Golden State Warriors President Robert Rowell and GM Larry Riley Speak + A Link Back to Chris Mullin

by Atma Brother ONE on May 13, 2009 12:17 AM PDT in Links

Larry-riley_medium

Some of you are going to say, Robert just said it, ‘Riley's a puppet.' That's already out there. We were joined at the hip when we came here. Let's not fool anybody about that nonsense.

Now, does Nellie dictate my life? No. Is he a good friend? Yes. Do I listen to him? Yes. If I have to make a counter-decision, I'll make it, based on the information I collect. I don't see that happening.

See, hear, and read what Riley and Rowell have to say and flip through a 1,000,001 Mullin GSoM links over the years after the jump.

Watch: Press Release + Video of the Larry Riley Press Conference [Warriors.com]

Read:

The Warriors' party-line transcript: Riley, the Nellie issue and Rowell's 10-year culpability [Talking Points]
New Warriors G.M. asserts his authority [Bay Area News]
Warriors are masters of the art of saying little to nothing [SFGate]
Larry Riley: Decision to make, playoffs to reach [SFGate]
Warriors Finally Announce Mullin is Gone [Fanhouse]

Listen:

New Warriors GM Larry Riley on Fitz and Brooks [KNBR 680]
Warriors President Robert Rowell on Fitz and Brooks [KNBR 680]
Tim Kawakami (San Jose Mercury) about the hiring on the Razor and Mr. T [KNBR 680]
Matt Steinmetz (Fanhouse) on Murph & Mac [KNBR 680]

Goldenness:

Poll

Will new Golden State Warriors GM Larry RIley's friendship and open line of communication with Head Coach Don Nelson help this team going forward?

YES: Riley and Nellie are a winning combo

109 votes

NO: This is a recipe for disaster

269 votes

NOT SURE: Let's wait and see

304 votes

682 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 26 comments | 1 recs |

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Comments

This year had a lot of goldness not coming from the Warriors.

Chris Cohan and Robert Rowell? Oh no hide the children!

by Nuck Chorris on May 13, 2009 12:33 AM PDT reply actions

I listened to the Tim interview

“15 years and 1 playoff appearance and it was Mullin who made it” or something like that.
Also it is true, the warriors front office are not fixing the franchise but patching things up. I wish our front office where more of a fan/enthusiast of basketball.

I will always be your fan JRich. Good Luck

by chili01 on May 13, 2009 12:41 AM PDT reply actions

also "Let's wait and see"

For 5 years? and see how many times we go into the playoffs?

I will always be your fan JRich. Good Luck

by chili01 on May 13, 2009 12:43 AM PDT up reply actions

Sounds intelligent

Larry Riley sounds like a very knowledgeable and intelligent guy, unlike Mullin

Ellis to the RIM!
Monta for the win?! YES!

by XIAOXIAO on May 13, 2009 2:26 AM PDT reply actions

Rec'ed

for all the links and info, I hope this stays on the board for a while so I can link up to some of these when I have time.

NBA, where the Warriors know drama, sheesh.

There's a party in my mind.
And I wish that I was there.

by qin on May 13, 2009 7:25 AM PDT reply actions

it'll probably get moved down as playoff open threads get added each day

you could just bookmark this page in your browser and come back later

by IQofaWarrior on May 13, 2009 9:04 AM PDT up reply actions

Look Mullin deserved to get fired

If you look over his GM moves over his 5 year tenure he probably deserved to be fired. But Then again so do rowell and cohan.

Quite frankly Mully sided too much with the players and consistantly gave bad contracts. He was a good scout, but not great. Biedrins, monta, diogu, patty obryant, bwright, belinelli, randolph. Also dleague signing of buike, morrow. Its a mixed bag really.

Taking diogu over granger and bynum is poor. Bynum, ok he was a project so i’ll excuse that….

Obryant the following year over of note; rajon rando + players like ronnie brewer, farmar, josh boone

For me Mully is too ‘old school’ and not forward thinking enough. He has an eye for raw talent but doesnt look big picture. I dont have a feel for riley yet, so I dont know if he’s an upgrade or not. I will give mullin credit for 1) being a huge upgrade to saint jean and 2) not being afrain to take risks.

Riley is walking into a slightly better situation with more assets to make moves with and a decent draft selection

by tafkasam on May 13, 2009 10:23 AM PDT reply actions

+1

Exactley sir/ madam, not sure which. I don’t know why everyone is so bent out of shape. Ok I understand Riley was probably not what we were expecting but Mullen just wasn’t getting it done. Will Riley? I don’t know, but I’m not going to cry because we fired someone who wasn’t doing a great job anyways……

Hell I’m still pissed we lost J-Rich for nothing! Wasn’t that Mullins move????
Damn you Mullin! Damn you!!!

by VERY VERY BUSY on May 13, 2009 11:05 AM PDT up reply actions

its sir

by tafkasam on May 13, 2009 11:58 AM PDT up reply actions

heres my thought on jrich move

I loved it at the time. I still like it but its worthless with nellie around. We need an actual “COACH”. Nellie for all his genius is the worst ‘coach’ in the nba. He’s a schemer. He doesn’t necessarily work with younger players on there game. He just tells them ‘shoot better’ ‘rebound harder’ ‘jump passing lane’ etc. Nellie will always be my favorite warrior coach (I’m 24, probably started following warriors when I was 8 years old so circa 92-93, aka… not much competition for that award) but its time this team took a new direction. A young, bright coach would be way to go…. Then again we tried that w/ musslemen etc and its easier said than done to find that guy.

