The Warriors opted out of the NBA Draft this week.
Seeing as they didn’t have a first-round pick and were only slated to pick at No. 52 — a pick they traded away Thursday — it’s a move that can’t be considered a surprise.
And now the question is if general manager Dubs Mike Dunleavy Jr. can do anything to surprise us before the weekend.
The Dubs are up against two significant deadlines. The first is Chris Paul’s contract guarantee date, which is Friday. The second is the new league year, which kicks off July 1 and brings new rules pertaining to spending and trading.
If the Warriors want to do something big and bold this offseason, they better do it fast. Forget weeks — realistically, this team has hours, not days.
And no matter what that big, bold thing is, it’s going to require Dunleavy to show some serious creativity.
Does he have it? We don’t know yet.
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I know that his predecessor didn’t have it.
Don’t get me wrong: Bob Myers was an exceptional general manager who turned the Warriors into champions and later a dynasty, but the fair knock on him was that until his final season in charge, he did not make a three-way trade. (When he finally did in the James Wiseman trade in Feb 2023, it was as part of a four-way trade that, frankly, seemed like two separate deals.)
So, no, transactional creativity is not a prerequisite to being a good GM. But when you’re in charge of a team at a crossroads like the Warriors, having a bit of flair can go a long way.
Dunleavy has made a big move before, of course, trading Jordan Poole for Chris Paul. But everyone on the planet knew those two were on the trade block and that was a trade with salary and politics, not basketball front of mind.
His other moves have been small and generally not noteworthy.
Does trading Cory Joseph at the trade deadline for what eventually became the rights to Lindy Waters III move the needle for you?
To this point, Dunleavy is lacking a signature moment — a take-note, this-guy-has-something move.
And given the current standing of the Warriors’ roster, Klay Thompson’s pending free agency, and the constraints of the new luxury tax aprons, to author such a move will take ingenuity.
Of course, there’s a straightforward, uninspiring route Dunleavy can (and probably will) take:
• Waive Paul on Friday
• Sign Thompson to a new contract
• Fill out the roster with a player or two on exception contracts, while setting up to shed some more salary in the not-too-distant future
• Sign Jonathan Kuminga to a new contract (at an estimated $30 million a season) before the start of the season
That path is straightforward, and it might even work well — that sounds like a 50-win team to me this upcoming season. (After that, though…)
But that’s hardly “big-game hunting.”
And there’s a reason the Warriors are signaling to the league that’s what they want to do — it’s what they need to do if this team is going to be relevant in 2026, 2027, and 2028.
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But if the Warriors are, indeed, serious about bringing Paul George north to the Bay — as multiple media reports suggest and the Warriors have not disputed — that’s something that will need to happen before the new league year, July 1.
After that date, teams above the second apron of the luxury tax have onerous restrictions on trades. They’re unable to aggregate contracts and the money going in and out has to be exact.
Or, to phrase it another way: they’re not making trades.
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits a target no one else can see.” That’s my favorite definition of the latter term, posited by Arthur Schopenhauer.
Landing George — or another All-NBA player — would take some genius. It’s exceptionally difficult for me to see how it gets done, but then again, I write for a newspaper.
Oh, and that time element: Be a genius, but do it before the end of biz on Friday. No pressure, Mike.
I never saw Dunleavy as a clutch player, but perhaps he’s a clutch GM.
I suppose there’s only one way to find out.