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The Warriors: Signs of Life
You can exhale Warriors fans, there is hope. The universe works in mysterious ways, and yesterday, it worked for the Warriors.
Just when the flagging team needed it, on a day when they could only suit up seven players in a loss to the Clippers (as predicted by our LAist comrades), the Warriors announced that they had pulled off an almost unbelievable eight-player trade with the Indiana Pacers. And there is more good news. Some how, some way, VP of Basketball Operations Chris Mullin convinced his Indiana counterpart, Larry Bird, to take Mike Dunleavy and Troy Murphy. That's right! The Warriors unloaded both baby Duns and Man-o-War in one fell swoop. And it keeps getting better. In return, Mullin snagged Al Harrington to help bolster the frontcourt lineup and guard Stephen Jackson to, uh, help with the police lineup. Both teams also threw in a couple of redshirts to level out the financials and collective bargaining requirements, but even the redshirts are looking good.
This was a critical move at a critical time for the franchise. Clinging precariously to the thin, crumbly ledge of respectability, and with a playoff position in sight, the players and the fans needed to see some sign of life from the front office. Some indication that the suits are trying to win just as hard as the talent. Yesterday, the suits came through.
SFist has given Mullin and GM Rod Higgins a lot of grief over the past two years -- and rightly so. But today, Mullin and crew deserve many huzzahs. From the Warriors perspective, this trade is almost too good to be true. Not because of the players the team received in the deal, but for the albatrosses it unloaded. Athletically, financially, and psychologically, this trade is a legitimate turning point for the franchise. There is no doubt that this move gives the team a future lease on life.
Fresh faces and fresh hope for Warriors fans. Photo from Warriors official website.
This trade unloads two of the three ill-advised, franchise-suffocating, nonproducing contracts that have blocked the literal and figurative progress of this team like a couple of slices of three-day-old thick crust cheese pizza in your digestive tract. Murphy and Dunleavy were clearly not good enough to help the Warriors get better, yet their ridiculous contracts -- blunders for which Mullin must accept full responsibility -- also obliterated their trade value. No longer our problem. What a load off.
The Warriors are giving up on last year's first round draft pick Ike Diogu, but he was hopelessly buried in Nellie's doghouse anyway, so his departure won't affect the Warriors performance and will only help his career. It does sting in terms of a wasted first round draft pick, but this trade is all about failed first round draft picks for the Warriors, so moving on, moving on.
It's easy to see where Harrington fits in. He's a perfect front line player for Don Nelson up-tempo small-ball. At 6'9", Harrington can run the court and post up. Undersized as a center/power forward, he's a bit light on the rebounding and defense, but he can score, so like we said, he's a perfect Nelson player. He's also an admirer and former teammate of Chris Mullin, which explains why the Warriors have been working on a deal for Harrington since last season.
What is less clear is where Stephen Jackson fits in. The Warriors have plenty of backcourt players, and good ones. Baron Davis, Jason Richardson (who plans to return right after the All-Star break), Monta Ellis, Akeena Azumbuike, and the occasionally healthy Mickael Pietrus. As for team chemistry, Jackson could be a liability, in the rockhead sense. In addition to his pending gun charges, Jackson was also heavily involved in the notorious Throwdown in Motown two years ago. His freewheeling, uh, independent style does not seem like a good match with the iron-fisted, no-nonsense hard ass of Don Nelson.
As Larry Bird found out, Sarunas Jasikevicius is not the next coming of Sarunas Marciulionis, and probably won't get much PT in the Warriors deep backcourt. Rookie Josh Powell is an unknown, but at 6'9" and $744,000, he's an attractive luxury, and could work well in Nelson's athletic format.
Our guess is that Mullin and Nelson aren't done wheeling and dealing yet. Look for them to move Jackson and possibly Jasikevicius before the trade deadline in February, hopefully for another front line rebounder or a defensive stopper.
Around the Bay Area, Warriors fans are high on life. Pacers fans seem OK with the deal, or not, but the Indiana media seems a bit defensive. Elsewhere, the general consensus is the deal is a wash.
Bob Fitzgerald reported on last night's FSN telecast of the Clippers game that Baron Davis had called each of the four Warriors that were traded to speak with them personally and wish them luck. That's class, and leadership. El Baron can afford to be gracious, Harrington is one of his close friends and there's no doubt Biddy's got stars in his eyes thinking of the numbers he and his boy can put up together.
The trade was just part of the major reconstructive surgery Mullin and crew have been performing on the team during the last couple of weeks. In addition to snagging Kelenna Azubuike, the leading scorer in the NBA Developmental League earlier this month, the Warriors recalled Patrick O'Bryant from the Bakersfield Jam of the D-League and also signed forward Renaldo Major out of the D-League. The Warriors are definitely getting their money's worth out of the D-League this year. Pickups like Matt Barnes and Azubuike show why Nelson should be in the GM box, not the coaching box. He can pick 'em, but somebody else should play 'em.
Now if Mullin could just leave Adonal Foyle out in a cardboard box on the curb with a sign that says "Free" . . .