<strong>1) Not re-signing Baron Davis
I give this an A+. Look at it this way: I would have give Mullin an F if he had given Baron that huge $65m contract. You only get the REAL fringe-All-Star-calibur Baron Davis playing for you only half the time. The other half of the time he’s either injured or he’s not playing hard on the court (as we saw alot of this past season). That huge lucrative contract will handcuff the Clippers sometime in the future, I guarantee it. Everybody says Baron Davis is the main reason for saving our franchise. How about having one of the best coaches ever to coach in Don Nelson? What about miraculously dumping Dunleavy and Murphy for Jackson and Harrington? How about the surprising emergence of Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins? Finding diamonds in the rough like Matt Barnes and Kelenna Azubuike? These things have contributed more to our franchise’s turnaround as anything. Baron Davis was the most symbolic and marketable player on our team, but he wasn’t the only reason why we’re now relevant. No other player in the league can shoot their team out of a game like Baron Davis can, just check out the stats. He’s among the league leaders (if not at the very top) of FG missed and 3pt missed, he’s historically shot bad percentages for his career in both, he doesn’t get to the line enough and when he does he’s hasn’t been a great FT shooter. He’s the definition of a volume scorer and if he didn’t bring so much charisma and swag he’d probably be scapegoated instead of worshipped.

2) Offering Brand and GA Max contracts
2a) Brand: B+. Brand is one of the few 20/10 real impact, championship-calibur big men in the league. I give it a B+ instead of an A because he’s coming off that injury and who knows if he’ll be the same. But when a big man like that becomes available to you, you have to do everything in your power to acquire him, even if it involves throwing max money at them. Yes, I’m still sad about the KG situation too.
2b) Arenas: D. Gilbert Arenas is in that “elite” company of players that can easily shoot your team out of a game. In this group are Baron Davis, Tracy McGrady, and, I’m sorry to say, Stephen Jackson on his worst days. He’s not a max money type player. You can’t build a championship calibur team around him. Is it any coincidence that the Wizards didn’t get any worse with Gilbert Arenas sitting out? Gilbert’s a fan favorite, I love his swag, he’s entertaining, but him and his max contract do not equate to winning. And the sad thing is that they may have 3 All-stars on their squad in the upcoming years but they’ll never advance past Lebron James and the Cavs. And to make things worse, him coming to the Warriors would have kept Monta Ellis at SG and we’d forever have the worst defensive backcourt in the league.

3) Signing Corey Maggette 5yrs/50 million
B-. I was upset at this signing at first. I don’t want to see Stephen Jackson dribbling around at SG. I don’t want to see another ballhog come to this team and stop the beautiful ball movement. I wanted Josh Smith instead, I wanted Iguodala instead, or Okafor, or another big name free agent. However, Smith, Iguodala, and Okafor aren’t coming and Maggette was the cream of the crop. Not only that, but he brings many aspects to the Warriors in which we were severely lacking. He’s a solid rebounder. He gets to the free throw line whenever he wants, and he’s an outstanding free throw shooter. This is something we severely needed in our halfcourt offense, instead what we got was Baron Davis jacking up off balance 3’s. $50mil is a little too much for Maggette, but anything less and he probably would’ve gone to a contender for the MLE (Spurs or Celtics) instead.

4) Signing Ronny Turiaf 4/17 million
A-. Give me the name of better solid backup center (who Don Nelson would’ve actually played, mind you) who we could’ve acquired this offseason. You can’t think of one, can you? I can’t either. It’s no secret that the Warriors biggest hole in the depth chart was backup center. Matt Barnes and Al Harrington just weren’t gonna cut it. Turiaf does all of the things a decent big man needs to do: he rebounds, he bangs, he blocks shots (very well). The quirky personality and amusing English, the Energizer-Bunny-like energy, and midrange jumpshot are all bonuses. We stole him from a team that couldn’t afford to keep him, and we stole him for a price less than what an “average NBA player” is supposed to make. You’ll be hardpressed to find big men that can contribute for less than $4.25m/yr. Turiaf only gets the “minus” for that ugly, ugly ghetto ponytail he was rocking in the playoffs last year. Don’t come in here with that, Ronny.

5) Trading for Marcus Williams
A. Scouted as a big, true point guard. Trading away a future unprotected first rounder? No harm done. Low risk, extremely high reward. Fills a need. Great signing.

6) Matching Azubuike 3yrs/9 million
A. It was a no brainer move. Don Nelson can never have too many swingmen. Belinelli and Randolph are still unproven. Azubuike completes our depth chart and $3m/yr is still an absolute steal; Kelenna’s far from “below average” as his salary might indicate.

7) Re-signing Monta Ellis 6yrs/66 million
D. Here’s where it starts to go downhill. Yeah he’s exciting, yeah he can score. But there’s still a chance he might crash and burn trying to play PG. Turnovers, turnovers, turnovers. And he’ll never play for a championship at SG, because at his size and defensive disposition, it just won’t happen. I just don’t see the point of bidding against ourselves to keep him now when it’s unnecessary. If we can sign him at a bargain price, maybe like $7m/yr then sure go ahead. If not, what’s the worst that can happen? He signs for the QO and is forced to prove to us that he can run PG, the position he NEEDS to play in the NBA. If he succeeds, if he shines at that position, then yeah we can throw all the money we want at him and we still have his Bird Rights next offseason. It’s not like everyone in the league is going to be trying to steal him away anyway. Nobody even signed him to an offer sheet this offseason. Nobody. And in the unlikely chance that one of the crap teams under the cap (like MEM, MIN, etc) does try to sign him next offseason, we can always outbid them. There was no point in bidding against ourselves for Monta Ellis this offseason, especially when he’s unproven at the position he needs to learn. Don’t get me wrong, I love Monta Ellis. He’s going to be my favorite player to watch this season. But it was still a bad management move on Mullin’s part.

8) Signing Anthony Morrow
A. Low risk, high reward. It would’ve been hard not to sign the guy after the kind of Summer League he had. Even if he doesn’t pan out, no big loss there. I really hope he does make the team. Even if he spends most of the season in the DLeague, he’ll be a nice emergency reserve.

9) Re-signing Biedrins 6yrs/63 million
D+. Similar to the Monta Ellis signing. Biedrins is a great rebounder, I’d even say a dominating rebounder. But I’m not sold on his defense at all. For some reason, he stopped blocking shots for us and started trying to take charges against point guards. His offense is efficient and good enough, even if it doesn’t improve. But he’s never ever going to be able to handle guys like Yao Ming or Tim Duncan. Yet still, I don’t believe there’s anybody else on the market better than him. However, we bid against ourselves on this one again. As an RFA, Biedrins gained no interest around the league. The bogus rumor of him getting offers of $10m from Russia were just that: bogus. Why didn’t that Russian team try to sign him to an offer sheet then? Oh yeah, they didn’t cuz it was just a desperation leverage move by his agent. Again, I would’ve been all for signing him at a hometown hookup of like $8m/yr. And if not, let him sign the QO and let him prove that he can get his shotblocking prowess back and stop those little point guards from getting the And1’s on him. And then next offseason we still own his Bird Rights, we can still outbid those crap teams with capspace that nobody wants to play for. Then we can bid for him, no point in bidding against ourselves. But since he is a center and that is the hardest position to fill with talent in this league, I’ll give Mullin the “plus” here.

Overall Grade for Mullin thus far: B. Lots of solid moves. But potentially two very huge mistakes.