How many Golden State Warriors stalwarts does it take to screw up a media day?

Two, it turns out: One to continue his credible campaign to get the heck out of town and one to scoff at the franchise’s latest bit of strategic make believe.
So much for all positive vibes heading into the start of training camp today! Wait, the Warriors almost never have any.
Time to start dumping popular players once again, apparently.
You see, Stephen Jackson and Monta Ellis weren’t just making random observations about their positions in the Warriors’ solar system.
This was bigger than Jackson’s refusal to back off of his trade request and Ellis flatly stating that he could not play alongside prized rookie Stephen Curry, though those things also happened at Monday’s media day.
“Us together? No,” Ellis said of the potential Curry teaming, in the most concise dissection of egregious Warriors hype ever uttered.
Jackson and Ellis, good friends, were making a key point: They’re both 10 times smarter than team management and they don’t care if any of us know it.
That’s pretty heavy. It’s also desperately necessary if the incompetent reign of owner Chris Cohan and team president Robert Rowell is ever going to be fully exposed.
“As you know,” Jackson said with a shrug, “this organization’s unpredictable. Very unpredictable.”
Oh, really?
Unpredictable enough for Rowell to hand Jackson a three-year, $28 million extension last year, even though Jackson was 30 at the time and had two years left on his deal.
On Monday, Jackson declined to repeat his specific trade request for fear of another NBA fine; but he’s basically saying that he can’t be blamed for Rowell’s foolishness.
Jackson is 100 percent correct, because he’s smarter than Rowell.
“Well, who’s going to turn down that money?” Jackson said. “I’m not stupid. I mean, I didn’t go to college but I’ve got a lot of common sense.”
Plus, Jackson noted that Don Nelson offered to try to trade him last season. Only a fool organization would be shocked by Jackson’s desire to move now that he has watched the piece by piece dismantling the 2007 playoff squad.
There is, of course, the complication that his contract makes Jackson all but untrade-able. He might be stuck in the Warriors 1,000th consecutive rebuilding effort, which probably will lead nowhere for the 1,000th consecutive time.
Jackson can see that. He can see that Amare Stoudemire wanted no part of this team when the Warriors tried a big trade. He can see this is an NBA disaster zone.
Why can’t the Warriors?
“Every year I’ve lost somebody that I felt helped me get to that, with Baron (Davis), Jason (Richardson), Al (Harrington),” Jackson said. “It felt like I’m next. You know what I mean? It feels like we’re not getting better”
“We’ve been taking steps backs since that year we beat Dallas.”
Steps back, steps forward. It wouldn’t be the Warriors if they didn’t have bright young talent to market, and this season it’s Anthony Randolph and, of course, Curry.
But to make the best use of the Warriors’ mix of talents, Nelson probably would have to play Curry with Ellis, who both are slight and under 6-foot-4.
“Can’t,” Ellis said. “We just can’t.”
Why not? Didn’t Ellis play well alongside Davis as two point-guard-sized players?
“When me and BD were playing ... you’ve got a nine-year veteran who’s been in the game, who understands the game, knows how to play the game, and he’s a big body,” Ellis said.
“You can’t put two small guys out there and try to play the ’1’ and the ’2’ when you’ve got big ’2’ guards in the league. You just can’t do it.
“OK, yes, we’re going to move up and down fast, but eventually the game is going to slow down. You can’t do it.”
Again, the player is correct. But the Warriors went ga-ga when Curry slipped to their spot, so they drafted him despite knowing that he duplicated Ellis and that the pick probably accelerates Ellis’ discomfort here.
To match Jackson’s ultra-discomfort.
Didn’t the Warriors know that? No, I guess not. Should be a fun camp!