--Despite getting to open at home against Yao Ming-less Houston and then facing eight consecutive clubs that didn't make the 2009 playoffs, the Warriors didn't exactly get the type of schedule that's conducive to early success in Don Nelson's quest to become the NBA's winningest coach of all-time. They play 21 of their first 34 on the road, a stretch that includes back-to-backs at Cleveland-Boston and Dallas-San Antonio, and a pair of rough four-game stretches -- Chicago-Detroit-Philadelphia-San Antonio and Boston-Lakers-Portland-Denver.
--The Warriors are tentatively scheduled to play eight nationally-televised games, facing the Spurs (Dec. 16), Wizards (Dec. 18), Hawks (Feb. 21), Lakers (March 15), Hornets (March 17) and Jazz (March 31) on ESPN and the Nuggets (Feb. 25) and Trail Blazers (March 11) on TNT. Only the Utah contest is on the road. --Exchanging little for slightly bigger, the Warriors shipped recent first-round pick Marco Belinelli to the Raptors for veteran F Devean George. Belinelli, a guard who averaged 8.9 points in 42 games last season, was considered expendable following the selection of Stephen Curry in the first round of the June draft. The Italian figured to enter training camp as the club's 10th or 11th man.
George, meanwhile, is a 10-year veteran small forward who at 6-foot-8 is three inches taller than Belinelli. He will become part of a frontcourt reserve rotation with Kelenna Azubuike, Anthony Randolph and Corey Maggette.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "Is this it?" -- F Devean George, admitting to the Bay Area media at his first Oakland press gathering that he's not sure Golden State is his final destination this off-season. George had been dealt from Dallas to Toronto earlier in the summer.
