reality check: Where things stand

I always wondered if there was a rule that forbid under the table negotiations. It sounded like there was with the mavs/nets trade for J Kidd when dallas was planning to resign Stackhouse after they traded him away.

If there is a rule that forbids secret negotiations, maybe that’ll be our last chance at retaining Baron. Or maybe the warriors will finally give in to Baron and give him what he wants. Since it was only a verbal agreement to the clips, I won’t believe Baron is officially gone until it’s official. I still believe.

Realistic, not too emotional. Love it man. Realize now that the Warriors have flexibility… they in MANY MANY ways are like the Giants (sans the horrible deals that are on the books). They are young, been talking about playing young talent for awhile that has a chance to win, and who knows? Add one ore two more pieces on the table and we are going to have a great base, good core for years, and be right back to making a splash in the west. Ya, im WAY too optimistic… but right now why not? Better than crying about what we had zero reasonable control over (and dont say that offering Baron more money and more years is smart… we give him 5 years and we might as well make him our opening day lefty if you know what I mean)

The more I think about it, the more good things I see here.

We’re in bad shape PG-wise for this season, enough so to make the playoffs extremely unlikely (I don’t see us being able to add a real difference-making PG in a trade). That’s a bummer… we’re all pretty playoff-starved. I am too. I don’t like the idea of this being a down-cycle year.

But the good thing is, at least we know what kind of team we are now. Going into this offseason, we had six really relevant players: three vets (Baron, Jax, Al) and three young’uns (Monta, Biedrins, Wright). It was a little bit of a schizo roster… not a bad one, by any means, but one with split purposes… it wasn’t clear if we were building for now or for later. With the departure of Baron, it’s clear: we’re building for later. And I think that’s the smarter call.

Given the hardball Mullin’s playing, it sure looks like Monta and Biedrins will be coming back into the fold for fairly reasonable amounts. Wright’s on a rookie contract, as is Randolph, who’s certainly a “later” kind of guy even in the rosiest scenarios. We probably won’t be able to trade Jax, which is fine by me – he gives us leadership and some defensive flexibility – but Al will probably be moved at some point. I’d personally like to see us hold onto him for a year, just because I think he’d be a dynamite expiring contract value, but if we can get something for him now, so much the better. There should be little trouble in re-signing Azubuike… guys like Marco, Watson and Hendrix fill out the second unit well enough for a rebuilding team.

We’ll need a point guard and a skilled bruiser to fill this team out properly, but the good news is, we have the space and flexibility to make that happen in the next year or two. Next year’s draft looks to be PG-rich—we’re likely to have a good pick, but even if we don’t, commodities like Al’s expiring contract could help us move up a bit. The skilled bruiser is tougher, but barring any rash signings, we’ll be a FA player in the summer of 2010, when a lot of top guys will be available.

This upcoming season probably won’t be a successful one, but I like how things are looking. If I have any beef with the front office, it’s actually with these histrionics over Arenas and now Brand. I just don’t see the point in getting the fanbase breathless over big free agent names… it only increases pressure to make some sort of big “now” move when those guys sign elsewhere. Other than getting somebody to play PG, I don’t really have a problem with the team avoiding “now” moves. “Later” is starting to look pretty interesting.

Sure, if we could swing Brand AND Arenas, I’m into that. I just can’t imagine that this Baron thing won’t immediately be followed by Brand agreeing to terms with the Clips.

For all our financial restraint of late, it’s wild that we apparently offered a max deal to Arenas so quickly. I do love the guy, and I think there are arguments for having him over Baron, but I don’t see him as being worth 50% more than Baron. I think we’d come to regret that deal.

I hope we let the other folks bid away on Duhon… he seems like the kinda guy you overpay because you’re desperate for a FA consolation prize. I suppose it’s at least worth talking to Memphis about one of their points, but I’m not sure what they’d want from us…

for writing this. I’m tired of hearing “he screwed us, so F him” all the time (granted, it’s died down somewhat since he first announced the opt-out). You said it much better than I could have.

You make some good points. I hope we use our cap space wisely. Remember, there is no opting out of season tickets!

Mulllin should have given Baron a long term deal, Baron wanted security , and the Clips gave him that. If we gave him that deal like 5yr 60 mil and we sign monta and beans, plus we get a good free agent he would have signed with us for sure.

but I think it would have been a mistake to give him big money over those years

He has an old body there is no doubt

This might seem like blasphemy but I think the warriors should step back and not do anything to rash like throw max money at people

We don’t need to replace Baron with another star point. This team should see if Monta and some of these other young guys are cornerstone types

If we can find a serviable point I think that is the priority. Look at Sac with Udrih. A guy like that

And then lets see where this team is at. I think this team has the talent but the concern and why they will not be very good is they have maybe one go to guy now (in Monta)

The reason me and a whole bunch of other fans are pissed off at baron are not because baron bounced (because that would have happened anyways) BUT because he played this whole game like he wanted to stay and right when he could opt out HE DID and right when he could sign with another team HE DID…he went about the whole situation all wrong even if he wanted to re-sign with the warriors he still came off hella shady..

AND barons jersey burns easy ive tried….

Effective strategy or not, the Warriors front office doesn’t seem to be one that operates through leaking rumors. When Baron arrived, it was a pretty unexpected move that wasn’t really rumored. The Dun-Mur trade came without rumor rumblings, and the Belinelli and Randolph draft picks came when neither seemed to be high on the draft radar. This management doesn’t do its business in the media.

If there are offers to the restricted free agents, no one is yet allowed to comment on them. They don’t become official until Wednesday at the earliest.

Since the team isn’t allowed to comment at this point about potential targets beyond that “they have targets”, the silence means nothing. ALL of the rumors are coming from agents.