(Photo: Mark Jackson after practice today)
WARRIORS PRACTICE FACILITY, OAKLAND, CA — The Golden State Warriors have been struggling lately, with similar losses where they dig themselves into a hole early and have to climb out of them.
Warriors fans on Twitter, as well as bloggers, have begun to question the players that head coach Mark Jackson should be playing or more or subbing out more frequently.
Following last night’s loss in Phoenix, Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News wrote:
Draymond Green stayed on the bench for the middle 8 minutes of the second quarter when the Suns blew open the game. Toney Douglas and Kent Bazemore both changed the game defensively during their runs, but were never seen or heard from again. Andrew Bogut languished on the bench in the final 2 minutes (after the threat of intentional fouling was gone) when his mistake-correcting presence in the key would have allowed the Warriors’ perimeter defenders to play their men more aggressively. And even though the Suns had gone small, Bogut had better luck closing on the perimeter earlier in the evening than Lee did. The Warriors have players capable of playing defense, but Mark Jackson hasn’t responded to the Warriors’ defensive struggles by increasing their roles and, with the exception of Green, hasn’t used them in place of poorer defenders during crunch time.
Last week after the win at home against Dallas, Marcus Thompson of Bay Area News Group called for Green to start:
Draymond Green should be starting for the Warriors. As a matter of fact, the second-year guard out of Michigan State should never come out of the game unless he taps his head for a breather. At least until Andre Iguodala gets back.
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Because where the Warriors are now, struggling to stay afloat through injuries, Green has what they need. He showed as much in Wednesday’s thrilling 95-93 win over visiting Dallas.
What wasn’t clear was whom Green should start in place of. The consensus on Twitter seemed to be Harrison Barnes.
“We’re fine. Everybody knows that. We’re aware of it. The only way out of it is to do something about it,” Jackson said today after practice.
However, Jackson isn’t planning on any such major lineup changes, so that’s not the something that Warriors fans are looking for him to do.
“We’re going to be a very good basketball team with what we have and guys are filling their roles, so i’m not gonna threaten guys or punish them,” Jackson said, “I believe we’re going to get it done.”
But #DubNation has started to ask for accountability and fans are getting restless. They want answers because the same mistakes are being made game after game. However, Jackson isn’t panicking and won’t have his players on a short string, as one might see in AAU, high school, rec league, or perhaps even in college. Eighty-two regular season games is a marathon and Jackson’s two-decades-plus of being in “The Association’s” environment on a daily basis, as player and broadcaster, keeps him grounded as an NBA coach.
Jackson said he’s not in a situation where his players will be “going to the principal’s office if you turn the basketball over. We’ve won ball games with high turnovers. We’ve got to have game plan discipline. We’ve got to take care of the basketball we’ve got to defend at a high level. We’re doing that but we’re doing it in spurts. When we’re at our best we do it all game long.”
“You’ve got to understand who we are. Right now, in our lineup, there’s one ball-handler (Stephen Curry),” Jackson added, “We’ve got to do a better job of not trying to make home run plays, be careful with the basketball, and execute our offense. It’s when we’re careless, is what gets us in trouble because you look at Houston and Phoenix, those teams are fast-breaking teams anyway and if you give them extra possessions it makes it hard on your defense.”
“We’re good enough to win whether it’s home or away when we play our brand of basketball,” Jackson said, “If we do the things we’re capable of doing and play our brand of basketball then the schedule won’t affect us. We’ll win our share of basketball games and we’ll get back to who we truly are.”
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