Subscribe
Follow Us
It's been a tough season for the Golden State Warriors. After a promising 12-3 start, injuries caught up and negatively affected their depth. As a result, the team has now fallen to the 11th seed after becoming the top team in the West at one point in the season.
Offensively, Steph Curry has been delivering the goods. However, he seems to have little to no reliable reinforcements to put some points on the board on a consistent basis. With the trade deadline approaching, the Warriors front office has another chance to finally land a major superstar in the midst of Curry's final years in the NBA. With the pressure on, it's a safe bet that the team is expected to take a major swing prior to the deadline. However, not every trade deadline ends up with a favorable result. For this piece, let's take a look at the Warriors' nightmare scenario for the 2025 NBA trade deadline.
Warriors give no help to Stephen Curry
With the Warriors currently as good as a Play-In team, there's no question that the team needs some offensive firepower to surround Curry. Now that the trade deadline is approaching, the front office has a chance to make some much needed upgrades. But while Curry is having another stellar season, the Warriors don't exactly have much help offensively besides him. Should the Warriors not make any changes, the team risks missing out on the postseason for the second straight year. In fact, it would be a nightmare scenario for the team to not be able to land a third star.
As early as the offseason, the Warriors were expected to make a major swing for an All-Star caliber player. The list included Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, Lauri Markkanen, Brandon Ingram, etc. However, the front office opted to stay put and placed their trust on the team's young guns. With injuries coming into play and a sophomore slump by Brandin Podziemski, their hot start quickly turned into a major collapse.
By now, Golden State would have realized that a third star might be essential in maximizing Curry's closing window. Otherwise, it would look like another herculean effort for Curry that will go to waste. It's not a fitting end anyone wants to witness for the best shooter in the world, as he enters the twilight zone of his career.
However, the Warriors need to be ready to make some sacrifices. Superstars available in the trade market are aiming to receive a haul of building blocks for their future, whether in the form of draft picks or promising prospects. And like the Warriors, other contenders are also keen on making upgrades. It would be a huge blow to their championship chances if they miss out on their high profile targets, the same way they did in the offseason.
Sticking with Dennis Schroder
A major move the Warriors made early this season was to trade for Dennis Schroder. The team was able to unload an injured De'Anthony Melton to the Brooklyn Nets in the process. Unfortunately, things aren't working out for both the Warriors and Schroder. The German guard is only averaging 10.4 points while shooting 36.0 percent from the field overall and a measly 28.4 percent clip from beyond the arc.
As good as a veteran Schroder is, he's simply not a great fit for the Warriors. Fortunately, the team has a chance to still utilize his value off the court. Although Schroder has only stayed with Golden State for 19 games, an exception to the CBA rule allows the German guard to be dealt to another team if the Warrior opts to before the trade deadline, based on an article by SFGATE.
Thanks to the exception, the Warriors should be able to flip Schroder for a better championship piece. Should they keep up with the Schroder experiment, the Warriors are as good as done for their championship campaign. Because as of now, Schroder simply looks out of place in Kerr's rotation.
Letting Jonathan Kuminga go without anything in return
If there's one more thing the Warriors need to worry about, it would be the major decision regarding Jonathan Kuminga's tenure on the team. Prior to the 2024-25 season, the Warriors refused to give the seventh overall pick in the 2021 NBA Draft an extension. This means that Kuminga's time with the Warriors could possibly be nearing an end.
This year, Kuminga is having the best year of his career. He is logging 16.8 points and 5.0 rebounds per outing while making 46 percent of his shots from the field overall. But with his injury that will sideline him for weeks, the Warriors are probably considering using him as a trade asset, given that his contract also expires at the end of the season.
Should they refuse to move him, they risk the chance of Kuminga walking away without anything in return. Furthermore, they also forfeit the chance to use him as a trade piece for a deal surrounding a star. Although sending him away means giving up their future building block, opting not to sign him to an extension should already give a glimpse of the Warriors' intentions about their promising 6-foot-8 power forward.
