The Warriors are bringing back former player and assistant coach Rod Higgins, according to general manager Garry St. Jean.

Higgins, a Warriors assistant coach from 1994-2000, primarily will be responsible for college scouting.

On Aug. 2, Higgins left the Washington Wizards, where he was assistant general manager for three years. Higgins and the Wizards mutually agreed to part company in the wake of general manager Ernie Grunfeld's hiring June 30.

Higgins was hired by Michael Jordan, then Washington's president of basketball operations, after the 1999-2000 season.

Jordan wanted his former Chicago Bulls teammate Higgins sooner. In late January 2000, Jordan sought permission from the Warriors to hire Higgins as coach, but the Warriors wouldn't allow Higgins out of his assistant coaching contract without compensation.

Higgins also played seven seasons with the Warriors.

The plan isn't to have people confuse Troy Murphy for Chris Mullin.
The idea is to have opposing power forwards and centers wondering why they're standing 20 feet from the basket.

"I'm happy that I'm making the 3-point shot a part of my game," Murphy said. "It's one thing to guard somebody at 17, 18 feet, but it's another to guard them at 22, 23 feet."

With training camp opening today in Hawaii, the Golden State Warriors can reflect on a busy summer. Through free agency and trades, only five players remain from last year's team.

Of the holdovers, there have been trade rumors and off-court distractions. The only certainty at the Warriors prac- tice facility has been Murphy.

Five days a week, Murphy has been hitting the weights, honing his skills and developing a 3-point shot that should make him a more complete offensive threat.

"There's no other place where I could have this kind of facility and the coaches around all summer to work out with me every day," Murphy said.

For his efforts, his new3-point shot and work ethic have been one of the hot topics as the Warriors open training camp.

"I don't know anybody who works as hard as Troy Murphy," general manager Garry St. Jean said. "When you commit yourself that diligently, good things will happen for you.

"He's always had the good touch, but now he looks so much more confident from further out."

Troy Murphy read news accounts of the Warriors' offseason moves and listened to reaction on talk radio -- but not too much of the latter, he said, because otherwise he would have been overcome with road rage.

His assessment of the general skepticism?

"It's a slap in the face to me along with the other guys who have been here to say that by making these trades, the Warriors are taking steps back and going downhill,'' Murphy said the other day, shortly before working out with special assistant Chris Mullin at the team's practice facility.

"I think the Warriors have taken a lot of garbage in the press about it, but I think they're good moves. And we're going to prove that.''

The starting power forward will not have to wait long. The Warriors begin training camp this week in Laie, Hawaii, putting aside a hectic offseason and launching their quest to halt a nine-year playoff drought, the longest active streak in the NBA.

Everyone seems to want to know: Is special assistant Chris Mullin running the Warriors these days?

Has he taken on a bigger role in the team's front office since he was hired a year ago? Is he, in essence, the team's general manager, taking over the reins from Garry St. Jean? Are the Warriors now Mullin's franchise?

No, no, no and no, Mullin said Thursday while meeting with reporters before the team begins training camp in Hawaii next week.

"My job is the same as it was last year," said Mullin, hired by the Warriors last summer. "Not one bit of change. I helped the players out. I'm learning from Saint. I'm available to the coaches. I go out and scout. I'm learning the business side a little bit. When they ask me for input, I give my opinion -- unbiased."

Mullin denied that he has taken a bigger role within the team's front office this offseason -- as has been reported. Still, because assistant general manager Gary Fitzsimmons did not have his contract renewed at the end of last season and executive director of player personnel Otis Smith left earlier this month to take a job with the Orlando Magic, it might appear that Mullin finds himself higher up the corporate ladder.

Not yet, he says.

When asked if he wanted a bigger role, Mullin answered: "No. Not now. I'm fine. I'm moving along. I feel comfortable. It's pretty much the same. We look at the board (of NBA rosters) all the time, talk about players. (Coach) Eric (Musselman), myself, Saint, the assistant coaches. This (St. Jean's office) is the busiest place there is in the building."

It would be such an old-style Warriors move to panic and trade Nick Van Exel for nothing close to his market value, wouldn't it?

Chris Webber's unhappy? Get rid of him for pennies on the dollar! Latrell Sprewell choked the coach? Donate him to the Knicks, who always lead the league in awful trade proposals!

This is the way things have gone for decades, a cycle of distracted leadership, general discontent, dumb moves and overall despair.

But someone new is influencing the Warriors' thinking now, and so a point-blank question: Could Van Exel be traded before the season starts?

``No, I don't see that,'' Warriors special assistant Chris Mullin said from his office Wednesday. ``He fits too well for the things we want to do.''

He heard the news about Vin Baker and he had one reaction: happiness. "I can totally empathize," Chris Mullin said over the phone from Oakland, Calif., where he's helping run the Golden State Warriors. "But when I look back on my own experience, as tough as it was, it also became the beginning of my life. So I'm happy and kind of excited for him to see what lies ahead. Hopefully, everything will fall into place for him. It's good news."

