Nets eye Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga for Michael Porter Jr., a high-risk star commanding a hefty price for Golden State's aging core.
Despite how well Michael Porter Jr. continued to perform in his debut campaign with the Brooklyn Nets, his placement on the trade block will not budge.
Even though the 6-foot-10 scoring savant has contributed career-bests across the board with 25.9 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists on fantastic 49.5/40.8/82.5 shooting splits, he'll be viewed as one of the NBA's most coveted trade targets all the way up until the league's Feb. 5 trade deadline.
Porter Jr.'s potential All-Star campaign in 2025-26 could see him being shipped to another franchise with a win-now mindset, and a recent trade concept offered by CBS Sports' Sam Quinn has the 2023 NBA champion moving on to join future Hall of Fame point guard Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
"Porter is one of the more interesting trade candidates of the season," Quinn wrote Monday morning.
"His injury history and relatively newfound stardom make him a high-risk addition," Quinn continued. "But shooting and size are prized traits, and Porter has both."
"(The Detroit Pistons are) unlikely to offer more than a team like Golden State, desperate to cling onto whatever scraps of contention it can in Stephen Curry's golden years. The true max salary players on the market are too expensive for the Warriors to land without gutting their team just by matching salary, but Porter is a bit more manageable."
Though it'll be interesting to see who the Nets will request from Golden State in potential talks centered around Porter Jr., it's clear to see that he's increased his value on the open market at an alarming rate following his first 27 contests of the new season.
After the Nets' latest 127-115 victory over the Nikola Jokić-less Denver Nuggets on Sunday evening, his value may have even taken another tiny leap by factoring in his strong display of leadership both on and off-court on Sunday.
Porter Jr.'s scoring acumen and incredibly rare shot-making ability could provide Curry and the aging Warriors with a fantastic offensive option to complement the 4-time NBA champion, but the Nets will likely ask for a haul in return.
In exchange for Porter Jr., the obvious get would be Golden State's Jonathan Kuminga, as finding a trade destination for the explosive 23-year-old forward has been on Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy's to-do list since the end of last season.
At the bare minimum, Nets fans could be expecting to welcome in Kuminga and possibly Buddy Hield along with some form of draft capital to make things work financially and to satisfy Brooklyn's front office.
Will Kuminga's hypothetical introduction to the Nets' lineup be enough to carry the franchise into the future? Only time will tell...