The Athletic's Shams Charania first reported that the Golden State Warriors were close to acquiring D'Angelo Russell from the Brooklyn Nets in a sign-and-trade.
Sources: Golden State and Brooklyn are close to a D'Angelo Russell sign-and-trade deal to the Warriors.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2019
Adrian Wojnarowski now reports the deal is happening, and Russell is signing a max with the Warriors:
Golden State and Brooklyn have agreed on a sign-and-trade, sending D’Angelo Russell to the Warriors on a four-year, $117M maximum contract, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 1, 2019
Charania added that Treveon Graham and Shabazz Napier are headed to Golden State in the deal.
Warriors are on verge of acquiring Russell, Treveon Graham and Shabazz Napier from Brooklyn, league sources said. https://t.co/4HefUBSNQA
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) July 1, 2019
The Warriors explored options to finalize the move and make it possible salary-cap wise, and they eventually did so by trading Andre Iguodala to the Memphis Grizzlies (a deal that included a future first-rounder).
Yes, D'Lo is nowhere near the talent level of KD, but he will be able to help Golden State in a lot of ways.
With Russell heading to the Warriors, he will replace Klay Thomspon as the team's starting shooting guard next season. He will be Stephen Curry's partner at least until Klay is fully recovered from his ACL injury.
Once Thompson is 100 percent ready, he will become the starting small forward of the Warriors, and with Russell and Curry on the backcourt, those three will be extremely difficult to guard from beyond the arc.
Russell can also become the team's point guard in order to give Curry some rest. He averaged 21.1 points and 7.0 assists as the Nets' top playmaker last season. So he will definitely be able to provide them with a reliable scorer and a great facilitator or behind or alongside Steph.
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