Golden State Warriors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Pacific Notes: Paul, Labissiere, Warriors Rookies, Lakers

September 9th, 2023 at 10:54am CST by Tristan Tucker

The Warriors made one of the splashiest moves of the offseason when they acquired Chris Paul from Washington after he was sent to the Wizards by Phoenix in the Bradley Beal trade. Even though the Warriors sent out Jordan Poole in the deal, lineup questions arose for Golden State, who return 2022/23 starters Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Kevon Looney — that could leave CP3 as the odd man out in the starting five.

However, appearing on a recent episode of Yahoo Sports’ Vince Goodwill’s “Good Word With Goodwill” podcast (Podcast link), Andscape’s Marc J. Spears said he expects the Warriors to start Paul.

“I do expect him to start. And I think it’s like five-minute spurts,” Spears said on the podcast. “I don’t know that they really want his minutes to be high, but I think they’re gonna try it. I could be wrong, but that’s the gist I’m getting. This isn’t an opinion that he’s expected to start; it’s what I’m hearing. He’s never not started in his career.”

As Spears notes, Paul has started in all 1,214 of his NBA appearances. If that streak continues, it means one of the Warriors’ entrenched starters would have to move to the bench. Looney is a natural candidate, but the Warriors are lacking size and going that route would put them at a disadvantage in that regard, since it would make 6’6″ Green and 6’7″ Wiggins the tallest players in the lineup.

We have more notes from the Pacific Division:

The Kings plan to sign and then waive Skal Labissiere on the same day, meaning he won’t report to the team’s training camp The Kings Beat’s James Ham tweets. This was always the expected outcome for Labissiere, especially after the team secured his G League rights in a trade on Friday. Labissiere, 27, played for the Kings from 2016-19 after being drafted by the team with the No. 28 overall pick in the 2016 draft. He holds career averages of 7.2 points and 4.5 rebounds in 148 NBA appearances between the Kings and the Trail Blazers.
Warriors rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis are becoming closer throughout the offseason, recently touring several attractions in San Francisco, Shayna Rubin of The Mercury News writes. Podziemski and Jackson-Davis, who could both play rotational roles for a Warriors team seeking to contend, are becoming acclimated to the city and the franchise, according to Rubin. Rubin reports that the two were part of a players-only mini-camp hosted by Curry at the end of August, and the entire team grew closer as a result of the event.
Signing Christian Wood is the latest in a series of flashy Lakers moves this offseason, but Heavy’s Sean Deveney writes that rival executives believe coach Darvin Ham is going to have his hands full with developing and sticking to a rotation. “They’re deep,” the executive said, per Deveney. “They’re 12 deep. That’s great when you look at it on paper. But when happens when the ball goes up and you’re playing nine guys, and one of those guys is playing eight minutes? That gets sticky for a coach. [Ham] is as good as anyone at relating to players, but a depth chart like that can be a coach’s nightmare.” Deveney suggests that Wood wouldn’t have joined the Lakers if his role wasn’t going to be big. Los Angeles also brought in a handful of players in free agency, including Gabe Vincent and Taurean Prince, while retaining Rui Hachimura, Austin Reaves and D’Angelo Russell. Second-year player Max Christie is also in line for more playing time.

International Notes: Sneed, Parker, Gobert, Nembhard, Prospects

September 9th, 2023 at 8:38am CST by Tristan Tucker

Former Hornets wing Xavier Sneed signed with Italian club Happy Casa Brandisi, the team announced in a release. This will be Sneed’s first professional experience in Europe.

Sneed, 25, finished last season with Charlotte on a two-way deal before being waived in early August. He appeared in just four games last year, putting up a total of 17 points during that time. Sneed also spent time with the Grizzlies and the Jazz in 2021/22. In total, he has 13 NBA appearances under his belt.

The Kansas State product has spent more time in the G League, mostly with Charlotte’s affiliate, the Greensboro Swarm. In 60 regular season career G League games split between Greensboro and Utah’s affiliate, the Salt Lake City Stars, Sneed averaged 12.2 points and 4.8 rebounds.

