The Golden State Warriors are struggling. Some of the issues are entirely too familiar. Others are the kind of on-the-fly setbacks that teams encounter every NBA season.
Either way, Golden State's fleeting hopes of adding to Stephen Curry's championship hopes have never felt so fragile. Which is why the Warriors should feel emboldened about the latest reports of Giannis Antetokounmpo's wandering eye and be ready to make an aggressive move for the two-time MVP, who just might be the perfect co-star for Curry.
While there are other ways to make an Antetokounmpo trade work, most involve waiting until Jonathan Kuminga becomes trade-eligible in mid-January. Maybe that's an option, but you'd think Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks might want a quicker resolution than that. And the Dubs probably don't want to give up more ground in the fully loaded West than they already have.
So, if timeliness is a factor here, let's dig into the three-team deal that could bring Antetokounmpo to the Bay Area right now.
This would, more or less, exhaust the Warriors' asset collection. That's fine. Any realistic offer for Antetokounmpo would. And, honestly, even their best trade package would probably only work if he made it known he wanted to go to Golden State and nowhere else.
Golden State's long-term outlook would be all kinds of murky, but again, that's a concession worth making. The post-Curry years figure to be painful regardless.
Do this deal, though, and the Dubs suddenly have the kind of uber-talented twosome that could stand next to anyone's (and would probably be the favorites in a hypothetical NBA Jam-style tournament). Curry and Antetokounmpo, who share an agency, would be unstoppable on offense. Any two-man actions between them would be pick-your-poison propositions for opponents, and each would help the other off-ball just by the gravitational pull that put on defenders.
Of nearly equal importance, the defensive combination of Antetokounmpo and Draymond Green, each a previous Defensive Player of the Year winner, could prove just as potent. Green's all-purpose versatility is rivaled by few others around the Association; Antetokounmpo is among that select group.
The supporting cast would be largely intact, too, since the only outgoing players on Golden State's end would be Butler (a good co-star for Curry, but not a great one like Antetokounmpo would be) and Brandin Podziemski (who's been maddeningly inconsistent and could be replaced by a combination of Moses Moody, De'Anthony Melton, Seth Curry, and rookie Will Richard).
Curry, Green, and Antetokounmpo would all have to be healthy at the right time for this to work, obviously, but that's the case right now with the first two and Butler. And if Golden State kept all three upright under the brightest lights, it might be as big of a threat to Oklahoma City's title defense as anyone.
As for the Suns, they were linked to Butler last season and might retain that interest given their surprisingly successful start to this campaign. They might also secretly be wary of running out of gas with their current group, since they've largely capitalized on a favorable schedule. Plus, they could easily (and reasonably) question the sustainability of having Dillon Brooks be the No. 2 option next to Devin Booker. And maybe they've seen enough from Mark Williams to be willing to subtract Khaman Maluach to gain an upcoming first and a future second.
The Bucks, meanwhile, would head into a post-Giannis rebuild with a solid haul of draft picks, three potential building blocks in Jalen Green (the No. 2 pick in 2021), Podziemski (a Wisconsin native and 2032 first-round pick) and Maluach (this year's No. 10 pick). They could also start converting more of their remaining veterans into draft assets, including quick-flipping Royce O'Neale to a win-now shopper.
The Warriors would be paying the steepest price here, but they'd also be claiming the biggest prize. That's probably a worthwhile trade-off given the immediate sense of urgency surrounding Curry's twilight years.