<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The temperature in Las Vegas on Wednesday was measured at 103 degrees, which suited the needs of Warriors forward Mickael Pietrus quite well. Hoping to turn up the heat on the only NBA team he's ever played for, Pietrus and his agent, Bill McCandless, met Wednesday at their request with Warriors officials in the Nevada desert -- where the league's movers and shakers are gathering in advance of this month's Olympic qualifying tournament -- to discuss the restricted free agent's status for next season. Pietrus, the Warriors' longest-tenured player after the departures of Jason Richardson and Adonal Foyle this summer, received some sympathy for his unhappiness with the situation from Warriors executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin -- but not a hard-and-fast contract offer. "Chris told Mike that he might be willing to bring him back for a certain amount of money," McCandless said. "We never got that number. Obviously, I'm going to be calling Chris (today) to get that number. "To the extent that this meeting opens the door to (re-signing long-term with Golden State), of course we're happy."</div> Source: Contra Costa Times
Can we blame Mullin? Didn't we learn our lesson from guys like Dunleavy Jr. and Adonal Foyle? Pietrus' agent is basically asking the Warriors to overpay for him. This guy was not well coached early on and I think it's too late for him to start getting better. I think his mind is not a natural basketball mind. He's tough and he's athletic, one or two attributes that doesn't make the player do well in the nba if he ain't consistent at other parts of the game such as having real basketball skill or good consistency... He's poorly coached like Foyle but with good heart. He makes dumb mistakes, he's undersized for the 3, can't play the 2 that well, and shot selections like Fisher. He never got better or got consistent like Dunleavy Jr never got that much better or consistent. He basically sums up the worst out of all those players I really ranted about. But yeah... he's got heart, he hits a few buzzer beaters, he can be pesky in the lane coming up with steals or out of position rebounds, maybe a few blocked shots, but dang I really don't think he's a team basketball guy. He's too dangerous of a player to rely on to be a role player. I think we got the best year out of him, but it still wasn't that good...
I'm not going to miss Pietrus at all, perfect example of a guy whose liabilities overshadow his talents and potential. If he gets a contract with the word "million" in it, it's too much for me. A lot of people have predicted Pietrus would go elsewhere and turn into this "beast"...well, let him. He's the French Michael Jordan like I'm the French Einstein. Even if you don't care how much money he's making, and acknowledge he has some athleticism, how can you feel comfortable with him on the court at a critical point in a game? I never could.
