LeBron James Nearing Decision On Next Team?
Appearing on NBA Today on Monday (Twitter video link), ESPN’s Shams Charania said free agent forward LeBron James is inching closer to choosing his next team. Charania reiterated that the Cavaliers, Heat, Warriors, Sixers and Timberwolves have been LeBron’s “leading suitors.”
“It’s decision time for LeBron James, because all of the information, for the most part, is in,” Charania said. “GMs, presidents, owners, they’ve all been heard from and they’re continuing to have conversations with agent Rich Paul. … Players have also reached out to LeBron James to recruit him.”
Charania also said James’ choice won’t be “financially driven,” as previously reported.
“LeBron James has made it clear privately that he wants to go somewhere where he can compete for a championship,” Charania said. “Somewhere where he feels like he finds that happiness from a team environment and culture that he feels he can uplift.”
Chris Haynes of NBA on Prime (Twitter video link) essentially confirmed Charania’s report, though he added the Nuggets to the list of teams still in the mix for the league’s all-time leading scorer.
“I’ve talked to LeBron James’ agent Rich Paul and he said [LeBron] has all the information needed. So now it’s all up to LeBron James to make a decision,” Haynes reported.
Rival teams reportedly view Cleveland, the team that selected James first overall in 2003, as the frontrunner to sign the Akron native.
Here’s more on LeBron:
- ESPN’s Anthony Slater, who’s very plugged-in with the Warriors, said on SportsCenter that Golden State’s brass has been fairly pessimistic about its chances of signing James (Twitter video link). Still, he noted that Draymond Green and Stephen Curry have been attempting to lure the 22-time All-Star to the Bay Area. “Not many people in this process can reach LeBron James directly, but the Warriors players can,” said Slater.
- Slater added that the Warriors’ decision to hire Frank Vogel as their top assistant coach had little — if anything — to do with the four-time Finals MVP. James and Vogel won a championship together with the Lakers in 2020. “They wanted somebody next to Steve Kerr on the bench who has head coaching experience — obviously Vogel has that,” Slater said. “And also they needed somebody to lead the defense. Vogel, historically, has been a great defensive coach. … And maybe that helps a little bit in the LeBron pitch, but generally they just want Frank Vogel next to Steve Kerr.”
- According to Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints, Green’s pitch to LeBron may have given the Warriors a better shot at landing the 41-year-old, but executives at Summer League still widely consider the Cavs to be in the pole position. League personnel are skeptical that James will sign with the Wolves or Nuggets, Siegel adds.
Warriors Notes: Curry, Lendeborg, Cryer, Post, GPII
Stephen Curry says his top priority this summer is staying healthy ahead of his 18th NBA season, according to Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. The Warriors star turned 38 years old in March and missed two-plus months in the second half of 2025/26 due to a right knee injury colloquially known as runner’s knee.
Curry said he’s resting more than he typically does this summer and playing more golf and less basketball. He told NBC Sports Bay Area his “knee is feeling great.”
“Yeah, it’s just a more patient approach,” Curry said. “Quality over quantity, (with) the idea that I can still get to the level that I need to.”
“Just being a little bit more mindful of how to balance a four-month summer,” Curry continued. “Knowing that I need the rest, but I also don’t want to get too far away where it’s hard to get back. So, it’s just being more mindful with timing and spacing throughout the summer.”
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Curry also told Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area that he’s looking forward to playing alongside Golden State’s first-round pick, Yaxel Lendeborg. As Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area writes, the former Michigan forward had a strong showing at the California Classic Summer League and was even better in his first game in Las Vegas, putting up 21 points (on 8-of-13 shooting), 10 rebounds and six assists in 28 minutes in Thursday’s win over Dallas. “I watch all the Summer League games. I haven’t been there in person, but he looked very confident, poised and competitive,” Curry said of Lendeborg. “He’s a champion. And I’m excited to get out there and figure it out with him. Rookies are awesome because they bring such good energy to the locker room, especially guys with the talent like him, so that’s what we need.”
- LJ Cryer, who’s on a two-way deal with Golden State, also impressed on Thursday, Johnson adds in the same story. The former Houston Cougars guard notched a team-high 25 points (on 8-of-14), six rebounds and four assists in 27 minutes. “Obviously LJ’s shot making was great, but it was just his decision-making,” Warriors Summer League coach Khalid Robinson said. “He picked his spots really well – when to get to the rim, when to pull up, when to kick out to his teammates.”
