CohnZohn

I wrote a column for Sunday asking if the Giants are for real. They are, in a sense. Did you know they have the second best record in the NL? They do. They are vastly improved and may be a wildcard team, although I don't think they could proceed far in the postseason if they get into it. When my column gets posted I will link to it here.

I'm going on vacation and will return for the NFL training camps and preseason. I won't post blogs on the Cohn Zohn as much as I do now. I will post occasionally as I try to decompress after a long year. I wish you a healthy and prosperous July.

Lowell

This is about Stephen Curry mania, the latest Warriors foolishness. I refuse to be caught up in Curry-mania and these are the reasons.

1: Curry is an offensive player. But the Warriors already have plenty of offense. They need a big guy who can rebound and defend. So Curry is off the main point.

2: We hear the Warriors were going to package the 7th pick in a trade with the Suns but when Curry came to them, they pulled the pick off the table. This means Don Nelson is excited about Curry. Nelson is always excited about new players before they play for him. Then he gets down on them. Recent examples -- Marco Belinelli, Anthony Randolph, Jamal Crawford. So Nelson is in the love affair stage with Curry but that will end sometime in training camp.

3: Curry may be good -- he's not THAT good -- but the Warriors generally find a way to screw things up. It will be interesting to see if and how they louse this one up. The dramatic possibilities are enormous. Monta Ellis locks himself in a closet and cries. Ellis refuses to pass the ball to Curry. Hey, use your imaginations.

This Curry draft pick will not matter a hill of beans until we see what else the Warriors do. They need a power forward who does power forward things. That is the key. So far the Warriors haven't found the key. They're still fumbling with the lock.

This you should know. I asked Larry Riley Role if Curry will be the W's point guard of the future. Riley said not necessarily. He made it clear Curry is a backup and may not play much until Dec. or January.

Which means Curry is not an impact pick and not a team changer.

"I have to be willing to work and make mistakes and learn how to be productive on the floor," he said of his backup role. "A lot of things I have to learn."

Of course, he may still be traded to Phoenix along with Biedrins, Belinelli and Wright for Amare Stoudemire. The Suns seem to like Curry and soon they will need a point. The Warriors really need Stoudemire, who would make them good as opposed to what they are now. If the Warriors end up making Curry part of that trade, good. 

Asked if he expects to get traded, Curry said, "I just spoke with Larry Riley and he didn't mention it. So I'm going to sleep as a Warrior." The trade can't get finalized until July 8, so he's sleep as a Warrior for more than a week. After that, who knows?.

To read my column on drafting Curry click here.

Today I got to spend a day of my summer vacation with my dad at his work - the Warriors practice facility. They had three big screen tv's set up tuned into ESPN for the draft coverage, so instead of watching with my friends in Westwood, I got to watch with Bay Area Celebs Tim Kawakami, Marcus Thompson II, and Ray Ratto. Pretty cool.

Before the draft, Ratto walked over to my dad and me to say hello. We were all a bit tense because the draft is exciting and writing brings out adrenaline, so we began arguing over who the Warriors would pick. I actually got to argue with THE Ray Ratto, like we were on Chronicle Live or something. He insisted the Warriors would take Jordan Hill. I respectfully disagreed. He bet me a beer he was so sure. He was wrong. Ray Ratto owes me a beer. I want the world to know that.

The Warriors took Stephen Curry with the 7th pick. And that's good and that's bad. He is a great shooter and will fit in perfectly with Monta Ellis on offense. He has more range on his jump shot than Ellis. He also will push Ellis at point guard -- and that's good.

But at 6-3 he's a relative shrimp and he's not a good defender. If the W's play him and Ellis together they will have the worst defensive backcourt in the league.

There is all this talk the Warriors are trying to get Amare Stoudemire. He would be better for the W's than Curry. I can't believe Don Nelson is going to just leave things like this. Stay tuned.

My kid Iggy is here sitting right next to me at W's HQ and he agrees with everything I just wrote.

This is what I'm hoping about the Warriors and the draft. I hope they pick whoever they pick at No. 7. And then I want them to trade the pick right then and there for an impact player. I know this sounds weird and I doubt it will happen. But I don't see any player they take making a big impact in 2009-2010. I want the Warriors to do something wow, something that makes a mark on the league. I want Nellie to be Nellie.

