Nelson Leaving?

[DevinFuture]

Don Nelson is so happy, he makes Stimpy from Ren & Stimpy look like Marvin from Hitchhiker's Guide.

[Dr.Zoidberg]

Nellie deserves more cash, but repeat performance won't be easy



Aug. 27, 2007
By Tony Mejia
CBSSports.com Staff Writer
Tell Tony your opinion!

Even as he's contemplating walking away from coaching again, it's nice to see Don Nelson is still dropping knowledge on his players. The latest lesson in crafty Nellie's handbook instructs his guys on the virtues of taking full advantage of leverage.

When you have it, you better use it. When you don't, you end up like Mickael Pietrus. That noise you hear is Baron Davis, Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins furiously taking notes.


Don Nelson wants a $2 million raise for the upcoming season. (Getty Images)

Nelson wants more money to return as Golden State's head coach and is going to get it. He'll get it on his terms, maybe as early as this week. Entering the second year of a three-year deal, he wants a raise of $2 million for the coming season and an additional $5.1 million guaranteed for 2008-09.

The Warriors have agreed to the raise, but want the wiggle room to hold the option on picking up Nelson's contract at that inflated rate. The 67-year-old Nelson isn't buying. He knows he's holding all the cards and doesn't need to budge. He delivered Jessica Alba.

Alba attended Warriors games religiously just a few months ago, and it was Nelson's coaching that drew her there among the masses of other fans that embraced a perennial loser gone straight. Not only did Golden State make the playoffs, it became the story of them.

The excitement generated still resonates. You can close your eyes and see Oracle Arena rocking, the color yellow everywhere, and because of that, the extra green Nelson is asking for is merited. He's being smart, capitalizing on the team's popularity while he can.

Love affairs are known to go south, in particular with Nelson and his employers.

Realistically, it's going to be difficult for him to top last season. The Warriors were headed for another sub-.500 finish before getting everyone healthy and winning nine of their last 10 games. Then they dismantled Dallas, a team they matched up with favorably. They captured everyone's imagination so thoroughly that you wonder whether they haven't already peaked, putting together a single month that won't be replicated by anything other than a championship run.

Is that something this team realistically has in them? Golden State could become an imposing force even in the mighty Pacific, but there's also the chance that things go the other way.

Brandan Wright might become the perfect big man for the franchise, but he won't be more productive than Jason Richardson would've been. There's no way to guarantee that Davis will stay healthy, or that Stephen Jackson won't get complacent.

Right now, you don't even know if Pietrus will be back, because his lack of leverage has put him in the type of compromising position Nelson is right to want to avoid. The Warriors have offered Pietrus only the one-year qualifying offer that allows them to match any team's offer, but haven't had to guarantee anything long term, denying the French swingman the job security he covets. He's unhappy, but he's just a victim of circumstances likely to have a new address by this time next year.

In contrast, Nelson can sit back in Hawaii and wait for things to play out, safe in the knowledge that he's doing the right thing in scrounging up a little extra for the retirement fund.

He deserves the money, too, because he's set the bar higher than it would've originally would've been entering the second year of his deal. The Warriors are still an underdog, but now that we've seen what they can accomplish, he'll be subjected to greater criticism if he fails.

Fans in the Bay Area only know they want the show they saw last spring, and know it doesn't really work without Nelson. Not bringing him back would significantly affect the team's positive momentum, and you can't do that to a loyal base that has supported the team through a playoff drought that spanned 12 years.

You can't make Jessica frown.

Nelson knows this, and he'll reap the benefits as a result.

Ideally, Davis, Ellis and Biedrins will too.

If Davis has a strong season, and playing in Nelson's system gives him the best opportunity to put up eye-popping numbers, he has the option to get out of his contract and secure his future with greater leverage than he normally would given his injury history. Should his body cooperate for the next few months, Golden State will almost have no choice but to bank that he can stay healthy.

Ellis and Biedrins, who thrive getting up and down the floor and have tremendous upside, are still playing on rookie contracts. Both will be looking to get paid, and should be able to follow Nelson to the bank.

