Judgment Night for Cohan

by Bay Area Sports Guy on Jun 30, 2008 5:44 PM PDT

“Six: Got no love for the rich”
-Method Man, “Judgment Day”

To be accurate, this evening represents Judgment Night for an embattled Bay Area sports figure whose wallet is fatter than Tony Gwynn crossed with Rick Majerus.

Warriors owner Chris Cohan is wealthy, but unloved.

Cohan followed the only playoff appearance for the Warriors in over a decade by trading the team’s tenured emotional leader at the time, Jason Richardson. With so much goodwill surrounding the “We Believe” crew at the time, most people saw the trade for Brandan Wright and the $10 million trade exception as a nod towards the future with possible positive ramifications…provided they used the exception.

Well, Golden State’s NBA gift card is set to expire tonight, and it’s looking more and more like Cohan has taken that card away from Chris Mullin and chopped it up with platinum scissors.

For those unfamiliar with the NBA’s luxury tax, it’s pretty much the barometer of how much your favorite team’s owner cares about winning (or feels pressure to spend from a much more ferocious local media, as in the case of the New York Knickersuckers). Whatever amount over the tax threshold an NBA team is, that team must pay the same number of dollars to the league to get redistributed equally among the thrifty teams that avoided the tax.

The luxury tax is why Phoenix keeps giving up first round draft picks, and it’s why Leandro Barbosa and Boris Diaw are getting dangled around the league like bike parts and “massages” on Craigslist.

The Warriors are right up against the tax with upcoming monster extensions due to Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins, partly because about a quarter of the luxury tax number is being taken up by Baron Davis’ $17.8 million salary.

Cohan has a choice today. Do the Warriors go all-in with Baron and try to win a title next year, or do they wait until Baron’s contract expires after next season and role with a young core of Ellis, Biedrins, Brandan Wright, Marco Bellinelli and their two draft picks from last week, Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix?

Since the Warriors have been supposedly building towards the future since before Latrell Sprewell had cornrows, the most loyal and vociferous fans in the Bay Area deserve the chance to watch the team go for broke (literally) in what will probably be Don Nelson and Baron Davis’ last year in Oakland. It’s up to Cohan though, so don’t bet on that happening.

(Side note: Listening to Fitz and Brooks on KNBR right now, there’s no way they use the exception. Bob Fitzgerald (the Warriors TV play-by-play announcer) has fully embraced a new company line: if you get an extra player, you’re paying twice as much because of the luxury tax. When Fitz said, “I like Kirk Hinrich, but do you want to pay $20 million (he makes about $10 million) for him?” I think a little birdie told Fitz to stop pining for extra talent since Cohan will never go over thetax. Hopefully I'm proven wrong.

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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dumpcohan.com ?

If they don’t use it, I say we start dumpcohan.com.

Maybe, cancohan.com

by Lifelong on Jun 30, 2008 6:14 PM PDT reply actions

trademark, copyright, whatever

I copyright those websites. I’m sure two random comments on a blog constitute a legal contract anyway.

by Lifelong on Jun 30, 2008 6:16 PM PDT reply actions

Maybe

cohanfordolan.com

by buky on Jun 30, 2008 6:52 PM PDT reply actions

Baron Just Opted Out

Reported on ESPN bottom line by Marc Stein…

So much for that 99% chance he wouldn’t opt out. First the Bulls win the lottery and now this. That’s it I’m taking the Browns to win the Super Bowl this year.

The bases were drunk, and I painted the black with my best yakker. But blue squeezed me, and I went full. I came back with my heater, but the stick flares one the other way and the chalk flies for two bases. Three earnies! Next thing I know, skipper hooks me and I'm sipping suds with the clubby.

by Mike Hawk on Jun 30, 2008 6:54 PM PDT reply actions

baron opt out?

can you post a link of some sort i cannot find this

warriors playoffs 2007...100%

by front ta back on Jun 30, 2008 7:01 PM PDT reply actions

the real equations

I don’t know if Cohan is cheap, but I don’t see what $10mil player is being dangled out there that would make this team into a championship contender. It’s all fine to criticize management in a vacuum for failing to spend, but who exactly are they supposed to spend the change on.

Fitz is toeing the company line to a degree, but it’s not wise to toss money at problems in the NBA. $10 mil/year players who will walk in and bump this team up 10 wins in the standings (which is what we’re talking about if we’re talking about being a championship contender) are not particularly common and other teams aren’t begging to give them away. The sub-$10mil/year players tend to fall into a few categories:

1. Guys who aren’t particularly useful or can be replaced for less. Sure, you might be able to find Austin Croshere type talent. Maybe Washington would send Songalia this way for essentially nothing. But why pay $5mil for him when it’s unlikely he’d help more than the vet min player you can get for, well, the vet min? Personally, if it’s down to the marginal talent, I’d rather see someone from the NBDL, if for no other reason than the unexpected is more interesting for a few days before we realize he sucks as much as Songalia would have.

