Warriors vs Lakers in 1 hour...

<div class="quote_poster">custodianrules2 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I think it's safe to think that we'll probably not make the playoffs. Oh yeah and it's not the coach's fault, either. You either have the pieces or you don't. Like in chess, you have to think a few moves ahead and you have to keep the right pieces. What good is having a few bishops and pawns, but no queen, rooks, or knights? I think our situation is totally on the ownership and the management they have picked to run this franchise. It's just plain bad. Nothing has changed.

If Cohan were governor of California he'd be recalled faster than Gray Davis.</div>

I disagree. Mullin has made a few bad signings in Murphy Dunleavy etc, but overall he's done pretty well in the draft and ammassed some pretty good talent. They needed a big man this past off season, and he drafted POB. It was the right move at the time, even if I wanted Marcus Williams instead.

Sure the roster is lacking at PF, but they can only do so much. A few years back it looked like Murphy could be a cornerstone PF, especially in Nellie's system. Who knew he would fizzle out and start playing soft?

If you look at JRich, Baron, Monta, and Beans, those are four very good players to build around. They still need to move pieces, obviously, and getting a "queen" like KG / Gasol / JO would certainly help. But overall, given the situation, Mully's done pretty well IMO. He made some deals that other people thought were impossible, and he can only do so much. The players have to perform, which means coming mentally prepared every night. That is NOT happening. People are coming in cold and brain dead (see Barnes, Foyle, Pietrus, even Sarunas etc at times). Guys are not ready with their A-game every night, which is a problem in the west. One night, Harrington drops 30 pts... the next, he shoots sub-30% from the field and grabs 1 rebound in 30+ minutes.... wtf?

Obviously, the team needs to make some personell moves, but I wouldn't put it on management/ownership... in fact I've think they've given fans plenty of opportunity to be excited, as many of us have been at times the last few years... Cohan has let Mully spend... Mully has not been afraid to pull the trigger... several times we as fans have thought "oh this is it, this is our time now"... I mean, after the Baron trade and the end of that first season, even TNT started talking about the Warriors as having the most explosive backcourt in the league... it just never seems to come together the way everyone thinks it should.

I agree there are some SERIOUS problems with this team, most notably interior defense and rebounding. They need a legit PF. But players need to step up, too. I bet if Mully could have landed a solid PF for this team, he would have tried. Hopefully in the off-season, our chips still have value and he is able to do that. You know that's what he has his sights set on...

 

<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I disagree. Mullin has made a few bad signings in Murphy Dunleavy etc, but overall he's done pretty well in the draft and ammassed some pretty good talent. They needed a big man this past off season, and he drafted POB. It was the right move at the time, even if I wanted Marcus Williams instead.</div>

Chris Mullin had some very bad signings such as Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle, and Derek Fisher. Combined those guys added up to a lot of cap space. Also hiring Mike Montgomery was way out of left field. I could have lived with Troy Murphy and his contract, but the other moves I thought were nuts when I heard them. Mullin has made some good moves, but I guess when they don't get you to the playoffs and your stuck in dangerous potential salary cap trouble things aren't so good for you as GM or VP of basketball operations.

 

<div class="quote_poster">AlleyOop Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I disagree. Mullin has made a few bad signings in Murphy Dunleavy etc, but overall he's done pretty well in the draft and ammassed some pretty good talent. They needed a big man this past off season, and he drafted POB. It was the right move at the time, even if I wanted Marcus Williams instead.

Sure the roster is lacking at PF, but they can only do so much. A few years back it looked like Murphy could be a cornerstone PF, especially in Nellie's system. Who knew he would fizzle out and start playing soft?

If you look at JRich, Baron, Monta, and Beans, those are four very good players to build around. They still need to move pieces, obviously, and getting a "queen" like KG / Gasol / JO would certainly help. But overall, given the situation, Mully's done pretty well IMO. He made some deals that other people thought were impossible, and he can only do so much. The players have to perform, which means coming mentally prepared every night. That is NOT happening. People are coming in cold and brain dead (see Barnes, Foyle, Pietrus, even Sarunas etc at times). Guys are not ready with their A-game every night, which is a problem in the west. One night, Harrington drops 30 pts... the next, he shoots sub-30% from the field and grabs 1 rebound in 30+ minutes.... wtf?

Obviously, the team needs to make some personell moves, but I wouldn't put it on management/ownership... in fact I've think they've given fans plenty of opportunity to be excited, as many of us have been at times the last few years... Cohan has let Mully spend... Mully has not been afraid to pull the trigger... several times we as fans have thought "oh this is it, this is our time now"... I mean, after the Baron trade and the end of that first season, even TNT started talking about the Warriors as having the most explosive backcourt in the league... it just never seems to come together the way everyone thinks it should.

I agree there are some SERIOUS problems with this team, most notably interior defense and rebounding. They need a legit PF. But players need to step up, too. I bet if Nellie could have landed a solid PF for this team, he would have tried. Hopefully in the off-season, our chips still have value and he is able to do that. You know that's what he has his sights set on...</div>

I don't have much faith in buzzcut or any of these other HOF ex-nba players that didn't coach well or have any prior experience in assembling a roster that plays well together. So to me, he's bad if he can't do anything to compliment the picks he's drafted. Murphy can shoot threes and rebound, but can he pass, score inside, and play defense? I think the front office has to be well-rounded in that same manner as a talented basketball player. I want an Elton Brand or a Joe Johnson type of GM. Guys that people didn't think were very big talents (one was undersized/the other being not a super athlete), but they did their jobs well in a lot of categories. Chris Mullin needs to do his job in a lot of categories.

