This is shaping up to be a slow final week before the NBA trade deadline — we may already have seen the biggest deals with James Harden thriving in Los Angeles, Pascal Siakam in Indiana and OG Anunoby sent to New York. The biggest name that legitimately seems like he could be traded is Dejounte Murray, and those trade talks have stalled out. It’s going to be a lot of shuffling of role players with names such as Bruce Brown, Kelly Olynyk and Spencer Dinwiddie potentially on the move, but not the kind of blockbusters that get casual fans ignoring the Super Bowl for a while to talk NBA.
However, the NBA rumor mill abhors a vacuum, and rushing into this quiet space has been ridiculous, talking-heads-looking-for-clicks speculation.
For example, the idea the Warriors would decide to blow everything up at the trade deadline and trade Klay Thompson and/or Draymond Green. That was never on the table in Golden State, even if they know hard decisions are coming this summer, particularly around Thompson.
The Warriors are not interested in trading Green or Thompson, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported — really, confirmed — on SportsCenter. That should have been clear: Green is in the first year of a new, reasonable contract and his value to the team became obvious with his return from suspension, when both the defense ball movement on offense instantly improved; Thompson is making $43.2 million this season, that is a nearly impossible salary to match in a deadline trade (especially for a player not playing All-Star level basketball anymore).
Windhorst said the Warriors might be open to trading Chris Paul and his essentially expiring $30 million for next season (a team option), but Steve Kerr was on Warriors flagship radio station 95.7 The Game and shot that idea down.
“We’re not going to find better players than [Chris Paul & Gary Payton II] in a trade. It’s exceedingly rare to make a deal where you can upgrade your talent to that level.”
The Warriors face a fork in the road this summer about how to conduct the final years of the Stephen Curry era, but those answers are not coming at the trade deadline.
Maybe the wildest speculation came from NBA Champion and rock-solid NBA big man turned ESPN’s loudest mouth Kendrick Perkins, who said, “It’s time for the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler to go their separate ways.” That generated eye rolls around the league, but Butler’s agent, Bernie Lee, tried to squash it by speaking to Hoopshype.
“Put simply he’s never going anywhere.. EVER. He’s going to win a championship in Miami.”
There will not be a blockbuster trade at this deadline (unless you consider Murray a blockbuster). The biggest potential name was Zach LaVine, but the market for him — and mostly his massive contract — remains non-existent in a world where the second apron of the luxury tax has teams re-thinking their spending.
There will be trades, maybe a lot of them in the next week. Just don’t expect any household names like Green, Thompson or Butler to be in that mix.
