Maybe Baron’s opting out is all part of the plan:
He wants to stay with the Warriors and he wants another contract, probably 3-5 years.
He’s intelligent and although he knows he’s leaving 17+ mil on the table he could renegotiate his contract to start at around 12 mil this season, thereby saving the W’s 5 mil against the cap. (Of course in year 5 of the new contract he could finally be making that 17 mil).
If he signs elsewhere, it’s probably not for much more money than that (12 mil).
In other words, he’d get more money in the long run with a new contract and likewise put the team in a position get another quality piece or two for this season.
I wouldn’t be surprised if a deal like this hadn’t been agreed to in principle in advance with it being just a formality of opting out and resigning. We’ll see. Either way, the W’s will have 5 mil or 17 mil for shopping (plus the mid-level).

i’m down for sheed and billups for baron and al.

How could the Warriors let Baron land with a divisional foe like the Clippers? I just don’t see Mullin letting him walk to LA without getting anything significant in return when we we’re going to have to battle these guys for a playoff spot. Brand for Davis would be nice but I think the Clippers are more interested in keeping Brand and getting Davis. And while Corey Maggette is a good player, I don’t see him as being enough in return in a potential sign and trade.

Totally agree with number 1, not so much number 2. The Warriors have a lot of young talent and just a lot of talent, period. I don’t see where he’ll find a better situation.

Maybe I’m a homer – tell me a realistic place he could end up where he would have a better shot at winning.
The Clippers might be a better situation for winning right away but that’s pretty debatable. I know they didn’t have Brand last season but still, we won 48 games, and Monta’s better now than he was during the course of the last season. With a better Monta, a similar or better record isn’t very unreasonable to expect. I don’t see the Clippers, even with Brand and Baron, winning 50 games.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/warriors/detail?blogid=39&entry_id=27736
“Even more interesting? One league source insists that the Warriors turned around and let Gilbert Arenas know that they would be making a BIG play for him. As in possibly MAX big. This isn’t confirmed, though the Washington Post is indicating the same thing.”

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/wizardsinsider/2008/07/wiz_offer_arenas_the_max_but_h.html

“Then, according to my sources, the Warriors quickly burned the phones and offered former Warrior Gilbert Arenas a maximum-level contract, one that would pay him more than $100 million over five years. My source told me that Gilbert received a flurry of phone calls from the Warriors in the first 30 minutes of free agency.”

every asset we have we let disappear to save Cohan bucks. We didn’t use our mid-level. Now the big exception. We dumped JR. We didn’t trade Baron when we could have received something good for him. We likely will try to low ball Monta after getting the kid to sign a contract that basically paid him around 650 thousands for three years, and he’ll walk next year. Nellie sure won’t stay. Mully will probably be fired as he should be. Maybe Cohan can revive Saint. I hear he’ll work for cheap. Or Smart with zero head coaching experience, but coming on the cheap, will be head coach.

Let’s see, he took over a playoff team. Lost Weber, the gave away Goog, Dumped Nellie. Hired Lanier with no experience, but cheap. Gave away Timmy. Lost Spree due to bad judgment in keeping him.Finally makes a playoff and dumps his second leading scorer from that team. For peanuts. Or toothpicks. On and on. I see absolutely no hope for the franchise and I’ve been saying that for some time so the way they mishandled all the stuff this past week is absolutely no surprise to me. Or probably anyone but Dave from what I’m reading on other boards.

It’s not losing Baron that gets me. It’s the way we have. Either we sign him to a ltc that we don’t need or more likely he walks away. We could have traded him. Easy. There is a dearth of pgs as we’ll soon find out.

But instead of jerking him off and him not opting out we just ignored him. Which may have been a ploy but most likely was just Mully’s one “category” of work at a time.

And to let the exception go off without even picking up a mid level pg when we needed one, Baron or not, but for sure as a back up plan, is unforgiveable. To say nothing of our pf and bench situations. Well, Mully knows we can always get old players on the cheap after their options run out. You know, gems like Hudson and Croshere. Don’t you like the far-sighted nature of this team?

I think Mullin is completely reigned in by Cohan’s fiscal limitations and is not the smartest knife in the drawer to begin with. His stubborness regarding Dunleavy and his early extensions pretty much destroyed his honeymoon period. In fact, as we know, if Nellie hadn’t bailed his sorry ass out, he would have been gone two years ago as the GM/VP.

