Pacific Notes: Warriors, Suns

The Warriors and Suns clash tonight, and the winner will come away with the better record and second spot in the Pacific Division, good for the 6th playoff seed. Let’s look at some of the notes from these Pacific rivals:

• The opinion of rival executives is that the Warriors would be willing to trade any of their players other than Stephen Curry and Andrew Bogut, per Sam Amick of USA Today. Amick says the Warriors have one of the most aggressive front offices in the NBA, and GM Bob Myers acknowledged the possibility of making moves with their “healthy amount of assets” in a Q&A last month.
• Curry talked to Jerry Zgoda of The Star Tribune  about the 2009 draft, where he was passed up by the Timberwolves for point guards Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. Curry says his first choice to land was actually with the Knicks: “I wouldn’t have known what would have come to pass here or in New York, which is where I kind of had my sights set on going in the draft. I would have tried to make the best of wherever I landed.”
• Curry also said that playing alongside Ricky Rubio would have been fun, had the Timberwolves chosen him instead of Flynn: “The dynamic of that combination would have been fun, I’m sure. But it didn’t work out that way. Looking back, this is a spot here where good things definitely have happened.”
• Curry also dismissed the idea that the Timberwolves were hesitant to draft him due to his preference for a warm weather destination: “It is nice to be in the Bay Area, where it’s 65, 70 degrees today. But even in New York and the East Coast, it’s snowy and 12, 20 degrees… I had the same situation here as with Minnesota: I didn’t come work out for the Warriors, met with the GMs back then. I would have been happy to be in the league and not have been some spoiled little brat who manipulated his way into the league somehow. I would have been cool whenever I was drafted.”
• If the Suns can land a star, they’d prefer a perimeter player, per Amick’s piece. This is one reason Rudy Gay has their attention in addition to the reports of interest in post players Pau Gasol and Thaddeus Young.