Thanks for the quick response. It sounds like any team that traded for them would only be guaranteed of their services this year, but would have an advantage in signing them next year.

You can’t do a sign and trade with them because neither are free agents. For Monta and Andris, who are under contract, it wouldn’t be a signing, but an extension. Only free agents can “sign.” The time to extend ended Oct. 31. Rookie contracts can’t be extended until a set period during the offseason. And the way I understand it, their Bird rights would go with them. It’s only when you have signed a Qualifying offer that you lose Bird rights when you agree to a trade.

This also limits what we can offer in trade. Most of our players are effectively expiring contracts. Baron could walk at the end of the season. I think most teams are still waiting to see if Jackson can stay good. Harrington is probably the most expendable and may be the most tradeable long-term contract we have, other than Brandan.

Marcus, if a team wanted to trade for Monta or Andris, is it possible to do a sign and trade at this point in the season? If not, would they acquire Bird rights in the trade? Without one of those, it would seem pretty risky for a team to give up much for either of them.

The teams all bunched together in the standings are a blessing and a curse. If any from 1-10 in the Western Conference standings loses three games in a row while other teams are winning, they could be out of it in a heart blink. While it’s somewhat understandable to lose on the back end of a back to back on the road (Pacers), the Warriors just don’t have the margin of error to miss an opportunity to pick up a win against the lottery bound T-Wolves at home. I know it was just a one point loss but that was a more disheartening lose that the game they gave to the Trailblazers in the first 10 minutes a few weeks back.

While the Warriors playoff run last year made pessimists of us all, I have to wonder about what Marcus asks. Is this “core” all it’s cracked up to be?

The current reasoning is Mullin didn’t sign POB & Azubuike long term to protect this summer’s cap space. Once the “Trade” happened, presumably this summer was targeted as “The” summer to make or break the future of the Warriors. The Richardson trade cleared more space and brought in another prospect but the cap space was the catalyst. That’s the supposed reasoning behind all the short term moves like not picking up POB’s contract, the (basically) one year deal with Azubuike, letting Mbenga go, cutting Lasme, etc. etc. All of this done with the goal of making sure the Warriors have plenty of cap space this summer for….what exactly?

Just to resign our current roster? That would be the current roster that’s already having difficulty making the playoffs? So….we’re going to use that long fought for cap space to resign Baron, Monta, Andris and Kelenna, which will mean back to salary cap overload and we’ll have….the exact same team we have now (basically) but the hope is, we picked the right eggs to put in our basket. That Davis, Ellis, Biedrins and Azubuike (and Wright/Belinelli etc) are the right stocks around which to build our young growing team? That’s it? Is that enough?

Don’t get me wrong I think Monta, Biedrins and Azubuike are remarkable young talents with bright futures and Baron is freakin superhuman at times. But, if resigning everyone just means we’re back to square one, a limited team with zero salary cap flexibility and questionable long term playoff prospects how the hell is that a great plan?

I’m not suddenly on a negative Nellie trip, but as a long time Warrior fan and a true believer, it would be short sighted to let our recent “One Shining Moment” limit my view of Warrior history to just the most recent past. There has to be more to the plan that just this…right? Right?!!?

i don’t buy into the whole “get someone to back up baron so he doesn’t log so many minutes”. the big issue is not his minutes, but finding a go-to-guy when he rests those 8 minutes he isn’t on the floor. al harrington is the streakiest guy i have EVER seen. when baron is off the floor you can only pray that either monta can nail the 15 footers, al catches fire, or that we can get easy buckets in transition. i really like the idea of getting mike miller. he’d be a great option for when baron rests. the prefect 6th man for this team.

Jason Richardson is.