I’d laugh off the reports, if it weren’t for Larry Riley’s track record of relentless cost-cutting for Chris Cohan and Robert Rowell.

Since he took over day-to-day operations as GM last fall, Riley has:

*Traded Al Harrington for Jamal Crawford — saving the team $600k in 08-09, and potentially saving them $10 million had Crawford caved to Nelson’s opt-out or else coercion.

*Traded Marco Belinelli for Devean George — saving the team $1.6 million (all of George’s salary, which the Raptors covered), and avoiding an ugly option-year decision on Belinelli’s deal.

*Traded Jamal Crawford for Speedy Claxton and Acie Law — saving the team $12 million, and providing a quick fix when Nelson’s Crawford coercion failed to convince him to opt-out.

*Signed Mikki Moore — to a minimum salary deal.

*Re-signed CJ Watson — to a qualifying offer (the lowest they could offer).

*Traded Stephen Jackson and Acie Law for Vladimir Radmanovic and Raja Bell — saving the team $19 million and change over the course of the deals.

*Signed Chris Hunter, Cartier Martin, and Anthony Tolliver — to minimum salary deals.

It’s a depressing and impressive record for the same reason — the single-minded focus on cost-cutting and spending as little as possible to field an NBA franchise. Sometimes you get what you pay for. The Warriors have faced seemingly endless injuries this year, but they’ve been greatly exacerbated by the team’s lack of depth — resulting from trading able bodies like Crawford and Belinelli for expiring contracts and investing in bargain-bin, over-the-hill free agents like Mikki Moore as opposed to more expensive, younger signings that might have made more of an impact.

So when Larry Riley says he’s doing everything he can to improve the team, forgive me if I’m a little skeptical. Riley himself took away the best defense for this time of slash-and-burn cost cutting — clearing cap space for a big-ticket free agent — when he stated during a season-ticket holder call in December that he didn’t believe those types of players would sign with the Warriors. The Warriors have done nothing since Chris Mullin was pushed out to suggest that they would invest open cap space in a game-changing free agent. I expect any mythical cap space the Warriors gain through their trades this season to result in exactly what the trade exception brought two years ago: nothing.

What type of players can the Warriors expect? Those late in their career — therefore expendable to teams already looking to the future — and on the final year of their contracts — therefore palatable to Cohan’s need to cut costs given dropping revenue (and the potential sale of the team). In other words, Ray Allen. Swapping expiring-contract Allen for long-term deals Ellis and Maggette (the trade works under the cap) would be the biggest salary cap robbery since Pau Gasol became a Laker — and would rest on similar justifications. Even if the Celtics tossed in a pick or a young cheap player, the deal would be a purely business transaction by a financially struggling team. The trade would instantly clear $74.7 million in fixed costs off the Warriors’ balance sheet. For a team estimated to be worth $250-400 million total, that’s serious money that would likely make the team a much more attractive acquisition target. Even if Maggette weren’t added to the deal, the Warriors could save significant money by including Vlad’s or even Biedrins’ deal to make the numbers work.