In many ways, the NBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement will help out the Warriors, most notably giving the team the opportunity to offer Stephen Curry way more money than any other team in 2017 free agency, due to the new designated player exception. However, a super-max salary for Curry, along with increased cap holds for free agents, will make it tricky for Golden State to keep its roster together beyond its Big Four after this season.
As Bobby Marks of The Vertical outlines, the Warriors will have the flexibility to keep Klay Thompson and Draymond Green while giving Curry and Kevin Durant super-max contracts, but it could very well cost the team complementary players like Shaun Livingston and Andre Iguodala. Marks observes that Golden State will need to place a “heavy emphasis” on player development if the team wants to keep its core four together, since players like Damian Jones, Patrick McCaw, Kevon Looney, and future draftees will be relied on for larger roles if the club can’t afford its other veterans.
We’ve got a few more CBA notes and updates to pass along, so let’s dive in…
- Updating an item that he reported earlier this week, Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders clarifies that for a player who signs a partially guaranteed contract under the new CBA, his outgoing salary will only count for the guaranteed amount in a trade, while the incoming salary will count for the full amount. If there’s a major discrepancy between the two amounts (ie. $1.5MM guaranteed on a $12.5MM salary), it will make it very tricky for a player to be included in a deal.
- Because the designated player exception can only be used on a player who remains with the team that drafted him, or the team that acquired him in a trade during his rookie contract, one unintended consequence could be that star players on their rookie deals push for trades, writes Kevin Pelton of ESPN.com (Insider link). As Pelton admits, such a move would require plenty of foresight, since a player would have to request a trade by his fourth season with an eye toward year eight or nine of his career, but it’s a possibility.
- With an assist from cap expert Larry Coon, Brian Windhorst tackles some of the most frequently asked questions about the new CBA in an informative piece for ESPN.com.
- Coon also joined Pincus on the Basketball Insiders podcast to discuss their expectations for the new CBA.
- Veteran union representatives like LeBron James and Chris Paul are among the biggest winners in the new CBA, due to the reworked “over-38” rule, Windhorst writes in a separate ESPN.com piece.
With that core of four stars, GSW will get their pick of veterans willing to play for the minimum, especially when they know they’ll also get bonus money for the playoffs. Not just old guys, they can play the Jonathan Simmons-foreign market as well. What UDFA wouldn’t want to ride the pine, learn from the best, and pickup playoff checks? GSW can also buy second round and late first round picks, like they did with McCaw.