The Golden State Warriors have had a rough 2023-24 season thus far, sporting an 18-22 record. Trade rumors have been swirling around, with Shams Charania even stating that the Warriors have put everyone except Stephen Curry on the trade market. On the latest episode of his podcast, Draymond Green reacted to that report.
“If that (trade) ever came to fruition, you deal with that, you cross that bridge when you get there,” Green said on The Draymond Green Show. “It’s not really something that I worry about. I know everybody’s saying, ‘Oh, the Warriors gotta make a trade, they’re gonna make a trade.’ I mean if you’re 18-22, how can you question anything someone does?”
As Green says, when you’ve had such a disappointing campaign, no one can really complain about potentially being shipped out of town. That applies even to the likes of Green and Klay Thompson, who have played key roles during this dynastic run that has yielded four championships.
Draymond has cost the team by missing a significant chunk of the season due to being suspended multiple times. He has only played 16 games in 2023-24 and has averaged 9.5 points, 5.6 rebounds, 5.7 assists, 0.4 steals, and 0.7 blocks in them.
Thompson, meanwhile, just has not played at a very high level. He is only averaging 17.3 points, 3.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 0.5 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. If the team feels they are better off without one or both of them, then they’ve just got to take it on the chin.It’s just part of the business and Green says they knew that when they signed up. The 33-year-old doesn’t think he’ll be traded, but if it does happen, he claims he would be fine with it as he has learned to take the good with the bad.
When it came to who the Warriors might potentially target, there was one name that made a fair bit of sense: Pascal Siakam. Golden State was reportedly in the running for the Cameroonian, but the Toronto Raptors have now traded Siakam to the Indiana Pacers.
Apparently, Siakam was not all that interested in going to the Warriors. He will be a free agent in the summer and had he been traded there, had no plans of sticking around. If true, it is rather alarming that a star in the league looked at Golden State and decided that was not where he wanted to be long-term.
There was a time when everyone seemingly wanted to go to the Warriors, but that appears to be no longer the case. It will be interesting to see who they even target now.All good things must come to an end and all the great dynasties in NBA history have as well. With how the campaign has gone so far, this has been viewed as the end of the road for Golden State.
Head coach Steve Kerr, however, says 2023-24 is not “The Last Dance” for the Warriors dynasty. He pointed to the fact that they just won a championship in 2022 and he believes Curry, Green, and Thompson are capable of playing at a high level. I have no doubts that Curry can, but there are big question marks about the other two.
