{"id":579940,"date":"2026-02-03T17:07:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579940\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T17:07:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T17:07:15","slug":"mike-dunleavy-must-make-a-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/579940\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Dunleavy must make a move"},"content":{"rendered":"

Right now, the noise surrounding the Golden State Warriors is deafening<\/a>. It\u2019s all about Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>. It\u2019s about the massive swing<\/a>. It\u2019s about the \u201cLight Years\u201d bravado that suggests this franchise can simply snap its fingers and conjure another MVP to pair with the one they already have.<\/p>\n

But if you strip away the fantasy and look at the roster as it currently stands, a terrifying reality sets in:<\/p>\n

The Warriors appear well-positioned to do absolutely nothing at Thursday\u2019s NBA trade deadline.<\/p>\n

And that is the one thing this team cannot afford to do.<\/p>\n

The Warriors have become a tough watch. They are disjointed. They are inconsistent. They are, in the harshest terms available to a professional sports franchise, an easy out.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t a team one piece away from a dynasty reboot. This is a team locking in a spot in the play-in tournament, a roundball purgatory where they might scrape together a win or two, or they might not.<\/p>\n

This team\u2019s ceiling is visible, and it is low. A first-round exit feels like the optimistic scenario.<\/p>\n

And their only chance to change that is to do something. Frankly, almost anything will do.<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kuminga\u2019s situation \u2014 toxic as it is \u2014 remains painfully unresolved. He still has a trade demand on the table, and Warriors coach Steve Kerr hasn\u2019t exactly changed his opinion on the young man\u2019s style of play.<\/p>\n

The problem, of course, is that while there is a demand from Kuminga, there doesn\u2019t appear to be much of a demand for Kuminga. It is a perfect encapsulation of where this front office finds itself: stuck between the value they think their assets hold and the reality of the market.<\/p>\n

For years, we\u2019ve heard the ballyhoo about \u201cowing\u201d Stephen Curry a competitive roster. It\u2019s a nice sentiment. It\u2019s also unquestionably true.<\/p>\n

To waste a season of prime Curry is a sin. To waste it because you were too busy chasing a dream to acquire a functional basketball player that can help your team, in lieu of one that doesn\u2019t, is roster malpractice.<\/p>\n

The Warriors cannot simply stand pat and hope the chemistry magically coalesces, that Kuminga finally figures out \u2014 after five years \u2014 how to maximize his talents in Kerr\u2019s system alongside Curry.<\/p>\n

Hope is not a strategy. If the Giannis trade doesn\u2019t happen \u2014 and the way I see it, there isn\u2019t much reason to think it will \u2014 Golden State needs to be able to quickly execute a Plan B and perhaps even a Plan C.<\/p>\n

This team simply must fire off a move before the deadline. It doesn\u2019t have to be the move that reorganizes the league. It just has to be a move that fixes this busted rotation.<\/p>\n

Reinforcement is needed. Low level, medium level, high level \u2014 it doesn\u2019t matter. They need competence. They need size. They need something that changes the math, because right now the equation sums up to mediocrity.<\/p>\n

Will it be easy? Hardly. The trade market is a minefield. But that is the burden of employing greatness. When you have Curry, the expectations are unfair. The pressure is immense. The window is always closing, even if Curry tries to prop it open with one hand while shooting 30-footers with the other.<\/p>\n

There is an old saying: Shoot for the stars, and you\u2019ll land on a cloud. It\u2019s meant to be inspirational.<\/p>\n

But in the NBA, if you only shoot for the stars \u2014 if you ignore the ground-level improvements because you are thinking of only the marginally attainable \u2014 you don\u2019t land in the clouds. No, you fall thousands of feet to your demise.<\/p>\n

You end up in the lottery, but without your own pick.<\/p>\n

Something has to be done. The bigger the better, sure. We all love a blockbuster. Giannis in the Bay would be incredible.<\/p>\n

But something, one way or another, needs to go down.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are currently playing a game of chicken with the deadline. If they blink, and Thursday passes with this roster intact, they aren\u2019t just punting on the season. They are failing the only player who matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right now, the noise surrounding the Golden State Warriors is deafening. It\u2019s all about Giannis Antetokounmpo. It\u2019s about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,159,160,479,164,4025,4024,155,165,6,161,162,163,66,198,255,1372,158],"class_list":["post-579940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golden-state-warriors","tag-basketball","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-golden-state","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-goldenstate","tag-goldenstatewarriors","tag-inside-sports","tag-latest-headlines","tag-nba","tag-peninsula","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-county","tag-sports","tag-sports-columnists","tag-warriors","tag-warriors-alert","tag-warriors-hq"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116007799836566662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579940","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=579940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}