Warriors will avoid trade nightmare thanks to very fortunate Stephen Curry situation

Back-to-back blowout losses have pushed the Golden State Warriors back to an 18-18 record, with the franchise looking far from the legitimate playoff threat they had appeared like through the first 15 games of the season.

There's not a whole lot to be positive about in regard to the Warriors right now. Their young players as a collective haven't taken significant strides like many expected, and when Jonathan Kuminga finally did in a certified sixth man role, he suffered a brutal ankle injury after a short, six-game explosion.

With reports that they're unlikely to make a run at 6x All-Star Jimmy Butler, there doesn't appear to be an obvious answer on the trade market either that will catapult Golden State into any level of contention by the end of the season.

Plus, with young or middle-aged teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics and Houston Rockets already holding the best four records in the league, the question has to be asked on how the Warriors could possibly keep up in the medium to long-term?

Stephen Curry's future has been in question amid the Warriors poor form

As a result of Golden State's currently bleak outlook, a discussion around Stephen Curry's future is starting to emanate among fans and within the media. That's only been enhanced by the burden Curry has carried over the last two games in particular, having drilled 12 combined 3-pointers and 57 points despite his team losing by a combined 46 points.

While there's been the much discussed idea of LeBron James and Curry ending up together with the Warriors, Kevin O'Connor of Yahoo Sports has recently suggested that the legendary duo could actually pair up in Los Angeles instead.

“Is there a possibility that it’s the other way around? That it’s Steph ending up in LA, because the Lakers also have Austin Reaves, Anthony Davis, they just got Dorian Finney-Smith, they have a pretty good supporting cast," O'Connor said recently on his show.

Fortunately for Golden State, the nightmare situation where Curry requests a trade away from the franchise can't happen...at least not yet. As O'Connor alluded to after his Curry-James suggestion, the 2x MVP is not eligible to be traded before the February 6 deadline.

Curry signed a one-year, $62.6 million extension in August, meaning he cannot be traded until the offseason at the earliest. The Warriors aren't going to trade their greatest ever player regardless, unless of course Curry comes to them and requests that he continues his career elsewhere.

That scenario is still a fair way from ever happening, but it could gain some credibility (and actually be possible) come the offseason if Golden State continue to struggle and show little signs of life over the next few months.

Hopefully the sheer threat of a Curry offseason trade request will kick the Warrior front office into legitimately impactful roster moves, but fans aren't holding their breath given the relative patience the franchise has shown in recent times.