Pietrus ripped by Golden State sideline reporter

Golden State Warriors Examiner - Mickael Pietrus leaves Warriors with less fanfare than B.D. ... or Adonal Foyle, for that matter - Examiner.com

It was harder to say good-bye to Adonal Foyle than it was Pietrus, even though Foyle was a far less productive player. But Warriors fans came to respect Foyle because in the end they knew, unfortunately, he had reached his potential as a player.

The same can’t be said of Pietrus and that’s why he’s out the door with no fanfare.

To call Pietrus an “underachiever” would be too strong. When he was good, he helped the Warriors win. But he was never consistent in his five seasons with Golden State and for that reason I don’t believe he’ll make any more of an impact for the Magic than he did the Warriors. (Conjecture?)

But I can’t remember Pietrus ever hitting a big shot. I remember him hitting shots that kept momentum going or perhaps stopped another team’s momentum late in games. But I can’t remember a shot he made that was the difference between a Warriors win and loss.

Help me out if you remember one.

Pietrus was usually upbeat and charismatic, a little too soft overall, special at times, ordinary a lot and ineffective a little too much. He will definitely benefit from a change of scenery. Pietrus will amuse, impress and confound the city of Orlando. Just like he did here.

But at the end of the day, Pietrus isn’t an NBA starter. Or to put it more gently, he has yet to prove he's an NBA starter. He can't be a starter on a contender anyway. But coming off the bench is not going to sit well with him, not at this point of his career.

Pietrus is like countless NBA players; he thinks he’s better than he is. If he comes off the bench, he’s not going to be content, and if he starts you’re not going to be that good.

Pietrus was one of the most friendly and positive players who ever came down the pike for the Warriors ... among the nicest and most outgoing I've dealt with in 15 years or so doing this. Fans should be collectively bumming out about his departure.

But Pietrus needed to be a better player for that to be happening.

Wow. That is pretty harsh. Golden State is an odd team. They sucked before Don Nelson showed up. Then Nelson ran Pietrus as a 4, didn't like him there, so didn't play him much. Not sure if a SG not making it as a big man is underachieving or simply bad coaching. With Nelson you can never tell, but it's safe to say Don Nelson would earn a lot of votes in the Most Overated Coaches Hall of Fame.

SVG has Pietrus scheduled to start at SG instead of PF. All of the above hopefully will turn out to be b.s. with SVG calling the shots.