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Steve Kerr (l) and Stephen Curry (r)

While the Boston Celtics with 18 NBA championships and Los Angeles Lakers with 17 — including their five between 1949 and 1954 as the Minneapolis Lakers — are the league’s elite when it comes to winning titles, how many fans are aware of the team that has won more championships than any other franchise outside of those two?

The answer is — the Golden State Warriors. Counting two titles won as the Philadelphia Warriors — the first in 1947 when the league was still known as he BAA, Basketball Association of America — the Warriors have taken home seven championships, more than any but the top two teams.

Four of those championships have come in the current era when the Warriors are led by Stephen Curry, widely considered the greatest shooter in the history of basketball. But the 37-year-old Curry is nearing the end of his NBA career, and if the Warriors would like to add another title to the future Hall of Famer’s legacy in the San Francisco Bay Area, they will need to build a better team around him.

Adding Butler Brings Curry Closer to Another Title

On February 6, the Warriors took one step toward doing exactly that, when they made a mind-boggling, five-team trade that brought six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler to Golden State to form a tandem with Curry that turned the Warriors season around.

At the time of the trade, the Warriors were muddling along at 25-26, had dropped three of their last four games and were tied with the Sacramento Kings for the Western Conference final play-in spot.

Since adding Butler in the blockbuster deal, Golden State has won 22 games and lost only six heading into Wednesday’s matchup with the San Antonio Spurs. With three games remaining to play in the regular season, the Warriors at 47-32 are part of a four way tie in the West for No. 4 seed.

Plus, they are only one game behind the Lakers for the third seed. In other words, depending on what transpires over the regular season’s final three games, Golden State could finish as high as third place, or as low as seventh, or even eighth.

The bottom line, however, is that the Warriors will make the postseason and based on their results so far with Butler and Curry working together, are well-positioned to make a run at an eighth NBA championship.

But if they don’t pull that off, or even if they do, NBA writer Spencer See of ClutchPoints has a trade idea that would give Golden State perhaps the most formidable “Big Three” in recent memory heading into next season — and put Curry in line for potential multiple championships before his career finally winds down.

Stunning Trade Would Net Antetokounmpo

The idea? Golden State would send a massive package of NBA talent and future assets to Milwaukee to bring in the Bucks two-time NBA MVP and leader of their 2021 NBA championship-winning team — Giannis Antetokounmpo.

What would the Warriors give up? A lot. Specifically, Draymond Green, Gary Payton II, Buddy Hield, Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, a 2026 first round pick, and a 2028 first rounder as well.

As a second-apron team, the Warriors payroll may not exceed $207.8 million next season. That is the projected figure that will constitute the second-apron “hard cap” in the 2025-2026 season. Bringing in Antetokounmpo and his estimated $54.1 million salary next season means that the Warriors would need to dump close to $30 million in salary to afford the 30-year-old seven-time All-Star.

But what the Warriors would then lack in depth — as well as future draft assets — they would presumably more than make up for with the “Big Three” of Curry, Butler and Antetokounmpo. And while the Bucks superstar has said that he would never ask for a trade out of Milwaukee, he has also said that if he were to be traded, “I would inform my family and would do my job.”

Jonathan Vankin JONATHAN VANKIN is an award-winning journalist and writer who now covers baseball and other sports for Heavy.com. He twice won New England Press Association awards for sports feature writing. Vankin is also the author of five nonfiction books on a variety of topics, as well as nine graphic novels including most recently “Last of the Gladiators” published by Dynamite Entertainment. More about Jonathan Vankin

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