The Golden State Warriors registered an NBA-high 67 regular season wins, won 16 more playoff games for an NBA Championship. In the process, they helped revolutionize the way the modern game is played with their small-ball approach. The lineup transition left Andrew Bogut and David Lee on the bench where they didn’t get much playing time in the postseason and while both players still have the potential to contribute, they are also the two highest-paid players on the roster at a combined salary of just over $27 M for next season. Bogut is still under contract for two more years at $23 M combined and will be tough to move but Lee still has a high upside and with just one year left on his deal at $15.5 M, he could be a significant pickup for a team looking to make a move. Here is a look at three teams Golden State is most likely to trade David Lee to this offseason.
New Orleans Pelicans
The obvious link here is former Warriors assistant coach and new Pelicans head coach Alvin Gentry, who spent the past year with Lee at Golden State. Lee is a prototypical Gentry-style big man and with Anthony Davis and Ryan Anderson waiting in New Orleans, the potential is there for one of the stronger and more versatile big man tandems. Lee enjoyed his best statistical season as a pick-and-roll player under Mike D’Antoni in New York and he could slot in nicely at the four spot as an upgrade for the Pelicans at both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor. Remember, this is a player who twice in his career has averaged over 20 points per game and he averages 9.5 rebounds per contest for his career. The challenge is just getting minutes as he only played 18.4 per outing last season compared to 31.5 for his career.
The other big attraction for the Pelicans here is that the cost wouldn’t be too high either. And with just one year left on Lee’s contract, it won’t hurt New Orleans’ long-term cap situation.
Boston Celtics
The Celtics are absolutely loaded with draft picks and salary cap space heading in to this offseason and after making the playoffs as a sleeper pick under head coach Brad Stevens this past year, there is no doubt they are in a position to take some chances the way they did when they acquired Isaiah Thomas as last year’s NBA trade deadline. Boston has several young guards on its roster including Thomas, Avery Bradley, Evan Turner and Marcus Smart and while Tyler Zeller and Kelly Olynyk are solid young players up front, they still haven’t reached their potential just yet. The addition of a veteran player like Lee could help both Zeller and Olynyk’s progressions while also taking some pressure off of them to perform and that should make acquiring Lee a risk worth taking for general manager Danny Ainge and the Celtics.
Toronto Raptors
Toronto looked like a sleeper team in the Eastern Conference for most of the regular season but they struggled down the stretch and then they were swept by the Washington Wizards in the opening round of the playoffs. General manager Masai Ujiri has been reportedly exploring every possible avenue when it comes to the future of his roster and while Kyle Lowry, DeMar DeRozan and Terrence Ross could all be in play in terms of transactions, the bottom line is that at this point the guards are the strength of this team. The same cannot be said for the Raptors big men such as Jonas Valanciunas haven’t progressed the way many experts had projected and there isn’t much there behind him with the exception of free agent Amir Johnson. Lee would represent a major upgrade at both ends of the floor in Toronto and he could be the big man the Raptors trade for in order to short up their front line. The other factor here is that he expires at the end of the year, so if he doesn’t work out, he doesn’t hurt this team’s budget long term.
