SJMN (Kawakami blog): The Warriors' bye-bye brigade

The Warriors' bye-bye brigade: Barnes, Pietrus and O'Bryant (and Baron) get
new scenery

Posted by Tim Kawakami on July 21st, 2008 at 4:58 pm

With varying levels of Warriors Nation emotion to mark the occasions, after
varying degrees of high-adrenaline success and repeated failure during their
East Bay tenures, we've seen quite the exodus of interesting Warriors
players in the last few weeks.

Baron Davis is the big one, of course, and I've dealt with that departure
endlessly already. Kelenna Azubuike still could go if the Warriors don't
match the Clippers' offer sheet and I guess Andris Biedrins and Monta Ellis
could go, too, if their restricted free agent manueverings take unexpected
swivels.

But today's official departure of Matt Barnes seems a good time to sit back
and take a look at the mid-range guys who are all gone now and who all, at
one point or another, seemed to represent at least a piece of the long-term
Warriors future yet all got busted out of here on rails:

-Barnes for a one-year, veterans minimum $1M deal with Phoenix;

-Mickael Pietrus for a four-year, $25M deal with Orlando;

-And Patrick O'Bryant to a two-year, $3M deal with Boston (second year is a
team option).

From the start of last season, it was fairly obvious that none of them were
likely to come back. Well, I held out some thought that Barnes could return,
but nope.

Let's take 'em one by one, starting with the guy who started with the lowest
profile but ended up, in my mind, as the most significant departure.

* Barnes was a Warriors' non-roster invite two summers ago after bouncing
around with Memphis, Cleveland, Seattle, the Knicks, Sacarmento, made the
Warriors roster after his hustle, versatility and high-speed recklessness
(and three-point shooting) caught Don Nelson's eye.

His friendship with Baron didn't hurt the cause any little bit. Barnes, of
course, was a huge, do-everything contributor to the final-lap kick in the
spring of 2007 and finished games for them in the playoffs against Dallas
and Utah.

I will remember Barnes for two things:

-His hilarious deadpan "oh no something ridiculous just happened" reaction
to Baron's epic dunk on top of Andrei Kirilenko in Game 3 of the Utah
playoff series at Oracle. The dunk was spectacular. The reaction was what
that Warriors' run was all about.

-His total screw-up at the end of the Feb. 20 victory over Boston at Oracle
this season, when Barnes disobeyed Nelson's play-call with the Warriors
protecting a two-point lead with 29 seconds left, rushed up a shot when
Nellie wanted to run the clock down, and almost blew a critical game.

The Warriors held on, but Nelson repeatedly pointed out that "Matt had the
goat horns written all over him" and sounded disgusted by what Barnes did.
Nelson had trusted Barnes with the ball-as he did in the 2007
playoffs-despite Barnes' horrible follow-up season.

And Barnes messed up royally, basically doing what he'd been doing all
during the 07-08 campaign: Play like a D-Leaguer.

After the game and the press conference, Nelson took the unusual step of
marching into the locker room, through the media pack, and first to Baron's
locker and then Barnes' to demand an answer for the near-calamity. Baron had
a good answer. Barnes had nothing. Literally no answer.

I know Barnes went through a lot last year. You have to feel for a guy who
loses his mother at any time, and Barnes was going through it as he was
trying to win himself a life-changing NBA contract.

It didn't happen. That Boston foul-up was probably the symbolic end of
Barnes' Warriors career, though Nellie did keep playing him here and there.

Nelson gave Barnes every opportunity last season. He really did. Nelson can
be brutal on some players, but he loves mid-sized players who can guard
small and big, shoot from deep and make plays and cause chaos on defense
with deflections and double-teams.

But Barnes never shot the ball well last season. He kept screwing up. He
lost Baron's faith in there, somewhere, too. Nellie played Barnes, but he
always had a quick hook the first time Barnes messed up, and it was usually
not a long wait.

I thought the Warriors might come back to Barnes, if he didn't have any
other offers, and see if he wanted to try again this season. I know Nellie
didn't support that, but I thought the Warriors might do that.

Turns out Phoenix pulled the trigger more quickly, and it's a good move for
both the Suns and Barnes. I really doubt he can duplicate the things they've
missed since Shawn Marion's departure. but he's better at a lot of that
stuff than anybody else they have.

His shooting and errant passes will drive Steve Nash crazy. He'll probably
go back to shooting 28% or so from three-point. (I really do think that his
36.6% from three in 06-07 was the out-lier). But it's worth the shot for
Phoenix.

