The 2002-2003 Golden State Warriors under first year coach Eric Musselman improved their record from the previous season by 17 wins with essentially the same roster. 

How did they do it? 

The significant off-season roster changes from the previous season were allowing Larry Hughes to leave as a free agent, drafting Mike Dunleavy (#3 in the first round), acquiring the rights to Jiri Welsch (#16 in the first round) for a future pick and drafting Steve Logan (#30 pick in the second round).

The loss of Hughes and an injury to Bob Sura opened the door for Gilbert Arenas to emerge as the teams starting Point Guard.  Antawn Jamison was 13th in the league in scoring at 22.4 ppg.  Troy Murphy emerged as a double-double machine averaging 11 points and 10 rebounds per night on 45% shooting.  Jason Richardson gave Warrior fans a huge thrill by winning the slam dunk contest during All-Star weekend.  Even the center tandem affectionately dubbed Adonal-Dampier by team announcer Bob Fitzgerald became a formidable force in the middle and the Warriors led the league in rebounding for the third straight season. 

Probably the biggest boost to the team came in late November when free agent guard Earl Boykins joined the team and became an impact player off the bench for the remainder of the season.  So with this kind of internal development and such a huge step forward just three short seasons ago how is it that we find ourselves in our current state? 

Let’s take a look at the debacle that was the 2003 off-season.

Due to being over the salary cap and a loophole in his contract, the Warriors were unable to match the Wizards offer for free agent guard Gilbert Arenas.  Due to Gilbert’s uneasiness with the unstable nature of the front office, he decided to take the money and run.  I truly believe Gilbert when he say’s that if we had a more trustworthy owner or a more stable management team in place, that he would have given us the benefit of the doubt and signed a one year deal.  I can’t blame him for feeling the way he did considering that the man who drafted him was on his way out and an internal power struggle was going on between head coach Eric Musselman and Special Assistant Chris Mullin. 

To make matters worse, none of these three men were even involved in the negotiations and instead young executive Robert Rowell was given the task of saving the organization.  Gilbert was not impressed by Rowell’s argument and was put off by the way owner Chris Cohan reportedly sat in the corner and wouldn’t give him any indication that if he passed up this financial opportunity he would be rewarded for his loyalty down the road.  Of course they couldn’t break the rules to get him to stay, but I don’t see the harm of looking a man in the eye and telling him that he would not regret his decision if he decided to sign a one year deal.  

Once Gilbert left it was the beginning of the end. 

In typical Warrior fashion, the team overreacted to the unfortunate turn of events and vowed to clear payroll so they would not end up in this situation again.  They then proceed to trade away leading scorer Antawn Jamison, wing players, Jiri Welsch, Chris Mills and disgruntled forward Danny Fortson to the Mavericks for Damaged and over the hill players Nick Van Exel, Avery Johnson, Popeye Jones and Even Eschmeyer.  They added veteran free agent Cliff Robinson in a trade for Bob Sura, and Calbert Cheaney was added to the roster for more veteran stability.   Then they used their mid level exemption to pick up PG Speedy Claxton to replace Gilbert as the starting Point Guard.  They drafted swingman Mickael Pietrus from France with the 11th pick in the draft and picked up PG Derrick Zimmerman in the second round.

The bottom line is after finally having a breakthrough season they lost their two best players and replaced them with Speedy Claxton, Nick Van Exel and Cliff Robinson.  As expected, both Robinson and Van Exel were way too old and injury prone to contribute anything of substance and Speedy, although a nice player is not in the same universe as Gilbert Arenas in terms of ability. 

Part of the reason they traded away Jamison was to open the door for #3 pick in the prior draft Mike Dunleavy.  Mike was underutilized by coach Musselman in his rookie season, but special assistant Chris Mullin was able to convince management to give him another opportunity.  Another surprise addition to the roster was undrafted rookie Brian Cardinal from Perdue who came out of nowhere to be one of the most valuable Warrior players during the season. 

Amazingly the warriors were able to put up a record of 37-45 just one game under where they finished the prior season despite the overwhelmingly inferior roster.  But in a surprising move, the front office instead of backing the coach who had changed the losing culture and brought the team back to respectability in the western conference decided to criticize him for not improving on the team’s record and team president Robert Rowell blasted him publicly for underachieving.  The writing was on the wall, Chris Mullin had won the power struggle and was on his way to becoming the new decision maker for the organization.  Gary St. Jean and more importantly Musselman were on the way out. 

In April of 2004 the Chris Mullin era officially began in Oakland. 

His first order of business was to relieve coach Musselman of his duties.  Obviously the two men did not see eye to eye on personnel decisions and Mullin did not take kindly to his ex coach’s lack of respect for Mullin’s prize pupil Mike Dunleavy Jr.  Mullin then appointed ex Stanford University head coach Mike Montgomery to the head post vacated by Musselman.  Montgomery was a man that he felt would be able to patiently develop the young talent on the roster and grow into a winning NBA coach.

Once the coach was in place, it was time to shape the roster. 

