Warriors: Trading Alec Burks makes all the sense in the world

The Golden State Warriors could look to make a trade this winter and one player who would make a ton of sense to deal is veteran Alec Burks.

The Golden State Warriors find themselves in a unique situation this winter. For the first time in many years, the Warriors will be approaching the winter trade season with a completely different mindset.

Instead of looking to add a piece to strengthen their title contention hopes, they’ll likely be looking to unload one or two of their veterans as they search for future assets.

Put simply, instead of buying at the deadline, they’ll be selling.

And one player that could make a ton of sense to trade is veteran wing Alec Burks.

The Warriors signed Burks this summer with hopes that he could serve as a reliable 3-and-D wing playing rotational minutes off the bench. Instead, Burks has been forced into a starting role since his return from a training camp injury.

And in turn, Burks is putting together a career year averaging career-highs in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks per game while falling just shy of career-highs in assists and minutes per game.

Much of this is out of necessity, but it remains a fact that Burks has been one of Golden State’s most reliable and consistent presences this season. And for that very reason, his value would likely be much more to a contending team.

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Burks has been very effective to the Warriors this season, but it’s very apparent that any success is moot. The Warriors aren’t going anywhere this year and a player like Burks is likely more appealing to a team looking to make a playoff push.

And with the Warriors unlikely to retain Burks past this season with his value only rising, it doesn’t really make too much sense to keep him. Especially if they’re able to recoup a future asset for him.

The Warriors currently have just one second-round pick over the next seven years. Given how successful they’ve been using their late-round picks to find diamonds in the rough (Draymond Green and Eric Paschall), it would be wise to stack up on some more ammunition.

Burks would likely fetch the Warriors at least one future second-round pick that could be more useful down the line as the team looks to flesh out some additional depth on the roster.

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But even aside from the typical “veteran selling” argument to trade Burks, there remains another underlying reason related to a certain two-way player who has excelled so far.

Undrafted rookie point guard Ky Bowman has exceeded all expectations this season and has quickly become a key part of the Warriors rotation. Given his success this season, it’s easy to see him being the backup point guard of the future going forward.

And the Warriors would love to see him continue to receive NBA minutes and develop his overall game as the season goes on. The only problem is that his NBA eligibility is set to run out in January and the Warriors don’t have an easy way to keep him on the roster.

Since the team is hard-capped, they have no room to just convert Bowman’s contract to a fully-guaranteed deal — despite an open spot on the active roster. That means that they must make room if they want to keep him on the team for the time being.

They could always opt to stash him in the G-League until March when they’d have enough room to sign him to the active roster on a prorated minimum salary deal. But that likely isn’t the most appealing option.

Trading Burks would clear the necessary cap space and allow the Warriors to keep Bowman on the active roster for the entirety of the season.

Not only would Golden State be receiving a future asset in return for Burks, but they’d also be helping to keep a current asset on the roster.

Burks has been everything the Warriors could have asked for and more, but he will bring more value to the organization if he’s playing for another team come the spring.