SJMN (Kawakami blog): Chris Mullin speaks

Chris Mullin on the Baron Inevitability, Marcus Williams, and the
Ellis/Biedrins long-term likelihood

Posted by Tim Kawakami on July 23rd, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Always good when Chris Mullin makes a point to address all far-flung issues
and it's especially good for me when it doesn't happen while I'm driving on
side streets in the evening and scribbling in the dark.

Mullin popped onto onto the Warriors' practice court today to talk to a
group of reporters after Ronny Turiaf's introductory news conference and, as
Mullin put it, was happy to discuss and back-track through the multitude of
events that have taken place to shake-up his roster and possibly the
franchise's status.

"It's been busy," Mullin said. "And I think productive. And feel pretty good
about everything."

I did this in the last post, but I feel I should hit the headlines again:

* Mullin said no final agreement has been reached with free agent Maurice
Evans and no decision has been made whether to match Kelenna Azubuike's
three-year, $9.3M offer from the Clippers (deadline is Friday); Mullin
agreed that it's probably an either/or/or situation involving Evans,
Azubuike or possibly another wing.

* Mullin made it pretty clear that he's expecting to sign restricted free
agents Monta Ellis (I'd say a five- or six-year deal averaging between $11M
and $12M, something like that) and Andris Biedrins (another guess: six
years, something like $55M) fairly soon.

Since you can always go above the cap for your own free agents but cannot if
you're trying to sign other teams' F/As, it behooves the Warriors to wait
until the Evans/Azubuike thing is done and see if there's anybody else they
want before officially inking Ellis and Biedrins.

* I'll get to more stuff, and there's always more stuff, later in the item.
But first, I wanted to highlight a specific point that is not news. but is
fascinating to any long-time Warriors/Baron Davis watcher.

When Lowell Cohn asked Mullin why Corey Maggette was worth a long-term deal
that might've/could've gone to Baron Davis, Mullin looked thoughtful and
said:

"I think it's a fair question. I don't know that the exact deal that
happened in LA would've satisfied (Davis) here. I'm not saying it wouldn't
have."

I think he has a good point that hadn't quite dawned on me until he said it.

First, I doubt the Warriors would've ever offered Baron anything close to
five years. No chance. Not with that injury history and not the way Baron
blew off practices and blew off playing defense last season.

Still, Mullin seems to be saying that he didn't think Baron would've taken
5/65M from the Warriors-or that if Baron had taken it, he would've been
upset about it very quickly. It's different when you take the deal as the
local hero coming home and trying to fit into a salary structure with or
without Elton Brand.

But if you're the guy who got the GSWs into the playoffs for the first time
in 13 years. and you just played 82 games. and you've been pining for this
deal for years and the Warriors haven't budged.

This was not going to work out well for the Warriors-they would've had to
over-pay just to keep BD and even then Mullin would've been worrying the
whole time that Baron, starting at $11M instead of the $18M he wanted, might
soon blow up the team in frustration.

That made the decision to walk away from Baron very easy for Mullin and the
Warriors. Very, very easy when you figure that Ellis, Biedrins, Brandan
Wright and Anthony Randolph might never fully develop if Baron was around to
dominate the ball and the locker room and the sidelines and the team plane
and the hotel.

"If he stayed (by not opting out), I think there were some things we needed
to accomplish," Mullin said, describing his mind-set at the June 30 opt-out
date. "And if he left, probably more to accomplish, more things had to get
done. Those things have somewhat fallen into place.

"That decision (to move on without Davis) probably was going to be made at
some point. It got sped up a little bit.

"With our young players, I think a lot of them need room to grow, too. I
think, with Baron, and this is not against Baron, he is the type of player
and personality that maybe doesn't afford that ability for young players to
blossom.

"Of course, when you lose a player of his talent and stature, it's hard to
replace. But the flip side is that the guys that you believe in that are
coming up, they do legitimately need room to do that, referring to Monta,
Andris and guys we've brought in here. They're going to need some room to
grow and I think with Baron, that probably wouldn't have happened."

I see what Mullin is saying. I've been writing a lot of that for months and
years and I definitely see it now.

