Remember when the Warriors insisted publicly and privately they didn’t acquire D’Angelo Russell just as a trade asset then traded him before he finished a single season in Golden State? No?
Anyway, the Warriors still have Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Klay Thompson in their primes (at least hypothetically). Golden State also has intriguing young players in James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody and Jordan Poole.
Trading those youngsters for someone more capable of helping while the window remains open around Curry, Green and Thompson would make sense. Building a team this good is difficult. It’d be a shame not to maximize this opportunity to win.
However, the Warriors haven’t really pushed to acquire extremely-available Ben Simmons. In fact, Golden State owner Joe Lacob called a blockbuster trade very unlikely.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic:Joe Lacob isn’t bluffing. He does not want to trade James Wiseman or Jonathan Kuminga. You can question his vision, but I wouldn’t be skeptical of the transparency.
Go reread the quotes, if you want. He envisions Wiseman and Kuminga as supplementary, cheaper rotation pieces around an expensive core during their first NBA contract and the franchise’s superstar successors by the time they hit their second NBA contracts, ushering in the Warriors’ next era.
Simmons would be a tricky fit with Green. The Warriors should be skeptical about trading for Simmons, whose flaws become more pronounced in the playoffs.
But this sounds like Golden State’s commitment to keeping Wiseman and Kuminga goes well beyond a Simmons trade. And maybe that is truly the plan.
But after how the Russell situation unfolded, I darned sure wouldn’t trust the Warriors on that.
