Wild trade rumors have emerged that the Golden State Warriors' super team might last for only one term as speculations abound that the team might shop Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala next summer if their "Big Four" experiment fails in the upcoming season.
It is no secret that the Warriors, who were the NBA champions in 2014-2015 and West champions last season, had become even stronger this summer when they signed former MVP and superstar Kevin Durant to a two-year, $54 million deal.
With Durant's signing, Golden State's Big Three of reigning MVP Stephen Curry, Thompson, and Draymond Green had suddenly transformed into a Big Four. However, it seemed like Warriors' fans are the only people happy about the development as it had drawn a lot of flak from NBA analysts, fans, and the NBA itself, similar to what LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh received when they joined forces in 2010.
Morning News USA reported that this Big Four-thing might not continue for the long term if the team fails "to win the title in the upcoming season".
With the kind of lineup, the Warriors have right now, the only expectation everyone has on them is the NBA championship in June next year. Anything below that will be considered as an underachievement for the team, except maybe if they break their own regular season record of 73 wins.
The report continued that if Golden State ends up as runners-up again, "Warriors fans could bid goodbye to one of their superstars next summer" as the club could deal him to have a better bench in 2017-2018.
Fansided noted that of the four, the 26-year-old Thompson could be the odd-man out as the Warriors will definitely keep Durant and Curry while the play of Green is quite important for the whole system to be effective.
Durant and Curry are definitely more than enough to carry the offensive load and outside shooting needs of the Warriors and so Thompson's strengths may no longer be needed by the team when that time comes.
The good news for Warriors fans is that all of these are just rumors at the moment and it remains to be seen how their team will handle the pressure of being title favorites once again.