Explaining the Warriors new Traded Player Exception and players to target, by Perks

Klay Thompson left Dub Nation a little parting gift

The index for all DNHQ Free Agency Coverage is here.

The Bay Area got their July off to a cold start with the news of a beloved franchise legend departing the Warriors and unceremoniously closing the final chapter on the Big 3 of a storied dynasty with a timeless legacy. Perhaps it’s too soon to get into eulogies before reality truly sets in and at any rate I will leave the odes to Klay Thompson to more talented writers who could put it more beautifully than I ever could (paging The Athletic’s Marcus Thompson), but the events of yesterday had some serious complications that we will certainly have to dig into.

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Recapping D-Day

Here is a quick rundown of where the Warriors currently stand after yesterday:

• Warriors reportedly agree to terms with De’Anthony Melton on a 1-year deal through the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception worth $12,821,626.

• This officially moves their hard cap from the 2nd Apron level to the 1st Apron level at $178,132,637 (a number they cannot surpass in team salary for the rest of the 24/25 season).

• Warriors reportedly agree to a 3-team trade in principle with the Dallas Mavericks and Charlotte Hornets; Warriors sign-and-trade Klay Thompson to Dallas, Dallas sends Josh Green to Charlotte, Charlotte sends an unprotected 2025 2nd round pick (least favorable of Denver/Philadelphia) to the Warriors, and Dallas sends an unprotected 2031 2nd round pick to the Warriors while generating them a $15,873,016 Traded Player Exception (estimated figure).

The trade will not officially be finalized until July 6th when the NBA’s free agent moratorium lifts at 9:01 AM PT, which additionally will also be the day when the Warriors can both officially sign De’Anthony Melton and acquire the draft rights to Quinten Post from the Portland Trail Blazers for cash considerations.

The TPE figure is not official yet and is an estimate based on the reporting around Klay Thompson’s expected 3yr/$50M. In any case, Thompson’s first-year salary cannot surpass the point of $16,193,183 which is the value of the TPE the Mavericks generated when they traded Tim Hardaway Jr. into the Detroit Pistons cap space. According to NBA reporter Marc Stein, Thompson’s official salary for 24/25 will be ”just shy of $16M”.

Trade Player Exception Explanation

The Traded Player Exception (or TPE for short as I will be referring to it here for brevity) is a a trade credit or tool that allows teams to acquire player(s) through trade. However, some certain restrictions exist to that.

First of all, the most important one (that I will be repeating all summer numerous times) the TPE cannot be combined with any additional exceptions or with other player salaries. It is a standalone tool that can be used to acquire any player or combination of players in one or multiple trades whose combined salaries fit within that amount.

For example, the last time the Warriors had a sizeable TPE was when they salary-dumped Andre Iguodala to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019, generating a $17.2M TPE. They would go on to use this TPE the next summer to acquire Kelly Oubre making $14.4M from the Oklahoma City Thunder.

So the Warriors can use their $15.9M TPE to acquire a player making $15M.

Or acquire a player making $10M and then another player making $5M.

What they CANNOT do is combine it with Gary Payton’s $9.1M salary to bring back a player making $20M.

Or CANNOT combine it with their available $4.7M Bi-Annual Exception (aka the BAE, a tool that can be used to sign free agents or acquire players through trade) to again get a player making $20M.

And before you ask, yes the BAE works the same way in NOT being able to be combined with anything else for trades or for free agents.

Now the one minor caveat with the incoming salary the TPE can bring back, is that the NBA allows for a slight cushion of $250,000. This means the Warriors could use the $15,873,016 TPE to bring back a player making up to $16,123,016, but not a single penny more.

Now as we will look at some available trade candidates in a bit, this likely won’t really come into play for the Warriors. Unless they really want Dāvis Bertāns ($16M) for some reason. Hardaway Jr. mentioned above, the originator of this TPE, actually makes $70k more than the amount the Warriors could bring back (unless Klay’s final salary ends up being $70k more than currently reported).

