The NBA trade deadline has passed, and going into February 6, it was no secret that the Warriors were going to make moves. What ended up actually happening, however, was even crazier than anyone could have anticipated.

The wheeling and dealing actually began about two weeks prior when Willie Cauley-Stein was flipped to the Dallas Mavericks for a second-round pick. This was not a surprising move. Cauley-Stein was not one of the preferred bigs of the coaching staff or the front office and the Warriors likely didn’t see him as part of the future. They wanted to get some type of return for him and succeeded in doing so.

It was also unsurprising when Golden State sent Alec Burks and Glenn Robinson III to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for three second-round draft picks, one in each of the next three drafts. Both of them have the talent to be contributors to playoff teams and multiple contenders were jockeying for their services. The Warriors took what they believed to be the best offer and collected assets for the future. It should also be noted that there is speculation in the league that the Warriors want to bring back both Burks and Robinson when they become unrestricted free agents in the summer. Both could absolutely serve a role on a healthy, contending Warriors team, so it would make sense for the front office to at least consider pursuing them.

So far, none of this has been unexpected. All three of those players had been on the trading block for a long time and it’s clear that all of these moves were made with the future in mind. What came next, on the other hand, was in a different category. The Warriors traded D’Angelo Russell, Jacob Evans and Omari Spellman to the Minnesota Timberwolves in exchange for Andrew Wiggins, a first-round pick and a second-round pick.

There are three details about this trade. One is not surprising at all, one is semi-surprising and one is completely shocking.

Let’s go in order. The unsurprising thing is that Russell was traded. He is averaging 23.6 points and 6.2 assists per game this season, but his defensive play left much to be desired and his stagnant offensive style based on isolation and pick-and-rolls doesn’t fit with Steve Kerr’s ball-movement-heavy approach. The Warriors had been hopeful he could adapt, but it didn’t work out.

“To be perfectly blunt, the fit was questionable when we signed him,” Kerr said. “We at least got a 50-game look at what it might look like … but you get a good enough look and a long enough look to picture how the positional fit goes and I think we have an idea that [Wiggins] makes more sense.”

In this quote, Kerr actually got at the semi-surprising part of the trade: the fact that the Warriors were willing to take Wiggins in the deal. It was thought by some that the Warriors would not trade Russell to Minnesota unless Karl-Anthony Towns was part of the deal. If they were to take Wiggins, it would at least come with more than two picks. Wiggins’ time as a pro has been defined by inconsistency on offense, and he has statistically been one of the worst individual defenders in recent NBA history. He is capable of performing far better than that, but he also carries a massive contract widely regarded as among the worst current deals in the league. So it’s easy to see why so many questioned the move.

But the truly stunning part came when Evans and Spellman were thrown in as part of the deal. Both players, particularly Spellman, seemed to be a part of the future for the Warriors and that is no more. Evans had shown occasional flashes of skill and Spellman had settled into life in the Bay Area and found a role as a dynamic, explosive stretch four in his first season with the Dubs. That the Warriors gave up both of these players along with Russell in order to snag Wiggins and two draft picks seems remarkably one-sided at first glance.

But a longer and broader look paints a different picture. Without throwing those two players in, the Warriors would have run into serious financial trouble regardless of whether or not they kept Russell, hampering them down the line.

“As painful as it was to move some of these guys and do that, the thinking was, going into 2020’s summer, it provides some flexibility and maneuverability with our payroll,” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said. “That was the thought behind it. And we’re still going to spend a lot. I still foresee some good spending ahead of us. But there are degrees where you have to be responsible.”

And it’s important to remember that, as rough as Wiggins’ career has been at times, he is stepping into something totally new. He was often counted on to be the guy in Minnesota and will now be playing a very specific role. He will be at most the third option on a fully healthy Warriors squad and is now in an organization with a reputation for creating one of the best winning cultures in the NBA. If there is any team that can get him to buy in completely on both ends of the court, it’s the Warriors.

Wiggins made his Dubs debut in a 125-120 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers on Saturday night. His performance was far from perfect, but he looked solid: he scored 24 points on just 12 field goal attempts and looked confident, both while shooting from distance and attacking the rim. He also played some surprisingly solid defense, guarding LeBron James for much of the night and taking advantage of some sloppy Lakers play with five steals. It’s only one game, but it’s a step in the right direction in terms of creating confidence amongst the organization and the fanbase that Wiggins can fit in with this team if and when they return to playoff contention.

The Warriors’ front office is almost always thinking four steps in advance when they make decisions, and those moves are almost always risky, but they have paid off time and time again. Now they’ve made another one of those moves. We’re a couple days into a new era of Warriors basketball, and now that we’ve all had a moment to catch our collective breath, the move looks better than it initially did. Pretty soon, we’ll get to see if it works in the long run.