NBA trade season: Breaking down the Pacific Division landscape

[ad_1]

Midseason is quickly approaching, forcing teams to take serious stock of their rosters and direction.

The decisions to be made, right or wrong, fuel NBA fan interest, as the league’s transaction game remains an area of significant attention.

As such, let’s take a look at how teams from the Pacific Division should approach the Feb. 6 trade deadline.

Previous divisions: Atlantic | Central | Southeast | Northwest

Golden State Warriors

Status: Competitive
Approach: Clearly buyers

The Warriors got out ahead of us on this one, as they already traded for point guard Dennis Schröder via the Brooklyn Nets, relinquishing the contract of De’Anthony Melton, who is out for the year, as well as modest draft compensation.

Schröder, due to the fact that he was traded before Dec. 16, can actually get aggregated into a new trade if the Warriors wish to make a big play for a star such as Miami’s Jimmy Butler.

This isn’t to suggest the Warriors are thinking that big, but they’re clearly looking to add talent before the deadline to optimize Stephen Curry’s remaining prime.

It’s a commendable mindset given Curry’s role within the franchise, particularly when you consider he’s 36, and the loss of Klay Thompson last summer could easily have been enough to warrant a pivot toward a rebuild.

Instead, the Warriors seem hell bent on squeezing out the maximum value of Curry’s last few years, and it’s hard to disagree with that approach.

Likelihood of trade: Considering they’ve already made one, it’s obviously pretty substantial.

Los Angeles Clippers

Status: Competitive
Approach: Flexible

The Clippers were widely expected to be bad this season because of Kawhi Leonard’s injury status. Surely an aging group couldn’t pick itself up and deliver a winning product.

Well, the joke’s on the non-believers because that’s exactly what the Clippers have done due to career years from Norman Powell and Ivica Zubac.

The team is currently playing with house money, so it’s difficult to peg it as a team that’s trying to go for it, or one that could be using this winning situation to extract more assets in return for some of their players.

The last part would be clever, but…

[ad_2]
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba-trade-season-breaking-down-the-pacific-division-landscape-153917056.html

Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-12-26 15:39:00

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.