Report Reveals Warriors' Trade Package and Pelicans' Asking Price for Trey Murphy III

Before the Golden State Warriors made their pursuit for Giannis Antetokounmpo, they reportedly targeted Pelicans wing Trey Murphy III.

ClutchPoints' Brett Siegel reported Tuesday that the Warriors were willing to give up Jonathan Kuminga, a 2026 first-round pick and a lightly protected 2028 first-round pick.

He wrote this about the Pelicans' asking price:

"If New Orleans was going to trade Murphy to Golden State, sources said it would have taken at least three unprotected picks to make up for what the Pelicans deemed 'undesirable assets.'"

Should the Warriors Have Offered 3 Unprotected 1st-Round Picks for Murphy?

The answer to this question is a resounding yes.

And it's even more resounding now that we know what the Warriors ended up getting for Kuminga.

But first, let's go over why Murphy is worth so much.

He's a 25-year-old 6'8" wing who can score at all three levels. He's shooting 38.0 percent from three, and his driving and passing are getting better by the day.

In four February games, he's averaging 5.5 assists to go along with 29.5 points.

So if it really would've cost the Warriors just their 2026, 2028 and 2030 first-round picks, they should have done it.

Now, Golden State has almost no way to get materially better this offseason.

The Warriors have just one player under contract for next season making between $12.6 million and $56.7 million, and that's Draymond Green. Technically he isn't actually under contract (player option for $27.7 million), but it can be assumed he'll be back.

So if the Warriors were trying to make a Murphy-like trade in the offseason, they'd likely have to trade Green, who would likely be viewed as more of a negative asset than Kuminga—especially to a rebuilding team—and they'd have to convince the franchise legend to opt in to his deal just to trade him, which is cold.

The Warriors needed to get something better than Kristaps Porzingis for Kuminga. Even if it cost three firsts, they needed to use this opportunity to get the final piece of the championship puzzle for the 2026-27 season.

Now they have Porzingis, who is a free agent after this season. In theory, the Warriors could sign-and-trade him, but then they'd be hard-capped at the first apron, which would force them to salary-dump Green or something like that just to stay cap-legal.

And that's not even considering that Porzingis would have to agree to this sign-and-trade AND the other team would have to want the oft-injured big as well.

What's far more likely to happen is the Warriors essentially run it back next season, hoping they thread a needle to re-sign both Porzingis and De'Anthony Melton.

In a best-case scenario that features Jimmy Butler returning to form, Stephen Curry not dropping off and the rest of the roster staying healthy, the Warriors would be a strong team. But even then, they'd be one piece away—a piece like Trey Murphy III.

And what makes Murphy even more of a no-brainer is he's under contract through 2028-29 at a bargain rate, so even if the Warriors' contention era ended sooner than expected, they could trade Murphy for some of the draft capital they gave up.

In conclusion, Golden State made a mistake not being more aggressive for Murphy.