The Golden State Warriors have been scrambling to find answers ever since Jimmy Butler went down with a season-ending ACL tear that threw their plans into chaos. Mike Dunleavy moved quickly to address the loss, swinging a trade with the Atlanta Hawks that brought Kristaps Porzingis to the Bay Area in exchange for Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield.
That was the move Golden State actually made, but it wasn’t the only conversation happening behind the scenes. Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s availability had the Warriors circling, and with it came plenty of speculation about what a deal like that would cost.
One name that kept getting tossed around was Draymond Green. The chatter got loud enough that Dunleavy felt the need to address it head-on when he spoke with reporters recently, per ESPN’s Anthony Slater. He did not mince words. Green was never on the table.
“I’d walk that back a little bit. His name was not in conversations other than the ones where teams call me and ask about him, which they do every year. So nothing’s new there. I mean, the idea that he stayed with the Warriors past the deadline was greatly exaggerated.”
“It was never, never a possibility of him not being here [or] remotely close, to be honest, and I’ve conveyed that to him. I think he knows that. But when stuff comes up in the media, I think, you know, it feels different for the players, and I think that’s the first time it happened for Draymond, so he’s dealing with it in a certain way.”
“But the reality is, nothing was close, and nothing was considered, and Draymond was not being shopped or talked about in deals, so it’s a little bit misleading. And you know, we’re kind of picking up the pieces here, but I think he’s in a great spot, and so are we moving forward.”
Dunleavy did not seem to be trying to spin anything. He was aware that the Warriors have tough choices ahead if they want to build something competitive again, and losing Butler only made that harder. Currently, the team is running on whatever Stephen Curry and Green can give them night to night.
Fans know what Green means to this franchise. He’s been the emotional backbone for years, and his absence would leave a hole that stats don’t capture.
Dunleavy’s comments came just hours after Green talked about the whole situation on Saturday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show” podcast. Green explained that Dunleavy reached out before the deadline to walk him through how things were shaping up, including what it would take to land Antetokounmpo.
“He texted me. He said, ‘Call me. It’s not urgent. Not urgent. Call me when you get a chance.’ So I’m like, all right, not urgent means I’m not about to get traded. And he asked me about a couple of deals. ‘What do you think of this deal? What do you think of that deal?'”
“And we talked for quite a while, and then he’s like, ‘And by the way, on the honest front, obviously, we spoke about Giannis. We talked about what picks we’d send them. We haven’t talked about, really, the players that would go into the deal, but obviously, if we were to do a deal with Giannis, you or Jimmy would have to be in the trade just to make it work.”
“But what it said to me in that moment was there’s a chance I may get traded for Giannis, because he didn’t rule it out. He didn’t say, ‘We’re not putting you in the deal.'”
So where did everything land? Green stayed put, and so did Antetokounmpo. Green indeed understands how the league operates, and trade talk dies down. He’s averaging 8.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.2 assists through 44 games this season.
The Warriors are 28-25 and sitting eighth in the Western Conference. They’ve got the Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers behind them, but the Phoenix Suns and Minnesota Timberwolves are still ahead in the standings. If Golden State wants the noise to stop for good, they will need to start climbing.
