Four NBA teams in desperate need of a trade deadline makeover

Per The Athletic's Shams Charania, the team is looking into every possible avenue to improve the roster and everyone on the team outside of Curry is available for trade.

The team has intriguing young pieces in Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody and the salaries of Chris Paul ($30.8M) and Andrew Wiggins ($24.3M) to help facilitate any potential deal. Per Cleaning the Glass, the Warriors are dead last in defense over the last two weeks, due in large part to Draymond Green's suspension. With the former Defensive Player of the Year set to return to the floor shortly, per The Athletic's Anthony Slater, we can expect an uptick in their defensive efficiency.

The bigger problem lies in reliable shot creation outside of Curry. Klay Thompson is having the second-worst three-point shooting season of his career (38.7) and Wiggins has seen a major regression from last year in nearly every single statistical category.

Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, who has been linked to the Warriors per The Athletic's Eric Koreen, provides the jack-of-all-trades skillset that thrives on a team like the Warriors. If Raptors' general manager Masai Ujiri's price is too high, the team should shift focus to a player like Kyle Kuzma who is a similar archetype to Siakam but perhaps not as expensive.

With Curry (35) entering the twilight of his career, the team can't afford to throw away any season with him on the roster.

Atlanta Hawks (15-23)

It's time for the Atlanta Hawks to admit that the Dejounte Murray/Trae Young pairing isn't going to work out. The Hawks traded for Murray in 2022 to be a secondary ball-handler, allowing Young to play more off the ball and utilize his gravity as a three-point shooter. 

That hasn't happened as Young insists on having the ball in his hands, forcing Murray into a spot-up shooter role, a major disservice to the skillset Murray brings to the table.

In the times Young does relinquish the ball, the offense regresses to a "your turn, my turn" style of play. The obvious choice would be to move off of Murray for a more traditional two-guard who is a better fit next to Young. 

Per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, the team believes "they've gone as far as they'll probably go on Dejounte Murray's pairing with Trae Young in the backcourt."

The Hawks are 26th in defense and are in desperate need of a lockdown perimeter defender. The 6-foot-5 Murray is undersized to match up against the elite wings of the league and Deandre Hunter and Saddiq Bey don't fare much better. 

Two names that should be at the top of the Hawks list are Bulls guard Alex Caruso and Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith. Both are solid wing defenders and can contribute on offense without needing the ball in their hands.

The Hawks gave up a king's ransom to acquire Murray including three first-round picks. The team needs to avoid the sunk-cost fallacy and move Murray for better-fitting pieces around Young, even if the return is less than the initial price they paid.

Orlando Magic (21-18)

The Orlando Magic started the season on a roll, winning 14 of their first 20 games, but have fallen off since, going 7-12 and dropping to eighth place. 

This team is the perfect candidate for a consolidation trade as there are simply too many good players on this team who all want touches — a consequence of consistently drafting in the lottery. 

The Magic have a top-three defense, but the same can't be said on offense where the team ranks 24th. The Magic are also bottom-five in three-point attempts, makes and percentage, a death sentence offensively in today's NBA.

"We're probably not the best shooting team in the league," forward Franz Wagner admitted following a 113-92 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 9, per AP's Dick Scanlon.

If the Magic want to make a legitimate playoff push they need to get better on offense. The defense is good enough that they can afford to add a more offensive-minded player to the team without compromising that end of the floor. 

The Pacers' Buddy Hield and the Pistons' Bojan Bogdanovic should be two players at the top of their list. Both are knockdown shooters at 40.1 and 39.5 percent respectively and can come in and quickly jumpstart this Orlando offense without radically altering how the team plays.

If the team is unwilling to part with the assets to get a deal done, they can look into more inexpensive options such as Landry Shamet, Luke Kennard or Seth Curry, all of whom are seeing limited minutes with their team.