Golden State Warriors Trade Assets: Who's on the Move?
The league already knows the answer before it even dials Golden State.
If you call the Warriors today, you’re not asking about Stephen Curry. You’re not prying at a front office desperate to move on from its past. You’re dealing with a franchise that still orbits around a 38-year-old superstar whose future has essentially been handed to him.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst reported this week that there is no real negotiation on Curry’s extension. The Warriors are waiting. Curry names his terms. They sign. That’s the hierarchy.
Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody? Also off the board, but for very different reasons. Mike Dunleavy made it clear back in August: neither will suit up for the Oct. 21 opener, and there’s no timetable for either rehab. No leverage there, no clarity, no certainty for rival GMs to sink their teeth into.
Strip all that away and Golden State is left with three real trade pieces that matter in any serious conversation.
No. 3: Kristaps Porzingis and the Contract That Travels
Kristaps Porzingis arrived in February, folded into the Jonathan Kuminga deal that sent him west from Atlanta. Four months later, in June, the Warriors doubled down, handing him a two-year, $40 million extension with a player option on the second season.
John Hollinger of The Athletic noted the key detail: the agreement was structured as an extension, not a new contract, which means Porzingis is eligible to be traded immediately. No waiting period. No artificial delay.
On the floor, he gave them 16.7 points and 5.2 rebounds across 32 games last season, only 15 of those in a Warriors uniform. The numbers are solid. The availability and sample size are not.
The real value sits on the ledger: a $19.5 million salary this season. Big enough to anchor a deal for a genuine rotation player or better, small enough to slide into most cap sheets without a gymnastics routine. For a front office that chose continuity all summer, that number becomes a pressure valve the moment a star somewhere else gets restless.
Still, there’s a ceiling here. A 31-year-old big who has only played 15 games for his new team is not carrying a blockbuster by himself. He’s the matching salary, the useful piece, the third-best asset on the board.
No. 2: The Future – Warriors’ Own First-Round Picks
If anyone forgot what draft picks are worth, the league just got a jarring reminder. The NBA hammered the Clippers in the Kawhi Leonard punishment, stripping them of five future first-rounders. That’s not subtle. That’s a message.
Golden State, somehow, still holds a rare stash for a team this old at the top. A May breakdown had the Warriors in control of their own first-round picks in 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2032. The 2030 first goes to Dallas only if it falls outside the top 20.
For a franchise built around Curry and a 36-year-old Draymond Green, that’s an unusual amount of future still in-house. And that’s exactly why rivals are interested. Nobody can say what the Warriors will look like in 2029. That uncertainty is the appeal. It’s the bet that the dynasty glow will have faded and those picks might land in fertile territory.
Golden State already showed its appetite for youth in June by holding on to the No. 11 pick and drafting Yaxel Lendeborg. But the day this roster needs a real jolt, those future firsts become the opening line of any serious conversation. You want to talk about a star? You start with the picks.
No. 1: Brandin Podziemski, the One They Don’t Want to Lose
Brandin Podziemski is the name that keeps coming up. He’s the first player rival executives ask for and the one the Warriors least want to include in any deal.
There’s a reason. He’s 23. He played all 82 games last season. He averaged 13.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists, and he did it on a contract that pays him just $5.7 million in the final year of his rookie deal.
That’s gold in today’s league: a young, productive guard on a bargain number.
Dunleavy didn’t hide where the organization stands. In August, he said he would rather get an extension done than let Podziemski drift into restricted free agency next summer.
“When he’s on the court, we’re a better team,” Dunleavy said.
The clock is ticking. Nothing is signed, and the extension window slams shut on Oct. 19. Any team trading for him before then would be getting not just a cheap young guard, but his restricted free agent rights. If he breaks out this season, the price tag only climbs from there.
That’s why he tops the list. Not because Golden State wants to move him, but because everybody else wants to see if they’ll blink.
The Decision Coming for Dunleavy
Strip away the nostalgia, and last season’s record tells the story: 37-45, 10th in the West. This is not the juggernaut of old. With Butler and Moody already ruled out to start the year, the margin for error shrinks even more.
By February, Dunleavy has to choose a direction.
Do these assets fuel the next iteration of Warriors basketball, a slow handoff from Curry’s era to whatever comes after? Or do they get cashed in for one more hard run around a legend who still bends defenses and front offices alike?
The logic is clear enough. You keep Podziemski and the picks unless the return is a star with years left on his deal. You let Porzingis go if the right package lands on the table.
The rest of the league is waiting to see which call Golden State makes first.