We have more International Notes:

France had a rough go in the 2023 FIBA World Cup, failing to reach the second round despite having NBA players like Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier and Nicolas Batum. France gets an automatic bid for the 2024 Olympics due to being the host country, but was still looking to make an impact in the World Cup. Hall of Famer and French national team legend Tony Parker spoke on the loss, calling it “disappointing,” per Sarah Todd of Deseret News. Parker didn’t specifically call out any players but hinted that big names, including possibly Gobert, could be on the way out, Todd writes. “They are going to have big choices to make,” Parker said. “If you bring back big players like Joel Embiid and [Victor Wembanyama], it has to be complementary with the rest, because it could mean the departure of certain cornerstones, which can make headlines.“
RJ Nembhard, who spent the 2021/22 season with the Cavaliers, is signing with Belgium’s Filou Oostende, Eurohoops reports. Nembhard, 24, is being added to offset the loss of fellow former NBAer Patrick McCaw, whose visa issues are preventing him from joining Oostende, according to Eurohoops. Nembhard has 14 games of NBA experience, mostly while playing on a two-way deal with Cleveland, and totaled 15 points and 12 assists in those games.
The 2023 World Cup was a great opportunity for younger players across the world to get competitive, meaningful minutes early in their career. HoopsHype’s Alberto De Roa takes a look at some of the top prospects from the event, including NBA draftees Rokas Jokubaitis and Gui Santos. Both Jokubaitis and Santos, whose draft rights are held by the Knicks and Warriors, respectively, looked like future NBA rotation pieces, according to De Roa.

Pacific Notes: McGee, Warriors, Kings, Vanderbilt, Vogel

September 8th, 2023 at 12:53pm CST by Luke Adams

The Kings beat out the Warriors for free agent center JaVale McGee, according to Sam Amick of The Athletic, who suggests both Pacific clubs were in pursuit of the big man after he was waived by Dallas last week.

McGee’s new deal with Sacramento is only for one year and is worth the veteran’s minimum, but it’s fully guaranteed. It’s unclear whether or not Golden State was willing to offer a fully guaranteed contract to the former Warrior. According to Amick, the Kings envision McGee playing a “significant” role in 2023/24 if he shows he’s capable of handling it.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

The Stockton Kings – Sacramento’s G League affiliate – announced in a press release on Thursday that they’ve acquired Skal Labissiere‘s returning rights from the Mexico City Capitanes in a three-team trade that sent DJ Steward‘s rights to the Maine Celtics. Labissiere has agreed to sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Kings, while Steward has reached an agreement on an Exhibit 10 deal with the Celtics. This trade will ensure both players are in line to receive their Exhibit 10 bonuses.
Lakers forward Jarred Vanderbilt became extension-eligible on Thursday, notes Yossi Gozlan of HoopsHype (Twitter link). Vanderbilt, whose maximum extension would be $75MM over four years, will be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 if he doesn’t sign a new contract before then.
In a two-part interview with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic, new Suns head coach Frank Vogel discussed several topics, including the philosophy he’ll bring to his new job and what he’s looking for in Phoenix’s fifth starter alongside Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal, and Deandre Ayton. “We’ll have a lot of guys that have an opportunity to be that fifth guy,” Vogel said. “The versatility of maybe being able to guard multiple positions or maybe it’s an elite shooter. Maybe it’s just another play-maker. I think we have a lot of guys with a lot of different skill sets and we’ll put a lot of different combinations throughout the year.”

And-Ones: Title Threats, Ennis, Storylines, Top Coaches

September 5th, 2023 at 10:58pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Which team is the Nuggets’ biggest impediment to a second straight title? ESPN’s panel of experts believes the Bucks, Warriors, Suns and Celtics are all potential threats to a Denver repeat. As for just making the playoffs, the Mavericks, Bulls, Timberwolves and Pelicans are among a group of teams that can’t afford to fall short of postseason participation or else risk major rebuilds or superstar demands for trades.

