© Jerome Miron | 2018 Nov 14
The Warriors roster turnover has been constant since the end of the NBA Finals. That continued on Tuesday, with the acquisition of Alec Burks and Omari Spellman. All the additions have been viewed as fairly savvy moves from Warriors general manager Bob Myers, while considering the team’s tight cap situation.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic joined the Murph & Mac show on Tuesday morning to discuss some of the Warriors off-season additions among other things regarding the team. Slater believes Burks will fill a need for the Warriors this upcoming season.
“Well they really, really needed a wing. That is what Alec Burks is.” Slater said. “They are very overloaded at the guard and big man spot. I mean, really before yesterday their only true small forward/wings are Alfonzo McKinnie and then Glenn Robinson III. That is replacing, probably the strongest at the wing in the league last year, with Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala. Burks will be a help. Probably the best out there on the minimum.”
On Monday, June 8th, the Warriors moved on from their 2016 first round pick, center Damion Jones. The team sent Jones and a second-round pick to the Atlanta Hawks while receiving second-year Hawks forward Omari Spellman in return. Slater views the move as more of an economical maneuver due to the team being extremely near the hard cap.
“As far as Spellman goes, that’s just a trade. It’s really a third big man for a third big man. Warriors trade away Damion Jones and it just saves them $400K. That is very important to them because they are on this hard cap where they can’t go over a certain amount. It’s about $138.9 million and they are very close to that so every dollar kind of counts over the next calendar year.”
The Warriors are entering a monumental transitional period as an organization. They have lost a couple of their biggest stars all while leaving the beloved Oracle Arena to move across the Bay Bridge into the widely anticipated state-of-the-art Chase Center. Although Golden State has been universally crossed out of contention for the upcoming season, Slater believes this team still has to ability to make some noise.
“You got two all-stars that you love; (Steph) Curry and Draymond (Green) are playing. You got a new, fresh piece with D’Angelo Russell. That’s going to be interesting to watch…Willie Cauley-Stein will be a fun lob threat center to watch, kind of a JaVale McGee type. Then sometime around February or March, Klay (Thompson) is going to make his return. I’m sure the franchise will make him return in a Chase Center game.
“If they are in playoff contention and Klay comes back and looks you know, 80 percent of the Klay from last year, there will be some optimism going into the playoffs. Let’s say they are a six seed, that is a very dangerous six seed. You do not want to see a playoff tested Warriors team with a recovering Klay Thompson.”