JustPuked brought up a good question when he asked who is restricted and unrestricted on the Warriors’ roster. In fact, I just learned something by researching this. As most of you know, when a player is a restricted free agent, his team has the right to match any offer sheet he signs with another team. If the team matches, they keep the rights of the player. When a player is an unrestricted, he is free to sign with whichever team he chooses.
For clarification’s sake, here is a definition of restricted free agency, per CBA expert Larry Coon:

Restricted free agency exists only on a limited basis. It is allowed following the fourth year of rookie “scale” contracts for first-round draft picks. It is also allowed for all veteran free agents who have been in the league three or fewer seasons. However, a first round draft pick becomes an unrestricted free agent following his second or third season if his team does not exercise its option to extend the player’s rookie scale contract for the next season. All other free agency is limited to unrestricted free agency.

Based on this definition:

Andris Biedrins will be restricted

Monta Ellis will be restricted if the Warriors extend to him a qualifying offer by June 30. If they don’t, Ellis will be an unrestricted free agent (though the Warriors will have Larry Bird rights). But, chances are they will extend a qualifying offer.

Mickael Pietrus will be unrestricted. His restrictedness has expired.

Matt Barnes will be unrestricted. He has been in the league too long to qualify and he wasn’t a first round pick.

Patrick O’Bryant will be unrestricted. By choosing not to pick up his third-year option, they waived their rights to him after this season.

Kelenna Azubuike will be restricted, like Monta, if he declines to pick up his player option for next year and the Warriors extend a qualifying offer by June 30.

And Don Nelson dropped this little tidbit — Troy Hudson is still being bothered by his sore hip and groin problem that’s troubled him on and off for a few weeks, and will be inactive tonight. That means rookie forward Brandan Wright will suit up for the first time in a regular-season game.

Also, after riding Baron for 46 minutes on Friday, Nelson would ideally like to play him only half the game tonight, which means a lot of Monta Ellis at the point. Or a lot of point forward. Or . . . who knows? It’s Don Nelson. Anything can happen.

– Geoff

Thoughts from last night’s loss . . .

** There’s an upside to a legacy of poor play — even if the Warriors were to open 0-6, it would only be their worst start since 2004-05, when they also lost their first half-dozen to begin the season.

** It’s too bad Stephen Jackson is one of only two veterans locked up for next season, because he’s proving his worth through his absence.

** One look at the boxscore tells you how seriously the Warriors were taking Friday night’s game: A rotation nine deep, with 35 minutes or more for Davis, Monta Ellis, Kelenna Azubuike and Andris Biedrins.

** Get ready for the zone. Nellie said he would have to use more zone than he’d like because the small lineup can’t guard anybody. If a team such as the Clippers, who shoot 3-pointers about as often as Nellie passes on a cigar, can take advantage (you could almost see the thought bubble above Tim Thomas’ head: “Wide-open treys? That’ll work!”), imagine what a real 3-point shooting team will do with it.

** It all comes back to power forward. When the Warriors go big there, they still can’t rebound enough to make it worth their while, and when they go small there, they can’t get stops. Brandan Wright, no pressure, but if you could develop into the next Chris Bosh by, say, Jan. 1, that’d be verrrrrry helpful for this team.

– Geoff Lepper

“What is up with teams not locking up their young players? Warriors didn’t lock up Biedrins. And players like Okafor, Ben Gordan, Deng, and Iguodala. Are teams that concerned about the salary cap these days? Or are these players just not worth the money their draft slot warrants them? Or are the agents asking too much?
With the w’s having the cap flexibility and the number the free agents, do you see them going after Deng and Iguodala?” – manhattanproj

The trend is to wait it out. Because of restricted free agency, teams have learned not to bid against themselves and end up paying more.
For instance, the Warriors didn’t extend Andris Biedrins. So, he’ll be a restricted free agent. Now, the current market will be determined how much he’s worth, not past markets, not his agent, not Biedrins.
Biedrins’ barometer was Chris Kaman and Tyson Chandler’s contract. If the Warriors paid him that kind of money before Biedrins hit the market, how would they know that’s what he’s worth? What if the market for big men isn’t so high next year, and they can get him for $40 million? They’ll save $10-15 million. If he is indeed worth $50 to $55 million, they won’t lose anything because restricted free agency allows them to match whatever. It’s a win-win situation for the team.
The only risk is that he’ll be worth more than they could’ve signed him for this year. If Biedrins has an all-star season, or some other team falls in love and makes some crazy offer, he may command $60 to $65 million, and the Warriors would have lost some $10 million more by not signing him last year. But that’s a risk more teams are willing to take because the fact is, only two or three teams each off season have enough cap room to sign players to a big contract. How many teams will have the cap room to pay Andris $11 million next year? Not very many, and that helps the Warriors. If someone does offer that much, the Warriors can match. If you just play the percentages, it is overwhelmingly a smarter move to wait and let players become restricted free agents.

Sorry about falling off the blogging wagon there for a couple of days. Still trying to get the rhythm of this thing down.

First things first: Mea culpa, Agent Zero. The last Warrior to win an individual league-wide award was Gilbert Arenas (Most Improved Player, 2002-03), not Chris Webber as someone (don’t know who that could have been) claimed in today’s paper.

The news out of shootaround this morning: Austin Croshere will be sidelined with back spasms, and rookie Stephane Lasme will get his first chance to suit up for an NBA game. “I’m excited, but I’m not ecstatic,” Lasme said. “I’ll be more excited if we win.”

Coach Don Nelson said Brandan Wright was knocked out of consideration because of the time he spent benched with a sore back. “He missed a week, he’s only practiced once,” Nelson said. “I couldn’t expect anything out of him in a game.”

** UCLA products Baron Davis and Matt Barnes were back in their old haunt as the Warriors held their shootaround at Pauley Pavilion.

As things wound down, Davis started needling Cal grad John Murray, the Warriors’ strength and conditioning coach. “Look up there,” Davis said, nodding at the UCLA’s 11 championship banners. “That’s tradition. That’s the little brother beating up the big brother.”

Then Davis got rolling. Talking about his own time with the Bruins, he took a swipe at Marin native Steve Lavin, saying, “We should have a banner up there: the only team to make the tournament without a coach.”

** Leftover tidbit from Opening Night: The league wanted a shot of Marco Belinelli putting on an NBA uniform for the first time. Only problem was, Belinelli didn’t realize it and had already changed into his uni by the time a photographer caught up with him. So they had to re-enact the scene.

– Geoff Lepper