Official Warriors Off Season Thread

[offbad]

Originally Posted by MJDaLegend

From ESPN

• The Warriors got the steal of the draft. OK, so Anthony Randolph might make Manute Bol look like Hulk Hogan, but the spindly power forward has Chris Bosh-like skills. Bring in John "Hot Plate" Williams as Randolph's eating coach. Who knows how long Don Nelson will stay in the Bay Area, but Randolph would appear to be the perfect fit for his free-flowing system.

didn't they say that about brandan wright as well

 

[mjdalegend]

Originally Posted by offbad

Originally Posted by MJDaLegend

From ESPN

• The Warriors got the steal of the draft. OK, so Anthony Randolph might make Manute Bol look like Hulk Hogan, but the spindly power forward has Chris Bosh-like skills. Bring in John "Hot Plate" Williams as Randolph's eating coach. Who knows how long Don Nelson will stay in the Bay Area, but Randolph would appear to be the perfect fit for his free-flowing system.

didn't they say that about brandan wright as well


Steal or no steal, of course it has yet to be seen. There is definitely value with this pick at our draft position.

 

[vietsta4o8]

i really wanted jason thompson but randolph is cool with me. i hate sacramento even more now

 

[smokey1212]

^ they may have been Wright about Wright then because he looked pretty damn good in the few minutes he played last year. I'm gonna be excited to see himthis year.

Baron
Monta
Cap'n
Wright
Biedrins

...maybe.

 

[mjdalegend]

Chris Mullin on Anthony Randolph

Just moments after the Warriors took Anthony Randolph with the 14th pick of the 2008 NBA Draft, Warriors Executive Vice President of Basketball OperationsChris Mullin discussed the selection with Tim Roye. Watch the interview below:

 

[jchildress22]

Horrible pick IMO.....Neither of these guys are going to help win now, which this franchise needs to hurry up and do.

 

[daprescription]

Originally Posted by JChildress22

Horrible pick IMO.....Neither of these guys are going to help win now, which this franchise needs to hurry up and do.

who do you think would have helped?

 

[patrickcakes]

Doubt anyone at #14 could help us win now. Guess Mully couldn't swing a trade...

 

[jchildress22]

I personally wanted Lopez....he would be a nice guy to have off the bench

Randolph needs to put on some weight...plus I just don't see him playing very often.

 

[TheGodFresco]

Mullin said a a couple guys could move

 

[jdmfanatic]

Originally Posted by JChildress22

I personally wanted Lopez....he would be a nice guy to have off the bench

Randolph needs to put on some weight...plus I just don't see him playing very often.

So Lopez would get more playing time than Randolph? Good one.

 

[acidicality]

Robin Lopez wouldn't have done well here, IMO. I'm guessing it's cuz you're a Stanford fan?

Josh, is that you?

I was definitely hopingfor Brook to slip to us but that wasn't goina happen.

He might be more of a project, but Randolph should do pretty well here. Nellie seems to like him a lot genuinely, so maybe he'll give him some minutes foronce. I think Hendrix could contribute more quickly for us if he stays, if he can really do the stuff that Millsap does for Utah.

I think Al is probably gone...the question is if it's just him or him packaged with some other players to me.

 

[ludex360]

harington, barnse, and air france could leave, i wouldnt mind

 

[mjdalegend]

[h1]Thin Anthony heavy in Warriors' future plans[/h1]
By Gary Peterson
Contra Costa TImes columnist

Article Launched: 06/26/2008 09:41:39 PM PDT
OAKLAND
Maybe you heard: Anthony Randolph is a little on the thin side.

The Warriors' first-round pick in Thursday's NBA draft stands 6-foot-10 and weighs 197 pounds. He's long, gifted and you could slide him under a hotel room door.

He's as skinny as a skeleton key, built like a bolo tie. ESPN's Jay Bilas put it this way: "He makes Brandan Wright look like Mr. America."

Wright, whom the Warriors acquired from Charlotte on draft day last year, is 6-9, 205 and looks like he could shower in a rifle barrel. But that's now. Randolph is 18, younger than some of the cigars in Don Nelson's humidor. Wright is 20. Inasmuch as they can't avoid getting older, you assume they'll get bigger, probably stronger and hopefully better.

