Preview: Amidst seismic league shakeups, Warriors still watching
LaVine heads to Sacramento; Green questionable as Warriors host the Magic
If you’ve managed to stay out of the NBA news cycle for a couple of days, you may have missed a massive trade - and another that saw potential Warriors trade target, Zach LaVine moved. It’s an interesting time to be one of the folks watching, but the prevailing sentiment is that it would have been better if the Warriors had been able to get into the action.
But Golden State is still taking a measured approach that will be bolstered a lot once Draymond Green returns. Out since January 18th, he’s missed the team’s last seven games but is - as they say - ramping up:
“He practiced today and scrimmaged yesterday,” Kerr said on Saturday. “He’s looking good. We’ll call him questionable for Monday, but he’s trending in the right direction.”Kerr said the team will make an official decision on whether Green will play against Orlando on Monday after the team’s walkthrough.
Trending in the right direction. We should all be so lucky!
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (24-24) vs Orlando Magic (24-26)
WHEN: Monday, February 3rd, 2025; 7pm PST
WATCH: NBCSBA
Let’s rehash, in order of significance.
As always, looking inward is the first and most important step.
That the Warriors wanted to do a major trade is clear. Shouldn’t be much of a surprise either for a floundering team hoping to give Curry one more legitimate look at a championship run. Sitting at .500, it’s not impossible; but the scale of improvement will have to be staggering - even with the return of both Green and Kuminga (who is still a ways out from coming back).
Asked after losing to the Suns if the team should look to make some trades, Curry said: “It’s not for me to make those decisions, I mean I want to win so whatever it means to do that.”
To their credit, the Warriors front office has reportedly been hard at work.
"Lots to unpack with the Warriors, who attempted to make some big swings over the last 72 hours. Not only did they call the Suns last week about Kevin Durant, but they also held deep talks with the Bulls about LaVine AND Vuc. Everything then shifted to Butler, which fell apart."
In the NBA - or any professional sport - close isn’t good enough. Durant would have been fun, heck, even LaVine and/or Vucevic would jiggle the handle on the sputtering Warriors machine. It’s hard, but no harder than trades that these other teams are making. No, for Golden State, this is apparently still coming down to opportunity cost; and the Warriors’ Front Office doesn’t like what they see out there. But this lack of movement is beginning to drag. The truth is that even if the Warriors blew it up and traded everyone but Curry, it’s still hard to imagine them hauling in a better team. In baseball terms, they are probably going to have to switch to trying to hit singles. The home run ball just isn’t there for this franchise right now, apparently.
The Los Angeles Lakers have done it again, managing to swing an apparently lopsided deal that instantly changes the Western Conference. As our own Daniel Hardee so eloquently summed up: “The Dallas Mavericks sent Luka Freakin’ Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers for ANTHONY DAVIS?!”
Here’s the full trade:
Mavericks receive: Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and the Lakers 2029 first-round pick
(Jazz receive: Jalen Hood-Schifino and two second-round picks)
Lakers receive: Maxi Kleber, Markieff Morris, and of course, Luka Doncic.
The craziest part of this isn’t that there was absolutely zero rumors of this prior to the transaction happening. No, the craziest part is that reportedly, the Mavericks didn’t even call other teams about Doncic. There’s a lot about this world that I don’t understand, but not doing due diligence on your generational 25 year-old talent goes fairly high up on the list. Shocking.
And then, last night: boom. Another big name on the move via trade. De’Aaron Fox was moved to the San Antonio Spurs in a heavily rumored deal that also happens to involve three teams:
Spurs get: Fox, Jordan McLaughlin
Kings get: LaVine, Sidy Cissoko, three first-round picks (2025 via Hornets, 2027 via Spurs, 2031 via Timberwolves)
Bulls get: Zach Collins, Tre Jones, Kevin Huerter, their own 2025 first-round pick from Spurs
The Kings weren’t excited about paying De’Aaron Fox a supermax contract, but ending up with the old Bulls pairing of DeRozan and LaVine is a weird look. That said, the Warriors were one of many teams rumored to be interested in LaVine - he’s not a bad player. The more imminent danger is the Spurs. Reigning Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama gets a dynamic point guard pairing, and both are young enough to build something together in San Antonio.
So where does that leave the Warriors?
Actively fishing for answers, inside and outside of their own walls. Just a few more days before the NBA trade deadline locks these rosters down (outside of veteran minimum contracts).
Predictions
Green misses this one, but will be back for the next game. Warriors will play angry and win. (But they’re going to keep looking for a big trade)
Post-game thread up!
A few more thoughts on the Doncic trade which maybe I should have turned into an article.
1. Thanks to Sab for finding the Zach Lowe commentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqWXoRNJ0oA&t=6s He had a similar reaction to me, focusing on the whole DAL lack of testing the market issue. I’m not all the way to “outraged” but I was definitely perplexed.
2. This leads to the interesting question of who has the standing to be outraged about this trade. Last thread, Attila and I batted this around as did Asher. One stance is something like “What do you care that DAL is doing bad process? The ownership agreed to it, it’s their team.”
2a. The easiest answer is “I’m outraged on behalf of the DAL fans who got screwed by their franchise.” However, the truth is, I only care a little bit about those fans (as much as I care for all fellow humans), and with my Warriors fan hat on, I am glad DAL is screwing up, particularly since I really don’t like the ownership.
2b. The deeper answer is that it feels unfair to the integrity of the league. Suppose DAL secretly traded Luka to LAL for no Anthony Davis, but just salary filler, and DAL even threw in picks. Suppose they did it because the owners had a crush on the LAL owner. I think most people would agree that it would be bad for the league if this happened. Yet, this kind of move would be justified by the “what do you care” position. And if you believe in some version of “integrity of the league”, then every fan has standing to be outraged.
3. Having said all that, I have come to the conclusion that the secrecy thing might not have been as irresponsible as it seems. What could be Nico Harrison’s reasons to (1) get the trade done by this year’s deadline and (2) not let Luka and other teams know about the trade attempts?
The answer to (1) would be in plain sight. He needed to get the trade done now because Luka’s value was going to go down. What would change between the deadline and the end of the season? Luka is returning from injury. Luka has had a well reported feud with the team around his conditioning and conditioning staff. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nba/news/luka-doncic-timeline-conditioning-trouble-mavericks-concerns/7ee112c97fbec687b80c6962
Nico likely expects Luka will come back from his longest injury rehab in very bad shape, which will reduce his value by putting a spotlight on this issue, even aside from the question of whether Luka plays well on return. Luka doesn’t yet have Zion’s reputation, but might earn it after this rehab.
The answer to (2) is also in plain sight. If Luka knew he was being shopped, Nico thought Luka would try to direct his landing spot and tank his own trade value (to make his new team as good as possible). For instance, look at Fox and Butler’s actions this week.
So, Harrison gave up the potential efficiency of getting better offers by negotiating a secret deal with his good friend LAL GM Pelinka.
Was it the right decision? Time will tell, but it could have been a justifiable decision, assuming the inside knowledge above.
In the end, my hope is that this trade works out terribly for both teams. I think Dub Nation can agree on that.