{"id":175413,"date":"2026-02-01T00:38:27","date_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:38:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=175413"},"modified":"2026-02-01T00:38:27","modified_gmt":"2026-02-01T05:38:27","slug":"should-warriors-trade-draymond-green-jimmy-butler-for-giannis-antetokounmpo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/02\/01\/should-warriors-trade-draymond-green-jimmy-butler-for-giannis-antetokounmpo\/","title":{"rendered":"Should Warriors Trade Draymond, Or, Jimmy Butler For Giannis?"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the Golden State Warriors continue to trudge through a swampy season, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a> sits in a liminal space between fantasy and destiny. Whether they can make a trade for the two-time NBA MVP reality will depend on the trade package they offer to a team that would much rather hold onto their keystone<\/a>. More to the point, though his name is the one that is mentioned in trade talks the most frequently, the Warriors will need to do more than offer Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In order to match Antetokounmpo’s salary and pair him with face of the franchise Stephen Curry<\/a>, the Warriors would have to trade one of Draymond Green<\/a> or Jimmy Butler III<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Should Warriors Trade Draymond Green Or Jimmy Butler III For Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/h2>\n

The question is: Which one?<\/p>\n

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The Draymond Green Route<\/h3>\n

If the Warriors were to trade Green, it would make sense from a schematic standpoint.<\/p>\n

Simply put, Kerr has demonstrated a certain level of rigidity about floor-spacing. To his credit, he showed a willingness to adapt to Butler’s strengths. Nevertheless, his tolerance of Butler’s mediocre marksmanship doesn’t designate his preference. With that being said, Green is a slightly worse 3-point shooter than Butler; he’s made 32.0% of his career 3s whereas Butler’s canned 33.0% of his career 3s. Yet, the way teams guard him (or, don’t) because of his general lack of scoring ability makes him far worse for the hardwood geometry.<\/p>\n

In the halfcourt, Antetokounmpo’s growth as a jump shooter makes it risky to play off of him. To that point, he’s shooting 39.5% from 3 this season and made 44.2% of his midrange attempts in 2024-25. He’s an aggressive scorer who defenders need to pick up as soon as possible in the open court. However, a physical marvel with rarefied finishing ability, teams would obviously prefer to keep Antetokounmpo out of the paint.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the idea of Green and Antetokounmpo sharing the floor has its merits, particularly defensively. Still,\u00a0trading Green will be deflating, in a sense. On the court, Antetokounmpo can do everything Green can do and more. In the locker room, Antetokounmpo’s sure to be a vocal leader that holds his teammates accountable, the same as Green. However, the chemistry that Green has built with Curry, Kerr and the fan base won’t easily be matched. The history never will.<\/p>\n

Maybe if Klay Thompson<\/a> had remained in blue and gold it would be different. But without either Thompson or Green alongside Curry in the twilight of their careers, his next championship will ring a little hollow.<\/p>\n

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The Jimmy Butler Route<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

Trading Butler rather than Green makes sense for logistical reasons.<\/p>\n

If they’ve learned anything this decade, it’s that nothing is guaranteed. They can’t just expect Butler to come back from his ACL tear and perform at the same level. His age (36) and history of knee injuries only serve to complicate matters. It’s not just Butler’s injury history that’s relevant though. Curry’s always an ankle away from a long-term absence.<\/p>\n

So, with Curry having been relatively healthy this season, they should strike while the iron’s hot. Should a team prefer Butler instead of Green, it shouldn’t be the hang-up in a deal. Bearing that in mind, the Milwaukee Bucks were said to be interested in<\/a> Butler after he requested that the Miami Heat trade him. Additionally, there are those that are of the belief the Bucks have had their eyes on Kuminga.<\/p>\n

Two plus two doesn’t always equal four. Nonetheless, it stands to reason that Milwaukee would strongly consider a package of Butler and Kuminga for Antetokounmpo.<\/p>\n

As far as the x’s and o’s<\/em>, the concept of a 1-4 pick-and-roll with Curry and Antetokounmpo is scary when considering the former’s outside gravity and the latter’s inside gravity. Though best on-ball, Antetokounmpo can be also used as a cutter or in the dunker spot, helping Kerr get creative with his plays. Antetokounmpo’s also an underrated facilitator who actually enjoys making plays for his teammates. In terms of supplanting his hypothetical predecessor on the court, the Greek Freak draws fouls at a high rate, which Kerr has consistently complimented Butler on.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 William Liang-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the Golden State Warriors continue to trudge through a swampy season, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo sits in a liminal space between fantasy and destiny. Whether they can make a trade for the two-time NBA MVP reality will depend on the trade package they offer to a team that would much rather hold onto […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":175418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,1608,15,62,3,4721],"tags":[409,306,142,4774,1382,662],"class_list":["post-175413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-warriors","category-basketball","category-bucks","category-nba","category-news","category-trade-rumors","tag-draymond-green","tag-giannis-antetokounmpo","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-rumors","tag-nba-trade","tag-nba-trade-deadline"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=175413"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":175419,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/175413\/revisions\/175419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/175418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=175413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=175413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=175413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}