We have more from around the basketball world:

Former NBA guard Tyler Ennis has signed with Italy’s Gevi Napoli Basket, according to a team press release. A first-round pick in 2014, Ennis has not played in the NBA since the 2017/18 season, when he appeared in 54 Lakers games. In recent years, Ennis has played mainly in Turkey. He also had a stint with the Raptors’ G League team.
The trade demands of James Harden and Damian Lillard, along with Giannis Antetokounmpo‘s future with the Bucks, are some of the storylines that will be closely followed this NBA season, The Athletic’s Sam Amick writes.
Who are the top five coaches in the NBA? Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times tackles that subject, ranking the Heat‘s Erik Spoelstra and the Spurs‘ Gregg Popovich first and second. The third choice may surprise some people. Cowley rates the Knicks‘ Tom Thibodeau at that spot due to his ability to take downtrodden franchises and make them playoff teams.

Warriors’ Lacob Talks Kerr, Paul, Poole, More

September 1st, 2023 at 8:31pm CST by Rory Maher

Speaking to Tim Kawakami of The Athletic, Warriors owner Joe Lacob expressed optimism about retaining Klay Thompson long term, as we previously relayed.

However, Thompson isn’t the only key member of the organization entering a potential walk year. As Kawakami writes, head coach Steve Kerr, who is currently coaching Team USA at the World Cup, could also be a free agent in 2024, but there seems to be momentum on a contract extension ahead of training camp.

“We have started to talk with his people, again, same as kind of the Klay situation,” Lacob said. “Very early. There’s plenty of time. Steve is just like Klay, we want Steve to be here for a long time. Hall of Fame coach, we really value him. And I’m sure we’ll be able to work out something that’s fair to both sides.”

Kerr, who turns 58 later this month, has been Golden State’s lead coach for the past nine seasons, compiling a 473-238 regular season record (.665 winning percentage) and a 99-41 postseason record (.707) en route to six finals appearances, including four championships.

Here are some more highlights from Kawakami’s conversation with Lacob, which is worth checking out in full:

Lacob said the team didn’t plan to exceed $400MM in combined payroll and luxury tax payments for the upcoming season, but noted that trading Jordan Poole for Chris Paul created more financial “optionality” going forward — Paul’s ’24/25 salary is non-guaranteed, while Poole is entering the first year of a four-year, $123MM+ extension. “To some extent, this is a year-by-year league,” he said. “When you’ve got a chance to win, you’ve got to go for it. We did the best thing we thought we could do. This is going for it. So we’ll see what happens.”
Golden State’s owner said the team will take a wait-and-see approach regarding Paul’s future with the team beyond this season. Lacob also said that while he was initially dubious about the trade, eventually the Warriors realized it could make them better this season, since Paul has consistently helped raise the level of the players around him. “We kind of warmed to that idea and the more we processed it the more we thought it really made sense — at least for the short-to-intermediate term,” Lacob told Kawakami. “Certainly longer-term, I’m not going to deny, we gave up a great asset in Jordan Poole, probably has a decade or so left to play in this league. He’s probably going to just get better. We were going short-term versus long-term on this. But for a lot of different reasons, both basketball reasons and financial reasons, it just made sense to do it.”
Poole and Draymond Green had a well-documented dust-up during last year’s training camp, with Green punching the young guard. Kawakami asked Lacob if it was fair to say the Warriors had to pick between the two players this summer after a season filled with tension (Green re-signed on a four-year, $100MM deal). “I don’t want to say absolutely that’s true,” Lacob said. “I think it’s fair to say there was some level of concern going forward whether that was going to be something that would work out. To be honest with you, I think it would’ve worked out, could’ve worked out. But I think it is fair to say that in order to make the numbers work and so on, someone probably was going to be the odd man out. It just turned out, and it wasn’t planned, that it was Jordan.”
Lacob confirmed Golden State hopes to move under the league’s second tax apron next offseason, according to Kawakami. “It is very penal to be above it,” he said. “I think our goal would be to be under it, yeah. You just lose too many options in terms of constructing your roster, draft choices and a variety of things. It is very difficult to contemplate not being under it. But look, it’s a year-by-year thing and we’ll see what happens.”

Lacob: Warriors Want To Keep Thompson For “Rest Of His Career”

September 1st, 2023 at 7:29pm CST by Rory Maher

Sharpshooter Klay Thompson has spent his entire career with the Warriors, winning four championships and earning five All-Star nods in his 10 active seasons (he missed 2019-21 due a torn ACL and a torn Achilles tendon). He’s entering the final year of his contract, which will pay him $43.2MM in 2023/24.

