Warriors 4-Team Trade Pitch Lands Steph Curry a $146 Million Co-Star

Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors reacts after making a three-point basket during the second half against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Golden State Warriors are unbeaten in the NBA preseason, but that is hardly a gauge of how they finish in the regular season. Like last year, they again face a roster logjam that coach Steve Kerr and his staff have yet to figure out.

Bleacher Report’s salary cap expert Eric Pincus proposed a massive four-team trade proposal that will solve that and give Stephen Curry a bonafide multi-time All-Star as his new running mate.

Golden State Warriors receive: Jimmy Butler (from Heat) and Anton Watson (from Celtics)

Miami Heat receive: Andrew Wiggins (from Warriors), Jonathan Kuminga (from Warriors) and $14.9M trade exception (Butler)

Detroit Pistons receive: Kevon Looney (from Warriors), Gary Payton II (from Warriors), Atlanta Hawks 2026 second-rounder (from Warriors), Los Angeles Lakers 2026 second-rounder (from Heat), Atlanta Hawks 2028 second-rounder (from Warriors), $2.5 million (from Warriors) and $1.5 million (from Heat)

Boston Celtics receive: $1.1 million (from the Heat)

Pincus noted that for this complex four-team trade to work under the new CBA, Butler has to waive his trade bonus worth slightly over $400,000 to give the Warriors little wiggle room under the first-apron hard cap ($178.1 million).

Warriors Trade Future for Present

The logic behind this trade for the Warriors is to flip Kuminga into a win-now player. With the Warriors unwilling to offer Kuminga his max rookie extension, it behooves them to just flip him for a player who they believe can help them maximize Curry’s remaining championship window.

Butler has been to two NBA Finals. But Butler has no All-NBA player on his side in those two Finals losses to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 and the Denver Nuggets in 2023.

“While Wiggins, Looney and Payton were critical to Golden State’s 2022 championship (Looney for more than one ring), they would need to go to make a Butler deal viable. The Warriors retain the depth added this offseason (Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield, De’Anthony Melton and Lindy Waters III), arguably upgrading Kuminga to Butler without giving up any first-round compensation,” Pincus wrote.

Warriors Interested in Jimmy Butler: Report

The Warriors are interested in Butler, according to The Athletic’s Sam Amick.

“Jimmy Butler’s going to be a free agent next summer, didn’t get an extension done,” Amick said on “The TK Show” podcast on September 12. “The Warriors, as you know, have an interest there and I think probably [they] made a couple of calls during the summer.”

Butler’s future in Miami was clouded with uncertainty following Heat president Pat Riley’s telling statement during his exit interview.

“We don’t have to do that for a year,” Riley told reporters about Butler’s extension while speaking to reporters during his exit interview on May 6. “And so, we have not discussed that internally right now, but we have to look at that, making that kind of commitment.”

Butler is on the final guaranteed year of his three-year $146.4 million contract. He holds a $52.4 million player option for the 2025-26 season but is currently extension-eligible and can sign a one-year, $58.6 million extension tucked into the final year of his current deal or a two-year, $112.9 million extension that would void the player option, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks.

But the Heat never extended Butler this offseason, making his future status in Miami uncertain.

Nets Loom as Warriors’s Rival for Jimmy Butler

The rebuilding Brooklyn Nets loom as the Warriors’ biggest threat in the Butler sweepstakes if they do not trade for him this season.

According to Brian Lewis of the New York Post, Butler is “fond” of the Nets, who will have the most cap space.

“Butler isn’t just open to Brooklyn, but fond of it, sources told The Post,” Lewis wrote on September 7. “Now, he’s not a Net and he might never get close to becoming one. But to dismiss the possibility out of hand is foolish.”

Butler will be the top free agent if the Heat does not extend him because he is likely to decline his player option, according to Lewis.

“The odds of him picking up his player option are slim unless he agrees to a max deal with the Heat beforehand,” Lewis wrote on August 31. “The six-time All-Star is the most accomplished standout on that [free agent] list not named [LeBron] James, and he likes Brooklyn, according to sources close to the player.”

With a shortage of cap room, the Warriors’ only chance at Butler is to trade for him, which the Heat would also hope to do if their franchise star wants out.