Warriors Rumors

Southwest Notes: Cuban, Thompson, Grizzlies, Sheppard, Sochan

August 31st, 2024 at 8:31pm CST by Arthur Hill

Appearing on The Roommates Show podcast (video link), Mark Cuban suggested that Klay Thompson might get better scoring opportunities with the Mavericks than he did during his years with the Warriors. Cuban explained that playing alongside Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving should free up Thompson for plenty of open shots.

“Obviously the big addition was Klay,” Cuban said in addressing the team’s offseason moves. “Just somebody who you have to face guard, who’s going to make 40% (from three-point range), and we’re hoping, you know at Golden State he had to always be on the move. They had that motion offense where he was always coming off screens and running. We don’t do that, or not nearly as much, and sure we’ll run some of that action for him, but just standing in the corner, and standing in the wings, and just catch and shoot from Luka and Ky. Hopefully his life is going to be a lot easier.”

Following a trip to the NBA Finals, Dallas has worked to upgrade its roster this summer. Along with adding Thompson, the Mavs improved their perimeter depth by picking up Quentin Grimes, Naji Marshall and Spencer Dinwiddie.

“We wanted to keep that defensive mindset, but we also wanted somebody that was going to be able to make a three,” Cuban added, “because Luka is always going to get you an open look, Kyrie is going to get you an open look or score on their own.”

There’s more from the Southwest Division:

DaMichael Cole of The Memphis Commercial Appeal examines the Grizzlies‘ options for their open roster spot after waiving Mamadi Diakite this week. Cole states that the team could either promote one of its two-way players, sign a free agent to improve the bench or keep the slot open for a move later in the season. Cole believes Scotty Pippen Jr. and Jay Huff are the two-way players with the best chance of receiving a standard contract, while center and point guard are the positions with the greatest need for more depth.
There’s been skepticism on whether Reed Sheppard will play enough on a deep Rockets team to be a serious Rookie of the Year candidate, but Tim McMahon stated on the Hoop Collective podcast that playing time shouldn’t be an issue (Twitter link from Chris Gorman). “He’ll be on the floor,” McMahon said. “I think he’ll play a significant role as a play-maker off the bench.”
Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan wasn’t hurt in a one-vehicle crash last weekend, according to Raul Trey Lopez of The San Antonio Express-News. Sochan told police that he “lost control” of his $240K Porsche 911 GT3 RS before hitting a guardrail.

Warriors Notes: Curry, Training Camp, Next Season

August 30th, 2024 at 9:40pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Stephen Curry‘s decision to sign a one-year extension, a commitment through the 2026/27 season, shows that he still expects the Warriors to be contenders in the coming years, he told Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic.

“It’s still about winning,” Curry said, “and taking the steps necessary to give ourselves a chance. The standard hasn’t changed. The expectation hasn’t changed.”

Curry wants to remain a Warrior for the rest of his career. He’ll be 39 by the end of his contract.

“I’ve always said I wanted to play for one team my whole career,” he said. “So it’s good to get (the extension) question out of the way and give complete focus to basketball and to the season.”

We have more on the Warriors:

Curry’s one-year extension will pay him $62.6MM in 2026/27. Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report explains why Curry’s salary won’t have massive implications regarding the luxury tax and tax aprons and answers several other questions related to the most lucrative one-year extension in NBA history.
The Warriors will begin training camp in Hawaii, returning there for the first time since 2007, according to a team press release. They will also have a preseason game against the Clippers in Honolulu on Oct. 5.
The Warriors believe they’ll improve upon last season’s 10th-place finish in the Western Conference, but even with their roster adjustments, that might prove difficult, Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area writes. Poole anticipates that if the Warriors are at least in the middle of the standings at the halfway point, they’ll pursue a significant deal before the trade deadline.

