Ok in all honesty, this was the best free agent frenzy in years, or at least I can remember. But now it is getting kinda ridiculous. If the odds weren’t in Miami’s favor, then how about now? After signing ALL THREE big free agents out there, they sign Mike Miller, retain Udonis Haslem, grabbed Big Z and now have added Eddie House. Then in the yahoo reports, it says that they are still thinking about adding Tracy McGrady. Is there some kind of tampering that Pat Riley has done. Any fan of any other team besides the Heat, I think would believe there is something fishy going on here. How can one team, let alone the MIAMI HEAT (!), grab everybody and anybody. Even Kobe couldn’t get all this and he plays in LA! With that said, do I think that this is good for basketball? Probably not. The only people who think this is good for them are the Miami Heat and their fans. I can’t see how a powerhouse team will be able be that good to watch. Who would be their rivals? Who would actually be able to play against them? At this point, I’m annoyed by the Heat. How can they attract anybody good? And when are the Warriors going to be able to do this? I’m irritated everyday by another signing from the Heat. I just hope they can’t gel and have this season be the biggest bust of the NBA history.

So I know that newly acquired David Lee has been injured for a couple of days, but I can’t help but hope that if I don’t write about it, maybe it will only be a sprain. Unfortunately for Warrior fans and David Lee that isn’t true. According to reports, Lee went up to block up and shot and jammed his middle right finger. Lee was flying back to the Bay Area to get the final diagnosis.

Seems unfair that all the Warriors get injured before the season starts. This is probably why Amare and Dirk weren’t allowed to play for their countries at the FIBA tourney. Though they say that it was because of contract negotiations on why Amare wouldn’t play for USA, let’s be realistic. As a GM and owner of a team, this was the guy you went after during the crazy free agent season. This is the guy you are going to rebuild your franchise with. Of course, as much as you want to show your patriotism to your country you have to think about your team first. Regardless if Amare is there or not, USA will be just fine as you are going to see great players like Kevin Durant and our very own Stephen Curry. If the boys at the World’s play well, look for a few of them to compete for the Olympic team.

Two other transactions have transpired these past couple of days. Warriors are finalizing a two year deal with local Palo Alto resident, Jeremy Lin, a 6-3 combo guard who was un-drafted out of Harvard. Lin would most likely be Stephen Curry’s backup. He would be the first American-Asian USA born to play in the NBA since 2000.

The Warriors and Chicago Bulls have completed a sign-and-trade for C.J. Watson. Watson would fit right in as a back-up to Derrick Rose. The Warriors would receive a 2011 second round pick.

In the midst of all the departures and arrivals of free agents, I’ve almost forgotten to mention that the logo for the Warriors has changed. The official website of the Golden State Warriors has an evolution of the logo changes throughout the year. I actually like the new logo, but it is sad that the old one has to go away. A part me think that it is because of marketing purposes and they are probably trying to make more money. With that said, it’s a time to get a new jersey!

http://www.nba.com/warriors/history/warriors_logo_evolution.html

To continue the rampage of changing places and changing faces, the Warriors made a big splash in the free agency category by being sold to minority Celtics partner, Joe Lacob and Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber for an NBA record, $450 million. Front runner, Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ironically the building where the Warriors play in), has been left out in the cold and Warrior fans are again shaking their heads. From sources around the nation, it has said that Ellison had the highest bid, but the winner for the team went to Lacob and Guber instead. The bid that Ellison put in, apparently, was put in too late and a deal with Chris Cohan, Warriors current owner, and Lacob and Guber were already done. It has sad that Ellison lost the bid since he seems to be a person that would benefit a struggling franchise. He is from the area, knows the fans and would in my opinion, make the Oracle a much better place to play. But this owner and his management team has been dismal from the start, making only 1 playoff appearance in his tenure of ownership. However, with new ownership, it seems inevitable that the current management and coaching will cease to exist. That is probably the best thing that came out of this sale. We will see how the new management make the Warriors better.

Around The League

Officially, Mike Miller is now a Miami Heat. Seems like the Heat are continuing to build a powerhouse down there in South Beach. Miller signed a 5 year deal. Financial terms are not out yet. But one thing is clear, Miller turned down more money with the enticing opportunity for a championship.

