Season Highlight

It is difficult to find a season highlight for a team which has the dubious honor of owning the worst record for the second consecutive NLL season. I guess they did improve their win percentage marginally from a 0.18 to a 0.23 from a season ago – still hardly something to crow about. Some other good news, (I guess) is that gm wallrus has hung around, through this whole process and surely there must be some light at the end of the tunnel – and hopefully that light is not the headlights of a freight train as opposed to daylight. In writing this piece I decided to go back to the 2011-12 TbT piece written on these Warriors and I found these statements under “Looking to the Future”;

Coming off such a poor season, surely the only way is up for these Warriors. They have some nice young pieces to build around in Derrick Williams, Chris Singleton, Wayne Ellington, Norris Cole, Bradley Beal, Andre Drummond and Draymond Green…If this solid young core can gel and if each of the aforementioned players can begin to fulfil their potential this team could have a chance to put forward a solid package to entice free agents in the highly sought after 2013 crop…Maybe GM Wallrus knows what he’s doing after all”.

As history shows none of this eventuated, which leads us into the Season Lowlights, of which unfortunately there where many.

Season Lowlight

The 19-63 record once again made these Warriors the whipping boys of the NLL. Gm wallrus didn’t sit on his hands making 11 trades in an attempt to turn things around.  Unfortunately it appears as though he must have dabbled in one too many witchcraft sessions or at some point crossed paths with one too many black cats as it seemed that the Warriors where cursed.  The nice young core on paper of Drummond and Beal was quickly dismantled in favor of veterans on expiring contracts.  These marked some of the darkest days of gm wallrus’ season as the NLL paparazzi feasted tallying up what must be a season record of 223 comments about his deals.

Just when it looked like things couldn’t get any worse for Wallrus who lost the previous season’s lottery due to a bad bounce this time wallrus dug his own grave.  The fateful day was the 2^nd of December 2012.  History will now show that this could be perhaps the darkest hour in NLL GS history as a top 5 lottery bound team traded away its 1^st round pick in exchange for an injury ridden, overpaid big man on an expiring contract in Andrew Bynum, who will now walk for nothing.  Actually, this may be a blessing in disguise.  Now please wallrus – DON’T go re-signing him!!

Best Trade

The Golden State Warriors send Al Jefferson to the New York Knicks. The New York Knicks send Luol Deng to the Golden State Warriors.

The Golden State Warriors receive 25 GM points. The New York Knicks trade -25 GM points.

Hindsight is a beautiful thing and while at the time there where mixed reactions by NLL aficionados to this deal, it would appear that this might be one that gm wallrus got the better end of.  The Knicks at the time where pushing for a Championship run and needed a skilled big and in doing so they traded one of the league’s best two way players in Luol Deng to the Warriors.  I for one was glad to see this one go down as it got gm wallrus slightly off the hook given that he traded Andre Drummond for Al Jefferson in the first place and Jefferson ended up becoming a UFA which would likely have left GS for nothing.  So now, Deng becomes the cornerstone of this rebuilding team.

Good on ya for salvaging something here gm wallrus!

Worst Trade

The Golden State Warriors send Bradley Beal to the Miami Heat. The Golden State Warriors send Jeff Green, Derrick Williams and Draymond Green to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Miami Heat send Andre Iguodala and Greivis Vasquez to the Golden State Warriors. The Miami Heat send Jason Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The Minnesota Timberwolves send Drew Gooden and Jarvis Varnado to the Golden State Warriors. The Minnesota Timberwolves send Brook Lopez and Kevin Jones to the Miami Heat.

The Minnesota Timberwolves send a 1st-Rounder (LAL) and 2nd-Rounder (Min) to the Golden State Warriors.

Given the Bynum deal has been mentioned I am going to select an astonishing deal that garnered even more NLL attention and created perhaps one of the biggest uproars of the season, (88 comments) as it involved another two of the other most controversial gm’s in the NLL in gm javijoe of MIN and gm tmac of MIA.  In fact some conspiracy theorists suggested that following this deal gm tmac just may have some dark mystical powers over his colleagues in javijoe and wallrus raising some to ask, “Is MIA the new EVIL EMPIRE of the NLL?”

The fallout from this deal was undoubtedly immense as it rippled across the league making MIA even more of a powerhouse, making MIN even more of an enigma and leaving this writer close to speechless.

