The Warriors earned a spot in the NBA Finals for a fifth straight year in 2019, but health issues slowed them down against the Raptors and now appear likely to compromise their ability to contend for a title next season. With potential free-agents-to-be Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson recovering from a ruptured Achilles and torn ACL, respectively, Golden State may be preparing to commit huge money to two players who will barely see the court in 2019/20.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Warriors financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2019:
Guaranteed Salary
- Stephen Curry ($40,231,758)
- Draymond Green ($18,539,130)
- Andre Iguodala ($17,185,185)
- Damian Jones ($2,305,057)
- Shaun Livingston ($2,000,000) — Partial guarantee. Non-guaranteed portion noted below. 1
- Jacob Evans ($1,925,880)
- Total: $82,187,010
Player Options
- Kevin Durant ($31,500,000)
- Total: $31,500,000
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Shaun Livingston ($5,692,308) 1
- Alfonzo McKinnie ($1,588,231)
- Total: $7,280,539
Restricted Free Agents
- Quinn Cook ($1,931,189 qualifying offer / $1,931,189 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Jordan Bell ($1,818,486 qualifying offer / $1,818,486 cap hold): Early Bird rights
- Marcus Derrickson (two-way qualifying offer / $1,443,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 2
- Damion Lee (two-way qualifying offer / $1,443,842 cap hold): Non-Bird rights 2
- Total: $6,637,359
Unrestricted Free Agents / Other Cap Holds
- Klay Thompson ($28,483,088): Bird rights
- DeMarcus Cousins ($6,404,400): Non-Bird rights
- No. 28 overall pick ($1,962,360)
- Matt Barnes ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights 3
- Andrew Bogut ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights
- Jonas Jerebko ($1,618,486): Non-Bird rights
- Kevon Looney ($1,618,486): Bird rights
- David West ($1,618,486): Early Bird rights 3
- Total: $44,942,278
Projected Salary Cap: $109,000,000
Projected Tax Line: $132,000,000
Offseason Cap Outlook
- Realistic cap room projection: $0
- If the Warriors let all their free agents go, they could create some cap room, but that’s extremely unlikely. Thompson, at least, is expected to sign a deal that would put the club over the cap, and Durant, Cousins, Cook, and Looney are all candidates to return too.
Cap Exceptions Available
- Taxpayer mid-level exception: $5,711,000 4
Footnotes
- Livingston’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after June 30.
- The salaries for two-way players don’t count against a team’s cap, but their cap holds do during the offseason.
- The cap holds for Barnes and West remain on the Warriors’ books because they haven’t been renounced after going unsigned in 2018/19. They can’t be used in a sign-and-trade deal.
- This is a projected value. If the Warriors don’t re-sign both Thompson and Durant, they may be able to stay out of tax territory. In that case, they could instead have access to the full mid-level exception ($9,246,000) and the bi-annual exception ($3,619,000).
Note: Minimum-salary and 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 and RealGM was used in the creation of this post. Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Looks like the warriors dynasty is over.even if Thompson and Durant resign and play at all next season it won’t matter.KD will never be the same player again.
KD but still be an All-Star. A 7-footer who can shoot like he does.. he’ll be a more mobile Dirk Nowitzki.
He can spend all year shooting no jump shots to keep his upper body in shape and his shot accuracy up.
Says the Raptors fan who knows nothing about a dynasty and can only hope his star player will come back for a second year.
Should be an interesting couple weeks for you.
Raps won’t even be a .500 team without Kawhi lol
raptor fan that knows the only way they won a title is because of another team’s injuries. There has never been a team that suffered bigger injuries in a finals or championship game than the Warriors did. Imagine that 100 years of pro sports and the warriors are top of list of most players with 2 ACLs in the same finals series..
Which is why you never cheer for injuries, if anything you should be booing them or being mad about them, because now your title will be tainted with what if’s, knowing full well you didn’t beat the best team at their best.
arc89 does your SN stand for A’s R Champs 1989? Just wondering…
Wow somebody guessed it.
Still have my battle of the bays kids size t-shirt someplace for safe keeping.
I was at game 3 in ‘89!
