That felt like they were settling. Not thinking about how to build a team, but just trying to sign a star, try Arenas, try Brand, settle for Maggette. Also, it felt like they bid against themselves, since it seemed only teams that could offer the mid-level were after him.

But, in retrospect that is not right. Maggette was signed after Brand went to Philly, that changed everything. When Brand was still likely to stay with the Clips, they needed to renounce Maggette to fit Baron and Brand under the cap.

But once Brand bolted, the Clips offered Maggette more cash than the MLE, he even said so in interviews. IMO, the Clips would have either resigned Maggette or tried to work a S&T to get some value back.

I personally was not thrilled by the signing, but I no longer feel they were bidding against just MLE offers.

As for the other possibilities, AI, Josh Smith, even Louis Williams. My feeling is there was no shot at them. The Warriors have not shot at them in the same way that no teams have bid on Monta and Biedrins.

If you are Philly and you just invested in Brand to give yourself a big time player, but also probably hampered your ability to add players for awhile (besides low draft picks and the MLE). You traded one of your young commodities for nothing to free cap space for Brand (Carney). If that is your situation, you are probably going to keep AI and Williams. You need those guys to make the Brand signing worth it.

As for Smith and Atlanta, Smith gave no indication he was interested in the Warriors, so maybe any speculation is moot, but Atlanta has given every indication they would match. And that is now more likely that Childress has fled to Europe.

I guess my only point is the Warriors could have tried to sign AI or Smith, but it is highly likely they would have been left with nothing.

There alternative was to go the direction they went, which was more under their control.

As for the Turiaf signing, I think we underestimate how much they like him. Big bruising rebounder who moves as well as he does. Good help defender. I think they just saw him as a great fit for the team.