Even though the Warriors made their intentions clear before last Thursday’s trade deadline, many fans were miffed that they didn’t make an acquisition for a big man. Now attention has turned to the buyout market and Golden State is still yet to change the roster from the 15 players who were on the squad opening night.
Warriors president of basketball operations/general manager Bob Myers joined 95.7 The Game’s “The Morning Roast” Tuesday to share some exciting news about James Wiseman, discuss the buyout market and more. You can listen to the full interview below:
Listening to Myers, it doesn't sound like the franchise feels the buyout market is the best way to improve the team’s championship odds, but he's leaving the door open. Players must be waived by 2 p.m. PT on March 1 in order to be playoff-eligible for another team.
“We’re gonna look at it,” Myers told hosts Bonta Hill and Joe Shasky. “I don’t know how you rate the buyout market, but I think it’s OK. I think we’ve seen stronger ones. The buyout market’s interesting. We’ve done it before and we may do it again. It’s usually probably perceived to be a greater benefit than it actually is. Doesn’t mean we won’t.
“Even in the years we have or when you look at the history of the league, it’s somewhat rare that a player comes in and really moves the needle, either way. It doesn’t mean it hasn’t worked for us in the past. I love the fans’ energy, I love the enthusiasm. We talk about it more than they can imagine. This is our job to do it. It’s not as easy as some people think, as far as, ‘This guy’s going to solve all our issues.’”
Some of the top big-man buyout possibilities available or who could be available in the coming weeks include Robin Lopez, Tristan Thompson, Paul Millsap, DeAndre Jordan and Enes Freedom. The Athletic’s Anthony Slater also recently discussed the possibility of Marc Gasol leaving Spain’s second-tier league to join the Warriors.
It’s 2022. Those probably aren’t any names that make owner Joe Lacob want to dip any further into the luxury tax and pay a 300-400 percent premium. Golden State also likes its current group, though you would think Juan Toscano-Anderson, Nemanja Bjelica or Damion Lee would be on the chopping block to bring someone else in.
“At this state, as far as clamoring for a big guy," Myers said, "there isn’t an obvious, 'Go get that guy,' and he fits with what we do and can run our offense."
The Warriors signed center Andrew Bogut in March 2019, added wing Matt Barnes in March 2017 and agreed to terms with center Anderson Varejao in February 2016. During the franchise’s recent run of success, late-season veteran additions haven’t been a huge factor.
Whether it be weak box-out efforts, losing track of cutting opposing players or failing to stay in front of their man, the Warriors have been beat in different ways while dropping three of their last four. The All-Star break is approaching and Draymond Green’s expected return at the end of the month should boost the team’s defense immensely, but Myers doesn’t want to wait ‘til then to figure it out.
Listen to Bay Area sports talk now on Audacy and shop the latest Warriors team gear
“He’s a defensive player of the year candidate and yeah he is that important,” Myers said. “In the meantime, you can’t just say, ‘Well, we’re just going to get blown by or not rebound or not put up some resistance until he’s back. That’s not a healthy response to an injury either.”
It sounds like Myers is content with waiting for Green and Wiseman to return to join Kevon Looney, Nemanja Bjelica and Jonathan Kuminga.
“That’s five centers,” Myers said. “We think, or we hope, that that should suffice, for the most part, going into the rest of the season.”
Playoff seeding will be settled in March and heading into the Warriors’ regular-season finale on April 10. Internally, the Warriors are more concerned about getting a healthy group on the floor.
“It matters, but it’s not everything. I think what’s more important, in the nuance of it all, is how many games can we get where we have our full roster before the playoffs. If that ends up as a 2-seed or 3 or 4 or 1, then that’s what it ends up. As a GM, my group, we try to put a roster together and we’ve seen our roster for zero minutes, zero seconds.
“To think that Draymond was warming up to play with Klay and then not able to. It’s kinda – I don’t think anybody would believe you if they saw what happened – but it happened. So we’ve got no time. They know how to play together, we understand that. But they haven’t in two-and-a-half years and we haven’t seen Wiseman. What I think is more important than the seeding, which is important, is getting a stretch of games with whatever starting lineup works.”
