Sunday, Jul. 13, 2008

Nellie ball doesn't have Nellie touch

His signature smallball just became about the incredibly shrinking roster. Don Nelson and the Golden State Warriors will have about five returnees from the rotation that won 48 games last season, along with an overpaid free agent who won't defend, two 2007 first-round picks who didn't play before and a 2008 first-rounder who may not play now.

Baron Davis is gone, the fallback position is being awkwardly moved into place, and it's hard to imagine a soft landing for the Warriors. They still need to fill the forever hole of a physical power forward, still need to re-sign free agents Monta Ellis, Andris Biedrins and Kelenna Azubuike, and now need to add a true point guard to back up Ellis in his latest attempted canyon jump from shooting guard.

The only certainty seems to be that Biedrins and Ellis will be back, though potentially with contracts that could complicate matters even more.

The job Nelson doesn't want is to be officially in charge of doing something about it. Unofficially, he is obviously involved. But he is solely the coach now, not the personnel boss as in days of old in Milwaukee, Dallas and Oakland in successful front-office work that is too often overlooked. And he appears to have no desire to move back upstairs.

Of course, those are the current plans and no one knows better than these Warriors what plans are worth. Davis just rocked them by unexpectedly opting out of the final season of his deal, becoming a free agent and quickly agreeing to terms with the Clippers for five years and $65 million. In return, Golden State lost its top scorer, its leader of an emotional locker room and its only dependable point guard.

The response was to reach for Corey Maggette at (gulp) five years and $50 million, signing him away from the Clippers to play on the wing with Stephen Jackson. Depending what the Warriors maneuver with the remaining cap room, either another free agent or to facilitate a trade, they're either close enough to the pack in the playoff chase to remain credible or rebuilding.

Once upon a time, Nelson did the building thing. He scored with draft picks of Sidney Moncrief and Marques Johnson and important trades for Bob Lanier and Terry Cummings to help the Bucks post seven consecutive 50-win seasons and win seven consecutive division titles.

In the first pass through Oakland, Nellie drafted Tim Hardaway 14th, Latrell Sprewell 24th and Mitch Richmond fifth. The four picks before Richmond: Danny Manning, Rik Smits, Charles Smith, Chris Morris. The four after: Hersey Hawkins, Tim Perry, Rex Chapman, Rony Seikaly.

The Mavericks, though, became his landmark. Ten years ago, in a turning point for the franchise and a historic moment in GM history, Nelson swung separate trades on the same day that delivered rookie Dirk Nowitzki and third-year man Steve Nash.

In front-office quick-strike bragging rights, there is the day Red Auerbach had in 1980 as the undisputed landslide winner, the way the Celtics drafted Kevin McHale and traded for Robert Parish within a few hours, but Nelson's sweeping June 24, 1998, in Dallas is very high on the list.

He returned to the Warriors in 2006 strictly to coach. Chris Mullin, a close friend and former player, was executive vice president of basketball operations and had the ear of owner Chris Cohan on personnel matters. Except that Mullin had also recently given terrible contracts to Mike Dunleavy, Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle and Derek Fisher.

The Golden State salary structure was a 16-car pileup.

Within 13 months of Nelson's return, the cap was streamlined in some great coincidence. Dunleavy and Murphy were traded to the Pacers as part of the package for Jackson and Al Harrington, and the Warriors took off. Later, the Warriors negotiated a buyout with Foyle.

It gets especially interesting because Nelson may be heading into his final season as coach and Mullin isn't committing himself long term to the Warriors either. What they've got in the meantime is the conflict of finding minutes to develop the first-round picks from last year, Brandan Wright and Marco Belinelli, and the top choice from last month, Anthony Randolph, while staying in the playoff picture in the ultra-competitive West.

The franchise has climbed out of deeper holes than this. It's just that in recent times, it's usually been with Nelson's hand in it at some level, as the coach with a strong voice or, once upon a time, as the actual man on the decisions.