I've long berated Mullin's track record and championed Nelson for saving a drowning franchise two summers ago. Now that conventional wisdom has begun to catch up to our emperor, er GM, who has been on whole a piss-poor executive on balance and who is now caught in reaction mode again (the same mode he was in when he did his worst work, handing out the rediculous contracts to Murphy, Dun, and Foyle), there's another matter to contemplate as Baron walks away from our little dysfunctional family.

Coach Nelson is now an albatross around the neck of this franchise.

That's right, as one of his most ardent defenders on GSoM and champion of the Nelson-saved-Mullin's-ass two summer's ago club, Baron's opting out has turned Nelson from an asset into a negative for the franchise while on the bench.

Nelson arrived after Mullin could not extricate himself of the self-imposed Foyle-Murphy-Dunleavy-JRich contracts nor the poison of the Baron-Montgomery relationship and he set the ship back on course by restructuring the style and helping Mullin move Troy&Mike, and truncating the effect of the Foyle fiasco. For all that, and the Indy trade, the playoffs, and the excitement of the past two years we owe him a big debt of gratitude. In the end, the mess was too big even for him to clean up completely.

And the fact that Mullin used the same negotiating style with Baron as he had with MP and Barnes is representative of his limited ability to read each situation carefully and not follow a cookie-cutter strategy to negotiations. Hopefully he evolves and is able to avoid making the same mistake with AB & Ellis. We can no longer afford to have a reactionary Mullin as GM, without a long-term vision we may never reap the fruit of all the youth on this roster. As it matures it will either be allowed to picked by others or overpaid to the point of becoming rotten. We need Nelson upstairs.

Agreeing to pick up Nelson's option this past spring was obviously done with the idea that he'd be around to manage Baron, and Jackson. Their star power would sell tix, and the young'ns would be fermenting for the next coach. The spat at the final Phoenix game may have been as much Nelson sending a message to BD and the club about next year as it was a spontaneous event. It certainly was uncharacteristic of Nelson's handling of Baron throughout the year. We should not overstate the impact of that single event, but there can be little doubt it was the lingering bitter  taste left at the end of a competitive playoff run.

BD's decision to opt out is about a man turning away from a guaranteed $17m to take a shot at a ring or long term security, or in his mind hopefully both. I don't disparage him for that, it was a man's decision. One I'm surprised he made but respect him for doing. And, if indeed Mullin hastily called Arenas to offer him the kingdom to return, that is another reactionary move born of little long-term vision and is a sign Baron is making the right move!

Without a Baron-quality star already on this roster, which FAs will want to come here? Even if Cohan and Mullin threw the vault at Arenas, what else would they be able to cobble together to make this club a contender? Why would Arenas leave a competitive position in the east for a non-competitive one here? Who says he'd want to play for us? for Nelson?

Why would any FA want to play for Nelson at this point in this situation? Nelson is the kind of coach in the part of his career who would be best suited to a veteran team on the verge of making him the all time winningest NBA coach. Instead, we will not be able to attract FAs to a club that overachieved once in 14 years to make the playoffs. Now add to that the fact that GS has a lame duck coach who's only real motivation may be to win as many regular season games as possible and the perfect nightmare scenario emerges.

The FAs will avoid GS and we will once again be forced to overpay for middling talent, ala DFish, and be caught in the spiral of diminishing returns and low lottery picks. Nelson will be loathe to allow the young'ns to learn through their mistakes costing him wins that could edge him closer to the only legacy within his reach - the all time NBA wins mark.

Baron's opting out should push Mullin off the fence and make the choice to go into rebuilding mode - a choice I've been personally against up until today. Most of us want to win, make playoffs, dream of getting through to WCF and then who knows. That's how Al Attles' guys beat the Bullets. But the reality is the choices already made have put us into the position where like it or not the best strategy now is to rebuild. Yes, we will have to divest of Jackson sooner than later if possible. But the rest of the roster is actually pretty well situated to go into full rebuild mode and we should. We should avoid the temptation to react and grab for an Arenas-type FA.

To do so requires the kind of coach that will teach through mistakes, not bristle at each and every one. Suddenly Nelson is no longer the perfect fit to bench coach this team, he's the exact opposite of what a rebuilding franchise needs on the bench. His acumen as a talent evaluator could still be utilized, though frankly I have serious doubts about how keenly he'll endeavor to do so when his work will only pad the Ws for his successors.

Nelson himself will realize his predicament soon if he hasn't already, and may do Mullin a favor by opting out himself via retirement, or accepting a job in the GM office. The best case scenario would be for Nelson to continue mentoring Mullin or better yet, replace him. But that isn't likely to happen. The more realistic case is Nelson stays on in an advisory capacity as was mentioned back when he renegotiated his contract.

Who replaces Nelson? Other than Smart, there are several former head coaches and several asst. coaches who could be good in this capacity. Leave suggestions for Mullin in your comments.