The Golden State Warriors don’t have a pick in Thursday’s NBA Draft because they have Andre Iguodala, but that doesn’t mean they can’t find a way to get on the clock at Barclays Center.
Golden State could actually buy their way into the draft, and there’s reason to believe that’s something they do in the late stages of the second round. The Mercury News‘ Anthony Slater explored just how the Warriors could get into the draft in an article where Warriors GM Bob Myers said he’s interested in doing so.
The Warriors are without picks in the draft because of the sign-and-trade that got the Warriors Iguodala in 2013. But last year, pick-less Golden State found themselves with the 38th pick and Patrick McCaw when they gave Milwaukee $2.4 million. Golden State is open to making a similar move to acquire some depth on Thursday.
Myers has a big white board in his office. All the prospects are listed. Some of them have a big red ‘B’ next to their name.
“There are guys we would buy a pick for,” Myers said. “If you snuck in there, it would be fun to see.”
The NBA has a financial limit for these kind of transactions. This year it is $3.6 million. You cannot send out or receive more than that in an NBA calendar year, which ends on June 30th. Let’s say you added or received $1.2 million in a midseason trade, then your limit is trimmed to $2.4 million.
The Warriors haven’t made any such moves this year, so they have the full $3.6 million available to them if they wanted to buy a pick on Thursday night. It’s not that this is particularly uncommon, and it’s certainly not unfair, but if the Warriors “buy” a pick it’s certainly something that will catch the eye of certain fans that think they’ve made a habit of buying assets with ease. For a team that will have to fill their roster with minimum deals and exceptions once they bring back Kevin Durant and Steph Curry, buying a draft pick might be among their best options to add depth this summer.