Appearing on a podcast with The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami, owner Joe Lacob was asked if he expects Thompson, who is eligible for an extension, to remain with Golden State beyond the upcoming season.

“I do,” Lacob said. “We’ve had some very brief discussions at this point with his agent. But they’re very, very early. … I fully expect that we’ll have some substantial discussions soon sometime and we’ll see if we can’t put something together that allows Klay to be here for a long time, which we clearly would like him to be.”

As Kawakami points out, both Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins took pay cuts in order to sign long-term deals with the Warriors, and Thompson will almost certainly have to as well due to the club’s massive payroll and luxury tax situation.

“Look, it’s August and there’s plenty of time to work all this out,” Lacob told Kawakami. “His contract doesn’t expire until next year. We love him and I know he knows we love him. And we’re going to try to do something here for the rest of his career.”

Based on Lacob’s statements, Kawakami believes the two sides will work out an extension before the season begins. Thompson is eligible to add four years onto his current deal, up to his maximum salary.

Thompson, 33, averaged 21.9 points, 4.1 rebounds and 2.4 assists on .436/.412/.879 shooting in 69 regular season games (33.0 minutes) in ’22/23. In his first full season back from the major injuries, he struggled somewhat in the playoffs, posting a .388/.368/.875 shooting line in 13 games (36.0 minutes), well below his career postseason splits.

Still, the core group of Stephen Curry, Green and Thompson has had a ton of success over the past decade, and the team has been motivated to keep the core together. We’ll have to wait and see if a deal comes to fruition in the coming weeks like Kawakami predicted.

Warriors Notes: Thompson, Santos, Staudt

August 31st, 2023 at 2:18pm CST by Rory Maher

Former NBA player Mychal Thompson says his son, Klay Thompson, is in great shape ahead of the 2023/24 season, he tells Mark Medina of Sportskeeda.

“He’ll be back hungrier than ever,” Mychal said of Klay. “He’s two years removed from his serious injuries. He’s been working out like crazy. He looks good, lean and ready to go. I expect him to be at a high All-Star level again. It’s possible. But the West is so loaded with guards. You’re going to have to be hooping out of your mind because all of these guards in the West could make the All-Star team.”

The longtime Warriors guard is entering the final year of his contract, which will pay him $43.2MM this season. Will that be a distraction for Klay?

“He’s not worried about that,” Mychal Thompson told Medina. “He knows he has a job to do with coming into camp in the best shape and having a great year. Everything else will take care of itself.”

The elder Thompson also talked to Medina about Klay’s future with the Warriors, the possibility of his son representing either Team USA or the Bahamas ahead of next year’s Olympics, and other topics. The interview is worth checking out in full if you’re a Golden State fan.

Here’s more on the Warriors:

Brazilian forward Gui Santos, who is currently competing at the 2023 World Cup, was the No. 55 overall pick last year by the Warriors. He wound up signing an NBA G League contract in 2022/23 and spent his first season in the U.S. playing for the team’s affiliate, the Santa Cruz Warriors. The 21-year-old added 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason and had a strong Summer League showing, but he’s expected to once again play for Santa Cruz in ’23/24, reports Dalton Johnson of NBC Sports Bay Area.
According to Johnson, Santos is currently ineligible for a two-way deal with Golden State because he’s still under contract with Brazilian team Minas. The Warriors could buy out his current deal — which ends after ’23/24 — in order to give him a standard contract, but that isn’t expected to occur, Johnson writes. In other words, Santos likely won’t be making his NBA debut until at least ’24/25.
The Warriors are hiring Wizards scout Jason Staudt to join their front office, league sources tell veteran reporter Marc Stein (Twitter link). Staudt has worked in various roles with several NBA organizations, including the Magic, Blazers, Rockets and Suns.

