The Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Lakers will once again enter next season in a similar sphere within the Western Conference (and by extension the league as a whole).
Both teams have all-time great players and have their eye on championship contention, yet each feel a rung below the absolute top tier in the west headed by the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder.
Seeing the Warriors or Lakers represent the conference as an NBA finalist next year is most likely going to require some wild performances, injury luck, or more likely a big trade swing that bridges the gap between themselves and the likes of the Thunder, Houston Rockets and Denver Nuggets.
Warriors have edge over Lakers in trade possibilities
While the stunning Luka Doncic trade is the perfect example of why you'd never count the Lakers out from anything, the Warriors do look like they have the edge in being able to make a big mid-season move and subsequently rising further into contention.
The issue for Los Angeles is the pieces they'd like to move on as mid-tier salaries in a trade -- Gabe Vincent and Maxi Kleber -- hold little to no value whatsoever according to Lakers insider Jovan Buha on a recent episode of his podcast.
"Both guys (Vincent and Kleber), depending on who you talk to, depending on who you survey, have somewhere between slightly negative to just negative value. I would not consider either one of these guys neutral to positive value players, in terms of their contract, even with being on an expiring," Buha said.
Compare Vincent and Kleber to a pair of Warrior players making similar money -- Moses Moody and Buddy Hield -- and the value is starkly different. That's not to say that they have a ton of value within themselves, but they would hold a lot more interest than the Lakers duo.
Hield had an up-and-down first year with Golden State but ended on a high during the playoffs, dropping nine threes and 33 points in Game 7 of the first-round series against the Houston Rockets. Moody conversely struggled due to injury in the playoffs, but is still an improving young player who was a starter on a dominant team to end the regular season after the All-Star break.
At the end of the day, both sets of players will need to have draft capital alongside them in order to make a major deal. Here's where the Warriors also have an advantage, albiet it's far from a terrible situation from a Lakers perspective.
The addition of Doncic suddenly gives the Lakers a much brighter future, preserving them from a sudden decline in the post-LeBron James years. However, the downside to that is their future picks no longer hold the same value when rival teams know the Lakers should always be competitive so long as Doncic is running the show.
On the other hand, Golden State are still very much led by a trio of veterans in Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. That makes their future picks far more valuable, potentially incentivizing teams should the Warriors wish to make a win-now move.
There's of course plenty of other aspects involved in trade negotiations, but on the surface there's no reason why Golden State should be outbid by their pacific rival in any deal. That in itself might make them more of a contending possibility next season, even if the Lakers would counter by arguing they're far better set up for the future.