Bruno Caboclo Signs With Hapoel Tel Aviv

August 30th, 2024 at 7:46am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA first-round pick Bruno Caboclo has signed with Hapoel Tel Aviv, the Israeli club formally announced today (via Twitter). According to a Sport5 report relayed by Sportando, the contract covers two seasons. Previous reporting indicated the second year would be a team option.

Caboclo was said to be working out with the Warriors this week in the hopes of landing an NBA contract. While it’s possible Caboclo’s deal includes an NBA opt-out clause in the event that he receives an offer from Golden State or another team, the fact that he’s officially moving forward with Tel Aviv suggests that no NBA opportunity he likes has materialized.

The 20th overall pick in the 2014 draft, Caboclo spent parts of seven seasons in the NBA, but appeared in just 105 total games for the Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies, and Rockets from 2014-21. He averaged 4.2 points and 2.6 rebounds in 12.3 minutes per contest.

Caboclo has been more effective on the international stage, winning a German League (BBL) title in 2023 with Ratiopharm Ulm and earning All-EuroCup Second Team honors that season before spending the 2023/24 campaign with Partizan Belgrade in the EuroLeague. He also represented Brazil in this year’s Olympics, leading the national team with 17.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game across four outings.

Hapoel Tel Aviv, which is aiming to earn a promotion to the EuroLeague by winning a EuroCup title in 2024/25, also added NBA veterans Patrick Beverley and Ish Wainright earlier this summer.

Stephen Curry Signs One-Year Extension With Warriors

August 29th, 2024 at 6:33pm CST by Rory Maher

6:33pm: Curry has signed the extension, the team’s PR department announced (via Twitter).

11:28am: Two-time MVP Stephen Curry has agreed to a one-year, $62.6MM extension with the Warriors, agent Jeff Austin tells Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter link).

Curry was limited to a one-year extension due to the Over-38 rule. He was already under contract for the next two seasons, with salaries of $55.8MM in 2024/25 and $59.6MM in 2025/26. His new extension will cover the 2026/27 campaign, meaning he won’t hit free agency until 2027.

Curry’s salary on the one-year extension won’t be affected by where the ’26/27 cap lands, since he’ll be eligible for a 5% raise on his previous salary, even though that figure will exceed that season’s league-wide maximum.

Widely regarded as the greatest shooter in basketball history, Curry holds career averages of 24.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.5 steals on .473/.426/.910 shooting in 956 regular season games (34.2 minutes per contest). The 10-time All-NBA guard, who has won four championships and made six NBA Finals appearances, has spent his entire 15-year career with Golden State.

The Warriors had an up-and-down season in ’23/24. They went 46-36 and were eliminated in the play-in tournament by the Kings. The 36-year-old still performed at a very high level though, averaging 26.4 points, 4.5 rebounds and 5.1 assists on .450/.408/.923 shooting in 74 regular season games (32.7 minutes). Curry earned an All-NBA Third Team nod for his efforts.

Curry is coming off a star showing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris, when he was dominant in both the semifinal (vs. Serbia) and final (vs. France) en route to his first gold medal with Team USA. He had struggled for much of the tournament leading up to those games, but obviously stepped up in a major way when he was needed most.

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks tweets, Curry will surpass $500MM+ in career on-court earnings with the new extension, joining LeBron James and Kevin Durant as the only players to reach that threshold.

Curry, general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr., and owner Joe Lacob have all expressed a desire for the 6’2″ guard to remain with the Warriors for the rest of his illustrious career. The extension agreement has both sides one step closer to achieving that goal.

NBA Teams With Fewest Players On Guaranteed Contracts

August 28th, 2024 at 3:06pm CST by Luke Adams

As of Wednesday, eight of the NBA’s 30 teams are carrying at least 15 players on guaranteed contracts and are unlikely to have many additional offseason acquisitions in store. Another 17 teams are carrying either 13 or 14 players on guaranteed deals.

As our roster counts page shows, that leaves five clubs carrying 12 or fewer players on fully guaranteed deals. That doesn’t necessarily mean all five of those teams will sign free agents to guaranteed contracts before the regular season begins, but it’s worth checking in on them to take a closer look at their roster situations.

