Why Are the Warriors Panicking?

I guess the inspiration for this post stems from the recent trade talks of our prized 20 year old, Anthony Randolph. He’s got the full package for a big man, and is comparable to Shawn Kemp athletic wise. He needs to gain a little weight, but I’m sure he will over the next couple years. This is the hardest part about being a Warriors fan, since right before a player becomes an All-Star we like to trade them away setting us back just that much more. We always sell off our young talent much too early, and this would be no exception since he has three years at less than $3 million a year left on his contract. This season there weren’t many high expectations going in, which was highlighted by SJax wanting out of Oakland, because he saw that they weren’t going to be competitive this season. We traded him to Charlotte possibly in spite, at least that’s how it looked trading him to a bad team and getting a poo poo platter in return. Whatever the reasons, I didn’t care what we got for him at the time, he was more of a cancer than a leader, and we got rid of those last couple years in his contract that he probably won’t be that good for anyways. If they end up trading Randolph, it WILL add to the already huge list of disappointing moves made by the organization. If they did move him, they better actually get something worthwhile in return, like someone proven, that is a starter, and that wants to be there for the long haul, ie not a Raja Bell or Vlad Radmonovic type guy. We’ve obviously gone with a youth movement over the past couple years, so why trade away possibly our best young talent? Probably because we are stupid. It’s sad that I feel like they are the complete opposite of the A’s. When the A’s make a trade or move, we can usually tell what they are gearing towards, but with the Warriors I have no freakin clue what they’re trying to do! Trading Randolph would be one of the worst moves we could make. I understand they might be disappointed that he is inconsistent, but he’s a damn 20 year old, what do they expect!?! He’s not going to put up numbers like he had in the summer league against NBA players, so just let him figure it out on the court. Why start trading key pieces when we don’t even know what our healthy team would look like on the court. With numerous injuries to the frontcourt Biendris, Turiaf, Wright, Moore, and Azubuike, who knows how good or bad this team even is. Maybe if we didn’t have to play three point guards and a rookie in the starting lineup all year, we’d be a .500 team. Maybe not, but I think we would have been able to win a few more games thus far. When Randolph plays 30+ minutes they are 3-6, including a tough loss to Orlando. So give him some minutes Nellie! We know he’s no Steph Curry on the baskeball IQ level, so let him learn through making mistakes, this is a test year! Test the young guys whether they earned it or not.

AR and AB, could be a solid duo protecting the rim.

The rumors surrounding Randolph are that the Warriors are going to make teams include Maggette in the deal, before the dubs will accept a trade. I’m all for this portion of the deal, and getting rid of Maggette would give them a nice salary dump of $10 million a year till 2012-13, to waste on someone else much better. The Maggette signing was another panic move by the organization in the wake of losing Baron Davis. My personal theory is maybe they are trying to get rid of all the long contracts they have, so they can sell the team! Probably not, and most likely wishful thinking on my part, but if you think about it, wouldn’t a bad team with a few good young guys make the team much more appealing to sell! I see it being more appealing to have a team with less not so great players locked into long deals. If I were in the market for a basketball franchise, I’d want to buy the dubs minus Maggette and Jackson for the next four years. They dumped Jackson off already, so I guess Maggette is next… I guess I’m just hoping, but if my theory proves correct, I wouldn’t mind seeing AR shipped out, if it gets us out of the Chris Cohan/Robert Rowell death trap we’ve been in for the past decade and a half. If this isn’t the plan, I want to wait until next season to see what this team can do when they are healthy or at least mostly healthy. I’d love to roll out next years lineup with Curry, Ellis, Morrow/Azubuike, Randolph, and Biendris. That sounds like a solid young team to me, that can score and has some defense. You may laugh on the defense comment, but Biendris and Randolph can protect the rim, and Ellis is slowly proving that he can guard bigger guys (scratch Gilbert’s 45 last night). To me, it sounds like the same state the Hawks were in a couple years ago. I guess we’ll see what happens, but you can bet there is a better chance we will make a bad move before we make a good one.