Proposed Warriors Trade Sends 12-Time All-Star Out East

Getty Coach Steve Kerr (L) and Governor Joe Lacob of the Warriors look on during an NBA Summer League game in July 2022.

The Warriors have until June 28 to guarantee Chris Paul’s $30 million salary for the 2024-25 NBA season. If the Warriors waive both Paul and Kevon Looney ($8 million contract, $3 million guaranteed), they would enter July’s free agency period with $137 million in committed salaries.

In other words, Golden State would be $34 million below the luxury tax and $54 million under the second apron, per ESPN’s Bobby Marks. By doing so, the Warriors would accomplish the goal set forth by their governor, Joe Lacob, who previously stressed the team’s No. 1 priority was to shed their mounting luxury tax bill.

“Our Plan 1 or 1A is that we’d like to be out of the tax,” Lacob told “The TK Show” on February 14, via Bleacher Report. “The truth is, we need to be out of the tax two years out of the next four in order to get this repeater thing off our books. That’s the plan: to try to do that, and we think we can keep our team together.”

Should Warriors Trade Chris Paul to Chicago?

Of course, the Warriors would also have the option of trading Paul to a team that requires veteran point guard leadership. Such a move could allow them to add some assets to shore up Stephen Curry’s chances of pursuing his fifth championship.

To that end, ESPN’s Chris Herring has suggested that Paul would be the perfect addition to a young Bulls team needing leadership. Herring argued Paul could mentor Lonzo Ball, who is set to return to the court after two injury-plagued years.

“He wouldn’t be a long-term answer for the Bulls, who have a ton of questions to answer about their roster at large. (Among them: Will 34-year-old free agent DeMar DeRozan be brought back this summer? How about 22-year-old restricted free agent Patrick Williams? And what about the trade chatter with Zach LaVine?) But giving them stability at guard will be a plus for a team that abruptly learned just how much good point guard play matters. Having Paul would make them better, whether it’s as a starter or off the bench,” Herring wrote on May 28.

Ideal Warriors Trade Targets?

In a hypothetical scenario, if the Warriors were to trade Paul to the Bulls before June 28, they could seek players such as Alex Caruso ($9.46 million) and Nikola Vucevic ($18.5 million) and fillers to match salaries in a potential deal.

The acquisitions of Caruso and Vucevic would solve a ton of the Warriors’ problems in the form of an elite perimeter defender and stretch big. In fact, the Warriors called the Bulls ahead of the February 8 trade deadline with hopes of acquiring Caruso. However, they offered Andrew Wiggins to the Bulls, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. 

“They [Warriors] were down the road and had very serious conversations about Alex Caruso, about Kelly Olynyk. Teams were calling about Andrew Wiggins,” Shelburne reported on ESPN’s “NBA Today” on February 12. “He’d [Wiggins] been playing a lot better and I think when it got down to it when I’m told, everybody asked for Jonathan Kuminga, and they essentially said, we are never trading Kuminga. He is untouchable.”

Unless the Warriors pull off a successful trade for Wiggins or Paul in the offseason, their chances of improving the roster for the 2024-25 season are slim. The franchise has limited draft assets and stands to lose Klay Thompson in free agency.