Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007

Harrington, Jackson like change of scenery
By Geoff Lepper
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

OAKLAND - Warriors executive vice president Chris Mullin has no one to
blame but himself if someone makes off with his H-O-R-S-E crown. After
two years of constant losses, Al Harrington is looking to knock off the
champ.

"Now I'm ready for him," said Harrington, who lost plenty of cash to
Mullin in shooting contests when the two were teammates on the Indiana
Pacers in 1998-2000. "I never could win, but I finally feel like I'm a
good enough shooter that I can probably get some of that money out of
his pocket."

Posted on Fri, Jan. 19, 2007

MARCUS THOMPSON II: NBA
Warriors have surplus of swingmen

So now that the dust has cleared from Wednesday's tornado of events,
it's easier to survey the Warriors' new roster.

It's clearly a better team, at least in regards to coach Don Nelson's
style. It's no doubt much more feasible to work with financially, which
will benefit executive vice president of basketball operations Chris
Mullin in the future. It figures to be a more entertaining team, thanks
to the increase in athleticism and off-the-court story lines.

But perhaps the most intriguing aspect resulting from Wednesday's
whirlwind eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers involves a decision
that still has to be made, maybe by the Feb. 22 NBA trade deadline.
Don't know if you noticed, but the Warriors now have three swingmen:
Jason Richardson, Mickael Pietrus and recently acquired Stephen Jackson.

In article 4ax.com>,
Fistpout Trebuchet example.com> wrote:

It had a *lot* of good lines, it's just that they can only be used in
very specific instances. For instance, that was the first time I think I
said or heard "Bartertown!" Others:

"Bullshit." "No, pigshit."

"Break a deal, face the wheel!"

"V-v-v-v-v-video!"

In article <1169180824.110268.181140@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>,
"Frank Rizzo" yahoo.com> wrote:

The issue for Pietrus is how much is he going to cost?

I like him, he does a lot of things well ... but he also has a pretty
replaceable skill set. Highly athletic swingmen without a ton of
"basketball skills" are probably the most replaceable players in the NBA.

Furthermore, if the Jackson experiment works out (a big if) then we
could be looking at a situation where we have JRich, Jackson, and Monta
splitting the minutes at the 2- and 3- spots. (Monta's obviously not
going to play 3, but 32/minute a player for each of them would work out
nicely). In that case, it's hard to see Pietrus getting a ton of minutes.

http://media.wibc.com/av/audio/wilson/harrington11707.m3u

Thanks to GSoM for the link.

The nicest thing about this, IMHO, is that the radio hosts are clearly
sincere in being sad to see AH go. It goes beyond, "gee, thanks for
playing for us" that you sometimes get in these interviews.

Of course, there are some comment about an unnamed player who's
obviously Steven Jackson which are less encouraging, but hey, one thing
at a time.

I'm of the opinion that even if Jackson were to get suspended for the
rest of the season, this trade would make us better.

-Ron

In article <1hs5n99.1catfzz1enx7xfN%%nono@way.com>,
nono@way.com (Preacher) wrote:

If Jackson blows up mentally again, obviously, that's a problem. But if
every year he doesn't makes his trade value go up. Harrington makes less
and has a shorter contract than Murphy. Even if he's less useful to us
(which I find almost impossible to believe) he'll do less damage as a
"non useful" player.

Fistpout Trebuchet wrote:

The most obvious reference is Gladiator from 2000 ....

Strength and honor,

Mamba....

Rizzo

So what does this roster of contracts do for freeing up contract $ for Ellis
and Biedrins?

Also, I'm still hesitant to extend Pietrus, preferring to wait and see what
the market will offer. He's still too inconsistent for my taste.

What's up with that soundtrack?

On Thu, 18 Jan 2007 14:51:40 GMT, nono@way.com (Preacher) wrote:

Well, he is hitting 37.5%% which isn't horrible. He only hits 43.7%% of his
2 point attempts (which is pretty lousy) which tells me he doesn't finish
in traffic at all, but it is a definite upgrade on Keith McLeod. And for
as much as he turns the ball over, he still has an A/TO over 1 (actually,
it's just short of 2). He'll give us a guy you can play with Baron at the
2 and pass to him so he can be a scorer and not a distributor.

And he makes 92%% of his free throws. Considering he's only played 661
minutes so far this year, 64 free throw attempts for a backup jump
shooting point guard isn't that bad. I think he provides us something we
didn't have before, a true backup point who can hit a wide open shot.

He's another undersized 4. No big deal.