The Golden State Warriors seem headed for a dismal offseason, with Klay Thompson widely expected to depart for either Dallas or Los Angeles, Paul George no longer an option for them in trade talks with the Clippers after declining his option, and Chris Paul getting waived just prior to free agency opening for nothing.
The moves seem to indicate the goal is to simply get under the tax line so they can reset their clock on the repeater tax, which isn’t exactly an inspiring message to send to Stephen Curry or the fans. Adding to the belief that’s the plan is a report from Chris Haynes that the Warriors turned down an offer from the Bulls to flip a package centered around Andrew Wiggins and Chris Paul for Zach LaVine, with Golden State declining to engage on that offer and waiving Paul instead.
Bulls offered Zach LaVine to Warriors for a trade package centered around Chris Paul and Andrew Wiggins, per @ChrisBHaynes.
The Warriors declined.
(via B/R's NBA Free Agency Show) pic.twitter.com/5XDf2pEbFs
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 30, 2024
It’s not clear what else the Bulls were asking for, but considering Chicago has been almost begging teams to take LaVine, I can’t imagine they were asking for too much more in terms of real assets. Wiggins and Paul make more than LaVine, so it may have been a larger deal with Nikola Vucevic also involved, but for LaVine’s faults as a player, the Warriors are desperate for some scoring juice and he would unquestionably provide them with another high-level scorer. To completely walk away from that kind of offer (which, again, we don’t have full details on the full ask), is pretty wild, even if there was more to it, and it only further clarifies where Golden State’s priorities are this summer.
