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The Warriors Tried To Deal: When Joe Lacob and Peter Guber took over control and ownership of the Golden State Warriors they pledged to be bold, brash and aggressive in re-tooling and re-building the Warriors.

At the trade deadline, the Warriors who were burning up the phones, ended the day with Troy Murphy who was bought out by the Warriors and allowed to join the Celtics.

Not exactly bold or brash for a new owner who is still trying to prove his mettle to a skeptical fan base.

"I’m not going to run the team based on the media and the fans," Lacob said to Sam Amick for CSNBAYAREA.COM. "Everyone has a different opinion. We all have opinions as fans, right? But I’m not going to make dumb trades, just to make a trade."

"I did say – and the reason I took a hit – is because I did say we’re going to be bold. I didn’t say we were going to be bold tomorrow, or at the trade deadline. We may be bold a year from now – when it’s right. Like with (Boston’s Kevin) Garnett (who was traded to the Celtics in July 2007 when Lacob was a minority owner of the team). We took four years in Boston before we made that move. That was the big, bold move. You have to be prepared for it. You have to have an idea what you want to do, when you want to do it, when you want to go for the jugular – seven guys for one, if you think that’s the right trade. That’s all I was saying. But people took it the wrong – big talk and all this."

"Look, I’ll say the same thing every time," Lacob said. "It doesn’t mean we’re going to make a dumb trade just to make a trade."

The Warriors had positioned themselves with a number of expiring contracts and hoped those cap clearing chips would have had value at the deadline, which did not end up being the case.

"We thought those would be of great value," Lacob said. "Not one trade was done with expirings in the entire NBA. Not one, except for the Gerald Wallace deal to Portland for the expiring contract of Przybilla and another guy expiring. But they also had to throw in two first-round picks."

"We didn’t have first-round picks to trade, and the expirings nobody would do because everybody wants as much flexibility going into the lockout. I actually was prepared. I would’ve been the only guy (to trade expirings ). I almost pulled off another trade, which would’ve given us two very good players."

The Warriors were believed to have been after Cleveland’s Antawn Jamison and Anthony Parker, but ultimately couldn’t consummate a deal.

"I can’t say," Labos said, when prodded about the deal that did not happen. "An expiring and another player on our roster that we didn’t care about as much… After 36 hours, they pulled it back, the other team with three minutes to go with the trade deadline."

The Warriors were also linked to a deal involving Nate Robinson, who was ultimately moved to Oklahoma City as part of the Jeff Green/Kendrick Perkins deal.

"That was a separate trade," admitted Lacob. "We agreed to do a deal with Boston, where they were going to give us Nate and a first-round pick for Brandan Wright, and they were going to flip Brandan Wright into another deal. I agreed to it, for sure. But they pulled it back, and they obviously went and did the Oklahoma City deal."

"We had a deal beyond that one that would’ve made us much better for our bench," Lacob said, hinting at the blown Cleveland deal. "Two starters on another team that would’ve come off our bench. It would’ve made us quite a bit better in the near term. In the end, it got pulled away. I would’ve been the only team to use expirings to make our team better, because no one did those deals. We were ready to go, but you can’t control those teams entirely. There’s 29 teams, and it’s a zero-sum game."

The Warriors have $49.1 million in salary commitments next season which includes Charlie Bell’s $4.9 million Early Termination Option and Louis Amundson’s $2.4 million player options.

None of the Warriors core players are eligible for free agency, or even contract extensions, leaving the Warriors with a little bit of cap room to add, depending on where the NBA salary cap gets set in the next labor agreement.

Dwight and Dan Patrick: On Monday Orlando’s Dwight Howard was a guest on The Dan Patrick Show in which he was asked point-blank about his future in Orlando.

"I think sometimes the outside sources, they’re the ones that mess up the whole situation," Howard said of the rumors he’d leave Orlando. "I will say in my situation, I love Orlando, the city has been very good to me, and I would love to finish my career here. I want a championship and I want to get it in Orlando. That’s the only thing I’ve been able to think about. It’s hard not to think about what’s going to happen it two years, but that’s two years from now. Right now, my focus is on getting our team to a championship and doing everything I can for this city."

There are a couple of key points in all of this…

First, this should all have a familiar ring to it since we covered this topic exactly the way Dwight explained it Monday in this space in December. The message out of Dwight Howard’s camp has been consistent with what he said on Monday from the beginning, almost as though he was reading from a script.

Second, Orlando has two more years. Unless the next labor deal in the NBA allows for Dwight to earn $18.5 million per year, he is not opting out of his deal unless things get really bad. So Orlando likely has Dwight for two more years barring a total collapse.

In the NBA it is easy to fast forward. It is easy to start thinking about 2013, and what could happen two years from now. The problem with that line of thinking is a lot can change in two years.

Of the 10 players that logged minutes in Game 1 of the 2009 NBA Finals for the Orlando Magic, exactly four of them are still on the roster.

Of the 14 players representing the East in the 2009 All-Star Game, Allen Iverson was a starter, with Devin Harris, Jameer Nelson and Rashard Lewis all being All-Stars.

What’s the point?