Cleveland Cavaliers

No NBA team has fewer players on fully guaranteed salaries than the Cavaliers, who are carrying just 10 of them. However, we can probably pencil in two more players for their standard regular season roster — Craig Porter played rotation minutes last season and has a $1MM partial guarantee, while Sam Merrill proved to be a bargain on his non-guaranteed minimum-salary deal.

If we assume those 12 players will be on the Cavs’ opening night roster, that leaves three openings. Cleveland reportedly plans to leave one open, and one may be earmarked for restricted free agent Isaac Okoro, but even if Okoro returns, the club will still need to add one more player to its roster as a 14th man. It will be interesting to see if the Cavs target a specific free agent and offer him a guaranteed contract or if they’ll bring multiple non-guaranteed players to camp to compete for that 14th spot.

Golden State Warriors

The Warriors have 12 players on fully guaranteed salaries, with Lindy Waters and Gui Santos also in the mix on non-guaranteed salaries. Golden State doesn’t currently have the flexibility to sign a veteran free agent as a 15th man due to the team’s close proximity to its hard cap of $178.1MM, but either Waters or Santos could be waived to make room for a replacement.

The Warriors gave up a second-round pick in June to acquire Waters, so I doubt the plan is to waive him. Santos’ future is less certain. He barely played in the NBA last season as a rookie, and his G League numbers (including a .437 FG% and 3.1 turnovers per game) weren’t exceptional. If the Dubs want to bring in another player to fill out their regular season roster (they’re reportedly working out Bruno Caboclo this week), Santos looks like the best bet to be the odd man out.

Indiana Pacers

Although the Pacers have just 12 players on fully guaranteed contracts, they have at least four players in the mix for the final three spots on their roster, including two with partial guarantees (James Johnson and James Wiseman) and two on non-guaranteed deals (Kendall Brown and Cole Swider).

I expect Johnson and Wiseman to have the upper hand for spots on the 15-man roster, with Brown and Swider potentially fighting for the 15th spot — assuming Indiana even carries a full 15-man squad to open the regular season.

For what it’s worth, the Pacers have shown a willingness in the past to move Johnson on and off their roster. Last season, he signed four separate contracts with the club, including two 10-day deals. But the fact that Indiana gave him a $750K guarantee on his newest contract is an indication the team doesn’t plan on cutting the veteran forward before opening night.

Philadelphia 76ers

While the Sixers technically only have 12 players on guaranteed salaries for the time being, that number will increase to 13 once Guerschon Yabusele officially signs with the team. He’s likely still working out the logistics of the move, including his buyout with Real Madrid and clearance from FIBA.

Once Yabusele has signed, Philadelphia will have 13 players on guaranteed contracts, plus Ricky Council on a non-guaranteed deal. I can’t imagine Council is going anywhere after his promising rookie season, so the only question for the Sixers will be whether or not they want to carry a 15th man to open the year. They’re well into tax territory already, so they may hold that spot open unless there’s a specific player they like and don’t want to get away.

Sacramento Kings

The Kings currently have 14 players on standard contracts — 12 on guaranteed deals, plus Orlando Robinson with a partial guarantee ($500K) and Keon Ellis on a non-guaranteed salary.

Ellis was a rotation player for much of last season and should be a lock for the regular season roster. On the surface, Robinson may not look like a sure thing, but the Kings’ cap situation works in his favor. The club is currently only below the tax line by about $1MM, so eating Robinson’s $500K partial guarantee in order to replace him with a newcomer before the season starts wouldn’t be the most financially prudent move.

I’d expect the Kings to keep their 15th roster spot open to start the season. If they carry someone in that spot, it might be another player on a non-guaranteed deal for the sake of flexibility.

