What happened with warriors

Before I write this I should say, I am no management backer or trying to justify there actions.  I am simply trying to write what I think happened, what management attempted to do and then at the end i'll give my views.  I think too many people are blowing this out of proportion and not understanding how warriors got to the point they were at.Basically give some perspective, and ultimately hope for warriors fans...

(PS i realize for some of you this is a bit redundant, but for alot of panickers this might help regain a little faith we dont have the WORST management in the nba, not saying they r the best either :D)

-Starting with last summer, baron unexpectedly opted out.  This sent panic through management and they went looking for a replacement.  The reason maggette was signed was because MULLIN firmly believes monta can be a PG.  In theory its not far fetched.  He is barely 23 and is a good ball handler.  We've seen many winning teams with worse point guards (chicago bulls with ron harper for one).  But the idea was with good ball movement we could get away without a natural pg.  The other factor to consider was the only free agent pg was beno udrith, not exactly worth overpaying for.  Maggette atleast you get a proven player/scorer who showed something big in there playoff run 2 years ago and the thought was bring him to a team thats competitive he could up his game. 

-So going into the season the starting lineup looked to be monta, jack, mags, Harrington, biedrins.  Now if you look at that on paper with the expected progession of monta and biedrins this team could fight for a playoff spot.  The way monta was growing each season, Mullin fully expected an all star effort.  Harrington we all knew had the potential (as we are seeing in nyc) and strictly on skill sit, is a natural fit for Nellie ball as he's a match up nightmare for most pfs.  His defense is ok against most power forwards; sure he can’t guard Duncan or amare but who can?  Beyond the starting 5 turiaf was brought in as a much needed post body and Bwright was expected to contribute.  If he improved even more than expected Harrington could go down to 3 with bwright at 4 sometimes.  Next Marcus Williams was brought in as a natural ball handler.  Management acknowledged monta would have growing pains.  With Williams you have a natural ball handler who could move monta to the 2 at times and give them some minutes.  Finally Belinelli was expected to contribute at swing position along with kelena.  That’s a 10 man rotation.  Randolph wasn’t thought to be a big contributing factor this year (11th man) and the 12th was suppose to be cj Watson or someone else who fought hard and had a good camp. 

-On paper this looks like a good squad with some good young players who could grow.  But then the problems happened.

1) Monta goes down.  The warriors budding star, best player and future of franchise gets hurt in a bonehead moped accident.  This cannot be stated enough for why the warriors are doing so badly.  Monta at the rate of his progression was coming into a big year.

2) Harrington.  On paper this guy is an ideal fit for Nellie ball, and a match up nightmare.  If Bwright grew into a competent power forward Al could even rotate between the 3 and the 4. Causing match up problems at both.  But since beginning of camp he sulked and wanted out.  It became so evident and his performance sunk that his trade value fell.  Ultimately we got a player Crawford who is VERY good but exactly NOT what we need. It left the warriors w/ Biedrins turiaf and 2 young forwards (wright, Randolph) and an undrafted forward (kurz)

3) More injuries.  Like maggette and jack or hate them, they is better than everyone on warriors roster today, sans monta.  Even though they are both flawed, having them in lineup would probably get atleast a couple more wins. 

All this added up has lead to warriors being 8-21 and not looking like its going to get better before it gets worse.

Now I’ll give my opinion;

I think management made a poor decision and overpaid maggette but I get why they did.  And if we didn’t have the moped or Harrington sulking this team would be at about .500 through the toughest stretch of the season.  

I have every reason to believe monta would have been an all star.  Look at Biedrins improvement, it even surprised me.  Now look back to monta improving year after year.  I’m not saying he’s as good as Dwayne Wade or Brandon Roy (and he’s a different player) but looking at him at 22 compared to them, he was at a more advanced place.  That doesn’t mean he’ll ever reach Dwayne Wade’s level but he its also foolish to think he wouldn’t be a HUGE difference maker.  And thinking if he continues improving in 2-3 years he could have been a franchise player in nba, something HARD to find, and something that all of a sudden makes golden state an attractive place to come for other stars. 

Second Al really ruined out season.  If he just played his game and opted out we’d have 10 mil cap space and he’d get his money.  And in the meantime he would have made us a good team.  Instead we got Crawford who plays same position as EVERY other good player on this team, not to mention 2 more years of big contract (as most people don’t expect him to opt out).

Finally, marcus williams was a huge mistake.  The idea of him was good, a natural ball hander pg to bring in when monta is struggling, and move him to the 2.  He is young, and I believe Mullin though he could be better than he is.  He isn’t, he will be gone at end of year.  I’d suggest next off season we sign some1 like Anthony Johnson or another vet pg who can give minutes and knows his role

Where to go from here:

I think its obvious to all maggette or Crawford has to go.  I’d argue mags first but I think Crawford is more attractive trade bait.  We cannot have 4 guards taking over 40 mil and over 2/3 our cap space….even 3 is excessive. 

Ideally we can move Crawford for expiring contracts.  If we win lottery we take Blake griffin, otherwise We look for of solutions. 

There is still a lot of positives to look forward to from this team; Monta is only 23, I think he will come back hungry and ready to prove.  He may be rusty and not look 100% this year (similar to dwade off injury) but I fully expect after some criticism and a hard summer of work he’ll be back at top of his game (something we aren’t even sure how good it is) beginning of next season.  Belinelli is proving to be a VERY good swing player.  Creator, shooter, improving defense and only 22.  There’ no reason to think he won’t continue improving and be a very solid pro perhaps more.  With Biedrins we got a young, very talented player at the rarest position, center.  He may not be Dwight Hward or Yao Ming, but I’d rank him in top 10 centers in nba today and will only improve.  He shoots 60%, and is averaging 15 and 12, and following the adonal, damp, fuller years, that is amazing.  We have Anthony Randolph who is years away, but at 19 has shown a lot of hunger and desire and theres no reason to think he wont be a player for the future.  We found good roll players like turiaf and steals from the D-league like kelena and morrow.  

It sucks waiting for the future, but in the nba, unless you are the lakers or knicks you basically have to build something from within before you can attract the big free agents who want to come to win.  Look at the mavericks.  Laughing stock for 20 years, all of a sudden they start being a playoff fixture and free agents now want to go there. It takes some good drafting, some luck and some time.   We got the young players we drafted, we need them to improve and who knows, thinks turn around fast, perhaps a playoff run in 2010, a little more cap space and we could attract a player who will take us to the next level