Warriors 122, Knicks 117. 6-2.

-5 on the glass and still pulled one out on the road. 1st time this year they’ve lost the rebound battle and won the game. It’s getting harder to say this team won’t be in the playoff mix this year.

Jim Barnett is officially getting old. He’s starting to mess up and mix up names like your grandfather, although I bet your grandfather couldn’t get 12 a game like Ol’ Crazy Horse, though.

So how’s that little offseason trade working out? David Lee walked toward mecca with a fresh new baby stegosaurus haircut and played his best game as a Warrior. He had 28 and 10. Anthony Randolph…well he played 3 minutes and had 0 points. There’s still a lot of time left for the story of this trade to be written but it’s looking like a bestseller for the Warriors so far.

Credit to Monta for giving up tech shooting responsibilities to Curry. Credit, too, for playing in this game 2 days after hurting his back and for getting 22/2/6 with 4 steals and for hitting the 2 throws that clinched the game.

Vladimir Radmanovic just should not play if the game hasn’t been decided. Simple and plain. There were a lot of factors in the 4th quarter collapse that almost cost them the game but Smart putting him in to guard Amare was certainly one of the bigger ones. He was a -9 in 6 minutes tonight.

Fitzometer: it broke. I have to go buy a new one after Fitz’s crying about the refs tonight. This game tape will be aired when Fitz is inducted into the Whining Hall of Fame. The display he put on in the 4th quarter might be his baby sky hook in the Garden, a singular and defining moment.

The Warriors made one of the bigger trades in their team history yesterday (as sad as that is) when they traded Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike to the Knicks for David Lee.

There’s no doubt that Randolph is one of the more intriguing prospects in the NBA. Explosive 7 footers who can handle the ball and shoot a little bit don’t come around very often. And in today’s game, where skill and athleticism are as important to a power forward as bulk and strength used to be, he very well might turn into the prototypical modern 4: a guy who can run and finish, stretch the floor a little bit and make plays on offense and guard multiple positions on defense.

Then again, he also might turn into Carlos Rogers. The fact is at this point in his career Randolph just doesn’t have much of a game. He’s an athlete playing basketball, not a basketball player. And as much as I’d like to wait and see what he becomes, there’s no guarantee he becomes anything. Right now the only thing he does really well is rebound. He puts up big shot block numbers but a lot of those come from being out of control and undisciplined on defense, although I eventually think he’ll be a plus defender. On offense, he basically needs to develop an entire game at the NBA level, which just doesn’t happen very often. I also worry about his on-the-edge style of play leading to injury. You put all those things together and I think Randolph has a chance to a Josh Smith-level player, which is a really nice player to have but also not above the level of a David Lee. I understand why the Warriors were open to cashing in his chip for a legitimate plus starting power forward, especially b/c they are building a team around Steph Curry and Lee is a better fit next to him than Randolph (or Smith.) Sometimes you have to take good and give up on a chance at great. The Warriors have been bad for so long, and they’ve seen so many of their prospects become eminently replaceable players if not outright busts, that I’m ok with making a move that moves them closer to becoming respectable right now. Then you go from there. At a certain point you need to stop hoping for 2 years from now and make your team better. I think trading for David Lee did this.

Of course, the only thing more familiar than losing to Warrior fans is seeing ex-Warriors play in the all-star game so I’m sure that Larry Riley just ensured the perennial all-star success of Randolph by trading him.

In another lost season for the Warriors, one of the few things left worth debating and following is the emergence (or lack thereof) of Anthony Randolph. On one side are the fans who think Randolph is a special talent (not to mention Ric Bucher, who called him “potentially a top-10 player in the NBA”) and want to see him play as many minutes as possible and on the other is Don Nelson, who says he likes Randolph as a prospect (and that Bucher’s statement was “the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard”) but that he’s a 19 year-old kid who’s not ready to help the Warriors win who needs to earn, not be given, additional minutes.

As usual with Nellie, there’s a circus tent covering his decision. Is he not playing him because he didn’t want him on draft day? Is he not playing him b/c the small lineups he prefers have no use for forwards who can’t score? Is he not playing him b/c he just doesn’t like rookies?

First, let’s look at how much Randolph is actually playing. Here’s a breakdown of the minutes played per game for the top 20 picks in the 2008 draft:

Derrick Rose: 36.8
Michael Beasley: 24.6
OJ Mayo: 37.9
Russell Westbrook: 31.5
Kevin Love: 23.3
Danilo Gallinari: 14.5
Eric Gordon: 32.6
Joe Alexander: 11.8
DJ Augustin: 28.4
Brook Lopez: 30.0
Jerryd Bayless: 14.4
Jason Thompson: 25.9
Brandan Rush: 20.8
Anthony Randolph: 12.8
Robin Lopez: 11.2
Marresse Speights: 15.3
Roy Hibbert: 11.7
JaVale McGee: 14.8
JJ Hickson: 11.8
Alexis Ajinca: 6.3

Looking at that, it’s not like Nellie is burying the kid. He’s played about the same minutes as about half of the rookies in his class, and when you factor in his age (he’s the youngest player in the NBA) and the fact that he was last pick in the lotto, it’s not an unreasonable amount of playing time on the surface.

How is he playing when he does get minutes? Has he earned more minutes in the ones he’s played?

I think even the most ardent Randolph supporter would agree that he is an extremely erratic player at this point in his career. He is simply not a good offensive player yet: he averages twice as many turnovers as assists and he averages fewer than 1 point per shot, the latter stat being something only a handful of NBA players do (another one of the few doing it this season is Baron Davis.) He is not a good individual defender but he has shown an ability to block shots as a help defender and he has a pretty solid rebound rate. These skills are probably the best defense the people who want Randolph to play more have considering shot-blocking and rebounding are not exactly in abundance on this team.

There are also questions about Randolph’s work ethic and attitude. There were questions about Randolph’s attitude coming into the league and Nellie has said that he isn’t working as hard as he should be in practice. No rookie should be gifted minutes and if he isn’t putting in his work it’s hard to argue that he should be playing more than he is.

Hopefully Nellie isn’t keeping him on the bench just to prove a point, though. He’s always said that he will play rookies if they’re ready to play—using guys like Mullin, Richmond & Hardaway as examples—but the problem with that is almost no rookies today are ready to play. You almost never get a rookie who has played 4 years of college—like each member of Run TMC—and is ready to contribute immediately. Today you get guys like Randolph, talented guys who aren’t ready but need to be brought along and given some room to make mistakes on the court. Not to mention that when you’re 20 games under .500 you might as well play the young guys. Developing young, raw players is part of the job description of an NBA head coach today, especially if you’re coaching a bad team. Is Nellie the right man for that job?