 

Look at how the Jazz were built (see Kawakami's blog) and the Warriors look horrible (Okur (FA), Kirilenko (draft), Boozer (FA) and Deron Williams (draft.))

How about some smart FA signings? Damn, those damn contracts to Foyle, Fisher, Dunleavy and Murphy killed them.

Mully's done some nice things, Biedrins, Ellis, Nellie, Baron, Jax/Harrington. He's just got to get a little lucky (healthy Baron?)

 

I don't see how you can say Baron is a good building block any longer, I'm sorry. I think he's proven beyond any doubt now that he is, in fact, perenially injury-prone, and you can't build on a guy who's likely not going to play over 60 games for you. And next year he'll just be a year older. Plus, I have a lot of problems with Baron even when he is healthy. I'll give the standard disclaimer about how he has many natural skills, but he also has too many flaws, which he has to some extent shown an unwillingness or an inability to correct. He's overrated. People talk about him like a superstar ("Boom Dizzle", the "Double-Double King"), but even at his best he's not a superstar, he's a tier below that. For all his talent, I'm ready to see him go. I'll take a more traditional point guard who knows his limits and looks to get everyone else involved in the offense first. Trade Baron.

JRich is a tougher proposition to me. On the one hand, he may also be injury prone, he's also flawed, and yet he'd still have trade value. On the other hand, I think it's too early to see he's not going to be healthy for a long stretch, he has extreme athletic gifts, the heart of a lion, and a very strong willingess to try to identify and correct the flaws in his game. And he's not that expensive, relatively speaking. I wouldn't necessarily be opposed to trading JRich for the right deal, but I'd like to hold onto him for another year to see what happens.

Monta and Biedrins must stay. Powell and Azubuike are cheap and not complete crap, so keep them around I guess. SJax I'm on the fence about, I like his game a lot when it's on but he's too inconsistent. But wave goodbye to Baron, Pietrus, Harrington, Jasekevicius, Barnes, Foyle, and POB. Bye bye, all of you, won't miss you at all.

So what does that leave us with? Monta, Andris, Powell, Azubuike, and possibly JRich and SJax. Not bad building blocks if you ask me. Bottom line is I think clearing the decks is going to get them back in contention faster than trying to chip away here or there, add and subtract crap every year as they have been doing.

 

<div class="quote_poster">Kwan1031 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">It wasn't the first time we are rumored to target Harrington. Ever since Mullin became VP, his name always seemed to link with us. I think Mullin liked him when he was in Indiana.

Like Alleyoop mentioned, there is also no question that the trade still is a terrific one. Not only we got better players, both Jackson and Harrington are more tradable than Dunelavy and Murphy. I mean, don't you think it's unfair to expect a major solution from Dunleavy and Murphy package? Another good thing about Harrington is that he is capable of being a 6th man. So, we can improve either position without worrying about what Harrington would do. And, I am still surprised that it only took Diogu, whom we may never utilize, to dump those two guys. Of course, the trade is made to make other trades. Mullin still has a lot of jobs in this offseason.

But, who do we trade? Biedrins is definitely out of the question, because it's just way too hard to get a big man in this league. Monta has very high value, but it will take awful a lot to trade him. All Davis, Richardson and Harrington have values, but they aren't exactly hot trading chips like Monta due to their salaries. After that, we pretty much don't have good trading chips. Despite Jackson put some impressive numbers with us, his trading value is minimal, if not negative. Pietrus is gone, and we need Cabbage's expiring contract. Foyle may be bit easier to trade, but nobody will accept his contract willingly. And, we will probably hold onto POB, until we know what we will get from him.

Sooo... Where do we get that magical PF, who can play with Biedrins in Nelson's system? From this draft? First, we aren't exactly in a great position to draft quality PF, so I guess this road trip will answer awful a lot of question. If we completly bomb this road trip like 1-4 or 0-5, you will see a lot of Powell, Cabbage, POB and others, since Nelson is known for tanking when necessary. Hopefully, we can reach like top 7 at the end. Or trade? Do we trade Richardson? Or even Monta? To get players like Gasol? As much as I would love not to trade players like Davis, Richardson, and Monta, while getting a dream big man, it just isn't realistic. We really, really, really need a solid big man, because this current players live and die with 3 pts. Maybe, we will luck out and make PO. Or, this team finds some chemistry, and play better as a team. But, without a big man, we will always remain as a 3 pts bombing team, and relying on 3 pts like relying on lottory. As much as I hate to say it, if it costs Davis or Richardson to start a conversation to get a big man, I think we should bite that deal. If it cost Monta? Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... Dang... Ugh... Why do I get a flashback of Richmond-Owens trade...</div>

Kwan. I'm looking towards the draft. It's the best big man draft (PF/C) in years (since 1996). If we can get into the 7 - 9 range, then we got a good chance at landing an impact player who can help right away or in relatively short time. With super good luck, the ping pong balls may go our way and we get a top 3 pick (Oden, Durant, Noah).

With trade, it would be for KG and Pau for the top level and maybe AK-47 for the next level. But if they are available, any trade will take a lot to do. Chicago didn't want to give up the two of Deng, Hinrich and Gordon, but last year they would've gave up Tyson Chandler, Luol Deng, their #1 pick (turned out to be the #2 pick in the draft and Tyrus Thomas) and another future #1 pick for KG. In retrospect, Minnesota should've taken that deal, but they didn't.