorly-disguised tank jobs better than any other league, but this is ridiculous.
And what kind of player is Nelson looking for? There's no question he's put out more starting lineups than any other NBA coach this season. He's also used and disposed of three different starting point guards, and even deployed Stephen Jackson as a point-forward.
Perhaps he's searching for...the Ulllllllltimate Warrior!
*cue the entrance music*
No comments:
Post a Comment