Elliot Williams Contract Details
- As expected, the one-year deal signed by Elliot Williams with the Warriors earlier this month is a minimum-salary pact. The contract was initially reported as having a “strong” partial guarantee — the amount of that guarantee is $250K, per Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders (via Twitter). If Williams earns a spot on Golden State’s opening-night roster, his full salary will become guaranteed.
Morrow Not Bitter Over Durant's Choice
- Thunder shooting guard Anthony Morrow said he understands Kevin Durant‘s decision to leave Oklahoma City to join the Warriors, relays Erik Horne of The Oklahoman. Some teammates have reacted angrily over Durant’s move, but Morrow, in a recent appearance on Sirius XM NBA radio, said he never had any feelings of betrayal. “It’s business,” Morrow said. “It’s basketball. That’s that man’s career. That’s that man’s life and he made his own decision as a man. Hate it or love it, he made his decision.”
Warriors Get High Grades For Free Agent Deals
- In an Insider-only ESPN.com piece, Jeremias Engelmann and Steve Ilardi outline their picks for the eight best free agent signings of the NBA offseason. Three of those signings were completed by the Warriors, with Kevin Durant, Zaza Pachulia, and David West all making the cut. The Suns‘ addition of Jared Dudley and the Raptors‘ signing of Jared Sullinger are among their other picks.
Salary Cap Snapshot: Golden State Warriors
With the free agent signing period winding down and teams looking ahead to the preseason, we at Hoops Rumors will be tracking the Salary Cap figures for each team around the league. These posts will be maintained throughout the season once financial data is reported. They will be located on the sidebar throughout the year, once all the teams’ cap figures have been relayed. You can always check RosterResource.com for up-to-date rosters for each franchise, with the Warriors’ team page accessible here.
Here’s a breakdown of where the Warriors currently stand financially:
Guaranteed Salary
- Kevin Durant — $26,540,100 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker]
- Klay Thompson — $16,663,575
- Draymond Green — $15,330,435
- Stephen Curry — $12,112,359
- Andre Iguodala — $11,131,368 [Contract has 15% Trade Kicker]
- Shaun Livingston — $5,782,450
- Zaza Pachulia — $2,898,000
- Kevon Looney — $1,182,840
- Damian Jones — $1,171,560
- Ian Clark — $980,431 [Actual Salary — $1,015,696]
- James McAdoo — $980,431
- JaVale McGee — $980,431 [Actual Salary — $1,403,611]
- Anderson Varejao — $980,431 [Waived by team; actual salary — $1,551,659]
- David West — $980,431 [Actual Salary — $1,551,659]
- Jason Thompson — $945,126 [Waived via Stretch Provision]
- Patrick McCaw — $543,471
- Elliot Williams — $250,000 [Waived by team]
- Matt Barnes — $242,224 [Actual salary — $383,351]
- Briante Weber — $61,739 [10-day contract (Feb 14); contract lasted 12 days to allow for three games]
- Briante Weber — $51,449 [10-day contract (Feb 4)]
- Cameron Jones — $50,000 [Waived by team]
- Elgin Cook — $50,000 [Waived by team]
- Scott Wood — $50,000 [Waived by team]
- Phil Pressey — $35,000 [Waived by team]
Total Guaranteed Salary= $99,993,851
Cash Sent Out Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Cash Received Via Trade: $0 [Amount Remaining $3.5MM]
Payroll Exceptions Available
- Room Exception: $0 [Used on Zaza Pachulia]
Total Projected Payroll: $99,993,851
Salary Cap: $94,143,000
Estimated Available Cap Space: –$5,850,851
Luxury Tax Threshold: $113,287,000
Amount Below Luxury Tax: $13,293,149
Last Updated: 3/11/17
The Basketball Insiders salary pages and The Vertical’s salary database were used in the creation of this post.
