Inside the Western Conference: Warriors banking on Nelson

When Plan A and Plan B are eliminated, the logical next choice is Plan C, right?

Not if you're Golden State Warriors head coach Don Nelson it's not.

After Baron Davis' L.A. departure and Monta Ellis' mo-ped disaster, Nelson found himself in training camp without a driver for his high-octane offense and searching for an alternative to two of his leading set-up men from last season.

It seemed like Plan C would have to be Marcus Williams, the third-year point guard whom the Warriors acquired from the Nets in the off-season for a conditional first-round pick. Williams was lauded for his ability to control the pace of the game during his time at the Connecticut, but never quite caught on as Jason Kidd's successor in New Jersey.

Instead, Nelson chose to hand over the keys to DeMarcus Nelson, a player that barely has his point guard's permit, let alone driver's license.

"I'm not overplaying him, but I think he's doing a pretty good job," Don Nelson said about the undrafted Duke Blue Devil who was named the ACC Defensive Player of the Year last season while playing shooting guard for Mike Krzyzewski.

Nelson, the coach, is reluctant to play young players, so any praise the coach has for the rookie means a lot more than your average sound byte. "He's good to have on the floor," Nellie said, talking about his rookie as if he was a fine Persian rug.

Despite his coach's description, DeMarcus Nelson doesn't let his teammates walk all over him even though he was thrust into the starting point guard role somewhat unexpectedly.

"It's a learning experience with me being one of the youngest guys, but being in charge of older guys when I'm out there," DeMarcus said. "For the most part guys have been good with taking instruction and taking things that I have to say. They realize that I know the game and they haven't given me a hard time about that."

Through the first three games of the season, the 6-foot-4, 200-pound Nelson is putting up 5.7 points per game on 50 percent shooting, along with 1.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game.

Meanwhile, Williams has settled into the third-string point guard slot and hasn't played a minute yet this season behind C.J. Watson, whom Nellie intersperses with Nelson to give his team a sort of thunder-and-lightning running back tandem like in football.

Nelson is the bruiser who locks down on D and has the action figure arms like his teammates Corey Maggette and Kelenna Azubuike. Watson is the quicker of the two and can turn a long rebound into a fastbreak opportunity.

The change at point guard just punctuates the roster overhaul Golden State has gone through since last season.

"It's pretty different," said Watson, who was a rookie on last year's team that won 48 games but was edged out of the playoffs by Denver. "But this is the team we have now, we have to go with that and see where we can go."

The main difference was adding Maggette, who is expected to provide the lion's share of the Warriors' scoring. Along with Stephen Jackson, the dueo is averaging over 40 minutes in the early going because Coach Nelson says that, "for us to win, [they] probably have to [play that much]."

With veterans getting so much burn, that leaves little time for second-year players Marco Belinelli and Brandan Wright as well as rookie Anthony Randolph.

"The worst thing a coach can do is to try to play everybody," Don Nelson said.

There could be more change on the horizon as Al Harrington, the Warriors' starting power forward, addressed the trade rumors swirling around him before the Warriors played the Nets on Saturday.

"If it's going to happen, it happens," Harrington said. "I'm just trying to remove myself from it. All I want is a chance to win."

The personnel has shifted, but the style of play remains the same.

Ronny Turiaf, who signed a four-year, $17 million deal with the Warriors as a free agent this summer, thinks Golden State has the same identity now as it did when he was an outsider looking in the last couple of seasons.

"Nothing has changed from the year before," Turiaf said. "They're a team that likes to play a fast-paced game, they like to run and be up tempo."

Turiaf provides some backup support for Andris Biedrins, the reigning field goal percentage leader from last season. Biedrins is off to a great start this year, averaging 18.0 points and 12.0 rebounds per game and is shooting 66 percent.

Turiaf and Maggette have had little trouble fitting in to Nelson's frenetic pace. "We just go, basically," Maggette said before adding that it only took him about a week to pick up the system and feel comfortable in it.

But really, a rookie point guard with no collegiate experience at the position is running the show? The thing about Nellie Ball is that it's always had an elite lead guard pushing the tempo, from Quinn Buckner in Milwaukee to Tim Hardaway during Nelson's first stop in Golden State to Steve Nash in Dallas to Davis and Ellis in Nelson's second go round with the Warriors.

Aren't point guards born and not made?

"That's what they say, but I don't know if I really believe it," DeMarcus contends. "With hard work and dedication, anybody can do anything."

"Anything" includes making it back to the postseason. DeMarcus Nelson attended -- as a fan -- Game 5 of the Warriors' 2007 First Round series when they pulled off one of the most improbable upsets in sports history by beating the Mavericks.

The Warriors' slogan that year was "We Believe", but if you told the Bay-area native that he'd be running the team just a short time from then, he wouldn't have believed you.

"The Warriors were my favorite team and I knew that if I had the opportunity to play for them being a hometown kid would be a special moment for me, but I never imagined this."