Warriors VP Chris Mullin envisions that day, when Randolph has grown into his body, and his body has grown into his game.

"As he puts weight on," Mullin said, "he can be a real nightmare mismatch type of guy."

Same with Wright. You can bet Mullin still expects some growth in Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. In other words, should the Warriors pose for a team photo when they show up for training camp come September, that would be the before picture.

So let's talk about the after picture, presuming the next couple years play out the way Mullin hopes.

Can't see Baron Davis in it, can you? Denied a contract extension by the Warriors last
spring, returning (reluctantly, one presumes) to fulfill the final year of his deal with the team, it's not a pipe-cleaner - sorry, make that lead-pipe - cinch he'll be with the team come opening night.
Two, three years from now? That would suggest Davis comes back, has a season good enough to pique the Warriors' interest but not so good that he seeks a new deal beyond what the Warriors are willing to pay, and that the two sides maintain a congenial working relationship.

That's a lot of suggesting. And it doesn't call into question Davis' age (29 and getting older), and sketchy health history.

Take another look at that picture. Do you see Stephen Jackson? Jackson was terrific for the Warriors last season. But he's 30. Is he still going strong when Randolph and Wright are busting out? Does he then become a complementary player, and does he embrace that role?

You almost certainly don't see Nelson (who, ironically, was once a rail-thin Iowa farm boy) - although Nelson recently observed that Larry Brown (67 to Nelson's 6 just signed a four-year contract to coach the Charlotte Bobcats. But for now, let's color Nelson unlikely for the after picture.

So you see what's happening here. With almost every decision the Warriors have made since last summer's draft, when they traded Jason Richardson for the rights to Wright, they have been refining the focus on their next best window of opportunity. As much as you might have enjoyed the playoff experience of 2006-07, and almost all of last season's 48-win ride, that time isn't necessarily now.

The after picture's core group has been identified. It's an up-tempo bunch that will benefit from a coach such as Nelson, if not the man himself. There's no way of knowing how this will work out, but it's a bold strategy. And bold is good. For too long the Warriors were slaves to the moment, re-signing players to ruinously large contracts because, well, they might get away and break up the nucleus of a 30-52 team.

All of which was blissfully lost on Randolph as he was put through a battery of interviews after being drafted No. 14 by his new favorite team.

"This is probably one of the greatest things to happen to me in my life," he said in a conference call with Bay Area reporters. "Don Nelson is one of the greatest coaches to ever coach."

And about the weight issue?

"I don't put on weight," he said. "I just get stronger. As long as I keep on getting stronger and working in the weight room, size won't be a problem because my strength will make up for it."

Likely later than sooner.

 

[offbad]

Originally Posted by acidicality

Robin Lopez wouldn't have done well here, IMO. I'm guessing it's cuz you're a Stanford fan?

Josh, is that you?

I was definitely hoping for Brook to slip to us but that wasn't goina happen.

He might be more of a project, but Randolph should do pretty well here. Nellie seems to like him a lot genuinely, so maybe he'll give him some minutes for once. I think Hendrix could contribute more quickly for us if he stays, if he can really do the stuff that Millsap does for Utah.

I think Al is probably gone...the question is if it's just him or him packaged with some other players to me.

time to change your sig, yo!

robin? sideshow bob 3.0? forget about it.. i still can't believe Love was drafted before Brook though. Brook was a sure lock for me as a top 5

 

[mjdalegend]

[h1]Ratto: Mullin likes his draft picks tall, thin and left-handed[/h1]

Thursday, June 26, 2008

(06-26) 21:31 PDT -- Chris Mullin keeps talking about "star quality," which is not easy to find with your average 14th pick. But you know how the kids love kids, so he went tall, thin, left-handed and teenaged for the third time in five years.

He still thinks he got a star in Anthony Randolph, the 6-10, 197-pound freshman from LSU whom the Warriors took with their first pick in the NBA Draft, but what he thinks and what Don Nelson does are sometimes two different things. Mullin saw the potential in Brandan Wright last year, too, and Nelson doesn't leave a lot of time in his day for potential.

