[h2]The morning after: Curry, Stoudemire's contract, and the Warriors' next move[/h2]
Posted by
Tim Kawakami on June 26th, 2009 at 9:45 am | Categorized as
College basketball,
NBA,
Warriors
*
Lost in last night's trade/no-trade shuffle: The Warriors announced what I assume to be Larry Riley's entire basketball operations staff. No surprises, but still interesting.
Former assistant coach Travis Schlenk was named director of player personnel. He is generally considered Riley's right-hand man and has been traveling with Riley on various scouting trips.
Larry Harris, rumored to be moving up to the FO, was named consultant/scout, which means he won't be on the bench (I think) but also means he didn't get a big piece of the basketball ops pie.
Scout
Scott Pruneau was named scouting director. Former assistant/former Milwaukee GM.
Former NBA player
Lee Mayberry, who was in Vancouver when Riley was in the FO there, was added as scout.
Unannounced but true:
Mitch Richmond, formerly director player personnel, has been released
--So what do we make of the Amare Stoudemire-Warriors-Stephen Curry situation/poker game after a night to sleep on it?
The Warriors still are chasing Stoudemire, I don't think there's any question about that.
But the Warriors apparently were given a chance to talk contract with Stoudemire-at least just to explore the parameters before giving up multiple players to acquire him-and no deal was clinched.
And the Suns believe they have the framework of a deal to send Amare to the Warriors. (Biedrins, Belinelli, Wright and then it's extra negotiations for what else.)
But that understanding almost certainly included the rights to Stephen Curry, and the Warriors seem to be hardline-at this moment-about keeping Curry.
There's a lot of ways to reconcile the happenings… and to try to plot out what comes next…
* The Warriors and Suns probably were both surprised Curry slipped past Minnesota's 5 and 6 picks, and that's really what caused this whole thing to ignite, for good and bad.
I think Steve Kerr and Larry Riley/Don Nelson all love Curry and I think the Suns had let the Warriors know that they'd love Curry if there was any shot he slipped to 7, in the middle of the high-pressure Stoudemire trade talks.
That DOESN'T mean the Warriors ever agreed to move Curry as part of an Amare deal. Their amped up reaction to that speculation-and Riley repeated it again on KNBR: No plans to trade Curry-makes it clear that they liked Curry and probably took him on his merits, not necessarily only as a trade chip.
But it means the Warriors CAN trade Curry to Phoenix. That's the poker-beauty of selecting him at 7, if you're Don Nelson Poker Player Extreme.
The Warriors took Curry. He fits their system perfectly. He doesn't fit defensively with Monta Ellis at all, but Nelson can live with that, of course.
I am theorizing-and the Warriors don't love me when I theorize-that they are also slightly (or more) affected by the big immediate fan love for Curry.
The Warriors LOVE throwing out young offensive-minded players and having their fans fall in love with those guys. If Curry's a guy who can sell tickets for the next three years… well, why not?
So the Warriors can easily keep Curry, and they pull him out of the proposed Suns deal. Will Kerr give up or will he call this possible Nellie bluff?
* Stoudemire's contract situation is a fluid thing. I think the real value of what the Warriors would trade to Phoenix is influenced by the terms of Stoudemire's contract.
Would or should the Warriors give up extra things if Amare won't adjust his contract and remains a potential 2010 free agent? No way. It's smart for the Warriors to be wary of that.
If the Warriors have to give him a max deal-total of five years, over $95M-then Amare's not worth the mega-package, either.
But if they could extend him by, say, a year or two, to make it something like a three-year, $50M deal through 2011-'12… then Amare becomes VERY valuable to the Warriors, and maybe then and only then they consider including Curry in the package.
That's complicated. That's not something you necessarily can hammer out over a draft day or even the next day or the day after that.
* Here's a conundrum for the Warriors: If Amare's knee is totally healthy, then he wouldn't WANT to sign a non-max deal and really, he shouldn't want to sign now, anyway, since he'll have his pick of teams if he plays great this season and then opts-out.
So one strong motivation for him agreeing to a non-max deal with the Warriors now is if he's worried that his knee or eye AREN'T 100% and he wants to lock up the most money possible because he might not be the player that he was.
See the problem here for Riley and Nelson and Rowell? Stoudemire's very willingness to come to the Warriors for the long-term might prove that he's not the player they think he is.
But I think he's definitely worth the effort. Maybe not for $95M AND Curry… but I understand how much he could change the Warriors on offense.
Curry is a good, good offensive prospect. But he doesn't change the Warriors at all. Unless they're trading Ellis, and again, I don't know how many moving pieces the Warriors can contemplate at once.
* In the end, I think the Warriors and the Suns are going to keep talking, and I think there's still a solid shot that Stoudemire ends up here. Better than 50%? I don't know.
I know both teams should be motivated to get this deal done, which is better than Amare staying in Phoenix after knowing he was dangled and better than the Warriors having another non-defensive scorer to add to their non-defensive scoring team.
It's a poker game. But I think it's clear: The Suns can't do this trade without Curry, and it's probably up to Stoudemire's contract demands to determine if the Warriors will be willing to toss Curry into the deal to make it happen.