Warriors Confirm Hiring Of Willie Green
The Warriors have officially confirmed the hiring of former NBA veteran Willie Green as an assistant coach/player development on Steve Kerr‘s staff, the club announced today in a press release. Green, who last played for Orlando during the 2014/15 season, could take over some of Luke Walton‘s responsibilities in Golden State, as Tim Kawakami of The San Jose Mercury News tweets. His hiring was first reported last month.
Kerr: Calling Durant A Villain Is "Absurd"
- While the “villain” tag followed Kevin Durant around this summer following his decision to sign with the Warriors, head coach Steve Kerr called that notion “absurd” during an interview with Michelle Beadle and Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. “This is one of the most likeable people in this league. He’s just an awesome human being. What he did in Oklahoma City was just amazing for that community,” Kerr said. “Circumstances kind of dictate, I guess, that some people are going to see him as a villain. But it’s only because he decided to go elsewhere to play. He wanted to change his scenery, he wanted a new challenge.”
Emeka Okafor Eyes Return; Warriors Interested?
Emeka Okafor is planning a comeback after sitting out the past three seasons, Jackie MacMullen of ESPN.com reports. Okafor is hopeful of hooking on with a playoff contender in December or January, MacMullen continues.
The 33-year-old center called it quits following the 2012/13 season because of a herniated disc in his neck. Okafor, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2004 draft, started 77 of 79 games with the Wizards in his last season.
Okafor’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, told MacMullen that Okafor needs more time to get his body ready for the NBA grind, but is optimistic that teams will be interested in his client once he’s in basketball shape. “He’s probably five or six months away,” Schwartz said. “He’s been working hard rehabbing.”
The Warriors had a conversation with Okafor in recent months and will continue to monitor his progress, Golden State GM Bob Myers informed MacMullen. The Warriors, Cavs and Heat spoke with Okafor last season but he decided at that time he wasn’t ready to return.
“We have 14 players right now, but you learn every year that someone you didn’t expect to be available becomes an option,” Myers told MacMullen.
Okafor averaged 12.3 points and 9.9 rebounds over nine seasons before the injury.
Wild Offseason For Barnes
Harrison Barnes is competing in his first Olympics, but he had plenty of offseason excitement before the Summer Games started, writes Joe Rexrode of The Des Moines Register. After being a key part of a Warriors team that set a league record with 73 wins in a season, Barnes found himself cut free when Golden State needed his cap room to sign Kevin Durant. Barnes wound up inking a four-year $94MM deal with the Mavericks, who plan to make him one of the focal points of their offense. “I think Harrison wants an opportunity to go to a team and be the guy,” said fellow Team USA member and former Warriors teammate Draymond Green, “and he has that opportunity, which I’m not mad at him about. He already has a championship, and that’s what he’ll be remembered as. He’s a champion, and no one can ever take that away.”
Free Agent Spending By Division: Pacific
Over the course of the last week, we’ve been breaking down 2016 NBA free agent spending by division, examining which teams – and divisions – were the most active this summer.
These divisional breakdowns won’t present a full picture of teams’ offseason spending. Some notable free agents, including LeBron James, remain unsigned, so there’s still money out there to be spent. Our lists also don’t include money spent on this year’s first- and second-round picks or draft-and-stash signings. There are a few free agent names missing in some instances as well, since those deals aren’t yet official or terms haven’t been reported.
Still, these closer looks at divisional spending should generally reveal how teams invested their money in free agency this summer, identifying which clubs went all-out and which ones played it safe.
With the help of our Free Agent Tracker and contract info from Basketball Insiders, we’ll focus today on the Pacific division. Let’s dive in…
1. Los Angeles Lakers
- Total money committed: $186,000,000
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $186,000,000
- Largest expenditure: Luol Deng (four years, $72,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Timofey Mozgov (four years, $64,000,000)
- Jordan Clarkson (four years, $50,000,000)
- Notes:
- The Lakers have yet to finalize long-ago reported deals for Tarik Black and Marcelo Huertas. Based on estimated values for those contracts, they’ll likely total about $16MM+ combined, but we haven’t included them in the team’s totals for now.
