And excluding the 08’ NBA draft with the selection of Anthony Randolph and Richard Hendrix?

I like the work you put into this as well. A bit homer-istic for my tastes, but i’ve been a longtime negative warriors fan.

I DEFINATELY agree with 1) and 3)

Having Monta and Williams in the backcourt is a bad idea. Both are undersized and not highly rated on defense. That’s like having a revolving door into the lane for our opponents.

Just because everyone else pays big men big money doesn’t mean its right. Biedrins can’t rebound over boarding studs like tyson chandler or dalembert. He can’t make or never attempts 15 foot jumpers. Judging by his free throws there’s very good reason why. He makes his points sporatically. I think we should have explored more trading options with him

I saw this guy straight out ball in summer league, and ya I know its summer league, but this guy can ball, and ya I know everyone is going to say wait and see, but as for grading the deal, even if he doesn’t make the team, I would still give it a A, because you took the chance away from other teams signing him and it costs us peanuts, its not a guaranteed contract so we have all the flexibility and risk/reward is very high in our favor. I wish we coulda pulled something like that to get bobby brown….

only thing that could be percieved as a negative thing was BD leaving but as a result, we have a young and much deeper team that will be together for a long time

The Morrow signing is a C? Even if he doesn’t make the roster, is that a big deal? This was an all reward, no risk signing, because the worst that happens is we cut him. Anything he adds is a bonus.

Am I the only one that thinks this offseason compares to the extensions and signings circa 2004-5 when Mullin signed a bunch of guys that had never proven they could win anything on their own to huge deals? (Murphy, Foyle, Dunleavy and Richardson). What’s he going to do when the Biedrins/Ellis/Magette squad tops out at 40 wins? This time, let’s hope he gets the ax. I’m ready for the post-Mullin era. Too bad we can’t ax Cohan.

Especially because he I doubt it would have gone to Europe or at least did not have any concrete offers during negotiation. I think it would have been worth it to “sweat it out” for a few weeks for him to take 2 million less per season. Maggette would not have received 8 million a year from another squad so I think he got over paid. Ellis got what he deserved.

What does this reinforce? Players (BD especially) are not dying to play in the Bay Area. It has nothing to do with Mully, Nellie, or Cohen. It sucks but it is true.

The biggest gamble of this offseason isn’t the Maggette signing—it’s the experiment to see if Monta can be a viable NBA point guard. I think there’sno way to fully grade the offseason without knowing more about that gamble. If Mully and Nelson are right, and he does it well, it will have been an excellent offseason. If they’re just hoping he can do it and he actually can’t, not nearly as good.

My gut is that it’s been a successful offseason. We retained the three young guys we really needed to retain for fairly reasonable prices. We made one big free-agent signing - overpaid some, but got a good player who’ll fit our system well - and one smaller signing—I happen to think the Turiaf deal was a good one for the price. We made a pretty good low-cost gamble of a trade.

There are no glaringly ugly pieces on this team. Maggette’s being paid a bit more than he should, but it’s not an insane price for his services… he may put some pretty gaudy numbers up under Nellie, too, so I’m not convinced that he’d be untradeable if it came to that. Al’s overpaid, but that’ll be an asset in a year, if not sooner. Everyone else is being paid roughly what they’re worth. It’s a pretty flexible roster… if the Monta-as-PG experiment fails, we should be in a fine position to rejigger. There’s value in that.

Still, it’ll be hard to call the offseason a smashing success if it turns out that Monta can’t hang out point guard. Time will tell.

<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.

to eventually get better.

JRich and Baron were my favorite players, but i think mullin is making some very bold moves but doing the right thing in taking a step back to eventually take leaps forward.

trading JRich was seen as taking a step back
but it allowed us to keep monta and andris as well as sign free agents this summer
we still had a better record and were practically a 50 win team
we haven’t even scene the outcome of the biggest return of that trade in Brandon Wright

letting Baron go
ultimately he wasn’t going to bring us a ring. he was too injury proned and always seemed to run out of gas late in the year. the timing wasn’t right to keep him around because his window is small and we didn’t have the pieces in place.
Letting him go created space for the Free agent signings and furthered the cause for keeping AB and Monta
Put monta in the drivers seat on this team and opens the door for monta to be a star pg

Hopefully Bwright will be a stud sooner than later. Hopefully Maggette replaces barons scoring. Hopefully monta becomes a star and AB continues to improve. Hopefully Turiaf is that beast that we needed. and Hopefully Marcus williams is that backup pg that we always needed.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=9632

We’re doing a series at HOOPSWORLD that grades what each team has done so far and the Warriors were up this afternoon. It’s obviously been a busy few days, so there’s a lot to chew on here.

