Let's start out with a brief review of what we know:

• The Warriors will, barring bad lottery luck, end up with a high draft pick in the 1-5 range.
• Chris Cohan is losing money and looking for ways to cut costs.
• Chris Cohan is stubborn and resists selling the franchise for less than what he thinks it is worth.

There has been debate about what prospect we should pick in the draft. The most likely candidates include John Wall, Evan Turner, Derrick Favors and DeMarcus Cousins. However, what happens if Cohan is still holding out on Ellison when the draft comes around? Or worse, what will Cohan do if Ellison buys some other NBA franchise instead?

Cohan might look at the rookie pay scale and notice that the top five picks make $4.5, $4.0, $3.5, $3.2, and $2.9 million dollars respectively. Just a little ways down the rookie scale, the 10th pick is slotted to make $1.9 million dollars. Would Cohan think about giving up a high pick among other pieces in order to save money? If we end up with a pick from 1-5, Cohan could trade down to 10th and save anywhere from $1.0 to $2.6 million dollars along with whatever contracts he can dump alongside the high pick.

It might not be a cut and dry situation because a high draft pick is more likely to put fans in the seats. However Cohan and Rowell have mastered the art of using PR campaigns to promote cheap, mediocre talents as superstars, so they might do the same for a less talented draft pick.

I bet when you read that title you immediately thought, "Oh great, here comes a Monta-hater to talk about how awesome Stephen Curry is and how we should trade Monta and Maggette for a bag of chips."

Though it is very tempting, it's not going to happen.

Continue reading this post »

Alright, here we go. The following letters A - H are the per 36 minute stats of the most likely candidates behind Kobe Bryant, Chris Paul, and Steve Nash for All-Star consideration in the West:

     FG   FGA  FG%  3P   3PA   3P%   FT   FTA   FT%   ORB   DRB   TRB   AST   STL   BLK   TOV  PF   PTS

A:  5.1   12.8   .395   2.0    5.3   .378   7.2    8.0   .909     0.4     2.8      3.2     6.3     1.2     0.2     2.5   2.7   19.4

B:  6.6   14.9   .447   2.2    5.6   .389   3.0    3.7   .816     0.7     1.5      2.2     5.8     0.9     0.2     3.6   2.4   18.5

C:  8.4   18.7   .453   0.6    1.6   .350   4.2    5.3   .795     0.7     3.1      3.8     4.7     2.1     0.4     4.0   2.7   21.7

D:  7.4   15.9   .464   0.5    2.1   .262   4.8    6.2   .774     0.9     4.0      4.9     5.1     1.5     0.2     2.9   2.9   20.1

E:  7.4   14.6   .505   0.1    0.4   .333   5.1    6.6   .778     0.1     3.0      3.1     7.2     0.8     0.3     4.0   2.3   20.0

F:  7.0   15.6   .450   1.2    3.7   .326   5.1    6.3   .809     0.9     3.5      4.3     4.8     0.7     0.1     2.2   2.4   20.3

G:  6.9   14.2   .482   1.1    3.2   .348   3.1    4.2   .739     0.6     3.5      4.1     9.3     1.0     0.2     3.0   2.7   18.0

H:  3.0     7.4   .410    2.1   4.7   .438   0.5    0.7   .750     0.5     5.2      5.8     9.2     1.7     0.4     2.8   1.5     8.7

If you want to know who these players are, then either be prepared to cleverly read this backwards text with the strikethrough, or go to This Link where you can copy-paste the text into the box to flip it back around. I would recommend voting in the poll prior to finding out the answers, in order to get a more unbiased result.

ddiK nosaJ :H reyalP
smailliW noreD :G reyalP
yoR nodnarB :F reyalP
rekraP ynoT :E reyalP
snavE ekeryT :D reyalP
sillE atnoM :C reyalP
skoorB noraA :B reyalP
spulliB yecnuahC :A reyalP

:srewsnA

Personally, I think Player G is the most deserving. I also like the all-around game of Player D, albeit someone I did not expect. But don't let my opinions sway you, pick whoever you like the most statistically and explain why you picked them!