FanPost

Decision time: upgrade our talent or wait for ours to develop?


I've come to the sad realization that we do not posses the talent to be a successful NBA team (I mean in terms of wins not dollars, Cohan!). Not just now, when everyone is injured, but even 100% healthy we'd only be able to manage to get swept in the first round by the Lakers. So this post is about a decision that our front office is in the process of making. Upgrade our talent or wait for ours to develop.

Looking ahead to next year, barring any trades or free agent aquisitions, our team is fairly solid. I'd say Andris, Buike, and Monta are the only players we have that would start on a top 10 NBA squad. That is a problem, a big problem. We do have an excellent 6th man in Maggette, Turiaf is also a great player to have coming off the bench, so are Randolph, Wright, Morrow, and Curry. The problem is that 2 of them have to start. I believe if Wright can stay healthy, he will be better than Randolph next year. He is in a better place mentally, and he also understands the limitations of his game better than AR. Brandan could be a wild card for us, he has an efficient offensive game, and he plays solid defense. Even assuming that Brandan lives up to these expectations, and no one misses significant time, we'd still only manage to get about 45 wins tops. That's probably an 8th seed, maybe the 7 spot. Which means we would be playing the Lakers, Nuggets, or Rockets with Yao, any of those teams would sweep us.

However, we do have a collection of really young players witha lot of potential. We can hold on to them and see what happens with that potential, or we can use that potential to try and aquire one big piece. Many trades have been suggested, Boozer, West, Bosh, and Amar'e have all been mentioned. Bosh is the only one of them I could see as a great fit for this team. There is also the free agent market next summer that has a lot of really good players available. The one player that would best help us, and that we also could realistically sign, is Joe Johnson.

Most people around this site and those in the know with the Warriors seem to think that our biggest upgrade needs to come in the frontcourt, I disagree. As established, Buike, Monta, and Andris are starters on a top level NBA team. Ronny and Corey are great 6th/7thmen on a top level team. So that leaves us next season with Curry, Morrow, AR, Vlad, and BWright. Out of those 5, BWright is the best at what he does, and he is our best low post scorer, which is something we need. Monta, Steph, Buike, A-Mo, and Corey are our only guards, and Nellie would never use Corey as anything but a forward. Our frontcourt has AB, BW, AR, Ronny, and Vlad, we could also easily retain Mikki. When you consider that Buike's contract is up after next season, and we need another all-star player who can take over a game to help Monta, Joe Johnson seems to bee the perfect fit. Nellie would continually start Monta, Joe, and Andris, our collection of other players would allow him to play mismatches as he sees fit. This also gives Morrow and Steph time to develop, since they don't seem capable everyday starters yet, and they're probably a year or 2 away as it stands now. Plus Johnson is a solid ball handler, he passes well, excells in the up tempo style, and he plays good defense.

So that's my solution, as painful as this year will be, that seems to be the most logical solution going forward. Just the same the ticket sales are down. Us fans are sick of losing, and we're only more likely to avoid the oracle as this gets worse. Plus there is a feeling that we're waisting Monta. The pressure is there this season for them to fill seats, but the injuries have also ruined this season. What would you do?

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!