I take it that the Warriors offseason for the most part is over. I think most of the roster and all of the coaching staff is put in place now. This is a list of the moves made this offseason...http://www.nba.com/warriors/news/index.html Consummate Eight-Player Trade (8/24) Re-Sign Cheaney (8/11) Pietrus Successful Surgery (7/21) Acquire Davis And Dickau For Van Exel (7/20) Sign Derek Fisher (7/16) Warriors Announce Agreement With Minority Investors (7/13) Re-Sign Adonal Foyle (7/14) Biedrins Signs/Summer League Roster Announced (7/7) Turner Named Assistant Coach (7/7) Stotts Named Assistant Coach (6/30) Elie Named Assistant Coach (6/28) Draft Andris Biedrins (6/24) Murray Named Strength & Conditioning Coach (6/22) Lose Bremer in Expansion Draft (6/22) Warriors to Pick 11th (5/26) Montgomery Named Head Coach (5/21) Higgins Named General Manager (5/20) Musselman Relieved Of Coaching Duties (5/20) Name Mullin Executive VP of Basketball Operations (4/22) What do you all think about this offseason? I am somewhat upset. I don't like letting Musselman go, or some of the additions to this roster. I don't like Fisher or his contract and Dale Davis has been washed up i think for a few years now. Cardinal leaving doesn't help the Warriors. But these are my opinions. What do you all think about this past offseason as it seems this offseason will pretty much finish without too much left to be done?
Overall, I give B-. `As much as I like Muss, his firing was inevitable. I will hold my judgement on Montgomery as well.(I) `Drafting Biedrins (. We got who we wanted, and although he is not physically ready, he looked prosmising. But, I wish Mullin can do better job at hiding who we want. For some reason, everybody knew we liked Biedrins, and we were darn lucky to draft him. `If Foyle gets 40 mils for 5 years, C-. If 40 mils for 6 years, B+ `Fisher's signing gets C-. We will like him in short term. But, his deal will hurt resigning our young core. `Davis and Dickau for NVE (B+). Big for small is always a plus. Besides, we traded disgruntled NVE for classy Davis. Also, they both are one year rental. `Resigning Cheaney (. Nice signing. `Dampier trade (. He waited, waited, and waited. Instead of receiving craps, we received Najera, couple picks, and couple Euros. Only thing I didn't like about this trade is we received yet another hustle guy with long contract. This offseason is a mixed bag for me. Clearly, our team is very deep from 1-12, and we do have fairly good chance of making PO. Also, our caproom is flexible in next season as well. If we had a Cuban like owner, this team is in a very good situation. Unfortunately, Cohan will not pay luxury tax like most of owners. Therefore, this year's transaction will hurt, when it comes to resigning our own FAs in the future. I will enjoy next two seasons, and prey really hard that we won't be this year's Nets, who simply dumped players because they could not afford it...
Just like you, I don't agree with the Fisher signing and would have rather kept Cardinal for that money. But, I like the rest of the moves which helped to cover the weaknesses and get some solid players for the roster. The reason that I'm more optimistic is that the changes from 2002-2003 to 2003-2004 seemed much more drastic than the changes this offseason, and we still did well. Here's a recap: Here's a simple comparison of the last few years and this year: 2002 C Dampier / Foyle PF Murphy / Fortson SF Jamison / Dunleavy / Mills SG Richardson / Sura / Welsch PG Arenas / Boykins Coach: Muss Record: 38-44 Team leaders Scoring: Jamison (22.2), Assists: Arenas (6.3), Rebounds: Murphy (10.2) Team averages Scoring: 102.4, Allowed: 103.6, Assists: 20.9, Rebounds: 46.7 Last year: C Dampier / Foyle PF Robinson / Murphy / Cardinal SF Dunleavy / Cheaney SG Richardson / Pietrus PG Claxton / Van Exel / Johnson Coach: Muss Record: 37-45 Team Leaders Scoring: Richardson (18.7), Assists: Van Exel (5.3), Claxton (4.5), Rebounds: Dampier (12.0) Team Averages Scoring: 93.3, Allowed: 94.0, Assists: 21.5, Rebounds: 43.1 Major changes: Losing Jamison and Arenas, the top two scorers from the previous season and also lost Murphy for a large part of the season, the game slowed down. The result: Opponents shot worse FG% and scored less (W's had better defense) and the W's passed better and handled the ball better (less turnovers and less fouls), both W's and Opponents rebounded a bit less, but FT shooting went unexpectly downward. Still, W's clearly compensated for the loss of their Scoring leader, Assists leader and Rebounds leader. This year (so far) C Foyle / Davis / Biedrins PF Murphy / Robinson / Laettner SF Dunleavy / Najera / Sekularac SG Richardson / Pietrus / Cheaney PG Claxton / Fisher / Flores Coach: Montgomery Major changes: Loss of Dampier and Cardinal. But we kept a lot more of the core in comparison to the previous season. I consider Fisher an upgrade from the injured Van Exel (or Johnson), and I don't expect any of the players to regress from last season because they're all young and getting more playing time. (Robinson, Davis and Cheaney will probably only marginally get worse, since they all have pretty good conditioning.) May change from a 9-man rotation to a 10-man rotation. The coach is a rather big change, too, but shouldn't be too much of a distraction.
