What is your best WHAT IF team on the Warriors? It's got to be current players.

I like Leon Powe, so maybe the first change I would make, probably because it is the most recent, is selecting Leon Powe instead of Kosta Perovic. It is not that I have given up on Kosta, but because I am looking at how things are now. The next change would be selecting Prince with the 76ers pick number 16 in the 2002 draft instead of Jiri Welsch. Also from that draft, selecting Carlos Boozer instead of Steve Logan in the second round would had been nice. Also I would take Caron Butler in that 2002 draft instead of Dunleavy.

Now is the tough part. What exactly are the possibilities? I can take Arenas and keep Jamison but there would be no Baron and I would be stuck with Jamison's contract, which would probably not allow much for adding other players. Or I suppose I can keep what happened and stay with Baron. Interesting. Is it possible that this "under the table" deal happens and then the other trades happen and we still get Baron, thus having both Baron and Arenas on the same team? Certainly Mike Montgomery would never had been head coach.

I guess this would lead the roster to be like this:
Gilbert Arenas/Jason Richardson/Tayshaun Prince/Jamison/Biedrins
Monta Ellis/Caron Butler/Mickael Pietrus/Troy Murphy/Ike Diogu/Carlos Boozer/Leon Powe/Matt Barnes/Azubuike

Basically we screwed up on the 2002 draft. The curse of Mike Dunleavy Jr. haha.

By the way the Warriors would have needed to select Gilbert number 5 or I think 11 or 14 because Gilbert was in the draft with Jason and Troy not Dunleavy. Also going farther back I would have probably taken Jason Terry in that draft way back in the day, haha, instead of Mookie, Vonteego, and Murphy.

 

St. Jean proves that GMs that draft relatively well, can't nail the draft every time. Too bad he couldn't make other moves to balance it out or this wouldn't be a big deal. But it seemed like St. Jean's successor would do everything he could to see what Dunleavy could turn into in the nba, besides a slow, soft, oversized bag of marshmellows better suited towards the college game.

 

I guess my lineup would look like this...

PG Arenas
SG Ellis
SF T. Prince
PF Stoudemire
C Biedrins

 

I think Clif didn't include Amare Stoudamire because he refused workouts with us. So Caron Butler was the next best player (in hindsight of course) that would probably work out with us. Nobody seemed to argue with the Dunleavy draft except for current Dun Haters who've always had something against him and that's why they focus on him more than any other Warrior who doesn't do that well.

He was like the 2002 version of Adam Morrison. But heck, I think Morrison was better given his company at Gonzaga. Duke had two other players go into the draft that went first round or could have been first round.

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">St. Jean proves that GMs that draft relatively well, can't nail the draft every time. Too bad he couldn't make other moves to balance it out or this wouldn't be a big deal. But it seemed like St. Jean's successor would do everything he could to see what Dunleavy could turn into in the nba, besides a slow, soft, oversized bag of marshmellows better suited towards the college game.</div>

No way. Don't start defending the undefendable. St. Jean made bad decisions. PJ made horrible decisions. Only Twardzick and Cohan made worse.

All of those guys should be tarred n' feathered and never be allowed to return .

 

<div class="quote_poster">jason voorhees Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">No way. Don't start defending the undefendable. St. Jean made bad decisions. PJ made horrible decisions. Only Twardzick and Cohan made worse.

All of those guys should be tarred n' feathered and never be allowed to return .</div>

Well PJ and Twardzick were the main guys who ruined this franchise, St. Jean was there to clean up. He wasn't that bad at drafting. If you look at his drafts and know about the Jamison/Carter swap, he wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, the rest of his GM game wasn't that good (I said it's too bad he couldn't do anything else), just like Mullin's problem.

A GM can't have only one good move outside of just drafting and that was the Baron Davis move or Larry Hughes or whatever move. What else has St. Jean or Mullin done outside of drafting and failing to build a solid team?

