JRich No Longer a Warrior? Say it Ain't So!

Well, it was a surprising NBA draft for a number of teams, the Warriors most definitely included in that. First, the upside to the Brandon Wright - JRich trade. Good players with amazing athletic ability that are 6'10 with 7'5 wingspans come around about once a year, at best, on average and there are generally 3-5 serviceable 6'5 2-guards in each draft. That's the good news for the Warriors. The bad is pretty much everything else. JRich has been a representation of the Warriors franchise and fans since he's been here, playing hard, sticking around, believing in the team through ups and downs, and has been the face of the franchise for the first part of this decade. Why not ship him off for a player who slipped in the draft because he's skinnier than Nicole Richie and has a questionable drive and work ethic?

I was talking with a couple friends about this trade earlier and we were trying to figure out when a project player with a questionable work ethic/drive has EVER turned into a strong NBA player. We couldn't think of one. You can come up with a list of players who were supposed to be too small for their position, too slow, bad jumper, questionable background, etc. These problems are associated with certain players every year and they are consistently overcome by superior players who have a strong work ethic and drive. This is the thing about Wright that scares me, I just don't see it panning out and to trade a consistently improving, hard-working, inspiring player like JRich is hard to fathom.

One thing that is clear in my mind after this trade is that Stephen A. Smith has a mental disability. Saying the Warriors fleeced the Bobcats on this is just ridiculous. I like how even the ESPN poll had 51% of people saying the Bobcats got a better deal on the trade and then he continues to go off like this trade was Adonal Foyle for Brandan Wright. Since when is a player who's an established star and considered a very strong #5 pick considered a poor trade for a totally unproven #8 pick? And this Michael Jordan fellow, how would he ever know how to judge the value of a proven shooting guard in the NBA? Clearly Stephen A. is a superior judge of talent! How could all be so silly! Stephen A. Smith represents everything that's wrong with sports broadcasting and sports journalism today. The theory that the more confidently and louder you say something, no matter what it is is superior to actually supporting your arguments and having some rational basis is absolutely killing sports journalism.

And I loved Stephen A's argument that the 2003 draft was deeper than this draft. Dude, Chris Kaman went #6 in that draft out of Central Michigan. You're telling me that Kaman was a deeper pick than Corey Brewer at #7? Or even Julian Wright and Al Thornton at #13 and 14? And if he was so sure Wade and Bosh were going to be superstars he should be scouting right now because I saw both those guys play repeatedly in college and had NO idea they would end up being this good. I doubt many NBA franchises knew this either otherwise trading up for Wade at #5 would have been worth pretty much anyone in the league at that point and nobody did it. Damn, I can't believe I just spent two paragraphs going off on that fool...

I do like the Belinelli pick, I marked him down as my Tony Parker Award for potentially stellar late 1st round pick this year, but other than that I'm not too thrilled about how the franchise went today...

--dwyermaker