As first reported by CSN Bay Area’s Matt Steinmetz, the Warriors have acquired the services of power forward Carl Landry. It is a reported two-year, $8 million deal with a player option coming in the second year.
With Golden State’s desire to increase their front court depth, Landry has been linked to the Warriors for several few weeks now which doesn’t make this signing all that surprising. Along with Jarrett Jack and Brandon Rush (who is expected to re-sign with the team very soon), he should be able to provide a scoring punch off the bench and be the number one option to backup David Lee.
A seven-year veteran out of Purdue, Landry averaged 12.1 points and 5.1 rebounds for the Hornets last season where he played 41 games, starting eight of them.
With the rest of the league making a multitude of moves to attempt to improve their rosters, the Golden State Warriors have quietly been sitting on the sidelines, almost as if they are waiting for a move to fall into their laps. With the NBA now seeming more and more like the NFL given all of the turnaround so far based on verbal commitments between players and teams, one wonders when the Dubs will get in on the “fun” given the redundancy present on the roster.
As it stands right now, the Warriors have too much money invested in two positions on the team, and get far too little in return from their investments. Continue Reading…
Whether one agrees with the moves of the Brooklyn Nets or not, their activity so far in the 2012 offseason has to be commended. Indeed, they have taken several steps to have their team dominate NBA headlines as we impatiently await for the season to resume once gain November. And let’s be honest here, they have made some substantial moves that could put potentially help them land a top four record in the Eastern Conference next season.
Billy King, the Nets general manager, has been able to secure the commitment of both Deron Williams and Gerald Wallace to long-term contracts, has an agreement in place to obtain Joe Johnson via trade with the Atlanta Hawks and also managed to get a verbal agreement with Reggie Evans to get him to join the team.
And just in case those moves failed to impress you, it seems as though they are still in the running to acquire Dwight Howard from the Orlando Magic . Granted, although ESPN.com’s John Hollinger pointed out that the signing of Mirza Teletovic makes it rather difficult for Brooklyn to land the superstar center (insider) because of this little thing called the salary cap, Brooklyn is still in the news. The end result is that prospective fans can already start discussing the team and get amped up to see them play. Continue Reading…
In a shocking turn of events, the Warriors win the 2011-2012 Kwame Brown lottery. Much like the lottery of ancient Greece where the winners were sent into the labyrinth to be food for the Minotaur, the Warriors have come out on top. When pressed for comment, the prior winners, just before the announcement of the move to golden state, had this to say….
“I wouldn’t speak to Kwame Brown to spit on him, he is a stain on the Timberwolves franchise that will never come clean.”
“Wherever there is Kwame there is an increase in suicides, that is a fact.” “You have to hate to chose between death and Kwame”
As of last week, teams were able to start negotiating with prospective free agents about potentially getting them on board. Also, trades could be discussed with the hope for many to upgrade their rosters and create depth for the upcoming compressed NBA schedule that will see every team play 66 regular season games from Christmas to late April.
Have a look at some of the notable moves made by various NBA teams:
Dallas Mavericks acquire Lamar Odom via trade from the Los Angeles Lakers
Indiana Pacers come to terms with free agent David West
Los Angeles Clippers sign free agent Caron Butler
Los Angeles Clippers claim Chauncey Billups off waivers
Los Angeles Lakers acquire Chris Paul by trade and then actually find out they did not
New York Knicks acquire Tyson Chandler in a sign and trade
Miami Heat sign Shane Battier
Orlando Magic re-sign Jason Richardson
Granted, there were other additional moves made around the league in the past few days but these were surely the biggest ones.
After seemingly striking out on Chris Paul and also missing out on Tyson Chandler, the Golden State Warriors are on the verge of signing restricted free agent DeAndre Jordan to an offer sheet. Matt Steinmetz has the story:
The Warriors are poised to sign center DeAndre Jordan to an offer sheet worth approximately $40 million over four years, according to multiple sources. The offer is expected to come Sunday.
