The Golden State Warriors had circled the opportunity to sign free agent D'Angelo Russell as an option months earlier when mapping out all the possible scenarios for the offseason, according to Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Kyrie Irving would sign with the Brooklyn Nets as early as the evening of June 29, which brought on Russell's signing as a definite possibility.

Not only did Russell become available, but he also wanted the full four-year contract the Nets were willing to give Irving, which made sense as a way to recoup something in exchange for Kevin Durant's unavoidable departure.

The Warriors knew there was a strong possibility that Durant could leave, even before he suffered a season-ending Achilles injury upon his return to the NBA Finals — and they tracked Russell as one of the young potential additions they could make.

Thompson expertly explained why the Warriors chose to execute a sign-and-trade for Russell instead of acquiring him as a potential free agent:

“Yes, the Warriors liked Russell. Technically, the CBA allowed for the Warriors to trade Durant to Brooklyn, get no player in return and instead receive a $30 million traded player exception (the TPE in sign-and-trades is for the previous season’s salary, not the new one). That scenario would have also avoided a hard cap. But that would’ve required: a) Brooklyn agreeing to the sign-and-trade without getting a draft pick; or b) the Warriors giving up a first-round pick in exchange for a traded player exception. This was an easy call for the Warriors, who like Russell as a player. But making it a no-brainer was the difficulty of using traded player exceptions. Since they can’t be combined with players or draft picks, they’re difficult to use to acquire quality players, certainly unlikely to get an All-Star in his early 20s. With a traded player exception, the high likelihood is the Warriors would’ve only been able to get a player who an opposing team was willing to dump, without even a pick in return, perhaps just for salary-cap relief. The Warriors have had a few exceptions over $10 million in the Myers’ era — for Andris Biedrins and Richard Jefferson in 2013, for Bogut in 2016 — and all of them expired.”

Russell might not be a pencil-and-paper fit with the Warriors as it sits, but if there's one thing the organization has been known for is making the most of their assets. Their newly-minted All-Star could thrive if he finds the right role and can adjust to a system that's been re-polished after every offseason.