golden state warriors trade rumors (Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images North America)
With the trade deadline quickly approaching, many teams are involved in trade rumors, including the Golden State Warriors.
According to Sam Amick of USA Today Sports, many NBA executives said that the Warriors are willing to discuss trading anyone on their roster except Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut.
Whether or not polling NBA executives about the Warriors means anything, Golden State’s ownership group and general manager are known for being aggressive in the trade market, so we’ll see how bold they are at the trade deadline.
One of the biggest criticisms involving the Warriors this season has been their bench. The Warriors have already made one upgrade to their bench with the addition of Jordan Crawford.
If the Warriors look to make another trade, they will most likely add another bench player. The trade deadline is February 20th, so the Warriors have a little over a week to make a move, if possible. Here are some possible trade scenarios that have been presented by media.
First of all, Sean Deveney of The Sporting News reported on Monday that the Warriors, along with the Phoenix Suns and the Charlotte Bobcats, have shown trade interest in Boston Celtics forward Brandon Bass.
Bass would certainly improve the Warriors’ bench. So far this season, Bass is averaging 10.8 points and 5.8 rebounds in 27.4 minutes per game. He’s also shooting 47.5 percent from the field.
The 6-foot-8 power forward is an eight-year NBA veteran who has playoff experience.
Even though Marreese Speights has shown signs of improvement since the beginning of the season, he has still been inconsistent. Because of that, it might make sense for the Warriors to trade for a player like Bass.
However, according the Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group, it’s unlikely the Warriors will actually trade for Bass.
So what are some other trade possibilities?
Tim Kawakami of the San Jose Mercury News recently wrote about several other scenarios involving the Warriors, including two players who in his opinion are the most trade-able.
Kawakami believes that David Lee and Harrison Barnes are the two players most likely be traded, because they are both replaceable in the trade market and desirable.
According to Kawakami, moving Lee’s inflated contract gives the Warriors more salary cap space to possibly chase after a big free agent this summer such as LeBron James.
Kawakami suggests that the Warriors would have to trade with a team that would be willing to take on a big contract and give away some talent, such as the Cleveland Cavaliers or Detroit Pistons.
Here are the trade scenarios Kawakami suggests:
1) Lee and Barnes to Cleveland for Luol Deng and Dion Waiters
This would have to be two separate trades (Lee for Deng, Barnes for Waiters), since Deng has already been traded once this season.
Deng is a solid all-around player who is an elite defender, and Waiters is a talented, young scorer. This would give the Warriors some salary cap flexibility by losing Lee’s contract and adding just a one-year contract from Deng. It also adds some youth and extra scoring to their bench.
An adjustment to this trade would be Lee, Barnes, Festus Ezeli, and Nemanja Nedovic to Cleveland for Deng and Jarrett Jack.
2) Barnes to Detroit for Greg Monroe.
The Warriors could use a low-post scorer, and Monroe would fill that role. Since Monroe can post up, he would also fill the backup power forward role more similarly to how Carl Landry did last season than how Speights is doing this season.
Going into the trade deadline, the Warriors have several options in order to improve their roster and salary cap situation.
What moves do you think Joe Lacob and Bob Myers should do?
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