I’ve been a Warriors fan for the better part of my life and most of the time, I just shrug off things that the team does after a few minutes of annoyance. It’s the Warriors, their M.O. is to always be the stupidest person in the room. Questionable moves, failure and stomach punches, it comes with the territory. But a strange thing happened after the Udoh pick. I was upset about the pick as usual and after a few hours, the anger was still there. Every time I heard the sportscaster tell us who the Warriors drafted, I wanted to throw something at my tv. I tried to sleep it off, but I woke up and realize what had happened yesterday and I became upset again. This doesn’t happen to true Warrior fans, we usually can just take the bad and shrug it off. Was the news of the eventual Warriors sale and the good fortune of landing Curry last year, making me hopeful about my Warriors? Was I really hopeful that lighting would strike twice for the team and DeMarcus Cousins would drop to #6? Who knows, but I do know after the Warriors were in a prime position to pick up at least the third best player in the draft just before the season ended, I was expecting to receive more than Ekpe Udoh. So who is to blame for this draft disaster? Let’s take a look at the main culprits.
The Bakersfield Warriors – This is my weakest argument, since I can’t deny a man an opportunity to make it in his dream profession, but I still partially blame them for winning against playoff teams that were pretty much mailing in games against the Warriors since they’d be playing with a roster full of D-Leaguers. One side of me is saying “good for you for showing you can play inthe NBA” and the other is “what the hell are you doing? You’re ruining our lottery position.” The ideal situation was for them to play well enough to lose. If the vets were there, that’s what they would have done. And in the back of my mind, out of spite, I was hoping the vets would come back so they could win just enough games to leave Nelly one game short of his stupid coaching record. 2% of blame.
Chris Cohan – He is the bane of the Warriors existence from the day he purchased the team, but I can’t say he’s fully to blame for this draft debacle. Everything else, sure, but not for this draft. It was his fault that the Warriors were playing so many D-Leaguers that wanted to prove themselves to Don Nelson, thus winning those needless games though. 8% of blame.
Don Nelson – This egotistical jerk should be higher up on the list, but there are bigger idiots to blame for this draft ahead of him, so he belongs here. Nelly had to get the coaching wins record last season, he knew the team was going to be up for sale and he knew that once it was sold, he and his lackeys were gone. So he milked the D-Leaguers for everything he could to make sure he’d get that coaching mark before the end of the season. Then once he got it he wanted to make it harder for the next out of touch coach to beat his record by winning 2 more games and knocking the Warriors out of the 3rd lottery slot. Who was in the third slot, the Kings. So now, instead of the Warriors being the best team in Northern California for the next decade with a nucleus of Curry, Randolph and Cousins, the Kings will take that distinction. Thanks a lot Nelly! 25% of blame.
Robert Rowell – He drove off the last thing that made the Warriors a legit franchise: Chris Mullin. What Mullin brought to the table was having good relationships with people in the NBA, since you know he was one of the 100 best players to play the game and hands down one of the top 5 players in Warriors history. But who cares about that when you can have an egomaniac that rubs people the wrong way handling all of your personal affairs. Since Mullins departure, no one wants to be a part of the Warriors or even associated with them in any way. Reports came out that even if Cousins had dropped to #6, he would have pulled a Steve Francis and demanded a trade. If that report is even remotely true the blame is 100% on Rowell for making the Warriors a joke of a team. Another thing you can blame Rowell on is giving Riley enough power to draft Udoh outright. If he was really a smart businessman like he says, there’s no way you would allow your team to draft the 15th best player in a draft with the 6th pick. You would not allow your GM to pick a guy with no fan buzz when you’re trying to sell a new team brand (It’s guaranteed you would have sold millions of more Cousins jerseys than Udoh jerseys. Guaranteed.) You would not allow your GM to not figure out a way to move up at least one pick, when you’re sitting on the 6th pick of a 5 player draft. You know what Rowell, you allowed all of that to happen. I hope you never find another job after the new owner(s) kick your butt to the curb. 30% of blame.
Larry Riley – This guy makes Garry St. Jean and Dave Twardzik look like geniuses. I was going to let up on him a little since he got rid of Corey Maggette’s albatross of a contract. I also figured that hey after the top 5 are gone, you’re left with a few guys in the next tier that aren’t as good but at least you could live with them in Greg Monroe, Al-Farouq Aminu or Xavier Henry. Heck, I started liking Aminu more after he came to the draft wearing those glasses. But they came away with Ekpe Udoh; a 23 year old, who duplicates what they already have 2 of at power forward, has limited potential and was, at best, the 10th best player in the draft. Even his answers to reporters were a bunch of B.S. Why didn’t you take Greg Monroe? Because he wasn’t strong enough? He’s 20, he’ll get stronger and he’s been touted as being one of the best big man passers to come out of college in a while. Why didn’t you try to trade up? No teams would trade with you? You know what helps? Offering a lottery protected 1st round draft pick that becomes unprotected the following year along with the #6, to move up 1 or 2 spots. Are you trying to make us believe that Minnesota or Sac would not have agreed to that? Minnesota could have still had a 50% chance at taking Wes Johnson or could have taken a player with more upside in Xavier Henry and had the option of picking up at worst an unprotected 1st round draft pick in 2012. Who cares who’s coming out in 2012, you’re not going to be working for the team anyways, plus the Warriors wouldn’t have that high of a draft pick to make a difference if you played you cards right. Or maybe you knew and just wanted to screw over the Warriors along with any chances of you getting another front office job ever again. Hahaha, you got us good Larry! 35% of blame.
Now that I have that out of my system, let’s move on to next year’s draft. I’m starting the Harrison Barnes campaign right now. The kid will be good and fits a big need for the Warriors; a swingman that plays all over the court. Hopefully, Stern will have an under the table agreement with the new owner for a top 2 pick, so they can land him. *fingers crossed*
