The NBA’s trade deadline is tomorrow, February 9th at 3pm Eastern time, or noon Pacific time. Typically, deadline day is a big one for news around the league, but the Golden State Warriors historically haven’t been a part of that “blockbuster” info cycle.

Their most recent midseason deal was in the 2020-2021 season where they dealt Brad Wanamaker to Charlotte for some salary relief. Their most notable (and successful) was trading D’Angelo Russell to the Timberwolves for Andrew Wiggins and the pick that’d become Jonathan Kuminga. Aside from that, their major decisions were mostly off-season ones, namely signing Kevin Durant and participating in a 3-team sign-and-trade for Andre Iguodala a number of years ago.

This season’s a little different. The Warriors are off to their worst start without a player having season-ending injury in awhile and hover just 2 games over .500, with plenty of “should’ve been” wins left on the table. While many of those games can be attributed to execution, the roster just isn’t deep, and that’s a problem point to acknowledge before it’s too late.

There are basically 6 wasted spots on the team given Iguodala’s age (and subsequent lack of minutes), the lack of minutes for James Wiseman, Moses Moody, and Patrick Baldwin Jr., Ryan Rollins having a season-ending surgery (not like he was playing much anyway), and an actual empty roster spot that fans have hoped would be used for somebody on the buyout market… or at least something other than just leaving it that way.

There’s been a spark of hope that the Dubs may be interested in making a move, however. According to Warriors insider Monte Poole from NBC Sports, they team is looking to make changes. Their “hat’s in the ring”, as Poole put it during a visit to 95.7 “The Game”:

The report is corroborated by another Warriors insider, The Athletic’s Anthony Slater, who’s said that the Warriors appear to be open to moving some of their younger, out-of-rotation players. This would imply Wiseman and Moody, but could also include Baldwin Jr. depending on the return they’d get. The organization appears to be highest on his future, and he’s shown some Jonathan Kuminga-esque signs that he could be ready for a rotational role sooner rather than later.

There’s also an interesting piece of news which The Athletic reported on recently which doesn’t directly involve the Warriors… but it very well could. The Utah Jazz have been in the news recently since they’re looking for draft assets in return for one of Malik Beasley or Jarred Vanderbilt, the latter of which has been somebody discussed a potential low-cost option to help the Dubs in the immediate.

Per The Athletic’s insight, there’s a team in the West who is offering multiple second round picks for Vanderbilt:

Looking at a list of potential deadline buyers, two names come to mind with multiple second rounders: The Portland Trail Blazers, who have already stated they don’t want to move on from Anfernee Simons (their best asset at the moment), and the Golden State Warriors, who have five of those picks they can deal on top of the aforementioned young, out-of-rotation players.

The Phoenix Suns are a team which is reportedly interested in Vanderbilt and have the assets to get him, but any trade offer involving Vando from them would likely have to involve Jae Crowder, who the Jazz don’t seem to have much interest in. The Warriors can provide the picks and two players with high ceilings more on-schedule with Utah’s timeline, more in line with their vision. And with Phoenix’s roster geared towards the present, they’re going to need those picks because they don’t have the youth that Golden State does.

Another trade target the Warriors have apparently called in about is Alex Caruso, but his situation is a little more contingent on the Chicago Bulls deciding to blow things up. Caruso would provide good point-of-attack defense but may get a bit lost in the rotation with the Dubs’ backcourt logjam unless they slot Klay Thompson in at the 3 more often. A position switch of a player coming off two major lower body injuries after playing shooting guard his entire career may not yield positive results on the court, of course, which is something to consider.

It seems like the major move the Warriors could make is Vanderbilt. Aside from low-cost options in Detroit (someone like Saddiq Bey would fit their need for wing depth), he profiles as the player the Warriors could slot in the best as a bigger wing who already plays phenomenal defense and crashes the glass. Jakob Poeltl was a name which was tossed around awhile back, but he’s more recently been connected to the Raptors and it’s up in the air whether the Spurs will want to give Wiseman a shot.

With less than 24 hours until the deadline, it remains to be seen how aggressive the Warriors will look to be and what their return may look like if a deal for their younger guys and draft picks does come to fruition. If there’s a trade to make them team better in the immediate, then reports indicate it’s more of a question of cost as opposed to “will Bob Myers and company pull the trigger on it". Golden State’s long-time general manager seems to be keen on making win-now moves, so the only thing stopping him would logically be a question of what kind of value comes from it.

Either way, the final roster spot will likely be used to convert one of the two-way players on the roster, and whether a trade happens or not, one thing is certain: It should absolutely be Ty Jerome, and it should absolutely not be Anthony Lamb. Despite a positional need, one of them helps the team significantly more than the other.

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