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Steph Curry believes the Warriors should take a cautious approach to pursuing trades for players who can upgrade Golden State's floundering roster.
ESPN's Stephen A. Smith vehemently disagrees.
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The star Warriors guard spoke to reporters after Golden State's 104-101 loss to the Toronto Raptors on Monday at Scotiabank Arena about teammate Draymond Green's comments regarding Golden State mortgaging its future in pursuit of win-now moves, and echoed a similar sentiment about the importance of the front office exercising caution in making trades before the NBA's Feb. 6 trade deadline.
"Desperate trades or desperate moves that deplete the future, there is a responsibility on allowing or keeping the franchise in a good space and good spot when it comes to where we leave this thing when we're done," Curry said. "Doesn't mean that you're not trying to get better. It doesn't mean that you're not active in any type of search to, if you have an opportunity where a trade makes sense or even in the summer free agency [move] makes sense. You want to continue to get better.
"Nobody wants to be stale or be in a situation where you're passing up opportunities. But it doesn't mean that you're desperate, just flinging assets all around the place just because you want to do something."
Smith discussed Curry's level-headed remarks on Tuesday's episode of "First Take," where he disagreed with the sharpshooter's comments and the notion the organization needs to make a desperate move and potentially mortgage the future to win now.
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"I was surprised at what Steph Curry said, and I got to admit to you, I don't know how to feel about it," Smith said. "Because on one hand, I really really appreciate the selflessness on Steph Curry's part. But in the same breath, I'm saying he is still great. He is still the greatest shooter god ever created. He is still made of that championship armor.
" ... You can't stop where you are at this pace when you've got a guy like Steph Curry. You're wasting away. So even though I appreciate what he said, it's hard to believe that he believes that. And if he does believe that, god bless him, but I don't give a damn. If I'm Joe Lacob, I'm like, 'what's the chances of at any time in the remainder of my lifetime as owner of the Golden State Warriors that I'm going to find me another Steph Curry?' What's the chances of me pulling that off? I've got to capitalize and max this out."
While Smith does have a point in stating Golden State would be wise to maximize the remainder of Curry's illustrious NBA career, that's not what Curry's not saying.
Curry absolutely wants the organization to pursue winning another championship, but simply doesn't want it to come at the cost of trading away all of its young talent and leaving the Warriors in a worse place than when he arrived in 2009.