Rumor: Warriors Willing to Drop $65 million for 6 years for Al Harrington

by Atma Brother ONE on Aug 19, 2006 10:51 AM PDT in Rumors

From Mike Wells of IndyStar.com:

The Hawks were ready to sign Harrington to a six-year, $57 million deal, then send him and center John Edwards to the Pacers for their $7.5 million trade exception and a future first-round draft pick when Indiana owner Herb Simon nixed the deal because he didn't like the length of Harrington's contract. Simon wanted Harrington, 26, to sign a four-year deal worth about $9 million a season, and he also doesn't want Edwards, the person said...

The Pacers, who are trying to rebound from a disappointing season, have spent more than a month trying to work out a deal with the Hawks. The Pacers were the front-runners for Harrington, who spent his first six seasons here, but they'll have trouble getting him now. Denver and Golden State are believed to be willing to acquire Harrington for about $65 million over six years. The Los Angeles Lakers are also expected to be in the mix.

This is pretty interesting for several reasons:

The Pacers organization seems to know what they're doing here. They realized that this year's market has been unkind and there's no reason to give Harrington a long, expensive contract given Wilcox and Gooden's contracts (see Sonics Ink Chris Wilcox to a "Show-Me Signing" and Good(en) Deal for Cavs Exposes Bad Deals for Warriors).
The Denver Nuggets don't have a clue. Fresh off giving Nene-money to well, Nene and 2 years after inking Kenyon Martin to a superstar contract (great defender and running big man when healthy, but NOT a superstar), they're trying to tie up $65 million to a player who will undoubtedly get in Melo's way and overload their front court even further. Strange, very strange. They shouldn't even be trying to get Harrington. They need a 2 guard and a long range bomber badly.
Chris and Rod don't seemed to have learned their lessons. Harrington's a nice player, but he's not going to single-handedly launch the Warriors into the playoffs. If Wells' rumor is true, $65 million over 6 seasons (nearly $11 million a season) for Al Harrington is another huge miscalculation. That's close to superstar money for a player who will most likely never make an All Star team.

Maybe I'm completely off. I honestly didn't watch Al Harrington last season as closely as I would have liked to, but it's "surprisingly hard" to catch many Atlanta Hawks games on national TV. Anyone out there live in the ATL or catch many Hawks games on NBA League Pass? Does signing Al Harrington to a 6 year $65 mil deal make dollars & sense?

Track of the Day: DJ Quik- "Dollars & Sense" from the classic Murder Was the Case soundtrack

Comments

YIKES

by 9thw0nder on Aug 19, 2006 11:07 AM PDT 0 recs

No wonder the Warriors can't get over the hump.

The Warriors have to pay players more to play here. Al's willing to take $57 million to play for the Pacers, but he wants $65 million to play for the Warriors.
That's why we paid so much for all our big contract guys. If they had left, who would come and for how much ?

by Worrier on Aug 19, 2006 11:37 AM PDT 0 recs

Umm...

I believe the difference in salary prices is due to Indiana having a 7.5 mil exception.

by namjagerungbengi on Aug 19, 2006 12:39 PM PDT 0 recs

Another mistake waiting to happen

No, Mullin hasn't learned his lesson and I suspect more and more that he has very little vision in what he's doing. Harrington is an average player, no more, and has already shown that he doesn't improve the lot of a bad team. I realize that it's not entirely fair to blame him for the fate of the Hawks, but for two years he's been there he's shown if he's not part of the problem, neither is he part of the solution.

Mullin's got to go and he's got to go now before he mortgages the future cap space with yet another overpaid player who is adequate at best.

by jae on Aug 19, 2006 12:52 PM PDT 0 recs

I actually don't know much about Al Harrington

I just hope this is part of some plan. You know, a plan that actually works, for once.

by Gain on 10 on Aug 19, 2006 12:58 PM PDT 0 recs

Great blog

I've been reading it for months (since back in the days of the old domain) and I must say I'm truly amazed that you continue to pump out such great content about such a depressing subject :)

I'm feeling the urge to comment here for the first time because I just created a new portal for tracking Warriors' news and naturally I included your blog's feed on it. It's a publicly editable portal (think Wikipedia on HGH) so anyone can contribute content. Hopefully it can stir up some interest in W's fans and get your blog a few more clicks. Here's the URL: http://www.zimbio.com/portal/Golden+State+Warriors+Basketball

Anyways, back on topic: if we picked up Al for $65 million, how much money would we have sunk into our 1,2 and 3? About $150 million? Even if Mullin can find that impact big we've been lusting after for so long, we'll be too poor to sign him!

With Al at the 3 maybe we can slide into a low playoff spot for a couple of years, but at what cost?

by Scruff on Aug 19, 2006 1:17 PM PDT 0 recs

Nice portal

Nice work on that portal Scruff. Thanks for the link to GSoM. Hopefully it brings more people to GSoM to help us raise more money for season tix.

