Golden State finalizes Minnesota trade, announces details

The Golden State Warriors have finalized and announced their trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Golden State will send Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham, as well as cash considerations, to Minnesota. Napier and Graham were acquired as part of the Warriors sign-and-trade with the Brooklyn Nets, which netted them D’Angelo Russell.

Prior to the announcement, there was curiosity as to what the Warriors would receive. Per the rules of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, the Warriors have to receive something in the trade.

Not surprisingly, they received nothing disguised as something. Minnesota is sending the draft rights to Lior Eliyahu to the Warriors. Eliyahu is a 33-year old who was drafted in the second round of the 2006 NBA Draft.

The Warriors, like all NBA teams, surely have no interest in Eliyahu - this is purely to facilitate the transaction.

Napier and Graham entered the offseason on non-guaranteed contracts, which originally made the transaction confusing, as the Warriors could have just waived the two players to create the cap and roster space that the team needed.

But Brooklyn partially guaranteed the contracts of the two players to help facilitate the trade to Golden State, so the Warriors needed to shed the contracts via trade.

All things considered, this is about as boring of a trade is a team will ever make. They sent two players who never played for the team, in exchange for a player who will never appear in an NBA game.

But ultimately, these transactions are what allow the team to make the notable trades and signings.