There is still hope guys, no need to panic.

Baron Davis

Don't be so distraught over what happened. Honestly, I'd be more sad if the Warriors offered him that $65 million.  Take a minute and realize how paralyzing that contract can be.  Do you really expect Baron to be healthy and play hard for most of those 5 years?  History has shown that he won’t; and history tends to repeat itself.  Baron definitely resurrected our franchise and will always be one of my favorite players, but giving him that kind of contract is purely a desperation attempt to try to steal some of the LA spotlight.  Good luck Clippers.

Gilbert Arenas and Deron Williams

There seems to be a general consensus that we NEED a superstar PG to replace Baron Davis.  But think about this one: when was the last time Nash, Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Jason Kidd, Gilbert Arenas, or Baron Davis contended for a championship?  I don’t know what the NBA analysts are smoking, but there’s no such thing as “the league moving towards being PG dominated”.  These superstar PG’s are fun to watch, but big men still win championships.  Shaquille O’Neal, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, BIG MEN still win championships.  We couldn’t even get past the first round of the playoffs with Baron at the helm, I see this as a clean slate of a team to work with now.  When we offered Gilbert Arenas a max contract I threw up in my mouth and thanked the heavens that he was already committed to the Wizards.  Keeping our payroll low and waiting for Deron Williams or Lebron James is also stupid.  First of all, they’re not going to come to a crappy team with no chance of winning a championship.  Secondly, if we don’t get them, we just wasted those “waiting years” for nothing.

Elton Brand

In all honesty, he’s going back to the Clippers.  He didn’t opt out of his contract to go back to a losing team.  The dude wants to try to win now.  He’d be great if we could get him, but we’re not.

Al Harrington

I will repeat this verbatim for the rest of the offseason.  DO NOT TRADE AL HARRINGTON, DO NOT TRADE AL HARRINGTON, DO NOT TRADE AL HARRINGTON.  His value will be tremendously higher next season at the trade deadline.  Don’t jump the gun and waste that opportunity.  Keep Al on the team until his contract becomes expiring, there’s no reason to trade him away now just to get chump change in return.  We can trade him for a real player next season at the deadline (think Pau Gasol for Kwame Brown, think Dale Davis for Baron Davis, etc).  If Mullin caves in and trades Al right now when he’s worth nothing then I’ll really know for sure that this front office doesn’t care about putting together a winning team.

Josh Smith

He’s definitely the best free agent available, but signing him would severely stunt the growth of Anthony Randolph and Brandan Wright.  Plus we’re still paying Stephen Jackson.  Josh Smith is redundant, he’ll just take away minutes from our existing players.

Andre Iguodala

I don’t get what all the hate on Andre is about.  He shoots solid percentages (45% fg, 33% 3pt), and he produced solid numbers last season (20 ppg, 5 rpg, 5 apg, 2 spg).  He puts up production comparable to Baron at his best and he’s young and he’s healthy and he’s a good sized guard.  He’s a hard worker, unselfish, and a good guy to have on the team.  This is someone I WOULD give $65 million / 5 years to.

Shaun Livingston

It is essential to take a risk on this guy if Monta is our future franchise cornerstone.  He’s one of the only guys in the league that we can successfully play next to Monta;  he’s a big guard that can guard SG’s and distribute and run the show as the PG.  I’d offer him $35mil/5 years with a team option for 2009/2010 just in case he doesn’t return from the injury as the same player.  That’s slightly more than the projected ~$6mil MLE so only a few teams (76ers, etc) would be able to outbid us.  It will be low risk because of the team option, and I doubt Livingston would see the potential to make $35mil anywhere else right now.

You’re 2008/2009 Golden State Warriors:

PG Ellis / Livingston / Watson

SG Iguodala / Ellis / Belinelli

SF Jackson / Iguodala / Randolph

PF Wright / Harrington / Hendrix

C Biedrins / Harrington / Perovic

That will be a fringe playoff team, maybe even better depending on how Wright develops.  It’s actually a way better defensive and rebounding team than last year’s because of Iguodala and Wright in the starting lineup (as opposed to Baron/Harrington).  Baron’s 20ppg will be replaced by Iguodala’s 20ppg.  If Ellis, Iguodala, and Jackson all commit to being partial distributors they can all be 4-5 apg-type players and our offense can run smoothly without a “true point”.  And when our offense gets stagnant we can bring in Livingston to get the ball moving again.  This roster provides all the opportunity in the world for Wright to develop, and we still maintain a high level of guard talent and moderate competitiveness in the West.  We have our talented guard trio of Ellis, Livingston, and Iguodala locked in for the future and we still keep our trading pieces when that All-Star PF/C does becomes available to us.