The 2019-20 season has been a year of change in many ways for the Golden State Warriors. From losing key players from championship runs to free agency, trades and retirement, to injuries to key players to the franchise’s first losing season since 2012, the 2019-20 campaign has been different than what Dub Nation experienced over the five prior seasons, each of which extended into June for the Warriors.
That continued this past month as the Warriors were active at, and even before, the NBA trade deadline on Feb. 6. After three deals were negotiated and agreed upon, the end result for the Warriors was a new-look roster headed into the final months of the NBA season and beyond as well as a restocked pool of picks for upcoming NBA Drafts.
Now that the dust has settled, what does Dub Nation need to know about what went down and what is in store for the team’s future? Let’s take a look.
The Trades
The first trade came on Jan. 25 when the Warriors traded center Willie Cauley-Stein to the Dallas Mavericks. In return, the team received a 2020 second round draft pick that was originally owned by the Utah Jazz.
On the day of the trade deadline (Feb. 6), the Warriors then made two more deals.
One landed Andrew Wiggins on the Dubs, along with Minnesota’s 2021 first round draft pick (top 3 protected) and a 2021 second round pick, in exchange for guards D’Angelo Russell and Jacob Evans III and forward Omari Spellman.
Additionally, Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III were traded to the Philadelphia 76ers for three second round draft picks. The draft choices acquired by Golden State were a 2020 second round pick via Dallas, a 2021 second round pick via Denver and a 2022 second-round pick via Toronto.
What Has Changed?
In all, six players were traded out of the 15 the team had used through the season.
The Warriors are now without their two leading scorers on the season in Russell and Burks. They were averaging 23.6 points over 33 games and 16.1 points in 48 games, respectively.
Robinson was also a key contributor for the Dubs, having averaged 17.2 points over his last six games as a Dub before being dealt. Besides his hot streak in scoring, Robinson III was a reliable perimeter defender who played in, and started, 48 of the team’s 51 games before his deal to Philadelphia was agreed to.
Though the Warriors enter the final stretch of the season with holes left by the trades, the deals have created a foundation for the team and players.
Head Coach Steve Kerr said that the addition of Wiggins is crucial to the Warriors now and into the future with their core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, saying to media after the trades: “We know that Andrew [Wiggins] is a better positional fit for us than what D’Angelo [Russell] was.”
Russell was a guard who would have shared the backcourt with Curry and Thompson. But Wiggins covers the small forward position which had been left open by the departures of Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala, and subsequently Burks and Robinson. Wiggins can share the frontcourt with Green and provides a lengthy scoring option.
Though the Warriors will complete the season without the scoring and defense provided from the players lost in the trades, that provides extended run for the newest Dubs.
Kerr said that making the move at this point is beneficial for both the team and Wiggins as it gives him and other teammates extra time to understand each other.
“[It] will give us a big head start both from a stylistic standpoint and just a personal one — getting to know each other, building some trust, some continuity — I think it’ll give us some momentum going into next season,” said Kerr.
He noted that unlike when Kevin Durant joined the team during the offseason and had to learn Coach Kerr’s system over the preseason, all of the learning can take place this season and alleviate the pressure of a time crunch next season.
The trades opened up spaces for the Warriors to sign more players through the end of the season. Marquese Chriss and Ky Bowman were signed to new, fully guaranteed contracts with the team, avoiding the time constraints of their previous two-way deals.
The Warriors also brought up two more players from their G League affiliate in Santa Cruz who will have an opportunity to play for larger roles on the team. One of those was 39th overall pick of the 2019 NBA Draft Alen Smailagic, and the other Oakland’s own Juan Toscano-Anderson, who was with the team in the preseason.
Giving these Dubs the playing time has proven to be beneficial thus far.
In a small sample size of just three games with the Dubs, Wiggins is averaging 23.0 points to go with career-bests in assists (4.0), field-goal percentage (57.5), and three-point percentage (53.3). Most notable though has been his work on the defensive end of the floor where he has posted new highs in steals (2.3) and blocks (1.7).
And since taking over as the starting center, Marquese Chriss has added 14.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and a team leading 2.0 blocks over the last nine games.
Now Dub Nation awaits to see who else responds to the call and plays their way into a role next season.
Putting the Picks to Use
Besides rebuilding the team with the players they have in-house with Golden State and Santa Cruz, the Warriors’ recent trades have refilled their stock of draft picks.
Each team has two drafts picks for the annual summer draft: one for each of the two rounds of the draft. Teams with lower winning percentages pick earliest in the draft. The only exception to this are the first four overall picks of the draft: those are decided by a lottery. Only the 14 teams who did not make the playoffs participate in the lottery, with the teams holding lower winning percentages having better odds of landing one of those four picks.
When a pick is traded, the choice of player is owned by the new team, but the timing of the pick and where it falls in the round is determined by the original team’s finish in the previous season’s standings.
Some of these picks come with conditions as part of the trade. Using this past summer’s Durant-Russell trade as an example, the deal with the Brooklyn Nets included the Dubs’ 2020 first round pick which became top-20 protected. Translation: the deal included the stipulation that if the Warriors finished the 2019-20 season in a way which the pick fell into the top 20 of the 2020 NBA Draft, the Warriors would not need to include that pick in the trade and instead send a future second round pick (in 2025).
Prior to the trades made last week, the Warriors owned seven picks in the next seven drafts, from 2020-2026. But after the dust settled from the 2019 trade deadline, the Warriors own 13 picks over the next seven summers.
Here is a complete breakdown of those picks by year, including the protections and who they came from should anyone in Dub Nation wants to start their own scouting.
2020: Golden State’s first round pick (top-20 protected), Utah Jazz’s second round pick, Dallas Mavericks’ second round pick
Golden State’s second round pick traded to Dallas Mavericks in July 2016, along with Andrew Bogut for future draft considerations
2021: Golden State’s first round pick, Minnesota Timberwolves’ first round pick (top-3 protected), Minnesota’s second round pick, Denver Nuggets’ second round pick
Golden State’s second round pick traded to New Orleans Pelicans during 2019 NBA Draft for Alen Smailagic
2022: Golden State’s first-round pick, Golden State’s second-round pick, Toronto Raptors’ second-round pick
2023: Golden State’s first-round pick
Golden State’s second round pick traded to New Orleans Pelicans during 2019 NBA Draft for Alen Smailagic
2024: None
Golden State’s first round pick (top-4 protected) traded to Memphis Grizzlies in July 2019 along with Andre Iguodala for Julian Washburn; a traded player exception available to Warriors as part of the trade. Golden State’s second round pick traded to Atlanta Hawks morning of 2019 NBA Draft for 41st overall pick (Eric Paschall)
2025: Golden State’s first-round pick
Golden State’s second round pick traded to Brooklyn Nets in July 2019 along with Kevin Durant for D’Angelo Russell
2026: Golden State’s first-round pick
Golden State’s second round pick traded to Atlanta Hawks in July 2019 along with Damian Jones for Omari Spellman
Though the 2019-20 season has not been as fruitful as the Warriors and Dub Nation have been accustomed to over the last five years, there is reason to remain optimistic about the future as the team has opportunities to find the right pieces in an effort to continue to play into June.