Warriors have ‘100%’ discussed trading Green
Are the Golden State Warriors going to bring back their old buddy Kevin Durant? Are they, weeks after an apparent existential crisis about “mortgaging the future,” going to trade 22-year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga? It’s the day before the deadline, and questions are swirling.
All that we know for sure is that Golden State is not content with hovering around .500. Stephen Curry wants the team to “be in the conversation,” even though he doesn’t know what that would take, and the franchise would like to honor him, if that is possible. From the sounds of it, Golden State is open to just about anything that would vault it closer to championship contention. And I mean anything.
“They’re in the middle of this desperate time,” The Athletic’s Sam Amick said on Wednesday’s episode of “Run It Back” on FanDuel TV, “where they’re trying to get another star, and, as of yesterday, we’re looking at it, going, ‘Oh, boy, they might actually get off Draymond.'”
Yes, Draymond. Draymond Green. Seven months after Klay Thompson left the Bay Area, could the Warriors really move another another four-time champ, another future Hall of Famer, another player who has spent his entire career with them? They drafted him No. 35 overall in 2012, having no idea that he would become one of the best defenders who has ever lived and no idea that he would supplant an injured David Lee in the starting lineup, a franchise-changing — and game-changing — event that seems inevitable in retrospect. Green has said he would like to play in Golden State until he retires; even if that’s still likely, Golden State merely exploring the idea of trading him is noteworthy.
Amick did not come close to implying that the Warriors are on the verge of trading Green, who turns 35 in March but remains one of the league’s best defenders and smartest players. In fact, he said that he doesn’t think it’ll happen, “but it’s 100% been discussed internally.”
On Tuesday, in a story co-bylined by Amick, David Aldridge and Anthony Slater, The Athletic reported that Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia, who was a walk-on at Michigan State and “has an established relationship” with Green, who starred for the Spartans, is “known to covet” the eight-time All-Defensive team member. How exactly this piece of information fits in with the Suns’ ongoing pursuit of Jimmy Butler is a mystery to me, but it’s interesting.
Is there a world in which the Warriors reunite with Durant but Green isn’t a part of it? I genuinely don’t know, and the Dallas Mavericks just traded Luka Doncic, so, as far as I’m concerned, up is down, right is left and pigs are flying. As much as I’d like to completely dismiss this profoundly weird possibility, I don’t feel like I can.
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