You've got to hand it to Chris Mullin ... he's ready and willing to try anything to keep the Warriors competitive in the Western Conference after more than a decade of near obsolescence.

So far, it's worked.

That's why before everybody goes bonkers ripping him as general manager and Warriors coach Don Nelson as crazy for signing aging, gimpy-legged forward Chris Webber Monday, consider how this unorthodox duo has managed to pull the W's out of the rubble and into the hottest ticket in the Bay Area.

To be sure, the Warriors play so fast that it will often seem as if the 34-year-old Webber is just playing Iowa girls basketball on one end of the floor. And just the memory of how he and Nellie couldn't handle each other's big personalities to the point that he lasted only one year as a rookie in 1993-94 before the Warriors got rid of Webber is still vivid.

Don't forget that the wily Mullin was an All-Star forward on the Warriors back then. And while everyone told Mullin he was nuts for hiring Mike Montgomery away from Stanford to coach Baron Davis and the crew a few years back, it was a mistake he learned from to the point he had to go with what he knew.

So against conventional wisdom, he lured the re-retired Nellie out of the Tiki bars on Maui to coach the Warriors last season. As if that wasn't outrageous enough, he made a blockbuster trade in dealing hard-working Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Troy Murphy to Indiana to bring the mercurial Stephen Jackson and the erratic Al Harrington to play with the unpredictable Davis and talented youngsters Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins. That set up Nellie to play his vintage "smallball," with Biedrins the only real interior player.

Nonetheless, they made the playoffs for the first time since 1994 and even shocked the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in what many believed was the biggest upset in NBA playoff history. They lost in the second round to Utah, but not without a fight, leading to all sorts of possibilities before Nellie finally got his contract guaranteed for this year and next at the kind of money he wanted.

Still, with Jackson suspended for the first seven games for some off-court shenanigans, they began the season 0-6 and were in trouble. Undaunted, they are 27-12 since then, but that woeful start could get them in the end in the impossibly competitive Western Conference. They are tied for seventh, a half game ahead of Denver and Portland, with Houston lingering just a couple games further back in this furious race among the top 10.

And that's why Mullie and Nellie huddled, and settled on Webber. While Biedrins will block shots, rebound and knock people around inside, he's virtually it inside for the W's in a conference laden with big bodies. Not that Webber will ever be accused of being a banger inside and he faded badly enough down the stretch in Detroit last season that the Pistons really had no desire to bring him back - even though he was living right there.

And yet, he is one of the most naturally gifted power forwards in the history of the game when it comes to the nuances of the position. His passing from the high and low post from a power position is without peer in the game today. He'll still hit that shot from the elbow and the circle, and that flat hook in the post will gain some traction as well. He may not be able to move defensively, but his hands and instincts will compensate in the limited minutes he will be needed as the rest of this whirling dervish of a team will be running and trapping all over the place.

Inevitably, his ego won't allow him to be happy in the limited time and space he'll get on the Warriors. That isn't the point. In the broad scope, there is humor in this move, as there has been in this entire reconstruction by Mullin.

Nothing has been particularly sensible since he was handed the keys to the car by Warriors owner Chris Cohan in 2004. He gambled maximum money on the creaky body and personality of Davis to be the leader. He went with his gut that Nellie still had enough in the tank for one more run with a team, and he figured Jackson and Harrington could be special if they bought into Davis as their leader. All the while he just sits back quietly and doesn't say much about anything.

But he's always thinking, and this time he's thinking Webber and Nelson want to make peace in the manner of a playoff run. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it won't. But it's guaranteed great entertainment the entire second half of the season for growing Warriors nation.

 And before Mullin was hired, they weren't even entertaining.