Hoops Rumors

Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2025 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Golden State Warriors.

Free agent signings

• Jonathan Kuminga: Two years, $46,800,000. Second-year team option. Trade kicker (15%). Re-signed using Bird rights. Waived right to veto trade.
• Al Horford: Two years, $11,654,250. Second-year player option. Trade kicker (15%). Signed using taxpayer mid-level exception.
• De’Anthony Melton: Two years, minimum salary. Second-year player option. Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Gary Payton II: One year, minimum salary. Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Seth Curry: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 9). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• LJ Cryer: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
• Marques Bolden: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Bolden has since been waived.
• Ja’Vier Francis: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Francis has since been waived.
• Taevion Kinsey: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Kinsey has since been waived.
• Chance McMillian: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: McMillian has since been waived.
• Jacksen Moni: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
  • Note: Moni has since been waived.

Trades

• Acquired the draft rights to Alex Toohey (No. 52 pick; from Suns) and the draft rights to Jahmai Mashack (No. 59 pick; from Rockets) in a seven-team trade in exchange for the draft rights to Koby Brea (No. 41 pick; to Suns).
• Acquired the draft rights to Will Richard (No. 56 pick) from the Grizzlies in exchange for the draft rights to Jahmai Mashack (No. 59 pick), the Warriors’ 2032 second-round pick (top-50 protected), and the draft rights to Justinian Jessup.

Draft picks

• 2-52: Alex Toohey
  • Signed to two-way contract.
• 2-56: Will Richard
  • Signed to four-year, $8,685,386 contract. First two years guaranteed. Third year non-guaranteed. Fourth-year team option.

Two-way signings

• Pat Spencer
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).
• Alex Toohey
  • One year, $85,300 partial guarantee (will increase to $318,218 at start of regular season).

Note: The Warriors carried over Jackson Rowe on a two-way contract from 2024/25.

Departed/unsigned free agents

• Taran Armstrong (Dubai Basketball)
• Braxton Key (Grizzlies)
• Kevin Knox (Bulls)
• Kevon Looney (Pelicans)

Other roster moves

• Exercised team option on Gui Santos ($2,221,677).
• Exercised team option on Quinten Post ($1,955,377).

Salary cap situation

• Operating over the cap ($154.6MM) and below the luxury tax line ($187.9MM).
• Carrying approximately $205.3MM in salary.
• Hard-capped at $207,824,000.
• Two traded player exceptions frozen (largest worth $8,780,488).

The offseason so far

When we talk about what an NBA team did in the offseason, we usually refer to their “summer” moves. However, that’s a misnomer for the 2025 Warriors. As RealGM’s transaction log shows, after officially finalizing a pair of trades on July 6 that they’d agreed upon during June’s draft, Golden State didn’t complete another transaction until September 29 — the team officially signed 10 players that day (three of them were immediately waived).

Obviously, Golden State’s front office wasn’t just taking a two-and-a-half month vacation. Jonathan Kuminga‘s restricted free agency was the reason for delay. The standoff between Kuminga and the Warriors became one of the offseason’s biggest stories after the first wave of free agency wrapped up in early July and ultimately took nearly three months to resolve, with the forward taking his decision almost right up to the October 1 deadline to accept a qualifying offer.

Technically, there was no rule preventing the Warriors from filling out the rest of their roster before they figured out what would happen with Kuminga. But that approach didn’t make sense for Golden State for a couple reasons.

For one, the Warriors were exploring the possibility of a sign-and-trade, discussing potential deals with the Suns and Kings. It didn’t sound like they ever gained any real traction with Phoenix, and Sacramento’s various offers – centered around draft assets plus either Malik Monk or the duo of Devin Carter and Dario Saric – didn’t hold much appeal either. But if either of those division rivals had increased their bid for Kuminga and made Golden State seriously consider a sign-and-trade, the team didn’t want to have the rest of its signings already locked in, since that could have resulted in significant roster imbalance.

