The Golden State Warriors were one of the biggest losers in free agency this summer due to Kevin Durant's decision to leave and sign with the Brooklyn Nets. Even though he's injured and is unlikely to play next season, there's really no way to replace one of the two or three best players in the game. 

To their credit, the Warriors did the best they could given the circumstances, however, and managed to swing a sign-and-trade with the Nets that saw them acquire D'Angelo Russell. There are plenty of questions about how the All-Star point guard will fit alongside Steph Curry, and because of that it's been widely assumed that the Warriors were more concerned with avoiding losing Durant for nothing, and will move Russell elsewhere at some point. 

Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon, Warriors GM Bob Myers objected to those ideas, saying that the team, "didn't sign him with the intention of trading him."

Myers' full comment:

"I know it's been written and speculated and that's fine, that's what everybody's job is to do. We didn't sign him with the intention of just trading him. We haven't even seen him play in our uniform yet and a lot of people have us trading him. That's not how we're viewing it. Let's just see what we have, let's see what he is, let's see how he fits."

"So much of our sport at least, maybe other sports, is what are you doing next? We gotta figure out what we're doing now. That applies to a guy like D'Angelo, in that there's this speculation we're moving him. We haven't even seen him play. I haven't seen a lot of our guys play. We've seen them play with some of our core players, and we won't even know until Klay comes back how that fits. We're just happy we got a young player who has a lot of upside in our opinion."

The Warriors may, in fact, want to wait to see how things look with Russell to start the season, especially considering that Klay Thompson is set to miss most of the campaign due to a torn ACL. Even if the fit doesn't make sense long-term, Russell is talented and could help offset the loss of Thompson's production in the regular season, which could be crucial in a loaded Western Conference. 

However, this answer seems like a case of an executive saying what he has to say in the media. Myers can't go out in public and talk about how much he wants to trade Russell, even if internally they want to move him out as soon as possible. 

For one, it's just not good management on a personal level. Myers and the Warriors will want to make Russell feel welcome for however long he's with the team. Plus, doing so would ruin any sort of leverage or trade value if other teams knew the Warriors were desperate to get rid of Russell.