Harping on the JRich Trade

Essentially, the ‘06/’07 team was together, free of injuries, for two months and they made history. Then, Mullin split them up.

I would’ve liked to have seen them together for one more year. See what they could do. I actually think the players would’ve liked that too, listening to them talk.

How either team would’ve done is conjecture. But all the “future” talk in the world is meaningless to Warriors fans. We’ve been talking about the future for the Warriors since 1993 and I think we deserved one more year of “the present.”

BD and JRich were the heart and soul of this team, had awesome chemistry, passion and will to win, with JRich on this team this year, Baron and Jax would be fresh and Monta would still have developed would have had a deeper rotation for Nellie. We would still have plenty of tradeable assets and could have watched our Warriors challenging in the playoffs. There is absolutely no guarantee next year that we will make the playoffs with this present team or be even close to a championship team. Should have dumped Al(9M) and not resign Pietrus(3.4M)/Barnes(3M) for cap space. We are now challenged with signing an undersized SG with defensive liabilities for 10-12M ,a thin, offensively challenged center for 8-10M which will handcuff this franchise for the next 5 years. Sorry, but I don’t see Monta, BWright and Biedrins taking us to a championship. I’d still rather build around BD,JRich and Jackson and see them play for 3-4 years together.

I used to defend that salary dump before, but now in hindsight it seems like poor judgment (unless Brandan Wright turns into a bonafied star).

Here’s why:

Monta Ellis would have been just as good if JRich stayed. Monta made his MIP campaign coming off the bench last year, remember? He wasn’t THAT much crazier this season from last, nor did he get “more opportunity” with JRich gone. An extra 3 minutes per game and an extra 2 shot attempts? That’s the difference between Monta starting full-time this year and backing up the guard spots last year with JRich starting. I don’t buy that JRich HAD TO GO for Monta to succeed, Monta was already improving at an alarming rate with JRich still here.

Jason Richardson is an ELITE DEFENDER… compared to Monta Ellis. Just on his size, strength and athleticism alone, JRich makes the Warriors defense that much better with him starting at the 2 rather than Monta. Having to have Baron Davis guard other teams’ elite shooting guards burned him out. Monta getting torn up by Chris Duhon and Roger Mason Jr. (and other nobody-guards of the association) was just demoralizing to watch. JRich’s departure put an already defensively-flawed team at an even bigger disadvantage.

Baron Davis would not have had to play 39 minutes per game with JRich here. If JRich stayed, that may have forced Monta to play and learn the backup point more, giving more rest to the Baron. Instead, Nelly was stuck with only two guards that he felt he could trust: Baron and Ellis. So they soaked up most of the minutes, and we all saw how Baron just ran out of steam at the end.

We weren’t a better team this year compared to last, even if our record says so. We need to realize that we spent half the season last year without Jackson and Harrington (and with Dunleavy, Murphy, and Foyle). We were a monster team last year after the trade and made that insane run to finish out the season. This year, we weren’t exactly worse but we weren’t leaps and bounds better either.

We would have had enough salary space under the luxury tax to re-sign Ellis and Biedrins anyway. It doesn’t make sense to me that Mullin traded JRich for cap space a full year before he had to re-sign Ellis and Biedrins. Right now we’re something like $28 mil under the salary cap, we could’ve just as easily kept JRich and pay Ellis and pay Biedrins. And if we still needed cap space to fill out the rest of the roster we could’ve traded JRich away THIS offseason, and probably yielded more value in return due to his near-expiring contract.

Maybe the departure of JRich was inevitable for our longterm success, but I just think the decision was made a year too soon.

I didn’t think the Warriors needed to trade J-Rich, although I do understand why they ultimately did so. My only objection, as written here, is that the squad should have had a chance to see what they could have done together.

