The Golden State Warriors made the most of the headlines on the first day of free agency. The Warriors tried their best, but had to let go of Kevin Durant, and traded in D’Angelo Russel from the Brooklyn Nets. Along with that, the Warriors also re-signed Klay Thompson for a max five-year deal at $190 million. Even Russel was paid $117 million for a four-year contract.
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While the Warriors made so many trade deals, it is expected that they are just holding the players. When the time is right, more of the players will be traded out to clear some cap space. Here is why the Warriors are planning to trade out Russel and what are their other plans for the next NBA season.
The Warriors have too many Players
The Warriors currently have a lot of good players in their team, even after Kevin Durant moved to the Brooklyn Nets. Stephen Curry has three years left for a max five-year deal at $201 million. Klay Thompson has been re-signed for the next five seasons of NBA. As for the next six months, the Warriors can’t trade D’Angelo Russel as he was technically re-signed with the Nets.
Warrior All-Star guard Klay Thompson underwent successful surgery today to repair his torn ACL, league source tells ESPN. Dr. Neal ElAttrache performed procedure at the Kerlan Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 2, 2019
The rules make it mandatory for the Warriors to play with the Russel until the start of the next year. When the next year starts, Thompson will be fully recovered from his ACL surgery. Draymond Green, Jordan Bell, Damian Jones, and a lot of other players will still be there, which makes Russel an extra. Hence, the Warriors will try to sell Russel to some other team, so that they can have some money in their cap space.
D’Angelo Russel is a Valuable Asset
On the other hand, before that time D’Angelo Russel will be paired up with Stephen Curry, and they are said to have amazing chemistry. Russel is a very good player and a valuable asset to any of the NBA team he plays for. He had his first All-Star NBA team selection and was also one of the best players for the Brooklyn Nets.
The rest of the NBA seeing the Warriors trade for D-Lo pic.twitter.com/UUWyX2ZWnY
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) July 1, 2019
Even his stats were awesome the last season, with an average of 21.1 points, 7.0 assists, and 36.9 percent shooting ratio. By pairing him up with Curry and Green, the Warriors can have a good enough team to make it to the NBA 2020 finals. Hence, instead of trading out Russel, the Warriors should try to make a permanent position for him in their team.