- Why didn’t Golden State match the three-year offer sheet Quinten Post signed with the Grizzlies? Johnson explores that question, writing that the Warriors preferred to bring back Post at a starting salary closer to his $2.6MM qualifying offer than the $9MM+ he received from Memphis. The Grizzlies included unlikely incentives in the deal, which count against the tax aprons but not the salary cap, to make it more difficult for Golden State to match. Still, losing their former second-round pick for nothing was a tough pill to swallow for the Warriors, Johnson notes, especially since Al Horford and Kristaps Porzingis weren’t exactly paragons of health in 2025/26.
- The Warriors and free agent guard Gary Payton II have mutual interest in a new deal, league sources tell Anthony Slater of ESPN. The 10-year veteran has spent most of the past six seasons with Golden State. Known for his athleticism, defensive versatility and finishing ability on offense, Payton averaged 7.5 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 73 games last season (15.6 minutes per night).
Latest On LeBron James’ Free Agency
LeBron James‘ free agency has been an unusual one so far, according to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, who reiterates that none of the teams pursuing the star forward have had the chance to meet with him and few have a direct line to him at all.
The only team executive believed to have had contact with James since he became a free agent, Vardon writes, is Cavaliers assistant general manager Brandon Weems, who has been friends with LeBron dating back to childhood. Other execs have only been in touch with agent Rich Paul, who has been relaying information to James. In some cases, that has included Paul passing along voice notes from team presidents, general manager, or owners to his star client, according to Dave McMenamin and Shams Charania of ESPN.
Ten days into free agency, the teams pursuing James most seriously – the Cavaliers, Heat, Warriors, Sixers, Timberwolves, and Nuggets – still have little sense of where they stand.
“We really don’t know, we just know what we read,” one team executive involved in the LeBron sweepstakes told Vardon. “My friends text me and ask what he’s going to do, and I don’t have to lie to them.”
Paul’s “Game Over’ podcast with Max Kellerman has become a hot spot for the latest LeBron chatter since last Friday, when the Klutch Sports CEO brought out a white board to break down James’ various options in free agency. On Wednesday, Paul and Kellerman hosted Sixers executive Bob Myers, who publicly made his pitch for LeBron to choose Philadelphia, as Adam Aaronson of PhillyVoice.com details.
“If he was here, I would say, ‘I honestly believe this is your best chance to win,'” Myers told Paul and Kellerman. “… Where he fits in so well (with the Sixers’ starting lineup), it’s, like, ‘Boom.’ It’s right there. And the skill sets complement – it’s very complementary. Because LeBron’s been a high-usage guy, but he doesn’t have to be. He can be, but he doesn’t have to be.
” … To me, what I would say – you hook me up to a polygraph, all these teams you’re thinking about, I think the Sixers would beat those teams. Am I right? That’s just my opinion… All you can say (as) somebody representing a team, or all I would say, is ‘win.’ This is the best chance to win.”
The Sixers were a topic of discussion again in the latest episode of Paul’s podcast, as the agent spoke about whether another one of his clients, Tyrese Maxey, is the main selling point for Philadelphia from LeBron’s perspective. Aaronson has the highlights from that discussion as well.
Here are a few more notes related to LeBron:
- ESPN’s Bobby Marks and Brian Windhorst lay out what sort of contract each of James’ top six suitors could offer him and what their primary selling points would be if they got a chance to make a pitch to him.
- Asked on Thursday about the possibility of James joining the Warriors, Stephen Curry said it would have been a “pipe dream” to consider teaming up with LeBron a few years ago and that it would make for a great story if they played together in Golden State. However, he added that it’s still “premature” to talk about it,” according to Anthony Slater of ESPN, who hears from sources that Curry and James have talked in the past week. “The pitch is: Do you want to play good basketball and be around people that know how to play the game?” Curry said. “Hopefully raise our floor and our competitiveness this year. There’s good golf in the Bay. We’re an organization that’s been there. He knows that. That’s really self-explanatory. It’s a matter of where he sees himself fitting. At the end of the day, that’s up to him.”
- While Lakers guard Austin Reaves made it clear he harbors absolutely no ill will toward James for his decision to leave the Lakers, he admitted he was disappointed when he heard the news that LeBron wouldn’t return. “I texted him and told him I was having a great day on the golf course until he ruined it,” Reaves told Edward Lewis of The California Post. Reaves, who spent the past five seasons playing alongside James, added that he greatly appreciates all that he has learned from the four-time MVP. “I don’t have enough time to explain how much he means to me and my career and what he’s done for me,” he said.
