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Warriors Trade News: GSW Acquires Hawks' No. 41 Draft Pick for $1.3M, 2024 2nd
June 20, 2019
In an apparent effort to fill out their roster for next season, the Golden State Warriors acquired the No. 41 overall pick in the 2019 NBA draft from the Atlanta Hawks on Thursday.
The Hawks announced the move Thursday afternoon. ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski first reported the Warriors sent $1.3 million and a 2024 second-round pick to Atlanta in exchange for No. 41.
Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Wednesday that the Hawks sent the No. 44 overall pick in the 2019 draft to the Miami Heat for $1.88 million and a future conditional second-rounder.
The Hawks now own the Nos. 8, 10 and 35 overall picks in Thursday's draft, while Golden State has Nos. 28. 41 and 58.
There are some major question marks surrounding Golden State's 2019-20 roster at this juncture of the offseason. Provided Kevin Durant declines his player option for next season, both KD and Klay Thompson are set to become free agents.
They also may both miss the entire 2019-20 season since Durant suffered a torn Achilles in Game 5 of the NBA Finals and Thompson tore his ACL in the next game.
Regardless of whether the Warriors retain both, one or neither of them, they need to find cheap ways to build around Stephen Curry and Draymond Green for next season.
In addition to Durant and Thompson, big men DeMarcus Cousins, Kevon Looney and Andrew Bogut will be free agents, so the Warriors have significant holes to fill in the frontcourt specifically.
Since second-round draft picks have no salary-cap hold, the Nos. 41 and 58 overall picks will allow the Warriors to fill two rosters spots without any type of financial restriction.
The likelihood of those picks turning into immediate impact players is not high, but it also isn't unprecedented. Rodions Kurucs of the Brooklyn Nets, Mitchell Robinson of the New York Knicks and Jalen Brunson of the Dallas Mavericks are among the second-round picks from last year who were key rotation pieces for their teams as rookies.
Much of the pressure to perform in Golden State next season will fall on Curry, Green, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston, but hitting on at least one of their draft picks would go a long way toward helping the Warriors remain in contention in the Western Conference next season.