Offseason Gameplan

by YaHeard on Jun 21, 2008 4:18 PM PDT

I truly believe that the Warriors can transform themselves into a perennial playoff team if they're willing to pay luxury tax for just this season (Adonal Foyle's huge contract comes off the books next season). Here's how we can do it.

Here's how our roster looks right now (I'm assuming Perovic and the Warriors mutually agree to cut ties so Perovic can go back home and play):

1. PG Baron Davis (he's not going to opt out)

2. PF/C Al Harrington

3. SF Stephen Jackson

4. F Brandan Wright

5. G Marco Belinelli

Salary: $47.3m, Cap: ~$58m, Lux: ~$69m

Now I'm not 100% sure on this, but I'm hoping we can draft our players but not sign them until the free agency period starts. When free agency starts on July 1st, we have around $11m to play with. Here are some potential free agents we could go after: Marion, Artest, Deng, Nocioni. Personally I think we need Marion's defense and rebounding at the PF position. I hope he'd settle for a 5 year / $65m contract. We could backload it so the salaries would look like 11/12/13/14/15. So then we'd have:

6. F Shawn Marion

Salary: $58m, Cap: $58m, Lux: $69m

Next we take care of Biedrins and Monta. I think contracts of 5years/$40m are reasonable. Also these will be backloaded so the first year will start at $6m.

7. G Monta Ellis

8. PF/C Andris Biedrins

Salary: $70m, Lux: $69m

Then we sign our draft picks. #14 will cost us about $1m in his first year, #49 will cost $0.5mil. I'm going to say CDR and Will Daniels just for the hell of it.

9. Chris Douglas Roberts

10. Will Daniels

Salary: $71.5m, Lux: $69m

We still have our full $6m MLE and $2m BAE to use. I think we should try to sign a solid backup like Chris Duhon, Bonzi Wells, or Antoine Wright for maybe half our MLE.

11. Chris Duhon

Salary: $74m, Lux: $69m

Then we sign a veteran or two for the minimum. Austin Croshere can come back and maybe we can find an undrafted gem and bring him up through the summer league. Or we can just get CJ Watson back.

12. Austin Croshere

13. CJ Watson

Salary: $75m, Lux: $69m

We have a 13-man roster of:

PG Baron Davis / Chris Duhon / CJ Watson

SG Monta Ellis / Marco Belinelli / Chris Douglas Roberts

SF Stephen Jackson / Brandan Wright / Will Daniels

PF Shawn Marion / Austin Croshere

C Andris Biedrins / Al Harrington

Chances are that Watson, CDR, and Daniels won't even crack the rotation. But a 10 man rotation is way better than the 7-man rotation Nellie was going with this season. This is a strong roster that can make some noise (it's like this season's roster + defense + rebounding + backup PG). Unfortunately, the Warriors would be $6m deep into the luxury tax for only this season. Then Adonal Foyle's contract comes off the books, and Baron's contract expires, and we're in the clear again financially. The Warriors front office needs to recognize that one year of paying the luxury tax can result in a perennial monster for years to come if they play their cards right.

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!

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Marion and Duhon

would be solid acquisitions but,

Marion wanted out of the Suns because he wants to be a top scoring option on offense and have plays run for him instead of scraping for garbage points. I’m thinking he would only want to sign for max because guys who want out of a good team to be “the man” would probably want max salary too. So unless the Dubz offer him max dollars for the long-term, I doubt he will come to Oakland.

Duhon is probably looking for a bump up in minutes and playing behind Monta and Baron would not allow him to get more than his 25 a game that he has averaged so far in his career. He is entering the prime years of his career so most likely he will look for a situation where he can be a borderline starter.

by misterjennings on Jun 21, 2008 7:41 PM PDT reply actions

asdf

i might be reading this wrong, but are you saying that the salaries of AB and Monta would add up to 12 million? If so, thats very very very wishful thinking.

by 15thefuture8 on Jun 21, 2008 7:53 PM PDT reply actions

Impossibly wishful thinking

Now I’m not 100% sure on this, but I’m hoping we can draft our players but not sign them until the free agency period starts.

This does not matter. The rookie scale contracts count against the cap before they’re signed. Once a player is drafted, signed or not, he counts against the cap based on his draft location. Rookie scale for the #14 is 1.4million. In reality, the CBA allows for a player to sign for 120% of scale and this is the amount that players almost always receive, so the pick will start year one at 1.68mil. Signing late saves this 20% I believe, but that’s only a short term savings of about 300K.

Additionally, before he’s signed, Biedrins holds about $8mil in cap space based on a rule that says that unsigned FA coming off rookie deals count for 300% of their previous salary until signed, lost to another team, or rights are relinquished. Not a big deal with Monta who is coming off a min deal, but pretty substantial for Biedrins. To keep Azubuike (something that’s probably wise) they’re also going to have to hold some cap space until he’s signed. But in the “optimistic” scenario where he’s gone, the Warroors are looking at more like $4mil in cap room before Monta and Biedrins finalize deals. There’s no way Marion accepts this.

“Backloading” contracts is only minimally possible in the NBA. It is not like the NFL or MLB where contract terms are pretty loose. In the NBA, the max from year to year is determined by a percentage of the first year contract. If a contract starts at $6mil per, raises can be no more than $630k per year for a guy sticking with the same team, or $480k for a guy changing teams.

There’s zero chance, short of Baron opting out, that the Warriors will have room to lure Marion here via free agency at the sort of salary he wants.

by jae on Jun 22, 2008 11:19 AM PDT reply actions

i see

thanks for the clarification, I hope Mullin does something crafty with that TPE…

by YaHeard on Jun 22, 2008 11:59 PM PDT up reply actions

how about this

We resigns and Biedrins and Monta for 10-12 millions per a yr.Than, try to get Elton Brand and Ron Artest. Well, we have to pay the price for great D and rebounding, so we could trade Stephen Jackson, Al Harrington, Brandon Wright, baby rocky, some draft pick. Ron Artest isn’t really hard to trade for, but Elton Brand will be easier said than done. It could be possible since I don’t think our team is going anywhere deep in the playoff next season. I rather have a winning and be broke than be a losing team with money.

PG: BD
SG:Monta
SF:Artest
PF:Elton Brand
C:Biedrins

Now we could go deep in the playoff with this line-up. We might even creep up on the Spurs and Lakers too.

by warriorfan4life on Jun 22, 2008 8:37 PM PDT reply actions