Moving Van

Though the Warriors were the NBA's most improved team last season, optimism about any further improvement has been squelched. They open training camp this week in Hawaii in apparent disarray after losing their top two scorers and acquiring 10 players in a salary purge engineered by fickle owner Chris Cohan.

Even more unsettling is that the key newcomer is mercurial point guard Nick Van Exel, who as of Sunday remained unhappy about being unloaded by Dallas in a nine-player deal for forward Antawn Jamison (22.2 points per game in 2002-03). Though Van Exel didn't return calls from SI, he has given no indication that he's pleased about moving from a title contender to a franchise that hasn't made the playoffs in nine years. Cohan insisted on the trade as part of his strategy to trim $34.4 million in long-term payroll. League sources say that G.M. Garry St. Jean objected to the deal and that coach Eric Musselman was never consulted. (St. Jean and Musselman both refused to comment.)

Van Exel has three options. He can try to leverage a trade by playing the malcontent, a role he filled so splendidly two seasons ago when the Nuggets shipped him to the Mavericks. He can punch the clock at Golden State, then opt out of his contract this summer with one guaranteed year remaining at $12.8 million, but that would mean a pay cut of almost $8 million if he signed for the mid-level exception. The Warriors hope that he selects Door Number 3: Play hard, make himself prized trade bait and in the meantime help lift the team into playoff contention.

Cohan's erratic moves have shed 19.5 points per game based on last year's stats, but the Warriors might still equal their surprising 38 wins of 2002-03. Musselman expects more scoring from power forward Troy Murphy, who averaged a double double last year and has added three-point range, as well as from shooting guard Jason Richardson, who is prepared to make up for the offensive leadership of point guard Gilbert Arenas (18.3 points a game), a free-agent signee with the Wizards. The presence of vets Clifford Robinson and Calbert Cheaney on the bench should help ease the demands on small forward Mike Dunleavy, who has packed on 10 pounds of muscle after averaging a puny 5.7 points as a rookie.

But it all comes down to Van Exel, who through last week-end had yet to return any of the 20 phone messages left by Musselman. "When I do talk to Nick, I think he's going to understand that point guards like to play in our system," says Musselman, noting that both Arenas and backup Earl Boykins (who signed as a free agent with the Nuggets) thrived last year. "Every point guard wants to shoot a lot and run a lot of pick-and-roll, and that's what we do here."

Van Exel should be concerned that the Warriors may never win under Cohan, who has run the team since 1995. While league sources wonder if Cohan's cost-cutting is a prelude to his selling the team (a notion he refused to comment on), that wouldn't happen fast enough to bail Golden State out of the Van Exel mess. Musselman must try to exploit the Warriors' favorable schedule—seven of their first eight games are at home—and hope a fast start brings out the sunny side of Van Exel's personality.