An Open Letter to Chris Mullin

by FoyledAgain on Nov 2, 2006 12:25 PM PST

Dear Mr. Mullin

You dont know me, but rest assured I know you. You were the glory days of the Warriors, the running, the scoring, the winning, and the hope. The hope that every year we had a chance of winning it all, of taking the league by surprise, of taking home the trophy one more time. If it didnt all come true, it didnt matter because we still had the hope, the chance to say 'we will have another opportunity next year.' As you know we havent had much of that hope in the past, oh 12 years. I know you want it just as much as we do, and you are doing what you think is best for the team. Thank you for bringing in Don Nelson, but a good coach, even a great coach, can't make a losing team a good one. It's the players that need changing. I know some of them are your personal projects, and trading them away would be admitting defeat, but we need something new. Not something new like Antawn Jamison for a disgruntled Nick Van Exel, not letting a free agent walk away and become the 4th leading scorer in the NBA, not letting another summer go by with nothing changing but a few numbers on the salary books. If anything the talent of our players is worse this year. The stress of carrying a franchise wore out Jason Richardson's knees, Baron Davis is in a position of having no one behind him to challenge for minutes, and Mike Dunleavy continues to be the player he has always been, I wont get in to that. I love the warriors, I wish more than anything in the world that they could be a good team, an over .500 team, a playoff team. Failing that i wish we could be a team with hope. The Portland Trailblazers were awful, so they took some risks, and are now the kiddy squad and projected punching bag team of the league. But their fans have hope, hope that Brandon Roy will win ROY, hope that Lamarcus Aldridge will become a solid pivot, hope that Zach Randolph steps it up a notch and becomes a super star. In golden state, we pray that Baron Davis will stop playing lazy, that Mike Dunleavy will stop sucking horrendously, that our first rounds picks stop ending up as busts. I did forget to mention Monta Ellis, a risk in the second round who could be a star, try to take more risks like that. Ok so we do have some things to hope for, and maybe Portland will continue to struggle, but their management isnt afraid to change things if they do. Thats all I would ask for, be willing to admit that we have made some bad draft picks, bad decisions on extensions, and shake things up. Fire out trade offers like the Celtics, give Nellie the tools he needs to have an atheltic uptempo offense, cause he is sorely lacking them right now. This may be a premature overreaction to insubstantial evidence, but I care enough about the warriors to go completely crazy over insubstantiality. If Don Nelson turns things around, works a few miracles, and delivers without a roster change, I will gladly eat every one of these words, because all I want to see, like every other fan, are the Warriors winning.

Sincerely
Foyled Again

Please feel free to drop your ideas, thoughts and comments

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!

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wow..

good read..did last night's game bring this on?

the crowning achievement of ira newble's illustrious career

by JudBooshlur on Nov 2, 2006 12:30 PM PST reply actions

Letter to Mullie...

Almost all true. Love the spitit of the post, but one thing the Jail Blazers have is Paul Allen and if I'm thinking correctly, he has a couple of BILLION $$$ to rearrange the team and management unlike LudaChris Cohan who has other fiscal interests.

by gabezgsw on Nov 2, 2006 12:53 PM PST reply actions

Cohan is an idiot

But ultimately he is not making any roster decisions...I believe. Although he does hire the guys who hire the coaches and players so if you want to climb to the top of the ladder when your cleaning house, I would start with him.

by MoUpInTheO on Nov 2, 2006 1:08 PM PST up reply actions

Losing Gilbert Arenas

It always amazes me how people forget the Warriors couldn't match the contract offer Gilbert Arenas received from the Washington Wizards. For all the negative things people have to say about Chris Cohan you can't argue that he will pay his players. Look at the contracts of Adoynal Foyle, Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Baron Davis, and Jason Richardson as evidence of that. There is now a rule in place because of Arenas leaving the Warriors that a team would be able to match the type of contract Arenas signed when he left. At that point in time the Warriors couldn't go above the mid-level exception because Arenas had only spent 2 years in the league and we didn't have his "Bird rights." I pretty much agree with the rest of your thoughts that we need to shake up the personnel and get some new blood in here. How difficult will that be with the over paid players we're looking to rid ourselves of like Murphy, Dunleavy, and Foyle? Only time will tell but I hope Mullin is already working the phones.

