Warriors Reportedly Plan All-In Pursuit of LeBron James and Anthony Davis to Give Stephen Curry One Last Shot

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors are preparing to pursue one of the boldest, riskiest roster overhauls in recent NBA memory, planning a simultaneous push for free agent LeBron James and a trade for Wizards center Anthony Davis as the franchise looks to transform a play-in tournament team into a legitimate title contender around an aging Stephen Curry.

ESPN's Shams Charania reported that the Warriors are "planning a pursuit of LeBron James in free agency and Anthony Davis via trade this week," signaling that Golden State intends to move aggressively on both fronts as NBA free agency officially opens. The strategy reflects an organization fully aware of the shrinking championship window surrounding Curry, who turns 38 this season and remains the centerpiece of any title hopes for a franchise that won 37 games and finished as a play-in participant last season.

The boldness of the plan is matched only by its inherent risk. James, 41, has missed more than 20 games in four of his last six seasons, while Davis, 33, has totaled just 71 appearances combined over the past two seasons. Pairing two stars with that combined injury history alongside an already injury-prone roster, one that includes Al Horford, Kristaps Porziņģis and Draymond Green, represents what amounts to a significant gamble on health and availability as much as on talent.

Despite those concerns, the potential upside has kept the idea squarely on the table for Golden State's front office. The Curry-James-Davis trio has already shown it can function at an elite level together, having helped Team USA capture gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics under the direction of current Warriors head coach Steve Kerr. That shared chemistry and Kerr's familiarity with deploying all three players alongside one another has reportedly factored into the Warriors' confidence that the pairing could translate successfully to an 82-game NBA season and a deep playoff run, even accounting for the players' respective ages and recent injury histories.

According to NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, the Warriors are considered "far and away the most interested external suitor" for James as he weighs his free agency options this summer. Still, there is no guarantee James will be willing to leave his Los Angeles home base to relocate for a fresh start in the Bay Area, particularly given the financial constraints Golden State would likely face in putting together a competitive offer. Absent significant additional maneuvering, the Warriors may have only the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, worth roughly $15.1 million, available to offer James as a free agent.

Even securing that level of cap flexibility would require considerable financial gymnastics on Golden State's part. Draymond Green's decision to decline his $27.7 million player option Monday was widely viewed as a necessary first step toward clearing the path for such a pursuit, but the Warriors would likely also need Green to accept a meaningful pay cut on any new contract, and the team may need to shed the salary of injured swingman Moses Moody to fully open up the financial space required to make a James pursuit and a Davis trade both feasible simultaneously.

The Davis side of the equation presents its own complications. Any trade for the Wizards center would likely require Golden State to include Jimmy Butler, meaning the Warriors would have to reverse course on previously stated plans to keep Butler on the roster throughout his recovery from a torn ACL. On Washington's end, the Wizards would similarly need to abandon their own publicly stated intention to keep Davis as a core piece of their rebuilding effort, a stance general manager Will Dawkins reiterated just weeks ago when he said the team and Davis both want him to remain in the nation's capital. Bridging that gap between Washington's stated plans and Golden State's ambitions remains one of the most significant obstacles standing between the Warriors and completing the proposed blockbuster.

Analysts following the situation have been blunt about just how complicated pulling off both moves simultaneously would be, describing the broader plan as far from simple and acknowledging that success would require a substantial amount of fortune breaking in the Warriors' favor across multiple fronts at once, from James' personal willingness to relocate, to Washington's openness to moving Davis, to the financial restructuring needed to make the math work under the league's salary cap and luxury tax rules.

Still, the calculus facing Golden State's front office is straightforward in its own way: there has never been an easy or conventional path to transforming a 37-win, play-in-caliber roster into a genuine championship contender. With Curry's prime years narrowing and no clear alternative path to title contention readily available through the draft or more conventional free agency moves, pursuing a high-variance, high-reward strategy built around two future Hall of Famers represents, in the view of those tracking the situation, a realistic if far from guaranteed route back to relevance for a franchise that has won four championships over the past decade but has watched its competitive window narrow considerably in recent seasons.

Whether the Warriors can actually thread the needle, convincing James to leave Los Angeles, persuading Washington to part with Davis, and restructuring their own roster finances enough to fit both moves under the salary cap, remains very much an open question as free agency unfolds this week. But for an organization unwilling to simply accept a gradual decline around its aging core, league sources indicate Golden State views this aggressive dual pursuit as the clearest remaining avenue to give Curry one final, legitimate opportunity to add to his championship resume before his career window closes entirely.