Warriors co-owners Peter Guber and Joe Lacob have given GM Bob Myers no mandate with regard to the luxury tax, the GM said, as Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group tweets. That means the team, a few hundred thousand dollars over the tax line, has the latitude to make deals, but it doesn't suggest that a trade is necessarily likely. Myers said the team wants more time to evaluate what it has with Andrew Bogut back in the lineup, as Kawakami adds via Twitter.
The trade deadline is in nine days, which is a lot closer than the GM's assertion that it's still a ways out. Myers spoke today with reporters, including Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, and said "material conversations" about a trade haven't taken place, believing talk won't heat up for at least a few more days.
Golden State, with a full complement of 15 players all season, hasn't made a transaction since training camp. The team made a splash at last year's deadline, acquiring Bogut and sending out Monta Ellis, and has spent most of this season waiting for Bogut's left ankle to heal. The 7'0" center still hasn't played as many as 28 minutes in a game since returning to the lineup on January 28th. The Warriors, who've dropped four in a row and fallen into sixth place in the Western Conference, have encountered adversity after enjoying some of their greatest success in years this season.
The Warriors could look to add reinforcements via trade, and possess a $3,294,960 trade exception that will expire at the deadline. They would reportedly love to deal for trade candidates Timofey Mozgov or DeJuan Blair, but the chances they pull the trigger on anything are slim, according to Marcus Thompson II, another Bay Area News Group scribe. Kawakami doesn't think Myers and company will add salary for either the short or long term, in spite of the flexibility the owners have given them (Twitter link). Kawakami pegs the Warriors at about $200K over the tax line, but HoopsWorld and ShamSports indicate that figure is closer to $800K.
In any case, that number figures to go up next season, when they have nearly $73MM in commitments, about $2.7MM into the tax. A significant amount of money comes off the payroll in 2014, but I don't think the team is about to add more salary and flirt with the harsh penalties coming up for teams that are habitual taxpayers. Unless they add an impact player, I don't think the Warriors are a single move away from a championship, so they're probably content to stick with their young team and see how it develops.