Even with signing Quentin Richardson, the Magic have decided to match the offer sheet for JJ Reddick.

The Houston Rockets agreed to a 5-year- deal worth $47 million with Luis Scola.

Kobe Bryant’s attempt to lure Raja Bell to the Lakers have failed and Bell is headed for the Utah Jazz. Bell agreed to a three-year deal worth about $10 million. Bell is excited to return to the place where his stock and career took off.

Since Bell is going to Utah, it is only a matter of time before Shannon Brown and the Lakers agree to a deal. Brown has stated in the past that he would prefer to stay in LA.

Paul Pierce has officially re-signed with the Boston Celtics. Pierce stated that his intentions was never to leave the Celtics but help make cap space for new teammates.

Finally, rumors are flying around that Clippers may look at Tracy McGrady. Poor guy. This guy is rather decent but plagued with injuries and the reputation of under performing in big moments I’d say his value has gone down so much that I’m not even surprised that the Clippers want him. Clippers just want names to fill to the seats, not necessarily people to help them win.

Warrior news: None as of right now. Hopefully we keep dipping in the free agency frenzy so we can rebuild. I do think that with the Miami Heat rebuilding and several players moving over to the East, the West is open for new teams to make an impact in the conference and new teams into the playoffs.

Around the League:

The Bobcats sent Tyson Chandler packing again. Instead of Toronto, Chandler and center Alexis Ainjca are going to the Dallas Mavericks for Erick Dampier, Eduardo Najera, Matt Carroll and cash considerations to Bobcats.

Zydrunas Illgauskas is following his buddy, LBJ, to the Miami Heat. Dealing another devastating punch to the gut, Big Z, whose never suited up for another team other than the Cavs in his tenure, will be signing with the Heat for a two year contract, the second year being a player option. James, no doubt, had some influence on getting Illgauskas to follow him to South Beach.

Mike Miller, who had agreed to a contract with the Miami Heat, still hasn’t signed the official contract, though sources have said it is only a matter of time.

Finally, the Cavs, who are still recovering from the loss of LBJ and now Big Z, signed Houston Rockets, restricted free agent, Kyle Lowry to an offer sheet. However, sources say the Rockets will match the Cavs offer and retain Kyle Lowry.

Warrior news: Anthony Morrow is officially a New Jersey Net. News outlets say the Warriors did a sign-and-trade with the Nets for a $4 million trade exception, while getting a second draft pick in 2011. Looks like the Warriors are cleaning house on top of the pending sale of the Warrior franchise.

Around the league:

The deal that would have sent Tyson Chandler and Boris Diaw to the Raptors for Jose Calderon and Reggie Evans to the Bobcats have been axed as Bobcats owner Michael Jordan is thinking twice about it.

Raptors, however, will send Hedo Turkoglu to the Suns for Leandro Barbosa.

The Utah Jazz are looking to acquire Al Jefferson from the Minnesota Timberwolves for a couple of draft picks.

Derek Fisher is expected to return to the Lakers as he turned down an enticing offer from the Heat to join the new Big 3.

ESPN has reported that Kobe Bryant is talking to Raja Bell about joining the Lakers. Those you don’t remember, Raja gave Kobe a decent hard time during their playoff series when Bell was still with the Sixers and Suns. That would be an interesting combination of players after all those years of disliking one another. Looks like the Warriors did a great job of acquiring an injured player only to watch him to go to the two time champions. Another winning combination for the Warriors.

The Heat and Udonis Haslem have agreed to a 5 year deal that will pay him $20 million. He turned down offers from the Dallas Mavericks and Denver Nuggets and $14 million more to stay with the Heat. Good move for him as they look to be favorites next season.

The Magic have agreed with ex-Heat, Quentin Richardson for an undisclosed amount at this time.

