Colin Keane

The Warriors have been publicly adamant about adding a superstar besides Stephen Curry, but why not add two? This is a question posed by a from Fadeaway World’s Fran Leiva released Friday.

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.