The earthquake just added insult to injury as a Giants fan
ummmm the Cavs would disagree. Here’s a fact. we should feel bad for Klay and KD but I don’t want to hear a lick of “the Raptors only won because the GSW players were injured”. Even if true you get no sympathy. The Cavs were without Kyrie and Love in that 2014 matchup and there’s no “they only won because” mentioned then. FACT GSW is only 1-1 in series matchups with the Cavs prior to KD joining the team.
Most nba teams are happy to have 1 all-star. GSW had 2 (Green, Curry), a less than 100% Cousins. Raptors had Kawhi and Lowry as current all-stars and a really deep bench.
Sooo tired of GSW fans whining “Well….if we had all 5 of our all-stars healthy them we would’ve beat you”. sounds quite whiney and laughable when you think about it. If we had perhaps the best player in the NBA healthy, and two of the greatest shooters the games ever seen healthy, and Boogie, a multiple all-star big healthy to go with our other all-star in Green then we would’ve beat you. Well…. yeah? 5 all-stars vs 2 all-stars usually is seen as quite lopsided.
I agree with you that the Cavs injuries made it for a easy series for Warriors same as with the Raptors this year. I disagree with you on allstars. Green and Cousins are former all stars just like Gasol was a former all star. Danny green and Ibaka are former defnsive NBA players. So please don’t pretend Raptors had 0 advantage because they had a big advantage. I wouldn’t call Cousin a allstar player after his injury. If he was he wouldn’t have taken less money than over half the NBA players. the way the NBA is with a salary cap you have no bench if you pay out everything to your stars. Its a gamble they don’t get hurt.
So I just shot down your complete bias opinion comment. When the Cavs won they had the highest salary of all the team stacking up on #1 picks. So please don’t pretend that the Cavs had no advantage the first 2 years with more all stars and higher payroll.
You really reached didn’t you? My comments were directed to what players were on the roster and what players were on the floor during the 2014-15 finals. I made ZERO mention as to HOW they were acquired.
Fact-YOU made an attempt to asterisk the Raptors title because the GSW had two all-stars on the floor instead of four plus boogie.
Fact-The Cavs were without Kyrie and Love and were beaten by a GSW team with healthy all-stars Curry,Klay and Green and a very good Iggy.
Does anyone try to put a imaginary asterisk next to that first GSW team?
I know the truth hurts, they write songs about it, but show me the lie Bay Area fanboy.
And again, how many teams can boast having 2 all-star on their team anyway, let alone 41/2?
You need to learn to read. Did I say it was the same as the warriors winning over the cavs the first year??? YES I DID. Second did I say a asterisk? NO So why do you want to argue with a complete stranger and make up things they didn’t say? You sound very opinionated. My guess is you are mad because the warrior lost and you can’t complain about to many all stars. Why are you arguing with a warrior fan on a story about their payroll when you are a cavs or knicks fan or whatever bandwagon come along? Sounds to me you just want to argue about anything.
And for the record, the Cavs had the 4th highest payroll that year. A “whopping” $9 mil more than GSW. This year GSW had the 2nd highest payroll ( Miami was #1, yikes) more than $12mil more than Toronto. Your point?
And people definitely talked about the Warriors title being tainted because of all the Cavs injuries…convenient for your argument that you don’t remember, but not reflective of reality
If they get both Klay and KD back, they don’t need KD to be 100% what he was pre injury. A team with Curry, Klay, and Green is still a team in the mix for a title. If KD can’t be what he was, unless there’s a surprisingly large fall off from the injury, it likely only means they won’t be the same near unbeatable juggernaut again.
It’s still a core group of stars worth keeping together that will be one of the top teams.
The hardest thing for them both next season, and moving forward is difficulty in grouping the depth behind them. This year could be advantageous even if they dont care about burning piles of money paying the tax. They need to draft a couple decent players moving forward or injuries could sink more title runs.
Enjoy the fact you got gifted a ship because once Kawhi leaves you can put the champagne down and go back to Molson Ice
Funny the league allows this team to operate being 35 million over the cap lmao. People dont think lakers will do the same are sadly mistaken.
Have to have an owner willing to spend it. Anti Donald Sterling LOL. I think the Clippers guy is willing to spend, not sure about the Lakers yet.
