Imagine the outrage in the Bay Area if the Golden State Warriors had ever traded Stephen Curry. It was, and it remains almost an impossible scenario, both inside and outside the Warriors’ front office. But there is no harm in trying, and it seems like former Boston Celtics President of Basketball Operations, Danny Ainge, was making plans in the background to land the impossible asset through a trade.

With Bob Myers leading the front office (2012-2023), the Warriors rose to become the NBA’s most successful dynasty this century. Winning one championship after another, the Warriors, behind Curry, became the most dominant team in the league. However, during the same time, there were also teams in the mix making outrageous trade offers, wanting to extract Curry out of Golden State.

A couple of years ago, Myers confirmed that Danny Ainge, who worked with the Boston Celtics until 2021 before becoming the CEO of the Utah Jazz, made attempts to trade for Curry.

“Look, I was never upset with anybody asking. A GM’s job is to mine for trades. That’s a GM’s job. But [Danny] Ainge was the one always asking,” Myers told Adrian Wojnarowski on the Woj Podcast back in 2024, when asked if he had received trade offers for Curry. “…I owe my career to Ainge, so I [couldn’t] be upset. Everybody knew that was not happening so it was a good laugh.”

Ainge played an instrumental role in getting Myers the GM job with the Warriors. Ainge was the one who suggested Joe Lacob, the Warriors owner, to hire Myers for the front office. The former Dubs GM also admitted it in 2018.

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Interestingly, looking at Ainge’s past, it wasn’t even a surprising move. He is credited with some of the boldest moves that brought massive success to the Boston Celtics.

Danny Ainge was following the same playbook he had for years when he asked for Stephen Curry from the Warriors

Ainge’s moves throughout his tenure with the Celtics were focused on bringing a title to Boston. After a failed 2006 season with Paul Pierce, Ainge made a power move that changed the Celtics’ fortune. In 2007, he orchestrated the trade that brought Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen to Boston, which eventually resulted in the 2008 championship.

Five years later, Ainge already knew that the Big 3 had exhausted their chances with LeBron James’ Miami Heat’s rise in the East. In 2013, Ainge traded Paul Pierce and Garnett to the Nets for a bunch of players and draft capital. These draft assets (Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown, and more) ultimately gave the Celtics a championship roster for the future. It is considered one of the most lopsided trades in league history.

But he failed in getting Steph Curry. Yes, it was always a pipe dream, but Ainge knew Myers wasn’t letting Steph go for anything. However, Myers was once a part of a trade proposal that would have sent Curry to Milwaukee.

Back in 2012, the Warriors offered Curry to the Bucks in exchange for Andrew Bogut. As surprising as it may sound today, the Bucks rejected that offer and they had a valid reason to do so. At that time, Curry was dealing with ankle issues, and the Warriors were more reliant on Monta Ellis, Steph’s backcourt partner before Klay Thompson. So it was Ellis who was eventually traded by the Warriors to acquire Bogut, who proved to be a big part in their title run in 2015. What must the Bucks be thinking today, though?

For Myers, all’s well that ends well. He was the Assistant GM at the time of this trade. But he was promoted to the GM role a few months later and we all know how that went.

So, Ainge always knew what he wanted, and perhaps always ended on the right side of the blockbuster trades he made in his career. Who knows, if it wasn’t Myers, he would have been able to convince the other side, and set the Celtics for years.