Considering Marc Stein's recent comments that there are three (possibly four) teams in the hunt for Lou Amundson's services... I thought a salary cap comparison might be helpful to consider our odds.  Stein listed the Dubs, New Orleans & Indy as the three in the lead w/ an unidentified forth team also in the mix. Below is the current cap status of each team via Hoops World:

Golden State Warriors
Current Commitments: $62.6 million
Remaining Cap Space: $0
Luxury Tax Status: No
Mid-Level Exception: $2.2 million available ($3.5 million to Dorrell Wright)
Bi-Annual Exception: Full amount available
Traded Player Exception: 2 ($2.0 million – Anthony Morrow; $1.8 million – C.J. Watson)

Indiana Pacers
Current Commitments: $68.5 million
Remaining Cap Space: $0
Luxury Tax Status: No
Mid-Level Exception: $5.0 million available ($0.75 million used on Lance Stephenson)
Bi-Annual Exception: Full amount available
Traded Player Exception: None

**after recent trades... salary commitments now: $64.3

New Orleans Hornets
Current Commitments: $68.7 million
Remaining Cap Space: $0
Luxury Tax Status: No
Mid-Level Exception: Full amount available
Bi-Annual Exception: Full amount available

**after recent trades... salary commitments now: $67.8

Well initially I was feeling optimistic because despite the fact that Indy & NO have plenty of their MLE left to out spend us... both of those teams (i thought) were pretty close to luxury tax territory ($70.307 mil).  Based on the Hoops World numbers, Indy was $1.8 mil under & NO was $1.6 mil below. However, it turns out that those numbers are based upon team salaries before the 4 team trade deal that went down last week.  Now Indy has plenty of money to spend & NO has a wee bit more than our remaining MLE of $2.2 before it hits the luxurty tax celiling.

I think it would be a good move for the dubs to pick up Amundson... but it's looking to me like Indy has the money (not to mention potentially more play time) to tempt him their way.  We shall see...

**A caveat to this post is that I am pulling salary numbers off questionable websites.  I think they are probably in the ballpark of being correct but I grant that they could be off somewhat.

What is up with Bill Ingram from Hoops World?  Every time he reports on the Warriors he's so full of B.S. it's beyond ridiculous... This is what he posted today:

Ellis to Miami?

One of the more interesting rumors floating around today is the possibility that Monta Ellis - a Warriors restricted free agent - could land in Miami to play alongside Dwyane Wade, Michael Beasley, and Shawn Marion. Ellis is an incredible talent, perhaps destined to be an All-Star, and may well command more than the Warriors are ultimately willing to match. The Heat are also trying to take care of Ricky Davis, and it's hard to see them getting both deals done. But between the two Ellis would be cheaper . . .and he has a lot more up side. If the Heat can out-bid the Warriors for Ellis' services it may put Davis on the open market, where he should draw plenty of attention.

Ingrim covers Dallas for Hoops World so it's no wonder that he has it in for the Dubs but for god sakes you think he would have some professional integrity and not just throw out crap rumors like this just because of his obvious allegiance to one team and dislike of another.

Anyone with any basic understanding of restricted free agency would acknowledge that Miami has no chance of stealing Monta.  Ingrim does this gig for a living so he knows the game... my guess is that he's just being sensational to raise a few eye brows. 

I for one am sick & tired of his B.S. though...

ESPN's NBA lottery gimmick, a Chad Ford creation, has been consistently pairing the Dubs with Arthur for the past week at the #14 spot.  No matter how many times you rolled the dice we got paired up with the big man from Kansas every time.

However, if you go check it out today, we're now consistently paired with Kosta Koufos, the freshmen 7 footer out of Ohio state.  Koufos just delcared that he's entering the draft, albeit he's not hiring an agent, but it's interesting to see that ESPN's Ford thinks that the Warriors would love to jump on Koufos if he does stay in the draft.

He's an interesting prospect... Odly enough I think he's everything we wished Kosta Perovic was.  He's got a great outside shot, a pretty refined post game and for a  7 footer he actually looks athletic.  I don't think Perovic has a future on this team, or the NBA of that matter.  But this kid might...

For a true freshman he put up pretty solid numbers.

And he had a solid showing at the under 18 European Championships last summer where he came away with the MVP of the tournament.  Check out the decent video highlights..

He's definitely the kind of big man Nellie loves...  I know many of us want a bruiser inside but would you go for a seven footer with a solid skill set instead?