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Don Nelson: Wants players yesterday
It’s become obvious that assistant general manager Larry Riley is pretty much in charge of the Warriors’ front office these days.
Riley has some heavy-handed help in coach Don Nelson and, as always, team president Robert Rowell will have final say on all personnel matters.
As for executive vice president of basketball operations Chris Mullin, he’s barely in the picture at all these days. Once a regular at every one of Nelson’s team practices, Mullin is now a rare find on the team’s practice court at 1011 Broadway.
Mullin also used to be a regular at Warriors home games, sitting in his usual mezzanine suite high above the Warriors’ bench. He’s hit or miss these days, and when Mullin isn’t there he’s assumed to be scouting a college game somewhere.
All this is significant because when and if the Warriors make a personnel move, Mullin isn’t going to be in on it. Just like he wasn’t in on the Jamal Crawford trade. Or other recent moves.
Mullin mostly saw the Crawford deal develop from afar, even though he was said to be in on early talks with the Knicks about Al Harrington. But when the deal came down, Mullin wasn't involved or consulted.
And he won't be on the next one … and probably the one after that.
Far as anyone can nail down, it was Mullin who drafted Anthony Randolph, Mullin who signed Corey Maggette as a free agent and Mullin who acquired point guard Marcus Williams.
And Mullin was involved in the re-signings of Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. However, Mullin had nothing to do with Stephen Jackson signing an extension or Nelson signing one.
It seems obvious Mullin had nothing to do with Richard Hendrix being waived, considering the decision was made to cut Hendrix less than a week after Riley and Nelson paid a firsthand visit to see him play in Bakersfield. And it's been Nelson and Nelson alone who has worked so diligently in keeping a place for Rob Kurz.
It will be very interesting to see whether Riley and Nelson’s personnel moves reflect any kind of short-term or long-term thinking. It is obvious that the deal for Crawford was more for the here and now than for the later. And Nelson made no secret of that.
In the weeks leading up to Harrington’s deal, Nelson made it plain that the Warriors wanted a player back: a rotation player who could step right into some playing time.
That ruled out any possibility of moving Harrington for any kind of salary cap relief or for a young but growing player. And let’s be honest, does Nelson, now 68 years old and trying to hone in on the all-time coaching record, really want to coach anymore young players?
And if not, is that a good thing for the Warriors' organization?
Riley has been Nelson’s right hand man for a while, and it’s tough to envision either of them not being on the same page about something, or Riley wanting to overrule Nelson on an issue.
Or even more unlikely: Riley making a move independent of Nelson.
Which brings us to Randolph, the rookie forward Nelson is very down on these days. And it also brings us to second-year forward Brandan Wright, whom Nelson has never been high on.
Would the Riley-Nelson team trade one or both of them? There shouldn't be any doubt the answer is yes, they would.
The only unknown, at this point, is whether Riley-Nelson will make a move with an eye past the immediate future.
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Comments
Nelson is not the right coach for this team. Keith Smart should be made head coach. Name Nelson director of basketball operations and Riley can be his right hand man. Last night was the first time I noticed a player coming back at Nelson. Brandon Wright was ready to blow last night. He had a good first half then sits the second. Give him a role!! He needs to come off the bench with Watson and Azibuke.
The End is near.
The perception I have is this; Mullin took Nelson of the scrap heap and gave him a job - Nelson wasn't eaxctly hot property with him suing the Mavericks for all this money, and he's 68 years old to boot. After Nelson gets the job, he pushes Mullin aside, which he accomplished by toadying up to Rowell. The installation of Riley in this job, is Nelson moving on on Mullin's turf. Rowell, I'm guessing, has been snow-jobbed by the charismatic Nelson. Nelson is a lot more charismatic than Mullin, but he's flaky and erratic too. I thought Mullin was a steady influence in the front office, but Nelson is now screwing things up. things were going better when Mullin was running the show. Just look at the teams record.
don nelson sucks..i hate that man.
and i really will go berserk if we trade randolph
What amazes me about Warrior fans is your great stamina, your capacity to commit to bad teams to achieve some final goal. After all the years of losing, that is really admirable. The real question is whether Randolf and Wright are pieces you can build aroud. Randolf is a project. He does dramatic things, yes, but he does three really silly things for every one dramatic thing, silly as in driving the length of the court and taking a jump shot when you don't really have on in your arsenal. Now that is playground silly. He's very raw and temperamental. Who knows? Maybe he will be great and maybe not. I see it as even money. I really like Wright, but you can't play the 4 and not rebound. And on top of that he doesn't have a jump shot. Gerald Wallace, a natural 3, could play the 4 better than Wright. He gets 7 boards a game, which is the minimum we need out of that position. We need defensive boards bad. It's going to be OK either way though. The only franchise Nellie has left worse than he found it was Golden State and that was because of the Webber mess. Time after time, it's worked the other way. I have never seen so many Nellie haters. I think it's kind of funny. Whatever else he is, he's a great basketball man.
