<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">OAKLAND - Chris Mullin's patience is wearing thin. "Something will change," he said after Wednesday's practice. The Warriors executive vice president of basketball operations said he believes in his team. He believes in the players he's chosen, the coach he hand-picked. But he's also a former NBA player. He knows he doesn't have forever to wait for his young players to fulfill their potential. With his franchise heading for a 12th consecutive season out of the playoffs, he knows the clock is ticking. Patience lasts only so long. Potential gets you only so far. "You need to win and develop," Mullin said. "In the NBA, a lot of it is result driven. I've been on both sides. I got off to rough starts. I've been probably as low as you could and got back maybe as high as you could. "I'm not saying that's patience, that's also being realistic. But there's also an expiration date on that, too." Mullin said the change he referred to could come in the form of offseason trades or current players improving. He also said these last 19 games, beginning with visiting Minnesota tonight, are vital because he wants to see what kind of character his players have, how they handle failure. Make no mistake, this season -- barring some unbelievable turn of events that puts the Warriors in the playoffs -- is a failure to Mullin. He said the expectations of making the playoffs were not some marketing plan or a ploy to motivate the players. He said this team had the talent to end the franchise's playoff drought. Whereas he said he saw improvement in several players, he indicated that the team being 11 games below .500 is an underachievement. "This team could be better as is. That's a fact," Mullin said. "Of course, there are things you've got to look at because it hasn't happened. A lot of the things that have not materialized, I don't look at it as we've put undue expectations on a lot of guys. I think a lot of the things that we want from certain guys are attainable. "To me, the expectations we have are real. ... We've got some good talent. If we function at even an average level, we're in a different place. We struggled. We struggled in a lot of areas that we probably didn't anticipate." Mullin declined to identify which players have failed to live up to expectations. He also addressed talk of locker room turmoil. There have been reports of a player dissatisfaction with coach Mike Montgomery, rumors of a rift between Montgomery and point guard Baron Davis. Mullin said he knows all that talk is false "because I'm in the building." "To me, a lot of the things that get reported or talked about are a direct result of losing. When we lose close games, even more so. When you win close games, that builds camaraderie, builds character. When you lose games, it tears at the fabric of that."</div> Source
Mullin is so good at speaking a great deal without really saying anything. But for Warrior fans, geez leweez getting to read anything is better than nothing. Crap, how bad was it when St. Jean was here -- we didn't even know if our GM was alive, except those occasional instances when he'd surface from his tunnel to announce another gawd-awful trade.
Look at our owner, Chris Cohan. He's even more invisible to us fans. It's like he's rooming with Osama. I think when we have been losing this much, Cohan needs to be more vocal and visible and not have to go through Rob Rowell to get his comments out. I want to hear it from the guy who bought this team and has had it sucking ever since. I just need to hear it from the ownership itself that it cares about winning a championship. I want to hear it from the ownership that they care about the game of basketball and they know something about it. All these bad GM hires tells me he doesn't.
Custodian, I respect and enjoy your views a great deal but I disagree about Cohan. Who are the most successful owners in pro sports? Usually the ones who let the professionals do their jobs and do not meddle. Yes Jerry Jones and Steinbrenner have gotten lucky but for the most part the owners own and that's it. Look at Buss, he won a ton of titles and has not meddled. Reinsdorf loved the spotlight but did not make personnel decisions or bitch in the media, he let Krause and the others do their thing. The last thing I want is to hear Cohan do anything but sign the praises of the GM/Coach/players. Let Mullin do it, he's the decision maker.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting philsmith75:</div><div class="quote_post">Custodian, I respect and enjoy your views a great deal but I disagree about Cohan. Who are the most successful owners in pro sports? Usually the ones who let the professionals do their jobs and do not meddle. Yes Jerry Jones and Steinbrenner have gotten lucky but for the most part the owners own and that's it. Look at Buss, he won a ton of titles and has not meddled. Reinsdorf loved the spotlight but did not make personnel decisions or bitch in the media, he let Krause and the others do their thing. The last thing I want is to hear Cohan do anything but sign the praises of the GM/Coach/players. Let Mullin do it, he's the decision maker.</div> Phil, I wasn't implying that the ownership should meddle, but they should illustrate that they give a damn and know something about the game so they can hire the right people in the first place to make those operational decisions. Now Mullin/Rowell/Higgins/whoever does need some time to undo this mess, so I wouldn't call for their heads until it's obvious we're going nowhere. We're going somewhere at least with drafts. I just hope we don't lose something potentially franchise breaking to get rid of those bad deals. There is a major trend with good teams in this league and that is the ability to be flexible financially in making moves, this allows them to stay under budget, make trades with other teams, sign important free agents. In addition, we need to draft well and put together teams that want to win and won't self destruct if they don't. I think we got stability, good drafts (not anything franchise yet), but our financial flexiblity is one of the worst in the league IMO. If Cohan says he won't pay for this, then we'll have to trade for more expiring deals and go through the gauntlet yet again and go through more revolving door coaches and what not.
Mysteriously,Dunleavy has just had a couple of good games after a span where he played at a level that was beyond bad. Even so,Mullin's decision to sign him,at that price,at that time was hasty,but does indicate that Mullin has assurances Cohen won't get tight with the $ so we lose our young players. Is Mullin a + as the GM? We'll know before long. Monty is looking like a real bad pick,and so he's got to produce impressively in the remnants of this season...or get outta here. By produce I do not mean just wins,rather we need HOPE,need to see an offense that works,see players develop,see chemistry. If Monty drags down the players,fails to improve for the future OR win now,than what's the point? Mullin then needs to find,at least,someone who is adequate. otherwise his future as the brains of the W's is gonna be short.
Hey REREM, have we forgotten that this is a team game. if you blame the coach, you gotta blame the team and the guy who constructed that team. Nobody pays nearly 9 million a year for players to sit on the bench or get 15 minutes a game. Look at what is going on with Larry Brown on the Knicks and how bad he's looked lately. He sure ain't playing any of the rookie fan favorites either. Would we blast Larry Brown for our guys not executing, not making free throws, not hitting our shots, not playing defense, not passing the ball, not putting all of our pressure on the rookies to dig this franchise out of the mud? I'm sure we're going to get it done with Musselman's pass and cut, pass and cut, and 4th quarter breakdowns. This team has no foundation and with Baron pretty much hobbled, we can't advance. What else do we have going for us if we can't pass, rebound, dribble, shoot, play defense, do the little things? We've got some of the weakest starters in the league tied up for more than 4 years. And you know Monty's learning something, he's not perfect, but don't think replacing the coach is going to get us very far. This is not a team. This constant scapegoating is like ignoring the real issue here which is the Warriors aren't a team. Look at all the good teams with less talent and you can see the difference is they have an inside/outside game, they make their shots, they play defense, they pass. And the result is the coach looks good. Winning makes everyone look good.
