Getty Steve Kerr, Warriors coach
The Golden State Warriors are willing to sell the farm for a chance to contend at the end of Steph Curry’s legendary NBA career.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Thursday, January 11, that everyone on the roster except Curry is available ahead of the league’s February 8 trade deadline.
“The mindset in Golden State right now is everyone but Steph Curry is on the table.”
@ShamsCharania on the Golden State Warriors.
“The mindset in Golden State right now is everyone but Steph Curry is on the table,” Charania said on FanDuel TV.
The Warriors are currently 17-20, losers of two in a row and have a record of 4-6 over their previous 10 games. Were the postseason to begin today, the Dubs would miss the NBA Play-In Tournament as the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference.
Warriors Change Tune on Willingness to Trade Superstars
Getty Steph Curry (left) and Klay Thompson (right) of the Golden State Warriors talk on the court during an NBA game.
The new attitude in Golden State is a stark change from not just the last several years, but the last several days, in which a report from NBA insider Marc Stein came out indicating that the franchise wasn’t willing to break up the core trio of Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
Chris Paul has been a subject of potential trades since the Dubs acquired him from the Washington Wizards in July. Paul, who is currently out 4-6 weeks due to a fractured hand, is a valuable trade chip for a team looking to get off salary. Paul is currently playing on a nearly $31 million expiring contract.
Golden State has also been increasingly open to dealing Andrew Wiggins, who has not been the same player he was when the Dubs won the championship two years ago. However, Wiggins’ extreme dips in offensive production — 5.4 points per game, 7.2% on 2-point fields goals and nearly 10% from deep, per Basketball Reference — raise legitimate questions about which teams might be interested in trading for him and what the Warriors could reasonably expect to get in return.
Wiggins is also down a full assist per game and nearly a full rebound this season compared to the last. He has three more years — plus a player option on a fourth year — remaining on his contract, and the team owes him a total of $109 million over that span.
Warriors’ Young Talent Could Prove Tough to Trade for Multiple Reasons
Getty Jonathan Kuminga of the Golden State Warriors.
Some of the Warriors’ young players, such as Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, have voiced displeasure with the inconsistency of their roles in their third seasons. Golden State’s group of young talent might comprise its most attractive trade assets, but dealing some of those players is more complicated now than it would have at points in the recent past.
Kuminga has started 15 games for the Warriors this season and averaged nearly 23 minutes per game, while rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis have carved out significant roles in the rotation and could both argue for more starts as their games develop over the back half of the year.
Meanwhile, Green just returned to the team after a 12-game suspension for hitting Jusuf Nurkic of the Phoenix Suns in the face during a contest in December. Green also openly voiced that he was considering retirement before NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talked him out of that course of action.
Thompson has played better over the past few weeks after starting the season in an awful shooting slump. However, back-to-back ACL and Achilles injuries that sidelined him for two and a half years starting in the summer of 2019 appear to have irrevocably damaged his abilities on defense.
Steph Curry Proponent of Warriors Actively Seeking Trades
GettySteph Curry of the Golden State Warriors.
While the true talent level of some of the Warriors’ young players is hard to gauge and the value of some of their championship veterans appears significantly diminished, the star of the team has made clear the need for the organization to make a move.
“We have a standard that’s pretty evident that if things stay the same you know that’s a definition of insanity, right?” Curry told media members Tuesday night. “Keep doing the same thing expecting a different result.”
Golden State has lost its last two games, both at home, to the lowly Toronto Raptors and the New Orleans Pelicans by 15 points and 36 points, respectively.