The Warriors’ $206 Million Summer

It was announced today that the Golden State Warriors intend to retain the services of Latvian center, believed to be seriously considering a Childress-type move to the Euro leagues, after making a 6 year, $63 million offer. Add that to the $67 million for Monta Ellis, $50 million for Corey Maggette, $17 million for Ronny Turiaf, $9 matching offer to keep Kelenna Azubuike, and the trade that brought in Marcus Williams, and we’re looking at a $206 million+ offseason for the Golden State Warriors. And despite all that cash, most people will probably deem it a move backwards because of the loss of Baron Davis.

Personally, I think Biedrins was overpaid. I would consider him an $8 mil per year player at best. He is a weak defender and rarely creates his own offense, but he’s still very young and is at least a slightly above average center in the NBA – a class of players that always seem to be overpaid – so without knowing what type of offers Biedrins was getting from Europe, I have to say the Warriors probably made the correct decision. I also think Maggette is being overpaid. I love him as a player. He is country strong from the 2, gets to the line like a machine, can hit the 3, and seems to be a Nellie type player. But he is about to turn 29 and has missed games every year of his 9 year career due to injury. A lucrative long term contract is a big risk for a player like that (afterall, weren’t those the primary reasons for not offering Baron the type of deal he wanted? He’s been more durable than Maggette the last few years and makes a much bigger impact on the game and specifically the Warriors). If Ellis was given his contract by any team other than the Warriors, I’d say he was being overpaid as well. Ellis fits perfectly with the Warriors, however, (or at least he did when they had BD to guard some shooting guards) and I think he will transition decently into the PG role. He played it for several games 2 years ago when Davis was hurt and did very well. Turiaf was a good pickup and Marcus Williams still has the potential to be a starting NBA point guard.

Now, the only big problem I have is this. The Warriors just spent a TON of money this offseason, typing up big time cap space (Ellis, Biedrins, Maggette) for 5+ years… and might still not be as good as they were last season, when they missed the playoffs in the ultra-competitive Western Conference. When Baron Davis left, I basically saw two options – get one of the top remaining free agents this summer (Brand or Arenas) or start the rebuilding process. Anything else and they’d be spending several years in no man’s land, earning 9-11 seeds out West, missing the playoffs, and not getting the franchise changing type lottery picks. They made valiant efforts to get Brand and Arenas and I hope Warriors fans realize that, but once they both were off the table, I think it was time to go the other way. The two moves that I feel go against that were Maggette and Biedrins. Ellis had to stay, Oakland loves the little guys and he is a budding backcourt star, even if he doesn’t have a natural position. But Magette (for reasons mentioned above) as well as Biedrins (for reasons mentioned above, and because of the newfound, young frontcourt depth – Wright, Turiaf, Randolph) were expensive moves that don’t put the Warriors in the playoffs.

It will be interesting to see what further moves Mullin has in mind. I have to imagine the first will be trading Al Harrington and then counting the days until Adonal Foyle’s contract expires after next season, but that still leaves them with about $60 million in salary after next year, meaning little cap room to add more. You better believe He Hate Me will come along and add his take to this post, if not start his own, as he is 100 times more well versed (and emotionally and financially invested) in the Warriors’ future. I almost feel bad kicking off this post, but felt it had to get out there.

Stay tuned…

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Tags: Andris Biedrins, Corey Magette, Free Agents, Golden State Warriors, Monta Ellis, NBA, Offseason

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