Once-in-a-lifetime pairing: Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo would be a match made in basketball heaven

If the Golden State Warriors somehow swing a trade-deadline blockbuster for Giannis Antetokounmpo, the two-timeline plan will turn back into one and it will have all been worth it. For years, the Warriors, like plenty of other potential suitors, have regarded Giannis as the "white whale" catch for which they were hoarding a boatload of assets. 

Well, that's not entirely true. The Warriors have also been hoarding assets because Joe Lacob believes he has been the author of this dynasty all along, and when the day comes, he's obsessed with proving he can write an equally successful sequel. 

But if ever there was a player that would convince him to back off this save-for-the-future stance and go all YOLO, it's Giannis. And now that he's actually available, the Warriors, according to ESPN's Anthony Slater, are willing to go all in to get a blockbuster done ahead of next Thursday's 3 p.m. ET trade deadline. 

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That means, potentially, unprotected first-round picks in 2026, 2028 and 2032, a top-20 protected pick in 2030 and a 2031 swap. On top of that, Jonathan Kuminga, who Slater reports the Bucks have expressed interest in since the summer, and Brandin Podziemski, who, again according to Slater, could "nudge the needle" in the direction of a deal. 

It's a major package. Probably better than any other realistic deadline suitor can offer. Those future picks, particularly in 2030, 2031 and 2032, could become very valuable in a post-Curry world. He'll be well past 40 by then. Maybe retired. Giannis, even if he stays with the Warriors longer, would be out of his prime, too. 

Sure, the Warriors would have money with Curry and Draymond Green potentially off the books and could, theoretically, build another winner via free agency in Giannis's later years. But all future picks are a bet, and all things considered, this would be a pretty good one for the Bucks to take. 

The Warriors have to evaluate their risk in a deal like this, too. Give up all your picks and fire the Kuminga bullet and then an aging Curry or Giannis or Green gets hurt, just like Jimmy Butler did? It's over. Not just now, but for the future, too. It's a big bet. But it's worth it, as Curry and Antetokounmpo would be a once-in-a-lifetime pairing. 

On their own, Giannis is the fiercest rim attacker in the world, as Curry is the greatest 3-point shooter to ever live. Those two gravitational forces together -- Giannis sucking defenses in, Curry pulling them out -- present what might be an unsolvable defensive dilemma. 

The same was thought of the Giannis-Damian Lillard pairing, but the difference between Lillard and Curry is that Curry operates off the ball. That wasn't natural for Lillard. He's not the mover Curry is. Nobody in the history of the game has been. It was, in hindsight, a backwards pairing. Maximizing Lillard meant taking Giannis off the ball, where his shooting deficiencies become a greater handicap. Giving the ball to Giannis marginalized Lillard. 

There would be no such tradeoff with Curry and Giannis. Curry is a rim attacker's dream, dragging paranoid defenders everywhere he moves in bunches. Good luck building that Giannis wall in the paint without Curry killing you from deep. And vice versa. It's the same model that made Curry and Butler so good together, the driver and the shooter sitting shotgun. Giannis is just several levels up from Butler. 

To be fair, there would be issues. Giannis and Green together are a spacing cramp. You don't have to guard either of them on the perimeter. The Warriors do not want to devolve into a give-it-to-Giannis-and-let-him-bulldoze-his-way-to-the-rim offense, but how comfortable, and ultimately effective, would Giannis be in a movement-based system that requires the highest of anticipatory and improvisational instincts? 

Giannis' feel for the game has grown greatly. He can make the 4-on-3 reads if he's in two-man actions with a double-teamed Curry. But he's certainly not the most natural of short rollers. And where would that leave Green? If he's not the one orchestrating offense, he holds zero value as a floor spacer and would be left to impact possessions in the cracks with screens and cuts. He's smart. He can do it. It's not optimal for him. 

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In the end, however, the power of the Curry-Giannis pairing would be so overwhelming that nothing else might matter. Let Draymond run the defense, which has been a top five unit for stretches of the season. Quentin Post and Al Horford can space the floor as centers. Kuminga wasn't playing anyway. The depth would still largely be there. 

Remember, the Warriors were very possibly headed for the conference finals last season before Curry got hurt. They went 22-5 with Curry and Butler in the lineup together down the stretch. This sort of inside-out dynamic has already been proven, and, again, Butler, for all the connectivity he brings to the table, isn't anywhere near the sheer physical force that Giannis is. 

Who knows if this will happen? The Bucks can probably spark a bigger bidding war in the summer, when more teams have more ammo to fire. But it's clear that Giannis wants to get this done now, and if you think that doesn't matter, then you haven't been paying attention to how the NBA works. 

Golden State has a serious offer. The Bucks are likely mulling it, and others, over as we speak. If it actually happens and Curry and Giannis end up in the same uniform, a Warriors season that looked like it ended with Butler's injury will start anew with the beginning of a marriage made in basketball heaven.