Mark Jackson believes record alone cannot judge the Golden State Warriors – NBA Update
When Mark Jackson joined the Golden State Warriors before the start of the season, he made claims about having a playoff team, but their poor showing with a 23-43 win loss record in his first season and eventually
another year without a post season entry was the complete opposite of it.
There is no doubt that the Warriors struggled to get going this season, but much emphasis can be laid on the fact that the Warriors struggled with injuries throughout the season, with Stephen Curry managing to
play less than 30 games.
And perhaps, their biggest flop off the season came when they traded the ever dazzling Monta Ellis for oft-injured Andrew Bogut of the Milwaukee Bucks.
Jackson however has come out to say that he does regret guaranteeing playoff action and even though his team finished with the third worst record in the Western Conference, he feels his team was much more than
the stats show;
“We’re closer than that,” Jackson said. “At the end of the day, we are what our record said we were. But we’re much closer. You take a look … we closed the season with our four best players injured (Andrew Bogut,
Stephen Curry, David Lee and Dorell Wright). … We are much better than our record indicated.”
He does seem to be making a valid point as at the end of the regular season, they had all of their key players out with various kinds of injuries. Lee, Curry and Bogut all had to undergo surgeries for their ailments
and to top all that fan favourite Nate Robinson, after notching up a 30 point night against the San Antonio Spurs in mid April, got ruled out with a hamstring injury.
So when the last few games of the season came, Warriors were down and out and had to rely mainly on rookies just to put out 5 players on court. Such was the disastrous injury situation at Golden State that in
their season finale, they became the first team in the NBA to start with all of their five players in the starting line up being rookies.
There is no doubt Jackson had his work cut out for him with the tough schedule of this short spanned season and he would hope to build a better team in the future. Speaking about the future, Jackson was fairly
pleased with the draft prospects as the Warriors are to be slotted 7th in this year`s draft lottery.
“I think it’s a very deep draft with a lot of talent, certainly, the seventh pick or better will give you somebody who can play right away and help us. What we’ll do as an organization, management, ownership,
and I’m definitely blessed to be part of the decision-making process.” – Jackson said.
With a much better draft prospect, the Warriors will surely assess their options carefully before making a decision.
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