Since 2015, both Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo have won two MVP Awards. Both have won a Finals MVP Award, with Antetokounmpo winning in 2021 and Curry picking up his first award these past Finals. The biggest difference between the two is that Curry has four championships, while Antetokounmpo has just one. With that said, both are champions and MVP candidates and will go down as the best players in NBA history.
- The Trade Details
- The Bucks Wanted Stephen Curry But Had Concerns
- Warriors Projected Lineup If Trade Happened
- Bucks Projected Lineup If Trade Happened
- The Aftermath
- Next
- Golden State Warriors Tried To Trade Stephen Curry And Klay Thompson For Chris Paul: CP3 Rejected The Trade And Saved The Warriors Dynasty
- The Blockbuster Trade The Los Angeles Lakers Rejected: Kobe Bryant Almost Played For The Bulls
- The Blockbuster Trade That Almost Happened: The Splash Bros Would’ve Never Existed If The Warriors Accepted This Deal
- The Blockbuster Trade That Never Happened: The Clippers Nearly Gave It All Up For Michael Jordan
- Kobe Bryant Was Almost Traded For Grant Hill, Phil Jackson Thought For A Few Minutes But Rejected The Trade Offer
There was a time when these two stars nearly played together. If this had happened, would their development have been the same? Their legacies are already intact, given they are drafted products that stayed with their drafted team and brought a title to town. However, Curry was nearly traded to the Bucks. This could have been a version of Tim Duncan, and Tony Parker enhanced to the fullest if Curry and Antetokounmpo were teammates.
What if this trade had gone down?
The Trade Details
Golden State Warriors Receive: Andrew Bogut
Milwaukee Bucks Receive: Stephen Curry, Ekpe Udoh, Kwame Brown
The Warriors did eventually trade for Bogut, who became a vital part of their 2015 championship team. Curry talked about the actual trade that went down on the Draymond Green Podcast. Bogut and Stephen Jackson were acquired for Monta Ellis, Udoh, and Brown. Curry said that he remembers seeing the trade pop up on television.
“I’m getting taped getting ready to play in the game, and you see across the ticker on the TV in the locker room like breaking news, NBA trade, Warriors trade Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh, and somebody else for Andrew Bogut, and that’s how we found out.”
Bogut was seen as a loser commodity when some trade evaluations were given. Bogut reportedly asked for a trade. At the time, Bogut was sidelined with an ankle injury, and it left the Warriors without their most consistent scorer in Ellis at the time. It was also a tough start to his Warriors career. Bogut played just 32 games during the 2012-13 season.
The Bucks Wanted Stephen Curry But Had Concerns
After the trade was finalized, it was learned that the Bucks wanted Curry. Curry was entering the 2012-13 season as his fourth in the league. His 2011-12 season saw him average 14.7 points, 5.3 assists, and shoot 45.5% from three-point range. Curry said that then head coach Mark Jackson approached him and said the Bucks wanted him originally.
According to Curry, Jackson pulled him aside and said, “I just had to let you know [the Bucks] wanted you in the trade.” Curry also confirmed that the team doctors were why he was not dealt. The doctors believed that his ankle injuries were too significant and he “was not worth trading.”
“The doctor part, I can’t put a name to it, but I know that was part of the conversation because it all happened at once for me,” Curry said. “I knew exactly where we were, we were in Sacramento. It was the lockout year so it was right at the trade deadline. We get to the arena and walk into the locker room. I was on the first bus, Monta usually comes on the second bus.”
At the time, Curry faced his first significant injury with his ankle. That year goes down as one of the worst seasons in his career, outside of the 2019-20 season when he missed time with injuries as well. With that said, Curry bounced back during his fourth season. It began an All-Star streak and marked the start of his rise towards becoming the greatest shooter ever.
Warriors Projected Lineup If Trade Happened
PG: Jarrett Jack
SG: Klay Thompson
SF: Harrison Barnes
PF: David Lee
C: Andrew Bogut
Thompson was a rookie that didn’t truly develop until a few years down the road. Thompson’s second season is where we started to see real development. Thompson averaged 16.6 points and shot 40.1% from the three-point range in his second year. He would have likely needed to take a larger role offensively. If that didn’t happen, he would have been developed more defensively as the team’s primary wing defender because Jack was not a consistent defensive player.
The growth of Barnes would have also been essential as well. Barnes was 20 years old at the time. The combination of Thompson and Barnes would not have been splash brothers material, but it would have still been a nice duo. The interior of Lee and Bogut might have been solid defensively. Bogut was an All-Defensive player when healthy, while Lee could focus more on scoring in the paint.
Bucks Projected Lineup If Trade Happened
PG: Brandon Jennings
SG: Stephen Curry
SF: Luc Mbah a Moute
PF: Ersan Ilyasova
C: Larry Sanders
The Bucks already had a point guard with Brandon Jennings, who was a pretty solid player at the time. He averaged 17.5 points and 6.5 assists during the 2012-13 season. The addition of Curry would have regulated him to shooting guard duties. The backcourt duo of Curry and Jennings might have had the same effect as Jennings and Ellis. The season saw Ellis average 19.2 points and 6.0 assists, but the team finished 38-44 for the season.
The other pieces around Curry were not going to be significant contributors in the long run. Udoh averaged 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds but did average 17.3 minutes of playing time. As for Brown, he would hang around the league for a short period. Curry would have needed another superstar down the road to replicate his success with the Warriors. That would happen during the summer of 2013 when Giannis Antetokounmpo was drafted by the team.
The Aftermath
The trade worked out very well for the Warriors. Bogut helped the Warriors win a championship in 2015, where he was an All-Defensive Second Team selection at center. With Bogut in the middle, the team was fortified defensively. Bogut would play in the NBA Finals with the Warriors in 2016 and 2019 as well but would walk away with the one championship ring.
As for Ellis, he lasted 1 ½ seasons with the Bucks. Ellis played 21 games in 2011-12 and appeared with 17.6 points, 3.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, and 1.4 steals per game. The 2012-13 season saw him average 19.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, 6.0 assists, and 2.1 steals. Ellis ultimately walked away in free agency in 2013, joining the Mavericks on a three-year, $25 million contract. Had the Bucks made a deal involving Curry, it would have been more likely he would have stayed with the team.
The question into play would be if the Bucks would pay Curry. After the 2012-13 season, Curry’s entry-level (rookie scale) contract ran up. Curry would agree to a four-year, $44 million contract extension with the Warriors in 2013. The Bucks would have likely paid Curry a contract extension if they offered up Bogut for him, so let’s just assume that the Bucks locked down Curry for four years.
By this time, Antetokounmpo would have entered the league as a rookie in 2013. His first two seasons in the league were somewhat lackluster. By the 2015-16 season, he averaged 22.9 points, 8.8 rebounds, 5.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 1.9 blocks. If Curry is playing like a unanimous MVP this season, which he won in 2016, we can assume that these two are leading the Bucks into the conversation for a deep playoff push.
We can then assume that this partnership is working. We can’t forget that Khris Middleton joined this team the same year as Curry. That big three would probably be good enough for Curry to resign from the team in 2017. Then, you have two MVP candidates on the same team. The Bucks won a championship without Curry, but we could be talking about the Bucks dynasty and not the Warriors had this worked out.
