UrsaMajor said:
SFCityBear said:
UrsaMajor said:
Interesting fact:
The Warriors have been great twice since coming to the Bay, 1974-1976 when they won their first title and had the league's best record the next year, and this 4 year run. Unlike many other teams that dominate, they both did so by redefining the game. In the 70's, rotations were typically short, 7 or at most 8 players got meaningful minutes, and teams slowed the pace and pounded it inside. Along comes Al Attles and the Warriors who went 12 men deep every night, who played two centers (George Johnson and Clifford Ray) equal minutes and ran everybody off the court. Sea change.
Fast forward to the present and the Warriors once again redefine the NBA with their pass-heavy motion offense designed to get jump shots. Once again, sea change.
Good description. 1975 Warriors are still my favorite NBA team. Huge underdogs all season, even in the NBA finals against the Bullets, where they won 4-0.
I liked Al Attles as a player, but never thought he was a good coach. It was a great strategy of playing all 12 men substantial minutes every night, but I think Attles fell into it by accident. As I remember, Attles started mostly veterans to begin the season, and they often would fall way behind in games. Finally, I think, in disgust, Attles began pulling four or five starters all at once, and replacing them with younger, fresher, hungrier players off the bench. With George Johnson blocking shots and rebounding, the second team moved to an up tempo fast break. The Warriors would often come storming back to take the lead. When the Warriors and their opponents began to believe no lead was too great for the Warriors to overcome, the die began to be cast for an NBA championship. Still, the playoffs were not to be easy. They met the Chicago Bulls, a team they were 1-3 against during the season, in the semi-final, and were down 3-2, but came back and won 4-3. Then they played the Washington Bullets, a team they were also 1-3 against during the season. They beat them 4-0.
Much of the credit for their success had to go to their GM, Dick Vertlieb, who made a blockbuster trade, sending Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond to Chicago for Clifford Ray, and also signing Charles Dudley and Bill Bridges.
In the 1975-76 season, the Warriors wanted the one missing piece, a power forward, and so Vertlieb traded Butch Beard to get Dwight Davis, who did not turn out to be much of a player. Vertlieb drafted a great guard in Gus Willams, and the Warriors went on to have the best regular season record in the NBA, as you mentioned. In the playoffs, Attles would abandon the strategy of playing twelve men, and substituting 4 or 5 players at the same time, which had been so successful. Neither Gus Williams nor Dwight Davis played the final two games of that series, and I don't remember why, and the Warriors lost both games. For much or most of the 2nd half of the 1976 final against Phoenix, Attles would play only five players with no substitutions that I can remember, and the Warriors lost.
It would appear that strategy of playing 12 deep is something else the Warriors of 1974-76 have in common with the Warriors of the present day. Based on minutes, one could argue that the Warriors go as many as 14 deep now, with many players seeing action game after game.
Thank you, SFCity, for that trip down "memory lane." I agree that Attles wasn't the greatest coach in the world, and ultimately, Franklin Mueli wasn't the greatest owner, but it was fun for a few years. What is interesting about today's W's is how much Kerr is willing to change up depending on opponent and situation. There are games where there are 5-6 DNP's and others in which everyone plays meaningful minutes. He's the most flexible coach around at this point.
You're welcome.
I agree that Mieuli wasn't the greatest owner, but he was one of the great ones, IMO. He joined the Diners Club group of 32 who bought the Philadelphia Warriors and brought them west to San Francisco in 1962. It was a big financial risk, especially after the Warriors only drew 3,000 fans that first year, and the other owners began to bail, and Mieuli ended up buying all of them out and became sole owner. Two years later, he drafted Wayne Hightower and Nate Thurmond, and the Warriors, led by Chamberlain, Guy Rodgers, and Tom Meschery would reach the NBA Finals, losing to the Celtics. The Warriors began to draw more, but Mieuli decided to trade his highest paid star, Wilt Chamberlain. He traded Guy Rodgers for Jeff Mullins and Jim King. Drafted Rick Barry, Fred Hetzel, Clyde Lee and Joe Ellis, and in his fourth season 1967, Mieuli's Warriors would again reach the NBA final, losing to the 76ers.
Mieuli and the Warriors suffered a crushing blow in 1967 when Rick Barry was enticed to join the ABA for a team coached by his father-in-law. He did return to the Warriors in 1972, but was not the same player, as a knee injury had now limited his athletic abilities somewhat. But Barry led them to their first NBA title as a Bay Area team. Mieuli's teams went to the playoffs 10 times in 24 years, went to the finals three times, and won one championship.
Mieuli always tried to give the Bay Area fans a show, and drafted a number of players from local schools like St Marys, USF, Santa Clara, Stanford, and several from Cal, starting with Charles Johnson. He drafted players who had played their high school ball in the Bay Area, like Joe Ellis, Bob Portman, and Willie Wise. He brought in a Hall of Famer like Wilt Chamberlain, future Hall of Famers like Nate Thurmond, Rick Barry, and Jerry Lucas. And great or exciting players like Bernard King, Tom Meschery, Guy Rodgers, Jamaal Wilkes, Clyde Lee, Phil Smith, Gus Williams, Robert Parish, Purvis Short, Larry Smith, Chris Mullin, Cazzie Russell, Sleepy Floyd, and World B. Free.
And Mieuli hired the greatest sportscaster in Bay Area history, Bill King. I know Mieuli had a number of down years, years where it looked like he had lost interest, but I always thought he got a bad rap during his lifetime. Without Franklin Mieuli, we might not have the Warriors in the Bay Area today, and we should be grateful to him for that at least. The good seasons are just gravy on top of that. He had quite a long run giving us some pretty good entertainment from the great game of basketball.