The Golden State Warriors, a.k.a. the league’s youngest team, may not jump off the page as a title contender … but they’re sure fun to watch. With high-flying youngsters like Monta Ellis, Stephen Curry, Anthony Randolph and Andris Biedrins plus Stephen Jackson, there’s plenty of offense coming out of the Bay Area.
We spent some time with Warriors TV play-by-play voice Bob Fitzgerald to talk about the team that traded Al Harrington and Jamal Crawford and went 31-51 last season yet is sure to score in the 100’s.
Golden State Preview [12:08m]:
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It promises to be an interesting season in Texas as the Dallas Mavericks are set to take the floor with five key players who are at least 31 years old: Jason Kidd (36), Erick Dampier (34), Jason Terry (32), Dirk Nowitzki (31) and Shawn Marion (31).
While they may be old in NBA years, they’re also pretty good, with Kidd, Dirk and Matrix combining for 21 All-Star appearances in their collective careers. Yet it’s not all positive in Dallas right now, as head coach Rick Carlisle recently said that athletic swingman Josh Howard, still recovering from offseason ankle surgery, could be out for “weeks.”
We welcomed in Dallas TV play-by-play voice Mark Followill to go over those topics and more.
Dallas Mavericks Preview [16:08m]:
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Our tour of the Western Conference next went through Utah, where we welcomed Salt Lake Tribune beat writer Ross Siler to discuss a team that’s consistently given the Lakers a tough test.
Siler broke down the Carlos Boozer - Paul Millsap power forward situation, confirmed a statement that Deron Williams (not Chris Paul) may be the best point guard in the NBA, offered his take on Andrei Kirilenko and Mehmet Okur and gave us his Top 5 coaches to interview (including both Jerry Sloan and Phil Jackson).
The Lakers first see Utah on Dec. 9 at STAPLES Center before flying to Salt Lake City that same week.
Utah Jazz Preview [12:18m]:
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Prior to the 2008-09 season, the Hornets were considered among the steadiest of road blocks thought to impede L.A.’s chances in the West, but the Hornets ended up fighting just to finish seventh to earn the right to face Denver in the First Round, where they fell 4-1.
In the offseason, the Hornets traded center Tyson Chandler for Charlotte’s Emeka Okafor, lost Rasual Butler to the Clippers and drafted UCLA point guard Darren Collison to back up Chris Paul.
Hornets radio studio host Joe Block joined us to discuss those topics and more as we continue piecing through the Western Conference.
New Orleans Preview [12:43m]:
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As we roll on through the Western Conference, Sacramento Bee beat writer Sam Amick joined us to offer insight into the still-developing team that most pundits predict will struggle to find wins out West.
The Kings feature the play of an exciting prospect in Tyreke Evans, the No. 4 overall pick out of Memphis, and are hoping for expedited development out of young bigs Jason Thompson and Spencer Hawes, plus a healthy ankle for the squad’s current best player, Kevin Martin.
In his season preview for the Bee, Amick quoted GM Geoff Petrie’s plan to “continue developing the youth while keeping a watchful eye out for trades that could accelerate the process,” which he explained in our (below) podcast. Amick also offered some insight into Ron Artest (”I think he’s a great fit”), whom he covered from 2005-07 in Sacramento.
Sacramento Kings Preview [17:01m]:
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Next up in the West is the team that shares a building with the Lakers, but wears red and blue instead of purple and gold.
With a roster that’s certainly talented enough to contend for a playoff spot in the West, the Clippers are an intriguing bunch that the Lakers will see immediately, on Ring Night.
To catch the temperature of the Clippers, we enlisted radio play-by-play voice Brian Sieman, who told us what we can expect from Blake Griffin, Baron Davis, Eric Gordon and the rest of L.A.’s other team.
L.A. Clippers Preview [17:54m]:
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To get the best idea of what the Lakers will be dealing with in the Western Conference heading into the 2009-10 season, we enlisted team broadcasters and beat writers from all 14 opposing Western Conference squads to preview their respective teams.
With our audio device recording, we began the process with L.A.’s Western Conference Finals opponent, the Denver Nuggets.
To do so we sat down with Benjamin Hochman, the Nuggets beat writer for the Denver Post, to talk about Carmelo Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Co.
Denver Nuggets Preview [9:50m]:
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Pre-Season Game #8
10/23/09
At the risk of sounding like a broken record (a reference for those of you still enjoying vinyl), we know that the first major threat from the Nuggets is their transition game. They do such a great job of looking up-court once they get possession of the ball. This thrust creates mismatches and puts defensive communication to the test. In the game last night there was a clear example of how they hurt us in this fashion last night. In the play, the Nuggets get the rebound and immediately get the ball to their quarterback, Chauncey Billups. Whether the first pass is up the floor or in this case after Billups takes one dribble, they always look to pass the ball up the floor to create an early scoring opportunity. In this case they got the ball to Carmelo in a scoring position and on the weakside of our defense we had a breakdown in communication. This leads to an easy dunk for Denver. We must do a better job of limiting these types of baskets.
We also saw in the game a good example of a basic sequence within our triangle offense. One of Lamar Odom’s special skills is that he can rebound the ball on the defensive end and initiate the transition. In this example he gets us into our offense with a dribble entry. One of the principles of our offense is to simply pass the ball to the first open man you see. As Lamar pulls the ball to the wing to set up the strong side triangle he sees Derek Fisher open at the top as his man has decided to play off him in order to help clog the paint. Fish gets the ball and immediately passes to Artest at the position we call “pinch post”. The fact that Fish makes a hard cut also helps keep our offense flowing effectively. On the weakside, the defender guarding Kobe gets caught “playing the play”. What that means is that he knows that Kobe is supposed to pop up off the screens and the defender anticipates this and changes his positioning. Kobe correctly reads and reacts to this mistake and cuts hard to the basket opening the passing lane for the unselfish Ron Artest to make the assist on Kobe’s reverse lay-up. This play is a good example of how some simple basketball fundamentals executed within our offense can create an easy scoring opportunity.
Here’s a brief breakdown of tonight’s matchup against the Denver Nuggets:
We will see a familiar foe tonight in Anaheim and tomorrow night in San Diego. The Denver Nuggets have championship aspirations after taking us to six games in the western conference finals last spring. Their nucleus is back and they have a few new faces to replace Linas Kleiza and Dahntay Jones. This team bought into Coach George Karl’s challenge of playing team defense. We know we need to protect the ball or it will turn into a Nugget Dunk-fest. Chauncey Billups drives the squad and he usually starts games trying to get others involved but if he feels the team struggling to score he can and will kick his offensive game into a more scoring minded approach.
Some teams will slice and dice you with the execution of a number of playsets. While Denver has some plays that we will need to be aware of, they really want to get steals and get out and run. Billups and Anthony will look to probe the defense. There will be a lot of random screen and rolls set in order to free them and create an advantage. It is the secondary offensive thrust that we must be ready to defend. Getting back on defense in order to take away easy dunks is step one and that requires a physical effort. In order to take away their secondary or early offense we will need to communicate because there will be situations where we are not in our normal match-ups.
With two games left in the exhibition season it is time to gear up our intensity and this is a good opponent in order to do that.
Check Lakers Courtside Connection during the regular season for more extensive previews including video breakdowns.