2. Los Angeles Clippers
- Total money committed: $105,428,788
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $93,928,788
- Largest expenditure: Jamal Crawford (three years, $42,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Austin Rivers (three years, $35,475,000)
- Wesley Johnson (three years, $17,643,780)
- Luc Mbah a Moute (two years, $4,505,135)
- Marreese Speights (two years, minimum salary)
- Notes:
- Raymond Felton ($1,551,659), Brandon Bass ($1,551,659), and Alan Anderson ($1,315,448) will be paid $980,431 apiece by the Clippers, with the NBA on the hook for the rest of their minimum salaries.
- Crawford’s $14.5MM third-year salary is only guaranteed for $3MM, creating the gap between the Clippers’ total money and guaranteed money committed.
3. Sacramento Kings
- Total money committed: $77,525,625
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $60,525,625
- Largest expenditure: Arron Afflalo (two years, $25,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Garrett Temple (three years, $24,000,000)
- Anthony Tolliver (two years, $16,000,000)
- Matt Barnes (two years, $12,525,625)
- Notes:
- Afflalo and Tolliver only have small partial guarantees in the second years of their respective contracts. $1.5MM of Afflalo’s $12.5MM second-year salary is guaranteed, while $2MM of Tolliver’s $8MM second-year salary is guaranteed.
4. Golden State Warriors
- Total money committed: $61,094,229
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $61,094,229
- Largest expenditure: Kevin Durant (two years, $54,274,505)
- Other notable signings:
- Zaza Pachulia (one year, $2,898,000)
- David West (one year, minimum salary)
- Anderson Varejao (one year, minimum salary)
- Notes:
- The reported deals for JaVale McGee and Elliot Williams aren’t yet official and exact details on those contracts aren’t known, so they haven’t been included here.
- West ($1,551,659), Varejao ($1,551,659), and Ian Clark ($1,015,696) will be paid $980,431 apiece by the Warriors, with the NBA on the hook for the rest of their minimum salaries.
5. Phoenix Suns
- Total money committed: $38,000,000
- Guaranteed money committed (including player options): $34,500,000
- Largest expenditure: Jared Dudley (three years, $30,000,000)
- Other notable signings:
- Leandro Barbosa (two years, $8,000,000)
- Notes:
- The second year of Barbosa’s deal, worth $4MM, is only guaranteed for $500K, creating the gap between the Suns’ total money and guaranteed money committed.
Thompson Disputes Notion That Players Will Need To Sacrifice
Klay Thompson, whose shot attempts are likely to decrease now that Kevin Durant is a member of the Warriors, disagrees with the notion that Golden State’s players will need sacrifice their individual games for the team to be successful, Shams Charania of The Vertical writes. “I feel kind of disrespected that people keep using the term sacrifice to describe me and describe us,” Thompson told Charania. “We all want to see each other do well. But I’m not sacrificing [expletive], because my game isn’t changing. I’m still going to try to get buckets, hit shots, come off screens. I want to win and have a fun time every game we play.”
Thompson also relishes that the Warriors will be viewed as villains by opposing fans, Charania adds. “The NBA season can get mundane; 82 games are so long and there can be some boredom,” Thompson said. “Now, we can embrace being the hated team and getting everyone’s best, and adding some tension every night. It’ll be a fun experience going into arenas on the road, with opposing fans hating what we’ve built.”
Here’s more from out West:
- Undrafted free agent center Kaleb Tarczewski has been invited to attend training camp with the Thunder with an eye on him joining their D-League affiliate, international journalist David Pick relays (on Twitter).
- The Timberwolves have hired Noah Croom as their new assistant GM, Chris Haynes of The Northeast Ohio Media Group reports (via Twitter). Croom previously served as the Grizzlies assistant GM when the franchise was still located in Vancouver.
- The Nuggets are still open to trading power forward Kenneth Faried, with the Thunder and Pelicans among the teams that have expressed interest, Sam Amico of Amico Hoops relays.