I think that's where that conversation is being misunderstood. In no way did I think that St. Jean was that good of a GM. He drafted well though. Murphy and Arenas were valuable picks later on. Picking Joe Johnson at the time at #5 would have been hard to fathom...

Maybe Kwan can add more to this since he followed St. Jean more than I did. I'm just saying that in hindsight, his drafts weren't that bad if you know about the Vince Carter/Jamison swap beforehand and didn't assume that we could have drafted Carter instead. I'm just mad about 2002 draft and how we got stuck in no man's land with drafting the nobrainer low upside guy over guys with scary potential but high risk. But heck, I probably would have rooted for Nene, Chris Wilcox or Tskitishvilli by then.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Clif25 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I like Leon Powe, so maybe the first change I would make, probably because it is the most recent, is selecting Leon Powe instead of Kosta Perovic. It is not that I have given up on Kosta, but because I am looking at how things are now. The next change would be selecting Prince with the 76ers pick number 16 in the 2002 draft instead of Jiri Welsch. Also from that draft, selecting Carlos Boozer instead of Steve Logan in the second round would had been nice. Also I would take Caron Butler in that 2002 draft instead of Dunleavy.

Now is the tough part. What exactly are the possibilities? I can take Arenas and keep Jamison but there would be no Baron and I would be stuck with Jamison's contract, which would probably not allow much for adding other players. Or I suppose I can keep what happened and stay with Baron. Interesting. Is it possible that this "under the table" deal happens and then the other trades happen and we still get Baron, thus having both Baron and Arenas on the same team? Certainly Mike Montgomery would never had been head coach.

I guess this would lead the roster to be like this:
Gilbert Arenas/Jason Richardson/Tayshaun Prince/Jamison/Biedrins
Monta Ellis/Caron Butler/Mickael Pietrus/Troy Murphy/Ike Diogu/Carlos Boozer/Leon Powe/Matt Barnes/Azubuike

Basically we screwed up on the 2002 draft. The curse of Mike Dunleavy Jr. haha.

By the way the Warriors would have needed to select Gilbert number 5 or I think 11 or 14 because Gilbert was in the draft with Jason and Troy not Dunleavy. Also going farther back I would have probably taken Jason Terry in that draft way back in the day, haha, instead of Mookie, Vonteego, and Murphy.</div>

How did you get both Prince and Butler?

I can go with Prince. He would help provide the interior D with AB while Jamison fills the perimeter role (albeit he's not my favorite because he wasn't on my radar of guys to draft).

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Well PJ and Twardzick were the main guys who ruined this franchise, St. Jean was there to clean up. He wasn't that bad at drafting. If you look at his drafts and know about the Jamison/Carter swap, he wasn't that bad. Unfortunately, the rest of his GM game wasn't that good (I said it's too bad he couldn't do anything else), just like Mullin's problem.

A GM can't have only one good move outside of just drafting and that was the Baron Davis move or Larry Hughes or whatever move. What else has St. Jean or Mullin done outside of drafting and failing to build a solid team?

I think that's where that conversation is being misunderstood. In no way did I think that St. Jean was that good of a GM. He drafted well though. Murphy and Arenas were valuable picks later on. Picking Joe Johnson at the time at #5 would have been hard to fathom...

Maybe Kwan can add more to this since he followed St. Jean more than I did. I'm just saying that in hindsight, his drafts weren't that bad if you know about the Vince Carter/Jamison swap beforehand and didn't assume that we could have drafted Carter instead. I'm just mad about 2002 draft and how we got stuck in no man's land with drafting the nobrainer low upside guy over guys with scary potential but high risk. But heck, I probably would have rooted for Nene, Chris Wilcox or Tskitishvilli by then.</div>

St. Jean didn't draft well. He traded for Jamison when there was no need. Instead he passed up Paul Pierce for some inexplicable reason in order to get yet another tweener. We already tried all the tweeners Donyell Marshall and all the rest after Chris Webber.

 

he drafted JRich, Murphy, and Arenas.

 

<div class="quote_poster">jason voorhees Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">How did you get both Prince and Butler?