Warriors’ Podziemski Talks Trade Rumors, 2024/25 Goals, More

August 28th, 2024 at 10:55am CST by Luke Adams

Brandin Podziemski‘s name popped up in trade rumors throughout the summer amid speculation that he could be included in a package for a star like Paul George or Lauri Markkanen. However, the Warriors guard received separate assurances from general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. and owner Joe Lacob that the team had no plans to trade him, as he tells Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

According to Podziemski, Dunleavy delivered his message ahead of draft night.

“A lot of these other teams are calling about you,” Podziemski said Dunleavy told him. “They want you, but you’re not going anywhere. You’re ours.”

Slater hears from team sources that the Warriors received several inquiries from teams willing to make “medium- to high-value” draft pick offers for Podziemski, who made the All-Rookie first team in 2023/24. As for the Markkanen negotiations between Golden State and Utah, they reportedly never got too serious, but Podziemski was considered a top target for the Jazz if they had pursued a deal.

The 21-year-old heard from Lacob while those Markkanen rumors were swirling, as Slater relays.

“He told me, ‘You don’t have anything to worry about. You’re a priority here,'” Podziemski said. “I appreciate that, being a rookie and going into my second year, hearing that from such a prestigious organization. It feels good. I’m wanted somewhere. So, I appreciate them. They could keep me in the dark until a trade is done. But Mike and Joe were transparent from the draft to the Paul George situation to the Markkanen situation.”

Here are a few more highlights from Podziemski’s conversation with The Athletic:

Podziemski knows some fans may question why the Warriors’ front office has been so reluctant to move him if he could help them acquire an established star, but he said he won’t feel increased pressure next season to perform at a high level and justify the team’s belief in him. “I won’t go into games thinking about it,” Podziemski told Slater. “I just know what I’ve done all offseason. I know how much better of a player I’m going to be. Obviously, I have expectations for myself to perform. This is my job. But I don’t think there’s any nervousness to exceed expectations. I’m just going to be me.”
According to Podziemski, the Warriors have told him they’d like to see him shoot more three-pointers next season after he launched 3.2 attempts per night as a rookie. “They want me to take anywhere (from) eight to 10 per game. That’s what they told me,” he said. “All different types: off dribble handoffs, off ball screens, catch-and-shoot.”
As Slater points out, among qualified NBA players last season, only 10 averaged more than eight three-point tries per game, and just three (including Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson) reached nine per game. However, Podziemski is confident he can significantly increase his volume from beyond the arc. “The reason they said that is because I’d be watching film last season after every game, and it’s always on there: Missed three-point opportunity that I didn’t take,” he explained. “There were a good two to four each game that I passed up. If you look at that, it’s a good five to seven per game I could’ve got up. Now with Klay being gone, Chris (Paul) being gone, someone is going to have to handle the ball a little bit more. I think I’m more than capable of doing that. Given that, I think it leads me to have more threes.”
Discussing his involvement in Team USA’s pre-Olympic workouts as a member of the Select Team, Podziemski said he appreciated the opportunity to guard players like Curry and Jrue Holiday in scrimmages, since it helped prepare him for the types of defensive assignments he wants to take on next season: “With Steph out there, you’re not going to have him guard the best guard. So, it’s on me taking that challenge of what Klay used to do. It’s something I want and have that not be the reason (head coach) Steve (Kerr) doesn’t play me, because I can’t guard their best guard.”

Bruno Caboclo Reportedly Working Out With Warriors

August 27th, 2024 at 7:50am CST by Luke Adams

Former NBA forward Bruno Caboclo is working out with the Warriors this week as he continues to seek a new opportunity in the league, agent Daniel Hazan told Sports Channel in Israel (hat tip to BasketNews.com).

“He will train with the Golden State Warriors until Thursday with the aim of signing a contract, and he believes he will succeed,” Hazan said of his client.

Caboclo has been more effective on the international stage, winning a German League (BBL) title in 2023 with Ratiopharm Ulm and earning All-EuroCup Second Team honors that season. He also represented Brazil in this year’s Olympics, leading the national team with 17.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game across four outings.

