Elton still a possibility now that Arenas will stay in D.C. By David Zizmor July 7, 2008     OAKLAND--The Warriors have been thinking about Elton Brand even before Baron Davis even became an issue at Golden State. One of the problems the Warriors had the last two years is they haven't had a low post presence and in fact this has been a problem with the Warriors since Don Nelson's first time with the team back the late 80s early 90s. The Warriors could never get over the hump because they didn't have that presence down low and Nelson has had that problem his whole career dating back to his days with the Bucks in Milwaukee. Nelson really never had much success and a lot of people think it's partly because he really never had that big guy and if you remember back to 1990 or 91 Run TMC, Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullin, and Mitch Richmond was broken up because the Warriors needed a low post guy, a rebounder, they traded Mitch Richmond to the Kings and they got Billy Owens in the draft in return. That was one of the reasons for the breaking up of Run TMC back in the day and they lack a big man and the Warriors have had that problem for a long time. The last time they had a big man who really complimented the team was Nate Thurmond. Elton Brand would be a perfect guy for the Warriors if they can get him. This is a guy who’s a fantastic rebounder he can score and run the floor, he doesn't burn out. He's had some injury issues here and there but assuming those have passed him this is a guy who can do it all. Brand is a low post presence, he can score, he can rebound, he can play defense, he can block a few shots here and there and he can guard the big guys of other teams. Elton Brand would be fantastic for the Warriors; the problem is we don't know if he wants to leave the Clippers. Brand has that kind of draw to like Los Angeles the way Davis does and Brand is not from the L.A. area but he does have an interest in movies. Playing with Davis and befriending Davis and seeing him on a daily basis they can obviously work together on that kind of thing. It seems like Brand likes Los Angeles. Warriors bid to go after Arenas: The story goes that the Warriors had offered Arenas another full term contract the same thing that they offered Elton Brand seven years $90 million. The problem was that Arenas had already accepted the offer from the Wizards so Arenas is not going anywhere. Arenas will remain a Wizard and he's staying in Washington and he's not going to be a Golden State Warrior and as nice it would to see Arenas come back Arenas should not have been allowed to leave Golden State in the first place. In fact Arenas had a second round pick was allowed to leave from kind of a crazy loop hole for second round pick. Essentially what happened- the case was when Arenas was with the Warriors if he was a second round pick he would become a free agent after two seasons if he weren't signed to a third. Arenas only signed to a two year contract with the Warriors that wasn't anything abnormal and most second year players would sign and be like "oh the problem was Arenas was an awesome second round player for the Warriors" and nobody else in the league anticipated that he would be good as he was. So Arenas became a free agent and when the Warriors tried to match the offer the Wizards made they were stuck. They didn't have the ability to match because they didn't have the cap room and now they've changed the rules. Now even if you don't have cap room you can match any offer no matter what and it doesn't hurt you. But back then if the offer a team made to sign a free agent from your team if that offer was over your cap room you were stuck. This is what happened to the Warriors and the Warriors didn't have enough cap room and they lost Gilbert Arenas and they won't get him from Washington this time either. David Zizmor covers Warriors basketball and does NBA commentary for Sportstalk Radio.

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