If the Warriors simply take the forward, Hill, Don Nelson will ride him all season and ruin his confidence as Nelson does with rookies. Where's the future in that? The Warriors need to be creative. Can they?

I'll be at Warriors HQ for the draft and I'll get back to you later along with my kid Iggy who's on break from UCLA for a week and will be my guest expert. Go Bruins -- I mean Warriors.

Manny Ramirez is playing at Triple-A Albuquerque getting ready for his return to the Dodgers. They made a big deal out of his minor league stint on TV. The announcers for espn explained he had two at bats and got in his swings. They made it sound like he was rehabbing from an injury.

But of course he's not rehabbing from an injury. He's rehabbing from cheating. He is a cheater, the current cheater in a long line of baseball cheaters. The Albuquerque team had its biggest crowd ever to see the rehabbing cheater. Good for the team and good for the fans. But baseball never should let him play in the minors and be treated like a hero. He should get baseball ready by playing catch in his driveway, not in front of paying fans. This should not be an honor -- the Manny Return Tour. It's supposed to be a punishment. What a joke.

Rickey Henderson was one of 12 players from the 1989 championship team who showed up for the A's reunion. It was a pathetic show by the A's leadership who don't seem to care about their history. Or maybe they're just amateurish and don't do things right.

Here's Rickey on why he's not around the Coliseum more: "I'd love to be here, me being a native and Dave (Stewart) being a native. I don't think they (the A's) ask their ballplayers like certain other teams, like the Yankees. They don't get involved with their players that played the game, let them be a part of this organization."

I thought you'd like this next one. It's Rickey on coming back to the A's from the Yankees during the 1989 season: "The Giants was the first offer that I had to come back to the Bay Area. We had the deal made. But when we asked what did they want me to do for the club they wanted me to play right field and bat fifth and the deal was off."

Imagine that. Rickey could have played for the Giants in the Series. If he did maybe the Giants would have won. 

Shame on the Oakland A's. This afternoon they're holding the 20th reunion for the 1989 championship team, one of baseball's great teams. Recently, the Giants held the reunion for the team that lost to the A's in the World Series.

The Giants made a big fuss over the occasion and got a great turnout of players. The A's will have 11 or 12 players depending on whether Rickey H. shows up. This is pathetic. The A's don't honor their past and they do things in an amateurish way. They should be ashamed. As recently as a month ago they didn't even have a firm date for this event and they invited players too late for some to change plans. Eck won't be here. Dave Parker won't be here. The Giants had their deal set up in the offseason. What a poor show by the A's. I will be there later and will tell you how it goes. To read my column on the A's shame click here.

Here's some of the Q&A with Larry Riley from this morning.

Is this your opportunity to make a mark in this league?

Not really. It's been about working with teams. It isn't about me. Is that opportunity there? Yeah, it's stupid not to say it's there. But that's not really the motivating factor as much as trying to win games and putting the team together. I'm 64. That finally got out. I think people thought I was a little younger. It probably comes at the right time for me because I've got a few years left but I'm not going to end up being a general manager with 20 or 30 years experience and have some glorious record. It's too late for that for me. Frankly I'm enjoying the job because of the relationship with coaches and front office. I'm not looking at it as something that's the end of my life. It's important to me. You can't minimize that. Unless something changes I'm not going to be suicidal if things go badly and if they go well there's a lot of credit that has to be given to the players and the coaches and the whole organization and I'm just a piece of it."

As a general manager are you more conservative or risk taking?

Probably more conservative. If I take a risk it'll be a big one with a high reward or it will fall flat. I don't see doing a lot of that but there might be one out there that you look at and say "hey this is a piece that turns the franchise" and I would certainly look at doing that. It would be slow on my part. Some things I move quickly on but not often. I would deliberate quite a bit.

Would you acquire a guy who becomes a free agent in a year?

I think the only way that would happen is if you are allowed to negotiate beyond that point. It would be difficult for me to bring in a free agent whose contract expires the next summer and he walks away because you would give up a great deal in order to get that person. I can't do that. I've got to know there's some real likelihood that's not going to happen. In order to get one of those guys you have to trade one of your best players and maybe a draft pick and then that guy walks away, you're toast."