Nothing speaks louder than the nba PT Wright got last year. It was limited time, of course, but I thought he performed above average. That should mean a lot more than some lame team scrimmages.

Mully didn’t trade Jrich cause he was horrible. Jrich is a solid player. Not a star but a solid player. The Warriors were going to need room under the cap and Mully new it. The warriors wouldn’t have kept Monta and Andris w/o trading Jrich. Give wright some time. He is just a kid.

I think we can all agree JRich was a good player for the warriors. He had some holes in his game like defense but he was improving every year. Dunleavy I hated that draft pick from day one. I knew he was overrated. He is too slow to play defense and get to the basket consistently. Pietrus Man has a ton of ability but he just needs to harness it. Andris we knew would be a project. He is progressing nicely. If he keeps improving he will be a great big man. Diogu is a solid role player. Can provide offense off the bench but no defense. That was pretty obvious when we saw him play. O’bryant might be an ok big man. But he wasn’t going to play and develop under Nellie. Wright and Randolph are both projects. We’ll see how they develop. Most of the guys on that list are big men. They take longer to develop into solid players than wing players. Plus the warriors like to draft guys who are raw but have allot of upside. Instead of a player that can contribute right away but don’t have much upside like a Troy Murphy. He played decent his rookie year but it didn’t take long to see his upside wasn’t great.

we’re never bad enough to get a rookie that is a true franchise player… and the NBA, particularly the playoffs, is about franchise players. that’s why Lebron by himself almost beat the Celtics – Cleveland always is a tough out. People point to the exception (Pistons) and not the rule.

why were we so good in 07? b/c during those last 21 games and the playoffs, Baron played like a top 5 player, nearly 50% FG, ~40% 3’s and ~80% from the line. that’s damn

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3326/gamelog;_ylt=AnkZyOfWqN2F8UYZKtq72GFXPKB4?year=2006

though you’ll have to add up the reg season #’s yourself on a spreadsheet or write a script to extract it.

that’s why the only pick that really hurts is Dunleavy – though even then it was a weak draft… and even Stoudemire is a liability on defense… so hard to say that the defensively challenged W’s wouldn’t be any better than the Phoenix teams that could never get passed the Spurs. we also probably never get Jax who seems to be the source of the team’s toughness.

with our lack of defense, we didn’t just need a good big man (say boozer), we needed a great defensive big man, w/ enough offensive skills to play alongside Biedrins (for floor spacing, since the team’s strength was driving to the hoop, which is a lot harder when a big guy is clogging the lane). there’s only 2 guy’s that come off the top of my head that fit that description, KG and Sheed (though he may be over the hill).

yes we were one great big man away, but oh how far away that big man was is another story. i don’t know if we tried for KG or not.. if we lost JR, Andris and Monta, would BD, Jax, Al, KG, uh… Foyle? be enough to beat out the Lakers?

what if you looked at it like this? the year before the Clippers were one game from the WC finals… they stood pat while everyone else got better and missed the playoffs… is the 07 team not similar to the Wizards w/ Arenas, (Hughes), Butler, Jamison that gets crushed by Lebron every year?

at the time, (from Mullin’s perspective) if we were to keep Monta and Andris we had to move JRich or Al for a draft pick. Assuming Cohan wasn’t going into lux tax territory (pretty safe to say if you ask me). now, w/ BD opting out, and Monta’s mo-ped incident (it was likely a Monta or JRich decision, seeing as how they play the same position)……………………………but hey, it’s like we traded JR not just for Wright, but for Maggette and Turiaf also – since if JR was on the roster we probably don’t offer these two contracts. assuming Monta is healthy, i can understand Mullin & co.’s decision.

i noticed you’ve been mentioning this a lot recently, so hopefully you can just look back at the 07 team w/ just fond memories instead of also considering what might have been. so even if Wright really is only a mini-Gatling, we were so far away from contending even on “paper” (and “paper” doesn’t always translate to the court) that despite Cohan’s cheapness which probably lead to Mully’s Monta or JR dilemma, we probably only missed out on a first round exit to the Lakers and we wouldn’t be as deep this year (say JR, Maggette cancel each other, but we now have Turiaf and Wright as pluses to our bench).

so our legit contender would of required Cohan to go into luxury territory and KG not being traded to the Celtics, opting out last year and coming to the Warriors on the cheap (probably for monta and draft picks) while resigning baron long term to keep him here. after all that, it’d still be up to Baron’s health and whether Baron can get us past Kobe.