Pacific Notes: Curry, LeBron, Eubanks, Fernandez

August 30th, 2023 at 7:48am CST by Luke Adams

Asked on Gilbert Arenas’ podcast last week about how long he’ll play in the NBA and whether he envisions himself emulating LeBron James‘ longevity, Warriors star Stephen Curry agreed that he could end up “somewhere in that range.” James will turn 39 in December and is entering his 21st season, whereas Curry is entering his 15th season at age 35.

“I never imagined myself being the 40-plus dude trying to hold on for dear life,” Curry said, per Jordan Elliott of NBC Sports Bay Area. “But who knows what my body will look like or feel like at that point? I got three years left on my deal, including at least that, and then kind of figure it out from there. … I don’t put too much of a timeline outside of my contract now just knowing that will give me 38 and 17 years in the league. I ain’t skipping out to go play golf just yet.”

Regardless of how many years he ends up playing, Curry’s expectation at this point is that he’ll remain with the Warriors for the remainder of his career.

“I am blessed to know and hope that no matter how many years I do play, [I’ll be] playing for one franchise and being a part of that group of the legends that have accomplished that feat and won at the highest level and all that,” he said. “I don’t ever take that for granted either. You got the Kobe [Bryant]’s, the Magic [Johnson]’s, Dirk [Nowitzki], Tim Duncan, those guys helped establish a culture, won, did it with a lot of different roster combinations and different parts in their career.”

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

Former NBA head coach Byron Scott expects LeBron James to surpass 40,000 career points and believes LeBron’s career scoring record will be extremely difficult to top. “I don’t think that’s going to be broken, especially in our lifetime,” Scott told Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (YouTube link; hat tip to HoopsHype). The Lakers forward needs just 1,348 more points to reach 40,000 — he has fallen short of that figure in just one of his 20 NBA seasons (he scored 1,126 in 45 games in 2020/21).
In the second part of his interview with Duane Rankin of The Arizona Republic (subscriber link), Suns big man Drew Eubanks discussed his preparation for the season, why he views himself as more of a center than a power forward, and the role he expects to play for his new team. “I’m not going to have as much responsibility on the offensive end as it will be on the defensive end,” Eubanks said. “Like I said, we have three elite scorers. … Really where my mark is going to be made is getting them open, rebounding, defending, blocking shots.” We previously passed along some highlights from the first part of Eubanks’ conversation with Rankin.
No World Cup team has registered a better point differential through three games than Canada (+111). The work Kings associate head coach Jordi Fernandez is doing with the Canadian national team is further strengthening his case to become an NBA head coach, which is expected to happen sooner or later, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Community Shootaround: Chris Paul

August 28th, 2023 at 9:50pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Steve Kerr is busy coaching Team USA in the FIBA World Cup. When he comes back and returns to the sidelines for the Warriors, he’ll have an interesting lineup decision.

Golden State still has all of its usual starters — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney — on the roster. It’s a group that won a championship two seasons ago.

The acquisition of Chris Paul now creates a dilemma. The future Hall of Fame point guard has appeared in 1,214 regular season games. He’s started all of them, even during his rookie campaign for New Orleans in 2005/06.

It’s safe to assume Curry and Green will remain in the lineup. Thompson has started every game since his second NBA season. Wiggins went through some personal issues last season but he’s started every game in his NBA career.

Looney would be the logical candidate to lose his starting job, though that would leave the Warriors with an awfully small lineup. Looney’s defense and rebounding are key components to the team’s success. If he comes off the bench, it may be difficult to have both Jonathan Kuminga and free agent Dario Saric in the rotation.

At this stage of his career, Paul might be willing to be a sixth man in order to get that elusive ring he’s been chasing. But it would still seemingly be an uncomfortable spot for a player of his stature.

That brings us to our topic of the day: Should Chris Paul start for the Warriors this upcoming season? If he’s in the lineup, which of the returning players should come off the bench?

Please take to the comments section to weigh in on this topic. We look forward to your input.

Three Candidates To Be Promoted From Two-Way Contracts

August 26th, 2023 at 10:05am CST by Tristan Tucker

While there is still a bit of time before NBA training camps open, we have a good idea of what most team rosters will look like to begin the season. As we recently detailed, 70 of the league’s 90 available two-way contracts are currently filled. Since those players only have $75K in guaranteed money, however, teams have plenty of flexibility to make changes, whether those come in the form of cuts or promotions to standard deals.

