Warriors Trade Rumors: Golden State Inquired About Avery Bradley

The Golden State Warriors may be defending champions and the closest thing there is to a dynasty in today's NBA, but they are still reportedly looking to improve their bench and reached out about Los Angeles Clippers guard Avery Bradley.

On Monday, Zach Lowe of ESPN.com reported "the Warriors are trying to beef up their bench given wobbly play from Andre Iguodala, Patrick McCaw, Omri Casspi and Nick Young," leading to the inquiry about Bradley's availability. However, they "got nowhere."

Lowe wasn't surprised Golden State didn't have enough to land Bradley since it has "little to deal beyond minimum-salaried players, second-round picks starting in 2020 and first-rounders they obviously won't flip for bench guys."

This is something of a rich man's problem for the Warriors considering their bench is first in the league in offensive rating and ninth in defensive rating, per NBA.com. The players coming off the bench aren't the same caliber as Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant at the start of games, but they have largely done their job for stretches this season.

As a result, Golden State is 41-12; although it has dropped two of its last three games.

Head coach Steve Kerr said there is some mental fatigue in place and "guys are dying to get to the All-Star break," per Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. Adding another bench piece such as Bradley would help in the fatigue department since he could take some of the minutes in the middle portion of the season.

Los Angeles acquired Bradley from the Detroit Pistons as part of the package in the Blake Griffin trade. He averaged 15 points and 1.2 steals a night in 40 games for the Pistons this season and would give Golden State yet another outside shooter (38.1 percent from deep in those 40 contests) if it did trade for him.

Alas, Lowe implied a team-altering trade doesn't seem to be in the cards for the Warriors at this point, meaning they will have to continue relying on many of the same pieces in the starting lineup that led them to two of the last three championships and a bench that has generally performed well for most of the season.