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Bob Myers on D’Angelo Russell: ‘We didn’t sign him with the intention of just trading him’

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Bob Myers does not have plans to trade D’Angelo Russell; at least, not immediately. Myers addressed media on Monday following a flurry of moves which effectively sealed the Warriors’ roster at 14 players, with a hard cap, put into place by the sign-and-trade acquisition of D’Angelo Russell, preventing the team from signing a 15th player at the moment.

As for Russell, who the New York Times’ Marc Stein said the Warriors “will trade… it’s just a matter of when,” that trade talk might be on pause, according to Myers, the Warriors’ president of basketball operations.

“I know it’s been written and speculated and that’s fine,” Myers said. “We didn’t sign him with the intention of just trading him. We haven’t even seen him play in our uniform yet and a lot of people have us already trading him. That’s now how we’re viewing it. Let’s just see what we have, let’s see what he is, let’s see how he fits. Part of our job is… how does it all work.”

Myers said the nature of basketball in the modern era is about wondering what the next step is. Myers said the next step is actually not taking another step; it’s evaluating what the Warriors have brought in.

“So much of our sport is, ‘What are you doing next?’ We’ve got to figure out what we’re doing now,” Myers said. “And that applies to a guy like D’Angelo in that there is speculation we’re moving him on. I haven’t even seen him play. I haven’t seen a lot of our guys play. I haven’t seen them play with our core players and we won’t even know until Klay [Thompson] comes back how that fits. We’re just happy that we got a young player that has a lot of upside in our opinion.”

With the hard cap in place, the Warriors don’t actually have too many moves available (unless they trade Russell again), after trading away Damian Jones and acquiring Russell. Myers said he felt like an “NFL GM” having to deal with the hard cap.

The last move in question is the Warriors’ final two-way spot. The team acquired two-way player Julian Washburn from the Memphis Grizzlies in the Andre Iguodala trade, but don’t seem enamored with him. If the team can bring Damion Lee in on a two-way deal, they likely will, although Lee, according to the San Francisco Chronicle’s Connor Letourneau, is reportedly waiting on the offer to see if he can get a guaranteed deal.