I can go with Prince. He would help provide the interior D with AB while Jamison fills the perimeter role (albeit he's not my favorite because he wasn't on my radar of guys to draft).</div>

The Warriors used the 76ers draft pick, which somewhat belonged to the Warriors though I forget what trade made it so, or what conditions there were with the pick. However I am most certain that Golden State had control of the pick in some form and decided to pick up Jiri Welsch (who I was actually high on but who isn't in the league anymore as far as I know). http://nbadraft.net/2002.htm. But yeah, since we can go back in time I would have taken Prince at this point. Also I suppose I should have chosen Amare haha... oops. I remember from that draft I wanted to get Nene and either Skita (trading up) or Welsch(with the 16th pick). I suppose all three of them have been kind of disappointing, at least for Nene it is from injuries and not mainly terrible production. But basically the Warriors had three draft picks and if it could be done again I suppose it would have been best to have chose Amare/Prince/Boozer from that draft. But hey, Caron Butler was traded for Shaq, so it's not like he is a total dud, hehe.

 

<div class="quote_poster">jason voorhees Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">St. Jean didn't draft well. He traded for Jamison when there was no need. Instead he passed up Paul Pierce for some inexplicable reason in order to get yet another tweener. We already tried all the tweeners Donyell Marshall and all the rest after Chris Webber.</div>

First, at that time, PJ had the final decision and PJ wanted Jamison, while Saint wanted Pierce. PJ had final say, and he got what he wanted. Besides, Jamison wasn't anywhere near draft bust.

Saint had the control after PJ got canned. And after that...

2000: Traded 7th pick (Mihm) for Hughes
2001: Selected Richardson (5th), Murphy (14th), and Arenas (32th)
2002: Selected Dunelavy (3rd)
2003: Selected Pietrus (11th)

Saint definitely overpaid number of players, but those were manageable unlike right now where we simply have to dump contracts to resign our own players. Also, at the end, he managed to clean up the caproom...

 

For the dream team...

1995: Garnett (5th) over Smith (1st)
1996: Nash (16th) over Fuller (11th) (only because Kobe would have demanded the trade)
1997: McGrady (9th) over Foyle (8th)
1998: Nowitzki (9th) over Jamison (4th)
2001: Richardson (5th) Parker (14th) and Arenas (32th). Give Arenas 3 years contract
2002: Stoudmire (9th) and Boozer (35th)
2003: Pietrus (11th) and Mo Williams (40th)
2004: Bynum (9th), Ellis (40th)

Stoudmire
Dirk Boozer
Garnett McGrady (since he will be injured half of season anyway)
Arenas Richardson Ellis
Nash Parker Williams

 

<div class="quote_poster">Kwan1031 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">For the dream team...

1995: Garnett (5th) over Smith (1st)
1996: Nash (16th) over Fuller (11th) (only because Kobe would have demanded the trade)
1997: McGrady (9th) over Foyle (8th)
1998: Nowitzki (9th) over Jamison (4th)
2001: Richardson (5th) Parker (14th) and Arenas (32th). Give Arenas 3 years contract
2002: Stoudmire (9th) and Boozer (35th)
2003: Pietrus (11th) and Mo Williams (40th)
2004: Bynum (9th), Ellis (40th)

Stoudmire
Dirk Boozer
Garnett McGrady (since he will be injured half of season anyway)
Arenas Richardson Ellis
Nash Parker Williams</div>

It boggles the mind to think we skipped all those players...

 

95-98 were HORRIBLE. 2002 was pretty bad as well in terms of drafts. Wait, even the Jason Terry for Mookie Blaylock draft was kind of iffy. What year was that 1999 or 2000?

 

Jason Terry and Mookie was 1999.