Since the inception of the two-way contract in 2017, dozens of players have been called up from two-way deals to standard contracts. Players like Paul Reed, Chris Boucher and Alex Caruso are among the players to cash in their two-way deals into big standard contracts with their impressive play and development over time. The Heat made waves in the 2023 NBA Finals when several rotation players on their team made big contributions, many of whom spent time on two-way deals, including Gabe Vincent, Max Strus, Duncan Robinson and Caleb Martin.

While the Heat are an extreme case of two-way players becoming highly paid standard contract players, more and more teams seem to be recognizing the value of these developmental spots. Almost every team currently has a G League affiliate and those who don’t have committed to adding one. And this year, the NBA increased two-way contract spots from two per team to three, creating 30 new roster spots.

As noted above, teams are still figuring out what to do with those spots, but there are currently players signed to two-way deals who seem poised to continue the trend of promotions making an impact. With that said, here are three prime candidates to be elevated from their two-way deals to standard contracts sometime during the ’23/24 season, whether or not it happens during the preseason process.

Lester Quinones

Quinones wasn’t on many public top 100 big boards ahead of the 2022 NBA draft, so it was a mild surprise to see him signed to a two-way contract right after the draft. Though he was signed, Quinones was an example of a two-way player getting shuffled around in the preseason, and he ended up getting cut before the season began.

More roster shuffling occurred in March and Quinones penned a 10-day deal before being signed to a two-way deal to close out the year. During the time in between, the Memphis product put up terrific numbers for the Santa Cruz Warriors in the G League, averaging 20.2 points in the regular season and showcase and he shot 37.5% from deep on 7.7 attempts. Quinones continued dominating in the summer during Las Vegas Summer League where he averaged 21.2 points and 5.2 assists. The Warriors re-signed Quinones to another two-way deal in late July.

The Warriors have a ton of roster flexibility moving forward. They have just 13 players signed to standard deals and only Quinones occupies a two-way deal. Preseason and training camp seems like an ample opportunity for the 6’5″ guard to reverse his fortunes from a year ago and get promoted to the main roster.

Lindell Wigginton

Like Quinones, Wigginton is a guy who has been lost in Milwaukee’s back-end roster shuffling. Wigginton has been in Milwaukee’s system for two seasons, playing for the Bucks on a two-way deal in 2021/22, not being re-signed, then later being added to another two-way deal at the end of the ’22/23 season.

Wigginton averaged 19.2 points and 5.9 assists last season in the G League across 38 regular season and Showcase Cup games. The 6’2″ lead guard also has 26 games of NBA experience (one start), holding averages of 5.0 points and 1.4 assists.

The Bucks don’t have a logical way to add Wigginton to their main roster before the ’23/24 season begins. Their 15-man roster is set and a trade or cut prior to the season doesn’t seem likely. If the Bucks make a move at the trade deadline, Wigginton could be a logical option to call up if Milwaukee sends out more than they take in. If not, it’s entirely possible the Bucks sign the Iowa State alum to a standard deal in the offseason, much like they did with A.J. Green this year.

Jamal Cain

As we mentioned, Heat players have historically been elevated from two-way contracts. In fact, they’ve promoted a two-way player to a standard deal in every year (or following offseason) since their inception in 2017 (Derrick Jones in ’17/18; Robinson in ’18/19; Chris Silva in ’19/20; Vincent and Strus in ’20/21; Martin in ’21/22; and Orlando Robinson in ’22/23). Cain is the next logical candidate for a promotion.

Cain was reportedly waiting for a standard contract offer before ultimately re-signing with the Heat on a two-way deal earlier this month. The Oakland product impressed last season, averaging 5.4 points in 18 NBA games and 20.5 points in 25 G League games last year.

The Heat are still waiting on the Damian Lillard situation to shake out, but they still only have 13 players signed to standard deals. Miami needs to sign a 14th player prior to the season and Cain would be a logical option if a Lillard trade doesn’t materialize before then. If not, it seems likely they’ll bring him up at some point during the season.