Business is best when you're winning, but the Warriors are finding out that success does come at a greater price.

Link

[EricaLubarsky]

I want a job where I am promised a good income no matter what and if the company does better I can ask for way more.

[SeriousSummer]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

I want a job where I am promised a good income no matter what and if the company does better I can ask for way more.

Oh, you want to be the CEO of a fortune five hundred company. that's even better, because even when the company does worse than expected, you can still get an enormous bonus.

Further, if you manage to do so terrible a job they have to let you go, then you get paid even more to go away!

This is America, a capitalist society. Don Nelson understands that, and more power to him.

[jacktruth]

Originally Posted by EricaLubarsky

I want a job where I am promised a good income no matter what and if the company does better I can ask for way more.

Sounds like you need to get into a union.

[Dirkadirkastan]

The Warriors are still an underdog, but now that we've seen what they can accomplish, he'll be subjected to greater criticism if he fails.

If they win 25 games this year, Chum and Ape will give him all the credit for every win, and blame others for the 57 losses.

a loyal base that has supported the team through a playoff drought that spanned 12 years.

Pffft.

[Jack.Kerr]

Nelson does NOT deserve the money Cohan pulled him off the NBA scrap heap when practically nobody else was willing to give him a job. And after this year, the market for Nelson's hocus-pocus trashketball style of play will be even less. Nelson is selling smoke in San Francisco and he knows it. Cohan should hold the line. Those fair-weather fans will leave when they realize the huckster can't repeat the trick.

[u2sarajevo]

Cohan pulled him off the NBA scrap heap when practically nobody else was willing to give him a job.

[dude1394]

Hattip: lmf http://www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/p...ost?id=2140113

This guy knows nelson well.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/warriors/ci_6825614

t's no surprise Nelson has his grubby hands out. The one thing he does better than coach is chase a buck. He doesn't stop until his tongue hangs out, never minding that his untempered greed has affected more than a few relationships. Nelson is a brilliant, even diabolical, strategist equally adept at squeezing every ounce from flawed teams and desperate owners. To be anything more he would have to win a championship.

So here we are, 24 days before the Warriors are scheduled to open camp, and the coach is firmly entrenched in business mode. Demand for his work is high, and he is no mood to sacrifice, not even for good buddy Chris Mullin.Which puts Warriors owner Chris Cohan in a prickly — and predictable — fix. He surely knows Nelson well enough to have anticipated this predicament. There were money grabs last time Nelson was in Oakland, as was the case in New York and then Dallas.

While I believe Nelson would get over leaving Mully 10 minutes to find a replacement, I doubt he could live with seeing that kind of loot float away.

Heh..

It's almost insignificant that Nelson fired the first shot, using his final news conference of the season to point out extreme fatigue, his bulging belly, his spirited battle with gout and the difficulty with deciding whether, at age 67, he wanted to put himself through another year of coaching.

[chumdawg]

I'm guessing that the same people who love Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will roast Nellie for the same.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

I'm guessing that the same people who love Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will roast Nellie for the same.

weak chum.

[Flacolaco]

Trying to run a business = Trying to improve upon a contract that you already signed?

[Underdog]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

I'm guessing that the same people who love Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will roast Nellie for the same.

I'm guessing that the same people who hate Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will defend Nellie for the same.

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by Underdog

I'm guessing that the same people who hate Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will defend Nellie for the same.

badda-bing.

[alby]

Originally Posted by Underdog

I'm guessing that the same people who hate Cuban's ruthlessness with the dollar will defend Nellie for the same.

lol nice

[dirt_dobber]

Nelson update: Ball is in w's court
By Geoff Lepper
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sports/ci_6837173

OAKLAND — The apparent logjam in renegotiations between the Warriors and coach Don Nelson has been broken, but progress is still coming very slowly even as the opening day for training camp looms on Oct. 2.

After being entrenched in a stalemate for weeks following the team's initial offer, Nelson's camp has come off its stance that all of the coach's 2008-09 salary be guaranteed in an attempt to resolve a situation the coach originally told the media would be settled by July 1.

