{"id":586522,"date":"2026-02-06T16:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586522\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:03:15","slug":"green-warriors-teammates-describe-stressful-trade-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/586522\/","title":{"rendered":"Green, Warriors teammates, describe stressful trade deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

PHOENIX \u2013 Al Horford spent the final hours<\/a> of Thursday\u2019s NBA trade deadline<\/a> the same way many NBA fans did: by obsessively scrolling social media, looking at updates and wondering if he would be the next player to change teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou never know,\u201d Horford said at his visiting locker after the Warriors\u2019 improbable 101-97 victory in Phoenix<\/a>. \u201cLuka Doncic got traded (last season), and once that happened, you\u2019ve seen it all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horford remained unmoved before the deadline, but a trio of his teammates had to pack their bags and relocate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield went to the Hawks in exchange for Horford\u2019s old Boston teammate Kristaps Porzingis<\/a>, and Trayce Jackson-Davis was sent to Toronto for a second-round pick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talked to all three of them. I\u2019m gonna miss my dogs,\u201d Gary Payton II said. \u201cI know Buddy will be fine, JK will be fine. Everybody will get an opportunity to play and show what they can do.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hawks trade brought in a frail but talented and effective center, but it also shipped out several beloved members of the team. Warriors coach Steve Kerr described the morning\u2019s shootaround as being enveloped in \u201csadness,\u201d and Pat Spencer backed up his coach after the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people forget about the human aspect of it,\u201d Spencer said. \u201cI spent four years working my butt off with Trayce in that gym, four years with JK, and Buddy has been incredible to be around \u2026 that part\u2019s tough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Warriors’ Pat Spencer (61) celebrates a play against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the third quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Dec. 2, 2025. (Nhat V. Meyer\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

Draymond Green, one of the pillars of the team\u2019s four championship squads, said he was uncertain about his status with the team until the clock struck 1 p.m. Arizona time. <\/p>\n

Two days before, after playing what could have been his final game with the Warriors in San Francisco, Green told reporters he was at peace with whatever the team decided to do. Having played almost 14 years in the Bay Area after being a second-round pick, Green considered himself already uniquely blessed.<\/p>\n

It did not make the final few hours of the deadline any less stressful.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was nerve-wracking towards the end,\u201d\u00a0 Green said. \u201cIt\u2019s not something I want to get used to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Green had engaged in conversations with general manager Mike Dunleavy about possible moves and trades, and held his breath until the deadline passed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kuminga\u2019s departure was the most discussed, with Kerr admitting that the young forward never had the chance to play through mistakes like he could have in other situations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now with Atlanta, Kuminga brings lessons learned from the Warrior veterans to a fresh start. Green hoped that he would make the most out of his new situation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re with a group that\u2019s trying to compete for championships, you don\u2019t always get that leash, and I think he\u2019ll get a little more of that now,\u201d Green said. \u201cI hope he can go and become the player that we all thought he\u2019d become.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the nervous scrolling, the fretting and trades that sent friends to far-flung locales, the trade deadline is now in the past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The rest of the season, one the team believes can still conclude with a playoff run, lies ahead. And with it, a renewed focus on making a postseason push as the final third of the season comes into view.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother day, the end of the (walking on) egg shells,\u201d Payton II said. \u201cSo we get back to regular programming.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"GoldenGolden State Warriors\u2019 Draymond Green (23) argues with a referee during the third quarter of an NBA game against the Philadelphia 76ers at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2026. (Ray Chavez\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2013 Al Horford spent the final hours of Thursday\u2019s NBA trade deadline the same way many NBA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,159,160,200,164,155,165,6,161,162,163,66,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-586522","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-draymond-green","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-latest-headlines","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-peninsula","17":"tag-san-francisco","18":"tag-san-francisco-county","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-warriors-hq"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116024536452837312","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586522","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=586522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}