Overall, I would say B+. Of course, we will not know how good this offseason was until at least mid season. We wont fully know until a few years from now. I love the Chaney signing, the Damp trade, Van Exel Trade, Biedrens draft, and the Mullin hiring. I am reserved about the rest. The contract for Fisher is too long, but I think he will be a huge lift for us for the next 3-4 years. Foyle will be good I think and will prove that he was a value at what we signed him for. I liked Muss, but we knew he was going to get fired. I sure hope Monty justifies the firing...
Realistically we won't know until the draft picks are rendered via trade or selection, as they are the most valuable pieces the Warriors recieved.
That's also the fun of it. Not knowing what the pick will be. It's kind of fun to be rooting against or for a team so we can get a better draft pick position, but hopefully the pick doesn't fall too high if its lottery protected. BTW I rate this offseason a B+. There wasn't anything Mullin was going to do this offseason except get 1.) expiring contracts 2.) get solid veteran role players. 3.) get promising rookies or draft picks. He basically accomplished all 3 in the Dallas trade, got Luis Flores' rights, Got Laettner's expiring contract, got Eduardo Najera to back up Brian Cardinal. Got rid of NVE for a defensive big man Dale Davis with an immediate expiring contract to back up Foyle. The free agent signings raised some eyebrows, but I like the fact we kept Fisher out of the competitions hands (Rockets). He isn't an allstar, but he is a good player that people don't give credit to. We also retained one of the fan favorites in Adonal Foyle who is just simply great in the transition game and he's like our goalie when it comes to defense in the paint. I expect to see this guy hustling on every play and doing some things you'd never thought he could do (like hit free throws).
I also think that it's great that both picks could be for the next draft, since we can get the players in our system quickly and hopefully help quickly. A lot of European players withdrew from this draft, so they'll likely be available for next draft. I'm not too familiar with the current depth of the American system, since I've been a bit busy to keep up with the college news, but there's always hope.
The offseason started with Mullin taking over the ship and St. Jean basically being booted to a coal-shoveler role. And of course the first thing Mully did was put his stamp on the team and exchange Monty for Muss. Over the past couple of years I've expected a lot out of the W's, not really believing my optimism. But this year, there's no doubt that the W's have one of the deepest teams, on paper at least. Everyone can contribute, whether its spot rebounding (davis), spot shooting (fisher, cheaney), spot defense (najera, pietrus, robinson). I'd have to say, even though the rest of the league frowns on the foyle, fisher, and damp deals, only those who watch the W's game in and game out feel that they're a more complete team then the past two years.
I think chemistry wise it will be some decent ball. We retained most of our guys, only losing a 3rd string point guard in Avery Johnson, Erick Dampier, and Brian Cardinal. No one on the team is selfish and they got some emerging stars in the nba in Richardson or possibly Dunleavy if he learns to be more aggressive and consistent and packs on some more weight. Dunleavy has Yao-like performances. 27+ points or a 20 pt/20 rebound game one time and he disappears the next. I think that's the big problem with finesse players and pure shooters in the nba they just get outmuscled and outhustled. BTW is it possible for Dunleavy to play PF out in the West? Probably not, but I wish he was like 6'11.
