They wouldn’t. They couldn’t. Right? When it comes to all the potential ways the Warriors could wriggle themselves out of the box they’re currently in—trades, draft maneuvers, free-agent additions—the last one on the list would seem to be trading Stephen Curry. He is, after all, the one player most responsible for turning one of the NBA’s most moribund and uninspiring franchises into a league powerhouse and one of the greatest dynasty teams of the modern era.
Curry has been with the Warriors for 15 seasons and led four championship charges. He revolutionized NBA basketball as we know it and, indeed, the very game as we know it (is there a Caitlin Clark without a Steph?). And he’s done it all for the Warriors, which had been a laughingstock in the years—decades, almost—before his arrival in the 2009 NBA draft.
But now that he is 35 and the Warriors appear to be at a standstill with the current construction of their roster, with their days as a contender seemingly behind them, it could be time to find a new home for Curry, to move him in a trade.
That’s the sentiment from veteran and respected San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler, at least, in what he concedes is a, “unpleasant but necessary discussion.”
Warriors Must ‘Consider the Unthinkable’
In a column this week titled, “Why the Warriors need to consider the unthinkable: trading Steph Curry,” Ostler writes that the only way the Warriors would go down the road on such a move is if two criteria were met. One is that that an “embarrassing future” looms for the club as Curry ages.
But, he adds, the other would be if Curry OK’d a move out of town, as he sought a new team with which he could win.
“If another team will offer the Warriors a bounty of draft picks and prospects in exchange for Curry, thus jump-starting a necessary team overhaul, the Warriors should at least consider the offer, and present it to Curry.
“Every move the Warriors made or considered over the past few seasons, every roster and playing-time decision, has been made with the intention of maximizing the Curry Window. It’s at least possible, though, that the only realistic championship window for Curry is with another team.”
Stephen Curry Averaged 26.4 Points Last Year
That is a hard reality for a team that has seen Curry—coming off a year in which he averaged 26.4 points on 40.8% 3-point shooting—maintain his individual greatness, even as the team’s other two prime stars have struggled. That would be Draymond Green and Klay Thompson.
Both earned reputations as top-flight defensive players at their peaks, but both have seen those skills deteriorate. Green is still useful as a versatile point-forward type, though overpaid at $100 million for four years, the deal he got last summer.
Thompson struggled this season on both ends, but still wants a major payday this summer.
It would be easy to trade away Green and let Thompson walk in free agency, allowing for a rebuild around Curry. But you don’t rebuild with a guy on the back end of his 30s. And it’s a longshot that the Warriors would find two other championship-caliber players to put alongside Curry, anyway.
Rather than uprooting the team around Curry, the logic goes, maybe just uprooting Curry is the better plan.
“The breakup of the big three, whenever and however that happens, will be emotionally wrenching for Curry. But it’s going to happen, and it might be less painful — and more dignified — if it happens via intelligent design, rather than by driving along until the wheels fall off,” Ostler wrote.
