[h2]After the Warriors draft: The TE's unlikely to be used, Cohan doesn't get heroic, what about Harrington?[/h2]
Posted by
Tim Kawakami on June 26th, 2008 at 11:44 pm | Categorized as
NBA,
Warriors
Stray bits after bolting out of Warriors HQ still trying to figure out if Portland thinks it can go with a 22-man, $130M roster this season and wondering if Brandan Wright and No. 1 pick Anthony Randolph together weigh as much as Shaquille O'Neal…
* Asked Chris Mullin straight up if, by not using the $9.9M trade exception on draft night, when so many deals where flying around, the odds of using the TE reduced drastically. (I'd guess it went from 20% to 5% chance of using any or some of it by Monday's deadline.)
"A lot of conversations that I had could go thorugh the weekend," Mullin said.
My translation: If it was going to happen, it would've happened tonight. Look at all the chaos that Portland pulled off. That's when the adrenaline is there to do deals. If Chris Cohan was going to be egged into pushing up his payroll for an extra veteran plus another pick, it would've been tonight.
Didn't happen. Probably won't happen. It'll be Jason Richardson for Brandan Wright plus the ability to stay out of luxury tax when the Warriors finally sign Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins.
it's fair to knock Cohan for this. He didn't quite get Paul Allen-like on this one.
* Great response from Mullin to Lepper's question, noting that Sacramento took Jason Thompson at 12, helping push Randolph to the Warriors at 14.
The question: Did your smokescreen about being in love with Thompson work?
Mullin: "Well, I don't smoke. Nellie smokes a lot, though."
I think Mullin would've heavily considered Thompson if he was there at 14 and Randolph wasn't, But it didn't happen that way and Mullin and Don Nelson could not have been happier about it. Or if they weren't happy, they were doing an amazing acting job (Nellie in particular).
* Cohan did not buy the Warriors back into a spot where they could've grabbed Mario Chalmers or Chris Douglas-Roberts and fans can logically conclude that Allen's Trail Blazers will always have an edge on the Warriors because Allen is willing to pay for it and Cohan is not.
I like the pick of Richard Hendrix at 49 just fine-"it's a guy we don't have on our roster," Mullin said, referring to Hendrix's Boozer-like frame-but I'm not sure that he'll play for the Warriors with that jump shot or lack thereof.
* Of course, Hendrix might be needed just to fill a back-up role depending on what happens with Al Harrington.
I think Al could be traded fairly quickly, if the Warriors find the right deal. I don't think Nelson wants him, I know Al doesn't want to be here and with Wright, Randolph, Stephen Jackson, possibly Matt Barnes, Azubuike and Hendrix and maybe another player or two, that's a lot of players at the 3/4 slots.
(It would've been even deeper and better if Cohan had bought into Douglas-Roberts.)
Mullin still likes Harrington's game, though, so Nelson will have to out-argue Mullin on that one. But he might.
* Mullin said the team has not received the paperwork from Baron Davis that would officially indicate that he is not opting out. Of course, that's expected-all Baron has to do is let Monday's deadline pass and he will be officially un-out and on the $17.8M final year of his contract.
I'd expect some interesting things involving Baron and the Warriors, also very quickly. Maybe by mid-July, I think Baron and his agent will make a move-either a trade request or a public denunciation or something, because Baron is antsy. He wants his deal now. He tried to play it quiet, and got nothing.
I think he's about to start playing it loud.
Meanwhile, Shawn Marion is there in Miami, gettable if the trade is right. Baron might be the right thing to offer, if the Warriors are willing to take on the Marion Headache-great player, possible constant whining about his role and his contract.
* One last thing about Randolph: Something tells me that Nelson is more apt to play this guy than he was Wright.
1) He was very worried about last year's team from Day 1, thinking that the previous playoff berth might've been a fluke and that Baron and SJax might explode at any second. He didn't want to fool around with rookies and especially skinny non-shooting rookies. The 0-6 start just made it worse.
Oh, and Nelson also wanted that final season of his contract guaranteed and he figured he had to be winning every game possible to get that. So he leaned on his veterans. He got the contract. But this year coming up could be/ought to be different.
2) He says he wants to play Wright and Marco Belinelli. He has some protection there-if he plays them and the team isn't that good, well, Don only did this at the insistence of Mullin and Bobby Rowell.
And now he'll have Monta Ellis and Biedirns (if they're re-signed) as developing leaders. And he has a team that has won an average of 45 games over the last two years-this isn't a fluke.
I think Nelson might be willing to play Randolph a little. Let him make some mistakes and some great plays. Maybe.
Shush bandwagoner.