I don't think Barnes is ever going to get that $25M deal he was seeking last
summer. but he's a pro. If it doesn't work out in Phoenix, he's had a longer
NBA career than I ever expected, and he had the 2007 run.

BD was the leader and Jason Richardson was the Old Guard representative and
Stephen Jackson was the glue. but if you had to pick one player whose
reclamation and passion illustrated the best and craziest things about the
April and May 2007 journey for the Warriors, it was Barnes.

He's pretty easily replaced-a little bit by Maggette, a little by Brandan
Wright, maybe a lot by Anthony Randolph. Barnes is very easily replaced.
Because the Warriors have already dealt with having to replace Good Barnes.
They had to try to replace him all last season, when he was still on the
team. and not any good at all.

(Interesting Suns front-line rotation: Shaquille O'Neal, Amare Stoudemire,
Robin Lopez, Diaw, Barnes, Hill.)

* Pietrus was a goner from all the way back to last summer, when the
Warriors played hard ball during his restricted free agency and forced him
to sign their one-year tender in order to become unrestricted this summer.

He went predictably nutso, tanked his way into February, yearned for a trade
(hard to trade somebody who's tanking), then hit a switch after the trade
deadline and turned in a very nice 12-game run through March.

But he suffered a groin strain in late March, stayed out so long that he had
some of his teammates grumbling, and the Warriors went 4-5 in the games he
missed.

That's the Old Pietrus Dilemma: Nellie loved what a happy Pietrus could
provide-active, physical defense and a few offensive moves (emphasis on A
FEW) if MP could just keep it simple-but Nellie didn't always want to deal
with the pouting about having to defend bigger players and MP's natural
tendency to do at least one dumb thing every few minutes of action.

Chris Mullin figured this: You can't count on Pietrus, so you can't invest
large amounts of money in the guy, and by not investing large money in the
guy, the Warriors drove MP even crazier than normal. Law of diminishing
returns and amplified nuttiness. Who doesn't love the NBA!

If Orlando convinces Pietrus that all he needs to do is play defense and let
Rashard Lewis and Turkoglu put up the shots, while Dwight Howard does
everything else. he can be a player. MP, even when he was haphazard for the
Warriors, was never a big negative-he gets loose balls, he runs, he bothers
decent offensive players.

He just wasn't going to do it for the Warriors, which is what they decided a
year ago.

MP has been replaced mostly by Maggette-who is limited defensively and
certainly no passer, but Maggette is consistent. Totally robotically
consistent; he gets to the free-throw line, he can get rebounds, he can run
the floor.

Plus the Warriors are building a line-up with a bunch of fleet skinny tall
guys-so the days of playing 6-6 guys like MP or Barnes at the power forward.
that's probably over, at least until Nellie's next strike of inspiration.

* O'Bryant was done, as we all know, just a few months into his Warriors'
career, after he was selected 9th overall in the 2006 draft to suit Mike
Montgomery's system. and then MM was fired and Nelson was hired.

I recall a question I asked Nellie at his introductory news conference in
August: What do you know about your new No. 1 pick, O'Bryant?

Nellie: Why do you ask?

Me: Because you don't have a history of liking to play 7-footers.

Nellie: Oh, I like 7-footers who can shoot threes.

Me (to myself): Well, Patrick had a nice run while it lasted with the
Warriors.

It's too bad. O'Bryant might not be a fiery guy and I know Nelson and his
staff believed O'Bryant was a stiff because he moved in slow motion through
so many practices and drills.

But POB has talent. He's a 7-footer who can shoot, he's extremely long, he
hasn't looked dead in the few minutes Nelson gave him the last two seasons,
he can pass it a little.

POB is a perfect candidate to wake up and turn into a decent, productive
back-up center if he gets a coach who won't deride him and isn't playing on
a team that is desperate to shoot threes and only threes.

Voila: The Celtics. Defending champions. Full of big bodies, and needing
some younger bodies. Perfect. Now if O'Bryant blows this. where all he has
to do is back up Kendrick Perksins (not that hard). and not make Kevin
Garnett wince (OK, that might be harder).

O'Bryant never had a chance with the Warriors. Maybe he deserved living in
NBA Siberia for two seasons, maybe he didn't.

But he's free now. He's on a great team that wants him to succeed.

How will the Warriors replace him? I dunno-who projects to be the backup in
Bakersfield this year?