The Golden State Warriors have exploded back into huge trade relevance over recent days, with the franchise linked to All-Stars Jimmy Butler and Zach LaVine after weeks of appearing unwilling to make a significant move.
There is now a real watch on the Warriors over the next week prior to the trade deadline, having also raised some on-court optimism after a 116-109 victory over the conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night.
Did Steve Kerr just drop a hint of an imminent Warriors trade?
Joining 95.7 The Game's Willard and Dibs on Thursday after back-to-back wins over the Thunder and Utah Jazz, head coach Steve Kerr delivered an intriguing response when asked about the balance between a good culture and talent on the roster.
“Well we know talent wins in this league. It doesn’t mean you’re guaranteed to win if you have talent but if you don’t have enough talent, you can’t go anywhere. That’s just the reality," Kerr said. "So the question we have to ask ourselves and Mike and the front office have to ask themselves is do we have enough talent? Mike is gathering all the information, all the possible trades he can make and then going from there.”
This is an incredibly interesting quote on multiple fronts. Firstly, it's a drastic difference to what Kerr usually rolls out when it comes to trade possibilities. Usually he divulges how much he loves the current roster and has high hopes of what they can achieve -- whether he believes that or is just trying to retain high morale in the lockerroom is up for debate.
This is one of the rare times where Kerr is questioning whether his team has enough talent to compete. Most fans have come to the realization a while ago that the answer to that is 'no', but to hear it publicly questioned by the head coach is something else entirely.
His comment that "Mike (Dunleavy) is gathering all the information, all the possible trades" also signifies that the Warriors have a number of balls in the air. Rather than identifying and targeting one or two players before the deadline, Golden State appear to be open to a range of possibilities of varying significance. Clearly, more trade possibilities is going to give you more chance of actually executing something here over the next week.
These Kerr comments are perhaps the biggest hint yet that a Warriors trade could be fairly imminent, and that a deal of some sort will happen before the deadline. Now we wait and see what deal that is, and how much impact it could have on the franchise over the remainder of the season and moving forward.