|
Wednesday, June 19
Updated: Wednesday, June 19, 11:24 AM ET
Two Dunleavys better than one?
By Peter May
Special to ESPN.com
"Of course, like most players, he'd be so much better with a good team because he's unselfish and makes others better. My best advice would be, 'if there's a way to getting past the losing, go for it.' But I know that's going to be hard."
-- Mike Dunleavy Sr., on his son, last month
Hard? How about impossible?
|  | | Some signs point to ex-Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy heading to Golden State as well. |
Now that the cat is out of the bag, we can all start to speculate on why Michael Dunleavy has decided to forgo his final year at Duke and -- we think -- play for the Golden State Warriors. We're not going to be cute here and call this a step backwards, but, well, we hear Oliver Stone is all over this one.
There are rumors that Dad, who has been living quite nicely off Paul Allen's substantial wad, is in line for the Warriors' head coaching job, even though Brian Winters already has the position. There are similar rumors linking the elder Dunleavy to Memphis, fueled in part because new Memphis boss Jerry West gave him his first head coaching job in Los Angeles. Never mind that Memphis, too, has a head coach.
Is this a Pete/Press Maravich daily double? Is it the last act of the Garry St. Jean regime or the first act of the Chris Mullin regime? Or neither? Or both? Who knew the Warriors could be so much fun? Whatever is going on out there in Beirut By the Bay, it certainly is putting the Warriors front and center in the week before the draft.
This hasn't been the best of offseasons for the Warriors, who have a roster of some talent but no one, it seems, able to make the pieces mesh. They got the No. 3 pick in a two-man draft, essentially, because the guy they really, really wanted -- Dunleavy's teammate, Jay Williams -- appears to be a dead-bolt lock to go No. 2 to Chicago after Chinese center Yao Ming is picked first overall by the Rockets. Had the Warriors gotten either the first or second pick -- and they merited either based on their play -- they would have taken Williams in a nanosecond.
Lord knows, they have tried to move up. But they don't have the raw materials which would make the Rockets even bother to return a phone call. So they're now apparently locked in on Dunleavy, who has pro scouts drooling and who is The Consensus No. 3. But unless the Warriors are planning on moving Antawn Jamison, who is essentially unmoveable because he's a severe base-year player, or Jason Richardson, who is too good to be moved at this stage, what do they do with Dunleavy?
The short answer is to draft the kid and worry about it later. Plug him in, anywhere, and watch him. He's like a wild card in Uno, good for any number, and we know Jamison prefers the power forward position (even though he's overpowered there by all the brutes out West) so that could be the answer: a Dunleavy/Jamison/Erick Dampier front line.
But this also may be a ruse, as Peter Sellers liked to say. The Warriors need a point guard -- badly. They tried to use Larry Hughes in that spot last year and it worked out so well that (a) Hughes has basically been told not to let the door hit him on the way out and (b) second-round pick Gilbert Arenas of Arizona emerged late in the season as the latest, point guard du jour. And he's really a shooting guard anyway.
There has been a lot of talk that the Warriors have made a deal to secure a pick in the middle of the first round. There, they might find a point guard. Both Jamaal Tinsley and Tony Parker were late first rounders last year (and, yes, the Warriors passed on both of them. So did a lot of teams.)
Then there's the Memphis angle. That is supposedly where Dunleavy really wants to play, and, well, whoever thought the Grizzlies would get such cachet? Did West bring that all by himself? Steve Francis wouldn't play for the Grizz, although we suspect that might have been more due to Vancouver rather than having Big Country Reeves as his center. Then again ...
So maybe this puts the Warriors in an even better position -- midwive or facilitator. Only four years ago, they were in a similar position with Toronto, lusting after Jamison. They not only paid the Raptors to take Jamison at No. 4 for them, they agreed to take Vince Carter at No. 5 and send him to Toronto in exchange for Jamison.
They understandably don't like to bring that up in the Warriors' war room, but they now have a chance to make amends. Dunleavy is now in the draft. The Rockets are locked into Yao. The Bulls are locked into Williams. That leaves the Warriors right in the thick of things and, as one league executive noted, "now that Dunleavy is there, I expect there'll be a lot of teams trying to get him."
This isn't necessarily the kind of popularity that the Warriors wanted. We can only assume that anyone calling for the No. 3 pick have two things to offer: a good point guard and the willingness to take on one of the many undesirable Warrior contracts. Otherwise, you're wasting your time.
Then again, it could already be scripted out. Dad and son come West. New era for Warriors. Maybe they could even dredge up those old uniforms with the Golden Gate Bridge, which beat what they have now.
There is some talent on that roster, which, as Dunleavy pere noted, is a big plus for his multi-dimensional son. Jamison, Richardson, Danny Fortson, Arenas and Troy Murphy are all capable guys and Dampier and Adonal Foyle are not a totally clueless pivot combination. (Yes, that qualifies as compliment.)
All that has been missing is somebody who can figure out how to make the thing work. Dave Cowens couldn't do it. Winters didn't have any better success. The Warriors haven't made the playoffs since 1994, the longest continuous drought in the NBA.
Maybe that somebody is actually two somebodies who share the same last name and a passion for basketball. Or maybe it's just Dunleavy, the younger. Or maybe it's all a smokescreen and the guy the Warriors really want is Drew Gooden. If that's the case, Oliver Stone can re-focus his efforts on Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.
Peter May, who covers the NBA for the Boston Globe, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.
|
|
|
|
