Although the Golden State Warriors showed little interest in acquiring Dejounte Murray during the February trade deadline, that may change during the offseason as they assess their circumstances and determine their course for the remaining years of Stephen Curry’s stellar career. Golden State was still holding out hope that a late surge could be sparked by Chris Paul and some strong play from its young players at that point.
That did occur in part—the Warriors won 46 games and finished 27-13 starting on January 30. But in the cutthroat West, that proved to be insufficient, and the Dubs eventually lost their play-in game against the Kings.
There’s now a notion that the Warriors might not require a makeover this offseason. Murray may step in to help them improve at Paul’s place, which is one method they could accomplish it.
“Out of all the players they could be able to trade for, he is probably realistic because he doesn’t make a lot of money. They could add him, replace Chris Paul, and give up two first-round picks, and now you have another scorer, some defense, and a guy who makes some sense,” a Western Conference executive stated.
The Warriors are worried about staying within their means this offseason as they want to avoid the increasingly harsh repeater tax. Owner Joe Lacob told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic that the team’s goal is to completely avoid the barrier rather than just limit the fee.
The Warriors have a few options to get there: dealing Andrew Wiggins and/or Gary Payton II, letting Klay Thompson depart in free agency, and moving on from Kevon Looney. The Warriors might save money and improve their roster by trading Paul to the Hawks for Murray in exchange for two picks (they could deal their 2026 and 2028 picks).
Alternatively, they may simply decline to pick up Paul’s contract for the upcoming year and send Wiggins to the Hawks.
The Warriors might be more interested in acquiring a wing. With his size, though, Murray averaged a career-high 22.5 points per game in Atlanta this season, connecting on 45.9% of his field goals and 36.3% of his 3-point attempts. Even though he had ACL surgery during his third NBA season—he played 78 games this year after playing 74 the previous one—he still exhibits amazing durability.