The sides have talked several times this week in hopes of getting the framework for a deal done before the principals on either side — John O'Connor,

Nelson's lawyer, and team president Robert Rowell — head off on vacation.

However, the team is taking its time mulling over the counteroffer made by O'Connor in which at least $2 million would be guaranteed on the final year of the contract.

The Warriors had proposed a bump in Nelson's base pay from $3.1 million to $5.1 million over the next two seasons, but with the second year coming at the team's option, rather than being guaranteed money. That would effectively lessen Nelson's guaranteed payout by $1.1 million, a less-than-attractive option for someone who fought for years with the team over $1.56 million in salary after his first stint as Warriors coach ended acrimoniously.

O'Connor offered a compromise in which the coach would be guaranteed a partial payout if the team did not want him back in'08-'09. One source close to the negotiation pegged the total at $2 million even; another said it was worth "a couple million."

The ball is in the Warriors' court, and some sort of response will be necessary. Nelson, who could not be reached for comment, said he won't accept the team's first offer after being paid among the bottom half of the league's coaches while leading the Warriors back to the playoffs.

[dude1394]

Nellie continues to just sour every organization he goes to.

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by dude1394

Nellie continues to just sour every organization he goes to.

Oh, c'mon now, dude. That is not fair at all. First off, he hasn't soured the Warriors yet at all, and I'd bet the good chance is that he won't. He certainly didn't sour the Mavericks, since regardless what you think of him he did leave you a partly-trained young coach in his stead. (And I can't imagine you would want to give back the fun years he gave the fans.)

I guess the company line would be to say that as a Mavs fan you want to see Nellie gone for selfish interests, so that the Warriors won't give us a threat going forward. But you know what? The very Mavs themselves had a chance to get rid of Nellie and his Warriors last year, in that late regular season game, and what they did instead was lift their skirts and say come get some.

If the Mavs themselves didn't try to knock Nellie out of their playoffs, why should Mavs fans want to see him out next year?

[u2sarajevo]

Originally Posted by getting a dig in

If the Mavs themselves didn't try to knock Nellie out of their playoffs, why should Mavs fans want to see him out next year?

So chum.... are you legit anti-Mavericks now completely?

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

So chum.... are you legit anti-Mavericks now completely?

Geez, U2, has it come to that? You can't make a point without it being "getting a dig in?" I was very unhappy with the way the Mavs approached that GS regular season game last spring. I said as much early in the game thread. It made them look like scared little bitches, and I was afraid it would come back and bite them. (See, unlike the simple Nellie haters on this board, I am fully aware of what damage he can do, and I didn't want to see it done to our Mavs.) Then Avery actually carried out the full charade by starting small in Game One.

I don't find any joy at all in hoping my team manages to avoid a fight that last year they backed away from.

[u2sarajevo]

So you are telling me that the Mavericks didn't try. They were intent on letting Nellie go on and knock them out of the playoffs. If you answer no, then yes that is a dig.

[chumdawg]

Of course they didn't try, against Golden State in that regular season game. You know that. They sat everyone with half a pulse.

You can draw your own conclusions from that, but I thought it was a cowardly maneuver, and more importantly, one that bit them in the ass. I didn't like it when my Mavericks did that.

What, you did?

[Dirkadirkastan]

Avery should have tried going small in the regular season game instead of Game 1, that's for sure. Would have been a much better "playoff rehearsal" than the next game against Seattle.

[chumdawg]

Maybe Avery should have tried keeping his skirt on, whatever the strategy.

[alby]

He's young, give him a chance. If he is unable to adjust in the playoffs again this year.. then I'll change my mind.

[EricaLubarsky]

I honestly think that along with obvious team weaknesses, the biggest problem was that Avery had them looking at the horizon when they needed to look at every game and pace themselves.

[alby]

But that is also one of his strengths, he seems to be so thirsty and so motivated to convince Dallas that they can be champions.

[DevinHarriswillstart]

Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

Oh, c'mon now, dude. That is not fair at all. First off, he hasn't soured the Warriors yet at all, and I'd bet the good chance is that he won't. He certainly didn't sour the Mavericks, since regardless what you think of him he did leave you a partly-trained young coach in his stead. (And I can't imagine you would want to give back the fun years he gave the fans.)

