Warriors
The Warriors are in an incredibly tricky position right now. They have an arguably top 5 player, but a strange supporting cast around him with no real #2. Brandon Ingram can provide exactly that. He is a bucket-getter who will thrive next to shooters like Curry, Podz, Hield, etc. With Steph on the court with him, he will naturally also get a ton more open 3s which he can catch and shoot. Losing Kuminga is tough but in reality, I don't see his ceiling being anything more than a BI-level player anyways, so getting off Wiggins' contract and swapping JK for BI makes sense here.
Lineup
PG: Stephen Curry / De'Anthony Melton
SG: Brandin Podziemski / Buddy Hield / Moses Moody
SF: Brandon Ingram / Gary Payton II
PF: Draymond Green / Kyle Anderson
C: Trayce Jackson-Davis / Kevon Looney
Nets
Brooklyn does this to pick up a possible future star in Kuminga, and a UFRP. While Claxton is great, and still young, the Nets won't be competitive until he is past his prime. It seems to me that they will probably look to capitalize on his value and trade him away sooner rather than later. This is made easier by Day'Ron Sharpe breaking out last year. The Nets hope to get Flagg next year and go from there with a complete reset of guys around him.
PG: Dennis Schroder / Ben Simmons
SG: Cam Thomas / Andrew Wiggins / Jalen Wilson
SF: Jonathan Kuminga / Bojan Bogdanovich
PF: Cameron Johnson / Dorian Finney-Smith
C: Day'Ron Sharpe / Noah Clowney
Pelicans
New Orleans gets the best center possible for their system (apart from like, Chet I guess lol). Claxton is an excellent rim protector and can defend most perimeter players on top of that. He is young, can grow with the core, and is on a not-horrific contract. He won't need to do much on offence apart from dunk, which he will be able to do amazingly.
The departure of BI lets Herb and TM3 become the two wings and still allows for an effective small ball lineup in spurts.
Lineup:
PG: Dejounte Murray / Jose Alvarado / Antonio Reeves
SG: CJ McCollum / Jordan Hawkins
SF: Herb Jones / Javonte Green / Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
PF: Zion Williamson / Trey Murphy III (6M) / Daniel Theis
C: Nic Claxton / Karlo Matkovic / Yves Missi
Background
(Same as post #1)
I don't see the Pelicans doing very well this year with the current roster. To me there are two glaring holes:
With no even average centers on the team, the small ball lineup of Zion/Herb/Whoever at the 5 will be getting a lot of run. I do not have faith in this lineup consistently winning its minutes. Especially in a division with Wemby, Edey, & Sengun, and a conference with Jokic, AD, Sabonis, Chet, etc. This team needs a traditional center to play at least half the game or so.
The Dejounte Murray pickup - as much as I hated the idea of it months ago - is something that I've warmed up to. I can see DJM being a key part of the Herb/TM3/Zion core. Unfortunately, Brandon Ingram just does not fit with those four, and in fact actively is a detriment to their development. He and Murray have overlapping play styles, he limits spacing for Zion, and takes minutes away from Herb & TM3.
Each of the six trades which I'll post until opening night will try and address both of these problems. They will start from worst to best. This is #4 of 6.
To be clear: these are all mid-season trades. If the team is doing well as is in 2-3 months, there is no need to change anything.