In other words, Randolph is the new tomorrow, even though we're not sure that Brandan Wright, last year's No. 1, isn't done being the team's current tomorrow. And since neither really gives off as much stellar aura as Mullin thinks, the Warriors would not seem to have dramatically advanced their immediate cause.

And without putting too fine a point on it, the Warriors did finish out of the playoffs last year, and were not unlucky to have done so unless you want to make your annual complaint about the geography of the United States.

In other words, the Warriors will need to get better another way because Randolph isn't likely to approach his peak until his three-year rookie contract expires, and Mullin can't afford to wait that long.

Well OK, maybe he can wait. We have concerns about whether Nelson can, and we have serious doubts about you.

Indeed, as the draft ground on into the evening, and only a few teams reached beyond the conventional wisdom (Seattle with Russell Westbrook at 4, Sacramento with Jason Thompson at 12), you kept waiting for Mullin to try to jump in with a deal to buy another pick that could help more immediately, say like Chris Douglas-Roberts of Memphis (absurdly undervalued at 40 to New Jersey), or Mario Chalmers of Kansas (who went to Minnesota at 34).

What he did do was draft Alabama forward Richard Hendrix at 49, and Randolph said he dominated Hendrix in their meetings in the SEC. Make of that what you will.

Jumping the line to get someone more evidently useful, though, is the kind of fiscal irresponsibility (buying a pick would have put them into luxury tax jail) that would make Chris Cohan's forehead veins throb like a boom box on a stack of plates. Then again, would kicking around the 7-8-9-10 vortex of weirdness again be even more fun than it was this past year?

You see, the Warriors are wedged in tightly with Denver, Portland, Houston, Dallas and the Los Angeles Clippers in the battle for the last two playoff spots, and even though 48 wins will be enough to get in next year, there is no guarantee that the Warriors as presently constituted will get those 48 wins.

Thus, picking up yet another guy with long arms and a longer walk to Nelson's rotation (let us not forget Patrick O'Bryant on his way to the airport) does not seem to help make the Warriors better right now. It is generally agreed that Randolph can grow into a huge contributor, but it is not known when that will happen. It is suspected, though, that 2008-9 is an unlikely target date.

Anthony Randolph represents standing pat, which is exactly what got the Warriors into trouble during the Run TMC years. He also represents a distant future, one which will probably not include Ole Nellie.

And if Monta Ellis and his agent get cranky about wanting the payday now, and the Warriors are reluctant to jump that deep into the luxury tax pool, then they're actually worse.

Now who among you wants that? That's what we thought.

In other words, the Warriors' future ought to be now, and apparently it isn't. We do not wish to reflect poorly upon Randolph, because it really isn't his fault that he is going to be 19, and he is going to spend the upcoming season watching Brandan Wright be 20.

Thus, you are left with the existential question, "Is that good enough for you?" Can you be as patient as Mullin and the Warriors are asking you to be? Can you grind your teeth through another agonizing April? Can you wait as long for Anthony Randolph as long as you are being asked to wait for Brandan Wright, or as long as you were asked to wait for Patrick O'Bryant?

Well, maybe you can. In the last decade, the Warriors have drafted two genuinely helpful players in the first round, Jason Richardson and Biedrins. When you extend to the second round, you add Gilbert Arenas and Ellis. We exempt Marco Belinelli, and we're not sure how to evaluate Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy, who didn't help commensurate with their draft positions or contracts.

Now maybe we're wrong about Anthony Randolph's ability to hit it big quickly; Ellis was a genuine surprise in '05. We just know that isn't the way to bet ... or the way for you to comfortably extend your optimism.

E-mail Ray Ratto at [email protected].

 

[balconybundles]

Heres a nice mix of Randolph. I'm really impressed by his ball handling, he def could play SF in the NBA imo.

 

[paul is on tilt]

Whoa, wait a minute... I missed a Warriors Draft AIM Chat?! Damn, you get off the computer for once and you miss this

.

