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Golden State heads into Wednesday night’s game in Portland with 28 wins, 26 losses and seemingly at least as many questions.
Injuries have certainly been a major problem as the Warriors try to get their game in order for a proper defense of their hard-won 2022 NBA championship, but there have been too many games when coach Steve Kerr has been left to struggle for answers afterward.
With Thursday’s NBA trade deadline bearing down, a number of eyes are expecting the Dubs to pull something off. According to Heavy Sports sources, they’re certainly active in the market.
“Everybody’s TRYING to do something,” one league exec told Heavy. “The ones I feel HAVE to do something, I mean, Golden State only has a limited window with that trio. The three are Draymond (Green), Klay (Thompson) and Steph (Curry); that’s one more year — now — because I think they’re going to let Draymond move on this summer. Klay is there this year and next at least, and Steph will probably go beyond that (he’s signed through 2025-26). Then they have to make the big decision with him.
“But the fact of the matter is, if you’re going to keep those guys right now and you’re already paying twice your payroll in tax, then you might as well double down one more time and make the moves to try and max their window. So, to me, there’s nobody more incentivized toward making a deal than the Warriors. Now. Right now. This is one of those years. You can’t waste this year. You’ve got to roll with this year.”
Warriors’ Youngsters Up for Discussion
It’s been reported here that Golden State is willing to make some of its young and promising players (Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman, etc.) available in hope they could get a solid veteran type in return — someone the club could count on for more consistency in the postseason and for some stability as it tried to move up and cement its place in the Western Conference seeding. But there appears to have developed some debate within the organization over who should be made available.
“I’m not sure they’re going to find what they’re looking for,” one opposing team official told Heavy Sports. “I think they could use someone else; I don’t know who it is though.
“I know they want to win now and have these younger guys be the foundation for the future and just maintain it, but I think they’ve realized that those guys aren’t the answers and they aren’t the next championship level team. So I do think they would trade guys, but I’m not sure what for — what they’d want or what they could get. That’s a conflict internally with them.”
Anunoby to Golden State?
As for what the Warriors could be after, they may be looking beyond the veterans, as well.
“The guy that probably makes the most sense is OG Anunoby from the Raptors, who also the Sixers want and the Knicks want, because he represents size, low usage, two-way player who makes 3’s,” said a source. “That’s certainly perfect for Golden State.”
When it was pointed out that the 6-7 Anunoby misses quite a few games, he said, “Hey, look, if you’re going to max this window, he’s going to play in the playoffs, isn’t he? Everybody blows off games, but I think he’d be playing more if he were with Golden State.”
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