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.
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