Warriors Trade Rumors: Draymond Green Very Nearly Traded To Western Conf. Rival

In a stunning revelation, we've learned on Saturday from Logan Murdock of The Ringer (hat tip to Ashish Mathur of Hoops Wire) that the Golden State Warriors very nearly traded Draymond Green to the Memphis Grizzlies.

Murock told Zach Lowe on his podcast that (after the 2023 season), the Dubs were looking to make a franchise-altering move:

There was a deal in place to send Draymond to Memphis, and the return on that would have been interesting... Steven Adams would have come to Golden State along with Dillon Brooks, Tyus Jones and a couple of others. The reason that deal fell through was because Jones got re-routed to Washington. And that's something they wanted – they really wanted a backup point guard.

A lot has happened to all of those involved since then. Adams was trying to recover from a sprained posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee at the time, but eventually went on to have surgery later in the year that caused him to miss the entire 2023-24 season. Bullet dodged.

Brooks went to the Houston Rockets in a sign-and-trade, and Tyus Jones signed a free agent deal with the Phoenix Suns last summer, and is back out on the market as a UFA once again.

Green has won four NBA titles as part of the Warriors' core, that has since also lost Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks.

Lowe went on to describe another couple of big moves the Warriors were rumored to be involved with last summer, with the potential acquisitions of either Paul George (from the LA Clippers at that time) or Laurie Markkanen from the Utah Jazz. He said neither of them were really a thing.

"I don't think either of those things were really even close to close," said Lowe.

Murdock added that the Clippers "were going to try to take every asset that the Warriors had in their cupboard" for George. "So it was a non-starter." And seeing as how things worked out for PG in Philadelphia, you could say that that was another bullet dodged for the Warriors.

Obviously, in hindsight, Golden State being backed into a corner to take Butler in a trade at this year's deadline (after their first choice was Kevin Durant) turned out to be their best road taken. The Dubs went 23-7 after acquiring Butler, but bowed out in the second round earlier this month after Steph Curry went down to injury.

"I think they really dodged a lot of bullets for what didn't happen," added Murdock, about the Warriors not pulling off that Draymond Green trade in '23, or the Paul George deal in '24.