It has been less than four full days since the Warriors won Game 5 of the NBA Finals and captured their second title in three years, but fans and observers are already looking ahead to see how Golden State intends to keep its championship roster together. Tim Kawakami of The San Jose Mercury News takes a deep dive into that subject today, breaking down the Warriors’ salary cap options and providing a handful of insider tidbits as well. Let’s round up the highlights…
- Multiple NBA sources have told Kawakami that it’s all about the Warriors’ Big Four and Andre Iguodala, suggesting that the team won’t break the bank for anyone else on the roster. That includes free-agents-to-be like Zaza Pachulia, David West, Ian Clark, and JaVale McGee.
- Out of that group of the Warriors’ top five players, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Iguodala are all eligible to become free agents. Kawakami expects Curry to receive a five-year, super-max deal worth upwards of $205MM, while Durant appears willing to accept a 20% raise rather than the full max, allowing the club to stay over the cap to re-sign Iguodala and possibly others.
- Assuming Durant settles for a 20% raise, look for Iguodala to sign a multiyear deal worth between $8MM and $12MM annually, says Kawakami. The Sixth Man of the Year candidate has suggested he expects to re-sign with Golden State and that negotiations are almost done. If another team swoops in with a massive offer, it’s possible Iguodala reconsiders his options, but at that this point, the main question appears to be how many years will be on his new Warriors contract.
- Shaun Livingston‘s situation is “much more open-ended,” with Kawakami pegging the odds of the point guard’s return as a coin flip. Kawakami speculates that a one- or two-year deal worth $6-7MM per year would be feasible for the Warriors, but Livingston will likely do better than that on the open market.
- As Kawakami points out, it’s worth keeping an eye on the tax apron, which is projected to be around $127MM for 2017/18. If a team wants to use its full mid-level exception and/or bi-annual exception, it can’t exceed the apron at any point during the league year. If the Warriors go over that number, they’ll be limited to the taxpayer MLE – worth about $5.2MM – and minimum salary contracts for any additional signings.
I just can’t see the Warriors getting so lucky as to keep these players. KD and Curry, most likely. But Livingston and Iggy? That will obviously be an envious bench along with McCaw.
Whoever they add as far as bigs will be on minimum deals but they really are shaped up to repeat if they can retain both Iguodala and Livingston.
They should trade Durant to a bad team for picks and bench players. Then give Curry the max. LMAO
3 years, $30 Mil for Iggy. 2 year, $20 mil for Livingston.
The goal is a three-peat ♂️
Core of Iggy, Livingston, McCaw, Durant, Green, Thompson, Curry plus a roster made up of veterans for the next two years should do the trick…
Dont forget Damian Jones. From what I heard, although hes raw, this kid is a man child. According to some inside people, Jones has all star potential, it just matters if he has the will get there. The only thing is that hes a couple if years away and hes already 21.
Don’t forget McGee… He was amazing out of the bench… Not an easy task to sign these players…. It’s hard to make everybody happy anyway… But cap aside management has the means, they are building a new arena too, and more importantly they have the fan core so will see…
I dont think livingston will make any more elsewhere. He is not going to be a starter because of his body so the warriors should be a front runner to resign him.
D. West should take another minimum one-year since money is not one of his concerns at all.
Clark will get paid elsewhere and McGee is a big wild card here. Pachulia seems willing to take another cheap salary to stay.
Mcgee knows his role in the nba to be effective and thats short explosive minutes like around 5 mins a half and I dont think teams will throw 10m+ salaries to him for that. I expect mcgee to stay plus he should know that theres only 2 teams out there that know how to maximize mcgee and thats the warriors and spurs. Dallas didn’t work out for him and they have a great locker room but not so great front office.
Yeah that makes a lot of sense.
If for some reason someone throws him two-year 10mil is the only way I see him leaving.
I could see Curry taking slightly under the max, KD taking the same for a 1+1 deal, them keeping Shaun Livingston at $9-10 million per for 3, and AI at $12 million per for 3. Then they have their MLE at $8.3 million. If they’re willing to go super luxury tax deep, they’ll be fine. Ian Clark will likely get the $7 million payday he deserves elsewhere, and they’ll figure that out some other way. They also have McCaw. I think David West comes back. Javale probably gets $5 million from someone. Not sure what ends up happening with ZaZa, who can probably get something in the $6-8 million range himself, from someone…I also think Mccadoo could get a $3 million deal from someone as a versatile, small ball 5
They could use 1 of their young/D-league guys, like Damian Jones to give them help at that 5 spot, to replace probably Javale, and give them some cheap production, and allow them to retain depth. I’m sure they’ll grab 2-3 minimum guys though. Off the top of my head, I’d like to see Vince Carter there. He can play a role on this team at the 2/3 spots off the bench on some nights. He still competes defensively, and can shoot the 3, and he has a relationship with Steph and KD. It also would be cool to see him win. I could also see Matt Barnes staying at the minimum, since he already got paid his buyout.