SJMN (Lauridsen): The Others

The Others

By Adam Lauridsen
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008

Chris Mullin has already promised changes for the off-season. Only time will
tell whether his statement turns out to be this year's version of "I'm not
trading Jason Richardson." Ultimately, however, change for change's sake
does nothing, particularly if it's just rearranging pieces in the back third
of the roster (as we saw last year in all moves following the Wright trade).
The Warriors still have lots of holes. The following players, however, are
pegs that aren't likely to fit.

Al Harrington - I had a tough time putting Al on this list, but his play at
the end of the season left me little choice. He grew increasingly
inconsistent when the Warriors were in desperate need of a bench scorer. He
would be active for a quarter, then disappear for the next few games. When
he's hot - hitting threes, going to the basket with purpose, scrapping for
rebounds - he's an ideal piece in Nelson's system. Unfortunately, he was
that player far too infrequently this year. The fatigue excuse doesn't work
given the minutes he was playing (as a reader correctly pointed out after I
thoughtlessly pulled that card for him once this season). The
out-of-position excuse also doesn't work particularly well since it's
unclear how Al would have played differently against small forwards than
power forwards or centers. Arguably, the change of position would have
simply eliminated his biggest strength this year: excellent defense on some
larger, less mobile players. Offensively, he still would have been shooting
jumpers and getting bogged down on half-hearted attempts towards the basket.

There's not a nicer player on the team than Al and he seems to be supremely
well liked by his teammates. Unfortunately, it's unclear where he fits into
next year's plans. Wright is not a center, unless Stern's next CBA caps
players' weights at 240. If Wright improves this off-season as much as I
believe he is capable of doing, he will demand serious minutes at the 4 next
year. If the Warriors manage to obtain a hustle / bruising power forward as
many fans hope, that further cuts into the minutes at the spot. Andris,
sitting on a fat new contract and a steadily increasing body of skills, isn't
about to give up minutes at center. Kosta might even sneak a few more
against bigger bodies. At small forward, Jackson will continue to play 30+
minutes a night, not to mention spill over minutes from Azubuike and
Belinelli should Nelson decide to go small. Long story short, Al looks to be
the odd man out if the Warriors are more committed to developing their (no
longer rookie) young talent rather than simply trying to wring wins from the
bodies of veterans. He's not a bad player to have around, but won't play
anywhere close to the minutes needed to justify his $9.2 mil salary. It
wouldn't shock me at all if Al were this year's winner of the Jason
Richardson memorial "dumped for cap reasons" award. It's unlikely that any
of the teams under the cap would want Harrington or his deal, but Mullin
might be able to find a team willing to swap one or two 08-09 expiring deals
to save the $10 mil will owe Harrington in 09-10. Progress? Only for Cohan's
accountant.

Mickael Pietrus - Watching MP wait for a contract may be one of the more
entertaining / sad distractions this off-season. He vastly over-valued his
worth on the open market last year, finally finding himself forced to accept
the Ws' qualifying offer. He spent roughly 9/10ths of the Warriors season
doing very little, including a crucial stretch during our playoff push
modeling pastel sweaters from the bench. Unlike some lucky players, he
failed to time the 1/10th of the season when he actually delivered so as to
earn a big contract (looking at you, Austin Croshere, with that famed Finals
performance). Pietrus, like a long line of athletically gifted and mentally
or motivationally challenged players before him, continues to show just
enough potential every so often to keep people mildly interested. In the
economics of today's NBA, mild interest doesn't translate to $5 mil a year.
It might equal $3 mil a year, depending on the way the contract winds blow,
and if I was MP's agent I'd sign that contract before it could cool from the
mouth of a laser printer.

There's some distant chance that MP might be back next year with the
Warriors if he finds no other takers, but I can't see him returning to play
under Nelson given the ups and downs experienced this year and the quality
players ahead of him in the depth chart. MP actually impressed me with his
late-season stint at power forward (he grabbed more rebounds there than Al),
but MP's rotation spot with the Warriors has proven to be a dead end. He may
find success somewhere else, but I'm guessing Pietrus will find the out of
bounds lines on his new court just as east to step back upon as those at the
Arena.