To summarize, I gave the team the following grades:
Maggette: B
Turiaf: B-
Azubuike: B+
Morrow: A-
Ellis: B+
Biedrins: A+
Williams: C
Randolph: A
Hendrix: C+
Overall: A-

There’s a bunch of words that go with those grades .. not sure if you’ll agree with anything I wrote, but let me know either way!

1) Not re-signing Baron Davis
(A)
The 4th and 5th years of his contract would not be worth the money. He probably does not play 82 games again in a season for the rest of his career. And if you think about it, if his best year production-wise was 2007-2008 and he couldn’t make the all-star team (for whatever reasons) and could not get our team to the playoffs, do you still think he’s worth that commitment…? the western conference elite may be aging, but if the goal is to win a championship, it won’t be any easier for the dubs. he’s not worth mortgaging the future of the franchise when you can get rid of him and sign multiple average/above average players that give you a deeper bench and add to quality of play come spring-time.

2) Offering Brand and GA Max contracts
(GA = D, Brand A)
washington did better without agent 0 which says one thing, and the style he thrives in is not the open court fast-paced style the warriors have pinned their acquisitions around. arenas is a guard, and although the warriors did need a pg after baron left, there were younger, much cheaper, upside-type guards that would have better fit the run-gun system. on top of all this, arenas was coming off a disastrous injury…so if we offered that money to agent 0, we might as well have kept baron for a lil more guaranteed money.

brand was well worth the offer. although you can argue he was coming off an injury as well and his future health could be questionable, he plays in an impact position…pf…..if the warriors signed brand, they would have automatically been seen as a playoff team as we’d have a good combo in the middle with beans and brand eating 18-22 rebs a game by themselves on an average night.

3) Signing Corey Maggette 5yrs/50 million
(B+)
Great scorer, and if he becomes the 2nd or 3rd option on a team instead of the 1st option, he won’t be seen as a stop-baller ball hog…but rather, one who can drive and dish, spot up for shots and hit, and run with ellis and jack. 10 mil a year is a lil steep for a swingman who plays questionable d, but his offensive numbers are in the upper tier….although he does not replace baron’s presence and leadership, he instantly gives you the ppg lost by the loss of baron

3) Signing Ronny Turiaf 4/17 million
(B+)
the lakers would have loved to keep him if it did not mean going over the cap. he brings the interior presence and legitimate bench toughness that was previously lacking. a little overpaid, but you have to for a big man coming from the lakers.

4) Trading for Marcus Williams
(A)
low risk trade with giving up only a lottery-protected first round pick. he has way too much upside to not be playing in the rotation for at least 20mins per game. he has court vision, he can drive and shoot, and proved to be one of the best pgs in the nation pre-draft and pre-stealing computers. if he’s a bust (which i think not if he’s given pt), we still have cj and worst comes to worst, we can have a point forward system haha. but great move.

5) Matching Azubukie 3yrs/9 million
(A)
buke would have been (or almost have been) a starter on the clips. what turiaf brings in toughness to the front line, buke brings to the off-guard, small forward postions. he rebounds and defends off the ball better than any other bench players of his position and can hit key shots late in the game. he is also still very young, although people underestimate his upside.

6) Re-signing Monta Ellis 6yrs/66 million
(A)
This was a must. if there was one person to sign, it is monte. he is a high percentage shooting guard who is automatic from around the key and from 12-18 ft out. he is one of the quickest guards in the game and can get past anybody. and he showed some passing ability down the stretch last season. he is an up an coming star…no question.

7) Signing Anthony Morrow
(A)
Why not? he shot 70% from the field and will probably be making the league minimum. he probably will be doing garbage time if he makes the final dubs roster.

8) Re-signing Biedrins 6yrs/63 million
(A)
what other big men….....or what about what other players average (or nearly average in his case) a double-double every game who is under the age of 23 other than dwight howard, al jefferson or al horford. exactly. he is a rising star who showed increased rebounding prowess towards the end of last year and if he develops any kind of jump shot and drive move (very possible), could become unstoppable.

Overall Grade for Mullin thus far: B+

with the shocking loss of baron, mullin has given us an exciting and competitive team with upside enough to make us playoff contenders in the next several years. again…it’s just upside and what ifs….......the development of the youth this year will crucial as to how this young core will turn out and if we will be legitimate title contenders down the road.