Also, would you mind adding us to the Communities section?

By the way shouldn't GSoM be listed higher than ESPN and Mercury? We're so much more fun! Hahaha, just kidding... but we are more fun!

Hope to see more comments from you.

93 'til Infinity: The Warriors' playoff drought?

by Atma Brother ONE on Aug 19, 2006 1:23 PM PDT up 0 recs

Ask and ye shall receive

by Scruff on Aug 19, 2006 1:32 PM PDT 0 recs

thanks!

that was quick. thanks for putting us up at the top. =)

by Fantasy Junkie on Aug 20, 2006 11:29 PM PDT up 0 recs

question

i just wanted to give props to all the writers here at golden state of mind. i've been reading for a while now and finally decided to post something of my own. your articles are always very well written and the information you give is appreciated. now on to business, i was wondering if there is something comparable to the espn trade machine that lets you view a player's salary in regard to his stats? that way we can really gauge a player's value according to his pay. we can see if mike dunleavy (or any other player for that matter) really does earn his pay when compared to other players at his salary.

by jmorales on Aug 19, 2006 1:40 PM PDT 0 recs

good question

welcome to the community! and thanks for the compliment about the site! we love doing this stuff and it gets even more fun as more and more readers start to post comments.

for your question. i haven't heard of anything about a scale that measures a player's stats against his salary. that would be beneficial for us as fans to make some trades and argue over who is better than who. there would be some problems with it such as average players on bad teams putting up big numbers, but it would still be a fun tool. anyways if i find anything like that i'll pass it along.

by Fantasy Junkie on Aug 20, 2006 11:28 PM PDT up 0 recs

Hmmmm...

I guess you could take John Hollinger's PER rating and then use salaries off Hoops Hype, ESPN Trade Machine, or RealGM to get at that.

It would be something like:
PER Rating/ Salary = Bang per Buck

Keep us posted if you find anything better jmorales! Your hoops moneyball idea would make a great diary.

93 'til Infinity: The Warriors' playoff drought?

by Atma Brother ONE on Aug 20, 2006 11:47 PM PDT up 0 recs

WHAT IF he dumps Foyle or Dunleavy?

If we unload Foyle or Dunleavy's contract in this deal will it be any less bitter? At 10-11M/year for an undersized, athletic PF/SF that's an improvement over and swap for other bloated contract(s)? Maybe.

Quote me: If Murphy goes in this 6y/65M contract for A.Harrington the GSw are the laughing stock of the West. Not one sportswriter will pass on a chance to rip into Mullin once the wheels fall off his team and coach - December.

We're heading back to the St. Jean era with weak coaches, bloated contracts and average players.

Eventualy Cohan will hear from his East Hampton neighbor and friend, Coach Larry Brown. Mullin and his chronies are dumbasses. Cohan will replace Mullin with out-of-the-box thinker Rob Babcock or someother equally weak personality.

NBA Owners hate free spending owners because they ends up in a franchise disaster like Portland or in NYC and want out after runing up salaries for everyone. Bad franchises piss away money and hurt the NBA.

GSW are going to languish -- I bet San Jose will land an NBA franchise within 5 years. We are too big a market for this crap.

by joe sez on Aug 19, 2006 2:05 PM PDT 0 recs

This is ridiculous

There's no way Al Harrington should garner that money. Mullin needs to calm the hell down, realize he's made some terrible stakes, and wait it out, gather draft picks and more young talent, and decide whom to re-sign over the coming years (Biedrins will probably be cheap, so might as well, Pietrus probably not so much, see how Ellis/Diogu develop) while waiting for the opportunity to finally come out from under the Foyle-Murphy-Dunleavy burden. Mullin needs to realize there are no quick fixes for this team now. No amount of money can fix that until you clean up your previous mistakes, which will take some time to do. I know that sucks, and if it were up to me Mullin may very well be fired over it, but that's probably the best case at this point. Go with what we have and hope we see some of this young talent blossom while not screwing ourselves even further for the future.

by jonathan on Aug 19, 2006 5:57 PM PDT 0 recs

The idea makes perfect sense

The problem is Mullin might think he's going to get canned if the Warriors have a third straight 34 win season.

Some of us might be looking toward a loaded 2007 NBA Draft lottery (Oden, Durant, Young, Yi), but there's no way Mullin and Monty are.

93 'til Infinity: The Warriors' playoff drought?

by Atma Brother ONE on Aug 19, 2006 6:01 PM PDT up 0 recs

Sense for one man.

At best, building a .500 ballclub without leaving any cap space isn't gonna save Mullin.

by joe sez on Aug 19, 2006 7:45 PM PDT up 0 recs

other deal for warriors

Sign-and-trade Harrington and send him to Golden State for Mickael Pietrus, Zarko Cabarkapa, Andris Bierdins and a future draft pick.

