Trade grades: Warriors move Andrew Bogut to Mavs to make space for Kevin Durant

The Deal

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Mavericks get: Center Andrew Bogut, conditional 2019 second-round pick

Dallas Mavericks: B

You can certainly make the case that Bogut was better than any center remaining Monday morning. The best of the group was probably incumbent Mavericks starter Zaza Pachulia, and it's understandable that Dallas would want to shake things up.

After a terrific first half of the season, Pachulia tailed off down the stretch, and he's not the kind of rim protector the Mavericks would ideally like next to Dirk Nowitzki. Bogut is that player, of course. As he demonstrated in the first quarter of Game 2 of the NBA Finals, Bogut can still be an elite rim protector on his best nights, and at worst he's still above average in that role.

Offensively, Bogut fills more or less the same role as Pachulia. Dallas would probably prefer to have more of a roll man at center than Bogut and Pachulia, who are high-post players. However, both can create good looks with their passing.

I would have been curious to see the Mavericks take a chance on a younger rim protector like Bogut's backup Festus Ezeli or fellow unrestricted free agents Dewayne Dedmon and Willie Reed. They might have come cheaper than Bogut and could have been part of Dallas' long-term future.

Bogut is more or less a rental, which is the path the Mavericks have taken over and over again since winning the 2011 championship. But, as usual, the price was right.

Golden State Warriors: A

The Warriors needed to trade Bogut to clear room to sign Kevin Durant, one of the NBA's top five players, as a free agent. That's another way to "win" a trade.

This is the rare case where a conditional second-round pick will likely change hands, because the most it can be protected is within the top-55 picks and Golden State will probably still be picking after that by 2019. But picks that late can easily be purchased for modest sums, so the Warriors won't miss it at all.

In other words, it's a great deal for the Warriors, moving Bogut's salary without giving up much of value.

Dallas does have to send something to Golden State to make the trade legal, so expect to see the Warriors get a top-55 protected pick of their own that they will almost certainly never see.

After the trade, the Warriors turned around and filled the gap at center by adding Pachulia on a one-year, $2.9 million deal, as evaluated here.