Golden State
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
Chris Mullin conducted exit interviews with his players yesterday looking to get them each to focus on getting or staying healthy, improving their games in the offseason, and coming back in the fall ready to aim for at least a postseason berth, if not more. Baron Davis vowed health and a "redefining" of his game.
Whether that means he will be deploying a fade-away 360 hook shot from midcourt or elevating above the rim to pick quarters off the top of the backcourt and leave two dimes and a nickel change isn't clear. What is clear is that he is quite likely to be next season's MVP. Could he also win next season's Finals MVP? The Warriors did beat the Suns twice, and many other contenders after Davis came aboard.
If Steve Nash wins Finals MVP this year, and Baron Davis is as good as his word and health allows his remarkable talent to shine through, and the Warriors blitz everybody a la Seattle or Phoenix this year, then his likely Finals MVP trophy next year following on Nash's heels this year which itself would follow Chauncey Billups's Finals MVP last year, would mark an unprecedented third year in a row of point guards winning the Finals MVP award.
Now that's a lot of if's.
The Warriors will be back. Then we'll see.
NEXT GAME
The Golden State Warriors finished the regular season with a 34-48 record, tied for fourth-worst in the Pacific.
TEAM NOTES
With the season now ended, warriors.com brings you its first installment of the 2004-05 Season in Review, with the individual player recaps all next week. Plus, radio broadcaster Tim Roye checks in with his latest journal.
INJURY UPDATE
Season complete.
Jannu Hu ofThe San Francisco Chroniclewrites: Silly, is it not? A team missing the postseason for the 11th straight year not only hearing talk about the playoffs, but where they might be seeded?Warriors coach Mike Montgomery was asked this week if expectations for next season -- which players center around making the postseason -- were being set too low for his team. After all, Golden State knocked off half of this year's Western Conference playoff contingent during its season-defining stretch, winning 11 of 12 games from March 17 to April 8.
Jannu Hu ofThe San Francisco Chroniclewrites: In his exit interviews with players Thursday, vice president Chris Mullin wanted to emphasize one thing. Before the Warriors become a legitimate playoff team, they have to get better. And that starts with summer training. "A lot of guys have areas they can and will improve on," Mullin said during his season wrap-up Wednesday night."To come back here next year and (play this well) for the whole year, and really have them excited -- that's what I really want them thinking about."... Point guard Baron Davis has vowed to be 100 percent healthy by training camp, and he plans on showing everybody his All-Star self when he returns in October at full strength. This season alone, Davis' back hurt. He had shoulder bursitis. He sprained his left ankle and bruised his right Achilles tendon. He nicked his elbow, then his tailbone. Occasionally, he fought knee tendinitis. Davis said he plans to take two months away from basketball and allow his body to heal before "redefining" his game, though what needs redefining is a matter of perspective.
The Associated Press writes inThe Daily Journal: The Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs for the 11th straight season and finished with three fewer wins than a year ago when coach Eric Musselman got fired. And yet the Warriors are headed into an offseason full of optimism for a change.That’s what adding Baron Davis did for this franchise. The pesky point guard quickly became a voice of this playoff-starved organization, and he quickly provided quite a glimpse of what the future could be with him running the show for a full season: high-energy hoops comparable to the style preferred by most teams in the talented Western Conference.