See, guys? I think St. Jean wasn't that bad of a drafter since 2000. But like Mullin he didn't do much else in the way of long term planning. But at least we can say that St. Jean didn't sign some albatross contracts like MDJ and Foyle right off the bat. St. Jean's vets weren't downright laughable.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Kwan1031 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">First, at that time, PJ had the final decision and PJ wanted Jamison, while Saint wanted Pierce. PJ had final say, and he got what he wanted. Besides, Jamison wasn't anywhere near draft bust.

Saint had the control after PJ got canned. And after that...

2000: Traded 7th pick (Mihm) for Hughes
2001: Selected Richardson (5th), Murphy (14th), and Arenas (32th)
2002: Selected Dunelavy (3rd)
2003: Selected Pietrus (11th)

Saint definitely overpaid number of players, but those were manageable unlike right now where we simply have to dump contracts to resign our own players. Also, at the end, he managed to clean up the caproom...</div>

Kwan, you may be the St. Jean expert, but you cannot excuse that wacko relationship between St. Jean and PJ. It's got to be Cohan's fault for that set up. St. Jean should have been the GM and overruled PJ. Why didn't he have any backbone? It should not be the other way around. How bassackwards is that? If I was St. Jean, I would have told him it's my job and my call and picked Paul Pierce. If he didn't like it, then PJ could just go pack his bags.

Did St. Jean even have the backbone to fire PJ? He did hire him didn't he or was it Cohan? I'm having a mental block of how PJ came to be, but it's very clear how he went out .

2000: Traded 7th pick (Mihm) for Hughes
I didn't like that deal. Everyone was high on Hughes and he played well early on with the Warriors, but in the long run he wasn't very effective. He didn't last that long before being traded.

2001: Selected Richardson (5th), Murphy (14th), and Arenas (32th)
We only have JRich and are have been trying to get rid of Murphy since last season. As for Arenas, we ended up losing him. Most of us would've tried to convice Cohan to keep him, but I doubt St. Jean had the backbone or smarts to do that.

2002: Selected Dunelavy (3rd)
Puke. Dunleavy was a bust for a #3 pick.

2003: Selected Pietrus (11th)
Was it St. Jean's pick? I thought it was Mullin.

St. Jean was a poor GM; He was in the bottom ten. Compare him to the better GMs in the league and you'll see.

 

<div class="quote_poster">AnimeFANatic Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">It boggles the mind to think we skipped all those players...</div>

Kwan had some nice picks as well as some other posters in this thread. It just goes to show you that some people here could do a better job than Warriors current management .

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">See, guys? I think St. Jean wasn't that bad of a drafter since 2000. But like Mullin he didn't do much else in the way of long term planning. But at least we can say that St. Jean didn't sign some albatross contracts like MDJ and Foyle right off the bat. St. Jean's vets weren't downright laughable.</div>

While others will struggle...

 

It seems maybe quite a few of us spent every year talking about the draft since this site opened. Clif, Kwan, Philsmith, I wonder who they picked at the time?

Here's mine:
2002:
Jay Williams
Amare (found out he didn't work out for us. So this is moot)
Tskitishvilli
Nene
Chris Wilcox
Caron Butler

2003
Luke Ridnour, Luke Ridnour, Luke Ridnour lol Didn't even know who Pietrus was
Also, if we could have gotten them, I was pretty high on Sweetney, TJ Ford, and Kirk Hinrich.

2004
Biedrins (after getting hyped), Jameer Nelson, Josh Smith. Childress or Deng if they slipped.

2005
Ike, Andrew Bynum, Gerald Green, Danny Granger, Antoine Wright, Chris Taft (Yikes). May was comparable to Ike so I didn't mind that possible pick either. Especially with these guys having big wingspans and all.

2006
Rudy Gay (just missed it by 1), POB, Ron Brewer

Actually, I remember I didn't think much of Yao as #1 overall. It'd be like how I felt about Bargnani this year. So I could have totally blown it if we got #1 overall in 2002. Thank goodness we didn't get #2 as well. The scouts are probably better judges of talent than I will ever be, but yet scouts and gms can also be wrong despite watching them more. It's all speculation based on observation, interviews, and how they might match up relative to other players they would face.

