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When Mike Montgomery opted to leave Stanford for the Golden State Warriors he drew a large amount of criticism. His doubters said that college coaches usually struggled to adjust to the player based professional environment, and they offered up Rick Pittino, John Calipari, Leonard Hamilton, and Lon Kruger as examples.

Conversely, when Chris Mullin was officially given control of the Warriors’ front office, many people expressed optimism that Mullin, with his intelligence and NBA experience, could build a successful team based on the model that his former Olympic teammate, Joe Dumars, had created in Detroit.

When Montgomery accepted the Warriors position, even many of his supporters were skeptical he could win in the Western Conference with his current roster. But Golden State still had some cap flexibility that would allow them to improve their team with trades or free agents acquisitions, even though Mullin had just signed unimpressive free agents Derek Fisher and Adonal Foyle to large salaries.

Unfairly, Montgomery, not Mullin, is shouldering most of the blame for Golden State’s awful 1-win, 6-loss season start. No coach at the NBA level can win with unmotivated players and inferior talent, and, thanks to Mullin, that is exactly what Montgomery has to work with.

Mullin made his first mistakes this summer when he clearly overestimated the importance of quality citizens and underestimated the value of pure talent by signing Fisher and Foyle to overpriced long term contracts. Next, he demonstrated his inexperience by caving to the pressure of agent Dan Fegan, and perhaps owner Chris Cohan, and signing Jason Richardson and Troy Murphy to long term deals, effectively wiping out any cap flexibility the team had and removing the motivation of playing in a contract year.

In just a few short months, not only has Mullin done nothing to improve the least talented team in the Western Conference but he has solidified their place in the Western Conference basement for years to come. Sure, Golden State has some talented young players with Richardson, Murphy, Mike Dunleavy, and Speedy Claxton. But by not surrounding them with quality veterans that give the team a chance to win now, Mullin is creating an atmosphere of losing in Golden State that will have a huge impact on what type of professional these young players go on to be.

Inevitably, Golden State will have a poor year and Montgomery will take the blame. Ironically, Mullin will probably fire Montgomery, Montgomery’s critics will scream “I told you so,” and the belief that college coaches make poor NBA coaches will, unfairly, be reinforced.