This is not official, but it looks credible (Kawakami blog). I'd be pretty surprised to see it, it's not exactly the best time to be hunting for trades with high salary players. 3 months ago would have been a lot better, but what can you do? Interesting, anyway, and I'll be <strike>not too sad</strike> pretty excited to see Harrington go elsewhere (just from a basketball perspective). Right now Harrington playing big minutes would only hold up the development of Wright, Randolph, and Hendrix, but I don't see any of them starting yet either. Who could we get at this point though?
First of all, his agent is Dan Fegan so take it all with a grain of salt. He's the one who pulled the Gilbert Arenas stuff with the Warriors (before Arenas eventually parted ways in Washington). He's also the agent of Troy Murphy and JRich, and has had problems with other GMs in the past. Second, since when did players have the leverage to suddenly "demand" a trade? Either Harrington shows up to work, or else he violates the terms of his contract, loses the money, and also loses the right to play anywhere else. In other words, technically, Harrington and all these other pro-sports knuckleheads who try to demand trades have NO legal leverage at all. Third, sh!t, Mully and Nellie have already probably been trying to trade Harrington's sorry a$$ anyway. To think he considers himself a "star" who can suddenly "demand" a trade (if this report is true). He isn't big enough to try that. Mully would probably trade his a$$ for many different players in this league but probably no good offer is there at the moment. Harrington is a big man with no hops, tiny hands and no semblance of a power game whatsoever. I don't care if you're doing MMA training. That won't help you post up, bro. Hey -- CJ Watson is 6'2" and he can throw down nastier dunks than you. C'mon! This makes me chuckle
Now, about potential trades. Harrington for Raymon Felton and Morrison was mentioned in the blog for that article and it works salary-wise. I'd do dat. Let's trade Harrington and filler for any decent PG. Felton, Heinrich, Steve Blake, Jose Calderon, TJ Ford, Luke Ridnour, Ramon Sessions, Earl Watson, and many others: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/players?league=nba&position=pg It is an intriguing situation to help shore-up / balance our roster. Trade Harrington and Marcus Williams togther to get a legit PG. Open up a spot for Randolph, and get someone who can actually pass and run an offense for Nellie? But, we've already been talking about this crap for a long time. If there were a deal Mullin could swing for AH he'd probably have done it by now.
I'd go with Calderon if that was even possible. I think our best shot is Ridnour, Watson, and possibly Hinrich if we pony up somebody that Chicago wants. I was so wrong about Felton. I thought the guy would have a good shot, but he can't shoot worth a lick. Same with Morrison. This year will be the year for these guys to improve. I was not impressed with some of these hot draft picks and them not being able to clear 41% on field goals. Hinrich may be hard to get because for a few years he was on the up. One bad season isn't enough to give up on the guy, especially if Rose ends up sucking this season. I was really high on Rose and if he doesn't get in the running for ROY I'll be disappointed in my evaluation of him for nba readiness.
Raptors will not give up Calderon unless a very good PG is given back. If you haven't noticed...we have no good PG. To give up Calderon would KILL our team. I say we give them Andrea and Hump.
Calderon is not going anywhere, dream again. There's probably no one on the W's roster that the Raptors would take for Calderon, let that sink in. Ridnour? He was a free agent, I think, wait, no he was a trade cast off. Hinrich? I'd do that in a heartbeat. Al? Had some nice moments, tried his hardest, but ultimately just a small player with a big frame. Nice long range jumper. That's it. No post up; no rebounds in traffic, no D. Thanks Al for trying but you want to leave? Take a buyout then.
Anyway, I hope we can get Kirk Hinrich. The problem I have with Al is he's blaming everything on Nellie. Sure, Nellie has a coaching style that we all love and hate but if you're a good player, you should be able to play for anybody. Look at DeMarcus Nelson. He's probably not as skilled as Marcus Williams but he's proven to be a better player, period. Not because he fits in with Nellie's system. Al's flaws clearly outweighed his offensive versatility. His offensive versatility is actually his main flaw, I think. He can shoot = he settles for the 3 He can space the floor = he's never in a position to rebound He can dribble = he's trying too hard to make something happen I'm sorry to throw Al under the bus here, but since the "cat's out of the bag," I might as well. I've supported him simply because he's a had a good attitude until now. Kirk Hinrich! I already made the trade in NBA 2K9!