Pacific Notes: Lendeborg, Wagler, Kawhi, Peat, Lakers
After being selected by the Warriors with the 11th overall pick on Tuesday, former Michigan forward Yaxel Lendeborg admitted that he “used to hate” new teammate Stephen Curry, having rooted for Kyrie Irving and the Cavaliers to beat Golden State in the 2016 NBA Finals when he was 13. Ten years later, he’s thrilled to get the opportunity to team up with the future Hall-of-Famer, writes Anthony Slater of ESPN.
“Now that I’m actually going to be able to be on the same team with him, play and actually learn so much from him, it means a lot,” Lendeborg said of Curry. “He’s a very great guy, genuine person. It’s going to be an honor to be able to watch what he does in person.”
Lendeborg will turn 24 before he makes his NBA regular season debut this fall, but Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. said he’s not worried about the fact that the team’s lottery pick is a few years older than most of the players drafted around him, joking, “He’s not 38.” Dunleavy also observed that Lendeborg’s NBA readiness could make the front office’s job easier in free agency this summer and lauded the forward’s all-around skill set.
“He can play everything,” Dunleavy said, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. “Potentially he can guard one to five. Offensively, I think he’s a forward that can play some small-ball center. And just the way he handles the ball, there’s some backcourt ball-handler responsibilities he can take care of. This is the intrigue with this pick for us is the versatility.”
Prior to the Warriors’ pick, ESPN cameras captured Dunleavy and team owner Joe Lacob engaged in an animated discussion in the team’s draft room. According to Slater, Arizona guard Brayden Burries was among the Warriors’ targets, and after Milwaukee nabbed at him at No. 10, one spot ahead of Golden State, the Warriors began fielding calls from teams interested in No. 11 — that happened at the same time ESPN’s broadcast aired a live shot of the team’s draft room.
Dunleavy acknowledged later in the night that his conversation with Lacob was about the trade options on the table and the owner’s anxiousness to finalize the pick, Slater writes.
“Ultimately we were all in agreement to land on taking Yaxel,” Dunleavy said.
We have much more from around the Pacific:
- Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said the team went through an “exhaustive process” assessing its options at No. 5 before determining that Illinois guard Keaton Wagler was the right pick, per Law Murray of The Athletic. In explaining the choice, Frank cited Wagler’s positional size, his high basketball IQ, his ability to play on and off the ball, and the fact that he can dribble, pass, and shoot at a “very, very high level.” Point guard Darius Garland shared his input on the No. 5 pick ahead of the draft, according to Frank, who said that he thinks Garland “really, really happy” to have Wagler join L.A.’s backcourt.
- Asked about Kawhi Leonard‘s future with the Clippers, Frank replied that the club’s plan “still is to win with Kawhi” and that he thinks the star forward will like the Wagler pick too, as Murray relays. “Kawhi loves size, he loves shooting, he loves skill, he loves IQ, he loves feel,” Frank said. “Those are the types of players that he’s always kind of been attracted to.”
- Because they only controlled the No. 47 pick prior to the draft, the Suns didn’t get the opportunity to bring in Arizona native Koa Peat for a workout, according to John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 (Twitter link), since he was projected to be drafted much higher than that. However, the Suns did get to meet with Peat on Sunday once they began to believe they might be able to trade into the first round, Gambadoro notes. Phoenix ultimately traded up to No. 30 to select the forward.
- The Lakers made another addition to their basketball operations department earlier this week, hiring former Pelicans basketball analytics coordinator Dominic Samangy as a basketball analyst, tweets Benjamin Royer of The Orange County Register. Samangy confirmed the move with an Instagram post.
And-Ones: TIME List, Flight Risks, Option Dates, Power Rankings
Lakers superstar LeBron James tops TIME’s 2026 list of the 100 Most Influential People in Sports. The four-time MVP isn’t the only person affiliated with the NBA on the list, as Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, Cooper Flagg, Stephen Curry, Mavericks president Masai Ujiri and Shams Charania of ESPN are also present.
Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report lists his 10 biggest “flight risks” — the players most likely to change teams — in free agency. Four Lakers — Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, Deandre Ayton and James — are on Pincus’ list, as are Heat forward Andrew Wiggins and Sixers guard Quentin Grimes. Wiggins ($30.2MM) and Ayton ($8.1MM) both hold player options for 2026/27.
