By: Nick Newton 03/14/06

Remember when you aquired your very first car? (If you’re from the bay area, disregard this metaphor because likely daddy bought you a new beamer.) But if yours was anything like mine, it was a turd. The power windows didn’t work, the power sunroof was stuck open, it didn’t start in the rain, the tires were long past bald, and it was rusted halfway up either door. Generally speaking, if I wanted to go out on the weekends, I had to perform some miraculous act of mechanical black magic, usually during foul weather and always outside.

Well, it has been over a full season since Mike Nolan inheirited his first jalopi, and he’s still sitting in his driveway with the engine torn apart, repair manual in his grease covered hands, tirelessly and methodically trying to get it ready for the 2006 race. In his defense, the previous owner was a jackass who never changed the oil, and once put brake fluid in the radiator, but nevertheless the damage has been taking some time to undo. Maybe that’s why everyone expected Nolan to jump out into free agency and be the big spender like a gearhead at a 50% off Autozone sale. Maybe that’s why there was bigtime fan panic when that didn’t happen. For the first couple of days, Washington was the big story limelight, essentially replacing every nut and bolt to their team. They even added a couple of serviceable parts from the old SanFran Hoopti down the way, (for a fee, of course).

But that’s not Nolans way, and Washington should have learned by now, both from experience and example, that buying a whole new veteran team every year is not only very very very bad in the long run, but also doesn’t work very well at all. Oh, Nolan was at the sale alright. But he prefers to pour over every potential part for his machine, inspecting it and choosing carefully each component that he will use. You see, in the final stretch, when his engine is redlined, the finish line is in sight, and coach Nolan has to test the very limits of his creation to reach it, he wants to be able to look back to that swapmeet known as free agency and know that while Snyder was running down the aisles with a shopping cart pushing players in like a crazed old hen at Kroger Super Double Coupons night, he chose his carefully and can have full confidence that his team will go the distance.

MY TAKE: Besides free agency, the draft is a stones throw away and may be the best way to add impact talent. Nolan has a short line ahead of him and it is likely that he will be and already has been as careful about deciding who his first draft choice will be as he has been in free agency. When the Niners clock in this April, I don’t look for two minutes to go by before the announcement is made.