Warriors are doing what they can to cash in on free agent frenzy this year. For once, they got rid of dead weight and brought in David Lee, Charlie Bell and coaxed Brandan Wright to come and help turn this franchise around. I’m glad we aren’t dead like the Clippers. They have to share the same building as the much more popular and successful Lakers. Every number 1 pick they’ve taken has either been really bad (Danny Manning who?) or get hurt (Blake Griffen). I’d say that last 10 years of picks, the Clippers have done a half decent job, nabbing Chris Kamen and Lamar Odom. But at the end of the day, they still are the bottom of the pack.

Warriors on the other hand, don’t have the everyday pressure of another team dominating the headlines. However, they do have the pressure to be successful as they are the team of the Bay. No one wants to root for the Sacramento Kings. It’s hot up there! Golden State Warriors are suppose to represent the people of the Bay and for the first time in many off seasons, they’ve made some moves to help the Warriors gain more respect.

A quick look at David Lee and his numbers aren’t staggering. He seems like a big, slow man who only succeeded in the Big Apple because there wasn’t anyone else. But his numbers also do show that he can hang in the big boy league. He averaged 20 points and 11 rebounds last season and has improved each season. I also think that being in a place where youre number 1 and 2 guards are threats and a dominating force on offense, will only help Lee continue to rack up numbers but open the game up for Ellis and Curry.

The newest news is that the Warriors agreed to a sign-and-trade deal with the New Jersey Nets for Anthony Morrow. With all these old Warriors leaving and new faces arriving, it is hard to say what kind of season the Warriors will have. I hope that in the first half, they are able to find some kind of chemistry that will help win some games. Though Nellie is not big on defense (or at all), the guys the Warrior brought in are guys that can and will play defense. I believe that if they do play some good defense, they have the capability to continue to put lots of points on the board.

Finally, the biggest off season the Warriors need to do is either get rid of Nellie or understand that they are going to have another losing season with. Clearly, the coaching style of Nellie is back in the 80’s where it worked because guys, overall, weren’t at talented. But the game has changed and Nellie hasn’t. As fans of the Warriors, we have all suffered watching a great team crumble because of management and lose games because of poor coaching. I am an advocate of getting rid of Nellie for someone who can teach the game and take the best of out of each player and mix it together for a great team. Obviously longevity is not something normal in the professional world, as it is a business, those who know the game and play some kind of defense has survived and have been successful with different teams (i.e Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Gregg Popovich.)

Warriors are headed for much need re-vamp of the line-up. Now only if they did that for the coaching staff, would they be really headed in the right direction.

So you have to sit back and really take in the impact of what LBJ did to Cleveland and the league. It’s unnecessary to write about what a hoopla it was for LBJ to have a one hour special to announce to the world that he was choosing Miami over his hometown, over NY, over Chicago, over anybody really. In my opinion, he was super selfish, arrogant and made a  fool of himself and his reputation. Lots of articles have been written about how he’s selfish and about this decision. After Thursday night, I’m still thinking about his decision. I’m still trying to swallow what he did. I’m still sorta surprised that he left for Miami.

However, there are several things I do know.

One, Miami is suddenly a favorite to dominate the East and take away the title from the Lakers. After several years of a horrible team, where you see more seats open than fans in them, the franchise suddenly finds itself holding ticket sales because of how fast they were selling out. Several years removed from a championship, not only do they have a chance to be champions, but build a dynasty and maybe write themselves into the history books of the NBA.

Two, LBJ is different from all the other great superstars. Is he selfish? Maybe. Is he really that good? Clearly not. He had to go somewhere else because he didn’t believe in his teammates in Cleveland. Mostly, I think, he didn’t believe in himself. He quit on that franchise by leaving. He is no longer in the company of Jordan, Magic, Bird and Kobe because those players demanded greatness from their teammates. They believed in their talent. They wanted to bring home a championship to their city. They wanted to become the center piece, their name in the history book.

Three. He’s just plain selfish. Reports are stating that he, Wade and Bosh wrote down a list of players they would lie to be added to the Heat. Reports say that Mike Miller is close to joining them. It gets even better! Now the Heat are courting Derek Fisher after he thought the contract that the Lakers gave him wasn’t enough. I’m sure that Kobe has sat back and watched what was unfolding, chuckling to himself, as he’s proved that he can win without Shaq and twice. But I’m also sure that he suddenly got up off his chair and cursed loudly when he heard that the Heat were courting D-Fish. The War is now on for Fisher’s services and there is no way Kobe will let go of his grip on the old man until the fat lady has sung.