Convincing a team to give up three young and relatively inexpensive talents, all three in contract years, and a draft pick would be the steal of the century for the Hawks. But if the Warriors are as eager to get their hands on Harrington as has been rumored, maybe itճ more than just a pipe dream. Pietrus ($2.5 million) Cabarkapa ($2.1) and Bierdins ($1.9) would fortify the Hawksՠroster at three different positions (small forward, power forward and center) without busting the budget. The draft pick is gravy.

that was part of an article from http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/0820nbainsider.html
on three scenarios for harrington.

bad news: tha's a horrible deal foR the warriors, harringtons not worth that

good news: neither of the other scenarios for atlanta are nearly as good, so we probably would get harrington

by mydedgerbil555 on Aug 19, 2006 9:34 PM PDT 0 recs

well, then again ...

forget the cap for one second -

BD - (Utah guy)
JRich - Monta
Harrington - Dunleavy
Murphy - Ike
Foyle - POB

that could get us into playoffs, and I know there's a sentiment that we should tank for the lottery, but when was the last time we got lucky with the #1 pick? and there's also well expressed opinions that we can't attract FAs cuz were not ever in the playoffs ... who out there is a MP fan? What have Zarko and Beedy shown? Is that a big risk?

ok, back to reality, bad for the cap ....

by hardcore on Aug 19, 2006 10:04 PM PDT up 0 recs

not a playoff team

At this point it should be clear that Foyle is a 20mpg backup center. POB is totally untested. If he's the "project" that I think most envision him as, it means either more minutes for Foyle or more of the ghastly mistake of Murphy and/or Ike at center. That mistake alone keeps us out of the playoffs.

Harrington didn't help the Hawks one bit. I know, they're the Hawks, but why the Warriors would somehow bring out more is a mystery.

That lineup looks like a 34 win team. Adding more salary to make another 34 win team seems to be about all the Warriors can accomplish.

by jae on Aug 20, 2006 9:20 AM PDT up 0 recs

maybe, maybe not

but do we really want to watch last year's team (minus Fish) again???
... there might be a way for a Boston-GS-Atlanta trade to work which could move Dunleavy and bring Harrington, sending picks and expiring contract/cheap young players (from both Boston & GS) to Atlanta ... wouldn't you rather have Harrington than Dunleavy? We can throw in your favorite, MP, too ...

by hardcore on Aug 20, 2006 9:38 AM PDT up 0 recs

Deck chairs and the Titanic

I'm really against the idea of shuffling the deck chairs to get Harrington, in part because I don't think he'll add to the win total more than Dunleavy and I suspect that he'll cost a whole lot more. This is probably an unpopular opinion and it's not an endorsement of Dunleavy, but there's simply nothing about Harrington that makes me think that he'll enhance this team. I don't buy that he's got such an adept post game that he'll change the face of the team. He scored most of his points on jumpers last year. I don't buy that he'll enhance the defense because the Hawks were a better defensive team when he was on the bench.

Change for the sake of change usually comes with bigger, longer contracts. If that change doesn't have a better than even odds of making the team better--and I don't think the acquisition of Harrington satisfies this--it's a risk to shell out dollars and extend the time that we're paying adquate players star salaries.

by jae on Aug 20, 2006 11:28 AM PDT up 0 recs

not zarko

i dont mind losing zarko but biedrins got good talent for a 19 year old and id rather have mp2 as a back to harrington the dunleavy. beyond that, your right its bad for the cap. if we decided to tank 07 i would trade the pick for a proven veteran

by mydedgerbil555 on Aug 19, 2006 11:17 PM PDT 0 recs

blinded by desire!

agreed on Dunleavy/MP but who will take him (Boston???) ...

Maybe blinded my deep need to hope, but BD-JR-AH could be west coast version of Nets trio Kidd-Carter-Jefferson and at least makes GS more exciting to watch and hard to guard by opponents

if we could work out the finances, Beedy-MP-Zarko for Harrington seems like a deal, we gotta give something to get something

my hope is we don't over bid Harrington's contract - all the pts above about $65m are valid, something between that and the Pacers deal is still hard to swallow but if we can swing it cap wise somehow ...

by hardcore on Aug 20, 2006 7:47 AM PDT up 0 recs

News....

News in 2006: Warriors fans are exited about signing Al Harrington to 65 million dollars over 6 years.

News in 2007: Warriors fans complaining about the now overpaid Al Harrington, who now averages 6 points and 3 rebounds, and is backing up Andris Biedrins and Ike Diogu. The Warriors are now known as the New York Knicks. The Warriors, however, did trade away Baron Davis for -------- and he has lead them to a 15-6 record at the end of the season, sparking hope for playoffs next year, and sending season ticket sales skyrocketing.

by Zorgon on Aug 20, 2006 10:00 AM PDT 0 recs