More back and forth on Mullin: Open-mindedness is one of his best attributes

October 26, 10:22 AMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

Previous Next

4 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Golden State Warriors Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Chris Mullin: Open-minded and willing to revisit past decisions 

Tons of insight from commenters about Chris Mullin on the following post:

A LOOK AT CHRIS MULLIN ERA.

Let me try to add a little more.

♦ One of the things about Mullin’s tenure is that for every piece of criticism or praise, you could always include a qualifier.

For example, yes, you can rip Mullin for giving too much money to Adonal Foyle, Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy.

But I guarantee you if you ask Mullin _ and I have _ he’ll tell you that one of the reasons he spent that money to keep those guys here was to develop some stability and credibility within the organization.

Mullin would surely tell you that sometimes you have to overpay for your own free agents to usher in some consistency, and also to send a message to players around the league that Golden State is a legit destination.

And a real quick aside: Looking at Dunleavy's five-year, $45 million contract, that's not a bad deal at all for the Dunleavy who is playing in Indiana.

I think Mully knew darn well at the time he was giving an awful lot of money to those guys. But he felt it was a financial sacrifice he had to make.

One of Chris Mullin’s most impressive attributes is his open-mindedness. He is willing to make a correction or fix a mistake if need be.

Hiring Mike Montgomery was an outside-the-box move. Didn’t work, so Mullin fired him.

Derek Fisher, Foyle, Murphy, Dunleavy … hey, they’re all gone now. So, obviously we’re not talking about a bull-headed GM with false pride.

Or even a GM who gave out deals that were so bad, the signed players couldn’t be traded.

Everyone lamented Murphy and Dunleavy’s contracts, but they couldn’t have been that awful if Mullin would have never been able to move them for the Pacer players he did.

♦ ♦ Mullin’s drafts have been all over. Andris Biedrins was a solid pick _ Ike Diogu and Patrick O’Bryant not so much.

Monta Ellis at No. 40 was a great pick; Anthony Randolph at No. 14 looks pretty dang good.

On the other hand, the Warriors-powers-that-be could make an argument that the Mullin has never drafted an All-Rookie first-teamer.

Then again, Mullin would no doubt tell you that one or more of those players he drafted only ended up in Golden State because other draft-day deals were scuttled.

♦ ♦ ♦ Lastly, Mullin and his legacy are going to come out of this fine.

For the Warriors, it’s more dicey.

The Warriors missed the playoffs for 12 consecutive years. The Warriors broke through to the NBA postseason in Mullin’s third year as executive vice president of basketball operations.

Last year, the Warriors missed the playoffs. This year, the playoffs are a longshot.

The point is, if the Warriors are starting another non-playoff run here, Mullin will be the one who comes out looking best.

Why? 

Because what most people will remember, and it doesn’t matter about the particulars, is this:

Before Mullin: Warriors awful.

With Mullin: Warriors good.

After Mullin: Warriors awful.