Frankly, should Richardson have stayed on this team, the Warriors could have traded Pietrus for something. MP would not have been needed. They could have gotten a better year out of Al Harrington, who would have had no pressure on him whatsoever (although, I do admit, that as much as I like Harrington, he’s got to start producing consistently). They could have run the uber-scary lineup of Baron, Monta, J-Rich, Jack, and Biedrins in crunchtime. That’s a true Nellie lineup – an anchor in the middle with four guys that space the hell out of the floor and can get to the basket at will.

In any case, the ultimate judgement on the trade can only happen after the Warriors see what they got in Brandan Wright. Almost everyone said that Wright was the next coming of Chris Bosh, left-handed and long-necked and everything. If the Warriors got Bosh for Richardson, no one would complain.

But as of right now, they didn’t get Bosh. As of right now, they got Wright.

As of right now, this trade isn’t looking too good because Wright didn’t instantly come in and produce. We’ll just have to wait and see if that changes – he’s got two years to get it in gear in my book.

Had we not given Foyle that huge contract, we probably could have found some way to keep J-Rich.

Here’s a twist on J-rich deal. How about instead of having Charlotte take Wright with the 8th pick, taking Noah (picked 9th by Chicago). Would have improved defense and rebounding. He seems like a great fit for Ws with fiery personality and energy + Nellie may have played him more as he was more experienced (23 yrs old + 2 NCAA titles). I hope I’m wrong and Wright turns out great but I think Noah might have been the better choice (Thornton, J. Wright and Thaddeus Young also look like great potential players that Mullin passed on for Brandan)

I just signed up but it makes sense that you guys probably chopped up last year’s draft pretty well by now. I agree with you on Wright’s potential. He made some pretty amazing plays when he got a chance. (is PER rebounds/48 minutes?) It was just borderline bizarre how Nelson would ignore him when it seemed like he could obviously help. Watching less talented rook Landry making big plays for the Rockets in the playoffs made me wonder where Warriors would be if Nelson tried to get Wright in rotation a little more. (I realize he’s more a long term project) I also agree that Noah probably never will be great but I think he could be a more rounded player than Varajao (he’s already a pretty good passer) Seems like Mullin uses lottery picks taking chances on raw young big men with potential (Biedrins, Diagu, O’Bryant, Wright) which is pretty good strategy if you can fill yr other positions through trades and low picks with Davis, Ellis, Jackson, Azabuke etc. Sooner or later hopefully he hits the lottery jackpot (still could be Wright)

on Diogu- biggest stretch of my theory. Also Noah does kind of seem like he repeats Biedrins. Ok you guys almost talked me out of Noah. My last salvo is that the big men who last and excel in league are the ones that play hard and improve their game as opposed to those who float by on size and talent. (seems like Noah fits former category); Wright sometimes seems kind of aloof. But man, I really hope he’s a Jamison-Bosh hybrid.

stay together with veterans who lead, Detroit and San Antonio have had the same starting line for the past 3-4 years and have consistently been contenders. They also play defense and at least have 2-3 solid bench players in their rotation. Detroit has had time through the draft to continue to develop young players Maxiel, Stuckey who are waiting their turn. Billups, Hamilton, Wallace, Prince have all taken turns being all-stars, they didn’t resign Ben Wallace and were smart enough to replace him and not give him a cap cripling contract. We have had terrible drafts, POB, Lasme, Taft, Perovic, Foyle, Diogu, Dunleavy, Murphy and have sent several all-star type players leave our team in their prime, Arenas, Jamison, Richardson because of poor decision making in handling our cap. Nellie even said that our 2007 playoff team with JRich was better than our 48 win 2008 team. Unless Mullin gets lucky in the draft and picks a gem or finds decent bench players for Nellie, we’ll be looking at 9-10th seed in the west. Monta and Biedrins have too many flaws to be earning a contract more than 8M/yr and wouldn’t even start on a deep Detroit Piston team. This is a very important summer for Mullin as he needs to field a team that will win and be stronger than our 2007 team. Both Baron, Jax are our veteran leaders and need to stay with this team.

The funny pictures don’ gone away.

tasty ‘coon!!