Warriors Targets to Pursue with Klay Thompson's $9.3M DPE

The Golden State Warriors have the opportunity to be major spenders at the NBA trade deadline.

But they aren't pulling a star without putting their top two assets—rookie James Wiseman and a top-three protected pick owed by the cellar-dwelling Minnesota Timberwolves—on the table.

That's probably too steep of a price to pay for a club at least one tier removed from full-fledged championship contention.

Saying that, the Warriors seem unlikely to sit out swap season. Their roster needs more depth, and they have a valuable tool in the form of their $9.3 million disabled player exception, which they were granted as a result of Klay Thompson's season-ending Achilles tear.

What might that fetch on the open market? Well, the following three players stand out as worthwhile targets.

Nemanja Bjelica, Sacramento Kings

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

The Sacramento Kings have tied their future—along with a huge chunk of their present—to the 23-and-under trio of De'Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III and Tyrese Haliburton. That doesn't leave much room for 32-year-old veteran Nemanja Bjelica to fit into the plans.

The stretch big hasn't suited up since Jan. 9 with what the team has labeled a "personal" issue. However, Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee reported the absence is part of the team's plan to rebuild around Fox. Anderson added the club "explored" trades for Bjelica ahead of the draft and are expected to re-visit those talks before the deadline.

It's a situation to monitor for the Warriors, who don't really have a floor-spacing frontcourt player in their rotation and need more shooting in general around Stephen Curry.

Bjelica is a 39.0 percent three-point shooter for his career and cleared the 40 percent mark in each of the past three seasons.

Alec Burks, New York Knicks

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

The Warriors could use more offensive firepower off the bench. Not counting Wiseman, sophomore forward Eric Paschall is the only reserve averaging more than seven points per contest.

The second-team perimeter group in particular lacks scoring punch. Shooting specialist Damion Lee paces the group at just 6.4 points a night.

Perhaps the Warriors could find their spark from a familiar face. Alec Burks, who spent the first half of the 2019-20 season with Golden State, looks like a logical trade candidate. He's a 29-year-old on a one-year contract with the rebuilding New York Knicks.

Deadline shoppers in need of a scoring jolt will surely take a long look at the 10-year veteran scoring guard. He has averaged better than 13 points in half of his NBA seasons and is on course to set a new career-high for the second consecutive campaign with 15.6 points per night.

P.J. Tucker, Houston Rockets

Eric Gay/Associated Press

While it isn't entirely clear what direction the Houston Rockets plan to take on this side of the James Harden megatrade, but a future-focused roster reshuffling still seems the most sensible step.

If more trades are in the works, P.J. Tucker feels like the next player to exit Space City. He's on the final year of his contract and The Athletic's Kelly Iko, Sam Amick and Shams Charania reported he was "irate" about the lack of an extension in November last year.

Tucker would be a plug-and-play contributor as a versatile defender and spot-up sniper. There aren't many defensive switches he'll struggle to handle, and he's shooting a fire-balling 43.9 percent outside through the early going.

Defensively, the Warriors could have a lot of interchangeable parts if Tucker shared the floor with Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Oubre Jr.

All stats current through games played on Jan. 26 and used courtesy of NBA.com and Basketball Reference unless otherwise noted.