Anyway, since I didn't know much about the players in the draft, I'm just gauging your guys' reactions and Randolph seems like a good pick with alot of potential at 14 and a lot of people like Hendrix a.k.a. Paul Milsap 2.0... I trust your guys' judgment

.

 

[acidicality]

i didn't join the chat thing because i wasn't gonna be on the computer for long periods of time when i was watching the draft...
if they were actually active in that people were talking, we should get some going again in the future this summer.

 

[theprofessorofpugilism]

I like the Randolph pick because i don't think the Warriors can really maneuver their way into title contention right now. I just think the make up of theteam and the style they use puts them in a hard place to maneuver for those last few pieces. Trades are tough because our guys are more valuable to thewarriors than they are to the rest of the league. I've heard that Ellis' offers in free agency may not be as high as expected because some teams viewhim as a system guy. Same thing for Al Harrington. And if you trade the young guys now then not only do you DRASTICALLY shorten the window, you also make theteam very thin. I mean we didn't have a great bench as it was last year, but to bring in help we'd be getting even thinner. I like the plan they havegoing right now. Be as competitive as you can now without mortgaging for the future, but make the real push a couple years down the road when the young guysstart to mature and then mix and match with some of the guys now who will still be useful at that point. I really like the idea of a line-up in a couple yearsthat goes Ellis-Randolph-Wright-Biedrins at 2-5 and either Baron if he sticks around or another PG we pick up through draft or FA. Thats just my take on it.

 

[paul is on tilt]

Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

Trades are tough because our guys are more valuable to the warriors than they are to the rest of the league. I've heard that Ellis' offers in free agency may not be as high as expected because some teams view him as a system guy.

That's a good thing

.

Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

Trades are tough because our guys are more valuable to the warriors than they are to the rest of the league... Same thing for Al Harrington.

That's not a good thing

.

Originally Posted by TheProfessorOfPugilism

And if you trade the young guys now then not only do you DRASTICALLY shorten the window, you also make the team very thin. I mean we didn't have a great bench as it was last year, but to bring in help we'd be getting even thinner. I like the plan they have going right now. Be as competitive as you can now without mortgaging for the future, but make the real push a couple years down the road when the young guys start to mature and then mix and match with some of the guys now who will still be useful at that point. I really like the idea of a line-up in a couple years that goes Ellis-Randolph-Wright-Biedrins at 2-5 and either Baron if he sticks around or another PG we pick up through draft or FA. Thats just my take on it.

I agree. We have to be realistic. We can't win now... especially with the West as tough as it is now. We're better off, like you said, being ascompetitive as we can be now and when Monta and crew mature, then we can make a real push.

Now if we were Laker fans, we'd be demanding change to get everyone good and wanting to win now

... j/p SoHi

.

 

[acidicality]

Now if we were Laker fans, we'd be demanding change to get everyone good and wanting to win now

... j/p SoHi

.

Shush bandwagoner.
It's cause we're used to winning championships, not finishing 8th and acting like we're on the top of the world.

 

[paul is on tilt]

Originally Posted by acidicality

Now if we were Laker fans, we'd be demanding change to get everyone good and wanting to win now

... j/p SoHi

.

Shush bandwagoner.
It's cause we're used to winning championships, not finishing 8th and acting like we're on the top of the world.

Suns > NBDL Warriors + Fakers.

 

[theprofessorofpugilism]

You guys just love yuku's multiple sig feature, don't you?

 

[acidicality]

Originally Posted by Paul Is On Tilt

Originally Posted by acidicality

Now if we were Laker fans, we'd be demanding change to get everyone good and wanting to win now

... j/p SoHi

.

Shush bandwagoner.
It's cause we're used to winning championships, not finishing 8th and acting like we're on the top of the world.

Suns > NBDL Warriors + Fakers.

Pheonix Scums? You kidding me?

Lakers would sweep them fools, and win by 20+ each game in a playoff series. Snaq is a fat pathetic loser. Raja Fell is a disgrace to the NBA. They lucky theyran into the Spurs instead of us this year or else Steve Kerr would have been fired by now.