Glad the Warriors Don't have $$$ to Spend on Free Agents?

whatever happened to the art of negotiation? it seems like (especially with this Joe Johnson deal) that teams aren’t even trying to wait to see what someone else would value the player at, and instead throwing enough money at them to not even look in another direction. I understand that, but it’s not smart negotiating, front offices in the NBA need to be more educated, either that or we are not seeing the whole picture, because to offer that kind of money off the bat is straight up mind boggling to me.

He’s the only player in the NBA that said he wants to come to Golden State. Big words, since not even Golden State players want to play for Golden State. Though – I wouldn’t have offered him $34 million.

Scared the Dubs could have made a similarly bad deal, but it’s always fun to be players…

he’ll probably be the only one who approaches his value

can come to the Warriors with his expiring contract. As contructed and with Hakim Warrick instead of Amare, the Suns will blow, and they need talent. Let’s give them some crap and they give us JRich back! He can be a that veteran, ghetto small-forward we need. An SF any taller than 6’ 6" gives Nellie jitters.

The options on the poll all looked quite unappetizing. It came down to Frye or Johnson. I went with Johnson cause he seems tougher than Frye. Does the dirty work and still could get better.

I took Frye just because he scorched the Warriors last year. But I don’t think I’d take anyone of them.

The franchises making the bad deals are going to suck in a couple of years. In order for the Warriors to move up into the playoffs, it helps if some other teams move down. I like it!

“It’s mindbottling isn’t it? …. when things get so crazy, it gets your thoughts all trapped, like in a bottle.”

This free agency season is indeed, “mindbottling.”

But I’ll take Darko. Fewest years + smallest amount of $$$ = Smallest Risk

Darko did play fairly well for Minny late in the season, and he remains a solid defensive player who can block shots. He is still young, for whatever that’s worth. Since Al Jefferson doesn’t play any D, it does seem to make Darko more valuable for that team.

The rest of those contracts? Ugh.

Rudy Gay – $80M+ for a guy who doesn’t play D and who plays a very replaceable position? No thanks.

John Salmons – I did read that the 5th year is not guaranteed (not sure how true that is), so that makes it a little more palatable. But didn’t the Bucks just acquire Maggette? How is that supposed to work? Will the Bucks get to play with two balls on offense?

Amir Johnson – Wow. All I can say is Wow.

Drew Gooden – So, last year all he could get was a one year, $1.8M deal. He did not improve. He is one year older. His numbers have gone down almost every year since ‘04-’05. And now he gets 5 years, $32M? The Bucks will be Gooden’s 9th team (not even counting his very short stay in Washington this year). This makes sense.

Channing Frye – While this seems “reasonable” by today’s market standards, how many good seasons has Frye had? He can shoot, and that’s it. Yeah, his size helps space the floor for the Suns, but Nash won’t play forever setting up Frye for wide open baskets. I just have a feeling this one is going to end in disaster.

To answer the main question in this thread: No, I’m not glad the Warriors have no money to spend on free agents. It shows a clear lack of long-term organizational planning, and that’s (one of the primary reasons) why this team stinks. Granted, if they did have $$$, I’m sure they would blow it like the Grizzlies or Hawks by overspending on players who will not win a title. But when you offer Gilbert $100M+, Brand $90M, and finally “settle” on Corey for $50M, it shows a lack of any managerial focus or understanding of the players in this league.

Amir Johnson’s contract is approximately the MLE, a bit more if I calculate right. Those tend not to be overly difficult to unload if he doesn’t wind up producing, but it appears he can do some useful things. He’s a reasonably good rebounder (above average for a big man) and remarkably efficient from the floor. Not anything that you’d confuse with shooting range, but he won’t hurt you by taking bad shots and hasn’t changed that with more playing time.

Solid rebounder, efficient and doesn’t do stupid things…those guys are useful, not to transform a team, but still useful. At about the MLE, they’re worthwhile. For a backup big who won’t hurt you, can come in grab boards for 20-25mpg (before the fouls get the best of him), that’s not really such a bad deal. He’s just not at all exciting, but exciting isn’t a good way to evaluate contract value.

Importantly, Johnson is 22 and will be 23 next season, meaning this contract takes him through what should be his most productive seasons. He’s He should continue to improve for another year or so, unlike most of the guys on the market who are at or past peak production. It has the most chance of his production exceeding what he’s done in the past, whiile most of the signees are likely to start to decline much sooner, even if that rate is rather slow. It’s the least ridiculous of the contract so far for this reason as well.

Amir’s deal is actually the closest thing to a bargain in the lot (not that it’s a bargain at this point), but it appears that the fewest GSoMers are in favor of it. Points per game seems to be dominating the thinking again, predictably so.

Guy is a pretty efficient scorer/rebounder who under more minutes could be a 12-14 ppg, 9-10 rpg guy. Plays good defense, blocks shots. If he can get 30 minutes per game, i think this contract will look more than fair.

Considering the current and future state of the economy (things ain’t getting better any time soon), I’m surprised how quickly these teams were in regards to offering mediocre players like Gay these HUGE contracts.

What I don’t understand, though I’ve kept my free agent-watching to a minimum, is why the Rockets are not a hot destination for one of these players. I have no idea if they have the cap room or anything, all I know is that Yao told Bosh he was looking forward to playing with him next year…so maybe they do have a way to get one of them on?

Houston seems to have a damn good supporting cast for Bosh, they have Brooks at the 1 and Martin at the 2, Ariza at the 3, Bosh at the 4 and a returning Yao at the 5? With Battier, Hayes, Hill, Budinger, and potentially Scola and Patterson off the bench? If Yao really has recovered from his injury long enough to play a full season, that is a beast of a team.

…but the reason for those ridiculous contracts is the possibility of the lock-out next season. Those contracts could be worth almost $4-5 million less if there are only, say 52 games played instead of a full 82 game schedule.

Take out that significant chunk of money and they seem a bit more reasonable.