The Warriors made one of the bigger trades in their team history yesterday (as sad as that is) when they traded Anthony Randolph, Ronny Turiaf and Kelenna Azubuike to the Knicks for David Lee.

There’s no doubt that Randolph is one of the more intriguing prospects in the NBA. Explosive 7 footers who can handle the ball and shoot a little bit don’t come around very often. And in today’s game, where skill and athleticism are as important to a power forward as bulk and strength used to be, he very well might turn into the prototypical modern 4: a guy who can run and finish, stretch the floor a little bit and make plays on offense and guard multiple positions on defense.

Then again, he also might turn into Carlos Rogers. The fact is at this point in his career Randolph just doesn’t have much of a game. He’s an athlete playing basketball, not a basketball player. And as much as I’d like to wait and see what he becomes, there’s no guarantee he becomes anything. Right now the only thing he does really well is rebound. He puts up big shot block numbers but a lot of those come from being out of control and undisciplined on defense, although I eventually think he’ll be a plus defender. On offense, he basically needs to develop an entire game at the NBA level, which just doesn’t happen very often. I also worry about his on-the-edge style of play leading to injury. You put all those things together and I think Randolph has a chance to a Josh Smith-level player, which is a really nice player to have but also not above the level of a David Lee. I understand why the Warriors were open to cashing in his chip for a legitimate plus starting power forward, especially b/c they are building a team around Steph Curry and Lee is a better fit next to him than Randolph (or Smith.) Sometimes you have to take good and give up on a chance at great. The Warriors have been bad for so long, and they’ve seen so many of their prospects become eminently replaceable players if not outright busts, that I’m ok with making a move that moves them closer to becoming respectable right now. Then you go from there. At a certain point you need to stop hoping for 2 years from now and make your team better. I think trading for David Lee did this.

Of course, the only thing more familiar than losing to Warrior fans is seeing ex-Warriors play in the all-star game so I’m sure that Larry Riley just ensured the perennial all-star success of Randolph by trading him.