More importantly, determining whether Kuminga would be back and how much he would be paid in 2025/26 dictated what the Warriors would be able to do with those other roster spots from a financial perspective. Kuminga accepting his $8MM qualifying offer would’ve resulted in a whole lot more cap flexibility than if he’d signed one of the team’s more lucrative multiyear proposals.

Conversely, if the Warriors had hard-capped themselves early in the offseason by, say, using the taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Al Horford, they would’ve risked another team giving Kuminga an offer sheet that they wouldn’t have been able to match without shedding salary. No team besides the Nets had cap room for most of the summer, and Brooklyn showed little to no interest in Kuminga, but as we saw with the Bucks and their Damian Lillard/Myles Turner moves, a team that wants to create cap space badly enough can typically find a way to do it.

So even though we knew for most of the summer what most of the Warriors’ roster moves would look like, those moves weren’t finalized until the fall. At that point, Kuminga accepted a two-year, $46.8MM deal that includes a second-year team option, no trade veto rights, and a 15% trade kicker; Horford received a two-year contract worth the full taxpayer mid-level exception with a second-year player option and a 15% trade kicker; De’Anthony Melton got a two-year, minimum-salary contract; Gary Payton II signed a one-year, veteran’s minimum deal; and second-round pick Will Richard received a rookie minimum salary on his four-year contract.

Horford, who will turn 40 next June, is one of the NBA’s oldest players, while Melton is still making his way back from the torn ACL that ended his 2024/25 season after just six games. But as long as they’re healthy, both players are excellent fits for this Warriors roster.

Horford is a savvy, smart defender who is capable of stretching the floor from the five spot. Melton can do a little bit of everything, and his versatile defense makes him an intriguing backcourt partner for Stephen Curry. In a very limited sample of 47 minutes before Melton’s ACL tear last season, lineups that included that Melton/Curry duo had a +38.4 net rating.

The big question is what happens with Kuminga. While it was a relief when his three-month free agency eventually came to an end, a two-year deal that includes a second-year option doesn’t exactly lock in his long-term future. Rather than making a decision on how the former lottery pick fits into their long-term plans, the Warriors simply postponed that decision for at least a few more months.

Kuminga will become trade-eligible on January 15 and it feels like there’s a very real chance he’s moved at some point during the three-week window between that date and the trade deadline — especially if Steve Kerr and his coaching staff continue to have trouble finding a consistent role for the 23-year-old that mutually benefits him and the team.

Up next

Seth Curry, who is on a non-guaranteed Exhibit 9 contract, has spent the preseason on the same roster as his superstar brother for the first time since he entered the league in 2013. However, the Warriors don’t have enough room below their second-apron hard cap to keep the younger Curry brother on their regular season roster — at least not yet. As of mid-November, Golden State would be able to fit a prorated minimum-salary contract under that hard cap and could reunite the Curry brothers.

While it does sounds like the plan is to bring Seth back at some point, the Warriors may not do so immediately once they’re eligible to next month, since it would leave them with essentially no wiggle room below the second apron for the rest of 2025/26. I expect Seth to be a Warrior by season’s end, but the team could end up carrying a 14-man roster for at least a couple months.

Jackson Rowe, Pat Spencer, and Alex Toohey currently occupy Golden State’s two-way slots, but I wouldn’t be shocked if LJ Cryer, who is on an Exhibit 10 contract and has played well in the preseason, is converted to a two-way deal by Monday’s deadline. Rowe could be the odd man out, given that he was a holdover from last season and has had a very limited role this fall.

Finally, although Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis are currently eligible for veteran contract extensions, I’d be somewhat surprised if either player gets a new deal in the coming days. The Warriors barely have any money on their 2027/28 cap and would presumably prefer to maintain that flexibility for the time being. If Green or Jackson-Davis signs an extension at this point, it would probably have to be a short-term deal that includes little to no guaranteed money beyond ’26/27. The team would probably be happy to wait until 2026 to get serious about those negotiations.