3. Eyes on the future
With Kevin Durant’s injury and opting to join the Brooklyn Nets along with Klay Thompson’s torn ACL suffered last year, this was always going to be an abnormal year for the Golden State Warriors. There was still some glimmer of hope, however, that Stephen Curry and newly acquired D’Angelo Russell would be able to make some noise and keep the Warriors competitive in the Western Conference. When Curry went down though, that optimism was lost.
As the NBA trade deadline approaches, Golden State sits in the cellar of the West and has the worst record in the league at 10-35. It’s safe to say that they won’t be contending this year; next year is a different story entirely, though.
If all goes as planned, both Curry and Thompson should begin the 2020-21 season at full strength, which should be enough to make the Warriors a playoff team at the very least. When Golden State signed Russell this offseason, they did so with the reported intentions to possibly move on from him down the road to get assets to continue building around the Splash Brothers. They could up that timetable and do so now.
Trading for Kevin Love would give the Warriors a new trio of stars to ride with for the next three seasons and attempt to bring more championships back to the Bay Area. His passing and ability to step out and shoot from long range would fit beautifully in the Golden State offense. Meanwhile, the Cavaliers would get rich assets with Russell and two high-upside young players in Eric Paschall and Glenn Robinson III.
Whether or not the Warriors would want to make this move now remains to be seen but, in truth, there’s no reason not to. There is nothing to play for this season, so start eyeing the future and try to get a potentially game-changing piece in Love while he’s available.