Golden State, NBA's laughing-stock?

Let us look at this CNNSI article on the GSW.

Watch out, Clippers

Golden State proving a worthy rival for laughingstock crown

But then free agency started, and Mullin completely lost his mind. Let's review the Warriors' disastrous July maneuvers:

1. Signed backup center Adonal Foyle for six years and $41 million.

2. Allowed emerging forward Brian Cardinal to leave for Memphis.

3. Signed backup point guard Derek Fisher for six years and $37 million -- the same amount Cardinal received from the Grizzlies.

4. Appeared on the verge of allowing Dampier to leave as free agent, agreeing to sign-and-trade with Knicks for backup center Nazr Mohammed and not-even-good-enough-to-be-a-backup-anymore Othella Harrington. (This deal could still fall apart, but only if Dampier signs with Altanta and leaves the Warriors with even less).
   

4.) The NY trade for Dampier did not happen. Instead GS traded with Portland and got a defensive, backup-forward: Davis, who will make $10 million next season in the last year of his contract, averaged 4.4 points and 5.2 rebounds as the physical heart of Portland's defense last season.

3.) Brian Cardinal is no Derek Fisher. Brian had one good season while Fisher has been a cornerstone of the Lakers. Fisher is going to be 30 so he is going be overpaid towards the end of his contract however, he is a hard working team oriented veteran. Honestly, if the reverse had happened, this guy would have said GS could have signed veteran and clutch player Derek Fisher for the price of Brian Cardinal. Fisher played on a team with Bryant and Shaq and last year Malone and Payton. All of them fought for the ball and shots so why extrapolate Fisher's past scoring to assess his value? He was the locker room glue and solid teammate. He made clutch shots and was a trusted player on the Lakers.

2.) Most writers think Memphis overpaid for Brian Cardinal. See above.

1.) A.Foyle for 7 million a year over six years. That's the average salary for a Center in the NBA, 7 million. Dampier is going to cost 10 million or more and he pouts in the locker room and disappears on the court. A.Foyle was hurt last season so his numbers are going to be low, Dampier was healthy last season, while he struggled for years with a knee injury.

I will conceed this point:

Fisher is 30 and has six guaranteed years on his contract, which means he'll be 35 in the final season of the deal. Last season only three of the 53 point guards who played at least 1,0000 minutes were that age or older -- Rod Strickland, Darrell Armstrong and Gary Payton -- and none of them were worth anywhere near the kind of money that Fisher will be making.

Look even two years ahead and the news becomes grim. In the third year of his contract Fisher will be 32 years old. Only eight point guards of that age were able to play at least 1,000 minutes last year, and they all had one thing in common -- height. All eight of them were at least 6-foot-3. Fisher, however, is just 6-1, and thus much more dependent on speed that will decline rapidly with age.

I don't think Fisher will be worth his salary when he is 35. The stats. are not promising. Fisher plans on retiring with GSW and the size of his contract when he is 33-35 will assure that he will be hard to trade. Still, I think having him and using him earlier in his contract years will off-set the latter part.