[h2]
Who the Warriors are allowed to trade before July 9: It's a very short list[/h2]
By Tim Kawakami
Thursday, May 22nd, 2008 at 8:09 am in
NBA,
Warriors.
You run through the available roster and the NBA rules-and then check the fine print three or four more times-and you realize:
* If the Warriors want to make a deal before July 9, and that importantly includes
draft night June 26, they have very few players who can be traded.
That's because they have so many who are about to become or can become free agents and by NBA rule, you can't trade players who can or are about to become F/As.
(This also comes into play massively for the Warriors, since their big $9.9M trade exception expires June 30, so all pending F/As on other teams are basically off-limits for trade talk. Huge.)
Thinking realistically, the only players the Warriors can trade before the July 9 player signing/movement date are:
-Brandan Wright;
-Marco Belinelli;
-Al Harrington;
-Stephen Jackson;
-Kosta Perovic (if he has a guaranteed salary for next year, which I believe he does);
And that is it. That isn't much.
-They can also use their $9.9M trade exception through June 30 to take back any salary up to that figure, but they cannot bundle the TE with any other player contract from their own roster.
* Here's who CANNOT be traded until July 9 (with one caveat):
-
Baron Davis can't be traded before July 9,
unless and
until he gives the Warriors written notice that he will
not be exercising his opt-out clause-deadline June 30; such early written notice is highly unlikely in Baron's case since he gains almost nothing by doing it;
If Baron does nothing on June 30 (no written notice), the opt-out disappears and his $17.8M contract for next season stays in tact, which is by far the most likely scenario;
The Warriors cannot trade him until July 9, either way, because 1) there's a possibility on draft night that he might have no contract in a matter of days and you can't trade players who have no contract; and 2) the trade window closes after the draft and does not re-open until the July 9 player movement deadline;
-
Monta Ellis can't be traded or officially re-signed before July 9, because you can't trade pending restricted free agents;
Ellis could be traded starting July 9 in a sign-and-trade scenario or he can obviously be re-signed by the Warriors officially on July 9 or later;
-
Andris Biedrins can't be traded or officially re-signed until July 9, because he's also a pending restricted free agent; same as with Ellis, he could possibly be traded starting July 9 in a sign-and-trade deal or he could be re-signed by the Warriors;
-
Mickael Pietrus can't be traded or officially re-signed until July 9, because he's a pending unrestricted free agent;
-
Matt Barnes can't be traded or re-signed before July 9, also a pending UFA;
-
Kelenna Azubuike, pending RFA;
-
Patrick O'Bryant, pending UFA;
-
Austin Croshere, pending UFA;
-
C.J. Watson, pending UFA;
You get the point. Here's the conclusion, boiled down to its essence:
* If the Warriors want to move up from the 14th slot, and I'd guess they'd have some interest in that, then realistically, their best chance is to offer Wright or Belinelli (Harrington won't get them much in return, Jackson is too much to give up and wouldn't get them a ton, either).
Wright is way too much to trade just to move up? Probably. But on draft night, Wright and Belinelli are basically all they have to deal.
-9:10 a.m UPDATE: I should add that the Warriors could also offer future No. 1 picks to move up.
* Or possibly the $9.9M trade exception. As I detailed in my column yesterday, one imaginary scenario is this:
-Offer to flop 14 for Milwaukee's 8th overall and as the enticement, offer to use the TE to take Bobby Simmons (or maybe Dan Gadzuric) off of the Bucks' hands, which I'm sure would be VERY enticing in Buckland.
That's a path. But it must involve a player already under contract for at least next season. The Warriors could not use the TE to pick up a potentially useful player who is a pending F/A… for instance, Houston's Carl Landry.
I doubt the Rockets want to trade him, but say they did for cap purposes. The Warriors could not use the TE to get him because Landry's a pending RFA and can't be moved until July 9, more than a week after the TE expires.
* Here's another uncomfortable potential conclusion for Warriors fans as everybody hurtles towards draft night and considers what the Warriors might do to restructure their roster:
-Don Nelson and his staff aren't sure at all that Wright and Biedrins can play together long-term-they're both long, skinny current non-shooters who play smart but probably play the same position.
I don't think Chris Mullin agrees with this, but at some point he might. So…
How do you get a better fit? You trade one of them for the chance at a big man who fits better alongside one or the other instead of trying to play them both.
The best time to do that is draft night. The Warriors can't trade Biedrins on draft night, as we just discussed.
So? I'm definitely not campaigning for Wright to be traded. Not after all the hell I put Nelson through this season when he didn't play Wright. and all the hell Don gave back to me for giving him hell.
Not after all the defending I did of the trade that brought him here for Jason Richardson. I think Wright could be quite good and he definitely projects to be more versatile than Biedrins.
I'm just saying the timing is interesting. I'm saying the coaches still are reluctant to play Wright and Biedrins TOGETHER-and Biedrins is about to get paid.
Keep this in mind. I doubt Wright or Belinelli will be traded. But it's worth a thought.
* By the way, here are the highlight players WITH OPT-OUT CLAUSES who can't be traded before July 9 (
after the Warriors' trade exception expires) unless and until they provide written notification that they're not exercising their opt-out clause:
-Elton Brand (awww, I know, he was my original TE target-gone, unless he declares early that he's not opting-out);
-Gilbert Arenas;
-Ron Artest;
-Corey Maggette.
NONE OF THEM can be traded to the Warriors using the TE unless they do the written notification thing
before the expiration of the TE, but both deadlines are June 30.
* And here's a selected list of other teams' RFAs who, like Ellis and Biedrins, also cannot be signed-and-traded until July 9:
-Josh Smith;
-Josh Childress;
-Luol Deng;
-Ben Gordon;
-Emeka Okafor;
-Andre Igoudala;
-Carl Landry;
-Ronny Turiaf;
-Ryan Gomes;
-Dorell Wright;
-Jose Calderon.
* Here's a list of UNRESTRICTED F/As who cannot be signed or signed-and-traded (using the Warriors' TE or otherwise) before July 9:
-Antawn Jamison;
-Kwame Brown;
-Chris Duhon.
