Barry Tompkins: 49ers may have rediscovered their mojo
My mother used to force me to eat a dish that somehow came along with my grandparents from Eastern Europe. The dish was called Tzimmes. It was a combination of everything that had accumulated in every Tupperware dish that had been living in our refrigerator for a minimum of two weeks.
Tzimmes was a mishmosh of anything and everything that, when presented to the hungry recipient, looked as though it had been previously eaten and masticated beyond any recognizable form or shape.
What I offer you this week in this ongoing yarn is a sports Tzimmes — just a few things to digest that have already been pretty much chewed up.
Like the San Francisco 49ers.
Sunday they play the team that ousted them in the Super Bowl last year, the Kansas City Chiefs. The Chiefs have not played particularly well this year. They’re 5-0. Likewise, the 49ers have not played particularly well this year. They’re 3-3. And the 49ers can thank rookie Renardo Green for going into this game with a realistic thought that they might actually beat the Chiefs.
It speaks to an old adage that good teams always find a way to win, and bad teams always find a way to lose. I remember talking to players during the golden days of both the 49ers and Raiders, and to the number they would say, “Ya’ know with Montana (or Kenny Stabler) you just always knew that something good was going to happen and you’d win.” Likewise you could look across the field and see that look: “Something bad is going happen and we’re going to lose.”
The Chiefs are undefeated because that feeling permeates their very being. The 49ers were like that. And then the Rams and the Cardinals came from behind to beat them and suddenly all those “We can’t be beat” vibes slipped from their grasp. And it looked like it was happening again last week in Seattle – until it didn’t.
That’s when Renardo Green stepped in front of a Seahawk pass and swung momentum back to the 49ers. Just when it looked like a “here we go again” moment. Suddenly they remembered that they were the rightful owners of an in-season swagger and not the wannabes they appeared to be for the previous two weeks.
That interception once again means that Sunday’s game against the Chiefs will be between two teams who believe they’ll win. So, who do you like? The current Joe Montana (Brock Purdy), or the current Kenny Stabler (Patrick Mahomes)?
Something good’s going to happen. I’m just not sure for who.
What a concept!
Buster Posey is just a couple of weeks into his tenure as a team executive and as of this writing has not yet hired a General Manager. Despite that, I’m still giving him a standing “O.”
The reason is, one of the first considerations in his first hiring is that whoever sits in the GM’s chair must have as his or her primary strength, player evaluation.
This is not meant as any disrespect for Brian Sabean or Bobby Evans – or even for Farhan Zaidi, whose primary talent evaluation tool was a spread sheet. What it does say is that whatever the criteria has been for becoming a high draft choice of the San Francisco Giants, it needs to be wadded up into a paper ball and hurled at the closest trash bin – preferably with a very high spin rate. When it comes to building a minor league system, the Giants are in the bush leagues.
To make matters worse, the minor league system itself has done little to develop said draft choices. Heliot Ramos is an outlier who didn’t really perfect his craft until he was give a chance at the major league level.
That’s why I’m so impressed with Posey. He sees the big picture. The overhaul will begin at the grass roots. The Giants would never say they’re in the midst of a rebuilding project. They’re not. What I think Buster Posey will do is reconstruct the whole house.
How ’bout those Dubs?
So, we’re in the middle of football season, baseball is still being played in places other than here, and the Golden State Warriors are set to begin their NBA season imminently.
I’m a huge Steve Kerr fan. I have been since he was in high school. He will make this team as good as it can be. The question is, how good is that?
To begin with, I think they’ll be better this year than they were last. Steve has as many as 13 players who are good enough to be in the rotation. They’ll be fun to watch, too. The three-point shot, which has always been a staple of this team, will now be its very foundation. As their long range shooting goes, so go the Warriors. Ball movement, up tempo and constant motion will be the hallmark of this team, and it should improve defensively as well.
It has that Curry guy, and – say what you will about Draymond Green, he makes the Warriors flow. Last year’s promising rookies, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis will be asked to do more. Jonathan Kuminga must be a more consistent scorer (who I still feel may be traded at some point), and Moses Moody, I think, needs to play a major rotation role – and has every time he’s been asked. Andrew Wiggins remains a huge question mark. Which Andrew Wiggins will show up? Gary Payton II is a defensive pest, and newcomers Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson, and De’Anthony Melton are all capable of offensively improving this team. Great!
But the gaping chasm that will rear its ugly head more times than the Warriors want, is the lack of a mobile big man who can score. They simply don’t have a matchup to guys like Anthony Davis, or Nikola Jokic, both of whom they’ll have to tangle with to win a playoff spot in the West.
You can live by the three. And, you can die by the three. But it’s best you don’t have to depend on the three to get to the playoffs.
Bottom line: Good…but are they good enough to play with the literal big kids?
I gotta go. I’ve got a steaming hot bowl of Tzimmes I need to throw away.
Barry Tompkins is a 40-year network television sportscaster and a San Francisco native. Email him at barrytompkins1@gmail.com.