Chum...sure he has, first golden state, then nyknicks.
With the mavs he was given every opportunity to be around the team and contribute as a senior statesman. Cubes did NOTHING but praise nellie and his contributions, giving him a cool million a year to show it. And then nellie has to publicly drag the remaining dollars out and sour the whole relationship. I'm not saying he doesn't have a case, but it sure does seem to follow him around.
Now golden state again.

I think you know my thoughts on nellie(the coach), I've defended him on this board for years. It wasn't until he quit on the team that I thought he needed to go and when he bought into that ridiculous AWalker "experiment". At that point it became apparent that nellie just doesn't believe in any kind of internal or long-term team development. He either gets bored or he can't pay attention to the small details that ultimately bring internal player improvment. Whatever, he looked like he needed to go. The results say that was the right answer.

Now he's pulling some of the same shenanigans in GS. His past seems to be his future.

[dirt_dobber]

Unhappy Nellie headed to Hawaii
# Warrior coach might walk if team doesn't guarantee more money
By Geoff Lepper
http://www.contracostatimes.com/warriors/ci_6844998

Article Launched: 09/09/2007 03:02:33 AM PDT

OAKLAND -- In the NBA, September is the time of year when players and coaches start to return from their off-season residences. At the Warriors' headquarters in Oakland, for example, a half dozen players have been spotted working out recently or are expected to arrive in the near future.

One critical piece, however, is heading in the opposite direction.

Coach Don Nelson, profoundly unhappy with the way his contract negotiations are going, plans on flying home to Hawaii after having spent several weeks in the Bay Area hoping to cement reworked details for the two years remaining on his deal. No date for his return to the islands has been specified.

"I've had some nice talks with Bobby (Rowell, the Warriors team president) in the last several weeks," said John O'Connor, Nelson's lawyer. "Nothing's happened, but I'm still personally hopeful. Nellie has grown discouraged, however, and is soon on his way back to his hammock in Maui."

So far, Nelson's attempt to renegotiate the remainder of the three-year deal he signed in August 2006 has resembled a high-stakes poker game for much of the summer. If that's true, this is his all-in moment.

Nelson would like to put pressure on the Warriors to move off their one and only offer. That proposal would increase Nelson's base salary per season from $3.1 million to $5.1 million, but it inserts a team option for the second and final season, meaning Nelson would face a decrease of $1.1 million in guaranteed money.

O'Connor responded this past week on behalf of the coach with a plan that would leave the team option in place for 2008-09 but would add a partial guarantee -- worth at least $2 million -- on that season's salary. Golden State officials are still mulling that offer, and while they show no urgency to accept it or make a counteroffer of their own, a hue and cry from Warriors season-ticket holders over Nelson's flight to the islands could force the team into action.

Sources in the Nelson camp have said for months that the emotional coach could easily decide to stay in Maui rather than return for another grueling NBA season at the age of 67. But one member of the Warriors organization said the coach unequivocally stated last month that he'd be back for the upcoming season.

If Nelson were to choose the hammock over the bench, the Warriors' options would be limited since training camp opens on Oct. 2. The obvious move would be to name current assistant Keith Smart -- whom Nelson anointed last season as a potential successor -- to the job.

There are some bigger names available. Jeff Van Gundy, fired by the Houston Rockets in May, is unemployed, but he would most likely require an outlay of $5 million or more. And he's never coached a team in the up-tempo style for which the Warriors' roster is constructed.

Larry Brown, a 2002 inductee into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and like Nelson one of only five coaches to win more than 1,000 NBA games, is not a legitimate option, according to a team source.

Other possibilities include veterans Rudy Tomjanovich and Mike Fratello. An intriguing name would be Paul Silas, former coach of the Clippers, Cavaliers and, most importantly, the Hornets, where he developed a strong bond with Warriors star Baron Davis that remains intact to this day. Also, Silas' son, Stephen, is a current Warriors' assistant coach.

[Dirkadirkastan]

Nelson's antics are like that of a hooker, who gives you the best sex you've ever had, and then dumps you on the side of the road and don't give a shit about you no more. Unless of course, you pay her more money...

