Golden State Warriors: Complete grades for the 2019 NBA offseason

Double sign-and-trade for D’Angelo Russell

The Golden State Warriors learned early on in free agency that two-time Finals MVP Kevin Durant was gone, as Durant announced on Instagram he had chosen to move to the Brooklyn Nets even before the contact period began at 3 p.m. Pacific on June 30.

What followed was moves by the Warriors to at least get something in return for Durant.

In a complicated two-way, sign-and-trade deal, Golden State re-signed Durant to a four-year max deal and sent him and a top-20 protected first-round pick in 2020 to the Nets to get back D’Angelo Russell, who signed a four-year max deal on his way out the door in Brooklyn.

That move was set up by trading another former Finals MVP, sixth man Andre Iguodala, along with a lightly-protected (top-four in 2024, top-pick in 2025) to the Memphis Grizzlies for a Traded Player Exception that helped them forge the space to add Russell along with the contracts of Shabazz Napier and Treveon Graham from the Nets.

Napier and Graham were then flipped with cash considerations to the Minnesota Timberwolves for the rights to Israeli forward Lior Eliyahu, a 2006 second-round pick who has never come to the NBA and, at age 34 in September, is likely to never do so.

The positives for the Warriors are that they picked up an All-Star guard who is just 23 years old and is a former No. 2 overall pick (the same position from which Durant was taken eight years earlier).

The concern with Russell is system fit. His 31.9 usage rate for the Nets last season was higher than the team-high 30.4 percent rate of former two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.

Russell did not do a lot of spot-up shooting — just 2.7 possessions per game last season — but averaged a solid 1.13 points per possession on 42 percent shooting in those opportunities.

There was a lot of early speculation that Warriors planned on moving Russell quickly — as soon as possible after the Dec. 15 moratorium for trading just-signed free agents — but those notions were dispelled by general manager Bob Myers.

Russell can shoot — he canned 36.9 percent on 7.8 3-point attempts per game last season — but the question will be whether he can operate without the ball in a lineup that already includes Curry and playmaking forward Draymond Green.

His body of work says that may not be as likely as Golden State is hoping.

Grade: D