The Golden State Warriors' offseason has been an eventful one. Before free agency even officially began, the Warriors were named as potential landing spot for Paul George, and then after reported plans fell through with that, the Warriors bid farewell to longtime player Klay Thompson. And although the Warriors have done well in signing a few role players since then, reported trade talks with the Utah Jazz for Lauri Markkanen have seemingly reached an impasse, and Golden State owner Joe Lacob may be unhappy with the Jazz's asking price.
Lacob, the majority owner of the Warriors, spoke about the team's offseason on a recent episode of The Athletic NBA Show's Hoops Adjacent with David Aldridge and Marcus Thompson. Lacob opened up about Thompson's departure and his thinking going into the offseason, but the most interesting thing he mentioned may have been a slight callout of “illogical” teams when trying to make trades.
“There are 3 ways to get better in this league: One is to draft, building through the draft; another is free agency; and the final one is trades,” Lacob said. “And trades are the hardest. It’s very, very hard to pull off trades because everyone wants to prove how — these GMs — how smart they are. It's true. And they want to impress their owners; sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
“But here’s the problem — if I could share anything with the fans out there… [it is that] they don’t understand how hard it is and how illogical some of the parties on the other side are sometimes. Maybe we're illogical too, to some extent, but my point is it's just really, really hard to pull these things off. And everyone writes all this stuff and they have no idea what the other side's asking for in some of these things.”
Are the Warriors out on Lauri Markkanen?
After four championships from 2015 to 2022, the Golden State Warriors and their fans can take solace with all of the success and positive memories in that time period. However, the Warriors' championship window, if not already closed, is closing very, very fast.
Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are 36 and 34 years old, respectively, and may not have enough around them in Golden State to win another title. And while it would logically make sense to trade both players and try to receive as many young players and draft picks as possible in return, no one can fault the Warriors for trying to still compete with both players under contract for the next few years.
Therefore, the discussions the Warriors have reportedly had with the Utah Jazz to acquire All-Star forward Lauri Markkanen make a lot of sense. Markkanen, who is 7 feet tall, would seem to be a near-perfect fit next to Curry, the sport's greatest perimeter shooter, and Draymond Green, an extremely valuable versatile defensive leader. However, Danny Ainge, the CEO of basketball operations for the Jazz, is a notoriously tough negotiator and very well may be one of those “illogical” people Joe Lacob criticized.
According to Shams Charania of The Athletic, Utah has been asking for most of the Warriors' young core and draft picks in exchange for Markkanen.
“The Golden State Warriors have been the most engaged team for Markkanen in recent weeks, as league sources tell The Athletic they have discussed a proposal around Moses Moody, multiple first-round picks, multiple pick swaps and multiple second-round picks,” Charania wrote. “The Jazz, however, have asked for the bulk of young talent and capital the Warriors possess, including Moody, Jonathan Kuminga and Brandin Podziemski, along with picks, which has been a non-starter thus far for Golden State, league sources said.”
If the Warriors were to trade all three players, that would total about $16.9 million, which is nearly what Markkanen is set to make this season ($18.0 million). They could trade their first-round picks in 2026, 2027, or 2028 and swap those as well as their picks in 2025, 2029, and 2031.
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