How the Warriors Can Afford a Roster with LeBron, AD, Draymond and Porzingis

Draymond Green's decision to opt out of his contract has added credence to the idea that the Golden State Warriors are attempting to acquire LeBron James and Anthony Davis this offseason.

It's a bit of a financial mess figuring out how they can have a roster with those two superstars and still re-sign Green and Kristaps Porzingis.

I break down how it could work below.

How They Can Afford LeBron, AD, Dray and Porzingis

The key number to remember is $209 million.

That is the maximum amount the Warriors can spend on their roster if they use any part of the non-taxpayer mid-level exception (worth a maxium of $15 million) on anyone.

In this case, they would be using it on LeBron James. It's the most they can offer him.

Anthony Davis ($58.5 million) makes slightly more than Jimmy Butler ($56.8 million), which isn't a deal-breaker for a Butler-for-Davis trade (which I break down here), but it does make fitting everything under the $209 million first apron a bit harder.

With James and Davis, this is what the Warriors' cap sheet would look like:

Stephen Curry: $62.6 million
Anthony Davis: $58.5 million
LeBron James: $15 million
Moses Moody: $12.5 million
Al Horford: $6.8 million
Yaxel Lendeborg: $6.1 million
Brandin Podziemski: $5.7 million
Gui Santos: $4.6 million
Will Richard: $2.2 million

These nine players would accout for about $174 million. That means Green and Porzingis would have to combine to sign for about $28 million, leaving about $7 million for the final three required roster spots.

It would take financial sacrifice from both Green and Porzingis, but it's not impossible.

The Next Big Domino Is Porzingis' Contract

The Stein Line's Marc Stein and Jake Fischer wrote on Sunday that Porzingis is expected to sign a new deal with the Warriors before free agency begins on Tuesday at 6 p.m. ET.

If Porzingis signs for an extremely team-friendly deal making between $10 million and $13 million, that would make this James-Davis plan more believable.

If Porzingis signs for $17 million to $18 million, Green would have to sign for $10 million to $11 million to make the rest of this plan work. Is he willing to go THAT low?

Would the Warriors Need a Midseason Trade?

A team with a center rotation of Davis, Porzingis and Horford and a forward rotation of James, Green, Santos and Lendeborg would benefit from a trade that gives the backcourt and wings more punch.

Players who sign new contracts are ineligible to be traded for a few months, so the Dubs would likely wait until mid-January to make another trade.

Figuring out who they'd deal is fascinating thought exercise.

The Warriors would want to avoid breaking up the Klutch Sports trio of James, Davis and Green.

And they would have no interest in losing either of their two forwards of the future, Santos and Lendeborg.

So that leaves Horford and Porzingis as possible trade chips to balance the roster.

At 40 years old, Horford would potentially have less trade value. Porzingis doesn't have much trade value now after missing 90 regular-season games over the last two seasons, but if the soon-to-be 31-year-old has a healthy first half of the season, he could have decent value on the trade market.

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