Mullin was the one who did the Marcus Williams disaster. On a side note, it's funny at the press conference that Riley was pimping the virtues of nutrition, because the guy lives his daily life with a big wad of chewing tobacco in his lip. At summer league, he was spitting in a cup and chewin away and did an interview and nearly choked on his Skoal halfway through (okay I made the last bit up). As far as Riley, he was named assistant GM on 11/8/2008. Then, he was officially named GM on May 12, 2009. Here are his main transactions: June 26, 2009 Acquired guards Acie Law and Speedy Claxton from the Atlanta Hawks for guard Jamal Crawford. July 30, 2009 Traded Marco Bellinelli to Toronto for Deavean George and cash considerations September 2, 2009 Free Agent Mikki Moore signed contract, Terms not Disclosed September 9, 2009 Resigned C.J. Watson, Terms not Disclosed October 10, 2009 Suspended G Stephen Jackson for two exhibition games for conduct detrimental to the team. November 17, 2009 Traded G-F Stephen Jackson and G Acie Law to Charlotte for G Raja Bell and F Vladimir Radmanovic. November 21, 2009 Signed F/C Chris Hunter. January 4, 2010 Waived C Mikki Moore. January 31, 2010 Signed G Coby Karl to a 10-day contract. March 22, 2010 Signed F Reggie Williams for the remainder of the season. June 22, 2010 Traded Corey Maggette to the Bucks for Dan Gadzuric and Charlie Bell June 30, 2010 Extended qualifying offers to F Anthony Morrow and G C.J. Watson, making them restricted free agents. July 9, 2010 Acquired F David Lee from the New York Knicks for F Anthony Randolph, F Kelenna Azubuike, F Ronny Turiaf and a 2012 second-round draft pick. July 13, 2010 Signed G Anthony Morrow and traded him to New Jersey for a 2011 second-round draft pick. July 21, 2010 Signed G Jeremy Lin. July 22, 2010 Signed G C.J. Watson and traded him to Chicago for a 2011 second-round draft pick. September 8, 2010 Signed G-F Rodney Carney. January 4, 2011 Waived G-F Rodney Carney. January 23, 2011 Traded Gadz+BWright for Troy Murphy + 2nd round pick I don't think I left anything major off (checked SI and ESPN transactions), but if so post it. So, nothing too exciting here, but nothing too horrible either. Here's my few takes: -- I was stoked when they traded Craw-daddy, and I was UBER-stoked when they traded Mags. However, I was NOT stoked at all by what they got back. They were basically dumping them, the same way they dumped Jax, for pennies. I mean, they ended up with AC LAw, Speedy Claxton, Charlie Bell, and Dan Gadzuric... for two starting 20 point scorers.Of course, it's the Warriors, and Craw/Mags were highly over-inflated stat wise, so I would've taken anything to get rid of them. -- The Bellinelli trade sucked. I wanted him back, or at least they should have done better. But they brought in Devean George, lol, and I remember Riley gushing about George's defensive leadership and whatnot. That was a joke. -- He also signed Mikki Moore and talked that up too, which was annoying. -- Riley couldn't get anything in a S&T for CJ Watson or Morrow, either, so he got a couple of second rounders. Where are the picks, BTW? I keep hearing the Warriors didn't have a pick in 2011 until the Murph deal, but what about this two? -- the worst offense, in my opinion, was waiving Speedy Claxton's 5.2 mils exp. contract in order to keep Tolliver/Hunter. He could have waited and tried to make something happen there. Instead, mere weeks before the deadline, he waived Claxton and gave up the asset. -- Then, he never did anything with George's exp contract, either. In the end, Riley's inability to use these exp. contracts for anything noteworthy is a sign of a general problem: the inability to get a big move done. The Lee trade is the only exception, but it wasn't a big trade... he was leaving NY anyway, and it was more of a S&T formality on a free agent pickup. Riley has used the exp. contracts poorly, and has not been able to pull the trigger on anything impressive. After this past week's poor showing, I'm even more unimpressed in this regard.
Was it Nelson who wanted Marcus Williams? Maybe not... Certainly Lacob has been sluggish out of the start in making moves. First it took him forever to get his final partners together to buy the team, while taking the league a long time to approve the sale and purchase of the team. He waited until like the week before training camp to choose a head coach. Also unlike the rumors (if I remember correctly) during the bidding stage where other NBA people like Jerry West were coming to assess the franchise, and perhaps signs of better basketball managers taking over, Lacob, it seems to be lost in who he also wants to be his GM. I think what it comes down to is that Larry Riley does not have that special vision to make winning basketball teams. We have known this. He is more or less a mediocre GM. He didn't do anything in Vancouver/Memphis or in his previous time in that position. With the expectations that Lacob and company would come in and add winning management both to the bench and in the front office, we could say that Lacob has been a disappointment. But I will give him a little more time before I will call him Chris Cohan though. On the positive side Lacob has publicly been critical of Keith Smart and the team. I am just wondering if the financial burden of purchasing the team was too much for him to replace these guys, Smart and Riley. Certainly the team did not lose money by keeping them. And who knows what the CBA discussions this coming offseason may have on hand-cuffing them from what they may have wanted to do initially. Larry Riley did bring that up a lot in a discussion he had with Tim Roye on KNBR this week. Though this team may get along better than last year. I see it more as a group of individuals, and still not quite a team. I think the biggest thing this franchise can get would be a coach that can build a team, where players are playing for each other both offensively and defensively. I think they want to play for eachother, they just seem lost in how to do that best both offensively and defensively, though certainly at times a lack of motivation to play for their teammates seems absent. So as nice as a good trade may have been, getting a good new coach would be nicer. But please no Mike Montgomerys or Brian Winters. I think Mike Brown from Cleveland may be a decent candidate. Once you get that kind of proven coach then you have a better idea of what players the team should go after. Right now it just seems like the current situation and systems that Smart is using don't even know how to incorporate the players they have now. I think this is all more frustrating than what happened or didn't happen at the deadline. Then again changing coaches is a tricky situation too. More coaches will be available in the offseason and you don't want to replace medicore with mediocre.
I think the good GMs stockpile the first and second round picks in order to maximize getting a stud and to make trades. It gives one more flexibility as a first rounder is easy to trade for a future first rounder. Riley did the opposite. He got rid of them and even when he did, he didn't take advantage of it. If Riley just bit the bullet on the Marcus Williams deal, then he would have had a first round pick he could have packaged together for a deal this season. For comparison purposes, I picked Sam Presti because he's a new GM and only has one year on Riley. Even then he gathers first and second round picks and the guys he signs, he tends to keep instead of letting them go. It means his organization is developing his selections. Riley ends up releasing or trading them such as his D-Leaguers. If he got a pick back, then it would be okay, but he's mostly he's losing them for nothing. I believe that's why we're lacking in talent off the bench. If one doesn't have second round picks, then one ends up paying for your players from free agency. It's also why the Warriors have expiring contracts, but will fill up the cap with the players they re-sign and have to sign instead of getting a big name to come over. It's a vicious cycle and Riley did nothing this season except get a second round pick and free up a small amount of cap space. Next season, we're still in the same boat.
