**********

Golden State of Mind: More so than any other member of the media you know all about the Warriors pursuit of Kevin Garnett last summer. KG just picked up the Defensive Player of the Year  trophy (the Warriors' biggest weakness this past season), lead the Boston Celtics to the best record in the regular season, and helped vault the Celts to legit contender status. How do you think this past Warriors season would have turned out if they ended up pulling off one of those rumored deals that you wrote about to bring KG to the Bay ?

Tim Kawakami (4/23/08): That's the beauty of KG... he can be talked about in various forms, within various scenarios, for various conclusions... I'll bet I'm talking about KG and the Warriors 30 years from now, when he's 20 years into the Hall of Fame.

OK, let's guess that the Warriors offer that Minnesota liked best was centered on: Harrington, Ellis OR Biedrins, Draft Pick (that turned into Wright); the Warriors probably would've received KG and several other salaries things back. You know and I know that this was a much better offer than Boston put together, but KG wanted to go East and Minnesota didn't push KG and his agent on that. (And maybe Mullin offered both Ellis AND Biedrins, though I'm not sure about that. My sense is that he never offered both.)

Do I think that KG Warriors team would've made the playoffs? Yes, I do. KG, Baron, Jackson (assuming Nellie wouldn't have killed all three like he did Baron-SJax-Monta this year), Biedrins OR Ellis, Belinelli, maybe Jaric, Pietrus, Barnes... That's a pretty good team, at least as good as Houston and Dallas and probably better.

I think Baron would've kept motoring with KG, instead of stopping in February. I think Nellie would've rested SJax. I think the Warriors would've played much better defense and who knows, Nellie might've even played Patrick O'Bryant.

Would that have been as good a team as Boston is this year? No. That was the greatness of that deal for the Celtics--they were able to add Garnett without really messing up anything, so voila, that's a title-contender.

The KG Warriors might not have threatened the Lakers or Spurs. But it would've been fun to see. I'd still have questions about the longevity of the core--but if the Warriors get KG, they don't have the young risers we're talking about now. It's a short-term shot and I'd bet most Warriors fans would've loved to see it. Mullin would've loved it, too.

**********

Stay tuned for the final part!

From the GSoM Vault:

• 2007-2008 Offseason Q&A: Tim Kawakami: Part 1  | Part 2  | Part 3 | Part 4
• Q&A: Tim Kawakami from the San Jose Mercury (1/13/08 - 2/5/08): Part I |Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V
• Pre-2007 NBA Draft Q&A w/ Tim Kawakami (6/26/07)
• Round 2 Playoff Q&A w/ Tim Kawakami 5/7/07: Part I | Part II
• GSoM Playoff Q&A with Tim Kawakami 04/20/07: Part I | Part II
• GSoM Q&A with Tim Kawakami 11/15/06: Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V
• Golden State of Mind Q&A with Tim Kawakami: Part I | Part II