Golden State Warriors Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Warriors Notes: Poole, Curry, Green, Toscano-Anderson, Thompson

October 18th, 2022 at 9:10pm CST by Dana Gauruder

After taking a punch from teammate Draymond Green, Jordan Poole was advised by some of his closest confidants that maybe he shouldn’t sign a rookie scale extension with the Warriors, Logan Murdock of The Ringer reports.

Members of Poole’s inner circle were concerned that the team dynamics would be too difficult to repair. Before Green was reinstated from his team-imposed suspension, Golden State officials ran it by Poole.

Ultimately, Poole couldn’t pass up the financial security, as he chose to ink a four-year extension that can be worth up to $140MM.

We have more on the Warriors:

Stephen Curry is confident that Green will handle the adversity that he brought upon himself, Curry told Shayna Rubin of the Orange County Register. “He’ll figure it out. We will have his back for the entire process,” he said. “He doesn’t need anyone to hold his hand. He responds well to adversity and critics.”
Juan Toscano-Anderson, now a member of the Lakers, received his championship ring during the season opener on Tuesday. He told Jovan Buha of The Athletic beforehand that he’s grateful to be part of the ceremony. “I think it’s bittersweet, man,” Toscano-Anderson said. “… I’m excited to go back and get my ring. It’s pretty dope that I’m gonna be able to celebrate the ring ceremony on opening night with those guys, when the actual ring ceremony is bound to happen.”
While some of his teammates signed extensions, Klay Thompson is now ineligible to ink one until July under current CBA rules because he has two years remaining on his contract. He anticipates everything will work itself out, as told Mark Medina of NBA.com. “I fully expect to earn another NBA contract, whether it’s this summer or next summer,” Thompson said. “I’m fully confident in my abilities. I’m not worried about an extension in the meantime because I know it’ll happen if I just do my job and I just be myself.” He’ll be an unrestricted free agent in 2024 if he doesn’t eventually sign an extension.
What is the Warriors’ approach to its title defense and remaining a perennial contender? Anthony Slater of The Athletic takes a deep dive into those topics, exploring how the team’s two-timeline plan is progressing.

And-Ones: NBA Rosters, Barkley, Vildoza, Wembanyama

October 18th, 2022 at 4:04pm CST by Luke Adams

The NBA’s opening night rosters feature a total of 120 international players, including a record-setting 22 from Canada and 10 from Australia, the league announced today in a press release. All 30 teams have at least one international player, while the Raptors – the NBA’s only international team – lead the way with eight international players.

Meanwhile, the opening night rosters also include a record-setting 234 players with some G League experience, according to the NBA (Twitter link). All 30 teams are carrying at least four players with G League experience, while the Nets‘ roster features a record 12 players who have spent time in the NBAGL — Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Ben Simmons, Markieff Morris, and rookie Alondes Williams are the only Brooklyn players without G League experience.

Here are a few more odds and ends from around the basketball world:

The four members of TNT’s Inside the NBA studio show – Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, and Shaquille O’Neal – have agreed to new multiyear contracts, Warner Bros. Discovery Sports announced this week. Barkley’s new deal covers 10 years and will be worth well above $100MM, reports Andrew Marchand of The New York Post, though Barkley said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show that there’s “probably zero chance” he’ll stay for the entire 10 years (story via Awful Announcing).
Argentinian guard Luca Vildoza, who spent parts of the last two seasons with the Knicks and Bucks, told Mozzart Sport (hat tip to Johnny Askounis of Eurohoops) that he didn’t get the opportunity he had hoped for in the NBA, but that he still feels like he benefited from his time stateside. “I feel better physically and stronger,” Vildoza said as he prepares to resume playing in Europe. He appeared in seven games for Milwaukee during the 2022 postseason, but has yet to play in a regular season NBA contest.
Lakers star LeBron James isn’t the NBA’s highest-paid player in terms of salary this season, but he’ll earn the most money after accounting for endorsements, according to Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico. Baenhausen pegs James’ total 2022/23 earnings at $119.5MM, putting him ahead of Warriors guard Stephen Curry ($93.1MM) and Nets forward Kevin Durant ($91MM).
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report takes a look at which teams can realistically be expected to tank in 2022/23 for a shot to draft Victor Wembanyama next June.

Warriors Notes: Looney, Myers, Starters, Green

October 17th, 2022 at 11:05pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Warriors starting center Kevon Looney, who signed a three-year contract worth up to $25.5MM to remain in Golden State this summer, hopes to remain with the only NBA team he has ever known for the duration of his career, per Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area.

