Warriors NBA Draft History: Timberwolves Revisited – Garnett/Love And Richardson/Klay (Photo: @letsgowarriors Instagram account)
The Golden State Warriors don’t have a draft pick in today’s 2014 NBA Draft. In fact, aside from a trade, they can’t even purchase one as they have in each of the last two Drafts. As Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle reports:
The Warriors used $3.2 million in cash considerations to complete the Iguodala deal – the most the NBA will allow a team to use in trades during a single fiscal year, which starts in July. So buying a pick – as they’ve done each of the past three seasons – is impossible.
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That doesn’t mean the Warriors won’t find a way to get a selection. One NBA source said the team would complete a deal with the Timberwolves, shipping Klay Thompson, David Lee and Harrison Barnes to the Twin Cities for Love, Kevin Martin and a first-round pick, if Doug McDermott or Nik Stauskas is still available at No. 13.
So why is #DubNation still excited about the Draft? Because that’s when a lot of trades get reported and, depending on which camp you find yourself in, are on pins and needles waiting for any announcement of a Kevin Love trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves (which might then initiate the LeBron James pipe-dreaming).
It’s ironic that the 2007 NBA Draft featured the Warriors in a trade with another perennial All-Star Timberwolves power forward, Kevin Garnett, in exchange for another beloved Warriors shooting guard, Jason Richardson, although the developments of that potential deal were largely kept under wraps.
In short, then-general manager Chris Mullin arranged a trade of Richardson to the Charlotte Bobcats for their pick, Brandan Wright. The next step was to send Al Harrington, Andris Biedrins, Monta Ellis, and a draft pick to the Timberwolves for Garnett.
However, it has been rumored that then-President of the Warriors, Robert Rowell, vetoed the deal because it would’ve sent the team into the luxury tax. That moment has also been suggested as the start of the rift between Mullin and the Warriors’ front office at the time.
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury once summarized, two years after-the-fact:
I never heard what Rowell did or didn’t do at that point, though Mullin at one point joked that there was a lot to tell about the whole story that he’d tell me later.
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I left it mostly alone.
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Now Steinmetz says Rowell vetoed the deal over salary issues. Makes sense to me. That’d explain why Mullin was so antsy that night–he thought he had KG, he thought he was running the basketball ops, but right as he got his holy grail, to team with Baron Davis for a monster 2008, Rowell interceded.
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It could’ve been over the trade-kicker negotiations. It could’ve been KG being upset that a new team would demand he negotiate any part of his contract.
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It absolutely could’ve involved the trade exception–would Rowell take back a bad T-Wolve contract (I always suggested Marko Jaric at the time) in order to convince Minnesota to move KG? That would’ve put the Warriors over the luxury-tax line… but it would’ve also given them a few years of KG and Baron.
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Yikes. Rowell vs. Mullin, over KG.
Rick Alonzo of Pioneer Press in Minneapolis wrote about Richardson’s reaction to the failed deal:
An ESPN.com report at the time said the Warriors got cold feet and decided to make a straightforward trade with Charlotte. It’s questionable whether Garnett would have signed a contract extension with Golden State, which wouldn’t have had a great supporting cast following the trade.
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The Boston Globe reported that the Warriors’ trade offer to Minnesota for Garnett included forward Al Harrington, center Andris Biedrins, guard Monta Ellis and a first-round draft pick. The Globe also reported that the Wolves would have pulled the trigger on the trade if Golden State would have drafted Al Thornton and included him in the trade.
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But Golden State drafted Wright and subsequently tried unsuccessfully to trade Wright’s draft rights to a team drafting after it in exchange for Thornton, according to the Globe.
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“When the deal didn’t happen, it was like, OK, what was that for?” Richardson said of Golden State’s motives for the trade sans Garnett. “They had money issues over there where they had to pay some young guys. They had to re-sign Baron (Davis). Either way, whether Garnett was going there or not, I was probably the guy getting traded because I made the most money.”
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