Although Caboclo said during the Olympics that he expected to return to KK Partizan for another season after playing for the Serbian club in 2023/24, it now sounds like he may end up elsewhere.

The Warriors could offer him a potential path to a regular season roster spot, since they only have 12 players on guaranteed salaries, with Lindy Waters and Gui Santos (both on non-guaranteed deals) currently penciled in as the 13th and 14th men. Golden State doesn’t currently have enough room under its hard cap to carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season, but could replace Waters or Santos with Caboclo.

If he doesn’t receive an NBA offer, the 6’9″ forward may pursue a deal with Hapoel Tel Aviv. The Israeli team made him an offer earlier this month, and while reporting at the time suggested Caboclo had a small window to accept that offer, his agent told Sports Channel that Tel Aviv remains a possibility.

“We are in negotiations, we are making good progress,” Hazan said. “It’s definitely an option worth keeping.”

Pacific Notes: Redick, Buss, Lakers, Warriors, I. Jones

August 23rd, 2024 at 2:54pm CST by Rory Maher

Appearing on the Petros and Money radio show on AM 570 Los Angeles, Lakers governor Jeanie Buss explained the team’s decision to hire J.J. Redick as its new head coach. While he was a longtime NBA sharpshooter, Redick lacks high-level coaching experience.

“We wanted to kind of think a different way,” Buss said, per HoopsHype. “Really, he’s got a vision. I’m not comfortable talking about the basketball stuff, but we were looking for a candidate that would bring something different and really invest in developing young players.

“J.J. is the right person for us. Again, I just want to work to really speak for itself, so I don’t want to hype it and say it’s gonna be a home run. We have to give him time to establish what he wants to establish.

“I’m really impressed with his staff. Right now, it’s not mandatory for the players to come in and practice but players are coming in and working out. The coaching staff with Nate McMillan and Scotty Brooks, there’s a lot of experience that will be there for him to make that adjustment to being a head coach. … He knows what this league is about and I think he’ll be a great leader.”

Here’s more from the Pacific:

The Lakers have hired Dr. Leroy Sims to be their new director of player performance and health, the team announced in a press release (Twitter link via Jovan Buha of The Athletic). Sims, who was most recently the NBA’s senior vice president, head of medical operations, was also Golden State’s medical director and team physician from 2011-14.
The Warriors will hold their training camp this fall in Hawaii instead of their home arena, the Chase Center, writes Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area. As Poole explains, while holding the camp in Honolulu will be costly, the team views it as a necessary expense to “promote healthy bonding” amid major changes to the roster and coaching staff.
Theo Lawson of The Spokesman-Review details Isaac Jones‘ unusual NBA journey, which included playing for a junior college in Washington for multiple seasons before he received a Division I offer. Jones signed a two-way contract with the Kings after going undrafted out of Washington State in June. “I wasn’t supposed to be here, but kept my head down and grinded and now I’m here,” he said. “It can all change in like two days. It happened so fast, so don’t take anything for granted and just work hard.”

Hall Of Famer Al Attles Dies At Age 87

August 21st, 2024 at 12:03pm CST by Luke Adams

Former Warriors player and coach Al Attles passed away on Tuesday at the age of 87, the team has announced in a press release.

Drafted by the then-Philadelphia Warriors out of North Carolina A&T in 1960, Attles spent his 11-year career as an NBA player with the Warriors, who relocated to San Francisco in 1962.

The 6’0″ point guard appeared in a total of 711 games, averaging 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 25.1 minutes per contest.

Attles, who was named an assistant coach in 1968, spent the final two years of his playing career as the Warriors’ head coach, a position he maintained well after his retirement as a player. He posted a 557-518 (.518) regular season record in that role, which he held until 1983, along with a 31-30 (.508) mark in the postseason.

Attles led the Warriors to an NBA championship in 1975, which was Golden State’s most recent title until the team began its dynastic run last decade by winning a championship in 2015. Attles still has the most regular season wins by a coach in franchise history, though Steve Kerr (519 career wins) could pass his total of 557 as soon as next season.

