Troy Hudson (not Kirilenko) is set to be the Warriors’ last roster addition
News cycle update: MediaNews prolific beat writer Geoff Lepper knew about the Hudson signing far before me, I’m sure, and here’s his story nailing this one down.
Back to the post…
Barring last-minute complications, the Warriors will be announcing the signing of Troy Hudson any day now, and it’s not a bad signing at all.
And barring any last-minute craziness, the Warriors will not be announcing any deal for, or overt interest in Andrei Kirilenko, who is one of my favorite NBA players but even I understand that his remaining salary would be insane to absorb.
First, the Hudson situation: I think the Warriors were most interested in Darrell Armstrong to fill the back-up point guard spot, because he has played for Don Nelson, can still play at high speed even at 39 years old, and he’s a tremendous locker room presence.
But Armstrong’s still Indiana property (with a non-guaranteed deal), and I understand that Indiana wanted a 2nd-round draft pick for him. Which the Warriors weren’t going to do.
That led them to Hudson, who is 31, just got bought out of his Minnesota deal, presumably will sign for the veterans minimum, and has been known to play fast and to shoot from long distance in the playoffs.
Hudson has injury issues. But the Warriors were solely looking for a guy who could fill in for Baron Davis if Davis got hurt, and could maybe give them 8 good minutes a game when Davis is healthy, and Hudson should give them that.
Sarunas Jasikevicius never gave them that, which would’ve been obvious to anybody who saw him play as a Pacer.
Jasky’s just not an NBA player. Can’t play fast, can’t defend anybody, can’t shoot it when somebody’s in his face, can’t create, succeeds only in international ball when nobody’s guarding him and he can zone up on defense.
OK, now to Kirilenko. Here’s the pertinent stat: $63 million left on his contract. (Another side pertinent fact: The Jazz almost certainly will not buy Kirilenko out. They’d be crazy to. Adonal Foyle gets bought out. Players like Kirilenko do not. Now if he gets bought out, it’s a whole different thing. But he won’t get bought out.)
If the Warriors still had Jason Richardson and his $50M remaining, I’d say that they would very much want to talk with Utah about Kirilenko. Don’t know that Utah would listen, but the Warriors could offer Richardson and be very comfortable with the salary trade-off.
Richardson, of course, is gone to Charlotte. The Warriors are on a new fiscal path, which may or may not lead to new deals for Andris Biedrins (definitely), Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and several others.
They’ve drafted Brandan Wright, and I think Chris Mullin is committed to him. They’ve got Austin Croshere, Al Harrington, Kosta Perovic and Matt Barnes.
However much Kirilenko could fit in Nelson’s system–and yes, oh yes he could–and however well Kirilenko could defend most power forwards… $63M is just too much, given the Warriors’ situation, for a guy who can’t shoot a jump shot.
Chris Mullin was willing to go into luxury tax, and give up a ton of young talent, if he could land Kevin Garnett.
Kirilenko? Not so much. Easiest way to figure this one: Are you sure, absolutely sure, that the Warriors will be worse off with Wright into the future than with Kirilenko? $63M sure?
No, you can’t be. So it’s Troy Hudson filling the 15th roster spot. And Kirilenko isn’t happening.
T-Hud needs a hug. Check out his music video featuring pitbulls and ho’s. Awesome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqhYngxlCys&eurl=
yeah. saw the video. he’s a real class act…what a knucklehead….
But don’t the Warrior’s still have that huge trade exemption left over from the J-Rich deal? In that case, how would dealing for AK-47 now, using the exemption, really be appreciably different than dealing J-Rich for him earlier? I know his salary is horrible, but as Tim alludes to, Kirilenko would be an AWESOME fit in Nellie’s system, exactly the type of defender we need.
Kirilenko would be tremendous, but it’s all about the benjamins. It is beginning to look very clear that Cohan’s money troubles (to the tune of 2o million dollars) w/the irs are playing a huge part in the decisions they are making.
What do you know about my money problems?
Do you know how many season ticket packages we sold?
Did you notice more than twice as many nationally televised games as last year?
Baron Davis jerseys still have GSW logos all over them.
I gots plenty. Gonna make more!
It is about dollars, but I don’t know if Cohan’s situation really factors in - yet. Most teams are trying to avoid getting into luxury tax. I think the Warriors will probably be mid-pack in salaries this year. We’ll know a lot more next year, when Andris and Monta must be re-signed.
More to the point, I don’t think AK is cost-effective with that contract. As the luxury tax limit starts squeezing teams more, the top price contracts will come under more pressure. You save a lot more by paying your top couple of players millions less than by cutting your bench players pay. Besides, it would be hard to lower the cost of our bottom 5 (in pay) - 2 2nd round rookie deals, 2 vet minimums, and Kelenna are all under $1m.
Tim - If you were the Warriors, would you do Al Harrington, Partrick O’Bryant, and the Ike Diogu or part of the J-Rich trade exception for Andrei Kirilenko and cash? If not, what if Kirilenko agreed to restructure his contract making the fourth year a team option?
Troy is wack!!! he even got catz dissing him in the rap game.
http://www.youtube.com/scientific24
Are the Ws really going for Hudson rather than Dee Brown? Signing an experieced PG makes sense only if he is capable of getting the team into the playoffs if Baron gets hurt. I don’t think that T Hud is that guy. If Baron doesn’t get hurt, then, as many contributors have pointed out, we need to give Monta the sub minutes to see if he’s our PG of the future. If it looks like he’s not, we’d be better off having another young and fast prospect to try out. But, bottom line, Mully and Nellie have earned our trust. If they say that Troy’s the guy, I say that they right until proven wrong.
Clearly the choice of Troy Hudson is landing like a thud. Same thing happened with Croshere. Gotta love those veteran contracts where the NBA picks up part of the dime. Rowell/Mullin play moneyball again. They might as well just create a room for B-Diddy, T-Hud and SJax at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle.
Once again, a brainless article written by Kawakami. Any Merc reader can jump onto the beloved ESPN message boards and find better commentary written by a 7th grader.
kinda confusing blog by cohanhater, if you dont like hsi articles why bother to read them?