NBA Rumors: The Golden State Warriors may already have blown their best chance to land a difference-making star via trade.
After the first month of the season, the Golden State Warriors had the look of a potential contender in the Western Conference. However, after the last couple of weeks, there are more questions than answers for the Warriors. After getting off to a 12-3 start to the season, the Warriors have dropped six of their last seven games. Even though the Warriors have taken a tumble in the West standings, this is still a team with much promise and potential.
However, making a move at the trade deadline to upgrade the roster may be a necessity at this point. The problem is, that their best chance to make a difference-making move may have already passed. Dating back to the offseason, the argument to be made that was their best chance to make a big move - when they pursued Paul George and then Lauri Markkanen.
For one reason or another, the Warriors emerged empty-handed on both pursuits. Why? That's difficult to tell. On the PG front, perhaps the LA Clippers didn't want to send him to a Western Conference rival. On the Markkanen pursuit, it was reported that the Warriors were never all-in in these trade talks. Whatever the case truly was, it's pretty clear the Warriors may have missed their best shot to significantly upgrade this roster and, in turn, expand this team's championship window.
I'm sure the Warriors are still going to be aggressive heading into the NBA Trade Deadline season but, at least for now, it's hard to imagine the Warriors pulling off a huge, season-altering move at the deadline. If that does end up being the case, that's truly unfortunate considering how "close" this team was to doing so during the offseason.
Will there be a move to make at the NBA Trade Deadline?
Because of what the Warriors passed on during the offseason and the players on their roster that they may be open to trading, I'm not sure if there's a simple move for the team to make at the NBA Trade Deadline. In theory, sure, the Warriors would want to make an upgrade to the team at the deadine. But, if I had to guess, the Warriors are probably still not sold on trading Podziemski and are likely still bullish on the idea of trading Kuminga.
That means that the Warriors will be heading into the NBA Trade Deadline with the hopes of upgrading their roster with the openness of trading Andrew Wiggins (if so), De'Anthony Melton's contract, and maybe Moses Moody. The Warriors do have draft capital to include but that's not a promising package to shop on the open market.
The more and more you think about it, the more you begin to realize that there's a very good chance that the Warriors did blow a golden opportunity to upgrade their roster during the offseason. And because of that, the Warriors may have to wait until next offseason to make their big move or, perhaps more depressing, one may not be coming.