Navigation: Jump to content areas:


Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Login-facebook
Around SBN: Explaining Jeremy Lin's Early, Surprising Success

Anthony Tolliver To Be Your Newest Golden State Warrior

As many jerseys as Anthony Tolliver's taken a picture in, a Warriors jersey is not one.

According to league sources, the Golden State Warriors are expected to call-up Anthony Tolliver from the NBA D-League's Idaho Stampede.  Tolliver, who has already been called up once this season via the Portland Trail Blazers, is averaging 21.4 points, 11.4 rebounds and 2.5 Stocks (Steals + Blocks, a statistic I'm now using courtesy of Bill Simmons).

For some reasoning regarding this call-up, let's look at  Golden State of Mind's Feltbot's recap:

Is this a basketball season, or Custer's last stand? The Warriors began this game dressing the NBA league minimum 8 players. After Anthony Morrow injured his knee two minutes in, there were 7. Then Cartier Martin got his eye raked by Andrew Bogut, and the Warriors were down to 6. Martin eventually returned, but by that time the Warriors were in serious foul trouble. Chris Hunter fouled out, Andris Biedrins fouled out, Stephen Curry fouled out. And the Warriors were down to 4. FOUR PLAYERS? When Curry fouled out, the refs were forced to invoke the little-known NBA Rule No. 3 (Section 1A), which basically states that the last player to foul out stays on the court and continues to play, but if he fouls again the other team receives a technical free throw in addition to the usual free throws. Joey Crawford mentioned to the broadcasters that he'd never seen this happen before in his 33 years as a ref.

 So, obviously, there was a need for somebody, and the Warriors chose Tolliver.

Tolliver isn't a bad choice but according to the Randy Livingston On The Edge Call-Up Rankings, we ranked him as the fourth most-likely player to get called up in the D-League.  I ranked him second, the highest of any of us, mostly because of what I was hearing at the Showcase:

Reports coming back from the Showcase most certainly were, as I talked to more than one coach that said he's the most NBA-ready player in the D-League. We ranked him number four, but I'd say that he's obviously NBA-caliber. Also, Moore has already anointed him as this year's Randy Livingston Memorial Award winner (player to receive most call-ups this season.

To give Golden State fans an idea of what they're getting, Tolliver's a stretch big man that hits the boards hard and plays harder.  He can play in the post, but I envision him as a Rob Kurz type player for the Warriors.

As far as I can tell, they had an injury-exception to use since Martin used the first of the two they'd been granted.

Comment 4 comments  |  0 recs  | 

Do you like this story?

Comments

Display:

Tolliver, like Hunter

is a fantastic pickup for Golden State. Fits what they do very well.

Ridiculous Upside, where developing talent and winning are not mutually exclusive.

by Jon L on Jan 17, 2010 12:18 AM EST reply actions  

This is why I'm not sure Golden State would be interested in a hybrid affil.

They now have three D-League guys on their roster, so I’d love to see them do it, but I have a feeling the front office has a “why bother when other teams can do our work for us” position.

Ridiculous Upside, where developing talent and winning are not mutually exclusive.

by Jon L on Jan 17, 2010 2:15 AM EST up reply actions  

Everything about that was awesome. Especially the Joey Crawford name drop

by Michael Levin on Jan 17, 2010 1:27 AM EST reply actions  

Comments For This Post Are Closed


User Tools

Welcome to Ridiculous Upside, your first stop for NBA prospect info! RU - Where Potential Is Way Cooler Than Reality!

Manager

Ru_small Scott Schroeder

Contributors

At_small Omaha Sun

Ryan_small Ryan Ripley

Eurobasketpic1__1__small Wendell Maxey

Best Ever D-League Blogger

Cimg0200_small Mike Gansey