1 Dream, 1 Reach and 1 Realistic Free Agent Target for the Golden State Warriors

Reach: De'Anthony Melton

De'Anthony Melton was proposed as a target for the Warriors by The Athletic's Tim Kawakami earlier in the week. It's a bit of a reach to suggest the 25-year-old gettable on the taxpayer mid-level exception, but perhaps his injury concerns does push him down into that price range.

After back-to-back years of at least 73 games, Melton was limited by a back injury this season which kept him to 38 games and just eight from January 1 onwards. He still averaged 11.0 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals, while shooting 36% from three-point range on 5.6 attempts per game.

Perhaps Melton could be the next version of Donte DiVincenzo -- a still young versatile guard who proves a one-year rental to rehabilitate their contract value after injury issues. The need for another guard will be determined by what happens with Klay Thompson and Chris Paul, but Melton's a different type of player to that pair regardless.

Melton came eighth in Sixth Man of the Year voting in his last year with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2021-22, having averaged 10.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game. That's the sort of role he could play with Golden State, with he and Brandin Podziemski a quality bench guard pairing who, in combination, may be able to handle the non-Stephen Curry minutes.

Melton is coming off a four-year, $34.6 million contract, meaning he'll have to take a reasonable cut to join the Warriors. Still, it's worth a phone call or two just to explore where his contract value may lie.