- While most player and team option decisions for next season are due by June 29, in some cases the deadlines are a little sooner, notes Brett Siegel of ClutchPoints (Twitter link). Trae Young (Wizards) and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (Grizzlies), for example, have until June 23 to decide whether they want to pick up their lucrative player options, while the Clippers have until June 26 to determine what to do with their $16MM option on Bogdan Bogdanovic.
- Ten ESPN insiders have voted on their power rankings for 2026/27, with the Thunder, Spurs, Knicks, Celtics and Pistons comprising the top five. The Kings, Nets and Wizards are at the bottom end of the rankings.
Pacific Notes: Lakers, Warriors, Curry, Kings
The Lakers enter the offseason with Luka Doncic under contract, as well as a whole lot of questions outside of the Slovenian star.
One of the key inflection points is what comes next for LeBron James. He could re-sign with the team, leave in free agency, or retire. If he does re-sign with the Lakers, how much does he command on his next contract?
Whether there is a right price to be found between the team and the 41-year-old star, who projects to be the third option offensively, is a topic of debate in the recent Los Angeles Times roundtable, with columnist Bill Plaschke believing that the two sides will be at odds in terms of what they’d want in a potential deal, though others disagree.
The panel found consensus in the desire to bring back free agent Austin Reaves and in the need to upgrade the center spot, regardless of whether or not Deandre Ayton picks up his $8.1MM player option for next season.
We have more news and notes from the Pacific Division:
- The Warriors hosted six players in pre-draft workouts on Tuesday, the team announced (via Twitter): Donovan Atwell (Texas Tech), Quadir Copeland (NC State), Josh Dix (Creighton), RJ Godfrey (Clemson), Ugonna Onyenso (Virginia), and Oziyah Sellers (St. John’s). Golden State has the 11th and 54th overall picks in the 2026 draft. Onyenso is the highest-rated player on this list, coming in at 43 on Jeremy Woo’s big board for ESPN due to his impressive shot-blocking ability.
- Stephen Curry‘s new deal with the Chinese shoe company Li-Ning is worth over $400MM over 10 years, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter), who notes that the Warriors‘ star had other companies making competitive offers. Charania previously reported that the deal would allow Curry to sign other athletes to his brand and expand beyond sneakers (Twitter link).
- While the Spurs and Knicks prepare to face off in the Finals, the Kings are stuck with reminders of where they’ve been and where they’re going. The year after Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers to the Finals, the Kings now prepare to watch the coach they fired, Mike Brown, face off against the other point guard they traded, De’Aaron Fox, while they’re stuck trying to navigate the same type of dysfunction that defined the franchise for 20 years, writes Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee (subscriber link).
Cavs Notes: Mitchell, Thompson, Game 7, Harden
Donovan Mitchell failed to carry the Cavaliers into the conference finals in Game 6 against Detroit on Friday. Mitchell scored a series-low 18 points on 6-of-20 shooting and had as many turnovers (three) as assists in the 21-point loss.
“I can’t dwell on it,” Mitchell said. “I missed shots tonight. … I’ve been making them most every game of this series, and tonight I didn’t.”
Mitchell must get past this clunker and deliver in Game 7 at Detroit on Sunday, Jason Lloyd of The Athletic opines. The outcome of Game 7 will have major implications for Mitchell and the franchise.
Lloyd also speculates that Mitchell might be hiding an injury, noting that he hasn’t looked like himself for most of this postseason.
Here’s more on the Cavaliers:
- A controversial ruling allowed the Pistons’ defensive ace, Ausar Thompson, to stay in the game. While fighting through a screen during the second quarter, Thompson threw Sam Merrill to the court with his arm around Merrill’s neck. However, the officials assessed Thompson with a Flagrant 1 foul, rather than ejecting him. Lead official Zach Zarba explained the decision. “The criteria for a flagrant foul 2 would be windup, impact and follow-through,” Zarba said, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon. “On this particular play, there was impact and follow-through, but there was no windup. It was unnecessary contact but also not excessive, so that’s why it wasn’t upgraded to a Flagrant 2.”