“This is the team I got drafted to,” Looney said on NBC Sports Bay Area’s podcast Dubs Talk last month. “I love living out here. I know the system, I know the players, I know the guys. It’s home for me. This is where I wanted to be. “I’ve had a lot of great vets over the years, and they always told me to stay here as long as possible. The culture like this, it isn’t like that everywhere else. All of that was in the back of my head going into free agency.”

Poole notes that Looney was finally promoted to a starting role with the Warriors during the team’s 2021/22 championship season after spending his first six years in the league as a backup big man. Looney enjoyed one of his best regular seasons last year, appearing in all 82 games for the first time in his career, while averaging 6.0 PPG on 57.1% shooting from the floor, along with 7.3 RPG, and 2.0 APG across 21.1 MPG.

There’s more out of Golden State:

Warriors team president Bob Myers is fully aware that the cost of the team’s roster next season projects to be at least $483MM in player salaries and luxury tax payments, writes Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “I cannot evaluate what we are going to do next season until we see what happens this season,” Myers said with regard to his team’s future roster-building in a Sunday press conference. “I just know this: There’s a huge commitment to winning. There always has been, and I believe there always will be. I am lucky to be in an [ownership] group that believes that. Their actions prove it.”
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr suggested on Monday that he will have something of a minutes cap for starters Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney on opening night. As Monte Poole of NBC Sports Bay Area relays (via Twitter), Kerr thinks those players are not quite yet ready to play 30-plus minutes to begin the 2022/23 season. “It’s fine,” Kerr said, adding that the team will rely on its depth this week. “You just adapt and adjust.”
Warriors power forward Draymond Green, who has not been signed to an extension despite the team dishing out lucrative long-term deals for his teammates Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins, is a good bet to pick up his $27.6MM player option for the 2023/24 season, posits Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (Twitter video link). Wojnarowski initially said Green will “almost assuredly” exercise that option before clarifying that it’s “probably the most likely scenario” based on his projected market.

Extension Notes: Russell, G. Williams, Clarke, Poole

October 17th, 2022 at 12:04pm CST by Luke Adams

Timberwolves guard D’Angelo Russell is about to begin the final season of the four-year contract he signed in 2019, and will be eligible to sign an extension anytime up until June 30, 2023, the day before he reaches free agency. However, Brian Windhorst of ESPN and Darren Wolfson of SKOR North and 5 Eyewitness News suggested during the latest episode of Wolfson’s The Scoop podcast that an extension for Russell probably isn’t around the corner.

“I have not heard any discussion of him getting an extension,” Windhorst said, per RealGM.

Wolfson agreed, adding, “I think (Russell’s) representation has reached out to the Wolves, but it doesn’t seem like it’s being reciprocated.”

The Timberwolves already have significant financial commitments to Karl-Anthony Towns and Rudy Gobert on their books for the next several years, and will likely be signing Anthony Edwards to a lucrative long-term contract next summer, so it makes sense that the team would be unwilling to work out a big new deal with Russell before assessing how all the pieces fit together this season.

Here are a few more extension-related notes from around the NBA:

Celtics forward Grant Williams, extension-eligible for a few more hours, recently spoke to Brian Robb of MassLive.com about the possibility of getting a new deal. Williams shared some interesting insights, including explaining why he doesn’t view recently extended power forwards like Larry Nance Jr. and Maxi Kleber as direct comparables. “It’s one of those things like — you look at guys across the league, they maybe play different roles and a different situation,” Williams said. “You bring up Nance Jr. with the Pelicans and he’s probably their ninth or 10th man. They are one of the teams that are on the edge of making a run. Similar to Kleber’s, who is 30. He doesn’t necessarily have the versatility, the guarding — I try my best not to look at those guys. I just feel like you make your own market and understand your value.”
Brandon Clarke‘s four-year contract extension with the Grizzlies, reported to be worth $52MM, actually has a base value of $50MM, with $2MM in total incentives ($500K per year), tweets Fred Katz of The Athletic. The deal features four flat annual cap hits of $12.5MM, adds ESPN’s Bobby Marks (via Twitter).
Warriors guard Jordan Poole, who officially signed a four-year, $123MM+ extension on Sunday, told reporters that he “couldn’t stop smiling” when he put pen to paper on his new deal, as Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic writes. Poole didn’t have much to say about his practice altercation with Draymond Green, downplaying the impact he expects the incident to have going forward: “He apologized and we’re professionals. We plan on handling ourselves that way.”