We are a badly flawed franchise with a very cheap and crappy owner. Well, let me say this another way: Cohan simply isn’t slightly motivated to build a championship team as other owners and treats the Dubs as a business enterprise, not a passion like Cuban and seemingly Paul Allen via Kevin Prtichard.

If Baron is really pissed and leaving, which probably is the case, we could do a number of very creative things with the projected $12-15 Mil we would have even after signing Ellis, Beans and even Buke. At least that is what I’ve read from folks a lot more knowledgable than I am about cap issues. That would not include our annual mid-cap exception.

Sadly, however, I see the Dubs heading the way of the A’s (albiet not out the Arena’s door). This franchise has no real loyalty to the players or fans and if they don’t address these pressing issues this seaon, I’m out the door as a season ticket holder after this year. I’d like to be able to vote with my feet. In other words, with the significantly increased prices for tickets, I’m not inclined to fill Cohan’s pockets for a truely inferior product and a clueless GM/VP.

GILBERT GILBERT GILBERT!

i can’t really blame Baron for this. If he were to hang on to his contract and blew out a knee, he’d been screwed financially for years to come. The Warriors failed to renegotiate his contract and he also didn’t see championship contender in the Dubs. His boy Paul Pierce recently winning it all could have also been a catalyst that he wants to contend as well as lock up some contract security. The Clippers need a PG and I’m a little scared he’ll pursue that destination, thus becoming the most hated man in Dubs basketball history. The Dubs should have made Baron’s extension a priority – he was the motor for this team, regardless of our fascination w/ Monta and Biedrins – they can’t do it like Boom! He makes our team go. I hope he stays, but if not this is a little exciting in that we have more money to spend now and pursue other deals.

BD is my favorite Warrior but the only way I would keep Baron is if we can also get Brand also, without giving up Monta and Biedrins. If we resign Baron and the rest of the roster stays the same, we would only be a little better than last year, and have far less cap space this year and in the future. Being a little better in the West this year would get us a 7 or 8 seed.

Get Baron and Brand or make a complete commitment to a youth movement.

ha ha

Rumor flying around Cleveland that a Baron for Verajo, Wally Szerbiak and Sasha Pavlovic deal is being bantered. Figured this was the best board to go to and check if that rumor was alive out west. I struggle to see why you guys do this deal.

There are some reasons. You get an athletic big who can defend. You get an athletic wing who in an open offensive system could very easily flourish. And you get a solid 3-pt shooter, with a large expiring contract, to be used as another trade chip or to open space for next off season.

Like I said, I would think there are better deals out there, but you never know in the NBA.

I am still a fan of Baron Davis. I’ve enjoyed watching him play since his UCLA days. He was a good leader and brought us to the playoffs. He surely will be missed in the Bay. My hope is that Ms. Alba supports the Warriors and goes to some more games. I will be at the Clips games at the Oracle.

The Warriors need to make the move they’ve been waiting for til the time was right. On July 8, 11:59 pm. they need to throw $20million in his face. Over the top. No ping pong phone calls. One way ticket to the 510. Start the movement: “Brand n Wright ” in the front court. Of course with this move happy trails to Biedrins, Harrington, Pietrus, Barnes. Hey you can’t keep everybody. Monta and S-Jax will still be around and CJ Watson can handle the point which plays a lesser role. Or dare I say, a Rondo-ish role.

Damnitititaois 09)(&(#&(*Q# i am so mad. Baron wins us so many games. He is ultraclutch (s-jax and monta too) but c’mon. I thought we had something going with our team, and now i am totally out. Had a bad day today too!

i smell another 13yr playoff drought. Oh god please. I don’t how we are going to make the playoffs with the loaded west. Baron is gone and Nelly next year and all we are left is the ONE (Monta) and some rookies. We got no size, no bangers to get those boards!

The warriors will miss baron next year and maybe the next. Baron has no chance however, to help the clippers in years 3-5 of that contract. The guy gets hurt far too often, and now he thinks he’s a movie star. Kindah reminds me of the mistakes the dogers made signing Kevin brown and Jason Schmidt. They sign guys for far too long, for waaay too much money and end up getting burned. Fine with me!! Go Warriors! Go Giants!