As the name suggests, the TPE is used only to acquire players through trade, not through free agency. However, there are two departures from the rule.

The first one is a team is allowed to use the TPE to acquire a free agent through a sign-and-trade. This is exactly how the Dallas Mavericks acquired Klay Thompson from the Warriors. The Warriors sign-and-traded him into the Mavericks available $16.2M TPE generated from the Hardaway Jr. trade to Detroit earlier this summer.

The second deviation is through the waiver system. When an NBA team cuts (or waives) a player from their roster, that player is placed on waivers where NBA teams (in a specific order based on record) are allowed to submit a waiver claim to acquire that player on the contract they were waived from. If no team submits such a claim over a 48 hour period, that player’s contract is voided and they become a free agent.

Where the TPE comes into play here is it allows for teams to acquire a player through waivers provided that the player’s contract obviously fits within the TPE and its $250k buffer.

Finally, the TPE is available for one calendar year from the date it was generated. So, the Warriors have until July 6th, 2025 to make use of it.

So to recap, the TPE:

• CANNOT be combined with other exceptions or player salaries

• CANNOT be used to acquire a free agent, other than through a sign-and-trade

• Can acquire player(s) through trade(s) making up to the TPE amount (+$250k)

• Can be used to claim a player off waiver whose salary fits in the TPE amount (+$250k)

• Available to use for one year

One minor topic I want to touch on before moving on is salary aggregation. Which is the practice of combining multiple player salaries to bring in a player making a bigger salary.

I’ve seen some suggestions for the Warriors to use the TPE to acquire a player and then immediately use that newly acquired player to combine their salary with existing player salaries to acquire a player making a big salary.

This is feasible, however, after acquiring a player through trade there is a 2-month restriction before they are allowed to be aggregated in such a trade. So if the Warriors did that now, they wouldn’t be able to use such a player in that way until September.

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TPE-Level Trade Targets

Dorian Finney-Smith, PF, Brooklyn Nets ($14.9M)

The Nets made a clear statement on their roster direction this summer sending away Mikal Bridges to the New York Knicks in a blockbuster trade. A move that clears the way for an asset accumulation fire sale of their usable veteran pieces.

Veteran swingman, Finney-Smith is one of those pieces surely to be on the move. The 6’7, 220lb wing is the type of versatile forward the Warriors have been searching for to supplement their rotation since the loss of Otto Porter Jr. A career 36% shooter from deep with a string of seasons hitting at a clip above 38% before being shipped off to Brooklyn in the Kyrie Irving trade two trade deadlines ago, Finney-Smith is a reliable shooter off the catch who can help with some of their spacing issues in certain lineups.

His off-ball movement, especially with relocating off drives, filling lanes in transition, and making smart cuts would be a perfect fit in the Warriors’ movement-heavy, read-and-react offense.

On defense, Finney-Smith is a close-to-elite 1-4 switching defender capable of disrupting opponents with his size and length. For a wing, he is an extremely capable shot-blocker stifling corner shooters with contests and rotating off the weakside to help at the rim. It’s easy to imagine a GP2-Wiggs-DFS-JK-Draymond lineup locking up opposing offenses in the final moments of a game.

Six months ago the Nets asking price for Finney-Smith was reported as a future first-round pick. Now that very well may still be the case, but Finney-Smith at 31 years of age, with two years left on his deal (including a player option on the final year), is not exactly the missing piece for the tanking Nets and surely they will be reasonable when looking to move him (although judging by the Bridges trade, that may be overly optimistic).

Robert Williams, C, Portland Trail Blazers ($12.4M)

While the young Trayce Jackson-Davis has emerged as an important piece of the Warriors’ big-man rotation, with only a declining Kevon Looney and rookie Quinten Post in the fold behind him, it seems wise for the Warriors to address the lack of quality depth in the center department with their most useful roster building tool.