Mullin’s first chance to run a draft war room was pretty uneventful.  He had targeted a young F/C from Latvia and he was available when they drafted at #11 so they took a chance on Andris Biedrins.  Andris was the equivalent of a High Schooler in terms of experience and age and Mullin showed that he wasn’t in a hurry to turn things around, so far so good.  Then things got curious.  Mullin, expecting to lose free agent Erick Dampier panics and signs backup Center Adonal Foyle to a huge contract extension.  He then follows the Adonal head scratcher up with an even more curious signing of veteran combo guard Derek Fisher.  Meanwhile he let Brian Cardinal sign with Memphis, losing the team’s most inspirational player for the second straight year (Boykins).  He then got back on point for a minute by dealing Nick Van Exel to the Blazers for some expiring contracts Dale Davis and Dan Dickau.  He then re-signed Calbert Cheaney because of his influence in the locker room. 

It was then time to deal with Erick Dampier.

The Warriors and Mullin decided to do the big fella a solid and instead of just letting him walk away, they signed him to a massive seven year contract and traded him to the Dallas Mavericks along with Evan Eschmeyer, Dan Dickau, and Steve Logan for Eduardo Najera, Christian Laettner, Luis Flores, and Mladen Sekularac. The only thing of value that came out of this deal was a pair of future first round draft picks after they shipped Najera and Flores to Denver for expiring contracts and waived Laettner.  Sekularac is still in Europe and will most likely never play for the team.

In his final off-season move of year number one, Mullin lost a game of chicken with agent Dan Fegan and decided to lock up free agents Jason Richardson and Troy Murphy long term by extending the players rookie contracts for what he perceived as a discount.  Who knows what he might have had to pay to keep them if he allowed them to play out the season and become unrestricted free agents, but in locking them up he believed that they would both be productive and vital pieces of the team’s core going forward. 

Unfortunately when combined with the Fisher and Foyle signings, Mullin had undone all the progress that had been done in relation to the cap flexibility created by the Jamison trade and the Warriors were now relying exclusively on internal development to get them over the hump.

During a disappointing and frustrating season where first year coach Mike Montgomery was suffering big time growing pains in learning the NBA game, it appeared that Mullin had doomed the franchise to a decade of mediocrity with a group of underachieving average players locked up long term.  Then in February of 2005, Mullin was given a second chance.  A former All-Star point guard and potential franchise changing talent became available and he could be had for expiring contracts.  Mullin took a risk because Baron Davis had a big time contract and was more than questionable in terms of his health and commitment to winning.  The risk paid off and Baron re-energized the franchise and elevated the games of some of the role players that Mullin already had in place. 

The exciting 18-10 finish of the 04-05 Season left everybody in Warrior land thinking that they were finally over the hump.

The off-season was a smashing success from a marketing standpoint as the fans lined up to buy season tickets and the anticipation of a full season of Baron Ball was almost more than anybody could take.  Mullin, perhaps believing himself that the team was on the verge of a long playoff run decided to not make any significant changes to the roster.  He had another strong draft picking up forwards Ike Diogu (#9 first round) and Chris Taft (#42 second round) and high school combo guard Monta Ellis (#40 second round). 

Once again Mullin decided to lock up a restricted free agent in hopes of saving money on his contract before he explodes on the scene.  Mike Dunleavy was the latest recipient of an undeserved long term contract extension at the hands of Mullin and he proceeded to fall flat on his face having his worst season ever and killing any chance that the Warriors had of making the playoffs.  Baron was injured early and often and was unable to play up to the level he did at the conclusion of the previous season leading fans to wonder if he was truly a savior or yet another disappointment.  The team showed a commitment to team defense early on and was successful.

Just as quickly as it appeared, the winning disappeared and the finger pointing started. 

The locker room was clearly divided between Baron and Dunleavy and everybody seemed to be questioning Mike Montgomery.  2005-2006 was another huge step backward for the organization and it leaves everybody wondering just how close we are to respectability.  Are we a healthy season away from the eighth playoff spot, or are we just going to cycle right back into obscurity?  Judging by Mullin’s reluctance to make roster transactions would suggest that he still believes in the core group he has put together and he must think that the veterans are going to gel together and the youngsters are going to develop into future All-Stars.

Many thought this off-season would be the chance for Mullin to really start wheeling and dealing due to the abundant number of attractive assets he had on the roster and the uncertainty at the top of the draft.  Mullin instead surprised everybody and stood “Pat” selecting Bradley Center Patrick O’bryant with the 9th pick in the first round and Kosta Perovic in the second round curiously adding two more big men projects to a team already loaded with them and passing on plenty of NBA ready players like Ronnie Brewer and Paul Millsap.  

Can the Warriors have another 17 game turnaround solely on internal development this season? 

Perhaps the departure of veteran guard Derek Fisher can open up the door for second year guard Monta Ellis to make an Arenas like contribution to this year’s squad.  Much like Dunleavy, Welsch and Logan back in 2002 this years draft crop of Patrick O’bryant, and Kosta Perovic will not make an impact on the team, but the sophomores Diogu, Taft and Ellis could potentially make a big contribution like Murphy, Arenas and Richardson did back then?  Maybe this is the year that Pietrus Biedrins or Dunleavy will reach maturity and Mike Montgomery will figure out the intricacies of the NBA game?  Maybe, Just maybe…

Chris Mullin took a big risk by coming back to the West Coast and agreeing to take over Basketball Operations for the Golden State Warriors. 

I give him credit for having good intentions and he will always be one of the all-time good guys in bay area sports history.  Mullin inherited a franchise in disarray and I am not sure he has done enough in his first three seasons to turn things around for our beloved Warriors.  I think at this point we are stuck hoping for lightning to strike twice and allow another Baron Davis type player to land in our laps, otherwise we will just be waiting around for internal development.