2024-25 Golden State Warriors: 99-0

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

I wonder whether tech bros are *more* likely to understand getting assets for Curry, rather than treading water for a couple more years?

I am a tech bro by any definition, and I would love it, were I a Warriors fan.

You are a hoop head before being a tech type. Those who attend the Chase games these days tend to be more of the corporate guest type.

Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of hardcore Warriors fans but it feels like fewer of them can afford to own season tickets. The Warriors were able to transition to Chase at the peak of their run (KD) but I wonder about how people justify paying all that money to watch league average play.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Chase Center won't fill itself and the tech bros aren't likely to show up for Kuminga, TJD, Podz, Moody and whatever young pieces Curry might net in a trade. There aren't enough affluent, league-pass-following families ("dad we got the Rockets picks and Amen!") in the Bay Area to buy these tickets. Maybe Lacob is more bold than we think but they are likely going to ride the decline...

View attachment 95086

Fair commentary and you're probably right about their conclusion and their motives. reflecting on it.

 

[lovegtm]

The thing is, how many years of Steph do they have left regardless? 2? 3? It won't go forever, and they're spending a lot of luxury tax money in the interim.

I guess it does feel like the Warriors were exactly suited to a certain place and era (ZIRP SF), and maybe everyone involved just needs to ride it out to the end, together.

 

[DeJesus Built My Hotrod]

Fair commentary and you're probably right about their conclusion and their motives. reflecting on it.

Honestly a Curry trade might be the single best thing the team could do short of identifying and drafting his replacement this spring. He is still good enough to secure a bunch of assets, especially from the obvious potential trade partners. I would put him on the market this summer and see what shakes out. The cost of running that venue though...

And at this point, they would be doing Curry a favor. His talent is wasted with this roster.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Honestly a Curry trade might be the single best thing the team could do short of identifying and drafting his replacement this spring. He is still good enough to secure a bunch of assets, especially from the obvious potential trade partners. I would put him on the market this summer and see what shakes out. The cost of running that venue though...

And at this point, they would be doing Curry a favor. His talent is wasted with this roster.

Yeah, that's where I started and where (as a basketball fan) I still see it - both team and Curry probably do better.

But the emotional side of it, for both of them, is understandable and real, too. As you note, the financial one for the team also matters in keeping him

 

[BigSoxFan]

Let’s say Curry and GSW are both aligned about him leaving. Which team(s) have the salary filler/ assets/winning to entice him to consider leaving?

OKC
Houston
Memphis?

Feel like there aren’t many obvious fits in the EC.

 

[PedroKsBambino]

Let’s say Curry and GSW are both aligned about him leaving. Which team(s) have the salary filler/ assets/winning to entice him to consider leaving?

OKC
Houston
Memphis?

Feel like there aren’t many obvious fits in the EC.

Garland and Strus for Curry - who says no? Or Garland/Okoro/filler for Curry?

If you're Cleveland and you have to throw in picks or swaps (in like 2031) would you?

 

[the moops]

Let’s say Curry and GSW are both aligned about him leaving. Which team(s) have the salary filler/ assets/winning to entice him to consider leaving?

OKC
Houston
Memphis?

Feel like there aren’t many obvious fits in the EC.

Isn't Orlando a pretty obvious fit in the east?

And I would add San Antonio to the western conference teams

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

PHI would be in the bidding. IND and ATL could if they wanted to.

 

[BigSoxFan]

Isn't Orlando a pretty obvious fit in the east?

And I would add San Antonio to the western conference teams

Orlando would be a good fit but not sure he’d want them although none of us know what he wants at this point.

Spurs are probably looking for a younger star to pair with Wemby but those are very hard to come by. They definitely have the assets.

Hard for me to see him leaving GS for EC mediocrity like Philly, Indy, and Atlanta.

 

[chilidawg]

Trae Young for Curry, who says no?

 

[HomeRunBaker]

Let’s say Curry and GSW are both aligned about him leaving. Which team(s) have the salary filler/ assets/winning to entice him to consider leaving?

OKC
Houston
Memphis?

Feel like there aren’t many obvious fits in the EC.

I dunno I think there are a lot of fits in the EC as others have mentioned. The whole Steph & Mickey thing could also be a marketing machine! Orlando also has additional 1st round picks each of the next two summers so 3 firsts are on the table. They also have plenty of salary filler and enough young players to at least make the conversation interesting.