I'd like to give the Warriors an incomplete for their offseason grade, since the success or failure of their moves this offseason will depend on how the unproven guys play this year and what Mullin does with the cap space next year. But, if I had to give the Warriors a letter grade, I'd say it's a C+/B-. While they made a lot of moves, they didn't do anything to dramatically improve or harm the team in the short or long term. My favorite move: drafting Biedrins. He's young, but he's a defensive player, so it's likely that he'll be ready to play sooner than he would if he was primarily an offensive player. The only other guy I would have rather had the W's take in the entire draft is Shaun Livingston. It's a long term pick, but I think it's one that we're going to look back on in 4-5 years and see that the W's got a steal. It's eventually going to set up an interesting dynamic between him, Foyle, and Murphy. Eventually, I'd like to see Murphy and Biedrins starting at the 4 and 5. As for Foyle, I'm almost sure his contract is for 5 years/40.6 mil with the 6th year partially guaranteed for 1 mil. It's a lot, but considering what Damp got, I think I'd rather have Foyle at an average of 8 mil for 5 years than Damp at over 10 mil a year for 7 years. My least favorite move: the Fisher signing. All the Warriors needed was a veteran pg to back up Speedy, instead they got a starting quality pg and paid him so much money that there's going to be an inevitable controversy over who should be the starting pf. Mullin could have gotten a vet back up off the bargain bin, such as Brevin Knight, Bimbo Coles, or Charlie Ward. That way the W's would have a back up who knew his role and they could have had him without sacraficing any long term cap flexibility. Even if Speedy were to go down with an injury, Dunleavy showed that he is more than adequate as a starting pg, so it wouldn't be like the Warriors would be stuck with Coles or Ward as their starting pg. My bold prediction for the '04/'05 season: Foyle will play in 70+ games and average 10-12 points, 8-10 boards, and 2-3 blocks a game. In short, he'll quickly put a stop to talks that he's overpaid, just the way Damp did last year. My qualification is that he needs to play 30+ minutes a game. My less bold prediction for next year: the entity that will come to be known as Adonal Davis will average just as many points, rebounds, and blocks as Adonal Dampier did the past three years. Foyle was just as impressive in games where he's played 30+ minutes over the past 3 years as Damp was last year, and Davis is still a great back up pf/c. My unrealistic (but I sure hope so) prediction for this year: the Warriors will become this year's Memphis Grizzlies and shock the league with the 6th seed in the west. My realistic (but I sure hope I'm wrong) prediction for this year: something goes wrong between having a college coach try to make the transition to the pros, still not having a dominant one on one scorer, installing new offensive and defensive systems, trying to develop six guys at once when none of them have more than 3 years of NBA experience, etc., and the Warriors are picking 11th for the third year in a row.
My favorite move: Drafting Andris Biedrens. You can't teach 7 feet and you can't teach athleticism. He was the guy that I wanted all along. A long defensive, athletic rebounding/shotblocking player that can play 3 positions. Look back on my posts and see how I kind of bashed Murphy on the lateral movement aspect of his game, but don't get me wrong I still love Murph. We just need a different type of player to sub in when we need to control another team's power athletic forward/center/ or small forward. The downside is that because he is a polar opposite of Murphy, especially in the free throw department, he most likely will get fouled a lot intentionally or they'll let him shoot from the perimeter a lot. My least favorite move: Derek Fisher. That's way too much dough for too many years. He better be worth it. He is however a good point guard and we kept him out of the Rockets hands. My bold prediction for the '04/'05 season: Jason Richardson will explode this year into a Vince Carter type scoring threat (even in half court sets) and actually be able to play help defense, hit 80% of free throws, and dribble the ball going between two defenders. Chad Ford will start humping his leg. My less bold prediction for next year: Dunleavy will finally shine in an offense more suited for his style of game and actually gain the confidence to hit open shots this time around. (I'm sure he will be good in Montgomery's system where there are plays built around him). Don't get me wrong I'm not a fan of Dunleavy, but I think he will do better since this coach recognizes him as the setup man. He just better step up and stop getting tossed around on the floor so much and act like such a wussy. My unrealistic (but I sure hope so) prediction for this year: Dunleavy will average 1.0 blocks a game and play great on the ball and perimeter defense as a small forward My realistic (but I sure hope I'm wrong) prediction for this year: Speedy Claxton stays injured for half or more of the season.
My favorite move: Drafting Andris Biedrens. There was a lot of hype and thought that he was going to be drafted by Philly. By him falling to us, it is like we got a steal. I also loved the article on the ESPN Insider about him. That is what got me excited about him. I think also his defensive preference is what we need on this team. I just hope his offense will be as good as his defense is supposed to be. My least favorite move: Tie between Fisher, and Davis. Of course, getting NVE out of here was great, but it is not like we got much out of the deal. Davis will be a competent back up however. We really needed that. It also helped us get Damp out of here and the great assets we got out of that deal. My bold prediction for the '04/'05 season: Dunleavy will score 20pts per game and become a leader of this young team. He will live up to the hype Mullin put on him when we drafted him and he starts to become that player we all expect and want him to be. My less bold prediction for next year: Jason Richardson will be an All Star this year. My unrealistic (but I sure hope so) prediction for this year: We will be more like Denver was last year and with the weakening of the Western Conference in general, we will be in the 4th seed in the Western Conference playoffs. My realistic (but I sure hope I'm wrong) prediction for this year: We will be in the hunt for the 8th seed and end up just missing it.
3/3 Warrior fans agree that Biedrens will be the man (except at the free throw line where Shaq could beat him blindfolded)
