Last season, I allowed my mind to wander off and was able to rationalize a basketball fantasy that became reality in the world of my NBA 2K11. With both Chris Paul and Dwight Howard set to become free agents in 2012, it made perfect sense that both players could potentially dictate their next destinations simply by putting in trade requests with their respective teams.

Mind you, before such demands could be made, both players would require a destination where they would not only have a great shot at building a winner from the ground up but also get the opportunity to revive a once great franchise with some of the best fans in the NBA.

This oversimplification of the thought process of the two best players at their respective positions led me to concoct these two semi-ludicrous trades within the confines of my game console:

  • Monta Ellis and Andris Biedrins traded for Dwight Howard and Hedo Turkoglu
  • Stephen Curry and David Lee for Chris Paul

The way I saw it, the Orlando Magic was receiving a young scoring guard that could potentially become an All-Star as well as a decent big man in dire need of a change of scenery to at least offset the risk of losing the best center in the game for nothing. Also, the move would help the Magic would rid themselves of the contract of Hedo Turkoglu and help them slowly but surely ameliorate their cap situation.

The Hornets were losing the best point guard in the league, but at least they were replacing him with possibly the second coming of Steve Nash and a solid rebounding power forward with good athleticism to help replace David West who seemed like he was either on his way out of New Orleans by way of free agency or potentially unable to recover his All-Star form due to an injury he sustained.

Obviously, these moves made no type of sense in the real NBA world. Several teams would be able to trump these offers by offering better talent in exchange for Paul and Howard. For instance, the Los Angeles Lakers could trump the Warriors’ offer by making Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom available.

The Los Angeles Clippers on the other hand could potentially offer a combination of Eric Gordon and another Clipper for Paul and Chris Kaman as well as another player for Dwight Howard if both players manifested an interest to join the Clips.

Thus, a trade to the Warriors would always be a long shot.

But then, rumors started swirling that the Dubs were interested in acquiring either Howard or Paul. But then again, every team in the league should be interested, hence that was not newsworthy. Things became somewhat interesting when prominent writers started mentioning the Warriors alongside the likes of the Knicks, Lakers and Clippers as potential destinations.

Granted, it would be almost impossible for Golden State to acquire both players; but one of them? That certainly raised a few eyebrows.

The fans in the Bay are dying to root for a winner. Heck, Buffalo Bills wide receiver (who hails from the area) has a tattoo of the Golden State Warriors on his shoulder; and although he may not represent all of the franchise’s fans, he certainly gives outsiders an idea of what it’s like to root for the Dubs.

When all is said and done, I expect the Warriors’ to get floated into perhaps a few more rumors but nothing will come of it. Nonetheless, the talks have certainly opened some eyes and could potentially have made some players wonder “why not the Dubs?” and that kind of publicity can only help the team going forward.

Golden State may or may not land one of the five best players in the league by the time training camp opens, but at least they will have fed those with an appetite for fantasizing about seeing either Dwight Howard or Chris Paul in a Warriors jersey.

And ultimately, isn’t that why the front office acquired Jerry West?

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