Spurs would be fun though. As a fan I’d like to see that.

 

[BigSoxFan]

I dunno I think there are a lot of fits in the EC as others have mentioned. The whole Steph & Mickey thing could also be a marketing machine! Orlando also has additional 1st round picks each of the next two summers so 3 firsts are on the table. They also have plenty of salary filler and enough young players to at least make the conversation interesting.

Spurs would be fun though. As a fan I’d like to see that.

Yup. The NBA will be so much more fun when Wemby gets some real help. Some useful pieces already there but he needs a floor raising type and those are hard to source now that their pick and Atlanta’s picks aren’t looking so great.

 

[CreightonGubanich]

I used to think there was no chance the Warriors would ever trade Steph Curry. I'm no longer anywhere near as certain that's true. The comments from Steph, Kerr and Draymond about the long term future of the franchise sound a bit to me like they're priming the pump for those guys to move along in the best interest of the franchise. This season for the Warriors feels very much like the 2013 Celtics, when the C's limped through the season with Pierce and KG, and it became abundantly clear there was no path forward for those guys. As painful as it was, the reality was that if Pierce and KG were your two best players at that point in their career, you weren't a title contender.

I think the Warriors are there now. Steph's better than 2013 Pierce or Garnett, but not by enough of a margin to matter. They don't just need a secondary scorer to play alongside Steph and Dray. Lauri Markkanen or Zach Lavine or even Zion Williamson isn't making this team a contender.

So now what? I don't buy that they'll just continue along listless like this for another season or two. If not, what's the move to improve? I don't see it, which makes a Steph trade much more likely IMO.

 

[Sam Ray Not]

The whole Steph & Mickey thing could also be a marketing machine!

Funnily, Samantha Ray Not's pet name for Steph is "Mickey Mouse," I think because his highlights often seem like the living embodiment of The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Like, when I watch him put Gobert in the spin cycle or get a shot off through four Clippers, I can hear her in my head singing, "Mic-key Mouse, Mic-key Mouse..."

That said: put me in the Bill Simmons re: Bird camp of never wanting to see him in another uniform. I lived through 1986-2012 as a Dubs fan when most of the time .500 seemed like an impossible dream. Perfectly content to live through another 3-4 seasons of mediocrity punctuated by occasional thrilling moments from Steph and the kids, plus the daily pleasure of watching his career numbers climb farther into the stratosphere (currently 4,515 career threes incl. playoffs, or 1,043 more than #2 Harden, and 1,157 more than #3 Ray Allen, and .9106 from the stripe ahead of #2 Nash at .9043 and #3 Mark Price at .9039).

As far as how Steph feels, who knows, but (so far) he seems pretty content to be a Warrior 4 Life. He has four Bay Area native kids, and while he's obviously a global phenomenon I think 16 years in his and Ayesha's social lives are pretty tightly bound up with the Bay Area. I'd also imagine Steph enjoys his rep as a lovable dude and faithful teammate as opposed to a ring-chasing mercenary primadonna like so many other athletes of his generation. But who knows — Steph is obviously a killer competitor beneath the lovable exterior, and prolonged mediocrity with no hope of a fifth ring could get old.

 

[the moops]

Trae Young for Curry, who says no?

Atlanta. Curry can't push them into contender status, and while Trae has his warts, I think over the next half dozen years he provides more value than Steph

 

[Kliq]

If Golden State were to trade Curry (which I would say is much more likely to happen in the off-season that at the deadline) then it would have to be for a haul of future assets, because the team would need to shift to going in the tank for the next few years to rebuild the entire roster. I would be shocked if he was traded for another all-star.

 

[the moops]

which I would say is much more likely to happen in the off-season that at the deadline

It has to be in the offseason. Curry is untradeable this season because of when he signed his extension

 

[BigSoxFan]

If Golden State were to trade Curry (which I would say is much more likely to happen in the off-season that at the deadline) then it would have to be for a haul of future assets, because the team would need to shift to going in the tank for the next few years to rebuild the entire roster. I would be shocked if he was traded for another all-star.

What Curry’s current value is would be another interesting discussion. Are we in “all the pickz” land with him? 2 firsts? 3? Don’t think most teams interested in trading for him would have many expendable young players other than maybe Houston.

