The Golden State Warriors have made plenty of notable trades over the years, but one move stands above the rest when it comes to franchise-changing value.
Some of the biggest swings in team history are easy to spot. The trade for Baron Davis helped spark the “We Believe” era.
The deal for Andre Iguodala brought in a player who would become a Finals MVP and a central figure in four championship runs. And then there’s the trade with the New Jersey Nets, which didn’t just bring back a player - it delivered the pick that became Draymond Green.
The Baron Davis deal is one of those moves that still feels bigger in hindsight than it did at the time. Golden State sent Speedy Claxton and Dale Davis to the New Orleans Hornets and got Davis in return.
He became a crucial part of the “We Believe” Warriors and finished top-15 in MVP voting in the 2006-07 season, putting up 20.1 points, 4.4 rebounds, 8.1 assists, 2.1 steals and 0.5 blocks per game. Dale Davis was 35 when the trade happened and played only two more seasons.
Claxton lasted three more NBA seasons before injuries derailed his career.
The Andre Iguodala move is tougher to quantify because so much of his value came in the details. Golden State landed him in the summer of 2013 by sending Brandon Rush, Richard Jefferson, Andres Biedrins, two second-round picks and two first-round picks.
Rush would later return to the Warriors after one season in Utah and spend two more years with the team. Iguodala, meanwhile, became one of the league’s best sixth men, helped Golden State win four NBA championships and earned NBA Finals MVP in the 2014-15 series.
But the strongest case belongs to the trade with the Nets. Golden State sent Brandan Wright and Dan Gadzuirc to New Jersey for Troy Murphy and a 2012 second-round pick.
Murphy was eventually bought out, while Wright and Gadzuirc never developed into more than bench players. The real prize came with that pick, which the Warriors used on Draymond Green.
Green became a four-time NBA champion, a future Hall of Famer and a cornerstone of the franchise who remains with the team today.
When you stack those moves side by side, the Green pick is the one that pushes this trade to the top.
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Warriors May Have Avoided A Ben Simmons Role Problem
Ben Simmons latest stop came with a familiar wrinkle, as Sacramento officially signed him and listed him as a 6-foot-10 guard, keeping the conversation around his best NBA role alive. Rich Paul has suggested Simmons could be used more like a center in pick-and-roll looks, but the Kings current roster does not appear built to make that experiment easy, which makes the fit feel a little awkward before the season even gets going.
For the Warriors, the intrigue had looked a bit different. Golden State had shown interest in Simmons and could have tried to use him as a backup point guard or a versatile forward, the kind of Swiss Army piece that sometimes finds a lane in their system. Even then, he would have had to win a preseason roster spot over Brandon Williams, so the path was never going to be automatic, and the latest Sacramento move suggests the Warriors may have sidestepped a role puzzle before it reached their own locker room. [Read more 🡒]