Ugh, Hinrich is an ok player but I absolutely hate his contract, Its frontloaded so its 10 mil, 9.5 mil, 9 mil, and 8 mil for the next four years. He can handle, pass defend, shoot, hes pretty smart, fits next to Monta but hes overpaid and on a long contract. He's only shot over 42% for a season once in his career. What do we do when Monta comes back and we have Monta, Jack, Mags, and Hinrich all making 9-12 mils a year? Dunno if I like that idea and since Rowell's #1 priority is "salary protection" or whatever the hell he calls it I don't know if he'd be down either. Once again I'll pimp Nocioni though. Even Gooden who is an expiring contract. To be honest I'd be just as happy getting back an expiring contract as I would to get back a decent but expensive player. I just don't think that Al will bring back anything that can really make this team playoff caliber. I keep hearing the Bobcats come up too. There's some nice pieces there- I'd gladly swap Al for J-Rich back. Gerald Wallace is rumored to be on the trade block. Felton appears to be on the outs with DJ Augustin there, same for Sean May. Dudley and Morrison are nice young players. Most important of all; Larry Brown is looking to make arbitrary changes. Cleveland also seems to be coming up now. They've got Eric Snow's 7 mil expiring contract, Wally's 13 mil expiring contract, Delonte West, Pavlovic and some nice rookie bigs in JJ Hickson and Darnell Jackson. And how about the NY/NJ teams? Both are rumored to be looking for cap room for the '10 offseason; Al's 10 mil.year contract comes off the books then. Would D'Antoni want Al as a PF or 6th man in his system? Would NJ want a more experienced PF who could space the floor for Brook Lopez? Unfortunately neither team has many assets that we would want which they'd be willing to give up. IMO the best thing about all of this is that there's potential for Wright and Randolph to get ALL the PF minutes and really make some big strides this year. I say throw em in the fire, let them take some licks and we'll be a lot better off because of it the following year.
I hear what you're saying, but if we can get a player that immediately makes us better and deeper in a position we desperately need AND give opportunity to Brandon Wright, I say go for it. Kirk Hinrich's contract isn't ridiculous so perhaps he will hold good trade value after some play time with the Dubs. I think moving Harrington is three-fold: get rid of what is now a cancer, make the PF available for Wright (an investment waiting to mature or fail like Wall Street), and get talent for a position we are now the weakest in. I have heard from an unofficial source (a friend of a friend who works for the Warriors back office) that the Warriors are pursuing Hinrich.
Good points. While Hinrich would help the team immediately as well as in the future he isn't that much of a difference maker. I'm of the belief that a move like that would get us to 36-44 wins which isn't a place we want to be. I say try to get expiring contracts/picks/prospects (not that Harrington will bring back blue chip prospects or high picks), make this a development year for Wright/Randolph/Nelson/Beli/Hendrix (?). Let Biedrins grow by giving him more responsibility and more touches, let Azu have some more freedom, etc. etc. Get another lotto pick- get your future PG there (this draft is loaded with them). Adding Hinrich would help some but it wouldn't get us back to the playoffs IMO let alone put us in a position to be contenders in the future. Plus we'd be adding another 10 mil/year guy to the four we already have.
I can't disagree with that (i.e. I agree). The way things are going, I'm sure the worst of the worst will happen.
Well, the Warriors have 3 back-up PGs (in other words no starter) and a trade-able PF. Can't we use Williams / Harrington to get ONE starting PG? That's what we really need. Not a star PG, not even someone who can score from that position. Just someone to control the ball, run the plays and pass to the open guys. A solid starter who can learn Nellie's system. I don't know why we didn't get Brevin Knight instead of MWill. That would've been way better. MWill looks like he's stoned all the time and just seems to have NO motivating fire in his belly. That's how Nelson beat him out -- he didn't get the starting role because of PG skills -- it was all pure heart and desire. MWill seems to have an attitude of entitlement. You know that doesn't go over well with Nellie. Doesn't go over well with me, either.
You have to love the timing by Harrington. I'm not sure why players who want to be traded feel talking to the media is going to help. He basically killed his trade value with this juvenile outburst. Go get a rebound Al.
To be fair, it's Kawakami, who made this as a news at the opening day, and Harrington denied the rumor, at least in public. So, only Kawakami is to be blamed for the timing. For Harrington, I guess he should have a value, because his contract is only two years worth. But, Nelson probably wouldn't want to trade him, because we would have no big man, who can shoot. But, if we can actually get Felton for him, where do we sign?
Kawakami certainly stirred the pot today. I like his edginess and shameless approach to giving fans something to read about but I really don't like his writing style and overall attitude because he seems to have a sense of entitlement when it comes to his information. Also, as much as I like his shameless approach, it gets old and I feel there are better ways to get noticed. Look at Janny Hu, she never posts anything unless she can back it up with legitimate facts. Her writing style may not be as suave as TK's or other more established sports writers, but she gets to the point pretty gracefully and objectively. Granted, I'm sure she doesn't have nearly as many "sources" as TK does, I'm more than happy to read her columns because they actually make sense.
Janny Hu is probably the most credible warriors writer out there. Steinmetz I thought was pretty real.
He just did an interview with Marcus Thompson II discussing his decision to demand a trade. He said hes been demanding one for a year and nothing's happened. Apparently something happened in one of the pre-season games that made him decide hes done with Nellie and the recent extension for Nellie made sure that he'd be under Nellie for years if he stayed in GS. Obviously its better to keep these things private but considering that I (and I think most fans, not to mention W's management) want him gone anyway its not a big deal. This is just a big step closer to that.
