http://www.sbnation.com/users/UncleCliffy Posts made by UncleCliffy on SB Nation http://www.goldenstateofmind.com/2007/6/29/17119/7033 UncleCliffy Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:01:19 -0000 <p>Even after last night's wild sequence of events, Chris Mullin still has a lot of work to do. Not even counting possible trade scenarios, re-signing players such as Barnes, Pietrus, and Azubuike, as well as bringing in restricted and unrestricted free agents, has to be on the minds of the Warriors front office.</p><p>Mullin's track record of signing players, however, is now bordering on comical. Since he became GM, he has made five major multi-year signings: Jason Richardson, Troy Murphy, Adonal Foyle, Derek Fisher, and Mike Dunleavy for roughly 27 years and $248M combined. First, Fisher was traded in a salary dump. Second, the Warriors tried in vain to buyout Foyle's contract. Third, the DunMurphy combination was dealt in a deal that surpised just about everyone who had ever watched those two play and cost the Warriors an extra young player in Ike. Now, Mullin deals J-Rich, who everyone described as the heart and soul of the team, in what is basically another salary dump. It's not a true dump like the Fisher deal, as the W's clearly are getting some talent in return, but if J-Rich made half of what he currently makes, this deal would not have been on the table.</p><p>So, the questions are:</p> <ol> <li value="1">Can Chris Mullin, given his track record of signing players, really be trusted to continue to sign both free agents and homegrown talents?</li> <li value="2">Will players (and more importantly, their agents) trust Mully enough to sign with the Warriors? In other words, would a player like Matt Barnes want to sign a nice multi-year deal with the Warriors when, given recent history, it's more than likely he would finish his contract playing for another team?</li> </ol>