Hypothetical Warriors Trades to Boost Pursuit of 2025 NBA Title

In a perfect world, the Golden State Warriors would be using the 2023-24 NBA season's stretch run to fine-tune their rotation in preparation for a lengthy playoff run.

In reality, the Dubs will instead spend it looking over their shoulder at the red-hot Houston Rockets, who are making a furious push to surpass Golden State in the standings and perhaps snag the Western Conference's final invitation to the Play-In Tournament.

The Dubs' dynasty, as we've all come to know it over the past decade, is done. That doesn't necessarily mean this club is incapable of competing for basketball's top crown as soon as next season, though. It's just that in order for that to happen, this roster requires some significant upgrades.

On that note, let's examine what could be possible for the Warriors by examining three potential summer swaps this squad can make. Since payrolls and rosters will be in flux once the offseason arrives, we'll lay out general trade ideas instead of fully realized, dollar-for-dollar deals.

While the Warriors are probably more than a role player away from championship contention, they could stand to beef up their perimeter defense and add another long-distance threat to the fold.

A trade for Brooklyn Nets swingman Dorian Finney-Smith would check both boxes. Even better, it wouldn't totally demolish the Dubs' trade budget.

While the Nets reportedly received and rejected an offer featuring two first-round picks for Finney-Smith, per Brian Lewis of the New York Post, the Warriors wouldn't necessarily need to exceed or even meet that price. Not all picks are valued the same, so if the offer was built around late firsts in this draft (which isn't highly regarded) or heavily protected future picks, the Warriors might be able to trump that by putting even a moderately valuable future first on the table.

Golden State would be careful to not go too far beyond that, as the 30-year-old Finney-Smith doesn't remotely resemble a star, but it might be willing to add a sweetener like a second-round pick or a lesser prospect like Moses Moody. Throw in a serviceable veteran who makes the money work, and that might be enough for Brooklyn to bite.

The Warriors, you may have heard a time or 20, aren't exactly loaded with interior talent or overflowing with size. So, if they view that as a fatal flaw—and given the caliber of bigs who could be lining the championship path for years to come, they might—they could absolutely take a liking to someone like Cleveland Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen.

The 6'11", 243-pounder is a 25-year-old with an All-Star selection on his resume and some of the best paint protection in the business. He's also an an uber-reliable finisher around the basket (career 62.9 field-goal percentage), and the Warriors might covet more pogo-stick play at the center spot after seeing the kind of impact rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis has made.

You might be wondering, then, why the Cavaliers would ever give Allen up. While it's possible they might not, if another early playoff exit occurs and seemingly stems from the spacing concerns of their Allen-Evan Mobley frontcourt, they could conclude that one of their bigs has to go. And since Allen is older and perceived to have a lower ceiling than Mobley, the No. 3 pick of the 2021 draft, he may be the odd big-man out.

Cleveland would surely want a healthy haul in return, and Golden State could be inclined to offer its best assets other than Jonathan Kuminga. A package built around multiple future firsts and at least one of Moody, Jackson-Davis and Brandin Podziemski might do the trick, or perhaps even less if the Cavaliers viewed Andrew Wiggins as more than an expensive reclamation project.

This feels, admittedly, super far-fetched, but so did Kevin Durant's actual arrival to the Bay Area in 2016. And since that initial partnership produced three Finals appearances and two titles over a three-season span, it's hard to imagine Durant would be totally opposed to the idea, especially if his Phoenix Suns fall woefully short of their championship-or-bust expectations.

At the very least, it's for the Warriors to think about—and they're apparently doing exactly that. Durant was among the high-end players this club "will explore" over the summer, per The Athletic's Sam Amick, Anthony Slater and Jovan Buha.

For this to become remotely possible, the Warriors would likely need Durant to request a move out of Phoenix, which doesn't feel super likely but also hardly seems impossible given his history with scenery changes.

"[Durant] for sure looks around," an Eastern Conference executive told The Ringer's Howard Beck. "Durant always has a wandering eye."

This would be a break-open-the-piggy-bank type of trade requiring the Warriors to give up essentially everything in their asset collection, either to the Suns themselves or a third team capable of sending win-now support to Devin Booker in the desert. So, yes, this would surely require the sacrifice of Kuminga, and he wouldn't be the only young Warrior to go, likely along with all the first-round picks they're able to move.