We have the ingredients of an excellent bench with Bellineli, Perovic, Watson and Wright but they have yet to show their wares and this off season is the right time to address that.

Keep Kelena. He has gained so much confidence this year. Pietrus is a keeper too. That is if he motivated and inspired.

Get Beasley, Kevin love or Arthur this coming draft. Anything less is uncivilized. Rebounding and passing.

Factors we hoped to get from Webber.

Im inclined to get Arthur and Love because they like to get physical. Beasley is not a bad choice but he is more of a showtime guy a dunker for that matter, and I don’t know if he will be a good fit with Nellie’s system.

The Core of the team remains to be BD, Monta, Stack Jack, Beans.

Harrington is sort of a mystery to this day. He is very much like Clifford Robinson. Clifford however, can lock down on any big man in the league, defensively. We need that from Harrington.

Matt Barnes, Patrick O’ Bryant are gone.

The profits (several million per year even when we were winning 30 games a year) are noted in sporadic articles. The last series was probably when it came out that Cohan was being sued for something like $150 million by the IRS. The Warriors are in one of the biggest markets in the country and are always in the bottom half of the league in payroll. I didn’t complain much when there was nothing to spend on, but we had a good team this year that died with a month to go because Cohan wouldn’t shell out for a bench.

Think about it, Cohan was making money when we were losing. Attendance was always good, but now its through the roof and getting higher. I got an email from a Warriors ticket sales guy mentioning that they expect to sell out the entire season next year. Ticket prices are up. You see a lot more Warriors merchandise out there now than in at least a decade, so sales of that are likely up. The Warriors are under the luxury tax so they still get a payday from there. TV deals tend to pay more over time so income is up there as well. I haven’t noticed the beers, hot dogs, or parking getting any cheaper.

As for selling, I recall reading that he’s been approached by Larry Ellison, one of the richest people in the world, and Cohan rebuffed Ellison.

As for O’Bryant, he should’ve been retained. At worst he would’ve been an expiring contract which has value. Plus he’s still a 7 foot prospect. One year after being drafted in the lottery as a project 7 footer he suddenly has absolutely no value? No one would’ve given us even a 2nd rounder to take a chance on him? And yet we give Kosta Perovic a multiyear deal? Makes no sense.

I’ve been reading about it all year and STILL don’t really know what the dang thing can be actually used for!

Anybody? Beuller?

A lot’s been made of a “disconnect” between Nellie and Mullin. Mullin build a team of youth and cast-offs on the cheap to get ready for this off-season. Meanwhile Nellie refused to play the youth and burned out his vets going all out for the playoffs. On the surface it makes sense but in the bigger picture, the team broke records in season ticket sales. The late playoff push helped the team convince a large percentage of those new season ticket holders to re-up for next year. That’s just smart team management.
http://www.mercextra.com/blogs/warriors/2008/04/15/the-end-warriors-116-suns-122/#comment-57444
I don’t see how that has Nellie and Mullin on different pages and Mullin’s willingness to back Nellie up all season only shows he’s learned how to play the game.

The J-Rich trade has been talked to death. If you really believed last year’s squad plus a post player available for the MLE would have been enough to make hay in this year’s playoffs (which I don’t) then you could almost make the argument to keep him. But to have basically the same team, that can barely even make the playoffs, and then go deep into luxury tax territory to resign Monta and Andris, just isn’t judicious long term thinking. That move alone (assuming we resign BOTH of them) gives Mullin a C.

Mullin obviously swung for the fences in the alleged attempted trade for KG. It didn’t happen and he went plan B: Build a team around a group of promising young players. It still remains to be seen if Ellis, Biedrins, Wright, Belinelli, Perovic and Azubuike are worthy of that faith but the short term results are promising.

Looking back over Mullin’s resume, he showed glimpses of skill all alone. Skipping past his initial contract blunders (I know), Biedrins was a great pick in a deep draft. Ike was a reach (Bynum!!!) but Monta was a steal. POB was a miss but there weren’t too many other choices. The Davis trade showed Mullin was starting to get it. The Nellie hire was inspired and definitely increased the learning curve. The Indiana trade showed Mullin was a now a player as a GM. Last summer’s thrifty and hardnosed negotiating was for me, Mullin’s coming out party. He made clear then (if you were paying attention) that the Warriors were going to rebuild and that Ellis and Biedrins would be the foundation. Seen as a whole, for this year I have to give him a B+.

Of course, this summer is when the real drama should happen….

one thing that i dont like about mullin is that it seems like he doesnt have a vision of how he wants to shape a team. i think a gm should know what kind of team he thinks would be successful and get a coach that fits in with his concepts. to me, it seems like mullin has no vision/philosophy of how to build a team. when monty was here, mullin drafted big guys low post guys, diagou, pob, kosta. then when nelson was here, he went after mobile athletic guys like wright and lasme. he also traded murph, , diagou, dunleavy, j-rich because nelson dont like those guys. shouldnt gm be the one that’s building the team and not let the coach or player dictate what he does. danny ferry is another example of that, he allows lebron to dicatate what he does. that’s not what a gm should do.

i’m just not sure if mullin has what it takes to be a good gm. look at guys like colangelo, they themselves are the ones that determining the outlook of a team and hiring coaches that fits with their philosophy.

here’s something else to think about: if w’s didnt trade for baron davis, we possibly could have gotten either deron williams or chris paul. no problem with the davis trade but the other two are younger and cheaper.

I liked the Richardson move. How I’d grade it depends on what they do in the offseason with the exception, but I’d rather have Wright than JR right now.

Anyone grading down based on O’Bryant is either one year or two years late. Paying a guy because you might be able to trade him only makes sense if you can get something useful back. No one is going to give up anything useful for O’Bryant. He’s still a project, if you want to be kind about it.

I have to say I love the argument that the Warriors were cheap by not picking up Sam Cassell, who could be had for nothing. Huh?