"Would the Riley-Nelson team trade one or both of them? There shouldn't be any doubt the answer is yes, they would."

…that everything is going as expected.

08-09 – $11,375,000

09-10 – $12,250,000

Total Guaranteed – $23,625,000

Look at NY, they went from a laughingstock to an up and coming team in 6 months with the hiring and support of one solid front office person. Walsh. He then went out and got a great coach in D’Antoni. Now, rumor has it he is interested in hiring Mullin as GM this offseason once he’s been let go by the W’s. Now, juxtapose that with our situation, of having Rowell as president. Suddenly Mullin is out, Riley is in, Nelson has a 3 year extension and we’ve let Baron go so that we can sign Maggette and Jack to long term deals. So, in that same 6 months we went from up and coming team back to laughingstock.

And then I read posts saying we shouldn’t criticize the team. It’s not their fault. We don’t have a lot of talent. And, of course, lay off Nelson. Whose had his fingers in the middle of this mess and has left more than one franchise broken. Nobody in this clusterf*ck, with the possible exception of the players whose talents and limitations we all knew, should be above criticism. The lack of professionalism and competence is startling.

There is nothing wrong with trading Randolph or Wright or any other player if it’s a move that will actually improve the team’s future. Trading them because you simply don’t want them around though is dumb. Moving them to try to undo a past mistake is similarly not going to amount to much.

I don’t really care who the GM (or whatever they call the personnel decision maker with the Warriors) is if he’s got a good plan and can execute it. Mullin hasn’t been an inspired GM. He’s been adequate, which is enough to occassionally have some good seasons. His picks have been hit or miss as has his eye for free agents and decisions about contracts. He reacts to his past mistakes more often than he seems to think ahead. Him staying or going isn’t really an issue to me. The big issue is whether someone can actually make decisions for the basketball good that won’t be undone by a top level veto or negated by a Rowell/Cohan attempt at a basketball decision. Right now, a mediocre GM (which is what Mullin appears to be) with some authority would be better than the vacuum at the top caused by multiple influences fighting it out.

How about:

Anthony Randolph for Kevin Love.

Yes, Kevin Love.

Him and Al Jefferson is redundant. Neither can play center and expect good results. Love has been a great rebounder thus far. The only negative is that awful, awful shooting percentage.

He’s not as athletic as Marreese Speights. Not as tall as Brook Lopez. Not as strong as Greg Oden. Which, perhaps, explains why Love is playing only 22.8 minutes per game. But in terms of being a pure rebounder, Love is at the head of the class. He currently ranks second in overall rebound rate and tops the class in offensive rebound rate. More impressively, he’s tied for sixth overall in the entire league in rebound rate. Yes, he’s struggling to score and shoot efficiently, but his ability to rebound should earn him more minutes. Think about this: He has grabbed 233 rebounds in 683 minutes this season. Kevin Garnett has 273 rebounds in 1,017 minutes.

via ESPN

Over at Canis Hoopus they make The Case for Trading Kevin Love: A FanPost

Interesting?

honestly, u can tell in his talk that he is just yearning to go out to the court, lay down the
law and draw up plays for the players.
Everyone knows he has had a respectable career as a player and he needs to show our guys the FUNDAMENTALS of basketball .If only he could realize the oportunity he has to show this club some good old fashioned fundamentals. If he was coach, he would shape our young rooks into decent and proffiecient players, and make the older players feel more comfortable playing the style they should play. He would bring his valued knowledge to the young and inexperienced, while strengthening our mature and experienced players.

the warriors need a new coach, and he’s been here under our noses all along.

 Come on, let’s start a Hire Barnett Movement!!!!

When I see Randolph on the defensive end I see someone who should be on the floor more minutes – he hustles, FIGHTs for rebounds (BW should have that desire) and loves to get in someone’s grill and block shots.

but, i know why Nellie’s not playing him….

on offense he’s strictly a FREELANCER. He’s shown not one iota of interest in being part of the 5 man team. How many times have the warriors been down by 20 and he rips a dunk and stares down everyone in the building like he won a championship.

He’s selfish and has delusions of grandeur – which at 19 as an NBA rookie is a BAD thing.

Nelson can’t play him because he’s UNCOACHABLE.

BTW…am i the only that sees a resemblance between Marco and a young Mullie? Slow, good court vision/instincts, sweet jumper. Just needs a little more craftiness around the rim.

He’s 19, he needs to learn some things. That goes with being 19. If he doesn’t fit into the “offensive scheme” (WHAT OFFENSIVE SCHEME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???) Then that probably means he needs to learn it more. I think he gets out there, he is so competitive that he just reverts back to what has given him success in the past. It’s like Mike Tyson’s famous line “Everybody has a plan until they get hit in the mouth”. Randolph just needs to work through the growing pains of trying to go with the system and failing, because going into the system (I SAY IT AGAIN WHAT SYSTEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!???) he is going to get worse before he gets better.

Unfortunately, I probably just explained that all better to Randolph then anything Nelly has ever told him. Nelly is completely out of touch. If he is upset about players not fitting into the system (WHAT SYS…..okay, I won’t do that again), then he should bench some other guys too because Randolph isn’t the only one. At least Randolph gives a good defensive effort and rebounding effort, something most of the guys can’t or won’t do and something the team severely needs.

Nelly is out of touch, Randolph is either the most or 2nd most talented player on the team along with Monta. If they trade him I will probably abandon the team for the rest of the season out of disgust.