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The 2010/11 NBA season for the Golden State Warriors will not have grizzled veteran coach Don Nelson roaming the sidelines this season. Instead, new head man Keith Smart will take the place of the “Small Ball” master. The only thing that hasn’t changed are his team. A Don Nelson team is unlike any other; his stars are run into the ground (last season Monta Ellis led the league in MPG), and his teams run. Now, coach Smart, who’s only experience, comes in the form of an interim position in Cleveland where he coached to a 9-31 record, vows to have plenty of minutes for everyone.
The team will have a starting lineup of Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Dorell Wright, David Lee and Andris Biedrins and a deep bench. If they can get healthy (Louis Amundson out at least 5-weeks, Brandon Wright 2010 - shoulder surgery and rookie draft pick Ekpe Udoh will be out until January) the team looks to compete for a spot in the Pacific Division playoff race.
The Golden State Warriors have begun their 64th season and are struggling to stay above .500. Currently sitting at 12-27, the Warriors are dealing with injuries; Anthony Randolph-left ankle sprain, Kelenna Azubuike-left patella tendon surgery and Brandon Wright- left Shoulder. In the offseason draft, the Warriors had only one pick, the 7th overall, and used it to select guard Stephen Curry. Curry is making the best out of the situation and is averaging 12.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg and 4.5 assists a game. Other free agents that have signed on with the Warriors this season are Raja Bell, Vladimir Radmanovic, Anthony Tolliver and Cartier Martin.
The Golden State Warriors began their existence as the Philadelphia Warriors in the Basketball Association of America in 1946. That inaugural season, the Warriors won the first ever championship against the Chicago Stags. They would continue to play in Philly and when the BAA merged with the NBL in August of 1949 to become the National Basketball Association. They would continue to play in Philly until 1962 when the franchise relocated to San Francisco, California and were renamed the San Francisco Warriors.
As the San Francisco Warriors, the franchise would take the Western Conference title in 1964 but would fall to the eventual champion Boston Celtics in five games. Following that season, the Warriors traded center and future Hall of Fame player Wilt “The Stilt” Chamberlain to the Philadelphia 76’ers, plummeting the Warriors into the cellar. The team would win only win 17-games and earned the rights to the 1965 number one draft pick. The franchise used that pick to select Rick Barry. Barry would go on to earn the Rookie of the Year and lead his team into the NBA Finals against the Philadelphia 76’ers but the Warriors would lose in six games. The following season, Rick Barry would leave the team over a dispute on payment of incentives he felt were due to him. Barry skipped the NBA 1967/68 season and instead played for the ABA’s Oakland Oaks where would remain until the end of the 1971/72 season. He would rejoin the Warriors after the franchise changed names at the end
of the 1970/71 season. Hence forth, the team would be known as the Golden State Warriors and to this day remain the only team without the name of their city or state in the name.
Between 1971 and 1977, the Warriors made the playoffs every season (with the exception of 1974) and in 1974-75, the franchise marched into the playoffs and forced the biggest upset in NBA History as the Warriors upset the heavily favored Washington Bullets in a four-game sweep as Barry averaged 28 points a game and the Warriors outhustled the stunned Bullets for four straight games.
Over the next nine seasons, the Warriors struggled, never finishing higher than 4th place in the Pacific division of the Western Conference. It wasn’t until the hiring of former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach George Karl in 1986 that the franchise would return to respectability. In one of the greatest games ever played, the 1987 Warriors matchup against the LA Lakers, the Warriors Eric “Sleepy” Floyd would score 12 consecutive field goals in the 4th quarter of the game. He finished the game with 51 points and increased awareness of the club throughout the Bay Area. Between 1995 and 1999, the franchise went through another downward spiral as an aperture formed between Chris Webber, Latrell Sprewell and head coach Don Nelson which culminated in all three leaving the team.
In July of 1997, Garry St. Jean joined the club as the new General Manager and David Twardzik, who worked in the front office, and are blamed for the staffing decisions that ensued. St. Jean continued to bring in older players who were past their primes such as Terry Cummings and John Starks and Twardzik committed what is now widely considered the biggest mistakes in NBA History. In the 1996 draft, Twardzik selected little known NC State center Todd Fuller with the 11th overall pick and passed up the likes of Steve Nash, Kobe Bryant, Tracey McGrady, Peja Stojakovic, Zydrunas Illgauskas and Jermaine O’Neal.
In 2004, former Warrior Chris Mullin took over the GM duties from Garry St. Jean and added the title of Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations and began to clean up the franchise. He went out and hired three former teammates to help shape the future of the franchise. Mario Elie was hired as an Assistant Coach, Rod Higgins as the new General Manager and Mitch Richmond as a special assistant.
The losing would continue to plague the team as they failed to make the playoffs and would not finish better than 5th place in the Pacific West until the 2006/07 when they managed a 42-40 record, reaching the playoffs for the first time in 12 seasons. They would lose to the Utah Jazz in the Western Conference Semi-finals in 5 games. At the end of the season, the franchise let go of Head coach Mike Montgomery and hired Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson to replace him. The following two seasons (2007/08 & 2008/09) the team again failed to reach the playoffs even as fans were generally stoked about the young team Hall of Fame Coach Nelson was leading. With up and coming players such as Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike and Andris Biedrins, fans have reason to be excited.
In May of 2009, the franchise decided not to renew GM Chris Mullin’s contract and Larry Riley then took the GM reigns.
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