The Golden State Warriors are poised to have a big year this season, but the improving Western Conference team is still looking to shore up their roster.
The Warriors, who are currently sixth in the Western Conference with their 25-15 record, recently acquired Jordan Crawford and MarShon Brooks in a three-team trade with the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat on Thursday.
But despite acquiring Crawford and Brooks, NBA analysts believe that the Warriors would still be looking to make trades before the trade deadline on February 20 because their point guard woes were still left unsolved after the three-team deal.
"Warriors needed help in the backcourt and Crawford is a lethal scorer coming off the bench. Brooks has talent as well, though he's still a work in progress. I don't think Crawford is really a point guard," ESPN insider Chad Ford said when asked about the possibility of the Warriors getting into another trade.
Recent rumors suggested that the Warriors are receiving calls from other teams, who are inquiring about the availability of Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson. Sources said that the Warriors will eventually trade one of them to fill in the gap on their point guard rotation.
Trading Thompson makes no sense for the Warriors since the third-year shooting guard is having another breakout year. The 23-year-old streak-shooter is averaging 19.3 points per game this season to go along with 3.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest.
The former Washington State standout is shooting 44.9 percent from the field, including an impressive 41.0 percent clip from the three-point region.
Barnes, on the other hand, is averaging 11.3 points and 4.0 rebounds per game this season, but sources close to the situation noted that the Warriors are slowly losing their patience on the second-year forward due to his inconsistency.
"Barnes and Thompson draw interest as trade chips all over the league, and Barnes hasn't met the organization's high expectations for him this season," Grantland noted.
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Considering their need to acquire a backup point guard, the Warriors could trade the former North Carolina standout to the Chicago Bulls. The Warriors recently talked to the Bulls about a potential trade for veteran point guard Kirk Hinrich.
It is still unknown though whether the Bulls will be willing to add more pieces aside from Hinrich in order to acquire Barnes, who could fill in the void left by Luol Deng, who was recently dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
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