MONDAY, 10:09am: The move is official, the team announced via press release.
SUNDAY, 9:00pm: The Warriors waived Jason Thompson to make room for Anderson Varejao, according to Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports (Twitter link). The Warriors will use the stretch provision, Marcus Thompson of the Bay Area News Group tweets. Thompson had $2.65MM guaranteed for 2016/17, but the Warriors can stretch $883,333 over the next three seasons, Bobby Marks of The Vertical on Yahoo Sports points out via Twitter.
The Warriors acquired Thompson this past offseason in a trade from the Sixers. Thompson, whom the Kings had traded to the Sixers earlier in July, has had the worst season of his career, statistically speaking, so it is no surprise the Warriors are parting ways. A starter for most of his carer, Thompson has appeared in only 28 games and has made only one start.
It will be interesting to see if any team adds Thompson, 29, who has been in decline since the 2013/14 season. The Warriors reportedly reached an agreement with Varejao on Sunday. The Warriors had a need in the frontcourt with Festus Ezeli still out because of arthroscopic knee surgery and Andrew Bogut nursing an Achilles injury, but seemingly had no desire to play Thompson.
I personally don’t get this move for GS
Thompson was not providing any production. Why keep him around?
Pretty simple…. both Bogut and Ezeli are hurt. Ezeli might be out through March. Mo provides some offense but is a liability on D. J. Thompson hasn’t panned out. They need depth at the 5 and are assuming that Varejao will be able to take up space, grab some boards and block some shots until Ezeli is healthy. Granted, Varejao’s numbers have been in decline for the last couple of years but he can’t do any worse then Thompson and long term, he would be the Warriors third option at center. Low risk move that only adds about a million to the payroll (after taking the luxury tax into account)
It doesn’t move the needle at all to replace someone at the end of the bench at this point of the season, at least for this Warriors team. Personally, I don’t see why they signed Varejao. He doesn’t fit. Thompson has only played 6 minutes per game over 28 games. If you look at his numbers, he has been more than fine, and has a positive defense box plus minus. He is a better bet to fill in for a while. No reason to make this move.
They just picked up Varejao so it only made sense to release a big like Thompson. Wouldn’t make sense to release a guard @formerlyz
I don’t get why they signed Varela in the first place