The Warriors have exercised Damian Jones‘ third-year option for 2018/19, per RealGM’s log of official NBA transactions. Mark Medina of The Bay Area News Group had reported on Monday night that Jones’ option would be picked up.
Jones, the 30th overall pick in the 2016 draft, is one of two Warriors players who has rookie scale team option for 2018/19. The other, Kevon Looney, won’t have his option exercised by Golden State, as we learned on Monday.
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Neither Jones nor Looney has a real role for the Warriors, but there are a couple key differences between the two players. For one, Looney is already in his third season, so Golden State management has had an extra year to decide whether or not he’s in the club’s long-term plans — Jones is coming off an injury-plagued rookie season, meaning the Dubs haven’t had a chance to take a long look at him yet.
Additionally, Jones’ third-year option will count against the cap for just $1,544,951 in 2018/19. Looney’s fourth-year option would have had a cap charge of $2,227,081. While that might not seem like a significant difference, every dollar will be important for the Warriors going forward, since they project to be in luxury-tax territory for the foreseeable future.