Curry welcomes the last dance, the Warriors hold 6 draft picks, letting the Big Three wins fight with rust blunt knife

The Golden State Warriors have built a very clear and narrow window to the championship around Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler. No one can deny that as long as Curry can perform at a high level, the Warriors will have the strength to compete for the championship. After a regretful defeat in the second round of this season, Butler will spend a full offseason with the team. A better familiarity with the team's tactical system and teammates will undoubtedly enhance their hopes of winning the championship, but they may not be willing to pay an excessive price for this short-term championship window.

Theoretically, the draft picks that the Warriors can use for trade include first-round picks in 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2032, and there are 2026 draft pick swap rights. But since Butler and Curry are both over 35 years old, the Warriors' chances of winning the championship in the future are already very limited, and they still have a golden period of up to two seasons, after which the Warriors will enter a long reconstruction, the Warriors seem unwilling to give up key assets to maximize the existing abilities of these veterans. Because the rebuilding of the Warriors draft pick is easy to get ahead, allowing them to find a new cornerstone player.

Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said of the team's draft picks: "We may protect these picks more than most teams. Because we don't know what our roster will look like in a few years, and the uncertainty of picking these picks in the future makes them more valuable, but it's a bit risky for us to send them away, so we have to go this way."

Since Durant switched to the Brooklyn Nets, the Warriors have been trying to regroup a lineup that can win around Curry. Although they eventually won their fourth championship trophy in 2022, Andrew Wiggins has never played the level of the championship-winning season since, and the Warriors obviously need a star player to partner with Curry. So they brought Butler from the Miami Heat before the trade deadline in February this year, who helped them successfully enter the playoffs with a record of 23-7 in the subsequent schedule, but Curry's injury in the playoffs caused their season to come to an abrupt end.

As long as Butler, Curry and Green can stay healthy, the Warriors should be able to compete for the championship, but as these three people age, staying healthy is not an easy task. But think about it the other way around, if the Warriors can stay healthy, they have no reason to trade because the existing lineup is enough; if these three people really have injuries, then a deal is not enough to save the Warriors, so Dunleavy's decision to not give up the draft pick is completely correct.