- James Harden said the Cavs need to match Detroit’s defensive intensity to win Game 7, per Cleveland.com. “Not shooting the basketball well, I wouldn’t say it’s an excuse, but it’s not a reason. Our defense has to be the priority from the beginning of the game until the last buzzer,” he said. “That’s priority number one. And I don’t think we necessarily did that from the beginning of the game until the final buzzer, which is the reason why we didn’t play well. We feed off our defense, our energy comes from our defense, and we didn’t do that well enough like they did. So then our offense is a little bit more difficult just because you’re not getting stops. So we got to take the ball out, and it’s just a trickle effect. So in order to win this game, we gotta hang our hats on the defensive end, and we should be in a good position.”
- At least for now, Harden has passed Stephen Curry on the all-time playoff scoring list, Daniel Oyefusi of ESPN notes. Harden moved into 10th place during the first quarter on a step-back three-pointer from the right wing. That gave him 4,148 postseason points. Curry has scored 4,147 points in the playoffs.
Steve Kerr To Remain With Warriors On Two-Year Contract
May 12: The Warriors have issued a press release formally confirming their new deal with Kerr (Twitter link).
“I’m grateful for the opportunity to continue coaching this team,” Kerr said in a statement. “This organization has meant so much to me for the last 12 years – from ownership to our players, our staff and our fans – and it’s an incredible privilege to be a part of something so special. I’m excited to keep competing with this group.”
May 9: Steve Kerr has agreed to a two-year deal to return as Warriors head coach, agents Dan Eveloff and Rick Smith of Priority Sports tell ESPN’s Shams Charania (Twitter link). No details on the new contract have been released, but Charania hears that Kerr, who made $17.5MM this season, will continue to be the NBA’s highest-paid coach (Twitter link).
The agreement comes after prolonged negotiations that began shortly after Golden State was eliminated from the play-in tournament on April 17. Kerr expressed uncertainty after that loss about whether he wanted to continue coaching, and Warriors management had several conditions for him to meet before committing to another deal.
In a full story, Charania, Anthony Slater and Ramona Shelburne report that Kerr had multiple meetings with controlling owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. over the past two weeks. Topics of discussion included changes in offensive philosophy, the makeup of the roster, the long-term direction of the franchise and the contract terms necessary for Kerr to keep coaching.
“It was never going to be about money,” a team source told the authors. “We had to make the best basketball decision.”
Kerr’s intentions to return have “generally known” inside the franchise since the beginning of the week, according to Charania, Slater and Shelburne. Team sources told them that the loose ends were finalized Friday night and Saturday morning.
They note that Kerr began signaling in training camp that he might be entering his final season of coaching. He announced in October that he wouldn’t seek a contract extension and planned to let his deal expire before addressing his future. The season didn’t go as planned, as the Warriors dealt with multiple injuries to rotation players and finished as the 10th seed at 37-45.
There was some speculation after the season ended that a coaching change might be best for everyone involved, and the Warriors engaged in some “light information management” to identify possible successors, according to the authors. However, they add that keeping Kerr was always the preference of Lacob, Dunleavy and Stephen Curry.
There was originally pessimism about Kerr’s prospects of remaining with the team, but the outlook seemed to brighten as the process played out. Even so, Lacob said on Wednesday that the situation remained unpredictable.
Part of Kerr’s motivation to return was his desire to continue his partnership with Curry and Draymond Green, which has produced four NBA titles. Kerr said in a recent interview that he doesn’t want to abandon his players and he still enjoys the day-to-day work of being a head coach.
Hired in 2014 as a first-time head coach, Kerr has posted a 604-353 record and captured championships in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2022. He won Coach of the Year honors in 2016 and was named one of the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history in 2o22.
With Kerr secured for the next two years, the Warriors will now have to address the roster to become serious playoff contenders again. Jimmy Butler will miss a large portion of next season while recovering from an ACL tear he suffered in mid-January, and Moses Moody will also require a lengthy recovery period after a tearing a patellar tendon in late March. Additionally, there are concerns about Curry’s ability to stay healthy after he missed a large part of this season due to runner’s knee.
Kerr’s return likely means that Golden State will be aggressive in trying to add stars so the Kerr-Curry-Green era ends on a high note. The Warriors are among the teams expected to pursue Giannis Antetokounmpo this summer, and Kawhi Leonard and LeBron James have also been mentioned as possible targets.
Warriors Notes: Giannis, 11th Pick, Prospects, Kerr
The Warriors should — and almost certainly will — be among the suitors for Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, but if they’re unable to pull off a deal, it doesn’t mean the pursuit was a failure, argues Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area.
