
Leiva asserts that the Warriors can do the unthinkable and add both LeBron James and Jimmy Butler to their roster before the deadline.
This is a hilarious idea that might not be possible (more on this below), and even if it is, Golden State’s bench once these deals were theoretically completed would look like a G League cast of characters headlined by Bronny James. Not exactly Finals-worthy.
Let’s dive into Leiva’s proposed trades that would bring in both LeBron and Butler to Golden State.
First, Leiva says Golden State could send the Lakers the following absurd, eight-player package for LeBron and Bronny James: Jonathan Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, Moses Moody, Buddy Hield, Kyle Anderson, Gui Santos, Trayce Jackson-Davis, and Gary Payton II.
Leiva also has GSW sending the Lakers two pick swaps in addition to the above half-roster full of players.
The problem with Leiva’s package is that it doesn’t work. Golden State becomes hard-capped & over the first apron by $4,369,885 in this trade.
Moving on to Leiva’s Butler idea. He has Golden State sending Miami a four-player package of Andrew Wiggins, De’Anthony Melton, Kevon Looney, and Lindy Waters III for Butler.
This trade also wouldn’t go through. The Heat would become a second-apron team in the deal and wouldn’t be able to take in more income than they are sending out, which would be the case here (taking in $497,079 more).
Suppose we were ignoring cap semantics and assumed both trades could happen … the Warriors would have just traded 12 players away for three players in return, leaving them with basically a roster of six players, with four of those guys being 34, 35, 36, and almost 40 years old.
This trade idea is beyond ridiculous, with all due respect.