Matt Barnes - While the Warriors may be the last option for Pietrus, they
could still be a good home for Matt Barnes. Both players faced similar
contract situations last year and failed to convince the rest of the NBA
that they were anything but tricks of Nellie's system. If Barnes lacked
negotiating strength last summer, his play this year wiped out what little
leverage he may have possessed. Still, despite how bad Barnes looked this
year at times, I'm optimistic he still could be a contributor here.

Barnes obviously suffered a tremendous loss with the passing of his mother
at the beginning on the season. He pushed hard to come back soon but never
quite seemed to be able to put the pieces together. Barnes, despite his
seemingly wild play on the court, worked his way into the NBA with
discipline. He completely rebuilt his shot the off-season before he joined
the Warriors. Last year, he was one of the most devoted followers of Nellie's
master plan, always pushing the ball and looking for that forward pass, even
when it was ill-advised. When he took the court this year, that discipline
seemed to have broken down, sadly reducing him on a few occasions to nothing
more than a flagrant fouler. He's a player that was built to thrive in
Nellie's system, as we saw a year ago. It's my hope that with some time away
from the game, Barnes can regain that drive and fire that made him such a
huge part of the Warriors' playoff push in 06-07. We've lamented Richardson's
absence from this year's team, but in terms of ball movement, defense,
rebounding and three point shooting, Barnes' disappearance likely had an
equal or greater impact. My guess is the team would gladly take him back on
a near minimum deal. I'm also guessing Barnes would like more than that. We'll
wait and see whether he gets it.

CJ Watson - Watson is another player that could theoretically fit with the
Warriors. The question becomes, however, whether he's worth the roster spot.
I presume the Warriors will either draft or sign a back-up point guard again
this off-season, as they attempted to do last year with Troy Hudson. I'd
give Watson an edge over most second rounders, but I'd rather give a first
rounder or free agent a chance to run the second squad. Still, Watson's
price tag is likely to be reasonable, so I wouldn't be shocked to find him
on the summer league team and in camp next fall.

In terms of Watson's play on the court, I'll give him an incomplete. He had
some nice all-around games, showing quickness on defense and a smooth shot.
He rarely made mistakes that hurt the team. The flipside of that, however,
was that he rarely did much to make his teammates better. He proved adequate
at getting the ball from the endline to the top of the arc at the other end,
but once asked to quarterback the team in a set offense, he didn't do much.
He gets an incomplete because he never managed the consistent minutes to
show what he could do. Watson didn't do a bad job. The Warriors simply can
do better at the back-up PG slot.

Austin Croshere - For the vet minimum, Croshere was a deal. That said,
prorating his salary over 44 rather than 82 games, he becomes much less of a
bargain. The story here is entirely about injuries. Austin's skills - three
point shooting, rebounding, general savvy veteran play - are perfect fits
for the Warriors' system. Bad backs, however, rarely get better with age.
The Warriors could use a player they can rely on for more than half a season
of basketball. Depending on how the Warriors' off-season shapes up, it might
be worth bringing Austin back again just to have another veteran on the
team. This year, however, the young guys will be a year older and less in
need of veteran supervision (and maybe the youngsters should have been
supervising Baron at his birthday bash). Croshere's return to this team will
likely come down to (1) whether he wants to come back and (2) whether the
Warriors find someone in the summer league or training camp that makes
enough of an impression to trump the quality 10 minutes the Warriors can
count on from Austin 30-40 times a season.

Patrick O'Bryant - Every decade needs its own Todd Fuller.

Chris Webber - Assistant coach? Part owner? The man inside inflatable
Thunder? After the jaw-dropping improbability of his return this year, I'm
not ruling anything out. (I made up all of the above options, by the way.
This is how nasty rumors get started.)

When you combine this post and the last, here's how we look heading into the
off-season:

Here to stay:

Ellis
Biedrins
Wright
Belinelli
Jackson

Likely to stay:

Davis
Harrington
Azubuike
Perovic

Back for the right price:

Barnes
Croshere
Watson

Happy trails:

Pietrus
O'Bryant

Even if you slice the spots a bit differently, the Warriors are likely to
have 5 or 6 open lockers in the months to come. It'll make for an
entertaining off-season of moves (or a painful off-season of non-moves).
While the rest of the NBA entertains itself with the playoffs, we'll have
plenty of time to break down (to sub-atomic bits) all of the options.