2. Another type are those guys near $10 who WOULD make a difference. These guys are less common.

There are some of these guys, guys making less than $10 who could actually be an asset to the team. But when we look at these guys, we have to ask some questions. What is it going to take to get the guy? A team may be looking to shed cap dollars and may take a bargain, but it’s unlikely that a contributor is going to be free just because we have a TPE to absorb him with. The guys teams want to give away for nothing are usually even higher paid (and such more valuable to dump for a team looking to clear cap space) than the TPE can work for or totally worthless. Gasol you say? Not worthless, but cost a whole lot more. If the guy can actually help bring wins, other teams aren’t necessarily going to toss them out the door. Future picks or rookie scale players would likely go out. If this could result in an impact player, a starter good enough to displace an incumbent, it’s not a bad investment. But anyone want to swap Wright and some future pick(s) for the rights to pay Kirk Hinrich to play backup minutes behind Ellis and Davis?

3. Players making much less than $10 who can contribute. Since low price talent is at a premium, this isn’t going to come free either, since this is the sort of player that rebuilding teams want too. So there aren’t going to be a whole lot of these guys available either.

The cases where one might be available is in a rebuilding team with multiple talented guys at the position, like Memphis and their point guards or perhaps Charlotte and Felton now that they’ve gone after another PG in the draft. Still won’t be free though. It’s still not a case of simply asking for the player because we’ve got a TPE and Memphis will just want to give Lowry away because of this. (Remember-the TPE isn’t a thing to trade. It’’s space to make a trade work on our end. What the other team gets out of the deal is a function of their own cap realities.) The cheaper the player, the more it’s going to be either a player who won’t necessarily make an impact (like Lowry, someone who’s still in prospect space and could or could not help) or getting a more premium player, but at the cost of more picks or more young guys off of our roster. Add to it that the most likely way another team abides by this is if we are actually using the TPE to take on a bad contract. Say Memphis does feel they can deal Lowry, but only if we take on dead weight like Antoine Walker (who, I believe, gets his team option picked up if he’s traded, but don’t quote me on that.) Then it’s not cheap talent anymore.

So when thinking about the TPE and how “cheap” management is, remember it’s not just money in a vacuum. It’s money for a player, a player who very likely won’t bring a championship, and it’s probably going to take some degree of mortgaging the future in the form of picks heading out to even get the rights to one of these guys. Spending money foolishly for the sake of spending it never helped a team.

by jae on Jun 30, 2008 7:24 PM PDT reply actions

TPE

Do appreciate everything here- your posts are always well defended. and my claim has never been that mgmnt was cheap per se, but that Mullin wasn’t using all his assets – including the TPE.

There were times to consider using it: landing KThomas last season, using it in conjunction with the #14 this past draft, etc. We moved JRich because Mullin in all his wisdom overpaid too many guys then had to dump and run from his misguided moves, all we got back from JRich was Wright. I know, he’s a UNC guy and all, but the return is not equitable, not yet by a long shot and many of us point to the TPE as one of the assets from the JRich trade to make it more equitable in the long run. While Wright may become a starter, maybe even the best player on the team, he’s go aways to go to reach JRich’s productivity much less fan loyalty.

Mullin had opportunities to use it to get us closer to the playoffs last year, and maybe next year too, and let it expire. That may not be cheap, but it was a waste of an asset and with all the holes we have to fill, and looks like one more big one now with BD opting out, the lapse of the TPE is lost opportunity. That’s on Mullin.

by hardcore on Jun 30, 2008 9:07 PM PDT up reply actions

damn i knew this is going to happen!!!!!

hopefully we signed Brand and pray for AR to turn himself into the next scottie pippen fast.

probable next yr line-up

PG. Monta(damn there going to be some ugly passing next yr)
SG. Action Jackson for now
SF. AR(hopefully learn how to play point forward )
PF.Elton Brand(hopefully we sign him now)
C. Beans

Bench
Biuke
Jimmy Hendrix
BrandanWright( well see how his slow development is going)
Baby Rocky( hopefully he improve from last yr.)
Al Harrington

hopefully signs
Chris Duhan( could plays back-up pg for 20 mins a game)

Hopefully Brand and AR could carry the team on their shoulders. I know it looks ugly now, but we might seeks into the playoff with that line-up.

by warriorfan4life on Jun 30, 2008 7:40 PM PDT reply actions