Which free agents will Warriors pursue?

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OK, so enough talk of whether to amnesty David Lee or AndrisBiedrins. Probably wont happen so lets not spend another minute on it. Letstalk about a more likely possibility: That the Warriors amnesty Charlie Belland have about 10 million in cash to spend in free agency.Using that scenario, the Warriors plan would be to keeptheir coreStephen Curry, Monta Ellis and David Leetogether for a littleand go get a player or two on the free agent market to give them ahand.Which free agents would you shop for if you were theWarriors?Lets take a look at some free agents at each position, and assessa little bit whether the Warriors would have the wherewithal or interest toacquire them.
POINT GUARDS: Delonte West, J.J. Barea, Anthony Carter,Rodney Stuckey, Mario Chalmers, Sebastian Telfair.TAKE: You could certainly make a case the Warriors need acompetent backup point guard. Jeremy Lin is learning but not yet reliable. Itwould be nice to have a legitimate one behind Curry, and then be able to moveCurry to the shooting guard at times.Problem is, if you really want to do that, youll need apoint guard with size and there arent a lot of guys on this list with that.The exception is Stuckey, but Im not sure I see him as a good fit with theWarriors.West wouldnt be a bad option, but he comes with baggage theWarriors likely arent going to want any part of. Telfair is a littleintriguing, but again, not the biggest point guard in the league.SHOOTING GUARDS: Jamal Crawford, Anthony Parker, DeShawnStevenson, Arron Afflalo, Rasual Butler, Marcus Thornton, Jason Richardson,Nick Young, Vince Carter.TAKE: As long as the Warriors have Ellis on their roster, itdoesnt make a lot of sense to go shopping for big-minute shooting guards. Aslong as Ellis is on the team, he will get most of the minutes at that spot, andfor now, rightfully so. Between Dorell Wright and Klay Thompson, both of whomcan play a little two, theres just not a big priority here.Sure, it would be great to get Afflalo but hes going tocost some money (Denver has right to match) and youre acknowledging youregoing to deal Curry or Ellis sooner rather than later. Who would be againstRichardson coming back to give the Warriors backcourt depth? Then again, ifyou do that, the message is clear: Were going for the eighth spot.SMALL FORWARDS: Maurice Evans, Marquis Daniels, CaronButler, Jamario Moon, Tayshaun Prince, Shane Battier, Mike Dunleavy, GrantHill, Peja Stojakovic, Andrei Kirilenko.TAKE: Wright had a breakout year for the Warriors in2010-11, but he played too many minutesmore than 38 per game. If you cut hisminutes down, chances are hed become more efficientand get back to hisdefensive roots. So the idea of adding another small forward has appeal.Question is, how much do you want to spend there and howmuch is the player realistically going to play? Could you get Battier or Princewith some of that 10 million? Maybe.But how much does that really help? If you bring Battier orPrince in here at 6 million or so per year, does that push you into playoffterritory? Not sure.POWER FORWARDS: Glen Davis, Leon Powe, Jonas Jerebko,Chucky Hayes, Josh McRoberts, Kris Humphries, Carl Landry, Thaddeus Young, LucRichard Mbah a Moute.
TAKE: Despite the Warriors acquiring Lee last offseason,there are still some clamoring for a bona-fide, traditional power forward. Youknowa back-to-the-basket player who gets double-teamed.While nobody is disagreeing the Warriors could use someonelike that, the reality is they cant get a guy like that with Lee on theroster.One guy who could be desirable is Mbah a Moute, adefensive-minded player, first and foremost.CENTERS: Jason Collins, Nazr Mohammed, Kwame Brown, KurtThomas, Marc Gasol, Tyson Chandler, Jeff Foster, Jarron Collins, DeAndreJordan, Spencer Hawes, Greg Oden, Samuel Dalembert, Nene, Joel Przyzbilla.TAKE: Yes, the Warriors need a frontcourt player. But theissue with this list of centers is that the high-end ones are probably going tobe out of the Warriors range: Gasol, Chandler and Nene.Thats OK, because theres a good chance each of those guyscould end up getting significantly overpaid. Jordan, of course, is anotherintriguing name, and a player who used to be a client of Bob Myers, now in theWarriors front office.Jordan is an athletic shot-blocker who is improving.However, he isnt there yet as a player and there are no guarantees he willever get there. You could probably get Jordan for 6 or 7 million per, butthen youve got 15 or 16 million tied up in your centers (Biedrins makes 9million) and no assurance that the position is fully stabilized.It might be more advantageous to try to sign someone likeBrown, whom you might be able to acquire for a few million a year. In otherwords, you might get more value for Brown at 9 million over three years thanJordan at 28 million over four.

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