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Jason Terry and Mookie was 1999.



See, guys? I think St. Jean wasn't that bad of a drafter since 2000. But like Mullin he didn't do much else in the way of long term planning. But at least we can say that St. Jean didn't sign some albatross contracts like MDJ and Foyle right off the bat. St. Jean's vets weren't downright laughable.</div>

I remember Erick Dampier, Jason Caffey, Adonal Foyle(I think...), Antawn Jamison, and Danny Fortson had pretty big contracts; I believe all from St. Jean or at least around that time. Also Mookie Blaylock, John Starks, Chris Mills, and Terry Cummings was a pretty awful and laughable set of vets. However if you were being sarcastic then my reply is LOL . St. Jean kind of set up the team to lose Arenas the way it did, and it took a bold trade of Jamison, Welsch, Fortson, and Mills for NVE and garbage to deal the bad contracts and start fresh, or close to it.

As for who I have wanted in the draft since 2002:
2002: I wanted Nene Hilario because I wanted him to replace Erick Dampier soon since his contract was going to expire soon. And I was hoping to see a lineup of Arenas/Richardson/Jamison/Murphy/Nene. Also I thought trading up for Skita or just taking Jiri Welsch with the 16th pick would had been good since the Warriors were in desperate need for outside shooters. Jason at this time was nowhere near the outside shooter he is now, neither was Murphy. So the previous year and during the draft I remember hearing a lot of news about a need for a shooter. I remember there was one day on the old ESPN boards where we were this close from getting Eric Piatawtski and there seemed to be a very happy reply for it, until somehow it never happened. I can't remember what season or year that happened but I wouldn't be surprised if it happened in 2002. That rumor seemed so much like a done deal. I was confused when it didn't happen, haha...

2003-2005 the drafts went how I perferred. I was high on Pietrus, Biedrins, and Ike.

2006: I really had no idea who the Warriors should have selected in that draft. Patrick O'Bryant seemed pretty fair. I think I wanted Rudy Gay like everyone else, but that didn't happen. I liked Rudy Fernandez as well, but I guess that didn't happen since he must have pulled himself out of the draft at the last second or something. But maybe I should take Jiri as my lesson on being too high on Euro guards.

So my Warriors lineup since 2002 might be similar to how it is today besides with no Dunleavy curse, hehe.

 

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">It seems maybe quite a few of us spent every year talking about the draft since this site opened. Clif, Kwan, Philsmith, I wonder who they picked at the time?</div>

Mine:
2006
Trade Ike to move up, but that was shot down by this board. If we did move up into top 5, was looking to get:
Aldridge, Foye or Morrison
Gay or Roy if lower

At #9:
Brewer or Cedric Simmons. Shelden Williams would've been okay if ATL didn't take him at #5. Was okay with POB after Warriors picked him but he wasn't my first pick

Steve Novak, Alexander Johnson

2005
Raymond Felton if he fell
Danny Granger or Gerald Green (if he fell), Bynum (but he didn't work out for us and held his own workout back East)
Sean May

Roko Ukic, Luther Head

2004
Andris Biedrins (Phew Philly didn't take him), Al Jefferson, Jameer Nelson

2003
Didn't participate

2002
Mike Dunleavy Jr. (Oi vei!)

Carlos Boozer

2001
Jason Richardson
Richard Jefferson, Brendan Haywood
(Say that five time fast. It would've been a nightmare for the announcers to pronounce their names if they were on the same team.)

Gilbert Arenas, Earl Watson

Other memorable drafts:
1999
Andre Miller, Jason Terry (surprised PHX took Shawn Marion)
William Avery

Obinna Ekezie, Tim Young

1998
Vince Carter, Paul Pierce

1997
Tracy McGrady (if he dropped, was pegged to go 6th), Adonal Foyle or Kelvin Cato

God Shammgod

1996
Trade up to get Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Erick Dampier, Jermaine O'Neal (first high schooler)

Moochie Norris, Drew Barry