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NBA Trade Rumors: Warriors’ Klay Thompson To Celtics In Four-Player Deal

By Adrian Lawhorn
Published on: 10:16 PST, Nov 10, 2016

A fresh batch of NBA trade rumors have surfaced as the Golden State Warriors have gotten off to a relatively slow start in 2016-17. One of the early issues has been the errant shooting of Klay Thompson, who has begun the season in a slump from beyond the three-point arc. The San Francisco Chronicle details the fact that Thompson is not only shooting a low percentage from three-point range, but he is missing a shocking number of completely unguarded three-point attempts as well.

According to Sportsrageous, the Warriors are considering a deal that would send Klay Thompson to the Boston Celtics, spurred on by a recent embarrassing loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Both of these reports are indicative of a strong overreaction to any struggles that Golden State’s “super team” encounters, as the NBA world is watching the Warriors closely, and many pundits are waiting for any opportunity to poke holes in Golden State’s air of invincibility.

One of the current NBA trade rumors being bandied about on the internet involves a deal between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors. The Warriors would send shooting guard Klay Thompson and shooting guard Patrick McCaw to the Celtics, while Boston would send a package to Golden State that would comprise of shooting guard Avery Bradley, power forward Amir Johnson, and the Celtics’ first-round draft pick in 2018 (via Brooklyn).

This trade proposal would be a legitimate deal under NBA trade and salary cap guidelines (per the ESPN NBA Trade Machine), but this certainly doesn’t mean the rumor mill has come up with a realistic scenario in this case. If this trade was agreed upon, the Warriors would be downgrading their shooting guard position in terms of both talent and depth.

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Avery Bradley is a fine player, but he is not in Klay Thompson’s class. Amir Johnson is also a useful piece, but Golden State is overloaded at power forward as it is (featuring Draymond Green and David West, among others). The first-round pick that would come from Boston is likely to be one of the first few picks in the round since Brooklyn is a lower-tier NBA team, but that is not nearly enough for the Warriors to consider this hypothetical trade proposal.

The Boston Celtics had been looking for a blockbuster trade during the entire offseason, but did not find any takers as the season approached. Klay Thompson would fulfill the Celtics’ desire to add another star player to the team, but according to this NBA trade rumor, would the cost be worth it? This deal would leave Boston short-handed at power forward, as Jonas Jerebko and Jordan Mickey would be the only post-trade players left at that spot. However, NBA All-Star center Al Horford can also play power forward, and he would probably slide over to that position if this deal went through.

The Boston Celtics would probably accept this trade offer, even though it would come at a cost. It is difficult for any team to acquire All-Star talent, especially if an All-Star player is not being sent out in the deal. Furthermore, this trade would make the Celtics a better team right now, which is the goal of a team like Boston that is clearly in “win now” mode. General manager Danny Ainge thinks his team is poised to be a contender this season, so a swap like this makes sense in terms of aiding the Celtics’ pursuit of the NBA Champion Cleveland Cavaliers in the Eastern Conference.

The latest NBA trade rumors are suggesting that the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics may be engaged in discussions regarding a significant deal involving Klay Thompson. Not only is this a knee-jerk reaction to the minor stumble Thompson and the Warriors have had early in the season, but Golden State would not do this deal even if they had concluded that Klay Thompson should go. The Warriors will not make any trades of consequence until much later in the season, and even then, only if they are severely underachieving and need a change in personnel. Danny Ainge and the Celtics are going to have to look elsewhere for their addition of an impact player, because Golden State would definitely sit this one out.

[Featured Image by Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP Images]

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