NBA Rumour Mill: ‘Everyone but Steph’ on trade block for Warriors; Lakers could ramp up pursuit

The Golden State Warriors look set for a shake-up before the NBA’s upcoming trade deadline, with “everyone but Steph Curry” a possibility of being moved according to a league insider.

The Warriors find themselves in a dire position heading into Sunday’s game against the Bulls, sitting 12th in the Western Conference at 17-20, two wins behind the 11th-placed Jazz.

A 141-105 blowout loss to New Orleans on Thursday really seemed to hammer home the reality of Golden State’s situation, with Curry offering telling comments when asked about whether the team may have to make a move before the trade deadline.

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“We have a standard that’s pretty evident that if things stay the same – that’s the definition of insanity, right? Keep doing the same thing and expecting a different result,” Curry said.

It may not sound like much but for Curry that was quite the admission and it seems like the front office agrees according to NBA insider Shams Charania.

“The mindset in Golden State right now is everyone but Steph Curry is on the table,” Charania said on FanDuel’s ‘Run it Back’ show.

That, of course, doesn’t mean that the entire roster could be gutted. Rather, it just speaks to how desperate Golden State is to find answers, such that even veterans Klay Thompson and Draymond Green are no longer untouchable.

However, as Charania went on to explain, it is hard to see either of those two being moved at this point.

“Now realistically, there’s an asterisk, right?” he added.

“Klay Thompson, would they want to keep him long-term and keep him in Golden State? I think that’s been their hope. They have not been able to reach a contract extension with him, and Draymond Green just got back from a [suspension]. Those have been the three core guys in the front office.”

It leaves the likes of Andrew Wiggins and Chris Paul as other more realistic trade candidates, although Andscape’s Marc J. Spears said on ESPN’s NBA Today on Sunday that a rival general manager told him there is “not a lot of value” for Wiggins as it stands.

“[The Warriors are] big fans of Jonathan Kuminga, big fans of Brandin Podziemski, they’re big fans of Trayce Jackson-Davis,” Charania added.

“But [Andrew] Wiggins and everyone else on that roster has to be in play for this team. Two blowout losses in a row. They haven’t even been close in those games, so they’re going to be looking to make moves.”

One of those moves Golden State could make is for Toronto’s Pascal Siakam, with ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reporting on ‘NBA Today’ that the Warriors have “interest” in him.

Meanwhile Chris Haynes, a senior NBA insider for TNT and Bleacher Report, claimed on Saturday that the Raptors and Siakam are “on the verge of parting ways”.

Complicating matters though is Siakam’s impending free agency, which Wojnarowski said makes a team like the Indiana Pacers one suitor to watch ahead of the deadline.

“Pascal Siakam is going to have a lot of voice about where he gets traded because he’s going to be a free agent this summer and so if you are trading for Pascal Siakam you have to be ready to max him out, you’ve got to know that he wants to be there and you have to have a package out there that makes sense for Toronto,” Wojnarowski said.

“I think for the Warriors the risk is, ‘OK, what do we want to do with our payroll, are we willing to max out Pascal Siakam’, because there are teams with cap space this summer that are going to be willing to do it.

“A team like Indiana is going to really interesting because if you’re looking at the next five years or next four years for Pascal Siakam and the chance to play with, let’s say, Tyrese Haliburton and the group they have in Indiana. They have the cap space.

“If you’re the Pacers, who have been engaged with Toronto on this, you don’t necessarily have to go out and give the really good players that Masai Ujiri would love to get because you have the flexibility to know we can give this guy the max deal this summer without moving anything around.

“The Warriors do have interest in Pascal… I think it’s a difficult pathway because he’s going to have a lot of say about where he goes.

LAKERS COULD RAMP UP MURRAY PURSUIT

Elsewhere, it sounds like the Hawks are ready to move on from Dejounte Murray and the Lakers are in a position to pounce. But things aren’t quite that straight-forward.

While Atlanta is in agreement that the Murray-Trae Young backcourt has ran its course, the team is not simply going to trade him for the sake of it.

Rather, according to Wojnarowski, the Hawks want to get “some value” back for Murray, having traded three first-round picks to get him from San Antonio in the first place.

“Atlanta is ready to trade Dejounte Murray,” Wojnarowski said on ‘NBA Today’.

“They have given some time to the Dejounte Murray-Trae Young backcourt. I think they’re ready to move on from it. Dejounte Murray is the player that they’re engaged around the league with. They have talked to the Lakers, they’ve exchanged some ideas on a potential trade but they’re engaged with a lot of teams.

“They want to get some value back for [Murray]. So you look at that Lakers roster and you say, ‘What value do they have that can compete in the marketplace?’. I think the Lakers are going to be in this, but there are a number of teams interested.”

That is consistent with reporting from Haynes of Bleacher Report, who wrote that rival executives believe the “Lakers and Raptors — among other teams — will begin progressing to more serious discourse with the Atlanta Hawks pertaining to star guard Dejounte Murray”.

The big question remains as to whether the Lakers have the kind of assets to pull off such a move, with Haynes reporting the Hawks “have made it known in league circles that they’re more than comfortable keeping him in the fold and revisiting his future in the offseason” if they don’t get the kind of return they are after.