GSoM Q&A with Tim Kawakami 11/15/06 (Part 4 of 5)

Golden State of Mind friend Tim Kawakami did another great Q&A with us last week. It's fun to talk Warriors and Bay Area sports with Tim because he always has a fresh, witty perspective. Make sure to make Tim's blog Talking Points with Tim Kawakami a daily stop. Also, make sure to check out his work in the San Jose Mercury. Tim's always got the latest scoop on the Bay Area sports scene and some great insights. Warriors Nation is lucky to have Tim covering the Warriors.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V

Here's Part IV of our Q&A with the final part dropping soon...

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Golden State of Mind: At home games Mike Dunleavy has been getting booed every time out so far this season. Does Dunleavy want a change of scenery or does he want to stay with the Warriors? Are the Warriors looking to move him? Also, any truth to the rumors that have him uniting with dad down in LA with the Warriors picking up Corey Maggette?

Tim Kawakami: Dunleavy's stuck in a weird spot--the stuff he does well isn't always clear to see (move without the ball, make the entry pass, space the court) and the stuff he screws up is almost always blatant, obvious and loudly boo-able (wide-open clanks, destroyed on defense, bland response to almost everything). He's just not a spotlight player. He needs spotlight guys around him--Baron and Monta would be two, obviously.

I was thinking during his very nice Toronto performance (still met with sporadic boos): If he just hit the floor once or twice or shoved an elbow into a bigger guy or blew through a pick at 60 mph, the fans would like him. I think they would... a little bit, at least. But Dunleavy just can't/won't do that stuff. So he's stuck.

Does that mean the Warriors will eventually trade him? Don't know about that. Mullin still loves the guy, still believes that the court-vision, game-knowledge stuff will pan out and he doesn't want to be the guy who gave Dunleavy away to become a key player for a winning team.

Doesn't mean he won't trade him. But there's that big contract, plus the base-year compensation issues for two years. Plus Chris loves him more than anybody, except Mike's dad. Which leads us back to Maggette. I could see that one. I've written about that one. But if Maggette's head is on right--which it seems to be in the last week or so--it's a hard one for the Clippers to do. He's such a dangerous player coming off the bench... much more dangerous in a playoff situation than Dunleavy, no matter who's coaching him.

Golden State of Mind: During Nellie's recent stint with the Dallas Mavericks a lot of trades were made with a lot of talent being shifted around (Nick Van Exel, Antwan Jamison, Antoine Walker, Jerry Stackhouse, and Devin Harris to name a few). Are Nellie and the Warriors active on the trade market right now? Do you think the Warriors will end the season with the same roster they have right now?

Tim Kawakami: I think Nelson's doing a lot of his activity within the roster this season--Ellis, Biedrins, Pietrus, that sort of thing. Once he gets a handle on the group, maybe by January, I think we'll hear some hints from him about where he'd like to go. I'm sure he'll have some ideas for Mullin, who is not shy about gameplanning his way to a trade or two.

Will they do it? They clearly realize that the Pietrus money issue is a looming problem. They cannot re-sign him to good money without going into luxury, especially with Biedrins and Ellis coming up, too. That's where the Richardson-Murphy-Dunleavy-Foyle (toss in Baron, too) deals just kill them.

So Chris and Nelson are going to want to move one or two of those deals. They've been wanting to do that for a while, but they were hesitant to get too bold because, with Montgomery coaching them, they didn't know exactly how good the young guys were behind them. Plus, they weren't sure if Dunleavy and Murphy were being mis-used, too. I think we can see that Dunleavy and Murphy pretty much are who they are. And that the young guys are better than they showed under Montgomery.

To me, that probably spells a trade in February, but probably not a mega-bonus deal. Maybe for an interesting power forward. I'm on record about Channing Frye--he's an authentic NBA multi-talented power forward. He's had a terrible sophomore-season start, but unless he has just suddenly lost it, you could plop him next to Biedrins and there's your frontline for a long time.

I'd offer the Knicks anybody on my roster except Ellis, Biedrins and maybe O'Bryant and see if Isiah wants to be a sucker again. He might be panicking, you never know. I know Mullin liked Frye a lot coming into the draft. I don't know how Frye fits with Nelson's plan. But I'd be looking for a guy like him in February.

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Stay tuned for the rest of Tim's second Q&A with us...

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V

This past September we did another fun Q&A with Tim: Part I | Part II