Here is a thought: Brian Shaw. Oakland guy. Lakers assistant. Respectable playing career. Known as very vocal and passionate leader. Big fan of ball movement offenses

by tafkasam on May 13, 2009 12:01 PM PDT up reply actions

worst coach in the nba? is he worse than dunleavy? exaggeration aside, nelson is still a good nba coach. he’s definitely above average, particularly for our situation. he has a pedigree of making undertalented teams overachieve. this year is hard to judge because of all the injuries, but it looked like he handled randolph (one of those young guys he supposedly doesn’t work with) exceptionally well. he didn’t give him playing time until he played well and voila! he started playing better and earned some pt.

and i don’t know how many practices you’ve attended, but if you haven’t been to any, i have a hard time buying your claims about what nellie tells players to do during practices.

either way, it’ll be brutal to find someone better than him to come work here. eddie jordan would be a guy who i’d like to see come in once nellie retires, but he’s not going to be available then and might not even want to come here now. that’s a guy who should have quite a few options for coaching jobs.

heart of a champion, will of the warrior.

by cap'n hack on May 13, 2009 12:12 PM PDT up reply actions

Riley

i listened to the above Riley interview. i love what he said about bringing in a veteran player, that’s exactly what this young team needs, a little direction on and off the court from an established player who demands respect. nelson is getting old and quirky, and in the nba i think a large portion of motivation and knowledge comes from fellow players. just look at KG in boston and Billups in denver.

i’ll be on board for Riley as GM if he adds a strong veteran player this offseason, i think it’s a smart move.

by Brickowski BOOM on May 13, 2009 11:36 AM PDT up reply actions

the only questionmark i have is

u need to give talent to get. Aka we’d have to move alot of youth for a good veteran. While i dont mind moving some…. what good is trading bwright for a 30 year old pf for ex.

by tafkasam on May 13, 2009 12:06 PM PDT up reply actions

billups has been huge for denver

but people underestimate development of guys they had. Carmelo was an all star before this season, but since olympics hes been a superstar. My friend who lives in denver says they all talk about how big a change hes made since playing for olympic team. Players like nene, jr smith have grown up. K-mart has gotten healthy (still overpaid…) They found good role players like balkman, birdman and jones…

by tafkasam on May 13, 2009 12:10 PM PDT up reply actions

“the players should be the main focus. they make baskets….and…..defend….”

by vinchenzy on May 13, 2009 12:54 PM PDT reply actions

People are getting bent out of shape......

for a few reasons:

ONE – The way the Warriors orchestrated Mullin’s departure. It’s been pretty clear since Monta got injured last season that Mullin was on his way out. Why wait until now to “announce it”? If you listen to the press conference, Riley’s been involved in the decision making for quite some time.

TWO – People keep saying “1 playoff season in 5 years”. But does this season count since Mullin didn’t seem to have much decision making power? Baron left and Monta got hurt along the way.

Also, people seem to forget that the Warriors won 48 games the year before but didn’t make the playoffs because the West was so strong. If the Warriors had managed to sneak into the playoffs, then things might be different.

I’m not going to defend Mullin and say he was the greatest GM around. However, the team made the playoffs and then won 48 games the next season. The team had potential to be decent for a few more years. In my personal opinion, I would have liked to see Mullin’s final vision materialize and that is what I am most disappointed in.

by coach41 on May 13, 2009 1:50 PM PDT reply actions 1 recs

I understand what your saying

but disagree with some of it.

1) Mullins Departure— Regardless of how Mullins departure played out, it was 100% behind closed doors. For all we know they had a birthday suprise/ farewell galla for Mullin (probably not). But nobody knows for sure what happend so IMO it’s not even worth bringing up.

2) Mullins Track Record— From what I remember Mullin was almost on his way out when he begged Nelly to come back (probably wasn’t very hard, probably involved a 32 pack of bud light and a comfortable chair) and save his ass, which he did. Year 1 = Playoffs Year 2 = 48 wins, no playoffs Year 3 = Poo. If it wasn’t for Nelly coming back Mullin would have left and nobody would have made a peep.

Lastly I just thought this was funny

I would have liked to see Mullin’s final vision materialize

Mullin had about as much vision for this team as Stevie Wonder in a dark room. There was certainly no plan. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, Mullin had no picture to work off of he was just sticking pieces where he thought they fit.

I guess I ended up disagreeing with everything you said.

by VERY VERY BUSY on May 13, 2009 4:29 PM PDT up reply actions

It was like a jigsaw puzzle, Mullin had no picture to work off of he was just sticking pieces where he thought they fit.

And after Baron departed and Rowell extended Jax, a couple of the corner pieces weren’t even in the box.

by jae on May 13, 2009 4:55 PM PDT up reply actions

It's all about the corners man

but I love Jax, so can’t follow you on that one.

by VERY VERY BUSY on May 13, 2009 5:20 PM PDT up reply actions

Sale Of Warriors Predicted

Some months back, Atma ran a piece of mine on the astrology of Nellie, Mullin and The Warriors. I just found Chris Cohan’s birth date and based on what I see, a sale is forthcoming.

Go here to check it out.

http://www.robertphoenix.com

by SlamDharma on May 13, 2009 1:58 PM PDT reply actions