FanPost

How the Warriors can sign Dwight Howard without a S&T

Hey warriors fans. With recent reports coming out that Dwight Howard would be interested in playing for the Warriors, I've been thinking about if it would even be possible for the dubs to acquire him, or if the cost would just be too high. I'm first and foremost a jazz fan, and while I'm still bitter you guys tanked so hard to keep your pick last year, I did live in the bay area when I was younger and have always considered the warriors my second team and hope they're successful. So anywho, I think I've figured out a realistic way for the Warriors to acquire Howard without losing Barnes/Thompson in a S&T with LA, and to make a few other moves to make the warriors the most likely team to come out of the West next year.

If Landry/Rush exercise their options (it's a given Jefferson/Biedrins will) The dubs will be sitting at 74 million next year before they even sign any more free agents (jack, low level contracts), so they'll have a lot they have to do before they could sign dwight howard, but I think it's possible.

First off, they need to get rid of Biedrins and Jefferson which won't be necessarily easy. In order to take no salary back, they'll have to find teams willing to take them that are quite a bit under the cap. And since they both suck, they'll likely have to sweeten the deal with a future first round pick. My thinking is trade Jefferson+1st(2014) to Jazz , and trade Biedrins+1st (2015) to Cavs (or some other team under the cap). This will drain them of draft picks for the next few years, but they're in win now mode and I think it'll be worth it if they get Dwight.

This will put that at about 54 million, so they'll still have to create another 12 million or so in cap space for Dwight. They can do this by trading Andrew Bogut. Now a lot of teams under the cap I imagine would just take him for nothing, but I bet they'd want something back in return. The Atlanta hawks may be interested in trading for Bogut and allowing them to move Horford back to PF position. They could trade Lou Williams (two more years at 5 million per) for Bogut since Atlanta will be far under the cap and salaries won't have to match. This trade would create an extra 9 million in cap space for the dubs, putting them at 45 million.

Now this will leave Warriors 15 million in cap space to sign Dwight Howard. Howard will have to take a small pay cut, but he would be able to sign the designated 5 year contract b/c Curry's is only 4 years. This would then leave the warriors about 10 million to fill out the roster using exceptions and minimum contracts before they hit the luxury tax. (I will note that if Landry/Rush don't exercise their options, they will have enough to sign Howard to max contract).

In the end, the Warriors lineup would look something like this.
Pg: Curry/Jack?/Bazemore
Sg: Thompson/Lou Williams
Sf: Barnes/Rush/Green
Pf: Lee/Landry
C: Howard/Ezeli

I don't know what you guys think, but this team is beastly. It has 3 players w/ all star talent (two of them being All NBA players), two up and coming wings who will only continue to get better, and a stacked bench. I think that they're bench would probably even be the best bench in the NBA. This team here would be IMO favorite to come out of the west. Just ridiculous The other good news is Lee's contract will expire before they have to extend Thompson, so they won't have to go into the tax in future years either if they don't want to.

So what do you guys think? Am I missing something that makes this impossible? Like a CBA rule or something that doesn't allow some of these moves? Or are some of these moves unrealistic? As a Jazz fan, I think it'd be worth it to take a year of Jefferson's contract if we got a draft pick in return, so it seems possible to me.

This FanPost is a submission from a member of the mighty Golden State of Mind community. While we're all here to throw up that W, these words do not necessarily reflect the views of the GSoM Crew. Still, chances are the preceding post is Unstoppable Baby!