CCT Warriors blog: Report Cards: Management

Report Cards: Management

By Marcus
Monday, April 21st, 2008

Now is a good time for a thorough, honest evaluation since there has been
time for emotions to subside and reflect on the entire season.
Let's start with the decision makers, which primarily include Robert Rowell
and Chris Mullin.

HIGHLIGHTS:
*Shed $10 million by trading Jason Richardson and got Brandan Wright and a
$10M trade exception in the process
*Did not resort to past bad habits and overpay to keep free agents. By not
offering lucrative deals to Mickael Pietrus Matt Barnes, by not giving large
extensions to Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins, the Warriors are in a good
position to make moves this offseason. They have the flexibility to keep
Monta and may get bargain prices for Biedrins and Davis because of the
market.
*Put Nellie in his place by not giving in to his demands, which means
another dramatic hold-out is unlikely (better believe Nellie would do it
again if he knew he would get what he wanted)
*Did not panic at trade deadline and use their $10M exception to take a bad
contract. They now have it to use through the draft, which is probably the
best time to use it all along.
*Wisely decided not to keep the Patrick O'Bryant experiment going
*Got good value at No. 18 in the draft in Belinelli

LOWLIGHTS:
*The Chris Webber fiasco
*Putting together a suspect bench for Nellie
*Failed to nab Kevin Garnett!

I differ a bit from my colleague, Geoff Lepper, who gave Mullin a C+. I
think his poor bench construction wasn't that big of a deal. Instead, I
think he understood that this year was a giveaway, that even if they made
the playoffs, they wouldn't do anything. It looked to me as if he made a
strategic decision not to invest too much in the bench and keep the salary
cap problems under control.
I do agree with Geoff in that the C-Webb signing was a complete joke.

GRADE FOR MANAGEMENT: A-

What grade would you give Mullin & Co.?

On Apr 23, 1:12*am, "Robin Miller" <Not_My@Real_Address.com> wrote:
> Report Cards: Management
>
> By Marcus
> Monday, April 21st, 2008
>
> Now is a good time for a thorough, honest evaluation since there has been
> time for emotions to subside and reflect on the entire season.
> Let's start with the decision makers, which primarily include Robert Rowell
> and Chris Mullin.
>
> HIGHLIGHTS:
> *Shed $10 million by trading Jason Richardson and got Brandan Wright and a
> $10M trade exception in the process
> *Did not resort to past bad habits and overpay to keep free agents. By not
> offering lucrative deals to Mickael Pietrus Matt Barnes, by not giving large
> extensions to Baron Davis and Andris Biedrins, the Warriors are in a good
> position to make moves this offseason. They have the flexibility to keep
> Monta and may get bargain prices for Biedrins and Davis because of the
> market.
> *Put Nellie in his place by not giving in to his demands, which means
> another dramatic hold-out is unlikely (better believe Nellie would do it
> again if he knew he would get what he wanted)
> *Did not panic at trade deadline and use their $10M exception to take a bad
> contract. They now have it to use through the draft, which is probably the
> best time to use it all along.
> *Wisely decided not to keep the Patrick O'Bryant experiment going
> *Got good value at No. 18 in the draft in Belinelli
>
> LOWLIGHTS:
> *The Chris Webber fiasco
> *Putting together a suspect bench for Nellie
> *Failed to nab Kevin Garnett!
>
> I differ a bit from my colleague, Geoff Lepper, who gave Mullin a C+. I
> think his poor bench construction wasn't that big of a deal. Instead, I
> think he understood that this year was a giveaway, that even if they made
> the playoffs, they wouldn't do anything. It looked to me as if he made a
> strategic decision not to invest too much in the bench and keep the salary
> cap problems under control.
> I do agree with Geoff in that the C-Webb signing was a complete joke.
>
> GRADE FOR MANAGEMENT: A-
>
> What grade would you give Mullin & Co.?

A+

Simply a fantastic job over the last year and a bit.

Weber was a gamble. It didn't pay off, but really, apart from news
print, it didn't cost us much either.

Bench issues, well I would have expected more from Barnes. The old
players brought in probably provided value in the locker room and
didn't cost you or me anything. We knew bench production was a year
or two away with Bellineli and Wright being rookies, but a high
quality core is there.

David Mills <davemills81@gmail.com> wrote in news:7f05b5fe-f3b4-4030-
[email]b96e-db8adcb95670@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com[/email]:

> Weber was a gamble. It didn't pay off, but really, apart from news
> print, it didn't cost us much either.

I just can't really buy that he was a very good gamble at all. He was
pretty spent or he would have been back in Detroit. I wish the Warriors
would have expended the effort on getting someone, anyone else.

>
> Bench issues, well I would have expected more from Barnes. The old
> players brought in probably provided value in the locker room and
> didn't cost you or me anything. We knew bench production was a year
> or two away with Bellineli and Wright being rookies, but a high
> quality core is there.
>

Barnes never looked like he had it together all year. A moment here or
there but he was out of it. I really thought Troy Hudson was a good
acquisition but worried about his questionable health. That did indeed
turn out to be the bugaboo. Having a capable backup PG would have made a
huge difference. Croshere was a good pickup but health, again, turned
out to be the limiting factor.

I think Warriors management did a pretty good job insofar as they didn't
damage their financial flexibility for the rapidly approaching future.
They just didn't build a very complete/deep team for this year. Credit
them for making some seemingly good acquistions that were undone by
injury.

--

Pat

email: remove UN

On Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:45:56 -0700 (PDT), David Mills
<davemills81@gmail.com> wrote:

>> What grade would you give Mullin & Co.?
>
>A+

I wish you had been responsible for my grades in college.

>Simply a fantastic job over the last year and a bit.

Avoiding spending money doesn't make you a great GM. The Richardson trade
is an A IMO, but not using the exception and not getting a veteran PF for
this year drops the offseason to a B.

>Weber was a gamble.

It was a dumb move that had no chance of working out and didn't.

>Bench issues, well I would have expected more from Barnes.

Why? He had a lucky year last year.

>The old players brought in probably provided value in the locker room and
>didn't cost you or me anything.

Hudson and Croshere were bad moves that gave us nothing.

>We knew bench production was a year or two away with Bellineli and Wright
>being rookies, but a high quality core is there.

If we knew that, why did so many people predict that Bellinelli would
start this year?
--
Greg Lentz