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Getting a second rounder for the expiring deals of Wright and Gadzuric is better than nothing, but we’ll never know whether better deals would have been available at the deadline. Just like last year when the Warriors inexplicably bought out Speedy Claxton’s expiring deal weeks before the deadline, then held on to Raja Bell’s expiring deal through the deadline only to cut him later, the Warriors’ timing is all off. Larry Riley has shown a frustrating rigidity in his moves; an unwillingness to adapt to changing circumstances and search for incrementally better deals. There is marginal improvement in the fact that we actually got something as opposed to nothing, but for an ownership group that entered with booming rhetoric about changing the culture and demanding accountability, it’s a pathetic result.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what Lacob and his ownership group say; it matters what they do. Lacob kicked off his ownership promising a new beginning, but retained the same team president and GM, and replaced the coach with his understudy. He spent the last four months promising to do anything to improve the team, but he now appears ready to sit out the trade deadline with nothing more than a second round pick to show for $17 million in expiring deals. While other teams are making plays for All-Stars, the Warriors are clearing room for D-Leaguers. Warriors fans don’t expect a championship team overnight, but after years of Cohan’s exploitation, we need more than empty promises. We’re still waiting.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2011/02/23/still-waiting/
Sums up how I feel about the Warriors right now.
Originally Posted by EAGLE 0N
Getting a second rounder for the expiring deals of Wright and Gadzuric
is better than nothing, but we’ll never know whether better deals would
have been available at the deadline. Just like last year when the
Warriors inexplicably bought out Speedy Claxton’s expiring deal weeks
before the deadline, then held on to Raja Bell’s expiring deal through
the deadline only to cut him later, the Warriors’ timing is all off.
Larry Riley has shown a frustrating rigidity in his moves; an
unwillingness to adapt to changing circumstances and search for
incrementally better deals. There is marginal improvement in the fact
that we actually got something as opposed to nothing, but for an
ownership group that entered with booming rhetoric about changing the
culture and demanding accountability, it’s a pathetic result.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter what Lacob and his ownership group say; it
matters what they do. Lacob kicked off his ownership promising a new
beginning, but retained the same team president and GM, and replaced the
coach with his understudy. He spent the last four months promising to
do anything to improve the team, but he now appears ready to sit out the
trade deadline with nothing more than a second round pick to show for
$17 million in expiring deals. While other teams are making plays for
All-Stars, the Warriors are clearing room for D-Leaguers. Warriors fans
don’t expect a championship team overnight, but after years of Cohan’s
exploitation, we need more than empty promises. We’re still waiting.
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/warriors/2011/02/23/still-waiting/
Sums up how I feel about the Warriors right now.
Riley can evaluate talent, but has zero clue what to do w/ it or manage money. He needs to be demoted to a scout or be let go.
Steinmetz: Lacob era not off to a good start
Read more: Steinmetz: Lacob era not off to a good start
Tune to SportsNet Central at 6, 10:30 and midnight on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area for more on this story
Feb. 24, 2011
STEINMETZ ARCHIVE
WARRIORS PAGE | WARRIORS VIDEO
Matt Steinmetz
CSNBayArea.com
Now seems like the time to say it: The Joe Lacob Era is off to a bad start.
Might not be entirely fair and it might not be all his fault, but the NBA is a results-oriented league and so far Lacob hasn't backed up his confident early ownership talk with appropriate and meaningful action.
Now, some will say Lacob hasn't owned the team for very long -- only about three-and-a-half months -- and that he should be cut a break. But at the same time you could make a case that Lacob has been involved for a while now.
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Like since July. After all, if you were going to say you were consulted about the David Lee deal and that you were the driving force behind Don Nelson's ouster, then Lacob is also accountable for what happened on Thursday.
Nothing happened on Thursday.
[KILLION: http:///www.csnbayarea.com/02/24/11/img-srchttpcsnbayareacomcommonglobal_ima/landing_killion.html?blockID=417347&feedID=5878">http://www.csnbayarea.com...D=417347&feedID=5878'));">Trade deadline passes, 'new' Warriors quiet]
It's not so much that Warriors general manager Larry Riley --with Lacob alongside and very active -- didn't make a deadline deal to improve the Warriors. That might even be understandable on some level.
But what makes Thursday so disappointing -- and, yes, demoralizing -- for a lot of Warriors fans is that it was Lacob who came in and talked about making a "big splash" and doing "bold" things. It was Lacob who talked of hanging banners.
Making the Warriors' near-dormant deadline even more confounding for fans is that it came while the NBA experienced one of its most frenzied and active deadlines in the recent past.
How can there be excuses for the inactivate, fans want to know? Lots of players were moved -- from big-time stars such as Carmelo Anthony and Deron Williams, to role players, to draft picks, to expiring contracts. And the only peep out of the Warriors was the acquisition of Troy Murphy, along with a second-round pick, for expiring contracts.
[RELATED: http:///www.csnbayarea.com/02/23/11/Warriors-acquire-Murphy-and-draft-pick-f/landing_warriors.html?blockID=416673&feedID=2799">http://www.csnbayarea.com...D=416673&feedID=2799'));">W's acquire Murphy and draft pick from Nets]
Again, it's worth pointing out that there just might not have been a legitimate deal out there for the Warriors. That's entirely possible. But that's not the spin a hungry fan base wants to hear after the new owner came in and talked a big game immediately.
Down the line, history might not be kind to Lacob when it comes to the start of his tenure.
Lacob was in on Lee? OK, verdict is still out on that one, but there are certainly critics who believe Lee's contract is for entirely too long and for too much money -- six years and $80 million.
Firing Nelson was Lacob's idea? OK, but he gave Keith Smart only a one-year deal, setting up what looks like an awkward decision at the end of this year when it comes to the coach's future. Not to mention, the move came right before training camp, with an assistant coaching staff not even place.
Hiring his young son, Kirk, as director of basketball operations right after officially taking over the team? Turned out not to be a good look to some, and it caught the attention of the national media.
Lacob also talked assuredly of having the best ownership team in the entire NBA, and that no other franchise had anything on the Warriors when it came to deep pockets or creative thinking.
But it was another new owner, New Jersey's Mikhail Prokhorov who cleaned the league's clocks this week by trading for Williams, perhaps the best point guard in the league.
At Lacob's introductory luncheon after he took control of the team, he made a point of saying that he thought Chris Mullin, the Warriors' previous general manager, had made a mistake at the beginning of his tenure by signing some players to long-term contracts."
Maybe so.
But down the line, people may be looking back at Lacob's early time as an owner. And they might say the same thing: That Lacob made a rookie mistake by talking a big game and not being able to deliver.
Read more: Steinmetz: Lacob era not off to a good start
Tune to SportsNet Central at 6, 10:30 and midnight on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area for more on this story