Stephen Curry made headlines earlier in the week when he said the Golden State Warriors shouldn’t mortgage the future on a desperate win-now trade. Read between the lines of what he said — echoing comments from Draymond Green and Steve Kerr — and it’s “Don’t trade four guys for Jimmy Butler. Don’t give up on a bunch of players and the picks get Zach LaVine.” Curry is right. These guys aren’t changing the Warriors’ fortunes in a positive way, and no one we know of is available either. Wait for the good deal(s).
Of course, that’s not how some of the NBA’s online fan base perceived it. There were a lot of “Curry, Warriors wave white flag” headlines and clickbaity posts following these comments. After the Warriors’ win over Minnesota on Wednesday, Curry fired back (via NBC Sports Bay Area). His first remarks came during a postgame interview on ESPN’s SportsCenter:
“The 24 hour news cycle is hilarious at times. No one is complacent here. No one is OK with just being average. All the Twitter fingers who got deals we need to make can kind of shut up and let us figure that out. We We know we can be competitive We showed that toughness tonight Obviously every team is trying to find ways to improve. For us we were great. for a very long time. let’s give ourselves a chance and just have a little life in a playoff series. We’re confident we can beat anyone.
When Curry spoke to reporters shortly afterward, he echoed the same theme.
“Anyone who thinks I’m OK with being on an average basketball team is crazy. Take everything I said — I still stand by it — but that doesn’t mean That you’re not in a situation where you’re trying to get better and take the appropriate steps that help you get there (Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy) knows that. I’m waiting to try to help lead the team where we want to go.
Kudos to Curry for pushing back.
Any trades the Warriors make at the deadline will be on the margins, likely leaving an inconsistent Warriors team fighting for one of the last playoff spots in the West. That said, the organization wants to win again with Stephen Curry and will look to hit some home runs this summer.