Mullin does indeed have an insight into Baker's recent acknowledgement that he is an alcoholic. Like Baker, Mullin fought the disease for years through denial. Like Baker, he played well enough to be an NBA All-Star and, like Baker, he played long enough to lead the league in minutes. And, like Baker, he was finally forced to confront his demons and did so. He came out of it healthy, and played well enough to become a member of the US "Dream Team" at the 1992 Olympics, and one of the elite players of his time.

"For me, [alcohol] was as much a part of my upbringing as anything," Mullin said. "It was my neighborhood. It was a character trait. Or defect, really. I was being ruled by something else. I tell kids now that I was a pretty good basketball player and a pretty good drinker. But I had to give up one to be really good. Maybe some guys can do both. I couldn't."

And when he stopped drinking, he became a workout maniac, working with strength coach Mark Grabow to build a chiseled body that one could hardly have envisioned given the memory of the floppy-haired kid from St. John's who was the seventh pick in the 1985 draft. Mullin said he didn't take up gym work to fill the alcohol void.

"I always liked to work out," he said. "It's just a little bit hard when you're always coming in at 4 in the morning."

He said Baker already has taken the first, critical step: admitting his problem. The next step, Mullin said, will be to stay committed to the recovery and rehab program that has been put in place.

"That's important. You have to admit that you've got the problem," he said. "It's not everyone else. It's not the weather. That's not it. The only time you'll see change is when you take it on yourself.

"The priority is to put your life back together. The basketball will take its course."

For Nick Van Exel, the Golden State Warriors may be just part of his journey this season, not the final destination.

At the same time, the former Maverick has no intention to force a trade, his agent said Friday and will be in Hawaii next month when the Warriors open camp.

"If he's not traded by then, he'll report," Van Exel's agent, Tony Dutt, said. "In this day and age, you're limited to what you can do. If they can make a move that benefits them and benefits Nick, I would hope they consider it. I understand there's a lot of interest, from what I read and hear out there."

Van Exel was one of the key ingredients in a nine-player trade completed Aug. 18 between the Mavericks and Golden State. In return for Van Exel and four other players, the Mavericks obtained 6-9 forward Antawn Jamison, a career 20 point-a-game scorer, along with Danny Fortson, Jiri Welsch and Chris Mills.

Dutt said Van Exel has not specifically asked to be dealt from Golden State.

"It's more the understanding at this point," Dutt said. "Everybody knows that when you put Nick into a playoff situation, he plays his best ball. I'm not saying Golden State isn't a good team, but the timetables might be different."

Otis Smith once left his position as the Orlando Magic's community- relations director to take the same job with the Warriors. Now, Smith is leaving his post as the Warriors' director of basketball operations to fill a similar vacancy with the Magic.

"It sounded like a good opportunity for me to go home,'' said Smith, a Jacksonville native with two teenaged children who live in the area. "That was a big part of it for me.''

Orlando recently sought, and was granted, permission by the Warriors to speak with Smith about a front-office job that opened up when Gary Brokaw, the Magic's director of player personnel, left in July.

Smith, 39, will work under Magic general manager John Gabriel as he pursues his ultimate goal of becoming a GM in the NBA.

"I can't learn everything from one shop,'' Smith said. "This is an opportunity for me to grow.''

Smith was named the Warriors' director of basketball operations in July 2002 after two-plus years in community relations. His promotion came only two weeks before Chris Mullin was hired as a special assistant in the basketball operations department.

It was not immediately known how the Warriors intend to replace Smith, who traveled regularly with the team last season. He is the second member of the front office to depart this offseason; assistant GM Gary Fitzsimmons' contract expired in June and was not renewed.

The Golden State Warriors have signed 2003 second round draft choice Derrick Zimmerman to a contract, general manager Garry St. Jean announced today. Per team policy, terms of the deal were not released.

Zimmerman, 22, whom the Warriors selected with the 40th overall pick in this past June's NBA Draft, averaged 6.9 points, 3.3 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.61 steals in 127 games during a four-year career at Mississippi State. The 6-1 point guard established a school record with 514 career assists, while also posting a school-best in games played. Playing on the Warriors' summer league team in Los Angeles in early July, Zimmerman averaged 5.1 points, 3.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists and 1.14 steals in 36.1 minutes over seven games. He also led the team with six blocked shots.

Nick Van Exel's crusade to join the Knicks this season could become a reality.

According to a league source, the Knicks and Warriors have discussed a trade that would bring Van Exel to New York and send power forward Kurt Thomas and point guard Charlie Ward to Golden State.

The potential deal makes sense for the Knicks, who have been in the market for an explosive point guard for the past decade. The Knicks also have an abundance of power forwards on their roster, including Antonio McDyess, Keith Van Horn and rookies Mike Sweetney and Maciej Lampe.

The Knicks would prefer to trade either Clarence Weatherspoon or Othella Harrington but have been unable to find any suitors.

Golden State got Van Exel from Dallas last month in a deal that included Antawn Jamison. Van Exel, who thrived in the playoffs last spring, said Wednesday that he would prefer to play for the Knicks.