* Asked if the Evans/Azubuike move pretty much concludes the Warriors' major
summer activity, Mullin didn't disagree with the notion. He said C.J. Watson
might still be with the team in October, but there have been no final
decisions there, either. He said he expected Kosta Perovic to be with the
team this season.

If the roster is basically set for next season, Mullin said he's pleased
with the outcome, though nobody knows for sure what will happen when the
four or five new rotation players mix in with the holdovers.

"We feel like we needed to address some inside presence, physicality, and
then also we feel we've got some scorers and with Marcus coming, we feel he's
a guy who by nature gets people involved, sees the floor. we thought that
was important to have as well," Mullin said.

Later, talking about Turiaf, Maggette and possibly Evans adding a large dose
of muscle to a previously very skinny team: "I'm hoping that just adds to
something that we didn't have. I think all those players you mention, they
are probably more physical than guys we've had. But I do think they can run.

"I don't think we're going to jeopardize the ability to run and keep that
uptempo game by adding that.
I think Turiaf can run. If he's not the first 'big' up the court, he can
trail and he can handle the ball pretty well and do some of the things we
want our big guys to do.

"I think obviously Maggette's obviously athletic enough to run the wings and
we really like the fact that he gets to the free-throw line and makes free
throws.

"And you need somebody to kind of be the catalyst of all that, be it Monta,
Marcus or C.J., to really keep pushing that tempo."

Could Marcus Williams play significant minutes alongside Ellis in a
double-playmaking backcourt?

"I think he has the ability to do that," Mullin said of Williams. "I think
Marcus is a guy that sees the floor, more of a playmaker, creator, kind of a
vision guy.

"If we have so many scorers on the floor, at some point you need to have
someone that in their mind is thinking pass first. I think he's shown the
ability to do that.

"Obviously I think he needs to get in better shape to play the way we play.
I think he will do that. He's got nice size to be able to play with Monta. I
think he's got a bright future. I've always liked him. I think he's got a
good game. I've always been impressed with his talent-hopefully we can bring
that out of him."

* Don Nelson has joked that he has tried multiple times to reach Stephen
Jackson by phone and hasn't gotten a return call. I asked Mullin if he has
talked to SJax this summer or if he felt he needed to.

"No, I haven't left any messages," Mullin said.

Could there be an issue with SJax? "I don't think so. I didn't talk to him
last off-season, either."

* Mullin re-iterated what has been written here and other places: He
believes in Al Harrington as a player and wants Harrington to be a key piece
of how the Warriors play this season, perhaps used more as a slasher and
low-post scorer than just merely a three-point chucker.

Has Harrington asked to be traded? "No. I saw Al recently (in New York),"
Mullin said. "I think he was happy to see me. We had a good meeting."

What's Harrington's role this season?

"I think actually right now, in my mind, he becomes maybe more important
than he was last year," Mullin said. "With his ability to shoot the three,
to space the court, I think he's an important part of our team. My personal
opinion is he does have a post game that we could use as well.

"We've got those guys running and filling lanes. When you get into the
half-court, you do need some space to drive the ball. And that's a big part
of our game, to open the court up as opposed to clogging it up."

* Mullin pointed to the team's new depth, at least on paper. I asked if he'd
like to see Nelson, who was at most a 7-man rotation guy last season, go to
a 9- or even 10-man rotation this season.

"If efficiently it's working, if you've got nine. guys really playing at a
high level, contributing, of course," Mullin said. "That's tough to do, not
only keeping guys somewhat satisfied or getting that production out of them.
ideally, yeah.

"I thought last year that's what we needed. We needed a little more depth.
We got a little run down. Ideally, yes, whether that happens or not."

Has No. 1 pick Anthony Randolph, who just turned 19 and has turned in some
impressive summer league performances so far, looking like a player who
might have a role as a rookie?

"He's got incredible gifts, talent," Mullin said. "To get so excited in july
is a little bit premature. But as far as his talent and what he's shown so
far.

"I don't even know if we got to talk about the draft. I thought the draft
went incredibly well. I mean, I don't even remember talking about the draft.
He's a really talented guy. And the kid Hendrix is playing well. He's
another body-type kind of guy we haven't had, too."