Williams is someone the Warriors are well acquainted having faced him in the NBA Finals as they knocked off the Celtics for their magical fourth title in 2022. Since that point, Williams has only managed to appear in 61 games over the past two seasons suffering from multiple injuries that have resulted in three different knee surgeries (two on the left, one on the right) over the length of his short 6-year career, and now finds himself on the rebuilding Portland Trail Blazers.

With all these health issues, bringing in Williams comes with some obvious significant risks, but if the voodoo magic of Warriors’ VP of Player Health and Performance Rick Celebreni, with players like Kevon Looney, Gary Payton II, Klay Thompson, and Otto Porter Jr. have shown us anything, the Warriors are a great place for injury-prone players to find a new life.

Williams at his best is a 6’9, 240lb imposing, jump-out-the-gym rim-runner and shot blocker. His athleticism, size, and length make him the ideal big in the modern NBA. He can effectively switch to cover guards/wings and seamlessly operate in the Celtics switch-heavy schemes that saw him face a lot of the best perimeter players in the league. Around the rim, he is a major deterrent with block rates on rim contests that year after year chart at absurd levels next to his peers. Offensively, his quickness makes him a lethal rim runner in transition where he can outpace opposing bigs. Additionally, he is an extremely effective finisher around the rim with a wide catch radius perfect for lob throwing. A healthy Williams in the mix could be quite the lethal one-two-punch with Jackson Davis for the Warriors.

With Deandre Ayton in the starting lineup and newly drafted Donovan Clingan in behind him (not to mention Doup Reath who I wouldn't mind seeing in a Warriors jersey), the Trail Blazers seem pretty set at center, making Williams the odd man out.

At 27 years old, with two years left on his deal, and an extensive injury history behind, it’s hard to gauge what Portland’s asking price might be, but it feels reasonable to assume Williams is gettable as quite the distressed asset.

Larry Nance Jr., C, Atlanta Hawks ($11.2M)

The Atlanta Hawks finally finished evaluating the compatibility of their backcourt pairing and decided to end that union by shipping off Dejounte Murray to the Pelicans for a pair of 1st round picks, a promising young player in Dyson Daniels, and Larry Nance Jr.

Nance Jr. at 32-years-old is one of the premier defensive, high-energy, bench players in the NBA. He’s had a variety of effective stints on multiple playoff-caliber teams finding success as a small-ball rotation 5.

While he’s not quite the floor spacer the Warriors would like to add to help with their spacing issues, he has to be respected at the 3-point line (career 34% from deep) and makes up the difference with everything else he brings to the table.

On top of his eye-popping around-the-rim athleticism, screen setting, rebounding, and playmaking, Nance is a force on the defensive end. His length and size allow him to be a versatile defender capable of both holding his own when switched onto bigger guards/wings and flying in to block shots from weakside contests at the rim. He is repeatedly among the top bigs in passing lanes forcing deflections and has graded A- or higher in BBall Index's Defensive Playmaking metrics in the last seven seasons.

The type of effective and cerebral defender Draymond Green would love playing next to and Steve Kerr would love coaching.

While it’s hard to pinpoint Atlanta’s direction being stuck between trying to build a playoff team around Trae Young despite having just picked up the #1 pick in the 2024 Draft, it does feel like there might be an opportunity to try to capitalize on their indecisiveness by offering them a couple of assets for the second-oldest player on their roster on an expiring deal.

The Warriors hold two of Atlanta’s second-rounders in 2026 and 2028 that they received in the James Wiseman for Gary Payton II mega-deal and I’m sure Atlanta would be quite happy to have those back.

Jordan Clarkson, SG, Utah Jazz ($14M)

While the Warriors (and some other teams) are busy trying to pry away Lauri Markkanen from Danny Ainge’s cold, dead hands; another player on the Utah Jazz roster who might be a sensible addition for the Warriors’ is Jordan Clarkson.

After moving on from Jordan Poole last summer, the Warriors sought to make up some of that lost bench scoring by pursuing guards with that skillset in free agency taking looks at Eric Gordon, Shake Milton, and Malik Beasley, among others.