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by Dirkadirkastan

Nelson's antics are like that of a hooker, who gives you the best sex you've ever had, and then dumps you on the side of the road and don't give a shit about you no more. Unless of course, you pay her more money...

What an extraordinarily weak analogy. Then again, I guess I can understand, since you probably started watching the Mavs about two years ago. If you had been around since even the late-90's, to witness the debacle that was the Mavericks franchise at that time, and then had the pleasure of enjoying Nelson's several-year-long magic trick of turning the franchise from a laughing stock into an elite...well, let's say that you would surely never let something so uninformed spew from your ungrateful mouth.

[dirt_dobber]

Nelson did indeed help to rejuvenate the Mavs, everyone agrees with that. It is just that he is very self involved, gimmicky, lazy, whoreish with regard to his pay and in my opinion he quit on the Mavs. That is almost unforgivable as a die hard Mavs fan from Day 1 in 1980.

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by dirt_dobber

Nelson did indeed help to rejuvenate the Mavs, everyone agrees with that. It is just that he is very self involved, gimmicky, lazy, whoreish with regard to his pay and in my opinion he quit on the Mavs. That is almost unforgivable as a die hard Mavs fan from Day 1 in 1980.

DD, do you not feel that Cuban undermined Nelson and the long-term plan he had for his team, when he refused to re-sign Nash?

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

DD, do you not feel that Cuban undermined Nelson and the long-term plan he had for his team, when he refused to re-sign Nash?

So one mistake (in the eyes of Nelson) by Cuban as a co-GM/Financial decision maker is enough to give Nelson the right to just up and quit, and you to not blame him?

Man, we should hold all our GM's and Coaches to such standards. Nellie would have been gone before he even got started for drafting Anstey.

For someone who likes to try and identify the young and "bandwagon" Mavs fans, your obcession with all things Nash and Nellie and your unwillingness to move on makes you look like even less of a fan, and perhaps even the worst kind of fan, one whose allegiances are split.

[chumdawg]

Originally Posted by jthig32

So one mistake (in the eyes of Nelson) by Cuban as a co-GM/Financial decision maker is enough to give Nelson the right to just up and quit, and you to not blame him?

Man, we should hold all our GM's and Coaches to such standards. Nellie would have been gone before he even got started for drafting Anstey.

For someone who likes to try and identify the young and "bandwagon" Mavs fans, your obcession with all things Nash and Nellie and your unwillingness to move on makes you look like even less of a fan, and perhaps even the worst kind of fan, one whose allegiances are split.

"One mistake"? Wow, that's quite a way to qualify it. I guess taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan was also "one mistake," in retrospect.

Lookit, when you have so few superstars per team as the NBA has, you have to be bat-shit crazy to make a mistake like that. It is "one mistake" that should rob you of all credibility.

The rest of your rant I can't comprehend, so I won't bother.

[dude1394]

To think that Cubes would sabotauge his whole team to "undermine" nellie is just flat our ridiculous. Cubes could have fired neson for any reason whatsoever, not "undermine" him.

He "might" have made a mistake with nash, but thinking he did it to undermine nelson is tin-foil-hat territory.

[chumdawg]

Not if you believe that he thought undermining Nellie was a good idea. Which is what I think most reasonable people believe.

[craggmac]

Originally Posted by Dirkadirkastan

"My pot belly's proud of itself!"

My milkshake makes all the boys in the yard say,"Damn right, it's better than yours!"

[jthig32]

Originally Posted by chumdawg

"One mistake"? Wow, that's quite a way to qualify it. I guess taking Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan was also "one mistake," in retrospect.

Lookit, when you have so few superstars per team as the NBA has, you have to be bat-shit crazy to make a mistake like that. It is "one mistake" that should rob you of all credibility.

The rest of your rant I can't comprehend, so I won't bother.

You understand it, you just have no answer for it.

Whether or not it was a mistake has been argued a billion times. Claiming Cuban did it expressly to undermine Nellie is a new low for you, which is impressive, given the previous standard.