A lot can change in two years, and while Orlando is painted into a pretty tough corner salary cap wise, the Magic are not panicking about Dwight Howard. Other teams may be plotting and planning for ways to get in front of Dwight, but it will ultimately be his decision and he contends it’s not a decision he is trying to make today or even this summer.

Howard and his advisers have been clear - the uncertainty regarding his future is the only leverage they have to keep Orlando focused on winning and competing, and two years is a very long way away.

The Magic will have a chance to lock Howard up via a contract extension this summer once the labor deal is resolved. Howard can end all of this speculation with a stroke of a pen, and he might just do that.

If the Magic get bounced in the first round of the playoffs, Magic fans should be very worried. If the Magic can get their act together and really compete in the post-season, they have a better than average chance of getting Dwight to extend.

The most important thing to Dwight Howard is winning. As long as Orlando looks like a contender, they will have the best chance at keeping him, if they fall into the also-rans of the East, they are in trouble.

That’s Five Straight:  After beating the Orlando Magic on Monday night, the Portland Trail Blazers joked that they did not want to get caught up in Miami’s "emotions," clearly jabbing at Miami’s well documented crying episode on Sunday.

The general consensus was the HEAT would come out storming and snap their four-game losing streak. However, despite 38 points from Dwyane Wade and another 31 from LeBron James, the Blazers took the HEAT down 105-96.

Miami had just one other player in double figures with Mario Chalmers kicking in 10 points, but the rest of the HEAT team struggled from the field shooting a combined 11-for-31, including a 3-for-11 showing from Chris Bosh, who had just seven points and one free throw attempt.

On the other side of the floor the Blazers got balanceg production from all over the floor with six of Portland’s nine active players logging double figures, including 26 points from LaMarcus Aldridge and 22 points from newcomer Gerald Wallace, who played in his seventh game as a Blazer.

After the game, there was a bit of finger pointing from the HEAT players who suggested head coach Erik Spoelstra needed to do more to get guys in position to play or get them on the floor to contribute.

"That’s going to be on our coach and what he felt," Wade said to Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com. "Whatever lineup he puts out there, we’re going to do our best with it. Hopefully, guys can be aggressive and contribute more. Of course, there are guys on the bench that can help us, there’s no question about it. That’s all on Coach."

"We’ve had guys like Eddie [House] help us win games and James Jones, etc. He’s going to have to decide whether or not people are on the floor."

"Of course we’d be more dangerous if there were more productivity off the bench," Wade said. "But also guys have to play more. It’s hard for guys to get into certain rhythms coming in and getting three to five minutes. That’s going to have to be something that Coach is going to have to put the guys on the floor and give them confidence."

HEAT forward Chris Bosh was as vocal as he has been all season suggesting he needed to be more demanding of the basketball.

"It is common sense, we can talk about it, but I think it’s evident," Bosh said to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. "I just have to get it where I’m effective. I’m a big man. I can shoot the ball but I’m a big man. So I have to get it where big guys get it. Then I feel I can start helping out this team more."

"I’ve got to get back in my comfort zone, I haven’t been in my comfort zone," Bosh said. "A lot of things are new for me. I just have to be more aggressive in demanding [the ball in] my comfort zone, you know I’ll take the fault for that… I’m effective down in the low post area, so that is where I need to start getting the ball. I need to be assertive in demanding it."

"I’m saying what I need to do as a player, a closed mouth doesn’t get fed," Bosh said. "I’m uncomfortable now so you might as well do something else. If there’s a disagreement or something, that’s fine, we can talk about it. If they don’t want that, that’s OK, but I just feel that I have to be my normal self. I’m not there right now. I haven’t been there many times this season."

The HEAT are two full games back of Chicago for second place and three games in front of Orlando.

The HEAT play host to the red-hot L.A. Lakers on Thursday and host the streaking Grizzlies on Saturday before facing the league-leading San Antonio Spurs on Monday.

Cuban High On Rubio:  It will be interesting to see how the Minnesota Timberwolves view it, but Mavericks’ owner Mark Cuban had some high praise for Timberwolves’ draft pick Ricky Rubio. He suggested that not only did his team try and trade up to grab him in the draft, but if Minnesota ever wanted to trade his rights Dallas would love to have him.

{AUTHOR_BOX}"I think (Minnesota) has a star in the making in Ricky Rubio," Cuban said to Charley Walters of the Pioneer Press.

"The Wolves are confident Rubio will play for them next season. But if they want to trade him," Cuban said. "They’ll have a buyer."

"We’re very high on him," Cuban said of his Mavericks. "If they want to give him up, we’re very interested. We would do that in a heartbeat."

"We tried to trade up to get Rubio," Cuban said. "But we weren’t close. We would have loved to draft him." Cuban says he is not overly caught up in Rubio’s poor statistical showing this season in Spain, saying that the NBA game is different from the International game.

"The thing about Europe," Cuban said, "is it doesn’t necessarily translate in terms of points and assists. You’ve got to look at talent, you’ve got to look at game IQ and you’ve got to look at age."

"I don’t think if he came in now he would dominate the league or anything like that. But I think he would have a big impact here."

Rubio is averaging just 6.3 points per game in Euroleague play on roughly 22 minutes of game action. Rubio, who is considered a natural passer, has just 4.1 assist in his 16 Euroleague games.

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