Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Glad To see Baron Davis Leave the Warriors


As a Bay Area native and a fan of the Golden State Warriors, I will not be sad to see Baron Davis leave for the Clippers. Radio stations around the Bay Area announced that Davis plans to sign a five-year contract worth $65 million with the Clip Joint.

Boom Dizzle, as Davis likes to be called, was a great player for the Warriors and helped turned the franchise into one of the most exciting and entertaining teams in the NBA. No Warriors fan will forget the great playoff series victory against Dallas last year, or his highlight-reel dunk on Andrei Kirilenko when they played Utah in the second round.

He leaves the Bay Area with a lot of great memories and moments. Davis was the player the Warriors turned to when they needed a clutch shot, and he made a lot of game-winning shots over the last few years.

Just off the top of my head, I recall the game in Oakland against the Celtics last season as well as a game at Seattle when Davis made a jumper to win the game.

As much as Baron meant to the team and the community, I found a lot of fault in his play.

He was never a defensive stopper and has trouble defending the quicker and smaller point guards in the Western Conference such as Tony Parker and Chris Paul. Deron Williams can match him in size and led his team over the Warriors in the playoffs two seasons ago.

Davis has the size and ability to be better on defense than he is, but he often conserves his energy for offense instead.

Davis' shooting was never great to begin with also. There were many nights when he would not find his shot and still shoot the ball over 20 times instead of distributing the ball to teammates.

Another weakness of Davis is that he is injury-prone. Although he went through last season injury-free for the most part, his career has seen a share of injuries which has cost him many games during a season.

Instead of being sad about Davis leaving the Warriors, I am truly excited about life without Mr. Dizzle. I can't wait to see what GM Chris Mullin does to improve the roster.

I hope Mullin goes after Gilbert Arenas. How great would it be to have this former Warrior back as Davis' replacement? Arenas is more talented than Davis and a better shooter. He is also younger although Arenas also has been injury-prone of late.

If Arenas had never left the Warriors, they would never have needed to trade for Davis in the first place. Who knows if Arenas could have taken the Warriors to the playoffs during those years?

The Warriors still will most likely have restricted free agent Monta Ellis and Stephen Jackson on the roster. Jackson is one of the most underrated players in the league and a huge key to the team's success. What makes Jackson so valuable is that he plays both ends of the court. Jackson can shoot, pass, and guard the opponent's best player.

Goodbye Boom Dizzle. We will miss you out here in the Bay. You are gone but not forgotten. The only question now is will you get cheered or booed in your return to Oakland next season?

The Bay Area is not too fond of Los Angeles teams or athletes usually so my guess would be a standing ovation amid some boos.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Baron is a cunt sellout!

Anonymous said...

lol at the first comment ^^