Warriors Trade Proposal Sends Stephen Curry to Celtics for Five Players

After Jayson Tatum went down with an Achilles injury, and is likely to miss the next six to nine months, at the very least, there will be some interesting decisions the Boston Celtics have to make. There could be a scenario where they look to make a blockbuster trade with some of their top players and picks, but the Celtics also might take a different approach, as they understand that they still have a championship team when healthy. 

It’ll be interesting to see what Brad Stevens decides to do, but in a recent trade proposal from The Sporting News, they’d get very creative. It was a three-team trade involving the Detroit Pistons, Golden State Warriors, and Celtics. The deal would send Steph Curry to the Celtics for Jaylen Brown, Kristaps Porzingis, Jaden Ivey, Tobias Harris, and Isaiah Stewart. Jimmy Butler would go to the Pistons with a 2025 first-round pick from Boston.

“This would sadly mean the end of the Tatum-Brown era in Boston. It would also mean punting completely on the 2025-26 season … or would it? A Derrick White-Curry backcourt could still power the Celtics to the playoffs, especially if Boston didn’t trade Jrue Holiday and also re-signed Al Horford and Luke Kornet this summer…

“Speaking of Tatum, when he returned in 2026-27, it would be to play alongside White and Curry … wow. There’s no reason that those three players — plus a key additional frontcourt piece that Brad Stevens brings in — wouldn’t be able to form the core of a contender for a year or two,” Colin Keane wrote.

Could Warriors Pull Off Blockbuster Deal?

This would be a blockbuster deal of all blockbuster deals. The Golden State Warriors, however, don’t have much of a reason to make this trade. Even from the Boston Celtics’ perspective, moving on from a younger Brown might not be the best idea. 

Even if Curry is a better player than him right now, he’s only getting older, and there’s no guarantee that he’ll stay healthy, either. The idea of him playing with Tatum is an exciting one, but it doesn’t guarantee them much at that stage of his career.

Like the Golden State Warriors, the Celtics will do whatever they must to compete for championships. When speaking to reporters earlier in the week, Stevens admitted that the focus for him moving forward will be on trying to win championships at the highest level. If a move brings them closer to that goal, he’ll make the trade to get it done.

“I know there will be a lot of questions about what’s next,” Stevens said during his season-ending news conference on Monday, per ESPN. “At the end of the day I think that will all be driven by the same thing that’s always driven us and that’s, ‘How do we get ourselves in the mix to compete for championships best?’ I think that will get more clarity as we take a deep breath, get a little more sleep than we have the last three nights.”

This trade might help the Celtics in the short term, but even that’s a bit questionable. With how much they’d have to give up, only factoring in Brown, it seems likely that the Warriors and Celtics would say no to this deal.