Trade & Free Agency 2026/2027

[DanSchwartzgan]

Why would GS do this trade? It makes them a worse team. We would be getting the 2 best players in the deal. I think Podz is better than PJ, but we can call them even for the sake of this. I don't see it appealing for GS unless they need to dump salary.

Butler doesn't come back until probably February and won't be fully himself this season.  Keeping him means wasting $56mm worth of salary (not to mention Moody is also out).  Curry only has so many viable shots left.  Instead, GSW is getting three players who can contribute:

Gafford gives them a reliable option at center where GSW currently relies of the unreliable KP and Horford to fill their center minutes this season.

Klay gets them the nice reunion story for a season

PJ gives them much of what they were hoping to get in any Lebron signing.

It also saves them money and tax.  The hard pill to swallow is obviously Podz, but there is talk that landing on a number for him is going to be difficult (whether extended now or paid as a RFA next summer).  Put it all together and GSW gets three very useful players for essentially Podz (who they are facing a financial battle with soon).  If they love Butler so much, they can bring him back next summer.

Killer made a good point yesterday that Aldama, Sasser and Risacher are all players whose teams needed to make a financial decision on fairly soon.  So, Podz would be a further expression of this part of the Masai playbook.  Creating a huge expiring contract in Butler aligns with what happened with AD last year (and Butler is about as available as AD was also).  This has Masai MO written all over it.  Who knows what Masai might do with a large expiring contract at the TDL or alternatively, with the flexibility created by letting him expire next summer or using him as a S&T chip.  Podz fits the hole we have in the roster better than many of the alternatives we talk about.  He's a high IQ connector who makes quick decisions and hits his 3's.