Getty Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors falls to the floor after losing control of the ball.
After their embarrassing loss to the shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies, Draymond Green claimed the Golden State Warriors will not win unless they can guard.
Bleacher Report’s Dan Favale proposed a trade that helps the Warriors surround Stephen Curry with a couple more two-way players along with Green.
Favale’s proposed trade:
Atlanta Hawks Receive: Moses Moody, Chris Paul, Cory Joseph, 2026 first-round pick (top-four protection), 2026 second-round pick (its own), 2028 second-round pick (its own)
Golden State Warriors Receive: De’Andre Hunter, Dejounte Murray
Murray is the most coveted name in the trade market after Indiana took Pascal Siakam off the board. The 6-foot-5 Murray has a 6-foot-10 wingspan that has allowed him to average 1.4 steals in his career which peaked at 2.0 when he became an All-Star and All-Defensive guard just two seasons ago.
“Though Murray’s defense has slipped a notch or two this year, he’s absolutely an upgrade over what Golden State is doing now—particularly with Gary Payton II sidelined. The Warriors would still skew small if they tried playing him with Stephen Curry and Brandin Podziemski, but that’s a more palatable mini trio than one with 38-year-old, 6’0″ Paul,” Favale wrote.
Murray is shooting a career-high 38.3% on a healthy 6.0 3-point attempts this season. Hunter is also knocking down 3s at a career-best 40.4% this season when healthy.
The addition of Hunter would create a logjam of wings with Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga for the Warriors. But Hunter would easily be the best defender among the trio. The Warriors value Kuminga, so Wiggins would be the odd man out.
Warriors Linked to Dejounte Murray
The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie linked Murray to the Warriors as a “best fit” ahead of the trade deadline.
Vecenie’s colleague at The Athletic, their Warriors beat reporter Anthony Slater mentioned Murray as a name to watch for the Warriors.
“People talk about Atlanta, well Atlanta is kinda reverting into more rebuild mode, so they might trade Dejounte Murray – by the way, who is another name. I know he’s more of a guard, but that’s a name to at least monitor on the Warriors front,” Slater said on the January 9 episode of the Warriors Plus Minus podcast.
Murray’s $120 million, four-year extension, including incentives, kicks in next season. But another thing to consider for a taxpaying team like the Warriors is that Murray owns the league’s biggest trade kicker ($13.5 million) which will hit the acquiring team’s cap space. Evenly spread in four years, that’s more than $3 million a year on top of his annual salary.
Andrew Wiggins Has Zero Trade Value
Wiggins’ struggles dating back to last season have been giving problem for the Warriors on the trade front, according to NBA insider Marc Stein. They are likely to attach an additional asset to get rid of him.
“Wiggins is seen by some observers as the most likely Warrior to be traded in the wake of Golden State’s 18-21 start. He’s in the first season of a four-year, $109 million deal — which is generally regarded as a quite reasonable contract in today’s NBA marketplace – but the challenge for the Warriors has been creating a market for him after Wiggins’ downturn in production over the past season and a half. Wiggins has started three games this month after moving to a reserve role for 11 games but is shooting a career-worst 29.5% from 3-point range,” Stein wrote in his substack newsletter on January 14.