The group has intriguing younger items in Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody and the salaries of Chris Paul ($30.8M) and Andrew Wiggins ($24.3M) to assist facilitate any potential deal. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Warriors are lifeless final in protection during the last two weeks, due largely to Draymond Inexperienced’s suspension. With the previous Defensive Participant of the 12 months set to return to the ground shortly, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater, we are able to anticipate an uptick of their defensive effectivity.
The larger downside lies in dependable shot creation exterior of Curry. Klay Thompson is having the second-worst three-point taking pictures season of his profession (38.7) and Wiggins has seen a serious regression from final 12 months in almost each single statistical class.
Raptors ahead Pascal Siakam, who has been linked to the Warriors per The Athletic’s Eric Koreen, gives the jack-of-all-trades skillset that thrives on a group just like the Warriors. If Raptors’ basic supervisor Masai Ujiri’s value is simply too excessive, the group ought to shift focus to a participant like Kyle Kuzma who’s an identical archetype to Siakam however maybe not as costly.
With Curry (35) getting into the twilight of his profession, the group cannot afford to throw away any season with him on the roster.
Atlanta Hawks (15-23)
It is time for the Atlanta Hawks to confess that the Dejounte Murray/Trae Younger pairing is not going to work out. The Hawks traded for Murray in 2022 to be a secondary ball-handler, permitting Younger to play extra off the ball and make the most of his gravity as a three-point shooter.
That hasn’t occurred as Younger insists on having the ball in his fingers, forcing Murray right into a spot-up shooter function, a serious disservice to the skillset Murray brings to the desk.
Within the occasions Younger does relinquish the ball, the offense regresses to a “your flip, my flip” fashion of play. The apparent alternative can be to maneuver off of Murray for a extra conventional two-guard who’s a greater match subsequent to Younger.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the group believes “they’ve gone so far as they will most likely go on Dejounte Murray’s pairing with Trae Younger within the backcourt.”
The Hawks are twenty sixth in protection and are in determined want of a lockdown perimeter defender. The 6-foot-5 Murray is undersized to match up towards the elite wings of the league and Deandre Hunter and Saddiq Bey do not fare a lot better.
Two names that ought to be on the high of the Hawks checklist are Bulls guard Alex Caruso and Nets ahead Dorian Finney-Smith. Each are stable wing defenders and might contribute on offense with no need the ball of their fingers.
The Hawks gave up a king’s ransom to accumulate Murray together with three first-round picks. The group must keep away from the sunk-cost fallacy and transfer Murray for better-fitting items round Younger, even when the return is lower than the preliminary value they paid.
Orlando Magic (21-18)
The Orlando Magic began the season on a roll, profitable 14 of their first 20 video games, however have fallen off since, going 7-12 and dropping to eighth place.
This group is the right candidate for a consolidation commerce as there are just too many good gamers on this group who all need touches — a consequence of constantly drafting within the lottery.
The Magic have a top-three protection, however the identical cannot be stated on offense the place the group ranks twenty fourth. The Magic are additionally bottom-five in three-point makes an attempt, makes and share, a loss of life sentence offensively in immediately’s NBA.
“We’re most likely not the perfect taking pictures group within the league,” ahead Franz Wagner admitted following a 113-92 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 9, per AP’s Dick Scanlon.
If the Magic wish to make a professional playoff push they should get higher on offense. The protection is sweet sufficient that they’ll afford so as to add a extra offensive-minded participant to the group with out compromising that finish of the ground.
The Pacers’ Buddy Hield and the Pistons’ Bojan Bogdanovic ought to be two gamers on the high of their checklist. Each are knockdown shooters at 40.1 and 39.5 p.c respectively and might are available in and shortly jumpstart this Orlando offense with out radically altering how the group performs.
If the group is unwilling to half with the belongings to get a deal completed, they’ll look into extra cheap choices comparable to Landry Shamet, Luke Kennard or Seth Curry, all of whom are seeing restricted minutes with their group.