Following a terrible season, the Golden State Warriors will try to return to the headlines next year. They missed Kevin Durant in free agency, had to trade Andre Iguodala for D’Angelo Russell, missed Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry due to injuries but that served to help the Warriors have a great chance to return as the great team they were in the last five years.
After finishing with the worst record in the league this season, the Dubs will get a lottery pick in the next 2020 NBA draft. They could land a great prospect with that pick or use it to unlock negotiations to bring an already established player to the Bay. Plus, they have a trade exception they received from the Memphis Grizzlies for Andre Iguodala last summer.
Seven names have been linked with the Dubs in recent times, Ricky Rubio, Evan Fournier, Dennis Schroder, Will Barton, Kelly Oubre, Thaddeus Young, and Rudy Gay. Josh Schrock of NBC Sports explained how the Warriors could land any of these players using their trade exception while others would take more than that and they would be forced to use their draft pick.
Ricky Rubio, Rudy Gay, and Kelly Oubre Jr. seem to all be logical pieces who the Warriors could acquire in a straight swap for the exception. But the Warriors are allowed to sweeten any deal with a first-round pick or a pick swap, if they have their eyes on a bigger prize.
The Warriors are not allowed to include any other players in the deal and they still can’t acquire more than the $17.2 million the exception calls for, but there are some bigger names the Warriors could swing for if they wanted to add a pick or a pick swap.
Many of the available options might not be worth adding the draft capital to acquire and some still will be out of the Warriors’ range even with the added pick.
It remains unclear what they’re going to do. We won’t know until the end of this season, but the Warriors have big chances to be a great team again. Of course, seeing the anatomy of the NBA right now, they won’t be as dominant as they used to be, but Golden State could make some noise once again in the West.
Now we have to wait and see the decisions the front office will make. They have plenty of options so the picture isn’t that clear right now.