You assume alot. Marcus Thompson said Mully and Rowell were seen together at the practice facility right before AL was traded. He obviously was involved. Also doesn't Mully usually spend this time of year scouting college games? And how do you know Maggette was a Mully move and not a Rowell move? Or drafting Randolph wasn't a Nellie move? Or vice versa? Honestly, this looks like you're guessing just like the average Warrior fan.
you know david, he did have a pretty good midrange in college, its just like someone sucked the confidence out of him..
You sucker homerz will never learn...
A's09 is in a DenialBubble.
If Mullin was responsible for the Maggette deal, then that alone should be grounds for firing him. Stupid move. I'm not sure the deal was all on Mullin, and I suspect the reason why Mullin refused to talk to the media about many of the offseason moves in a timely fashion was in part due to the start of a power struggle in the front office.
I've heard that Nelson called Mullin while watching tape of Randolph from Maui. Nelson thought he would be as good as any of the other prospects as a #1 overall pick consideration. So, I doubt Nelson trades Randolph before Wright.
Last night, Wright was perplexed after being pulled from the game early in the 3rd Quarter only to never return. He was the only Warriors with a positive +/- stat....and by a large margin (+10). Nelson is so in love with Small-ball, that he'll by-pass development and what is working to push his agenda. Result: Loss to the worst team in the NBA.
If they trade Randolph..........
I will become a Blazer's fan, and I have been a Warriors fan my whole life.
you know david, he did have a pretty good midrange in college, its just like someone sucked the confidence out of him..
"Nelson is not the right coach for this team. Keith Smart should be made head coach. Name Nelson director of basketball operations and Riley can be his right hand man."
You are right that Nelson should not be the coach, but no way in hell should he be making any decisions about the players. Sure, he got rid of Dunleavy and Murphy, but he sucks.
Magette has had a bad hamstring the whole early part of the season. He's taking this time off so it can heel. Magette does a lot of things well , very good shooter, get's fouled a lot, deadly on his free throws. He rebounds well - for his size (something Turiaf can't seem to do). Magette has many upsides. I'm reserving judgement until he's healthy.
the warriors haven't 0ne player with a complete game or any coaches that can teach it, this operation is doomed for failure from the get go....NO HOPE!!! ur watching the proof....
Kind of a meandering piece, Matt, but can we just let the Mullin stuff go? You seem to be looking for some kind of drama, but in reality his batting average has been mediocre and it's a reasonable decision to shift responsibility to others. Let's give the Riley-Nelson tandem a shot at improving the roster.
BTW, I notice the crybabies are back after one bad loss. I thought Bay Area fans were better than this, but then we don't know where these people are coming from, do we?
God lord, the homerz die hard.
You sure you're not a Warriors intern, MikeW.?
according to TK when the deal 1st went down, Mullin made the deal for Crawford. not Riley.
blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/11/21/winners-and-losers-in-warriors-harrington-for-crawford-deal/
* WINNER: Chris Mullin, who made this deal for Crawford, a player Mullin has always liked.
I hear that the Knicks first proposed Crawford-for-Harrington over a week ago, right as Robert Rowell was moving Larry Riley into the presumptive GM spot. That put the NY talks on hold, as Riley tried to make his own deal for Harrington. (Jerry Stackhouse’s name came up.)
But in the end, there was no better deal than the one Mullin and Knick honcho Donnie Walsh fashioned earlier in the month: Jamal Crawford. The deal Mullin made.
Here at the bottom, MT2 says Mully and Rowell were seen together at the practice facilty just 2 days before the Crawford trade. They were obviously up to something...
[At practice on Wednesday, president Robert Rowell, executive vice president Chris Mullin and new assistant general manager Larry Riley were all there. Mullin and Rowell sat outside on the balcony for a while before walking across the court together. Mullin didn’t fulfill interview requests (we were told he had meetings lined up), but he plans on talking to us Friday at shootaround.
As a view into my world of self-amusement, I couldn’t help but snicker to myself at the sight of them two walking across the court in lock step. It looked like one of those photo ops you see in a presidential campaign.]
ibabuzz.com/warriors/2008/11/20/morrow-in-3-point-shootout/
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