NBA - What is Golden State Warriors future?
On the 10th of July 2010, the Golden State Warriors agreed upon a sign and trade deal with the New York Knicks. In the deal the Warriors sent their players Ronny Turiaf, Kelenna Azubuike and Anthony Randolph to the Knicks in exchange for David Lee.
Was it the right move for the Warriors to dump so many players?
Experts say that it is a smart step for the Warriors as it will lead to salvation. Ronny Turiaf is a player who has been in the league since past two years but has not averaged more than five points and a few rebounds per game. Although it could be argued that he did not get enough minutes on the court but critics say that was due to his poor play. In this year’s draft season Warriors got to select the sixth pick and they selected Ekpe Udoh. As Udoh is a rookie he was not likely to get many minutes on the court anyway so keeping him around would have turned him into a liability for the team.
As far as Kelenna Azubuike is concerned he performed quite well in the last season, keeping an average of 14 points and 5 rebounds per game. Although after the season he ended up getting his knee injured. So for the team to wait for him to heal and get back into shape would have cost them more than they can afford by the next playoffs, so it would be safe to rule out the fact that he would not be missed by the Warriors much.
A lot of speculations have been made by Anthony Randolph’s trade by the Warriors. Warrior fans might be disappointed as Anthony is quite a promising player and performed quite decent last season. However, experts beg to differ as they say that Anthony is certainly a talented player but the way the Warriors work, the player has no room to grow and Warriors decision of casting him off was a good one for both the team and the player.
Essentially the Warriors are not giving up much because all three players only participated in around 84 games and performed below average in most. In fact the players seem to have not fit in well with each other, as they had no chemistry or enough motivation to form a duo. So, on the whole the Golden State Warriors are not going to miss much.
Welcoming David Lee onboard is by far the smartest decision the Warriors have made. According to the experts, they say Lee was the much needed player, they claim that the 27 year old player is the one who could really help rebuild the franchise. The fact that David Lee took 12 rebounds per game as compared to Andris Biedrins, Warriors current centre, who only averaged 7.8 rebounds per game last season proves it. On the other hand Lee also kept up an astounding 20 points per game average last season.
David is known for being a good offense player which the Warriors were in dire need of, unlike the players they gave off to the Knicks which had no sense of how to play on the offensive side. David will most certainly fit into the Warriors system, as he is a player who plays quite smooth for his size and does not hesitate on running up and down the court.
By obtaining Lee, a lot of other options have opened up for the Warriors as well. The Golden State Warriors now can give up on Andris Biedrins which would free up a lot of space on the roster. Andris is a young player who already has six years of experience in the NBA and there are many teams who would love to have him, rumours already say that the Denver Nuggets are quite interested in him.
David Lee has given depth to the Warriors, he might not have been the biggest prize this season but he certainly is a player with a lot of talent who seems determined and wants to grow as a player. A player of his calibre indeed has the potential to motivate his team into do something big. The Golden State Warriors might just get to feel the playoffs next year.
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