Mullin Looking to Deal on His Terms

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>OAKLAND -- The real estate bubble may have burst in the Bay Area, but one set of Oakland residents is finding it more and more difficult to buy a plot in its desired neighborhood. The Warriors woke up Thursday morning at 32-20, a record they hadn't reached for 16 years, but all it earned them was a three-way tie for the final two Western Conference playoff spots. "It's crazy, really crazy, because last year with this record, we would have been fine, but this year, so many great teams are playing really well," Warriors center Andris Biedrins said. "We can't think that we're 10 or 12 games above .500 and we'll be fine. We just have to keep winning games because the Western Conference now is really hard."

As of Thursday, the Warriors were four games out of first place in the Pacific Division and 41/2 back of New Orleans for the best overall record in the Western Conference. The last time the franchise was this close to a No. 1 playoff seed this deep into a season was 1992, when a Golden State squad led by coach/general manager Don Nelson and leading scorer Chris Mullin opened at 37-15 and rode an eight-game winning streak into the top spot.

But those Warriors -- who made no in-season moves save for signing a collection of forgettable free agents to 10-day deals -- crumbled in the end. Golden State was 18-12 over its final 30 games to finish 55-27, dropping to the No. 3 seed and getting booted from the playoffs in the first round by the Seattle SuperSonics.

So with the trade deadline looming next Thursday, the Warriors need to spend their All-Star break working the phones and pondering the possibilities: Do they play for today, joining the Jazz, Lakers, Suns and possibly Mavericks as teams that have made deals to bolster their short-term rosters while possibly compromising their long-term goals? Or do they stand firm and avoid making a sucker deal, knowing that every team that's mortgaged its future will be easier to beat in coming years as Golden State's young nucleus continues to mature? "I think we have a team that's very competitive right now," Warriors president Robert Rowell said. "What are you going to do to get better and better? Are you going to sacrifice (the future) for an unknown? If there was a known, we would do it. We happen to like our team. ... We're going to look to do what we've got to do to make this team better, for now and into the future."

The Warriors have some bargaining chips, although nothing like the $9.1 million expiring contract of Kwame Brown that the Lakers used to heist All-Star forward Pau Gasol from the Memphis Grizzlies.

As Phoenix coach Mike D'Antoni wryly noted, "If you can get Pau Gasol for relatively cheap, you would do it."

Disgruntled forward Mickael Pietrus has made clear his desire to be sent elsewhere, and barely used center Patrick O'Bryant, like Pietrus an unrestricted free agent-to-be, might also draw interest despite two failed seasons in Oakland. Perhaps most important, Golden State can absorb a player making up to $10 million this season without having to give the same amount back, thanks to the trade exception generated when Jason Richardson was shipped to the Charlotte Bobcats in a draft-day trade.

But players available in such a salary-dump situation typically have a compelling flaw or two that put them on the block in the first place. In order to get a true difference-maker, the Warriors have to seriously consider letting go one or more of their five most important players: Biedrins, Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Al Harrington or Stephen Jackson.

It may be a case of wanting to have his cake and eat it, too, but Mullin, now the Warriors executive vice president of basketball operations, seems much more interested in adding to his core, rather than ripping it apart. And that means being careful to not blow next season's budget, which will have to accommodate large raises for restricted free agents Biedrins and Ellis, at the very least.

"The urgency (to make a move) is definitely there, but there are parameters," Mullin said. "It's not going to be a situation where we jump from (playoff spot No.) 8 to 7 and potentially jeopardize (keeping) really good young players."

Besides, there's a very good case to be made that these Warriors are doing just fine on their own. Since landing at 0-6 while Jackson was serving an NBA suspension, Golden State has been the NBA's third-best team, trailing only Boston and Detroit in winning percentage since Nov. 15.

"I can look at two or three losses that I didn't think we should have, but there's probably five or six wins that we've had that I didn't know we would get either," Nelson said. "There's no complaints at this point at all, but the toughest is yet to come. For the next 30 games, I don't know that there's very many easy ones."

Eight of the Warriors' first 11 games after the break come against Eastern Conference competition. The final 19 are all against the West, and 12 of those are against other members of the 10-team gang looking to get into an eight-team playoff setup.

If the Warriors don't make an additional move, it'll be up to Chris Webber, the former Rookie of the Year who returned last month, to provide a boost.

"We're four games out of first place ... " Webber said. "They've already shown that they're capable of playing well and winning. I just want to be a part of it and hopefully help them go to the next level."</div>

Source: Contra Costa Times