Warriors trade proposal moves on from Jimmy Butler for recent $175M Lakers champion

Warriors trade proposal moves on from Jimmy Butler for recent $175M Lakers champion originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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It didn’t seem like the Golden State Warriors had much of an opportunity to trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, an unfortunate reality for a team that stars typically want to play for. 

There isn’t much the Warriors can do about it now, other than going out there and making the necessary moves to improve on both sides of the basketball. The Warriors, as a team, aren’t getting any younger, and with some of the injuries they dealt with last year, mainly to Jimmy Butler, it might be a decent idea to move on from a player like Butler to improve elsewhere. 

One recent trade proposal would involve a former Los Angeles Lakers star and would give the Warriors a player who could come in and make an immediate impact and help win a championship.

Warriors get: Anthony Davis

Wizards get: Jimmy Butler, 2027 top-11-protected first-round pick

“The vibes in Washington don’t seem great for Davis to have a long stay. He doesn’t want to play for a rebuilding team, and the Wizards probably don’t want to give him the massive contract extension he seeks. The question is, do the Warriors want to give him that extension?

“On the one hand, the Dubs have almost no money on their books past the 2026-27 season, so they can certainly afford to pay Davis. On the other hand, he’s an oft-injured 33-year-old who will want his extension to go into his late 30s,” Joey Akeley wrote.

Davis is a really tough player to evaluate at this stage of his career. Not in the sense that he’s not a great player, but more so because, as Akeley touched on, he wants to be paid handsomely, and his injury history is tough to ignore. The Warriors, however, are in a position where they might have to take a risk to get to where they need to be.

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