The Warriors’ current roster leaves the team in basketball purgatory for at least the next season, if not longer.

This team is not good enough to make the final two seasons of Curry’s contract anything close to title worthy. It also lacks a clear route to reasonably improve.

This point was made even more clear by the fact that the Warriors have already agreed to use one of the team’s few mechanisms for improvement, the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, on former 76er and Grizzly De’Anthony Melton.

The guard is a solid defensive option, averaging three deflections a game last season. He can shoot the 3-pointer, too. But he’s coming off a spinal injury that forced him to miss more than half of last season and he was one of the NBA’s worst shooters inside the 3-point arc (42.5% on 2s, sixth-worst in the league.)

A nice player, but hardly a difference-maker.

And that’s what the Warriors were able to hit with their heavy artillery.

The trade exception from the Thompson transaction can only be used to acquire someone on a salary dump — someone who makes up to or less than $16 million. There are a few options, but not one of them changes the calculus for Golden State.

Then there’s a $4.7 million bi-annual exception. That could bring in a player for something a bit more than the league’s veteran minimum.

How does any of this replace Thompson’s 18 points per game and 38.7% 3-point shooting?

It barely covers the 9 points and 7 assists per game Paul averaged last season.

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