From highest grade to lowest, I will attempt to give you my breakdown of how i think Mullin faired signing, resigning, and trading for each player this year.
Andris Biedrins- (A) Signing a 22 year old center with good upside for 6 years 54 million is a good signing. This grade would be much lower if the original 6 years 63 million were true. Anytime incentives are added however it is usually a good thing, and means the player will make less money than they should barring a breakout year. After comparing Biedrins signing to other centers in the same general skill area it was a steal. Okafor just signed for 6 years 72 million, and Kaman is under contract at 5 years 52 million. Mullin did a great job in signing Biedrins under the norm for centers with the same productivity.
Monta Ellis- (A-) The only reason this signing is not an A+ is because we are still unsure how effectively he can play PG. We know he can score, and is super athletic, but if he is a career tweener guard than we probably overpaid. However I do believe he will be a good PG down the road. Monta averaged 4 assists last year while having Baron around, and i'm excited to see what he can do when he has the whole PG role to himself.
Marcus Williams (B) Its hard not to like this trade for Marcus Williams since it is low risk gamble, but the reward could be very high. If he developes into the player he was supposed to be a couple years ago, this could go down easily as a top 2 or 3 Mullin trades ever. He has great court vision and a cheap contract. If he doesnt work out aor has a bad attitude, its as simple as cutting him.
Corey Maggette (C+) Some people seem upset with the roughly 10 million a year he will be receiving from us, but i'd like to go on record as saying some people will be very suprised. He will do things for this team that no one olse has in a long while. Last year, when we couldn't run the ball up court, we struggled. This year with Maggette, we have someone who can drive and get to the line, seemingly whever he wants to. He will bring another dimension to our offense that we didn't have last year. Also i rahter give this money to him, than pay more for a lesser player in Jason Richardson.
Kelenna Azubuike (C) There was no reason not to resign him, especially after Evans asked for more; i just wish it was for a little less. Either way i'm not to upset about it, since he's a solid role player, and could possibly develope into a starter down the road. He plays like a veteran, hitting big shots when needed and not making any young player mistakes. What some people forget though, is that he is still young and could get better.
Anthony Morrow. I didn't give him a grade basically because this was not a huge signing or resigning by any means. This does not mean however that I don' think he may contribute. At this point, after very very limited viewing of him, he looks like what we all hoped Belinelli would be at this point. He's a great 3 point shooter, but the key is, he can also play Defense. Defense is what might keep him in games if he ever gets any minutes this year. It would be great if he could be are this years Matt Barnes from 2 years ago, but who really knows. The guy can shoot, and thats never a bad thing when you play for Nelly.
trades that shoul dbe made
In the past i've thought of Mullin as specifically a good trading GM, who still makes the mistake of signing players for way to much money. Maybe he's learning from his mistakes, or maybe he's letting Nelson take a little control; but either way i'm pretty happy about all our signings. Overall he did a good job re tooling the team after losing its star. If i had to give Mullin a grade this offseason so far, he'd recieve a B from me. Not resigning Baron will be good in the end, plus adding some new faces is almost always a positive.
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