"They don't have a championship team" - Ex-NBA champ suggests Warriors blockbuster trade to boost Steph Curry's ring count
The past few seasons haven't been easy for Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors. Former NBA stars Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett talked about the future of Curry and the team on Friday on the "Ticket & The Truth" podcast.
The Warriors were unable to make it into the postseason two years after winning the NBA championship. On top of that, Klay Thompson (who played for the Warriors for 13 seasons) left the team for a greener pasture and joined the Dallas Mavericks.
The team hasn't made any significant changes or additions. Although they want to contend for a title, they simply don't have enough to hang around with the real contenders in the Western Conference. Pierce shared his opinion on Curry's and the team's future.
"Warriors ain't going be the same," Pierce said. "He (Curry) is going down with that ship. It's all legacy. Everything right now for him is icing on the cake."
Garnett argued that losing hurts and could play a role in his decision to stay loyal to the Golden State organization. 'The Truth' replied:
"Obviously he wanna win, but if you ain't got the personnel, you gotta be realistic. They don't have a championship team right now."
According to Pierce, the team must make a blockbuster trade to return to being competitive.
"The only way I see him Golden State getting back to where they need to back if they could find a way to get Giannis (Antetokounmpo) over there."
Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson and De'Anthony Melton are the only major players Golden State added over the summer.
Warriors are a favorite to turn things around next season
The Warriors suffered a significant loss in Thompson's departure over the summer. A few other players, like Chris Paul, Dario Saric and Jerome Robinson, left the team. Despite this, many experts still believe the team will turn things around in the 2024-25 NBA season.
ESPN recently had a survey, and Golden State was listed as number three among the teams that would turn things around. They received 18 votes in the survey.
Anthony Slater of The Athletic wrote about how experts still believe in the team despite a lack of another star player.
"One rival’s metric model had Golden State fourth in the conference. The Warriors’ 46 wins a season ago through turbulence stood only five back of the fifth spot (Clippers, 51 wins)," Slater wrote.
Golden State won 46 games last season and finished 10th in the West. They'll need to aim for at least 50 wins next season to be confident in their playoff return.