The Golden State Warriors have questions both practical and philosophical to answer this offseason.
Reports suggest the organization would like to keep together its core group of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Kevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins are generally considered part of the core.
Outside of that, there are numerous possibilities. Former assistant general manager and ESPN’s front office expert Bobby Marks joined Tolbert and Copes on Monday to discuss Golden State’s options.
The newly-minted collective bargaining agreement will begin to punish teams severely for exceeding the tax threshold. But Marks said most of those punishments won’t begin until the 2024-25 season, giving the Warriors and the rest of the NBA one more year to sort out their contracts in preparation for that.
Golden State will, however, lose its taxpayer mid-level exception, which is how the teams signed Donte DiVincenzo last offseason on a one-and-one option deal.
Marks believes that everything will revolve around Curry’s contract, which has three years and north of $167 million remaining:
I think what you’re probably doing and the likelihood is that you’re figuring out what’s a good number for Draymond. And I think everything has to align with Curry’s contract. I know Poole and Wiggins extend past that, but I don’t know how much more I want to commit.
So whether it be for Draymond for three years, even Klay. Is it a two-year extension here? Then okay, after those guys, how is this roster getting better here?
And it comes back to either you think your young players, which is Moody and Kuminga, can make a big development step, which we thought was going to be the case this season here based off last year. Or it’s going to be Poole is basically kind of the odd man out and you try to break up that contract into two or three players and that builds back, whether it’s your bench or maybe you can get a starter out of that here.
Jordan Poole remains the obvious answer, and despite a woeful postseason performance, Marks thinks his four-year, $128 million contract, which begins this season, is tradeable given that he averaged 20 points a game last season.
Marks sees a Poole trade as the most logical option in this last year before the CBA hits the Warriors hard.
Golden State would pay more than $400 million in salary and tax payments this upcoming season if it kept the entire roster together, and while those numbers will increase starting in two seasons, they’re not entirely prohibitive.
“These penalties that eventually are going to come in with the CBA are not kind, but you can make it work as long as you’re comfortable paying the money here,” Marks said.
Teams will have to wrestle with the issues posed, including luxury tax draft pick implications. For now, though, it’s a matter of how comfortable Joe Lacob is with cost and whether the Warriors are competitive.
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