The Golden State Warriors are among the league’s best early in the season.
Many wrote the end of the Golden State Warriors dynasty after a poor result in the Play-In Tournament just one season ago — especially as Klay Thompson left the club in the offseason in favor of the Dallas Mavericks.
However, the Warriors weren’t ever going to hit the reset button. With four titles with Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Thompson at the helm, it’d be doing them a disservice not to do everything in their power to try and compete until all three are no longer members of the club.
The team re-tooled after Thompson’s departure, and they are 7-1 early in the 2024-25 NBA season. They’ve been quite the surprise team as they’ve built a winning squad in a situation where many didn’t expect them to. They can now get aggressive on the trade market and try to build a championship-contending squad.
All signs point towards the Warriors getting aggressive at the trade deadline given their current circumstances. This offseason, they tried to trade for Paul George and Lauri Markkanen — though they were unable to acquire either star guard.
It’s not just offseason moves, either. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on “First Take,” Golden State attempted to land LeBron James at the trade deadline a season ago, and should be aggressive at the deadline again this year.
“The Warriors are the biggest candidate in my mind to make a big trade. They tried to trade for LeBron James last trade deadline… This is a team that’s got an itchy trigger finger trying to make a big deal,” Windhorst reported.
James paired with Curry in Golden State with the two competing hand-in-hand to win an NBA title might have just taken over the basketball world — and it’s absolutely one of the wildest “what-ifs” in league history.
Evidently, the Warriors have looked solid early in the season and will continue to look good — especially if they land a star player at the trade deadline. They could certainly be in the contending conversation if they can sustain success with the current edition of their roster.
While the Warriors are in a position to get aggressive and make a big-time trade to bolster their squad around Curry, the trade market and who becomes available in talks dictates what they can even accomplish.
However, The Athletic’s Sam Amick recently reported that “one name to monitor” is Miami Heat star guard Jimmy Butler, who’s been an impeccable playoff performer in recent years.
“Yet while rival executives believe the Warriors are more willing than ever to include Kuminga in a trade of significant magnitude, the fact remains that they’re setting their sights very high in terms of possible targets,” Amick reported. “One name to monitor is Jimmy Butler, the 35-year-old Miami Heat star who league sources say drew interest from the Warriors during the offseason and who did not come to terms on an extension. He’ll be an unrestricted free agent next summer.”
The Warriors could get Butler for a discounted price as his trade value is lower with no contract extension and the ability to freely negotiate in free agency next summer. For the Heat, pivoting for a young potential star like Jonathan Kuminga could make sense, too, adding him to a core of Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo to position their franchise for more sustainable success.
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