New York Knicks: Analyzing a LaMelo Ball-centric trade with the Warriors

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 30: LaMelo Ball of the Hawks and RJ Hampton of the Breakers during the round 9 NBL match between the New Zealand Breakers and the Illawarra Hawks at Spark Arena on November 30, 2019 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Anthony Au-Yeung/Getty Images) /

2 of 3

New York Knicks, LaMelo Ball (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /

Does this LaMelo Ball trade work for the Golden State Warriors?

There are a number of issues with this deal from the Warriors’ perspective. First off, they’re adding $15 million in immediate salary between Smith and Gibson, and the Warriors are already deep into the luxury tax. Trading back in the draft might not be worth it for them, although they do save about $3.2 million between the second and eighth rookie scale slots.

It’s still a $12 million addition to a tax-strapped cap sheet, and adding a likely non-lottery 2021 first-round pick isn’t an outstanding benefit, even though next year’s draft is expected to be significantly better than this year. In addition, the Warriors already have two picks in the 2021 NBA draft in the form of their own and the Minnesota Timberwolves top-three protected pick.

The biggest complication for any deal involving the Warriors No. 2 pick is that money coming back makes this already expensive team just that much more prohibitively costly. That added salary for two negative value contracts is just simply a non-starter. Even though Gibson, in particular, could actually be a reliable big off the bench for a team in need of depth, this deal might be more favorable if they could add more draft capital instead of one of the players involved in the trade.

As things stand, this deal doesn’t work for the Warriors.

Home/New York Knicks