How do you rebuild a team the wrong way? Ask Chris Mullin!

Our good friend the Big Ticket did a great job breaking down the Warriors offseason.  When we as Warriors fans hear the words 206 million and Warriors in the same sentence, we assume it is one of two things.  Either we are cutting payroll over the next several years by “206 million” or we just found a way to overpay for a below average center with zero offensive game (thanks for the fun Adonyl Foyle…oh, and you too Todd Fuller).

***Speaking of Todd Fuller, here is a conversation between Warriors management at the time that I have uncovered for your viewing pleasure:

Dave Twardzik (then GM of the Warriors): So at 11, I really like this Todd Fuller kid.

Everyone else in the Warriors front office: Are you sure man?  I mean, there is this kid Kobe Bryant still available who could be a superstar.

Twardzik: Ummm, but Todd Fuller was a Rhodes scholar guys.  A Rhodes scholar!!!!  He will bring an intelligence from our big man spot that will help us for years to come.  Besides, we got that kid Latrell Sprewell at the 2 spot.  He is a superstar waiting to happen and is really coachable.

Everyone else: Well what about Jermaine O’Neal.  He does everything that Fuller can do except better and he’s not a slow and unathletic white guy.

Twardzik: I don’t know what you are talking about.  White guys have dominated this league for years.  Haven’t you ever seen Hoosiers?

Everyone: Ummm, that was a movie.  That didn’t really happen.  You know that, right?  Also, that was about high school basketball…in Indiana.  We’re in California.

Twardzik: What?

Everyone: Okay, nevermind.  How about that Peja Stojakovic kid from Europe.  He is super fundamentally sound and could be Mullin’s understudy for the next couple years.  He would really help our outside game.

Twardzik: Why would we need help in our outside game?  We have Timmy Hardaway.  Plus Timmy has been great with the gay community.

Everyone: Okay, how about Steve Nash, or Zydrunas Ilgauskas, or Tony Delk, or Jerome Williams, or anyone else in the draft?

Twardzik: Where am I right now?***

But this time, we were hearing our team was actually spending!  Hooray!  The Apocalypse is upon us! Break out the champagne!  That is what you would think would be my initial reaction.  After years of being beat down by team, being disappointed by our lack of spending (or Foyle signings), watching us get 11th pick after 11th pick in each and every draft and wasting them on big ugly white guys, watching us lose star free agents (Gilbert Arenas anyone?), after all these things, I should be celebrating.  But I’m not.  And the reason is what the Hell is our team trying to do right now?  Are we rebuilding or trying to win right now?

When we let Baron go, I was one of the few Warriors fans who was not outraged.  I understood the move.  Prior to this last year, Davis had not played more than 67 games in any of the previous 5 seasons.  He had averaged a total of 26 missed games a season over that time.  That is not someone you can count on.  On top of that, the Warriors have been a bit unlucky in that they seem to have emerged during one of the most competitive eras in Western Conference history. Last year, the Warriors saw a six game improvement in their record, yet fell backwards in the Western Conference standings.  While I certainly will miss Baron, I realized that the Warriors were not going to win a championship in the next three years, so holding onto an injury prone point guard was probably not the best idea.  When I saw that Baron had left for only 13 million a year, I cringed a bit (he was worth it for that amount of money) but still realized this would allow us to be a huge player in the 2010 free agent market (where such names as Lebron James, Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitski, Ray Allen’s jump shot, The Artist formerly known as Tracy McGrady, Rudy Gay, and Michael Redd) could become available.  I dreamed of pairing Monta and Wade together in the backcourt with Biedrins and Brandon Wright in the frontcourt.  Can anyone deny this would be a championship caliber team for the 2010-2011 season?  It would at least be an upper echelon western conference team, right?

Well those dreams are over, because apparently Chris Mullin took his class on rebuilding at GM university from Isaiah Thomas.  See, here’s the thing.  You are one of two things as a team.  You are either a contender, or you are rebuilding so that one day you can be a contender.  If you are in between, you are doing it all wrong.  Nobody should want to be a solid five seed year in and year out.  It’s complete mediocrity with no chance of winning it all and no chance of getting a great lottery pick.  This was the Warriors from 1994 to 2006.  Hanging around the playoff race just enough so that we could never get a high lottery pick, but not quite good enough to make the playoffs.  The Warriors

Get used to this image Warriors fans

owned that 11th pick in the draft!  Woohoo!  Awesome! (banging my head against my desk).

Well, Chris Mullin apparently wants to relive that experience because instead of saving cap room, he did the unthinkable.  He gave Corey Maggette 60 million dollars over the next six years.  Uhhhhh, good bye cap room.  Maggette is a scorer.  I will give him that.  But what else does he do?  He averaged a mere 2.7 assists/game last year (13th amongst all small forwards), found his way to only 5.6 rebounds/game (good for only 10th in the league amongst Small Forwards), and got 1.01 steals/game (16th amongst small forwards).  He is an above average SF at best and you don’t pay above average players 10 million a season.  The only thing he did at an elite level amongst small forwards (other than score) was turn the ball over (6th amongst small forwards).  No wonder everyone else in the league was only willing to pay him the MLE.  But Chris Mullin had other plans.  He figured if we didn’t have Davis’ scoring, let’s just put in a jump shot happy Small Forward to replace it.  Here’s the problem: Now the Warriors have ZERO cap room for 2010 meaning that we are planning on winning a champsionship with a lineup of Monta Ellis, Corey Maggette, Anthony Randolph, Brandon Wright, and Andris Biedrins…doesn’t look as promising as the one with Wade in it, does it?  We are back to our mediocre ways.  11th pick, here we come!!!  This is a team that will score a lot but not do a lot else.  And it is also counting on Anthony Randolph fulfilling his promise.  Ouch!  Counting on Anthony Randolph to do anything but have the munchies for the next four years is as risky as watching Night of the Living Dead on acid.

Not to mention that I’m going to have to watch Maggette for the next six years.  I’d rather play patty-cake with Edward Scissor Hands then have to watch his lazy defense and 10 free throw a game-self play for my team.  It’s going to be about as aesthetically pleasing to the eyes as a Rosie O’Donnell

Dr. Dre's 2001 was about the only thing this Warriors fan enjoyed from 1994-2006

striptease (unless you are Tom Arnold…then the least aesthetically pleasing thing would be a strip tease from any moderately looking woman because apparently his beer goggles work in the opposite way of most normal human beings).

So Warriors fans rejoice?  We are taking a trip back in time to the late 90’s where mediocrity reigns!  Ummm, will we still be able to look forward to Dr. Dre’s 2001?

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Tags: Andris Biedrins, Chris Mullin, Corey Maggette, Golden State, Golden State Warriors, Monta Ellis, NBA, Offseason, Warriors

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