 

[Euclis20]

That said: put me in the Bill Simmons re: Bird camp of never wanting to see him in another uniform. I lived through 1986-2012 as a Dubs fan when most of the time .500 seemed like an impossible dream. Perfectly content to live through another 3-4 seasons of mediocrity punctuated by occasional thrilling moments from Steph and the kids, plus the daily pleasure of watching his career numbers climb farther into the stratosphere (currently 4,515 career threes incl. playoffs, or 1,043 more than #2 Harden, and 1,157 more than #3 Ray Allen, and .9106 from the stripe ahead of#2 Nash at .9043 and #3 Mark Price at .9039).

I won't tell you how to feel, but Boston fans have dealt with this twice in recent history:

1. The obvious one is the 2013 Celtics, mentioned above. Steph is still a step better than either Pierce/KG were at that point, but if it's Steph/Draymond vs Pierce/KG, the comp isn't far off. The 2013 Celtics went 41-40 and finished 7th in the east, and lost in round 1 to the Knicks in 6. That series still means something to me - NY went up 3-0, Boston won games 4 and 5 and was down by 26 early in the 4th quarter of game 6 (and that margin means more then than it does now, given that the final score was just 88-80). Boston went on a 20-0 run to make it competitive in the final minutes before the Knicks finally shut the door:

View: https://youtu.be/oFIs_fo8cug?si=UsU_mAvlucePjQcr


I doubt anyone outside of Celtics fans (and maybe some Knicks fans) remembers exactly how the Pierce/KG era ended, but they went out with their heads held high, and it felt right that it ended after that. It goes without saying that the last 7-8 years of Celtics success don't happen without that trade, but Steph obviously means a lot more to the Warriors than Pierce/KG meant to the Celtics, it's harder to let go. Boston fans do have a pretty good Steph comp, outside of the NBA:

2. Tom Brady leaving the Pats in 2020. The aftermath of that move was far worse (Brady was still clearly a top 5 QB and probably should've won another MVP in 2021 to go along with his super bowl MVP in 2020), but at least for me, seeing him finish his career somewhere else doesn't diminish any of the memories that came before it (and I was definitely still rooting for him in Tampa other than when they played the Pats, but I realize that fewer people felt that way at the time). Now that he's a couple of years retired, I'm happy that his title elsewhere cemented his legacy in a way that it just couldn't have happened if he'd stayed till the bitter end in New England, even if he'd won another title here. And I say this knowing full well that he left as a free agent, all the Pats got was dead cap space. With a bit of luck, the Warriors could turn Steph/Draymond into something real.

 

[nattysez]

Chase Center won't fill itself and the tech bros aren't likely to show up for Kuminga, TJD, Podz, Moody and whatever young pieces Curry might net in a trade. There aren't enough affluent, league-pass-following families ("dad we got the Rockets picks and Amen!") in the Bay Area to buy these tickets. Maybe Lacob is more bold than we think but they are likely going to ride the decline...

View attachment 95086

Buying four of the worst seats in the house for Celtics-Warriors would've cost me $700. Getting out of the upper deck immediately jumped me to over $1,000. That is simply not sustainable unless the team is a contender.

I won't tell you how to feel, but Boston fans have dealt with this twice in recent history:

1. The obvious one is the 2013 Celtics, mentioned above. Steph is still a step better than either Pierce/KG were at that point, but if it's Steph/Draymond vs Pierce/KG, the comp isn't far off. The 2013 Celtics went 41-40 and finished 7th in the east, and lost in round 1 to the Knicks in 6. That series still means something to me - NY went up 3-0, Boston won games 4 and 5 and was down by 26 early in the 4th quarter of game 6 (and that margin means more then than it does now, given that the final score was just 88-80). Boston went on a 20-0 run to make it competitive in the final minutes before the Knicks finally shut the door:

View: https://youtu.be/oFIs_fo8cug?si=UsU_mAvlucePjQcr


I doubt anyone outside of Celtics fans (and maybe some Knicks fans) remembers exactly how the Pierce/KG era ended, but they went out with their heads held high, and it felt right that it ended after that. It goes without saying that the last 7-8 years of Celtics success don't happen without that trade, but Steph obviously means a lot more to the Warriors than Pierce/KG meant to the Celtics, it's harder to let go. Boston fans do have a pretty good Steph comp, outside of the NBA:

2. Tom Brady leaving the Pats in 2020. The aftermath of that move was far worse (Brady was still clearly a top 5 QB and probably should've won another MVP in 2021 to go along with his super bowl MVP in 2020), but at least for me, seeing him finish his career somewhere else doesn't diminish any of the memories that came before it (and I was definitely still rooting for him in Tampa other than when they played the Pats, but I realize that fewer people felt that way at the time). Now that he's a couple of years retired, I'm happy that his title elsewhere cemented his legacy in a way that it just couldn't have happened if he'd stayed till the bitter end in New England, even if he'd won another title here. And I say this knowing full well that he left as a free agent, all the Pats got was dead cap space. With a bit of luck, the Warriors could turn Steph/Draymond into something real.

The parallel I keep mentioning is the late-80s/early-90s Celtics, who (similar to the Warriors) had two top draft picks wind up not being able to serve as a bridge to the future, then decided they'd try to stick it out with their 2 of their 3 superstars despite them clearly being on the decline. What followed was 6 years of missing the playoffs and being generally horrible...and me finally getting a call from the Celtics because they reached my name on the season ticket waitlist. The Warriors should be really worried about that happening to them.

Speaking of Boston parallels, I think it's not impossible that Warriors fans could start to feel about Steph the way Boston fans felt about Bourque at the end -- he's got to get traded to win a(nother) ring.

I wonder what the Spurs could look like with Steph and one other really good FA.

I agree with the suggestions above that any trade of Steph is going to be for multiple draft picks and salary filler. They are not going to try to trade for a superstar.

I'm also curious what Draymond could fetch (if anything) in the off-season.

 

[InstaFace]

Trae Young for Curry, who says no?

The Celtics, who would worry quite a lot more about today's Hawks if you replaced Trae with an even better shooter who works his ass off every second he's on the court and can play passable defense. Well, I guess we'd say it more like "noooooooo!!!!!".

...but seriously, the Dubs say no because Trae is signed for $43 this year, $46 next year, $49 player option the year after that, and if you're going to be tied down that long, you might as well just keep and play Curry (for $56, $60, $63), and let the franchise's best player of all time ride it out at home. The Hawks would be all over a Trae-for-Curry deal like flies on shit, though, if one were available that didn't cost them every good young asset they've got.

 

[Tony C]

It has to be in the offseason. Curry is untradeable this season because of when he signed his extension

Why?

I don't mean "why" in response to you, but why is the NBA's CBA is filled with these caveats. Who was it who at the negotiating table btw owners/players said that we must have this rule (and the seemingly gazillion other weird caveats about trades/contracts whose logic always escapes me)?

 

[the moops]

Why?

I don't mean "why" in response to you, but why is the NBA's CBA is filled with these caveats. Who was it who at the negotiating table btw owners/players said that we must have this rule (and the seemingly gazillion other weird caveats about trades/contracts whose logic always escapes me)?

I think it was to avoid the "sign a guy in the beginning of the year to a ridiculous balloon contract just so he is a waking trade exception".

 

[nattysez]

It has to be in the offseason. Curry is untradeable this season because of when he signed his extension

Just to irritate TonyC further, this is apparently not true.

This may surprise some, but Curry can still be traded this season, even immediately upon signing his extension.
With the new rules of the 2023 collective bargaining agreement, players can extend for up to 120 percent and four total years without exceeding the extend-and-trade limitations. Curry's extension is 105 percent, and his revised contract has three total years, so the typical six-month trade restriction doesn't apply.
None of the above is meant to suggest that the Warriors or Curry are looking to part ways. Factually, however, it's legal this season.
Note: Had Curry extended at the full 120 percent, his salary would automatically reduce to $62.6 million (105 percent) before the 2026-27 season, and he would be trade-restricted past the Feb. 6 deadline. Per a source familiar with the extension, Curry's salary is explicitly at the 105 percent dollar figure, not the 120 percent climb.

Also, interesting caveat Steph added here:

"I've always said I want to be a Warrior for life," Curry told Andscape in July. "At this stage in my career, I feel like that's possible."

However, he also expressed his desire to remain with a competitive team, saying that "if it is a situation where you're a bottom-feeder and it's just because you want to stay there, I'd have a hard time with that. But I don't think that's going to be the reality."

https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/41041958/warriors-stephen-curry-agree-1-year-626m-extension