Ultimately they missed out on all of those targets and had to settle for a combination of Chris Paul’s and Jonathan Kuminga’s bucket-getting abilities to cover the difference.

Now with Chris Paul out of the picture, once again there seems to be a need to add some bench scoring to a roster that will heavily rely on Steph Curry and Jonathan Kuminga to lead the bulk of their scoring and self-creation.

In comes Poole-predecessor, Jordan Clarkson.

Clarkson fits the bill of a premier, bonafide bench bucket-getter. His silky-smooth, ball-on-a-string handles that lead to an array of crafty finishing moves make him an absolute nightmare for opposing defenders to guard. His size allows him to easily shake and glide off contact from aggressive defenders, as he cruises past them on his way to the rim either dropping in a bucket and/or getting to the foul stripe.

Along with his notable self-creation, Clarkson has shown yearly improvements as a passer and playmaker notching a career-high 5 assists per game last season. Leading to him potentially being able to split some of the backup point guard duties vacated by Chris Paul with budding Brandin Podziemski.

His inconsistent 3-ball and defensive deficiencies do leave much to be desired.

Clarkson at 31, has two years left on his deal and has been a well-regarded veteran piece on a Jazz team that is somewhat stuck in the limbo of deciding between constructing a playoff-level roster around Markkanen or burning it all down and spending a few years in tanking purgatory accumulating assets.

But perhaps if enticed with a pair of seconds (Utah doesn’t have many of them) the Jazz could be inclined to give up their oldest player and help the Warriors beef up the bench unit’s capability and veteran presence.

Kelly Olynyk, C, Toronto Raptors ($12.8M)

The Warriors were hot on the trail for Olynyk before the Toronto Raptors ultimately swooped in and netted both him and promising Ochai Agbaji from the Jazz in exchange for what ultimately became the 29th pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. The Raptors would subsequently sign the 33-year-old to a two-year extension.

Despite his age, Olynyk would be a near-perfect addition to the Warriors at this point in his career. He could seamlessly slot into their starting lineup and act as a nice offensive-focused compliment to Jackson-Davis coming off the bench. His ability to stretch the floor and sink 3s at a high clip would pair nicely with lineups that have either Draymond Green or Jonathan Kuminga next to him at the four; or both. Additionally his size at 6’11, 240lbs would make it harder for opposing centers to punish him as they did the previous stretch 5s the Warriors tried to deploy the past two seasons in Dario Šarić and JaMychal Green.

Olynyk for a big man is an extremely capable ball-handler who can initiate half-court offense and get teams started on the break. His footwork and dribbling make him a dominant self-creator who can score around the rim with ease deploying a variety of finishing moves. In addition to scoring, Olynyk is an effective passer operating both at the top of the key and in the low block, making smart reads and easily finding cutters. He’s the closest thing the Warriors could have to Andrew Bogut from an offense standpoint.

Judging a price on Olynyk is a little tough and out of these five, he would likely cost the most for Warriors. Having handed out big-money contracts to Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley it seems like the Raptors are committed to trying to build a playoff team around their current core and will be hard-pressed to lose rotation-caliber players, especially someone like Olynyk whom they just recently acquired. It might take more than a couple 2nds to bring him in and the Warriors might have to consider parting with a precious first-round pick.

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Some other less intriguing candidates for consideration:

• Dāvis Bertāns ($16M)

• Dennis Schröder ($13M)

• Devonte' Graham ($12.7M)

• PJ Tucker ($11.5M)

• Matisse Thybulle ($11M)

• Landry Shamet ($11M)

• Chris Boucher ($10.8M)

• Georges Niang ($8.5M)

• Jock Landale ($8M)

• Jae’Sean Tate ($7.6M)

• Chris Duarte ($6.9M)

• Sasha Vezenkov ($6.7M)

Is there anyone not mentioned here that you think the Warriors should consider?