In one foul swoop the Warriors traded away their entire remaining pieces of their young core and in return they received a star player in Andre Iguodala on an expiring contract and some NLL journeymen in Gooden and Vasquez and two draft picks which they later turned into rookies Dieng and Bullock.

Lady luck has smiled on gm wallrus at the eleventh hour though as it appears Iguodala will demand a S&T deal meaning the Warriors may have another shot at salvaging some decent pieces from this deal going into 2013-2014.

Other Notable Trades

Derrick Rose signs with the Golden State Warriors for 5 years and $ 16,402,500.

Yes, in this crazy season, at one point Derrick Rose may have been a Warrior as a bold if not foolish gm wallrus flashed some cash in front of the young star - although it would have taken a complete blackout of gm houndy’s internet access for this offer sheet to not be matched.

The Cleveland Cavaliers send Al Jefferson to the Golden State Warriors. The Golden State Warriors send Andre Drummond to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This trade appeared good on paper at the time but given big Al was expiring it was a gamble that a rebuilding team really shouldn’t be taking.

Best FA Signing

Jeff Green – SF/PF. Despite his poor record gm wallrus went all in on Green and was able to land the free agent among tough competition, to the surprise of some.  Green played reasonably well in 53 games for the Warriors averaging 8.9 ppg and 5.5rpg before being shipped off to Minnesota as part of the blockbuster 3 way deal for Andre Iguodala.

Worst FA Signing

gm wallrus was unable to persuade any other free agents to GS.

Star

Al Jefferson – C/PF – In a season which saw many stars come and go big Al at least paid his dues before being shipped off to NY for Deng.  During his 49 game tenure in GS Jefferson toiled for 37+ minutes per game in this undermanned GS team producing big numbers including 23.6ppg, 8.6rpg and 1.4bpg.

Surprise

gm wallrus – After such a shocking debut season in the NLL it seemed that things may have been on the mend in GS but instead gm wallrus surprised, if not shocked the league with his series of big name transactions on short term contracts.

Goat

Jan Vesely – C/PF - With so much roster movement it is hard to find any real trend here.  Perhaps we’ll go with Jan Vesely here as for a lottery pick this guy really does suck.  In and out of the lineup due to injury, when he did play he did so poorly averaging a poultry 6.6ppg and 5.6rpg in 29.7 minutes of action.

Draft Report Card

Pick 25 - Reggie Bullock, SG/SF – Bullock was projected to go earlier in the first round earlier in the year so to pick him up with at 25 is a nice.  At 6’7, 207 pounds, Bullock has good size and length for the NLL SG position.  He can really shoot the ball based upon his college numbers of almost 44% from deep on 5.8 attempts per game.  With Iguodala leaving town, Bullock could see some good minutes for GS.

Pick 27 - Gorgui Dieng – C – Dieng is a project big man who came through from the NBA Basketball without Borders program in Africa.  He is very raw but with GS being very thin up front he could end up seeing big minutes.

Pick 43 - Ray McCallum – PG – As with any second rounder, it remains to be seen whether McCallum will stick.  But if so, he will back up Vasquez.

Looking to the Future

Coming off such a poor season, surely the only way is up for these Warriors, (mmm, I’m sure I’ve seen this written somewhere before).

After a crazy season it is time to knuckle down and rebuild in a structured manner.  They can build around Deng and Vasquez this time and it will be important to secure some good young assets with nice upside in exchange for Andre Iguodala before he leaves town.

After trading away his lottery pick which would have been pick #4, gm wallrus did end up securing pick #15 through trades which he then traded down for two late first round picks – drafting Gorgui Dieng and Reggie Bullock.

Bynum will definitely leave for free agency and given his poor record and lack of cash, (aka gm points) gm wallrus will once again find it hard to coerce free agents to GS.

Whilst it looks like the 2013-2014 campaign could be a tough one there are some bright lights on the horizon with the upcoming 2014 draft projected at being the best one in the past decade – perhaps rivaling the Class of 2003 which featured LBJ, Wade, Bosh & Melo.

Upcoming Free Agents

Ryan Hollins and Robert Sacre are likely to return and Toney Douglas is a restricted free agent.  As has been discussed ad nauseam Andrew Bynum will bolt for a greener pasture as will Andre Iguodala – albeit via sign and trade.  Lou Williams, DeAndre Liggins and Luke Walton’s decisions are unknown at the time of writing.

Currently the Warriors are 30 million under the cap, but may struggle to use it all – unless, (heaven forbid) we see an Andrew Bynum re-signing during free agency!!