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NBA Trade Deadline Week this year started with the surprise that James Harden again wants to be on a different team and turned to shock on Tuesday morning when the 19-win Memphis Grizzlies and 15-win Utah Jazz got together for a blockbuster trade.
The Grizzlies’ rebuild is underway, but Ja Morant isn’t the first domino to fall. Jaren Jackson Jr. is being traded from the Grizzlies to the Jazz in a deal that involves eight players and three first-round picks being sent to Utah, ESPN’s Shams Charania reported, citing sources.
Stunning is an appropriate word for the move. Jackson, a big fish, is off the board and he’s joining a team nobody envisioned. The biggest fish remains on the market with the unknown if he’s staying in the water until the summer or about to jump ship.
It’s no surprise that the Warriors are one of a few teams strongly pursuing Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo. The real question is about Plan B. What if the Warriors again are connected to Antetokounmpo just to be a talking point?
All indications suggest the Warriors are working under the assumption that Jimmy Butler will be rehabbing his torn ACL with them and returning to run it back next season. That’s the scenario they want and he wants. Butler has loved his time in the Bay Area, both from a regional standpoint and especially from a basketball standpoint.
Holding onto Butler’s $54.1 million contract that’s identical to Antetokounmpo’s this year, and pays him $56.8 million next year, opens trade talks with Draymond Green, who is paid a little under $26 million this season, Jonathan Kuminga, who the Bucks have expressed past interest in, per sources, plus more and a haul of draft picks.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr acknowledged he has talked to Green about the rumors, and Draymond after the Warriors’ last home game said, “I’ve been here for 14 years. I have no reason to sit and worry about leaving. But if I’m traded, that’s part of the business. I ain’t losing no sleep though. I slept great last night.”
All the Warriors’ eggs are in a Greek basket. Their pursuit of Antetokounmpo dates back years now, and getting it done by Thursday’s noon PT deadline is their best chance of finally sealing the deal. Antetokounmpo will have more leverage of where he wants to go in the summer, and more teams will have draft capital that can match or beat the Warriors’ best offer.
What Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy has to weigh is whether there’s an option outside of Antetokounmpo worth putting chips on the table for in the next two days. The Warriors enter their last game ahead of the trade deadline as the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference at 27-23.
Dunleavy spoke to media members shortly after Butler’s season-ending diagnosis and was asked if his main objective is still to have Steph Curry and this team playing meaningful basketball in the spring.
One word: “Yeah,” Dunleavy said.
Matching that response after Butler’s injury isn’t going to be easy for the current construction of the Warriors. From the time that the Warriors acquired Butler at last year’s deadline to his injury, the Warriors had the fifth-best record in the NBA (48-27) and the fourth-most wins. Only the Oklahoma City Thunder (63-13), Boston Celtics (51-21) and Detroit Pistons (49-22) had more wins.
The Warriors have gone 2-4 since Butler’s injury and Curry now is out because of right patellofemoral pain syndrome, which is more commonly known as “runner’s knee.” Curry’s a month-plus from turning 38 years old and has been putting together a historically elite season, but again doesn’t have a co-star alongside him. The burden he’ll carry could put him in a back brace by his birthday.
While the Warriors remain enamored by Trey Murphy, the Pelicans haven’t shown the willingness to make him available. Michael Porter Jr. is extension eligible this summer and it’s looking like he’ll remain in a Nets jersey past the deadline, unless the team turns their attention to the draft and shops him harder for franchises looking at an Antetokounmpo alternative.
Unless it’s a star, the Warriors don’t want to take back money for next season in an attempt to keep making their books cleaner as an expensive aging team. Even the suggestion of an Andrew Wiggins reunion, who still has a lot of love by the Warriors, was quickly shot down from one league source who said, “they aren’t paying that.” Wiggins has a $30.1 million player option next season.
There’s a real chance the Warriors hold onto all their assets and give it another go in the summer. They hold a $24.3 million team option on Kuminga’s contract, and Brandin Podziemski will become rookie contract extension eligible. There’s also the real chance a lower-tier move is in the works, or a new mystery unfolds.
Just last year, the Warriors were set to have Kevin Durant on their team again, until they weren’t. They then pivoted to Butler. They were out of the running on him, until they weren’t. A year later, everything has changed since he went down.
The Giannis Sweepstakes is well-known. Plan B, if there is one for the immediate future, is the bigger question.