The Golden State Warriors just finished one of the ugliest seasons of the Stephen Curry era. A 37-45 record. A play-in loss to the Phoenix Suns. A roster held together by duct tape and the ghost of Kristaps Porzingis, who arrived at the trade deadline and still couldn’t fix the damage. Jimmy Butler tore his ACL and will miss most of next season. Moses Moody ruptured a patellar tendon and is out for the entire 2026-27 campaign. The West isn’t getting any easier, and the Warriors are staring down a path where Curry and Draymond Green are surrounded by a bunch of guys who wouldn’t start for most playoff teams.
So naturally, the rumor mill has them linked to Trey Murphy III. The Pelicans forward is 26, stands 6’9″, and averaged 21.5 points last season on efficient shooting. He fits everywhere. He defends multiple positions. He hits threes. Every contender would love to have him. The Warriors hold the No. 11 pick in this week’s draft, and some smart folks have floated the idea of packaging that pick with bodies to bring Murphy to Golden State.
New Orleans isn’t just giving him away. The Pelicans have been asking for multiple first-round picks in return. That’s the asking price for a player who could be the third-best guy on a championship team. And that’s exactly why the Warriors need to hang up the phone.
This roster is not one piece away
The Knicks learned this lesson the hard way twice. They traded a pile of depth for Carmelo Anthony in 2011 and spent years watching spare parts try to fill the holes. Then in 2024, they shipped out a mountain of future firsts for Mikal Bridges because they thought they were close. They added Karl-Anthony Towns. The next season they scraped together enough bench pieces — Jordan Clarkson, Jose Alvarado — and actually won a title. But that worked because New York had a young core already in place. Jalen Brunson was thriving. Josh Hart was doing his thing. The Knicks had a foundation.
The Warriors don’t have that. Brandin Podziemski is fine. Gui Santos is a rotation guy. Nobody on this roster outside of Curry and Green scares anyone. Trading multiple picks and young players for Murphy would leave Golden State with a thin lineup and no way to add help later. That’s the kind of move that turns a bad situation into a multiyear rebuild.
Father Time is undefeated, and the Warriors need to plan for what comes next
Curry turns 39 next season. His knee issues this year weren’t a fluke. That’s what 17 years of running off screens looks like. The Warriors front office has done a decent job keeping their future first-round picks. They own every selection except 2030, and that one is protected 1-20 from the Jordan Poole trade. If they want to tear it all down when Curry retires, they can do it without sending someone else’s lottery pick to the Pelicans.
Blowing that flexibility for Murphy would be the kind of shortsighted move that sets a franchise back five years. The Warriors already whiffed on James Wiseman. The Jordan Poole situation was a disaster. They’ve spent years searching for Curry’s heir and come up empty. Holding onto those picks gives them another swing. Maybe they find a star at No. 11 this year. Maybe they stumble into something in 2028. But trading multiple firsts for a player who makes them slightly less terrible in the short term? That’s how you end up like the post-2014 Knicks, stuck in no-man’s land with no picks and no identity.
The Warriors aren’t one piece away. They’re closer to needing a full reset. And the smartest thing they can do this week is keep the pick and let someone else overpay for Trey Murphy.
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