The Warriors hold hopes of competing for a championship as the new NBA season kicks off and got off to a good start on Tuesday night.
Facing the Luka Dončić-led Lakers, Golden State won 119-109 to kick off the year and there were multiple positives to take away from the win. Jonathan Kuminga had a big third quarter that perfectly showcased how effective he can be when he plays within the offense. Jimmy Butler dropped a cool 31 points. And, perhaps most important of all, the Dubs won by double digits despite a relatively quiet 23-point night from Steph Curry.
In many ways it encapsulated the team's vision for how it would go about Curry's final seasons: let other teammates carry the scoring load as Curry continues to send defenses scrambling with the mere threat of his shooting. The playoffs are a different story but for regular season games that's the formula, whether that scoring comes from Butler or Kuminga or a conglomerate of Warriors rotation players.
Will it be enough to get through a loaded Western Conference playoff bracket? That is the biggest question and one that doesn't have a certain answer. On paper the Warriors have the star power to hang with anyone but it asks a lot of Butler, Curry, and Draymond Green if younger players like Kuminga don't prove championship-ready. It may wind up the case that Golden State just doesn't have the firepower to overwhelm more well-rounded teams.
One analyst thinks that will end up the case, at least, and has a solution for it. During on Wednesday, Fox Sports' Colin Cowherd proposed a blockbuster transaction that would elevate the Dubs to true contender status in Curry's final golden years: Butler, Kuminga, and picks for the one and only Giannis Antetokounmpo.
"Jimmy Butler's a fling," Cowherd said. "He's not a phase. I think it's time for the fling, at the trade deadline, to end. And I love Jimmy Butler. But Steve Kerr is too smart to think 37-year-old Steph, 35-year-old Draymond, 36-year-old Jimmy Butler, and now 39-year-old Al Horford can compete in the West. They can't. They can't… I would trade Jimmy Butler, Jonathan Kuminga, and four first-round picks for Giannis and see if it's enough.
Jimmy Butler played at Marquette, so he's coming home, and he's still a lethal free-throw shooter. Big game performer. Jonathan Kuminga averaged 20 a game last year when he didn't play with Steph. They don't work that well together, although when he did play with Steph he had some really nice nights, and he's a better player today. And he's only 23 years old."
It's an intruiging thought exercise if anything. Butler might burn down the team facilities on his way out if he got traded so soon after the Miami debacle but adding Antetokounmpo and his MVP-caliber production would change everything for the Warriors. His partnership with Damian Lillard never really materialized but Curry is a much different kind of player and Antetokounmpo going to work in Kerr's offensive system is a dangerous hypothetical future for all Warriors opponents.
It is not likely to happen, though. Contending teams never blow up the roster at the deadline unless absolutely necessary. It's just too hard to get championship-level chemistry built on the fly, much less win the games required to keep pace in a difficult west. Beyond that the Bucks would undoubtedly ask for more in any Antetokounmpo trade package. Kuminga has potential and Butler is still good but Antetokounmpo is the face of the franchise. He's not getting swapped for anything less than a king's ransom and it's doubtful Milwaukee would consider the aging Butler and Kuminga acceptable even with the draft picks attached.
If they even consider trading Giannis at all. Despite all the rumors swirling as the season begins the Greek superstar has not asked for a trade in an official capacity. Until he does that it seems mighty unlikely the Bucks will move him. Players like him come around once in a generation and for a smaller market like Milwaukee it might be a very long time before another like Giannis comes along—if one ever does.
What a coup this would be for the Warriors, though. Giannis and Steph going to work would scare any West team, no matter how loaded.