PT-42

by norcaldevilasu on Nov 2, 2006 1:03 PM PST reply actions

they didnt have the money

but going off of gilerts own statements, the real reason he left was because he got disrespected by the ownership during contract negotiations.

by FoyledAgain on Nov 2, 2006 2:39 PM PST up reply actions

right. "disrespected."

What's Gil going to say?

"It came down to money. That's all that really matters in the end. All the feel good stories about building something with the Warriors don't really mean much when I can make $34 million more than Golden State can guarantee me for a 6 year deal. That or I get locked in long for less in Oakland or I take a short deal there with the risk of injury where I'd be out close to $59 million. And since there's a maximum salary in the NBA based on your years in the league, the most the Warriors could have offered me in a year wouldn't have been that much more if they maxed out for me. Am I gonna gamble $59 million dollars? But I don't want to sound greedy because for most people, $5million or $30 or $64million or $100 million to play a game all sound about the same--a hell of a lot of money, inconceivable, that is until you get the chance to make it and then you see that 5 and 64 are really different numbers. Really different. First class gold star mileage club and mansion (but in Northern California, not that big a mansion) vs. 'Own Jet' and 'eccentrically bizarre high altitude simulation house' different. It's tough to really relate that to y'all, but perhaps you'll understand I'm still not a bad guy and I really do want that house with the thin air, so I better repeat 'it's about respect' until someone believes me."

Gil didn't want to sound like it was all about money, but it probably was. It's possible that his agent wouldn't have had him committed to the asylum for taking a much lower offer to remain in Oakland, but more likely the psychiatrists would be lining up to declare him insane for sticking around with the Warriors for "respect."

by jae on Nov 2, 2006 4:10 PM PST up reply actions

great

great write. Everything is true and i have the same attitude like yo if you prove me wrong i don't care i just want to win type thing and i am definately disappointed. anyway hopefully last night was no indication on how we will play the rest of the year. i was very disappointed, but i still have high hopes and i am confident that things will turn around in the near future.

by travisl212 on Nov 2, 2006 3:09 PM PST reply actions

GILBERT ARENAS - the truth

Hey Norcaldevilasu, you need to get your story straight!!! Within 10 seconds I was able to pull out this SFGATE article where it confirmed what foyledagain was talking about... (and I remember this too)...

Gilbert Arenas insists he would have returned to the Warriors if owner Chris Cohan had assured him the team would still sign him next summer even if he sustained a serious injury in the upcoming season.

In a 25-minute interview Monday with KNBR's Ralph Barbieri and Mark Ibanez, Arenas said he would have rejected the Washington Wizards' $60-plus million offer and signed a one-year deal with the Warriors had Cohan been more involved in the talks.

"If you are turning down $60 million to come to a place you want to be, you have to have some trust," Arenas said. "If a guy I do not know (well) can tell me in my face that the deal will get done no matter how you play, then OK, that's all I wanted to hear."

Arenas: Cohan Let me Down

ARENAS WOULD HAVE STAYED WITH THE W'S IF COHAN WOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM HIS WORD THAT HE WOULD PAY HIM FAT IN A YEAR, AND ARENAS WOULD HAVE TEMPORARILY SIGNED A 1 YEAR DEAL TO KEEP HIM AROUND. Since then I have noticed that the Warriors own broadcasters try to erase the facts from their memory, in an effort to not make Cohan sound as bad as he is, but don't forget who writes their checks! The bottom line is, if there was better ownership and better GM's involved at the time, we would have been able to keep Gilbert Arenas. PERIOD. So no more of this crap about Warriors not being able to match him, because he liked the team and like Oakland and would have been happy to stay.

by gsdubz on Nov 2, 2006 5:53 PM PST reply actions

Adding on

Gilbert was boys with JRich and Troy. He said he wanted to stay on with his buddies from his draft class and make things happen.

But what bothered me the most about Arenas leaving was that the Warrriors didn't make any real attempt to move contracts the preceeding February trade deadline or offseason.

It's like they didn't even try to keep Arenas. Granted it was tough, but I would've like to see way more effort. Something creative.

by Atma Brother ONE on Nov 2, 2006 8:06 PM PST up reply actions

The Arenas mess revisited.

