Destiny Was Just A Dropped Call Away–Golden State’s Summer, Part I

Posted by: Avinash on Saturday, July 28th, 2007

It’s been a pretty quiet summer in the offseason–you know, other than that referee taking away Game 3 from the Suns, and fixing about a thousand other games as far as we know. But there’s also been some hullabaloo over at NBA Nation’s favorite story in the Bay Area. The Warriors have been busy trying to make some noise to push their upside even higher. Once in awhile they succeed. And other times…

Although nothing is concrete, a deal was in place to land KG and his fantastic suits. In fact, it’s likely Garnett would already be here if there hadn’t been complications. And by complications, I mean “bad cell phone carriers”. We wish this was a joke. It would make this story less sad. You can find that story on the other side. (Image from Wagonized)

 

So this is what Tim Kawakami reports from the San Jose Mercury News, with the help of our friends at Golden State of Mind.

He’s got an amazing story, the stuff of legends. You have to check it out.

These are sources who say they know what happened on June 28, when most smart NBA execs believe the Warriors had a deal in place to land KG in a three-team extravaganza involving Jason Richardson… then it didn’t happen.While the Warriors’ Chris Mullin and T-Wolves’ Kevin McHale scrambled to get this complicated deal done in the moments/minutes before Charlotte picked eighth, Charlotte never heard directly from either team who the pick should be, thus messing up everything, or so the tale goes.

Doh! Bad communication led to the Warriors not getting KG? Was it Cingular, Verizon, or Sprint? Land line not working? Get it fixed.

So what would the deal have been? Here’s the speculation:

-Sent Garnett and Troy Hudson to the Warriors;-Sent Richardson to Charlotte;

-Sent a whole bunch of stuff to Minnesota, including Al Harrington (probably), Monta Ellis (probably), future picks, and the rights to Al Thornton (selected with Charlotte’s No. 8 overall pick);

-Added in a bunch of other salary-cap fillers here and there to make sure the money worked.

Well, it didn’t happen (except for the Richardson stuff, more on that tomorrow). And so a rumor becomes a story, and then becomes a non-story again. Excellent.

Our thoughts of Garnett with the Warriors? It’s basically a tradeoff for long-term stability (Monta Ellis, the point guard of the future and bench production from Harrington) for a short-term chance at a Larry O’Brien trophy. Bringing in the inside presence of Garnett gives someone who can guard the power men of the West. With Davis finally having an inside presence to dish it to and Garnett finally having a true point guard to distribute the ball, both players finally might not burn out after 70 games. The possibility of a Bay Area trophy looms.

It’s a classical tradeoff of winning one now or building for the long haul. At least it’d give the NBA something to cheer about. We will monitor the situation if anything develops.

Thoughts on a Garnett deal? Comment away!




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