A few days ago, our friends over at the Golden State of Mind did a recap of last year’s blockbuster trade between the Pacers and the Warriors involving Al Harrington, Stephen Jackson, Troy Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, Ike Diogu and cap fodder.  The Warriors fans have gone on to claim victory – something I won’t quibble with, but I wanted to bring up one relevant point about their team.

We built them.  Seriously.

I know what you’re thinking.  We traded them Baron Davis, but no matter how vital he is to their style of play, one player does not a team make.  I’ll agree with that, but I contend that 3/5ths of their starting five is there as a direct result of the Hornets front office, along with their top rookie from this year’s draft.

How do I figure?  Well, Baron’s obvious.  We traded him to them for Speedy Claxton, an expiring contract called “Dale Davis”, and considered ourselves well rid of him.

The other two Warrior starters?  Well, the Hornets are also responsible for the big trade listed above, where the Warriors landed Al Harrington and Stephen Jackson.  In case you don’t remember, the Pacers spent all summer before the trade trying to find some possible way they could get their hands on Al Harrington.  Al wouldn’t take the mid-level exception and enough other teams wanted him that he could bide his time and see what came along.  As the Pacers cast about uselessly for a way to get him, the Hornets made Peja Stojakovic a huge contract offer and signed him outright.  The Pacers would get nothing as a result.  But a few weeks later, the Hornets kindly allowed(cash payment) the Pacers to sign Peja Stojakovic to the same contract and then trade him to the Hornets.  This gave Indiana a massive trade exception, which they then turned around and used to obtain Al Harrington in another sign and trade.  It was the only way they could get him.  So there you go.  Without the Hornets, Indiana gets no Al Harrington, and no trade with the Warriors goes down, and the Warriors are still running around with Dunleavy and Murphy.

Lastly, how are the Hornets responsible for the Warrior’s rookie?  That’s obvious – the Bobcats wouldn’t exist if the Hornets hadn’t moved from Charlotte.  No Bobcats, no trade of Jason Richardson for Brandan Wright.  See?  Again the Warriors are reliant on actions taken by the Hornets.

Therefore, I think the Warriors owe the Hornets for allowing them to become relevant again, and should trade us Monta Ellis for a second rounder and a pair of synthetic basketballs.  Yeah.   That sounds good.