With lucrative new contracts for Stephen Curry and Andre Iguodala hitting the books in 2017/18, the Warriors’ team salary started getting awfully expensive, even with Kevin Durant accepting a team-friendly rate on his own new deal. Durant likely won’t take a discount again, so Golden State’s salary and tax bills will only get pricier going forward, but as long as the team keeps winning titles, ownership will likely be happy to sign off.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Warriors financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2018:
Guaranteed Salary
- Stephen Curry ($37,457,154)
- Klay Thompson ($18,988,725)
- Draymond Green ($17,469,565)
- Andre Iguodala ($16,000,000)
- Shaun Livingston ($8,307,692)
- Quinn Cook ($1,544,951)
- Damian Jones ($1,544,951)
- Jordan Bell ($1,378,242)
- Jason Thompson ($945,126) — Waived via stretch provision
- Total: $103,636,406
Player Options
- Kevin Durant ($26,250,000)
- Total: $26,250,000
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- None
Restricted Free Agents
- Patrick McCaw ($1,699,698 qualifying offer / $1,699,698 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Total: $1,699,698
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Nick Young ($6,230,400): Non-Bird rights
- Zaza Pachulia ($4,520,880): Early Bird rights
- Kevon Looney ($2,227,081): Bird rights1
- No. 28 overall pick ($1,630,249)
- Matt Barnes ($1,499,698): Non-Bird rights
- JaVale McGee ($1,499,698): Early Bird rights
- David West ($1,499,698): Early Bird rights
- Total: $19,107,704
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Projected Cap Room: None
- Durant intends to opt out of his contract and sign a new deal with the Warriors. Even before taking that new deal into account, Golden State projects to be over the cap, with $103MM+ in guaranteed salaries.
Footnotes:
- Looney’s Bird rights are limited because the Warriors declined the fourth-year option on his rookie scale contract. Any contract offer from Golden State can’t have a starting salary that exceeds his cap hold.
Note: Rookie scale cap holds are estimates based on salary cap projections and could increase or decrease depending on where the cap lands.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
At some point, one of the main four has got to go due to the amount of cap room they would consume.
They’re all important and bring something to the team…but which one would you let go/trade?
Go.
Prob Klay
Klay probably would be the last I’d let go, he is very good but specially he is more quiet, seems to never demand more money, seems the type of player any team should want, maybe the other 3 are better at balling, but he brings the best in the locker room, at least seems so for what you read about it. I think the problem is that they should really sweep the floor with the team they got, but somehow they always seem to struggle to win, though they ultimately keep doing, so my point is that if they loose one of those big 4, I don’t think they will keep on winning… maybe they should get rid of Iguodala & Livingston, that probably would make more sense & get 2 cheap veterans at the minimum just for the pleasure of winning a ring.
Loose one of the big 4? It’s not going to happen. Golden State Ownership is like Steinbrenner was to the Yankees. Always willing to spend without hesitation. Warriors have the fan base, and the are moving to a new arena…
Turning down Looney’s option was a bad idea.