Empty Rhetoric: The Latest Warriors Ownership Failure

Joe Lacob came in as an unpopular choice for the new owner of the Golden State Warriors when his group came in out of nowhere to slimly beat out the bid put in by the people's choice, billionaire and owner of Oracle Larry Ellison. People wanted Ellison's bravado, deep pockets, and insanely competitive spirit, essentially everything that previous owner Chris Cohan was not. Lacob eventually won over the displeased fans, playing up his fandom and 10 years of season tickets and talking passionately about bringing a winner to the Bay Area and that he wanted to make bold moves and bring a superstar to Golden State. Fans were excited. They thought while he might not be Ellison, he may be the next best thing. 18 months later, the Warriors are still not a winner, no bold moves have been made, and the Bay Area is still void of a superstar. All Lacob has proven to be so far is Chris Cohan with better PR sense.

The off-season started with talk of the Warriors both signing Tyson Chandler and swinging a trade for Chris Paul, immediately bringing national attention and respect to the Warriors franchise and giving them a legitimate core. It ended with the Warriors signing Kwame Brown, the most embarrassing bust of a number one draft pick of this generation, and giving him $7 million dollars for this season. This is being sold to the public as a smaller move that will help the Warriors defense and rebounding, and that Brown's former draft position shouldn't be held against him so many years later, and that line of thinking makes sense in theory, but when compared with Joe Lacob's bold proclamations of the past the logic falls apart. Incremental moves are for contenders looking for the final pieces. The Warriors, who compiled a record of 36-46 last season, are not contenders. The bold move Lacob had seemingly been waiting for was staring him in the face, in the Chris Paul trade and he blinked.

The Hornets number one target in a trade for Chris Paul was Stephen Curry. If the Warriors had put him in a potential deal with Ekpe Udoh, Klay Thompson, and a future pick, the Hornets would have made the deal, and Stern would have had no reason to step in and veto the trade. The Warriors balked at the trade because Paul did not give them assurances that he would stay beyond this year, as he can become a free agent at the end of this season. With this decision, Lacob showed that all of his talk was just that - talk. Thinking that a player is going to leave your team if he is not contractually obligated to stay for 5+ years is the mindset of a loser. Losers assume players will leave, Winners assume that they'll want to stay. Paul may have had his reservations going in, but he could have easily been sold on the Warriors within a year. With a Paul trade, Tyson Chandler almost assuredly would have followed him to the Bay, giving the Warriors the defensive presence in the middle they've been lacking for years.

Going further, Monta Ellis has been involved in a variety of trade rumors over the past 2 years for a variety of players. The two most persistent suitors for the scoring dynamo have been the Memphis Grizzlies and the Philadelphia 76ers, with Memphis offering OJ Mayo and Philly floating an Andre Igoudala-Ellis swap. Philly was still willing to swap the Iggy-Ellis swap as recently as draft night, and possibly during the early parts of free agency. If Golden State would have parted with the talented but ball controlling Ellis and taken in the defensive specialist and all-around talent in Igoudala, they would have had an elite wing defender to guard the Kobe Bryant's and Kevin Durant's of the world.

Since parting with Ellis would leave a decent sized hole at the 2-guard position, they would need to use their mid-level exception to bring in a veteran. As it so happened there was a veteran Shooting Guard available that Warrior fans might be familiar with

A 4-year deal to bring J-Rich back to the bay using the full Mid-Level Exception would have cost $26.75 million dollars. On December 11th, Jason Richardson signed a 4-year deal with the Orlando Magic for $25 million dollars. Just saying.
 
With these moves, the Warriors would have put together a line-up of:
PG - Chris Paul
SG - Jason Richardson
SF - Andre Igoudala
PF - David Lee
C - Tyson Chandler

That instantly turns the Warriors into not only a playoff team, but also a real threat for a top 4 seed and homecourt advantage. And with a bench that would consist of Ekpe Udoh, Reggie Williams, Dorrell Wright, Lou Amundson, and 2nd round picks Charles Jenkins and Jeremy Tyler, the Warriors would have a solid bench with a lot of upside to potentially be a dangerous group. Imagine how good this team would be. Now imagine them playing in Oracle 41 times, in front of the best fans in Basketball. Imagine Paul being a hailed as a savior, earning potential legend status in this hoop-starved area. Imagine a playoff series win in Oakland, with the arena rocking like during the We Believe era. Imagine the love and gratitude the fans would shower on Paul when they finally got eliminated, begging him to come back. What type of person thinks Chris Paul could possibly walk away from all that, to take less money to play somewhere else?

Someone who talks big but can't back it up. Someone scared, with a loser mindset.

