Long lockout would hurt Warriors more than most

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June 30, 2011

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Matt Steinmetz
CSNBayArea.com

The day after the Warriors introduced their draft-night acquisitions, the three of them -- Klay Thompson, Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins -- got in a workout at the team's downtown Oakland practice facility. That was back on Tuesday.It was probably a nice little thrill.They likely won't see the inside of that gym again for a long time, as the league's owners announced on Thursday that they were locking out the players as of July 1. One of the many byproducts of that move is that the players can't work out at team facilities, nor with any of the team's staff.
The lockout isn't going to be good for anybody, but an extended lockout could be particularly unkind to the Warriors. They have a new coach, an entirely new coaching staff and no doubt a new philosophy. They have new ownership and a young team with at least three first-year players.RELATED: Warriors roster
If any team needs a summer of get-to-know-yous and rigorous and detailed training camp it's the Warriors. But if this lockout goes anything like the one in 1998-99 -- and that one lingered into January -- it will mean truncated training camps for NBA teams.That would clearly seem to favor veteran teams with established systems in place. Warriors coach Mark Jackson visited with David Lee, Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry in St. Louis, Memphis and Charlotte, respectively, but he won't be able to communicate with any of his players come Friday.What the Warriors are realistically looking at is a long period without any contact with their players, and then an abbreviated training camp, likely two weeks or so. There's going to be a learning curve at the start for the Warriors, and the shorter the preseason, the longer issues and deficiencies will linger into the regular season.In 1998-99, the league played just a 50-game schedule, and teams sometimes had to play three consecutive nights. Regardless of whether this season is the full 82 games or something short of that, it doesn't change the fact the Warriors (36-46) were the 12th-best team in the conference last year and had 10 fewer wins than Memphis, the No. 8 seed.On other words, the last thing the Warriors need is a long lockout.

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