Warriors News: Insider Warns Against Dorian Finney-Smith & Cam Johnson Trade After Lauri Markkanen Failure

The off-season misery continues for the Golden State Warriors, as they walk on eggshells once again. After the heartbreaking departure of Klay Thompson, the Dubs determinedly pursued Lauri Markkanen, as a potential superstar wingman for Stephen Curry. However, it didn’t materialize despite multiple attempts. Now that the Bay Area moved on from the Utah Jazz, they can comfortably look at other available options like Dorian Finney-Smith & Cam Johnson, but NBA insider, Anthony Slater, warned against it.

Before we get to the reason why Slater didn’t encourage the trade pursuit of the Nets duo, there’s an unattended Dubs’ concern from last season. There’s no doubt that GSW has a strong youth movement which only increases the depth of the roster. But at the same time, it left Steve Kerr struggling with rotating his talent. In response, Moses Moody paid the price after he barely got on-court time, despite his promising numbers, averaging over 8 points and 46% from the field, off the bench in most games.

Addressing this, Dan Dibley asked Anthony Slater whether ‘thinning’ the roster would help the Dubs. The insider, however, completely stood against it, saying, “You don’t thin it, just to thin it. You don’t just give guys away, give talent away because you don’t want competition at the shooting guard.” He did attempt reasoning out the situation and agreed that doing a player-heavy trade for someone like Lauri made sense in this desperate scenario. But following that, Slater jumped into a hypothetical situation and warned the Dubs’ front office against pursuing the Nets duo, presenting the downside of chasing short-term gains.

Slater continued on 95.7 The Game, “You don’t want to like just give Moses Moody away, just give somebody away like that unless you want to save those chips and that’s the other thing with these smaller scale deals. You look at Brooklyn. Would Dorian Finney-Smith be available? Would Cam Johnson be available? Maybe, but do you want to use up some of your assets that maybe, come January, there’s a really bigger name available and suddenly you don’t have that because you used it to get Dorian Finney-Smith.” While he dropped a practical reason, he didn’t dismiss the Dubs’ rotational problem as well.

Has Moses Moody been harshly snubbed at Golden State?

Moses Moody and Jonathan Kuminga came into the Dubs’ roster together in 2021. Both stars received equal opportunities in the initial stages, coming off the bench during garbage minutes and impressing the Bay Area. From there, Kuminga gradually received more minutes and went on to even start games in his third season. On the other end, Moses Moody, despite his impressive shooting and defensive skills, struggled to get a move up in the rotation ranks.

The Dub Nation didn’t realize it until the last season. Frustrated with Steve Kerr’s decision to give fewer minutes to Moody, fans even showed up with ‘Fire Kerr’ hoardings to the Chase Center. Moreover, the arena often echoed ‘Moody Moody’ chants. Importantly, the star coach even accepted his mistake for benching a red-hot Moody during a game against the Sacramento Kings. Kerr said, “Moses was really good defensively, and you’re watching the tape over again, like that was a really terrible decision, and I should have left him out there at least for a couple more minutes. I regret that one.”

But, the only question is, will Kerr remember this and have a different strategy in the upcoming season, with an aging Steph Curry and Draymond Green leading the Bay Area’s Championship aspirations? Let us know in the comments.

Before leaving, do watch the Dual Threat Show hosted by BG12 where Bulldogs’ Asia Avinger details her experience with Kobe Bryant, her WNBA ROTY picks, and more in the video below.