Trade No. 5: Utah Jazz
The Golden State Warriors pressed hard to trade for Lauri Markkanen but ultimately were not willing to include enough to convince the Utah Jazz to play ball, and Markkanen signed a new deal that will make him ineligible to be traded for the rest of the season.
That decision does put the Jazz in something of a bind, as they are likely too good to outright tank but not good enough to sniff a Play-In berth in a loaded Western Conference. What if they decided to pivot toward relevance and trade for a two-time MVP?
The Jazz have plenty of assets from the Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell trades, and they could cash them in to make a run at Curry - pairing the two together like so many Warriors fans hoped, but not in the uniform they were picturing.
Here is what a trade proposal could look like:
The Jazz would have their backcourt star to pair with Markkanen, they would get off of John Collins' money, and they would add Kevon Looney to shore up their center depth after including Walker Kessler in the trade. Curry and Markkanen would give the Jazz an elite offensive duo to build around.
Who Says No? This deal has some narrative flavor, and the Jazz could reasonably decide to go after another star now that they've committed to Markkanen, but Curry may be too old, too expensive and on too large of a contract to make a trade feasible. The Jazz would have to give up multiple talented young players and a bevy of draft picks to add Curry and move off of Collins. Danny Ainge may swoon at this trade package.
The Warriors could very easily talk themselves into this deal, injecting a trio of young frontcourt players into their organization and giving them a wealth of optionality moving forward. For Curry, however, this deal seems DOA: this Jazz group may be a playoff team, but they wouldn't be anything more, and that's not enough for Curry to leave the Warriors.