Truth is, Nellie doesn’t want to have to trade him. He wants him to opt out. How do you trade crawford and his high salary during these hard times? Why play someone now when you know he is not part of your team? Wouldn’t you rather him play the younger guys to see where they stand?

Any way you slice it, this overanalyzation of Nellie is a little bit out of control. Believe it or not, his decades of experience actually makes him more qualified than all of us monday morning qb’s.

Who cares? I honestly don’t understand how even the bay area beat writers care enough to write about this team

Do ppl in Oakland actually like Nelson?

Make the playoffs for a 2nd time in 15 years and then we’ll try to give a shit

Crawford needs his minutes too so he can showcase what he can do which makes a better case for him to opt out at the end of season.

Instead, Nelson comes up with a strategy (confronting and icing the player) that achieves the exact opposite: the player is less likely to have a good season so he’s less likely to want to opt out and the team is likely to realize a lesser return in any trade scenario because everyone knows the situation with Crawford has deteriorated and the Warriors must move him.

I suppose you could argue that humiliating Crawford might make him so miserable that he would opt out regardless of the economic environment, but how does that approach truly help the team?

Of course, that we would consider trading him is painfully obvious to any NBA observer. First, we have a glut of guards. Second, he’s the only large contract we have with less than 4 years on it. Third, he’s a 10M expiring in 2010, “the year of the FA”. What is the heart of any major s&t? Why, it’s a large expiring contract.

That doesn’t make a trade for him a certainty, though. Unless the other team is below the cap, we have to take back comparable salary. Still, he’s a big enough contract that we can hope to get back a quality veteran or solid prospect, at least.

Why the need to call Crawford into a meeting to discuss his future with the team in the middle of this season? Why risk disrupting team chemistry, or placing Crawford in a position where he has to play out this season knowing he isn’t particularly welcomed as a Warrior moving forward? Why risk losing the trust of players who do figure into the team’s plans by ostracizing Crawford now? Crawford is a popular player, and I’m sure his teammates will not respect any mistreatment of him by Nelson or the W’s upper brass..

As for Ellis, I think that Nelson is probably bitter toward his new star.. Nelson is a great coach.. most likely a hall of fame coach. Although I’m sure he expected the team to take a step back with the loss of Baron Davis, Nelson was not expecting to preside over a bunch of upstarts with no leadership, and he definitely wasn’t expecting to coach his team to a season that will likely end with a record of worse than 30 games below 500..

I think Nelson blames Ellis for ruining what will likely be one of his last as a coach.. And I can understand that. What Ellis did WAS stupid, it WAS selfish; and it DID ruin this season for the team. The organization invested its future in Ellis, and Ellis ruined the team’s entire season. Even if the Warriors wouldn’t have made the playoffs this year, they could have come together as a team, and developed chemistry with their new pieces. With Ellis missing almost the entire season, next year will likely be that developmental year, pushing the team’s progress back even further.

All in all, I wish Nelson would bite his tongue, and be a bit more diplomatic. I do understand that he has a legit gripe with Ellis, but being harsh with Crawford is senseless.

ECJ

I saw Steve Nash play against St. Mary’s when I was there. During my senior year, St. Mary’s had a decent squad, like 17 wins I think, Ernie Kent was still there, and Nash came into our gym. The place was packed to the rafters, three thousand people in a tiny place, screaming their hearts out, super tight game, and Nash hit 20 out of 21 free throws and basically won it from the line. He shut us all up.

Right after that game, on the way out, in fact, I turned to one of my roommates and told him, I think that guy is an NBA player. He scoffed and called Nash a scrub. I’m not right too often but that time, I nailed it.

I saw Jason Kidd and Cal play St. Mary’s at the Coliseum that year, too. They smoked us, but that was when they had Kidd and Lamond Murray, back before Todd what’s his name destroyed Cal basketball.

i want to know how healthy monta is? what % is he playing at? is he at 100%? what’s your guess?

does he just need some time to get fully heal and back to his last season level? or is he just a damaged good?

what do you think the w’s should do with him? stick with him and find out next season. or trade him this offseason and risk losing him returning to form?

if the w’s stick with him and he turns out to be a damaged good, his trade value will drop.