Warriors Must Add LeBron James, Anthony Davis to Give Stephen Curry Shot at Title amid NBA Rumors

For the Golden State Warriors to elevate themselves from play-in tournament participants to actual NBA title contenders, it'll take bold thinking, creativity and a good amount of luck.

As far as the controllable elements go, Golden State seems to be barking up that very tree.

Forever conscious of the ticking clock tied to 38-year-old Stephen Curry, the Warriors are weighing one of the most extreme win-right-this-second strategies in recent memory. More specifically, they are "planning a pursuit of LeBron James in free agency and Anthony Davis via trade this week," ESPN's Shams Charania reported.

For a—how do we put this delicately—well-seasoned roster with more than its share of injury concerns, this could be the ultimate temptation of fate. James is 41 years old and has missed 20-plus games in four of the last six seasons. Davis is 33 and totaled 71 appearances the past two seasons combined.

Boldness can veer into recklessness pretty easily, and this certainly feels close to that edge.

And yet, this might be the only option if the Warriors hope to truly change their fate. It would take a lot of wood-knocking and fingers-crossing to reach the finish line in one piece—especially when the roster would also feature the likes of Al Horford, Kristaps Porziņģis and Draymond Green—but just imagine if it worked.

The collective superpowers of Curry, James and Davis should fit seamlessly alongside one another. In fact, they already have on Team USA's gold winning group at the 2024 Olympics, a club coached by Warriors skipper Steve Kerr.

This would be, at the very least, a trio no team wants to draw in a postseason series. The upside alone makes the scenario worth seriously considering.

As far as the consideration goes, there are some potential hangups here, as age and availability concerns are only part of the discussion. There's also the fact this could be incredibly tricky to pull off.

While the Warriors are considered "far and away the most interested external suitor" for James, per NBA insiders Marc Stein and Jake Fischer, there's still no guarantee he'll want to uproot himself from his Hollywood home base to play elsewhere. Especially when the Warriors might only have around the non-taxpayer midlevel exception to offer.

And even putting that on the table would require some financial gymanstics. It's doable, but there are a lot of moving parts needed to make this work, like Draymond Green giving a significant discount after declining his $27.7 million player option and perhaps shedding injured swingman Moses Moody.

The Warriors would also need the Washington Wizards to play ball on a blockbuster Davis trade. That would mean the Warriors would have to seemingly reverse course on their plans to keep Jimmy Butler throughout his ACL recovery while the Wizards would have to pivot from their stated intention to have Davis around.

This is, admittedly (and probably obviously), not at all a simple situation. Then again, there's never been a simple way to transform an aging 37-win team into a contender, so that's just par for the course.

If Golden State really wants to give Curry one last crack at the crown, this is the realistic—not probable, but certainly possible if enough things break in the Warriors' favor—way of making it happen.