Warriors Trade Roundup 1. Dejounte Murray, Clint Capela, Thaddeus Young and Bruce Brown
Something to hate for everyone
Sab warned me that there was a hot take from Woj coming a few days ago, and I was braced for some flames, but I found that report quite mild. The front office BETTER be weighing the trade value of everyone on the roster, except Steph. (Trading Steph would be commercial suicide as well as probably performance suicide.)
I don’t think you can decide from first principles whether to trade the young guys, the old guys, everybody or nobody. All arguments in these different directions have merit. I think it’s going to come down to the precise trades they are offered, and we’ll never know the details of that. And that is very volatile, given you only need one GM to overvalue or undervalue a player to cause chaos.
I have a love-hate relationship with the trade machine. I find creative reorganization intriguing. I don’t like how so many fans don’t understand trade rules — that part is fine — and then get loud and wrong about how a team is so stupid for not doing this obvious trade.
Fans also highly overrate their own players. I’m prone too. (I couldn’t believe we had to throw in a pick with Jordan Poole to get Chris Paul; I couldn’t believe that D’Angelo Russell fetched the albatross contract of Andrew Wiggins and only got back a single 1st round protected pick.)
So my rule of thumb is, I don’t want to discuss trades unless
They work in the trade machine (either ESPN or FanSpo is okay)
They are floated by someone who gets paid to talk about the NBA
Rule 2 doesn’t make people particularly smarter, but when a professional puts their name on a trade idea, they are putting a little bit of reputation on the line.
Here are a few ideas I’ve seen floating around. Since you’re probably a Warriors fan reading this, you’ll probably think every trade is a rip off against the Warriors, but maybe there’s something interesting in this pile.
1. Thaddeus Young, Bruce Brown
From Sports Illustrated — which incidentally after failing to hire DNHQ — gave up on humans entirely and replaced its entire staff with an AI:
TOR gets Chris Paul & picks
GSW gets Thaddeus Young, Bruce Brown
Brown is currently averaging 12.1 points, 4.7 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.1 steals per contest while shooting 47.5% from the field and 32.7% from the three-point range in 33 games.
Last season, he played a significant role for the Denver Nuggets, who were the first seed in the Western Conference and won the NBA Championship over the Miami Heat.
In addition, Gary Payton II has missed the previous seven games, and the Warriors lack size on the roster.
Brown has the capability to be one of the best role players in the NBA, and Young is a veteran-forward who can defend and has 17 seasons of experience.
Update: FYI, when I checked this trade on FanSpo, it was rejected with the note
Bruce Brown cannot be traded to a team aggregated with other players from his team because 2 months have not passed since he was traded for. He can only be traded away to a team by himself and other non-player assets from his team (draft picks, cash considerations, etc). This restriction expires after Mar 17, 2024.
If this is true, then this exact trade is not possible.
For the sake of this poll, consider “picks” = 2026 first-round pick (top-four protection) & 2026 second-round pick (its own).
2. Clint Capela
GSW gets Clint Capela
ATL gets Andrew Wiggins
I haven’t watched much ATL the last… well ever, but Capela I think of as taller TJD.
Nevertheless, the Hawks’ defensive structure has been a mess, and that includes Capela’s interior presence. His guards haven’t helped him a ton, but he’s looked a step slower this season defending in space and in drop coverage on pick-and-rolls. That could be the effect of multiple Achilles injuries that have nagged Capela for a few seasons now; he’s missed a couple of games in January dealing with right Achilles soreness.
When he’s right, Capela is a terrific screen-and-roll player who can attack the glass on both ends, finish above the rim and contest shots in the paint. Capela, however, is shooting his worst percentage from the field since his third NBA season and hardly looks as bouncy as he’s been previously.
Still, with minimal center choices available on the market, this version of Capela could be useful for a contender that needs size. Even in a down year, he’s still averaging 12 points and 11 rebounds per game. He has only one season left on his deal, so he won’t add unreasonable money to a team’s long-term books.
3. Dejounte Murray and DeAndre Hunter
Bleacher Report gives us:
ATL gets
Moses Moody
Chris Paul
Cory Joseph
2026 first-round pick (top-four protection), 2026 second-round pick (its own), 2028 second-round pick (its own)
GSW gets
De'Andre Hunter
Dejounte Murray
While Murray has made strides as a 3-point shooter — he’s hitting 39 percent on six attempts per game this season — he’s not as impactful off the ball as he is on it, which has diminished his overall impact. Additionally, Murray’s strong defense has taken a dive from its previous heights in San Antonio, when he was an All-Defense-level performer. He still gets steals occasionally but hasn’t been quite as engaged off the ball this season. Any team acquiring Murray is doing so in large part because it believes his play on that end rebounds.
Murray signed a four-year, $114 million extension this summer with a player option in 2027, meaning he’s locked in for the long term. If he gets back to his prior defensive heights upon leaving his current messy situation in Atlanta, his average annual value of about $28 million is a reasonable price tag. But any team acquiring him should probably do so with an eye toward returning him to the lead guard spot.
Hunter’s skill set is polarizing for scouts league-wide. Some evaluators love Hunter’s ability to take on tough defensive matchups against bigger, longer wings. At 6-foot-8 with a 7-foot-2 wingspan, he’s always been a terrific on-ball, one-on-one defender who can at least make life harder for the league’s best scorers.
However, he’s never been a particularly aggressive or disruptive team defender off the ball. Hunter was drafted with the hope he could fix Atlanta’s defense, but the Hawks have never ranked in the top 20 in points allowed per 100 possessions since he arrived.
On offense, Hunter can make open catch-and-shoot 3s but doesn’t tend to take a ton of them, often preferring to find his way into midrange areas. Hawks coach Quin Snyder has at least helped Hunter excise some of those shots from his profile. Hunter is more long than he is quick, so it’s relatively easy for his man to stay in front of him on drives. That exacerbates his struggles as a passer, as he rarely forces any sort of help rotations when attacking the basket.
Apricot says: I find Murray intriguing. He used to be a decent defender (steals leader and made all-defensive team), and can hit 3s and create some off the dribble. I think he’d slot in at the 2 in a Steph-Murray-Klay-JK-Dray crunch time lineup. Reportedly his game has fallen off since the move to ATL, but… can you really blame him. That trade does nothing to relieve the minutes shortage, but would definitely be an infusion of talent. I don’t know why ATL does that… I figure we’d have to give up at least Kuminga for Murray.
The season rides on the health of Ste… checks notes. GP2 and Chris Paul? Oh dear.
Weird hypothetical: which would you rather have?
A. Warriors pull off a heist of a trade on a par with Wiggins for D'Angelo Russell, or
B. Warriors players play to their potential, meaning each player on the team simply plays at or near the best we've seen from him?