Jordan, 23, has played the past three seasons for the Los Angeles Clippers and last year averaged 7.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.8 blocks in 25.6 minutes per game.
The Clippers will have three days to decide whether or not to match the offer for Jordan, a restricted free agent, or allow him to go to the Warriors.
The Dubs still seem to want to hold on to Andris Biedrins but if the Clippers fail to match and allow Jordan to become a Warrior, this scenario could shift rather quickly.
Here’s where things get interesting though: any normal team in the Clippers situation would proceed to match the offer to keep Jordan on the roster and help build a potential playoff contender with Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan serving as the team’s frontline of the future. But the Clips are far from your normal team.
Donald Sterling may end up deciding that the salary is too rich for his blood (let’s not forget, Chris Kaman is technically the starter and will make north of $12 million this season) and allow the defensive minded center to earn a paycheck from Golden State.
In other words, stay tuned…
Questions or comments? Feel free to leave them in the comments section or you can contact me by email at [email protected].
Golden State, we might have a problem. After losing six straight games, it’s fairly evident that the Warriors need a pick me up. Forget moral victories, the Dubs need to get a win, and if possible it has to come at home so the fans can all enjoy it together. On Friday night, the Golden State Warriors (30-42) will host the Toronto Raptors (20-51) with the hope that they will be able to get back into the win column. Do not let their record fool you though, the Raptors can play.
Maybe it’s the intense, dry, brain boiling heat of Las Vegas, or the conversation with outside basketball observers, but I feel a bit better than I did last week about the AR trade.
Trading young athletic forward Carlos Rogers, Anthony Randolph along with Kelena Azabuike, and fan favorite Ronny Turiaf to New York for all-star power forward David Lee, sent Warriors fans into a tail spin. This is a trade that angers fans because of ‘potential.’ Many feel that Randolph has more upside than David Lee. This is a subjective and hopeful feeling that is fostered by the Warriors every time they draft a player and he has any kind of success. As fans of a team that has made the playoffs once in the last 16 years, you have to allow yourself to hope. Hope can turn into tickets, jerseys, and unrealistic player expectations.
Hope in the face of suffering is why I have 4 autographed Larry Hughes jerseys, why the arena was packed on draft night, and why the Warriors continue to draw some of the best attendance in the league. If you scramble your roster every single year, you can always talk about how things are different. There is always hope when there is change….if you market it correctly. Change allows the Warriors sell tickets every year based on hope and potential. When a player they hyped as having amazing franchise turnaround capabilities gets traded for anyone short of a top 10 player, the fans have a violent reaction.
Face it, the Anthony Randolph trade is actually good for the Warriors. Yes, it leaves me with yet another outdated autographed player jersey, but maybe the Warriors will let me trade it for a David Lee jersey. AR had potential, but it is a crap shoot if he ever realizes it. His first year he wasn’t motivated, and needed a fire lit under him to get it together. He bounced back with a great summer league, and a decent start to the season, but he was still a tweener without any solid back to the basket moves, an inconsistent jump shot and no real position. AR is a project that may or may not pay off and a lot of that is dependent on his desire to work, improve, get better.
David Lee is an all star power forward who plays in an up-tempo system and can be expected to put up similar numbers here in Golden State. He works on his game, and tries hard every night. He has character, maturity, and a high basketball IQ. Warriors fans would have loved to have AR aspire to be a more athletic version of David Lee.
Lee has 40 lbs on AR, plays closer to the basket, generated a higher FG% in his first 2 years, is a better foul shooter, rebounder, and has shown improvement every year. Lee plays a position that we haven’t had a solid starter in for decades. The Warriors now have a pairing with Curry / Lee that could rival the Nash / Stoudemire combo that ran up and down courts in the west for years. 1 all star and 1 future all-star playing their actual positions, under Don Nelson, amazing.
Instead of rolling the dice on hope, we made a solid basketball move. It hurts, but it’s for the best.
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