Warriors have received the Patrick McCaw offer sheet, remains unlikely they match. Here’s Steve Kerr on the situation. pic.twitter.com/IuKJkqnpe8
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) December 29, 2018
Three months ago, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr thought Patrick McCaw would be one of the key pieces in a youth movement for Golden State during the 2018-19 season. Now it’s looking like he’s played his last game for the Warriors.
McCaw, a restricted free agent, signed a two-year, $6 million offer sheet with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, one the Warriors are reportedly unlikely to match. McCaw has been holding out all offseason, electing to wait for an offer rather than accept the two-year, $5.2 million contract Bob Myers put on the table this offseason.
“Yeah we’ll see what happens but the whole thing has been surprising,” Kerr said speaking for the first time with reporters since news broke of McCaw signing the offer sheet. “We anticipated that Patrick would be part of our rotation this year and it just didn’t happen for whatever reason. So we’ll see what happens. Obviously we have a decision to make.”
Though McCaw’s case is the most extreme, he’s just one of a handful of young players who haven’t contributed nearly as much as the team was hoping. Jordan Bell showed flashes of extreme potential last year, but has fallen out of the rotation completely in recent weeks. Damian Jones is probably lost for the season with a torn pectoral. Quinn Cook has been too one-dimensional to play for extended periods of time.
“I would say to this point the youth movement that we talked about has not unfolded, given the injuries and Patrick’s situation. It’s one of those things that can turn though, quickly. You never know how it’s all going to play out but that’s the thing with the NBA, like life, who the hell knows what’s going to happen tomorrow or today. So you just have to adapt and move on.”
One positive has been Alfonzo McKinnie, who’s served as an unexpected upgrade over McCaw after making the team during training camp. McKinnie’s 5.6 points per game, 3.9 rebounds per game, 46.9 field-goal percentage, and 38.5 3-point percentage, are all better than McCaw’s averages from either of his two seasons in Golden State. McKinnie has done so while playing less minutes per game than McCaw did in either of those seasons.