Someone, apparently, like Joe Lacob.

Alabama-LSU: The Wrong Answer to a Question With No Right Ones

When I watched the BCS Selection show Sunday night, and it was unveiled that the BCS Championship would be a rematch between LSU and Alabama, I was filled with an emptiness that surprised me. Now, being a fan of the Oklahoma State Cowboys, the #3 team in the BCS, I expected to not be happy if they were left on the outside.  I didn’t expect to not feel much of anything.  If the Cowboys had leapfrogged Alabama, I would have been left with the same feeling.  I would have been happy for OK State, but I still would have had the feeling that something was wrong.  The BCS, for all its claims that it creates excitement for the bowl games and the Championship game, managed to suck all of the excitement out of the post-season.  The BCS managed to do the one thing its (admittedly few) defenders always said it avoided.

There was no right answer to the question of “Who should be number 2?”  Alabama is, fairly clearly, the 2^nd best team in the country.  They have a half-dozen future NFL players on defense, they have the best running back in the country, and they have a sterling resume.  The problem? They already played LSU, at home, and lost. They already had their shot and failed.  Why should they be handed a 2^nd chance after not beating anyone of consequence since?  Their 3 games since the LSU loss were against Mississippi State, Georgia Southern, and Auburn, a fairly uninspiring stretch of opponents that posed no real challenges. I believe Alabama is the 2^nd best team in the country. Do I believe they deserve a rematch against a team they lost to at home, while playing fairly uninspired ball ever since? I don’t know about all that.

Oklahoma State has a legit argument for being the 2^nd best team in the country.  They have wins over 5 teams currently ranked in the top 25 compared to just 2 for Alabama.  They were the conference champions in the conference ranked the best in the NCAA by the computer polls, while Alabama didn’t even play in their conference championship game. They beat Oklahoma, the preseason #1 and current #10 team in the country 44-10.  Their only loss came on the road in double-overtime, on a day in which the school suffered a tragic loss. They have the best WR in the country and the 2^nd best passing offense in the nation.  They are an absolute blast to watch.  The problem? Calling their defense mediocre is unfair to mediocrity.  Louisiana-Lafayette scored 34 points on this defense.  Tulsa scored 33, Kansas State scored 45, Iowa State hung 37 on them in the upset.  For as talented offensively, and as fun to watch as they are, are they really the 2^nd best team in the country with a defense that had exactly one good performance against a top flight team?  I can’t really get on board with that.

Going down the list, the arguments get even worse.  Stanford has 1 good win (At USC), and got blown out by Oregon, at home. Oregon not only got beaten by double-digits by LSU, they lost again at home to USC later in the year.  USC is inelligible for the post-season, but had 2 losses anyway.  Boise State had one great win (At Georgia), but lost to TCU on their home-field.  Arkansas lost to both LSU AND Alabama.

Of all the years where a playoff would have helped increase interest in the BCS Championship Game, this would be the one.  There are questions abound as to every teams credentials to play in the championship game, but a playoff this year would have answered them all.  Alabama would have had the chance to real off a couple of big wins and get momentum and interest back on their side.  Oklahoma State could have proved that the Iowa State game was a fluke and their defense can consistently keep up against top-flight opponents.  Stanford could have showed Oregon was nothing more than a bad match up and they would have more quality wins if the schedule allowed it.  Oregon could have proved they were a different team than the won that opened the season with an L against LSU.  Boise State could have proven that the team that beat Georgia is the real Boise, not the team that lost to TCU.  Arkansas could have exacted revenge on LSU or ‘Bama in the early rounds, proving they were a legit championship contender.

Instead, we get the BCS and the feeling that nobody really deserves the #2 spot.  Even if Alabama wins, the question will be whether Alabama deserved to be their in the first place, and why doesn’t LSU get a chance at revenge now?  As fun and crazy as this college football season was, it deserved to go out with a bang, with an 8-team playoff that would have given fans great games and the feeling that the 2 teams in the championship game earned their way there.  What we get is a game we’ve all seen before and a whole lot of emptiness.

Mike Leach and Rich Rodriguez give the Pac-12 the most interesting stable of head coaches in the country.

Mike Leach and Rich Rodriguez give the Pac-12 the most interesting stable of head coaches in the country.

There will be very little drama on the field in the Pac-12 next year.  There will be one game of note the entire season, USC vs. Oregon in LA.  That game will also be the Pac-12 Championship game, at whichever team wins the first match up.  None of the other teams in the conference will be anywhere near USC & Oregon’s talent level next year, and those teams are going to run away with their divisions. I can’t wait.  More after the jump...