The possibility of trading for Antetokounmpo now carries much more risk than it would’ve several years ago, when the team first viewed the two-time MVP as its “holy grail,” Poole writes. The Warriors’ best current offer — centered around draft picks but not much in the way of young players — could also theoretically be topped by several rival teams, Poole observes.
Still, Poole thinks it’s the right call to trade for the 31-year-old star, assuming he’s open to the idea and Golden State can convince Milwaukee’s front office to get on board. He just doesn’t view that outcome as likely.
Here’s more on the Warriors:
- Assistant general manager Larry Harris expressed optimism before the draft lottery that the Warriors would select a prospect they like if they stayed at the 11th pick, which would up happening, Poole writes in another story. “I’ve heard the noise,” Harris said when asked about the top four prospects being in their own tier. “Certainly, there’s four players that everybody seems to talk about when I look at all the mock drafts and everything. But the way we look at it is we really believe it’s beyond 11. But up to 11, we feel really, really, really good about whatever player lands in our lap.”
- Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area lists five “very different” prospects the Warriors could target at No. 11, including Michigan’s Yaxel Lendeborg and his college teammate Aday Mara. Johnson also weighs the pros and cons of each prospect, particularly from Golden State’s perspective.
- Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic isn’t surprised that Steve Kerr signed a two-year deal to stay the Warriors’ head coach and views Kerr as the fitting person to guide the rest of Stephen Curry‘s career. While he acknowledges Kerr will have to evolve his way of thinking in some respects, Thompson also believes Kerr has earned an enormous amount of respect and trust over the course of his long career and is definitely the right coach if the Warriors end up acquiring another star player.
Warriors Rumors: Kerr, Curry, Green, Lottery
Steve Kerr’s new two-year contract with the Warriors was the result of rediscovering his passion for coaching, according to Anthony Slater of ESPN.
Kerr expressed doubts about whether he wanted to continue in the profession following a difficult season that ended with a play-in loss to Phoenix last month. He told reporters after that game that he wasn’t certain if he would be back, noting that “these jobs all have an expiration date” and suggesting it might be time for “new blood and new ideas.”
Sources tell Slater that Kerr took a week off before beginning talks with controlling owner Joe Lacob and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. He then went on a golf trip and returned with a renewed excitement about leading the team.
Kerr would have plenty of media opportunities available if he wanted to transition to a lower-stress environment, but he loves the highly competitive atmosphere of being on the sidelines and was never really happy with front office work, Slater states.
There were other obstacles to reaching a new deal that went beyond Kerr’s desire to return, Slater adds. The discussions with Lacob and Dunleavy went deep into possible changes regarding playing style and staffing as well as the state of the roster following a 37-45 season. The Warriors already know that Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody won’t be available for much of next season as they recover from serious injuries.
Slater cites a “consensus” that Kerr might not have been brought back if management was ready to commit to rebuilding. He adds that there’s an “internal understanding” that the team may not be able to return to title contention with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green nearing the end of their careers, but keeping Kerr is a sign that an effort will be made this summer to become more competitive.
There’s more on the Warriors:
- Slater hears that Curry preferred to keep playing under Kerr as his career winds down, but didn’t make any demands from management. Team sources tell Slater that Curry would likely have been part of the search for a new coach if that had become necessary. There’s also an expectation that keeping Kerr in place will simplify extension talks with Curry when he becomes eligible in August. Curry has one season remaining on his current deal and can be extended for one or two more years.
- With a $27.6MM player option, Green’s future with the team is less certain, but Slater views Kerr’s return as a “beneficial development” toward Green staying. Team sources told Slater that they don’t plan to shop Green this summer or try to force him out, as he’s still seen as an elite defender who raises the team’s chances to be successful. Management believed he had “a positive season as a leader” and essentially became an extra assistant coach, according to Slater. The benefits of opting in or out will be discussed, Slater adds, but a long-term extension at a lower number is only likely if it creates enough cap room to make a significant roster addition.
- The results of today’s draft lottery could play a major role in setting the course for the offseason, Slater notes. Landing a top-four pick would provide a valuable asset that could be used in a trade for Giannis Antetokounmpo, Kawhi Leonard or another star, but it could also deliver an infusion of youth for a team filled with veterans. The Warriors are slotted at No. 11 and have a 9.4% chance of moving up.