The Warriors suffered a major blow earlier this week, losing Jimmy Butler to a season-ending ACL injury. Butler’s absence likely takes Golden State out of title contention this season, barring a significant move at the upcoming trade deadline. It also puts an even brighter spotlight on Jonathan Kuminga, who is both the most likely Warrior to be moved in a deal and a player the team may now need to lean on in Butler’s absence.
ESPN’s Shams Charania reiterated Sacramento’s interest in Kuminga in his report on Butler’s injury, and floated the idea that the Warriors might now be interested in a veteran scorer like DeMar DeRozan in return. Personally, this sounded more like Charania speculating and name-dropping than reporting concrete interest. While DeRozan would provide scoring punch, he does little to replace the defensive intensity and versatility Butler brings. Still, the idea is arguably more appealing now than it was over the summer, and perhaps DeRozan could serve as enough of a stopgap to keep the Warriors competitive. Offensively, DeRozan is a similar enough player to Butler that the Warriors shouldn’t see much of a drop-off on that end at least.
For their part, the Warriors appear to be messaging that their preferred course of action is to keep Kuminga and allow him to rebuild his trade value. That feels more like posturing than a real plan, given Kuminga’s very public frustration with the organization and his recent trade demand. General manager Mike Dunleavy added fuel to that fire when he said, “In terms of demands, when you make a demand, there needs to be demand on the market.” It’s a blunt way of suggesting there isn’t much interest in Kuminga, which contradicts multiple reports. In reality, the Warriors simply aren’t satisfied with the offers they’ve received—and continuing to bench Kuminga while publicly diminishing his value isn’t helping their leverage.
For what it’s worth, the Warriors finally played Kuminga last night after 16 straight DNP-CDs, though he did not start. Coming off the bench, he scored 20 points in 21 minutes on an efficient 7-of-10 shooting. Maybe Butler’s injury finally opens the door for the opportunity Kuminga has been seeking, and perhaps he breaks out. Even so, it feels almost certain he won’t re-sign with the Warriors long term. At this point, it’s a matter of when, not if, Golden State decides to trade him. It likely won’t be for DeRozan alone, but a package centered around DeRozan and Keon Ellis could become appealing as the trade deadline approaches in a couple of weeks.
Crandell’d!
After half a season, Jim woke up.
He’s not wrong. I sorta like the Christie nickname.
I don’t care where Kuminga ends up going, or if he stays with the Warriors. I just want the damn thing to be settled already. Shit or get off the pot!
Put me in the camp that feels if the Dubs are to remain relevant in Curry’s limited time left, they need to trade Butler to fill that production and contract slot. Kuminga for DDR does little to move the needle for them. If, however, they moved Kuminga for a guy like DDR then moved Butler (and picks to eat his deal) to a rebuilding team for rotational win now pieces, they can keep that window open for Curry this season and next.
IMO, sitting on Butler’s $50M next season is throwing the towel in for Golden State. His salary would still count against their cap and the DPE would only net them the MLE to spend on a replacement next season.
Someone will be willing to eat Butler’s deal in exchange from some first round picks, and the Kings have the contracts and players to do it.
I already threw out the LaVine for Butler package in the last thread, but why not get crazy and call it Sabonis, DDR, and Monk for Butler, Kuminga, Moody, and two 1st rounders?
Yeah I don’t envy the position GS is in. If they move on from Curry eventually, they’ll need the picks but Curry is still Curry and they have to do something.
They already needed a big, and now they need someone to help with the scoring. Maybe the can swing something for Porter Jr and Nic Claxton, or even go after Lauri, but they are still gong to have to move the Butler deal.
There is no way they can sit on his $55M contract this season and next and continue to compete.
Losing Poole and Klay is really coming back to bite them here. Was Draymond worth it?
I mean that would be amazing, but I just don’t think our players have that much value. Only one who may have positive value right now is Ellis.
I love the idea of getting Butler. It’s the perfect solution for a tanking team to tie up salary in a player who won’t even see the court.
We may face some competition on that front from the Nets though. Another team that is actively tanking, and they may have better assets to trade imho.
Thinking anyone wants DDR sounds crazy to me, he has so little actual value to any team that knows anything about winning basketball and the Dubs do. I definitely don’t see it happening. Golden State is smart, they will pivot to younger players rather than take on washed vets on bloated contracts like the Kangz.
I think so too. I’ve even heard Sam Amick say that DDR has value, but I can’t imagine that his flaws are any less visible to other organizations, especially smart ones.
If he had value, we would’ve traded him already. Although that makes the assumption that we would’ve done something intelligent, which is unlikely.
I would think that DDR would work as they want short term deals and he has a team option for next year, wouldn’t this help the Warriors. Now that Jimmy is injured aren’t the Warriors SOL. If they can reduce their apron threshold why would they not consider this option?
They really gave Kuminga 16 straight DNP CD? JK shouldnt do GS any favors he should tell them he cant play every other night due to back soreness from sitting on his couch and the bench
I was thinking put the rebuild in full motion.
Lavine/Sabonis/Ellis for Butler/Kuminga/Moody/Jackson/ 3 first round picks.
This reloads the warriors around Curry and Draymond.
This restocks Sacramento draft capital and allows them to flip DeRozans more manageable deal(ahem Milwaukee?) And then perhaps Butler next deadline after hes healed and playoff team looking for that extra piece for a run comes knocking to allow us to add more capital next year.
From GSW pov, they have to look at the window with Curry and Kerr while keeping people buying tickets and watching games. As long as people want to watch Curry, they have to do whatever it takes to keep their team competitive. Honestly the smart move would be to trade Curry (which I don’t think they want to do) or let JK run, but they might have already burned that bridge.
I agree with what others have said about them wanting more than what the Kings can offer. But I see two options. The most likely is DDR/LaVine & Monk for Butler and picks. Monk’s contract is too long for GS, but they have to do something.
Or you swing for the fences and similar to what Adamsite suggested, trade DD and Sabonis for Butler, JK, pieces, and FR picks. They honestly don’t drop very much offensively. If you add, Ellis, Carter, and Monk to replace Buddy and Moody, you could probably even convince them that they could still be completive defensively.
https://www.espn.com/nba/trademachine
This is exactly the kind of deal that I would love to see the Kings do. Because you add two younger players in Moody and JK, trade Buddy for whatever you can get now, if Butler doesn’t come back, you release him. If he does, you have several different options, with the most likely being trading him to a contending team for smaller contracts and picks.
It’s not a complete blowup, it a smart allocation of resources that could pay off in any number of ways similar to what OKC did. Picks, young players, and flexibility.
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