Forward Harrison Barnes has reportedly turned down a four-year, $64MM contract extension proposal from the Warriors this offseason. It’s unclear just how rich a contract the 23-year-old and his new agent, Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management, are seeking, though it’s highly likely they will attempt to secure an average annual value as close to the maximum as they possibly can. The offer of $16MM per year annually had been negotiated by Barnes’ former agent, Jeff Wechsler, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports. After that initial offer, Wechsler countered with a figure north of $16MM annually before he and Barnes parted ways, league sources informed Wojnarowski.
The Warriors obviously wish to retain Barnes, judging by their offer. GM Bob Myers had previously gone on record about the team’s desire to keep Barnes, as well as big man Festus Ezeli, who is also eligible to sign an extension prior to the November 2nd cutoff date. “We love them and we’re going to try to keep them as long as we can,” Myers said of Barnes and Ezeli. “Thankfully, like with Draymond Green, they would be restricted free agents [next summer]. But hopefully we can figure something out like we have with a lot of our players. They’re a key part of what we do. Without them, we don’t win a championship.”
This brings me to today’s topic: Should the Warriors ink Harrison Barnes to an extension? If so, what average salary would be commensurate with his production and potential?
Grantland’s Zach Lowe has estimated that Barnes would end up with a deal between the four years and $58MM that DeMarre Carroll secured from the Raptors this offseason and the projected $20.4MM max for players with Barnes’ level of experience. Tim Kawakami of the Bay Area News Group has suggested salaries of $14MM-$16MM a year, while Hoops Rumors’ Chuck Myron reasoned that salaries of $16-18MM would make sense for both sides when he looked in-depth at the extension candidacy of the former seventh overall pick.
Which of these estimates do you think make the most sense for both sides? If you don’t agree with any of the above assessments, then please share the average annual value that you would be willing to fork over to Barnes. Take to the comments section below to share your thoughts and opinions. We look forward to what you have to say.
Tim Kawakami made a pretty good point today about the value of having Barnes already signed going into next summer in case the possibility of a sign-and-trade for Kevin Durant comes into play. That’s a long shot, of course, and it would be silly to make a move simply based on a long shot, but there are plenty of other reasons to extend Barnes, given his on-court value now and his potential for significant growth, so the Durant part of this is something that may be significant enough to tip the scale and convince the Warriors to fight that extra bit harder for an extension.
He’s clearly gonna maxed out by some team next summer. Look at how many teams are $25M+ below the projected salary FLOOR and how few elite free agents there, especially in Barnes’ age range.
So…the Warriors should offer him a five-year deal starting at the max but with salaries declining at 7.5% each year. This equates to a five year, $90-95M deal.
If we wanna haggle, it’s over whether that’s a straight five year deal, or if that fifth year is a team option.
Warriors benefit by saving lux tax money with the declining value year-over-year, which also makes Barnes a better trade asset in the later years of the deal as he gets cheaper and contracts around the league explode.
Barnes benefits by locking in $90M… Even though he’s living in tax hell (California) and taking less than his max over the life of the deal.
The part where Kawakami loses me is where he starts comparing a Barnes extension to Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, implying its inappropriate that Barnes may receive a larger offer than those guys even though they are more valuable.
It’s all about context. Barnes is about to become an FA in a dramatically different climate than those guys negotiated in, even though it’s only 1-2 years later. There’s basically no comps for this situation whatsoever.
We know that Michael Kidd-Gilchrist just got $52M and that he’s a horrible shooter relative to other wings league wide, whereas Barnes can make 40% of this threes. MKG kills your spacing and would be played off he floor in an elite playoff series, just as Tony Allen was in the playoffs, allowing an opposing team’s center to tap dance in and out of the lane every 2.5 seconds while ‘Guarding’ him. Barnes was the 5th most valuable player on the World Champs and played huge minutes the entire playoffs. He’s more valuable than MKG and deserves much more money. That’s all we know.
Any other other comp from a deal signed in any offseason prior is not really useful.
Barnes is worth the max despite his complimentary skillset because he doesn’t take anything off the table. You can build an elite offense and defense with him on the floor. That’s pretty rare!
MKG just got $52M, and having him on the floor puts a ceiling on your offense that makes it impossible for your offense to be elite, because he ruins floor spacing as a non-shooting wing. (Or you’re playing Kaminsky/Hawes with him, which makes it impossible to have an elite defense).
Enes Kanter just got $70M, and having him on the floor makes it impossible to have an elite defense.
Barnes is better than both those guys, because he can spread the floor on offense, he can pump fake and dunk after one dribble on a ragged close-out, and because you can’t possibly create an NBA starting 5 that doesn’t have at least 2 players he’s capable of guarding well defensively.
For him to accept less than five years $90M would be nuts, because he’s getting maxed next summer.
It’s hard for the Warriors to fully justify a contract extension with the thought of possibly chasing Kevin Durant next summer, first off. Blowing away this much money on a guy who averaged 10 point and 5 rebounds per game in the Playoffs compared to probably the best player in the NBA if he’s healthy again in Kevin Durant makes you think. Is Barnes young? Absolutely. Can he improve and someday be one of the better NBA players? Yes. If Golden State isn’t planning to chase Durant next summer, this is a great option. I feel Barnes is being a little bit spoiled in terms of how much he is asking for in these negotiations, but it’ll be interesting to see what happens in the coming days.