After making the big move for Jimmy Butler just prior to their meeting with the Utah Jazz on Monday, the Golden State chose NOT to make another deal on the final day before the NBA trade deadline.
Any final hour trade would have likely been for Chicago Bulls big man Nikola Vucevic, with NBA insider Marc Stein reporting on Thursday that the Warriors made another run at the 34-year-old big man but were unable to execute a deal before the deadline.
The Warriors made a mistake not trading for Nikola Vucevic or another proven center
While Butler's acquisition will alleviate some of Golden State's issues, their center rotation remains a big problem that will continue to cause concern over the remainder of the season. Quinten Post got his fifth-straight start on Thursday against the Los Angeles Lakers, yet was a DNP in the second-half as Steve Kerr went to an extreme small-ball lineup featuring Stephen Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield, Moses Moody and Draymond Green.
In fairness, it worked effectively as the Warriors cut a 20-point half-time deficit back to five in the closing minutes. Their best lineup is likely always going to feature Green at the five, but asking him to do it so frequently over the course of a regular season raises significant worry on his longevity.
The 34-year-old played the majority of his minutes against the Lakers as a small-ball center, with Post and Kevon Looney both playing less than 12 minutes each, while Trayce Jackson-Davis got just under five first-half minutes as Kerr tried to find some ounce of energy off the bench.
Having a shooting center will be even more important with Butler's acquisition and Jonathan Kuminga's imminent return from injury. In those two and Green, arguably three of Golden State's best four players are all low-volume 3-point shooters. How does Kerr therefore manipulate lineups so they're all playing 30+ minutes?
It's for this reason that Post will likely continue starting going forward, but asking a second-round rookie to be good enough to consistently play 20 minutes per game is a tough ask. Even if Vucevic proved himself unplayable for defensive reasons in the playoffs, being able to eat up 25 minutes a game, lessening the workload on Green, and actually helping the Warriors reach the postseason would have been valuable.
The fact Kerr is back playing Green a lot at center so shortly after a soft tissue injury is concerning, and goes to show that the Warriors made a mistake in not trading for Vucevic or another veteran stretch big prior to the deadline.