Will Riley-Nelson team have vision for future or is it about the here and now?

January 1, 11:14 AMGolden State Warriors ExaminerMatt Steinmetz

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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.

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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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