Should Lacob and Guber Replace Warriors Management?

1.  Fire Rowell, Riley and Nelson Immediately and Get Replacements!

2.  Take a Test Drive and If It Doesn't Work Out, Then Get Replacements

3.  Keep One or Two, But Not All Three

4.  Other (Please Explain)

The Golden State Warriors have two roster spots left and they need to fill it because Ekpe Udoh is injured and out until late January and Brandan Wright needs to prove to his critics that he can take the pounding of the NBA and not get hurt.  Joe Lacob said he wants a relatively “young” coach.  Clearly, Don Nelson does not fit the description.  However, we get news that head coach options may be limited.  Afterward, there was news that Lacob wants a test drive of the head coach and GM.  One test drives a car.  If they test drive a manager, usually it comes with an interim label.  Not one that has been in place for years.  Somewhere in all of that, there came news that Warriors President Robert Rowell knows team secrets, so he should be kept on as a consultant, at least, for the transition.  Already the Warriors old management under Christopher Cohan have been releasing Warriors news, feeding BS to the media, in order for them to keep their jobs under new ownership.  And new ownership has been reluctant to have new management ready to go such as highest bidder Larry Ellison.  I am not the only one to ask why?  Critical thinking Warrior fans have done the same.

The answer lies in the fact that the Warriors have been ahead of the game in getting season ticket renewals.  I do not know the exact numbers, but compared to the Sacramento Kings who got into the six thousand range after the 2010 NBA Draft, the Warriors easily beat their closest competition.  They are close to double that, if not more, than the Kings’ numbers.  To look at the Kings, once season ticket sales dropped in early 2009, the Kings started to clean house.  However, season ticket sales have not dropped for the Warriors.  They continue to remain strong.  It’s the San Francisco Bay Area with the educated sports fans who make basketball a close second to the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders.  If there was another team in the San Jose area, then things would be different.  Lacob and Guber would be fighting to sell season tickets and they would do what is necessary to attract them and that would be to replace the sixteen years of misery under Cohan and his management group.  Even Major League Baseball has two teams in the area and are careful to distinguish which part of the bay they reside.

Other teams such as the Philadelphia 76ers were able to get former Nets President of Basketball Operations, Rod Thorn, as their president.  This was not out of circumstance, but planned.  It would be a pleasant surprise to this Warrior fan if Lagoober had someone in place already such as former Portland Trailblazer President Tom Penn, who is a NBA salary cap expert, and former GM and ex-Warrior, Kevin Pritchard, as replacements to come in when Lagoober gets approved.

As for head coach, there are the likes of Leonard Frank who will cost $$$$s or Brian Shaw, an Oakland native, who would cost less, but play the triangle, a style different from the run and gun Warriors.

You see the facts of life are that owners want to 1.  Make money. 2.  Make the playoffs. 3.  Win championships.  After #1 is accomplished, then several are not motivated to do what it takes for #2 and #3.  If owners are guaranteed before the season to make money, then there isn’t much incentive to change things.  It’s like paying rookie quarterback Sam Bedford all that guaranteed money even before he takes an official NFL snap.  Jiminy Crickets, it’s more than what established star quarterbacks in the league make.  With the Golden Steate Warriors, its just the law of supply and demand and just seeing the evil bastard, Christopher J. Cohan, go was enough to get fans buying season tickets again.

What do you think the new Warriors owners should do?