The Warriors Supposedly Have Dreams Of Adding BOTH Giannis Antetokounmpo And Jimmy Butler Within The Next Few Seasons

With each passing day, the pressure mounts higher and higher for the Golden State Warriors not to fumble the last few remaining years of Steph Curry. He's played along and continues to sign extension after extension so that he can retire a Warrior, and at some point, the team has to live up to their end of the bargain and build a contender around him. If not, then what's the point of even keeping him on the roster and not going into a full rebuild?

They've had their chances to bring in some move-needling quality players, like Lauri Markkanen this summer, but have balked at the idea in favor of committing to their young players like Brandin Podziemski who ownership has basically deemed "untradeable" at this point. That's quite the risk with a Year 2 player when your best player is about to enter his age 36 season. 

With the West getting better and better every year, I think it's fair to suggest that as constructed, the Warriors are going to be on an uphill battle towards contention, even if they get a Prime Steph-type season. At the end of the day, the collection of talent matters, and deep down you know GS knows they don't have quite the right mix right now. How do we know that?

Alright, stop laughing. Having dreams is important! It doesn't matter how silly they may be or how improbable they seem, you have to start somewhere when it comes to building one final contender around Steph even if it's utterly ridiculous.

There's only one problem though. That dream of acquiring Giannis? Ummm….

How exactly do they plan on doing that? I suppose their dream includes the Bucks underachieving and not winning a title in the next few seasons of Giannis/Dame to the point where finally Giannis would demand a trade. You know, the guy who is "reportedly" looking elsewhere every time his contract comes up for extension only to stay in MIL. At the very least, this experiment is going to last until after the 2025-26 season, with Dame having a player option that next season. Let's say he opts out and the Bucks want to refresh, that means trading a 32 year old Giannis at $58M? OK, I'll play along. How exactly do the Warriors plan on pulling that trade off? Getting close to that salary number is going to be tough, especially when the Warriors have already come out and said they have no interest in offering Jonathan Kuminga a max extension. By that time, the only non-Steph big-money deals they'll have on their books are Wiggins (player option) and Draymond (player option), and why exactly would the Bucks want either of those players in return for GIANNIS?

Not to mention it might not be possible given future potential 2nd apron restrictions and not being able to combine contracts. The idea of the Warriors trading for Giannis sounds fun, but I'm not sure I see the path.

Then we have the other part of this dream, which is signing Jimmy Butler in 2025 free agency. Well, based on how things stand now, the Warriors are only looking at a projected $13M of cap space that summer with 8 players signed. Entering next summer, should Butler not extend in MIA, why wouldn't he just pick up his $52M player option and then become UFA in the summer of 2026? With limited cap space, is the idea that Jimmy Butler would take a MASSIVE pay cut to come to GS? I get he's looking for his first title, but that seems a little crazy to me for a guy who is 36 and doesn't have a ton of paydays left. Plus, I still think he ends up staying in MIA anyway. If he opts out, we're already hearing rumors that he'd be interested in a team like BKN ($80M in space)

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I'd love to hear what Steph thinks about shit like this. Was this the plan that was pitched to Steph when he signed his most recent extension? If so, he believed that? From the outside, it just sounds like a very unserious front office. Turning down trades for younger All Stars who are signed long term and could help the Steph window in favor of unproven young guys, and then just saying it'll be OK because you'll just go after a generational player that has never even come close to leaving the team he's a God on, and the other guy is a 36 year old whose best days are most likely behind him? OK!

In reality, it seems like we're inching closer and closer to a #FreeSteph movement. It's going to be pretty tricky considering he's due to make $55M, $59M, and $62M over the next 3 seasons before becoming an UFA at age 39. If somehow the Warriors are able to pull this off I'll eat my words, but simple logic gives off the impression that this "dream" of the Warriors front office is going to remain just that.