Insider Predicts Warriors' Plan for Pat Spencer at Trade Deadline

The Golden State Warriors need to make a trade to open a roster spot and clear salary space to upgrade Pat Spencer's two-way contract to a standard contract.

That's precisely what Marc Stein thinks is likely to happen.

On Sunday, Stein wrote that Spencer is among several two-players who will likely have their contracts upgraded soon.

Spencer Has Almost Used Up His Warriors Eligibility on Two-Way Contract

Entering Monday, Spencer has been active for 45 of Golden State's 47 games. Players on two-way contracts can be active for 50 NBA games in a season. The Warriors have four games until the Feb. 5 trade deadline, so the timing of the deadline works out well.

If the Warriors keep Spencer active through their Feb. 5 game the Suns, he'll be ineligible to play for the rest of the season on his two-way contract.

How Much Cap Space Do the Warriors Need to Clear to Sign Spencer?

If the Warriors sign Spencer to a standard contract, they will be paying him the prorated minimum.

The minimum salary varies based on how many years of NBA experience a player has.

Spencer's minimum salary is a little over $2 million, and we're a bit over halfway through the season. So his prorated minimum on the day of the trade deadline will be a bit under $1 million.

The Warriors are currently 264,000 under the second apron, which they can't cross. So they'd have to clear about $700,00 to immediately convert Spencer's contract.

Clearing that much space shouldn't be too difficult to do in a trade.

The bigger issue is finding a trade partner that is willing to take back one more player than it sends out.

It's certainly doable, but the Warriors aren't the only team looking to convert a two-way contract to a standard contract. Those teams—Stein mentioned Denver (Spences Jones), Detroit (Daniss Jenkins), Cleveland (Nae'Qwon Tomlin), Philadelphia (Dominick Barlow and Jabari Walker), Dallas (Ryan Nembhard and Moussa Cisse) and Portland (Sidy Cissoko and Caleb Love)—will also want to clear a roster spot or two for their two-way players.

Dubs Need to Convert Spencer

This is more than a feel-good story.

The Warriors need more ball-handling and passing, particularly when Stephen Curry is not on the floor.

Before Jimmy Butler's injury, one could make the argument that Spencer wasn't needed. Now, it's an obvious need.

Since the Butler injury, De'Anthony Melton has done a good job running the second unit. He's not scoring or facilitating at a Butler-like clip, but he's done enough to keep that unit from falling apart.

But at some point, Melton will feel the effects of being overexposed. He's not meant to be a No. 1 option all the time.

Spencer can take some of the pressure off Melton. Maybe he won't play every game, but the Warriors need all the help they can get.

And Spencer showed he could help when he had a five-game stretch in early December with averages of 15.2 points, 5.4 assists and 4.2 rebounds.