The Golden State Warriors have found themselves in a deep hole leading into the February 6 trade deadline, with the franchise still sitting 11th in the Western Conference despite Thursday's positive win over the Chicago Bulls.
The one thing the Warriors can point to is their trade flexibility, having retained their young players and future draft capital while also not being limited by the punitive tax aprons that so many of their rivals face.
Warriors avoided a fatal Paul George decision in the offseason
While that trade flexibility may not be a huge silver lining for fans right now, it is worth mentioning that Golden State could be in a far worse position if not for the L.A. Clippers.
The Warriors famously tried to trade for then Clippers star Paul George prior to free agency last offseason, but L.A was unwilling to take back the necessary salary to make a trade work. That left the 9x All-Star to opt of his player option, become an unrestricted free agent, and sign a four-year, $211.6 million deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
Six months on and that's already appearing like one of the worst contracts in the entire league. George is averaging just 17 points on 42.3% shooting from the floor and 35.5% from 3-point range, while also playing just 28 games as injuries have pushed the 76ers to a woeful 16-27 record and 11th in the Eastern Conference.
As a result the George contract has begun to draw heavy criticism from fans and analysts, including former New York Knicks general manager Scott Perry.
"To give him (George) that kind of money as well with his injury history as well, you were really rolling the dice...Having that information of all this injury history to me made this decision to go pay Paul George all that money, one that leaves itself open to a lot of questions," Perry said.
It's easy to forget that it could have been the Warriors footing the bill for George's contract rather than the 76ers had the Clippers gone through with a trade. It's hard to evaluate where Golden State would be with George right now, but it's not too difficult to suggest that they'd probably be in a similar (or worse) position record-wise, and with far less flexibility because of a $200+ million contract on the roster.
As for the 76ers, they've seemingly realized that they're not the championship contender they had previously forecasted for this season when they initially signed George. According to NBA Insider Jake Fischer in the 'Stein Line Substack chat' on Friday, Philadelphia could actually be sellers prior to the February 6 trade deadline.
While many Warrior fans were clamouring for George at the time and are still rightly frustrated at the team's lack of a second star, in terms of this particular instance it appears the front office has the Clippers to thank for their good fortune in not acquiring the 34-year-old forward.