https://stevierayzendejas.substack.com/p/draymond-trades-30 (full article)
Los Angeles
Obviously, the most problematic equation is to involve the Lakers and their now long-coveted two future 1st that has been rumored in trade talks for the entirety of the offseason. Since Kyrie appears to be out of the picture as a potential get in a Westbrook dump, the Klutch crew may consider adding a player that would arguably give the Lakers the best defensive frontcourt in the Western Conference. AD + Dray is simply terrifying on that end of the ball and Draymond as a facilitator takes some of the weight off LeBron at point and eliminates the dependency on the heavily hypothetical creation of Dennis Schroder.
Essentially the Lakers are sending 1 first to dump the 47-million-dollar Russ contract and the second first-rounder for Dray and Josh Richardson.
San Antonio
For the Spurs, as it should be clear above, the trade ensures them to be at top of lottery in their pure-tank season while acquiring more future capital. Arguably, these two LA picks are the most potent pieces of future real-estate to invest in.
Golden State
Firstly, the downside of this exchange is that the Warriors create an additional contender in conference, something that franchises tend to go out of their way to avoid. However, from another point of view, the equation for a LeBron-driven squad and its success has always been to surround him with shooters—this defensive monster in AD + Dray sports two of last year's worst 3-point shooters in all of basketball. It also depends on two players who missed more than half the regular season with injuries. With Bron at 38 years old by the new year and these two now injury-prone players, to bet on the health of all 3 in the playoffs is precarious at best.
With additions, (we already detailed Poeltl’s fit above), Doug McDermott shot a better 3-point percentage than anyone on the Warriors last year at 42.2 from distance on 5 attempts per game. It’s not only the percentage but the style in which he creates these shots as a 6’7” on-the-move shooter. So despite him being an average defender at best, his shot creation alone would be a huge plus in lineups, especially those overlapping with Stephen Curry. These two additions would arguably make the Warriors' 2nd unit simply the best in basketball even if Poole was bumped up into the starting unit.