The Warriors are in the midst of their busiest offseason in years. More than half of their roster has been turned over. Gone are Antawn Jamison, Gilbert Arenas, Earl Boykins, Bob Sura, Danny Fortson, Chris Mills and Jiri Welsch.

Coming in are Nick Van Exel, Speedy Claxton, Cliff Robinson, Calbert Cheaney -- and others.

As a result, a common perception of some fans and media is that the Warriors not only ripped apart a young and improving team but gave up any chance for success in the next season or two for little more than a long-shot opportunity to land an impact free agent years from now.

Warriors team president Robert Rowell took aim at those perceptions recently.

Rowell, the most powerful man in the organization excluding owner Chris Cohan, said the nine-player trade with the Dallas Mavericks was not a "cost-cutting move," maintained that he expects the Warriors to compete for a playoff spot in the upcoming season and asserted that now was the time "to clean everything up."

Rowell also lent credence to the notion that Van Exel is not happy about the trade from Dallas but said he expects Van Exel will be ready once training camp begins in early October.

By trading Jamison, who has $69 million remaining on his contract, and Fortson, who has $26 million remaining on his, to the Mavericks, the Warriors saved themselves $35 million in upcoming years. However, Rowell said, there is no "savings."

"One of the big points I read in the media and heard people say is that we did this deal just to get off of the money," Rowell said. "Well, first of all, we'll have a $52 million payroll this year, which is potentially $9 million over the salary cap. And, down the line, all we did was position ourselves to spend the money we were going to spend anyway, in hopefully a wiser way."

Not only has the Dallas deal given the Warriors financial flexibility in the future, it immediately enabled them to do something they otherwise wouldn't have been able to do, Rowell said. Three days after the Aug. 18 trade with Dallas, the Warriors traded Sura, in the last year of his contract, to Detroit for Robinson, who has two years remaining. Had the Warriors not made the move with Dallas, they wouldn't have been able to take on Robinson's additional year, which likely would have put them in luxury tax danger.

"You've got to at some point and time clean everything up and put yourself in an environment where you not only have cap flexibility but also have business negotiation flexibility," Rowell said. "By doing what we did with Dallas, we set ourselves up down the line to have more flexibility."

Rowell said he understands why some fans might believe the Warriors have taken a step back. However, he doesn't agree with them.