{"id":576384,"date":"2026-02-02T03:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576384\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T03:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T03:04:16","slug":"warriors-predicted-to-cut-ties-with-buddy-hield-acquire-struggling-80-million-ex-lakers-guard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/576384\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors predicted to cut ties with Buddy Hield, acquire struggling $80 million ex-Lakers guard"},"content":{"rendered":"

Golden State Warriors<\/a> fans should brace themselves as the Feb. 5 trade deadline looms closer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All eyes are on Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> standout forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, it isn\u2019t a given that Mike Dunleavy Jr. and the Dubs will pry him away from Milwaukee this year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If Antetokounmpo doesn\u2019t join the Warriors, the franchise may have to settle for a less impactful contributor who was never a priority target.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Blue Man Hoop\u2019s Peter O\u2019Keefe has a hunch that a struggling former Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> guard could be the asset the Warriors acquire by next Thursday via a Buddy Hield-centered deal.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201c(Lonzo) Ball is on a $10 million deal and has a $10 million team option for next season, meaning any team that trades for the 28-year-old will have some flexibility moving forward,\u201d O\u2019Keefe wrote Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 6-foot-5 point guard is averaging only 4.6 points, 4.0 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.3 steals this season, shooting a paltry 29.9% from the floor and 26.2% from three-point range.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEven despite those lowly numbers, Ball’s versatile skillset would be attractive to Golden State in their system, and would likely make him a rotation upgrade over someone like Buddy Hield. Could the Warriors flip Hield and another minimum salary — say Gary Payton II or Trayce Jackson-Davis — for Ball in a multi-team trade that aids Cleveland’s payroll ambitions?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing so would almost certainly require a couple of second-round picks at a minimum, something the Warriors may need to acquire from elsewhere given the cupboard is bare (especially in comparison to their first-round picks).\u201d<\/p>\n

Ball doesn\u2019t fulfill the Warriors\u2019 current needs. Adding an injury-prone role player who\u2019s appeared in 321 regular-season contests since the start of the 2017-18 season isn\u2019t going to help Stephen Curry remain optimistic about winning another title before retiring.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ball, who\u2019s in the midst of completing the least productive season of his career, may have been a more alluring trade target early in his career when his upside was higher.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, at present, Ball isn\u2019t the kind of player who should interest the Warriors, even if a trade would allow the Dubs to move on from Hield after a disappointing stint with the franchise.<\/p>\n

More NBA:\u00a0Proposed earth-shattering Luka Doncic Lakers trade lands Thunder’s $100 million NBA Finals MVP<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Golden State Warriors fans should brace themselves as the Feb. 5 trade deadline looms closer.\u00a0 All eyes are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,6,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-576384","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115998822686852409","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}