Enemy Lines An Opposing Team's Scout Sizes Up The Warriors

If you're trying to build with young guys like Mike Dunleavy. Troy Murphy and Jason Richardson, why would you expose them to a potentially negative influence like Nick Van Exel? Their decision to package Antawn Jamison as part of a nine-player trade to Dallas had to be purely financial. Now they'll either deal Van Exel's contract or let it expire after next season, when they'll have tons of cap space....

If Van Exel realizes they have no chance of winning, he'll try to force a trade by skipping practice and being unavailable to play in games. But if things are going well, he's a guy the other team has to fear because he's so talented and he wants so badly to beat you....

I don't think the season's going to go well, because they got rid of more talent than they added. They lost their two leading scorers in Jamison and Gilbert Arenas, and they'll be relying on three very young starters, though I feel that Dunleavy and Murphy are going to have good years. Dunleavy is an emerging star who has all the skills and knows how to use them....

Richardson has been a horrid ball handler, and teams have learned to exploit that. He's like their rookie from France, Mickael Pietrus—those two can fly up and down the court, but they don't know how to play....

I don't like Erick Dampier or Adonal Foyle individually, but together their size and rebounding make them a fairly productive 48-minute duo at center....

The Warriors have excellent reserves in Clifford Robinson, Calbert Cheaney and Speedy Claxton, a fantastic backup point guard who thinks he's a starter....

I understand why they want to move Murphy out to the three-point line, to stretch the defense, but in doing so they take away his inside strengths—and they are so hard to find. Once you invite guys out to the perimeter, it can be hard to get them back into the blocks.