During the first of two practice days at Valley High during Team USA’s mini-camp, which will culminate in a Showcase scrimmage at the Thomas & Mack Center on Saturday night, he was spotty.

The 20 players were divided into four units, in blue, white, red and yellow, for a series of drills. Randolph wore a yellow top over his blue No. 62 practice jersey.

By the time he attempted his first shot, a mid-range jumper from the right side, he was winded. Not surprisingly, the jumper barely hit the front of the rim.

Then again, Randolph wasn’t alone in spending a few seconds bent over, with his hands on his knees, in the first 10 minutes of the challenging conditioning regimen and competitive environment.

New Jersey center Brook Lopez and Oklahoma City forward Jeff Green also needed to catch their breath with their hands on their knees.

Randolph hit his next shot, a jumper along the right baseline. He clapped his hands, said “Yeah!” to himself and high-fived Utah Jazz guard Ronnie Brewer.

Later, Portland center Greg Oden hounded Randolph in the low post and snatched the rebound; Randolph sank a 3-pointer from the right side and Washington post man JaVale McGee swatted another Randolph 3-point attempt.

Seconds after that embarrassment, though, Randolph banged into McGee down low, demanded the ball and got it, and he flipped in a high hook over the extended, and startled, McGee.

A jumper from the right side missed badly, then Randolph slipped in a 10-foot runner from the left side.

At the start of an eight-minute blue-white scrimmage, Randolph, wearing white, was short on a jumper from the left side. He missed a right-handed hook shot but hit a soft jumper from the left side. The white squad won, 25-17.

“I can’t even find the right words to describe how big it would be,” Randolph said of possibly representing the U.S. in next year’s World Championship in Turkey. “I’d be smiling ear to ear, every single day, like I am now. I’m just excited.”

According to an article on ESPN, Kevin Durant was singled out for praise by Krzyzewski. He said Durant was at the “head of the list”.

“Others who caught the coaches’ eyes included Rudy Gay, Derrick Rose, Eric Gordon and JaVale McGee, and several team insiders said they were surprised how spry Greg Oden looked.”

Since Krzyzewski is returning as coach, I’d expect a lot of the previous Olympic team members to return, leaving only a few slots for new members.

This package of qualities must already exist when the player comes into the NBA, because it is almost never put together in the NBA. There is no one currently on the Warriors who has that package of skills and mentality. All of our “points” have always been scorers first, second and third.

GSW is full of competent scorers. We need a point. I would have drafted Ty Lawson ahead of Curry. Even though Lawson was a lower-rated player, he would have impoved our team much more than Curry will because he has the whole point guard package of skills and mentality. We already have two “Curries” in Morrow and Ellis. Hopefully, somebody can be traded to get us a “Lawson”.

But lately I’ve noticed his lack of aggression, he doesn’t get to the basket as much……maybe it was the ankle, I don’t know….but with that speed and quickness, he should attack more. Plus, his ball handling abilities are questionable…….and his passing abilities for a guard are sub-par. He doesn’t look to pass when the opportunities are there…….he’s always been that way.

It can be a 2 on 1 situation with Monta controlling and a wing like Maggette running……and instead of lobbing it to Maggette or flipping a quick pass on the break…….Monta will usually, unsuccesfully force up a shot on the break.

He did that with Pietrus a few times in 2007-2008, I remember specific 2 on 1 situations where Monta was controlling………and when you have an athletic wing like Pietrus or Maggette……all you really have to do is throw the pass in the air, somewhere close to the basket and those guys will catch and deliver for an alley-oop……..he doesn’t make other players better, he doesn’t make the game easier.

The nice thing about that deal is that Tony is still pretty young…..he came into the league at 19 and he still has at least 3-4 good years ahead of him. Acquiring Tony would still keep us in the hole with the salary cap but who cares when you can get a Championship, winning player who will make a difference.

The Spurs would get even younger with Monta and add another scorer to the potent mix of Jefferson, Ginobili and Duncan…….

That would make the Spurs a little more athletic, probably increase their points per………

They Spurs would lose their traditional PG……but they are smart enough to figure out how to win without Tony with Popovich at the healm and experienced, discplined players like Duncan and Ginobili.

Any thoughts on that deal?

Less likely would be Monta Ellis straight up for Chauncey Billups……..that works well on the Trade Machine as well but Denver is unlikely to give him up after last year’s success.

But if you add Monta to Carmello and J.R. Smith, you have a potent scoring trio that should keep their ppg totals right around 110.

That would be a more efficent scoring trio than it was with Iverson, Anthony and Smith because Monta has a career FG% of 48% and Iverson has a career FG% of 42.5%. Monta takes less shots than Iverson, Monta is really not a volume scorer…..he is actually quite an efficient scorer.

Plus Denver gets younger and Ellis gets a fresh start……he might break out and have a great season.

And of course, the Golden State Warriors would get Billups and tout the following line-up:

1. Billups
2. Jackson
3. Maggette/Azubuike
4. Randolph
5. Biedrins

Can you imagine the easy baskets Randolph and Biedrins will get at the rim? Biedrins would probably average close to 12 ppg and Randolph would get a chance to develop with a legitimate All-Star PG.

You mix in Jackson to complete a nice, experienced, veteran back-court……you can’t leave Chauncey or Jackson open from the perimeter………..

And defensively, with Stephen guarding the other team’s best perimeter player and Chauncey sticking the other team’s PG………those are 2 very hard-nosed and tough defenders.

That would cause some nightmares for opposing defenses.

Plus, you bring in Curry and Morrow as the second back-court unit and automatically become younger. You give the opposing team’s defense a completely different look. It would give us 4 great perimeter shooters with: Billups; Jackson, Morrow and Curry.

Just some thoughts……….

I get what your saying though about a PG and like you said the best we could end up being is a successful team with our type of line-up. No Championship or Extended Playoff runs but I guess being successful would be better than where we have been.

Optimus, if we had Lebron James he could do whatever he wanted and I would be happy with it. May not win a title but that would be one guy that, if he was in a warriors uni, he could do no wrong. But I think perry has emphasized lately the need for a “go to” player in the 4th that can just get you easy buckets in extremely important. Like you said Ar is developing into that and there is a hope that Monta can be that but I don’t think anyone of us will know until midway through the season to see if Monta goes to the next level.

But if I could move monta for a legit all star PG I would do it in a heartbeat b/c as we have all seen that Nellie’s system(Like it or Not)hinges on having a strong PG. Sure we can run the combo guards with that system but it just seems to flourish a lot more with a legit PG.

Perry: I think Monta can be that ‘go to’ player. Looks like Randolph may certaily be also (maybe not this year).

Im just not a fan of the ‘Lebron James’ style. Give me the ball and everyone else get out the way style. We have a number of players that can all hit shots in the 4th. Why do we want to rely on just one?

Without a quality, up-tempo point guard to run the team from the start of next season, the Warriors will have no shot at the Playoffs. They will also not be able to develop the young talent they have at the 2, 4 and 5 spots.