Following his stint as the Warriors’ head coach, Attles served as the team’s general manager for three seasons. He was an ambassador for the organization for many years after that, briefly returning in an official capacity as an assistant coach during the 1994/95 season.

Attles was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and was enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019, having been selected by the Hall’s Contributor Committee.

“Alvin Attles did not just epitomize what it meant to be a Warrior—he was Mr. Warrior,” the team said in a statement on Wednesday. “His tenacious playing style earned him the affectionate nickname of ‘The Destroyer’ on the court, but it was his gentle soul, grace and humility off the court that served as a guiding light for the organization for more than six decades.

“As a player, coach, general manager, ambassador, and most of all, as a person, Alvin set the standards of professionalism and class by which we all strive to achieve. He leaves behind a profound legacy within the game of basketball and the Bay Area community, but especially as a family man and humanitarian. We mourn his loss alongside his wife, Wilhelmina, son Alvin, and all who knew and loved him.”

We at Hoops Rumors send our condolences to Attles’ family and friends.

Stein’s Latest: Curry, James, Embiid, Yurtseven, Micic

August 18th, 2024 at 3:51pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Warriors All-NBA point guard Stephen Curry is eligible for a one-season, $62.6MM contract extension prior to October 21. He could also wait until the 2025 offseason to seek a two-year deal worth a projected $130MM, Marc Stein writes in his latest Substack story.

Stein notes that, having missed out on Jazz All-Star Lauri Markkanen and Sixers All-Star Paul George, Golden State continues looking for opportunities to upgrade the roster via trade. The Warriors believe they have the current and future assets necessary to do just that.

Last year’s Warriors went 46-36, finishing with just the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference. Golden State failed to make the playoffs after falling to the Kings in the play-in tournament.

Curry, 36, had yet another excellent individual year. The 10-time All-Star averaged 26.4 points on .450/.408/.923 shooting splits, 5.1 assists, 4.5 rebounds, and 0.7 steals in 74 games.

Here are some other key notes from Stein’s newest Substack article:

According to Stein, there’s a belief that the Lakers would have “reluctantly” engaged in trade discussions to send All-NBA combo forward LeBron James to the Warriors, so he could join then-future Team USA colleague Curry and friend Draymond Green, if that’s what James had wanted. However, Stein’s sources say that Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, James’ longtime agent, urged both L.A. and Golden State to scrap the idea — in part because Paul didn’t want James to be faced with criticism for jumping teams for a fourth time.
Sixers All-Star center Joel Embiid, fresh off winning his first Olympic gold medal for Team USA this summer, hinted that he might be interested in playing for his native Cameroon during the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. However, as Stein writes, a player over the age of 17 can only change his country affiliation if he receives clearance from FIBA and his previous country (in this case, USA Basketball). Stein is skeptical that Embiid will be permitted to do so.
According to Stein, free agent center Omer Yurtseven was one of several players to recently work out for the Knicks, who opted not to sign him at that time. Greek club Panathinaikos reportedly remains intrigued by the 7-footer. New York lost its 2023/24 starting center, Isaiah Hartenstein, to the Thunder in free agency, and no doubt needs to get creative filling out its frontcourt depth, so Yurtseven would have made sense as a fringe rotation option. Across three NBA seasons with the Heat and Jazz, the big man has appeared in 113 contests (24 starts), averaging 5.0 points, 4.6 rebounds and 0.7 steals per night.
Hornets point guard Vasilije Micic is considered a potential down-the-road trade target for the Nuggets, given his close relationship with Nikola Jokic, Stein writes. Micic may not be a practical option for Denver at this point though, given his $7.7MM salary and the team’s proximity to the tax aprons. Acquired midway through his 2023/24 rookie season, the 6’5″ guard averaged 10.8 points and 6.2 assists across 30 games for Charlotte down the stretch.

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