Warriors Take Ekpe Udoh at 6

The 2010 NBA draft has completed it's first round, and with their first round pick (number 6 overall) the Warriors selected a guy who likely enters the 2010-11 season as a third-string power forward.

Needless to say, there weren't a whole lot of people too ecstatic with Larry Reilly's choice or Ekpe Udoh with 6th overall pick, granted, this draft class isn't exactly a loaded with A-list talent. After John Wall, Derrick Favors, DeMarcus Cousins and Evan Turner, there aren't a lot of guys in this class who I see coming in and making immediate impacts for their team. Still though, I just don't get why the Warriors would go after another slender-sized power forward when they have two young guys on their roster who need to be getting playing time. One option that comes to mind regarding the new log-jam at the power forward spot would be the Warriors possibly dealing one of the three in a package for help in another area. Let's just say for example that the Warriors are looking to trade Monta Ellis; if they could put together a Brandon Wright/Monta Ellis package, that is going to bring them something in return. There has been whispers of Monta Ellis' interest in playing for his hometown Grizzlies and I'm sure an Ellis/Wright combo may land the W's a Rudy Gay. I like O.J. Mayo as well, but I think Ellis is just as valuable if not more valuable of a player than Mayo. An addition of Gay would leave the Warriors with a lineup looking something like this:

Starters-

PG Stephen Curry

SG Anthony Morrow

SF Rudy Gay

PF Anthony Randolph

C Andris Biedrins

Reserves-

G Kellana Azubuike

F/C Ronny Turiaf

G/F Reggie Williams

F Anhtony Tollivers

G Charlie Bell
G C.J. Watson

Now, the chances of them actually dealing Ellis for Gay aren't very high, but I see it making sense for both parties. Ellis is a highly-efficient scoring guard who would probably team up well with O.J. Mayo and Zach Randolph. Gay would give the Warriors a fundamentally sound player who can score and defend and would help bring some stability to their starting lineup. I like Monta and would like to see him and Curry figure out how to feed off of each other, but it just seems like Ellis doesn't want that. Whether it's a blockbuster deal like a Monta Ellis trade, or just a deal to clear up roster/cap space, like the Correy Maggette to Milwaukee deal, they have to do something with their logjam up front.

Giants Get Revenge on A's

Last month, the A's embarrassed the Giants over at the Colosseum by sweeping them and doing it in convincing fashion. However, the Giants got their revenge over the weekend at AT&T Park by taking sweeping the A's and making it look relatively easy.

It really shouldn't come as much of a surprise for A's fans though. The A's are nowhere near the team that faced the Giants in Oakland a month ago. They have fallen below .500 for the first time all season and are now in 3rd place in the AL East. At first, it was mainly an offensive issue with the A's, but now they aren't getting consistent performances out of their starting rotation either. They're badly missing Brett Anderson and Justin Duchscherer, but they still have enough quality in their rotation that they should be able to weather the storm. Trevor Cahill continues to deal, and Gio Gonzalez has gotten a lot better, but Dallas Braden and Ben Sheets keep getting hit around pretty good. For the most part though, if the A's were getting more consistent clutch hits and playing more fundamentally sound offensively, the rotation wouldn't be so bad. However, if you give up 4-5 runs per start like Braden and Sheets have been, this team is pretty much dead in the water. They just don't have a team that can climb back from big deficits. Still though, the A's are just 4 games out of first right now and it's hardely time to throw in the towel. I'd just like to see some kind of move made to help jump start the offense. Not necessarily a trade, but maybe a promotion of Chris Carter or maybe even Michael Taylor (solid last few games) even though he's not having a great year in Sacramento. I also think it's time Jemile Weeks gets his promotion up to AAA Sac as he shouldn't be too far away either.

The Giants had the same issue as the A's did with their offense all the way up until a few weeks ago. Now all the sudden the Giants have an offense that's putting up runs night in and night out and they're looking pretty darn good in the process. The addition of Pat Burrell has done wonders, as has the promotion of Buster Posey. Also, Juan Uribe is having an all star type year. The Giants are doing all this without two of their more clutch hitters, Bengie Molina and Pablo Sandoval, doing a whole lot. Sandoval, who hit .330 with 25 homers and drove in 90 runs in 2009 has just 4 homers and 24 RBI to go with a .283 average halfway through June and it's starting to cause some concern. Sandoval has even been dropped down to as low as 8th in the batting order recently to try and jump start him. He'll have a good 3-hit game, then he'll go 1-9 over his next two. I think he's going to find his rhythm, I just hope it's while the Giants are getting this output from guys like Burrell, Posey, Uribe, Torres and Sanchez. For much more Giants talk, check out our affiliate, The Giants Baseball Blog

Warriors Could Trade Ellis

Their season just ended a little over a month ago, and it looks like big changes could be on the horrizon for the Golden State Warriors.

It's no secret that the team is currently for sale and should have new ownership by the end of the summer. Everybody's hoping the wealthy and business savy Larry Ellison get's hold of this organization. It's the general consensus that Ellison will put his magic touch on the team and turn around a franchise that has generally been one of the worst in the NBA over the last 15 years. Only one playoff appearance in that span will do that to a fanbase though. Whover the new owner is, he's going to be coming into a rocky situation. The Warriors have a lot of talent on their roster (when they have everyone healthy), and should be in a better situation then they are right now. They have turmoil going on with the coaching staff, where many feel Don Nelson is just sleepwalking through this last phase of his career and doing it mainly for his hefty paycheck. The Warriors have a lot of questions to answer this summer, and have some things to figure out before they get ready to head into the draft next month.

The big personnel decision they are tampering with right now is whether or not they're going to move forward with Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry in the same back-court. Everybody thinks those two should be fine together except for Ellis. Monta is unhappy sharing the rock with Curry and wants out, and there has been a lot of speculation over the last few months about him possibly returning home and playing for the Grizzlies. Apparently Ellis recently bought some property and a house in Memphis. After that, rumors started to fly about how Don Nelson, a guy who's been a huge supporter of Ellis over the years, said he would have been thrilled to obtain a package of Hasheem Thabeet and O.J. Mayo in exchange for Ellis, a deal that was supposedly discussed at the trade deadline in February, and re-started after the season. I think it's pretty clear that Ellis wants out, and just like they did with Steven Jackson, the Warriors are going to have to grant him his wish if they want to keep this core together. We saw how disruptive it was for Jackson playing out his games in a Warriors uni earlier in the season, and we don't need a repeat of that in 2010-11. The W's need to decide this summer if they're going to go forward with the Ellis/Curry guard combo, or they need to begin 2010 without it and not drag it on any further.

Also, we will be mentioning the 2010 summer olympic games here at the BASJ, especially the Soccer World Cup. We also encourage you to check out our partners over at Docs Sports for World Cup brackets, World Cup betting odds and World Cup soccer picks!