D'Angelo Russell Signals New Era of Risk and Uncertainty for Warriors

D'Angelo Russell will start alongside Stephen Curry when the Golden State Warriors open Chase Center in San Francisco this October.

Which...what?

Maybe the Warriors' acquisition of Russell, reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, shouldn't have been the biggest shock of free agency's chaotic first day. We'd heard rumblings of Golden State considering a sign-and-trade involving Kevin Durant for nearly a week. Maybe this was the obvious outcome.

At the same time, it never felt obvious. Even now, it's difficult to digest the complicated mix of costs and benefits to Golden State. Russell comes with question marks about his defense and fit alongside Curry (both are best with the ball), and his new four-year, $117 million deal feels like a substantial overpay.

But Russell is also a 23-year-old All-Star who improved last season and fills a glaring playmaking void on Golden State's roster. Late in their most recent playoff run, the Warriors fielded far too many lineups where Curry was the only pass-dribble-shoot threat on the floor. Russell gives the Warriors a second one.

More than that, Golden State simply had no other avenue toward talent acquisition. Capped out even with Durant gone (partly due to a new five-year, $190 million deal for Klay Thompson), the Warriors had to choose between losing KD for nothing and getting something of value in return.

The Warriors chose "something of value," though the additional cost was significant. Andre Iguodala, dealt to the Memphis Grizzlies in a cost-cutting move after the Russell deal triggered the hard cap, was only the beginning.

You could frame the Warriors' decision to take Russell (and lose so much in the bargain) as an admission that 2019-20 is a lost season. But that doesn't quite explain the willingness to surrender two future first-rounders in this shake-up. Those outlays suggest Golden State's ambitions extend well past Curry's prime. You don't surrender a lightly protected first-rounder in 2024 (which could become unprotected if not conveyed by 2026) if you think you're going to be picking toward the top of the draft by then; you do it if you're confident you'll have a refreshed, championship-caliber core when Curry is well past his prime.

It's hard to imagine the Warriors think that highly of Russell as a player. He's a valuable piece, to be sure, but there's little in his resume that suggests he's a cornerstone capable of replacing Curry down the line. Golden State may see something special in the 23-year-old's future, but the simpler justification is that Russell has trade value—even at his new max salary.

The Warriors can trade him after Dec. 15 or Jan. 15, depending on specifics of the sign-and-trade and other salary-cap factors, according to Bleacher Report cap expert Eric Pincus. The team could give him a full season's audition as well. Flipping him at some point may actually be Plan A, according to some plugged-in speculation.

In an important sense, the Warriors made a decision about replaceability. They determined most of their role-playing free agents (and veterans nearing the ends of their deals, in Iguodala's case) were fungible. Russell is different. He's an on-ball All-Star with the potential to get even better. Those are harder to find.

If that's too logical an explanation, you could also consider emotion. The Warriors, grieving and beset by loss for several weeks, might have just wanted to gain something.

Durant went down with that torn Achilles in Game 5 of the Finals, followed by Klay Thompson's snapped ACL in Game 6. Add a defeat in that same game to the Warriors' pile of recent L's. Durant's exit felt certain before it was official, DeMarcus Cousins announced his plans to bounce rather unsubtly, Shaun Livingston had been talking about retirement for months and Iguodala conducted himself like a player who knew he was gone, too (which, maybe he did know).

That's an enormous amount of subtraction. Russell—risky, potentially ill-fitting and possibly overpaid as he is—is at least an addition.

It's possible Russell will be better than ever with the Warriors. That he'll fit more cleanly than expected and become a key piece of the next great Golden State team.

It's also possible the Dubs panicked, overthought this whole sign-and-trade thing and put themselves in a worse position than they would have been in had Durant left for nothing. Perhaps we're lending those five straight Finals trips too much weight, giving the Warriors a benefit of the doubt they don't deserve.

However this shakes out, the most jarring aspect of the Warriors' moves is the way it emphasizes their new, non-exceptional reality.

Golden State is no longer living a charmed existence. It has to operate like every other organization now.

Instead of locking stars and superstars into below-market deals, enjoying unlikely MVP surges and profiting off a cap spike that allowed for Durant to join up, the Dubs are now searching for any possible transactional edge and taking on risk like everyone else has to. The Warriors, dethroned, are in the muck with the common folk now, and things are messier down there.

There's more risk and more uncertainty. Free agency is no longer a high-class buffet in which the Warriors grab a couple of ring-chasing vets on the cheap to fill in around a half-dozen title-tested members of their core. Now, roster building takes place not from a position of pure luxury, but semi-desperate necessity.

And look: Golden State was going to lose Durant and get maybe a couple of months from Thompson in 2019-20. A downgrade was always coming. At least the Warriors took an active approach, controlling what they could ahead of a trying year.

More than anything, the Russell sign-and-trade shows the Warriors are prepared to play on a level field after spending years with the pitch tilted their way. Other franchises coming out of dynastic runs have made the mistake of believing themselves exceptional, of expecting success to return on its own.

Golden State seems to understand franchise (re)building will take work. And gambles. And luck.

The post-dynasty Warriors may fall victim to bad fortune, ill-advised moves and age. The rest of the league could simply pass them by.

But the last couple of days suggest the Dubs aren't going to let complacency be their undoing. They're going to fight—boldly, creatively, unsentimentally—to keep this thing going.