The NBA's offseason news wire has slowed down since Summer League ended, but there's still no shortage of storylines to follow in August. Since the month began, Luka Doncic, De'Aaron Fox, and Mikal Bridges have signed lucrative new extensions, and top restricted free agents like Jonathan Kuminga, Josh Giddey, Quentin Grimes, and Cam Thomas are still working on new contracts.
As we await further updates on the summer's top remaining free agents and extension candidates, I'm taking a closer look today at some of the stories that have caught my eye as of late. That includes taking a closer look at how the new luxury tax rates are affecting projected tax bills, how the extend-and-trade rules might affect players traded this summer, and whether a Kuminga/Giddey double sign-and-trade could really work.
Luke, Here is a wild-**s question after listening to Lacob interview last night where he said they were looking at some “highly unusual scenarios that would involve going over the apron”… (and this is not something he mentioned)… Is there any way that GSW could:
1) first, sign Kuminga to a 2 year extension at, say, $22M.in $25
2) then, sign Horford using the TPMLE, and also sign one or two of Seth Curry, Melton, or Brogdon, staying under the first apron
3) then, do an S&T with Chicago for Giddey at $24M/yr using Brandon Podziemski? Chicago has apparently expressed interest in Podziemski twice since the beginning of last summer, so they seem to have a special appreciation for him. He’s got 2 years remaining at ~$5M/yr, a great value. The Warriors could use either Moody’s $12M/yr or Hield’s $9M also to enable the trade.
At $24M/yr, Giddey would cost more than what the more than the Warriors are sending out, but it seems like the Warriors could stay under the 2nd apron… or, maybe not, and Lacob is willing to spend big.