Finally, with LBJ moving to South Beach, the New York Knicks wasted no time in getting rid of David Lee. With a sign and trade deal, the Knicks sent David Lee to the Warriors for Anthony Randolph, Kelenna Azubuike and Ronny Turiaf. Is this the best move for the Warriors? So far the Warriors have made moves to get themselves better. David Lee may not be the most talented man, but in my opinion, he’s better than Azubuike and Turiaf. I also think this will help Monte and Steph because he can spread the floor for them. Now all of a sudden, there are three players that can be threats.

Most recently, Dorell Wright, a former Miami Heat man, is to sign with Warriors for a three year, $11 million dollar deal.

I’m excited the Warrior front office has finally made some moves. Are they the best moves? No. I mean, how great would it be to land LBJ or Wade or Bosh or Boozer. Either way, at least maybe now, we can somewhat compete. Now that the power has shifted to the East, the West is open more than ever.

So technically tomorrow isn’t the day where we are going to find out where all these big name free agents are headed, but it is the beginning of the betting. The biggest name out there? LeBron James. Other big names are like Dwayne Wade, Chris Bosh, Amare Stoudemire, Dirk Nowitzki and smaller name, Paul Pierce.  Technically, if Kobe didn’t sign his contract extension with the Lakers he’d be the biggest name out there. And to be quite frank, I don’t think I’ve heard the Warriors made one splash into each of these player’s radar. In all reality, would we be able to grab one of these marquee names? Probably not. But I haven’t even heard one peep of maybe a sign-and-trade, a trade or maybe throwing out some cash to one of these players. We wasted money on people like Corey Maggette (thank god his contract is gone) and Andris Beidrins (whose contract we still have) and not saved money for someone(s) better.

Maybe if I pray to the Warrior gods, upper management of the Warriors will make some kind of splash starting tomorrow. Make no mistake, even if the Warriors aren’t going to be a part of this crazy bidding war, the non stop news of who goes where will dominate the headlines as the conferences look to be shaken up with free agency starting tomorrow.

I think I tweeted, something like, “Who is this guy?” I still don’t understand why we didn’t draft Greg Monroe. Rumors have been flying all over place saying that the Warriors drafted Ekpe Udoh for trading bait, which seems to make sense in one aspect and no sense in another. The position Udoh plays is occupied by several players, like Anthony Randolph or Andris Beidrins to name a few. And according to Udoh’s statistics, he doesn’t seem like a player that will make an immediate impact so either some veteran players will be moving or Udoh will be a trade bait for something better. According to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, he stated that GM Larry Riley were shopping around  the hefty contracts of Beidrins and Monta Ellis. Rumors have been flying around that Ellis will be moved sooner or later before his contract is up because the Warriors intend to make Stephen Curry the franchise player. It would be an interesting move to make since both guys are still young, Ellis at 24 and Curry at 22. I also think that Ellis has better size than Curry and more explosiveness than Curry, so to make a trade like that, they would have to pick up someone exciting like a Chris Paul, since I heard he was no longer untouchable.

As for Ekpe Udoh, I would like to see him, at least, start the season with the Warriors. Though I’ve never seen him play, I heard he has good shot blocking ability, because of his jumping ability and his arm length. Standing at 6-foot-10, he has a pretty good vision for a big man, but his offense needs work. His face up again has been improving and with a high release he should be able to develop a mid range jumper that will be effective.

A lot of negative writings are about his age. When the NBA season starts, he will be an old rookie, at the age of 23. He is also very skinny. Think Yao when he first got into NBA of how scrawny he was and now how much more bulkier he is now. Udoh is a twig and he will get rocked by Dwight Howard and Shaq if he doesn’t get bulkier.

For now, Udoh stays a Warrior and no new moves have been made. But come July 1, when LeBron starts talking with other teams, starting with the Nets, do not be surprised if the Warriors make a huge move by trading both Ellis and Udoh to land a marquee player.