Details On Jordan Poole's Incentives

October 16th, 2022 at 10:23pm CST by Alex Kirschenbaum

Warriors reserve guard Jordan Poole signed a four-year contract extension with Golden State worth up to $140MM. Now, new details have emerged about the contract’s various incentives. Anthony Slater of The Athletic unpacks the deal, revealing that – beyond the guaranteed $123MM – Poole will make an extra $1.25MM per year (i.e. $5MM across all four seasons) depending on how far the team gets in the playoffs. He will net an additional $1MM for each year he wins the league MVP award (so a very, very hypothetical total of $4MM), plus $1MM annually per every Defensive Player of the Year award. Considering his skillset, earning either honor even once seems fairly far-fetched. Poole could earn $500K per season should he qualify for an All-NBA team (there are a total of 15 such slots available) and another $500K annually should he qualify for an All-Defensive Team (there are 10 available openings). Slater notes that it is possible Poole grows into being an All-NBA talent, but is skeptical he could ever be an elite defender or named the league MVP.

Warriors Sign Jordan Poole To Four-Year Extension

October 16th, 2022 at 1:06pm CST by Luke Adams

OCTOBER 16, 1:06pm: The Warriors have officially signed Poole to his four-year extension, the team announced today in a press release.

As we detailed in a separate story, Golden State also extended Wiggins for four years after reaching a deal with Poole.

OCTOBER 15, 2:14pm: The Warriors and Poole have now reached an agreement on the extension, reports Wojnarowski (via Twitter).

The four-year extension will include $123MM in guaranteed money, with an additional $17MM available via incentives, reports Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

OCTOBER 15, 10:51am: The Warriors are finalizing a four-year rookie scale extension with guard Jordan Poole, agents Drew Morrison and Austin Brown of CAA Sports tell ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). The deal will be worth $140MM, according to Wojnarowski, who says the two sides are completing the final details and are expected to have a formal agreement soon.

Given that the $140MM figure is coming from Poole’s representatives, it’s possible that not all of that money is fully guaranteed and that a portion of it is only attainable through incentives. Still, it looks like it will be the biggest rookie scale extension signed this year outside of the maximum-salary deals completed by Ja Morant, Darius Garland, and Zion Williamson.

Poole’s huge new contract agreement comes on the heels of a breakout season, as he averaged 18.5 PPG, 4.0 APG, and 3.4 RPG on .448/.364/.925 shooting in 76 games (30.0 MPG) for the eventual champions.

The 23-year-old played an important role in Golden State’s title run, increasing his shooting percentages to .508/.391/.915 in 22 playoff contests (27.5 MPG) and averaging 17.0 PPG.

Poole was one of three members of the Warriors’ championship rotation who was extension-eligible and entering a potential contract year this fall. He was viewed as the team’s top priority ahead of fellow extension candidates Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins.

A practice incident earlier this month that saw Green punch Poole seemed to add more urgency to the Warriors’ desire to get an extension done, since they wanted to affirm their commitment to Poole following that altercation, rather than having his contract situation hanging over his head all season.

Even if Poole earns a full $140MM over the next four years, that figure will fall just short of what a maximum-salary contract would’ve been worth as a restricted free agent next summer, based on the NBA’s latest salary cap forecast. As our max projections show, using a $134MM cap estimate, Poole would’ve been eligible for a four-year max worth about $150MM with the Warriors or approximately $144MM if he were to sign with another team.

It’s unclear what sort of impact Poole’s extension will have on Golden State’s extension negotiations with Wiggins and Green. Joe Lacob and the ownership group have paid record-setting amounts on player salaries and luxury tax penalties for the current roster, but the team has suggested there’s a ceiling on what ownership is prepared to spend going forward. Lucrative new contracts for both Wiggins and Green may push the cost of the Warriors’ roster beyond that ceiling.

Poole will be the seventh player to sign a rookie scale extension in 2022, joining Morant, Garland, Williamson, Tyler Herro, RJ Barrett, and Keldon Johnson. Seventeen players remain eligible to sign rookie scale extensions before Monday’s deadline.

Warriors Notes: Poole, Wiggins, Green, Thompson

October 16th, 2022 at 9:03am CST by Arthur Hill

Saturday’s extension with Jordan Poole was the “first domino” in the Warriors‘ financial future and it may lead to the end of Draymond Green‘s time with the organization, writes Tim Kawakami of The Athletic. Poole will receive $123MM in guaranteed money over four years in what Kawakami believes is the team’s most important personnel move since signing Kevin Durant six years ago. The Warriors defined their future even more later in the day with a four-year extension for Andrew Wiggins.