If Iggy retires like he’s hinted and/or the Warriors do the unthinkable and trade Kerr’s least fave player Draymond, how would that change things? Could GSW sign all of KD, Klay and another high end guy or a bunch of better quality 2nd stringers than they had last year?
Going to be a lame-duck year. Iggy is staying for sure. I have no idea on Draymond. They might trade him they might give him a nice fat salary and keep him? I don’t think anybody knows.
Pick up a couple of guys and tread water next year. There’s talk of Dion Waiters and Rudy Gay. The West is wide open for the first time in five years. Should be exciting.
“Iggy is staying for sure.” – source?
If youre going to argue a thing the man himself has stated, please dont come at me with conjecture, only fair, thanks…
He said himself he was coming back this year
It’s Livingston who will probably retire. But even that’s still up in the air. Hasn’t said so either way yet.
Wrong player ding dong. If you’re going to argue a point at least get the player right
Seth Curry would be a good get with an exemption, and he might take what they can offer to team up with his brother, and be a starter till at least march/april.
Seth Curry wants to be out from under the shadow of his older brother. He would like to make a name for himself. Not coming to the warriors on a discount.
Can the Warriors claim (2) DPE or injury exception claim? I am not as familiar with this process, but isn’t it like $9million dollars if they cannot play. I am referencing what happened with Gordan Hayward when he injured himself game 1 for Boston a couple years ago.
You can’t help but think Lacob is going to get some utterly out of left field moves out of that, if indeed they do get exceptions like that.
Klay might not be out for the full season too, I read about some athletes only needing 7-8 months, which puts him back on court in Jan/Feb. KD for sure won’t play any reg season, but might be able to make later playoff rounds too.
In theory, a disabled player exception worth the full mid-level is in play for both Durant and Klay.
But a DPE is only granted if the player is deemed likely to be sidelined through next June 15. It’s possible that determination would be made on Durant, but I don’t think it’d be the case for Klay (an ACL typically isn’t a 12+ month injury).
I believe ACL averages 8-10 months. But what if a certain player takes longer to heal, has a setback in their rehab process, etc?
Would a team get a late DPE? It would be less useful mid season than in the off season. You never know with serious injuries like ACL and Achilles.
Teams have until January 15 to apply, so the Warriors wouldn’t necessarily need to do it right away.
There is a cutoff in like feb/mar where you cant use it after, but you can apply for and use them in season if timelines change or a player goes down after the season starts for the remainder. So you can use them as an in season trade exemption to allow you to trade for or sign a FA for that cap value.
I’m not sure when one can start claiming the exception but if a non-team doctor (I believe hired by the NBA in some capacity) is able to determine that it is most likely a player will not be able to play at all that season a team can be granted the exception. I think based on the injuries they could get one for KD but not Klay because I think he could heal from that by February at the soonest March by the latest but it depends what the doctor discovers. The Wizards might be able to do that as well with John Wall. Interesting thought really.
Yes if a league doctor verifies that one or both of KD/KT will be out until June 15th 2020. It is more likely with KD, although with KT they would be able to request one in season if down the road his timeline changes. So one DPE fairly easily one maybe. A 9.2 DPE would cost the team almost 60M with the tax, and they may not be able to get insurance coverage on the new contract with existing injury. KD opting in would save a ton on the tax hit, and allow them to claim insurance on the deal, but that looks unlikely.
It really is too bad they won game 5. Their entire outlook would look so much better had they lost that game.
First, give Max for KD and Klay, after target free agent: Brook Lopez (is big man and shot of 3, and other one point guard for command second unit, Rick Rubio or Derrick Rose. Other good names: Ariza, Redick. Another possibility, try a trade, Player + Pick 28 + Pick 58 for Lou Williams, would be the perfect player to command the second unit.
Cap holds are in place on KT/KD and some of the other FA so you cant sign shit other then the 5M exemption and minimum salary players beyond there own FA. Also with a player like Cousins they cant offer more then 120% his current salary.
Geez… yeah.. you want fries and a coke with that Lou Williams? What player would the Warriors offer to their rival to justify them (Clippers) trading their best player when they themselves are trying to win a title too? Exactly. Stop it. That trade is so incredibly lopsided i can’t believe you clicked “send”.
Another article said Meyers will use a injury exception in payroll. Does anyone know how much this will give the warriors to spend next year if they use it?