RealGM

The Bulls and Warriors have held significant trade conversations through the weeks, sources said, with the focus on LaVine and Nikola Vucevic. Although Vucevic was the early favorite to be traded to Golden State, the focus has shifted to LaVine, who would instantly become the team's No. 2 scoring option next to Curry.

Kuminga being traded doesn't seem likely for the Warriors, and trading Wiggins still draws a lot of mixed reviews. As a result, Golden State has been going through all of its options ahead of the trade deadline, including the possibility of pursuing LaVine without giving up either forward, sources said.

This is where things get very intriguing for the Warriors, as their mix of expiring and near mid-level contracts can be combined to make up LaVine's $43 million cap hit.

Since the Warriors are hard-capped at the first apron, any deals they could potentially make are even more complicated. However, there is a path to landing LaVine without giving up Wiggins or Kuminga. The path involves leveraging Schroder, Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson, Gary Payton II, Kevon Looney, and possibly even Moses Moody.

How could the Warriors do this and fill out the remainder of their roster without surpassing the first apron? Well, it would take a few other teams to make this trade possible, but the Dubs could bring back LaVine and a few players on minimum contracts while also leaving themselves about a $1 million buffer to elevate Quinten Post from his two-way contract to an actual roster spot.

In a hypothetical situation, the Warriors could bring back LaVine and Talen Horton-Tucker from Chicago while finding common ground on a deal to unload salaries to the Charlotte Hornets for Nick Smith Jr., Seth Curry, and Taj Gibson to round out the back end of their roster with minimum contracts.

Chi town wrote:How do they get 65M in salary without Wiggins?

Chi town wrote:So Bulls take back bad salary in Anderson and expirings probably for Dubs 1st.

Last season Bulls Dubs were talking Kuminga Caruso and then Kuminga went on his hot streak. I think Kuminga would be in the deal because Dubs won’t want to pay him.

gswhoops wrote:

Chi town wrote:So Bulls take back bad salary in Anderson and expirings probably for Dubs 1st.

Last season Bulls Dubs were talking Kuminga Caruso and then Kuminga went on his hot streak. I think Kuminga would be in the deal because Dubs won’t want to pay him.

I would be pretty surprised if Kuminga was on the table for either of these guys.

jayjaysee wrote:I think either player makes sense in GSW honestly. Vuc more so…

I don’t even hate the both idea (using Wiggins, hate it using Dray for GSW)… maybe selfish since Dallas would have a chance at Wiggins if it was both.

But seems like the Warriors should be the top bidder (very strongly protected first.. maybe even let them protection roll a second year, but probably not) for Vuc and the deal should be done.

Texas Chuck wrote:This is why using aggregators as primary sources is so bad. I had no idea people actually followed these kinds of accounts. Always going direct to the reporting.

Texas Chuck wrote:I would probably include Kuminga in a deal for LaVine/Vucevic. In fact I'd rather do that than use future picks because of the payroll.

I also struggle to understand how teams value players when extensions don't get worked out and there was no cap management need to wait(Maxey the most obvious reason one). So maybe they still value him super highly? IDK