Warriors Want Their Diamond in the Rough Back, Reportedly Offer Max Deal to Arenas

This free agent season really is slow like molasses, dry like tumbleweed. First, there was all that opt-out madness. Now, wow of all wows, Ivan Carter reports that the Warriors have offered Arenas a max deal:

Then, according to my sources, the Warriors quickly burned the phones and offered former Warrior Gilbert Arenas a maximum-level contract, one that would pay him more than $100 million over five years. My source told me that Gilbert received a flurry of phone calls from the Warriors in the first 30 minutes of free agency.

[...]

According to a source close to Arenas, the three-time all star is mulling the offers but is leaning towards staying with the Wizards and is willing to take less than the maximum if it will help Grunfeld make other moves he needs to make this summer.

Arenas has always been something of a sore spot for the Warriors. They rescued him from draft freefall, spotted the gem in the rough, and let him do him. By the end of his second season, he was a star in the making, but Golden State didn't have the funds available to match this suddenly inflation in his value. He's not quite the playmaker or rebounder that Davis is, but he's younger and can push the tempo like no one's business.

The only weird thing about this is that Monta Ellis seemed to be pretty much replicating Gilbert's zero-to-hero Bay storyline. But without being forced to walk away or deny his true worth (the Arenas situation prompted rules changes to ensure that). Ellis is even less of a point guard, and doesn't have a consistent three-ball. Still, if it looked last week like the Warriors might be willing to forge ahead with Monta at the point, is throwing all that money at Arenas actually that big of an improvement? Especially when Ellis is 22 and still developing.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.