Warriors have no excuse not to spend this offseason

Warriors fans don’t like to admit it, but their favorite team has been blessed by luck countless times during their five-year dynastic run.

And, after a gap year, it looks like their run of luck is back on.

The NBA and the players’ union finalized the financial details around the rapidly approaching season Monday, and, in addition to setting a free-agency start date ( Nov. 20) and setting the salary- cap and luxury tax threshold at the same levels as last year, they added a key provision that should change the Warriors’ preseason calculus.

Now, the good fortune that blessed the Warriors on Monday doesn’t match up with the salary- cap spike that helped bring Kevin Durant to the Bay in 2016, but it could bring a key player into the fold for 2021.

The league and union agreed that luxury tax payments will be tied to overall league income this season, meaning they will be significantly lower than in years past. That leaves the Warriors no excuse to be cheap in the coming weeks.

And here, I was told that taxes were going up after the events of last week ...

That $17.2 million trade exception that the Warriors received in exchange for Andre Iguodala last season? They need to use it now.

According to ESPN’s Bobby Marks, if league revenue drops by 30% this season — a highly plausible number given that it’s hard to see fans in the stands anytime soon — the Warriors could save as much as $50 million in luxury tax payments on the player acquired with that trade exception.

Before, the cap- strapped Warriors telegraphed to the entire NBA that they were not going to use that trade exception unless something “special” came about.

And looking at possible targets, the word “special” didn’t come to mind. After all, if any of the players linked with the Dubs were special, why would they be available via trade?

But the threshold for action should now be “solid.” If the Warriors can find a reliable, contributing player with that trade exception — which will expire on Nov. 27, seven days after the start of free agency and nine days after the NBA draft — they should use it.

The dream scenario is acquiring a wing of that caliber. A team can never have too many wings in this modern NBA.

Option No. 1? Acquiring Robert Covington from the Rockets. A versatile defender who can knock down 3-pointers, Covington wouldn’t be on the market under normal circumstances. These, obviously, are not normal circumstances. The Rockets might still fancy themselves contenders, but owner Tilman Fertitta is more concerned about his wallet and Covington is going to make $25 million over the next two years.

Would a couple of second-round picks be enough to land him? We’ll see how cheap Fertitta — who owes money all over town — wants to be.

If Covington’s not on the table, Kelly Oubre from the Phoenix Suns should be the next target.

Oubre can guard four positions and boasts a bit of edge to his game alongside an improving 3-point stroke. He’s the kind of player who can help now and, at age 24, perhaps stick around for the long run.

But the Warriors could look to San Antonio’s Rudy Gay, Philadelphia’s Josh Richardson, Orlando’s Evan Fournier, New Orleans’ JJ Redick, Miami’s Kelly Olynyk, or New York’s Mitchell Robinson instead.

No one from this group is a star. None of them is “special” but the Warriors could find in this group the kind of player who they can rely upon for second-unit minutes and a few spot starts here and there.

Between this trade exception, a taxpayer mid-level exception — worth around $5.7 million per year — the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft, and the opportunity to play in basketball Valhalla (albeit on a minimum contract), the Warriors have an opportunity in the coming weeks to put a championshiplevel team around their core three players.

Right now, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green do not have that.

And isn’t that opportunity — which now is far less fiscally punitive — special enough?