The Golden State Warriors are expected to be active heading into the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Mike Dunleavy Jr. is reported to be interested in adding another star-level talent next to Steph Curry and Draymond Green.
The Warriors recently acquired Dennis Schroder via trade. Nevertheless, they’re still expected to pursue another addition to maximize the final years of Curry and Green’s careers.
In a recent article for HoopsHype, Michael Scotto listed six players on whom the Warriors have been doing their ‘due diligence’ in recent months.
“Golden State has done its due diligence on several notable players on the trade market, including but not limited to Jimmy Butler – whom Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. played with in Chicago – Brandon Ingram, Cam Johnson, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vucevic, Kyle Kuzma, etc,” Scotto reported.
With the exception of Kuzma, all of those names would provide a significant scoring punch for Steve Kerr’s team. Golden State has plenty of depth within the roster. However, Curry is still carrying a significant burden on offense. That burden grew larger following Klay Thompson‘s departure to the Dallas Mavericks this summer.
Once Schroder acclimates to his new team, he will undoubtedly provide some much-needed scoring. Nevertheless, another proven star would go a long way to putting the Warriors on track to contention in a loaded Western Conference.
Warriors Need Patience With Curry and Schroder
Since joining the Warriors, Schroder has played in seven games. However, his partnership with Curry has been uninspiring as both Schroder and Golden State adjust to each other’s styles of play.
Curry admitted to the media that the team needs more clarity on how the partnership is supposed to work after the Warriors’ 113-95 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
“The numbers obviously haven’t been great,” Curry said. “The feel of him with the ball in his hands, me playing off him, there’s been some good spurts. That Phoenix game was kind of indicative of that…But we’ve had more games where we’ve been struggling a little bit. We have to get more clarity on when he’s on the court with me and Draymond, and when he’s with a different unit. Some go-to sets because teams are starting to go under a lot of the pick-and-rolls and clog the paint.”
According to Cleaning The Glass (which uses a garbage-time filter), the Warriors are -12 points per 100 possessions worse when Curry and Schroder share the floor. For reference, the veteran guards have played 209 possessions together so far.
Warriors Are ‘OverValuing’ Brandin Podziemski
According to Bill Simmons, who spoke on a Dec. 18 episode of ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast,’ the Warriors made a mistake in making Brandin Podziemski untouchable this summer.
“I think it was one of the lessons of the summer,” Simmons said. “That [the Warriors] making [Podziemski] basically untouchable, and he’s just been really bad this year. Not totally as [expletive] — he’s playing out of position, but he hasn’t been good.”
Podziemski is playing in his second NBA season. He was highly impressive as a rookie. It’s unfair to judge him based on the first real slump of his professional career. However, there’s no doubt that his struggles have seen his trade value diminish around the NBA.
Still, if the Warriors can remain patient, and he bounces back to the player we saw last season, he could be highly impactful during the second half of the season. He may find playing alongside some additional scoring talent freeing, as that would take some of the pressure off his young and developing shoulders.
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