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Will the Warriors use their open roster spots?

Golden State has two open roster spots, even though they don’t have games left to play. Will they use them?

LA Clippers v Golden State Warriors Photo by Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images

The 2019-20 NBA season is not over, not even for the Golden State Warriors. Even though the Warriors game on March 10 — a 131-107 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers — will go down as their final game in a coronavirus-altered season, their year isn’t technically over.

Just the playing games part is.

With the NBA set to resume the season on July 31 with 22 teams, the league is reopening the transaction window, so that organizations can add or subtract players, or convert two-way contracts. The transaction window will open on June 22, and it will apply to all 30 teams, not just those who are headed to Orlando next month.

So it brings up an interesting question: Will the Warriors make any roster moves?

Dragan Bender and Chasson Randle will have their 10-day contracts expire, which means the Warriors currently have only 13 players under contract. They have two available spots to work with, should they choose to make a move.

Why would they make a move with no games left to play? Simple: To add players they may want to use next year before free agency.

Last year the Miami Heat added Duncan Robinson and Kendrick Nunn to their roster at the very end of the season, despite being out of the playoffs. Each player was signed to a multi-year deal with limited guaranteed money. Nunn didn’t even play in a single game.

By doing so, the Heat retained the services to each player going into the 2019-20 season, and both players had huge roles on this year’s Miami team.

The Warriors can do the same. They can re-sign a player like Bender to a multi-year deal with no guaranteed money, or limited guaranteed money. They could sign a successful G League player, either from the Santa Cruz Warriors or from another team.

There are options. It’s not the flashiest move, especially with no games left on the table. But as Miami showed, it can make a difference.

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