GM’s grades typically center on whom they draft and whom they pay. While the former receives significant fanfare, the latter is every bit as important when it comes to fielding a consistent winner. Sadly, the W’s have repeatedly missed the mark when it comes to assessing impact, value and worth relative to the market/league.
From Mullin&Co’s first batch of extensions featuring Fisher and Foyle to the recent additions of Maggette and Turiaf, the common theme remains the W’s spending big dollars to sign complementary talent. This isn’t meant to suggest Turiaf will be the disaster Foyle was or Maggette will struggle to reconcile his role(s) the way Fisher did, but converting MAX cap space into a back-up F/C and a scoring 3 is hardly an ideal return. Armed with the flexibility to add a young, building block, the W’s target and acquire role players.
If you’re going to front load an offer sheet in an effort to dissuade a team from matching, do so for a player like Andre Iguodala–not Ronny Turiaf. Have the patience to sort out the available options(even the unlikely ones) rather than rushing to sign the first b-list player who’ll take your money.
If you run a fast-paced offense and you lose your best playmaker, you might want to redirect those resources to someone who actually creates scoring opportunities for his teammates. The W’s instead work their way down their pre-ranked list of unrestricted free agents. They throw at money at one guy after another until Corey Maggette graciously accepts a W’s offer that bests his MLE options by a significant sum.
At the end of the day, one can’t help but question the franchise’s commitment and wherewithal to build a contender.
Did the Warriors really deny KG an extension when the parties were talking trade scenarios? — totally indefensible.
Ownership appears content to compete for the final playoff spots in the West. Don Nelson, Baron Davis & Co. sell out the lower bowl and now it’s up to Cohan’s lackeys to keep this team well in the black.
That the Warriors still have a talented roster with the flexibility to improve is more a reflection of where they were at the start of the summer as opposed to what they’ve done since. They were seemingly caught off guard by Baron’s opt out and subsequent defection to the Clippers. They tried and failed to sign their primary, free agent targets. When it’s all said and done the Warriors most recent restructuring might yield a brighter future than the track they were on with Baron Davis, but 48 wins and/or a playoff berth are long shots with the current rotation. Teams only have so many chances to add impact players to their core group. The Warriors had the cap space to target a franchise building block, but ultimately settled for depth, experience and at least in the short term… mediocrity.
I expect the W’s will be a relatively competitive team. Chris Cohan is banking on it.