Warriors president/general manager Bob Myers said the team doesn’t “feel urgency” to execute a trade as next Thursday’s noon PT deadline approaches.
Myers spoke to reporters before Thursday’s contest against the Sacramento Kings and said the team is focused on the returns of Draymond Green (calf/back) and James Wiseman (knee). The Warriors are very thin in the frontcourt and Kevon Looney is currently the only center on the team, but the Warriors don’t feel pressured to acquire a big man.
“As it sits here tonight, we’re being told both of those guys – Draymond and James – will be available and back to help us with some games to go,” Myers said. “I don’t know if it’ll be 20 or 25 or 15 whatever it’ll be – but we think those two can help us more than anything else we’re looking at on the market.”
While Green told reporters Thursday that he hopes to return in 3-4 weeks, there is still an undefined timetable to Wiseman’s return. The second-year center required arthroscopic surgery in December after undergoing surgery in April to repair his torn meniscus. Myers said Wiseman has yet to be cleared for contact.
“I think the thing that’s tricky is, he’s kind of walked up to the doorstep of contact, and each time the knee has reacted a little bit and told his body and our staff, ‘You’re not quite ready yet,’” Myers said. “With a meniscal tear, you are at the mercy of how your body is going to react to it.”
Time is ticking on Wiseman to make his sophomore season debut, but Myers said they haven’t thought about sitting him for the entire season.
“If it was a risk to play him, we wouldn’t play him,” Myers said. “But if the alternative to that is, two weeks from now they clear him, we’re not just going to sit him if he’s cleared and ready to play and can get those last two months of the season and find time.”
In general, Myers doesn’t sound too concerned despite a frontcourt that’s being held by Looney, who has started all 53 of the Warriors’ games this season. Myers said Looney has set a personal goal of playing in all 82 games this year after fighting through stomach, nerve and hip issues throughout his first few seasons in the NBA.
“I’d be worried if we only had one [center] a month from now,” Myers said.
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Myers said he and his staff have probably talked with all the 29 other teams at this point, but he doesn’t anticipate making any moves this week. Though he did acknowledge that the Warriors could be players in the upcoming veteran buyout market if the right fit is available.
“We like the 15 [players] we have,” Myers said. “It’s not just adding a player. Who are we giving up and what’s the net gain there? Again, assuming health. If there’s an injury or we get different information that would change how we approach the buyout, if there’s something so good we couldn’t pass it up. We’re lucky that we think all 15 guys have value in different ways.”
If the Warriors indeed need to sign a player through a buyout, Myers said he thinks owner Joe Lacob would write the check, despite an NBA-high payroll of $184 million that is far above the luxury tax threshold of $136.6 million.
“I’ve had enough conversations with him over 10 years,” Myers said. “It’s always, ‘Do you think it helps us win?’ When he does or I do and that’s the recommendation, we usually do it. I haven’t been told too many times, ‘I don’t wanna spend that money.’”