The only time they could have moved salaries was before the trade deadline. At that point, Gil had played a little more than a half season. He'd done well, but there were some serious questions about whether he'd ever really be a point guard because he turned the ball over with alarming regularity, was considered too small to be a full time 2, and that was Richardson's position as well.

To get enough under the cap to have matched (or come close--I still don't buy that it was trust so much as money, though Gil did a nice lip service to make himself seem less greedy) they would have had to not just get to the cap, but get about 8 million under. At the time that meant moving more than just a couple of players. The players who would have fit the bill at the time Fortson and Jamison and Dampier, all of whom were difficult contracts to move and get back zero salary. Find a taker for one or two of these guys along with a Bobby Sura and a Foyle and you're close, but you're also saying that Arenas is worth gutting the rest of your roster.

It's risky jettisoning several players for nothing coming back to try to keep a guy who had played about a half a season.

After the season, there was no realistic way to dump salary. In the off season, there are no expiring contracts to obtain since contracts all expire at the end of seasons. They'd expired for the team that had them and the contracts left to trade for had to be on the table for the next season. The cap rules meant that to get expiring contracts they would have had to make a deal in February. Should they have done that? In hindsight, probably yes, but it really meant trying to find a taker for some players no one wanted and that doesn't come without a cost. Keeping him would have meant giving up a young guy with potential (at the time, that meant Richardson) and likely a future 1st rounder. That's a big gamble for a guy who had a half season under his belt and seemed like a turnover prone 'tweener guard.'

Yes, they should have done it, but I doubt that any of the 30 GMs out there would have played it differently than Saint did at the time.

by jae on Nov 3, 2006 9:48 AM PST up reply actions

All good points

I think my main thing is that deep down inside I truly believe Gilbert wanted to stay in the Bay on the Warriors with JRich and Troy. I think management screwed up a good thing. Gilbert's quote about not trusting Cohan is also an indictment of how poorly run this franchise is.

by Atma Brother ONE on Nov 3, 2006 9:59 AM PST up reply actions

Cohan Bad, but it's still about the money.

Absolutely agree that Gil saying, or even hinting that he didn't trust management is damning. However, though I believe he may be truthful in saying he wanted to stay, I doubt very, very much that he would have stayed even if he did respect Cohan. The athlete who turns down $64 million guaranteed for a one year deal for $4.5 in order to have a shot at $72 million in a year is a rare animal. His agent would have him committed, and rightly so. It was about money. He can make himself look better and make himself feel better with lip service, but it came down to money. He wanted to stay, but realistically, he moved on because there was more money on the table.

by jae on Nov 3, 2006 2:55 PM PST up reply actions

That was what I was going for

Recognize the star potential, dump some salaries, and offer him an equal value contract. Its not the fact that they didnt resign him, but that their effort exemplified the losing mentality our management has had for a long while. Someone outbid us, well thats it game over, they win. Just care enough to try

by FoyledAgain on Nov 3, 2006 2:41 AM PST reply actions

remember

forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't you guys forgetting that it was impossible for the Warriors to resign him. They could not have not offered him anything more than a mid-level exception. That's just the way the NBA screwed over teams for making good second round picks back then. Like norcaldevilasu said early on in this line of thought...it just couldn't have happened. It doesn't matter whether or not we had cleared . I want Arenas back just as much as the next guy and I wish we hadn't lost him(and we wouldn't have if the NBA had the "Arenas Rule" before Arenas left), but we did and it's not really our fault, but rather a loophole in the system that has been fixed. I love to blame Cohan and St. Jean and all the other crappy executives we've had, but this was one time where it wasn't really their fault. Let's attack Stern for once.

Still living in '94.

by texanwarrior on Nov 3, 2006 1:43 PM PST reply actions

Gilbert

He said if Cohan would had assured him he would signed him even if he got hurt. Might be true but it would have been against NBA rules. Look what happen to the TWolves when the did this with Grant Hill. They lost all lottery picks for I belive 4 yrs. I don't think Cohan was willing to gamble that.

by Psion on Nov 3, 2006 7:00 PM PST reply actions