By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

When is Chris Cohan going to sell the Warriors?

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me that question after I started covering the team, I might have earned enough cash to buy Cohan out by myself.

The idea of Golden State changing hands has been on the front burner again since reports surfaced in July that Cohan was seriously looking to jettison his 80 percent stake in the Warriors, and the flame was turned up Monday when Yahoo! Sports said there is a new group of bidders interested in the team. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, a “well-moneyed and politically connected” group wants to pay off Cohan and move the W’s to a privately funded arena in downtown San Francisco.

Unfortunately for those fans who feel — and I can’t say that I disagree with this viewpoint — that Cohan’s tenure is the root cause for why the franchise has been mired in an endless cavalcade of losing seasons, disgruntled stars, unemployed coaches and disaffected season-ticket holders, there is no Mikhail Prokhorov in the wings, set to swoop in on a tidal wave of rubles.

The people who are looking to buy from Cohan — a list which includes Oracle’s Larry Ellison — are willing to spend hundreds of millions, but rightly not willing to overpay for the privilege of owning a team that won 29 games last season and has a loose cannon with an untradeable contract willing to sink the ship if he’s not moved out.

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By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

The Forbes list of NBA Team Valuations for 2008 is out, and the Warriors are continuing their ascent. In the last three seasons, they’ve gone from No. 27 (worth an estimated $267 million at the conclusion of the 2005-06 campaign) to No. 21 ($309M after ’06-’07) and now to No. 18 ($335M after ’07-’08).

So, what does the future hold in store for Golden State owner Chris Cohan’s balance sheet, as crafted by team president Robert Rowell?

In the short term, there’s most likely another season of growth coming, even with the overall economy stumbling as badly as it has.

After that is when things will truly get interesting.

The Warriors posted pre-tax earnings of $14.2 million for ’07-’08, far and away the highest such number in the last dozen years, which is all the data I could lay my hands on at short notice. (I suspect it could very well be the most the Warriors have ever made in a single season, but I can’t confirm that.)

Nevertheless, I think that profit number has legitimate potential to go even higher next season. Why? Glad you asked. Here are a couple of the biggest impacts I see on the 2008-09 books:

(Please note: These are my best estimates and guesstimates, based on the available data. They are certainly not written in stone. And it may very well be that the team, armed with much more detailed data, is expecting a different outcome. With those caveats, then. . .)

Negative impacts
Player salaries, which cost the Warriors $65 million last year (including bonuses and incentives), are currently set to run approximately $2.5 million higher this season, not including any extras. I’ll guess that that figure will land somewhere between $4 to $5 million higher when all the premiums are factored in.

Also, Golden State’s average attendance has fallen. It’s not as precipitous as in some places around the league — Hello? Memphis? Anybody there? Elvis? B.B.? Three 6 Mafia? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller? — but it’s still noticeable.

Through eight games, the Warriors are drawing 18,571 fans, on average. That’s a 5.4 percent decrease from last season’s average of 19,630, but since attendance historically is lower in November and December (when football is still in season), a better apples-to-apples comparison is to look at the first eight games of 2007-08. The Warriors drew 19,408 in those games, meaning that they’re running 4.3 percent behind last season’s pace.

Based on the number of open seats…

By Geoff Lepper
48minutes.net

OAKLAND — Warriors guard Monta Ellis will go down in history as having taken the most expensive moped ride in history.

Golden State finally dropped the hammer on its franchise player Saturday, announcing a 30-game suspension that essentially translates into a $2.97 million fine in response to the left ankle injury Ellis suffered while crashing his 250cc moped on Aug. 21, an incident that violated the terms of the six-year, $66 million deal he had signed mere weeks earlier.

“We made a commitment to Monta for $66 million to be a great basketball player,” said team president Robert Rowell, who arrived at the 30-game figure with owner Chris Cohan after discussions with Jeff Fried, Ellis’ agent. “We’re in a situation where he is now not with us. We’re going to do everything possible that we can obviously to get him back and to help him rehab and get back on the basketball floor, but right now we felt that it was an appropriate consequence.”

The decision means the team is certain Ellis, who suffered a high ankle sprain and a torn deltoid ligament that required surgery to repair, won’t be healthy until after Dec. 17, when the suspension expires. When the injury was announced in late August, the team said that Ellis would need six weeks’ worth of immobilization, which just recently ended, and six more weeks of off-court rehab before a potential timetable for a return could be established.

However, one facet of the recovery plan has yet to be publicized: Multiple team sources confirmed Saturday that Ellis will eventually have to undergo another surgery to remove screws that are currently holding the ligament in place, something that will require additional recovery time.

Rowell claimed the team never considered voiding Ellis’ deal — as was reported by multiple media outlets in the wake of Ellis’ failed attempt to originally cover up the true nature of his injury — but said an indefinite suspension was discussed. That option was scrapped for fear it would encourage Ellis to come back before getting fully healthy, leading to the potential of further damage, possibly permanent.

“We could have done an indefinite suspension, and what would that have done?” Rowell said. “Then he would have put himself in a situation where he would have rushed back and all he would have been worried about is the money and getting paid, and then we could have a player that…