Those deals will lead to a gigantic luxury tax bill and may limit the team’s options with Green, who is also extension-eligible. Kawakami notes that Warriors are currently looking at $190MM in salary and about the same number in tax penalties, which results in a $380MM commitment. Owner Joe Lacob and others in the organization have said they’re not willing to take on an even higher tax burden, and sources tell Kawakami that moving payroll into the $500MM range would result in an annual loss of about $100MM.

Poole is entering the final year of his rookie contract and will make $3.9MM this season before jumping to nearly $28MM in 2023/24. Wiggins’ new deal will reduce his salary by $9.3MM at the same time, so Golden State needs to trim some salary elsewhere to keep its tax around the same level. Green is an obvious target, whether or not he exercises his $27.6MM player option for next season. Kawakami believes it’s likely that Green will pick up that option and his representatives will cooperate with the Warriors to work out a trade.

There’s more on the Warriors:

Kawakami doesn’t expect the team to consider trading Klay Thompson, even though he’s owed a combined $83.8MM over the next two years. Kawakami states that Thompson is more valuable to the Warriors than he would be to another team and notes that he has been playing small forward more often, which allows more backcourt minutes for Poole and Stephen Curry.
The Warriors are currently projected to have a $219MM total salary for 2023/24 with a tax bill of $303MM, according to salary cap expert Albert Nahmad (Twitter link). ESPN’s Bobby Marks offers a video breakdown of what Saturday’s extensions will mean for the team’s future.
After spending a few days away from the team for punching Poole in practice, Green returned Thursday and promised to try to rebuild chemistry with his teammates, per Kendra Andrews of ESPN. “It’s about making sure our team camaraderie is right,” Green said. “You can tell when you’re playing against a team and they have good camaraderie … if not, they can be broken easy … if you have that, you can build through anything. [Our camaraderie doesn’t] get very shaken.”

Warriors Sign Andrew Wiggins To Four-Year Extension

October 15th, 2022 at 4:25pm CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have signed former No. 1 overall pick Andrew Wiggins to a contract extension, according to NBA.com’s official transaction log.

After Wiggins’ surprise extension showed up in the transaction log, his agents Drew Morris and Steven Heumann of CAA Sports confirmed the deal, telling ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Kendra Andrews (Twitter link) that it’s a four-year, $109MM extension.

The deal includes a player option on year four, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter).

Wiggins, 27, enjoyed perhaps the best year of his career in 2021/22 with the Warriors. Although he fell short of the scoring averages he posted in earlier seasons with the Timberwolves, he earned his first All-Star nod and emerged as a reliable two-way player, making a career-high 39.3% of his three-pointers and handling challenging defensive assignments on the wing.

Wiggins averaged 17.2 PPG, 4.5 RPG, and 2.2 APG in 73 games (31.9 MPG) during the regular season, then played a crucial role in the Warriors’ title run, putting up 16.5 PPG, 7.5 RPG, and 1.8 APG on .469/.333/.646 shooting in 22 playoff contests (34.9 MPG).

Having signed a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension while he was still in Minnesota, Wiggins will earn $33,616,770 this season in the final year of that deal, then take a pay cut on his new extension, which will be worth just over $27MM per year. According to Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter link), Wiggins’ salary will dip to about $24.3MM in the first year of his next contract, which begins in 2023/24.

Wiggins’ agreement comes on the heels of Jordan Poole striking a four-year, $123MM+ deal with the Warriors earlier today. Golden State has now made nine-figure commitments to two of its key extension-eligible rotation players in less than 24 hours, further increasing the franchise’s record-setting payroll in the coming years.

With Wiggins and Poole locked up, the future of Draymond Green looms as a major question mark for the Warriors. Although it’s still possible that he’ll remain in Golden State for years to come, Green probably can’t realistically expect to receive a long-term contract that has an average annual value matching or exceeding his $27.6MM option for 2023/24.

If Green picks up that option, the cost of the Warriors’ ’23/24 roster – taking into account both player salaries and luxury tax penalties – is projected to exceed $500MM, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter link).

Warriors Convert Ty Jerome, Anthony Lamb To Two-Way Contracts

October 15th, 2022 at 5:59am CST by Luke Adams

The Warriors have made a series of roster moves in advance of the regular season deadline, announcing that they’ve converted guard Ty Jerome and swingman Anthony Lamb to two-way contracts while waiving guards Jerome Robinson and Pat Spencer (Twitter links).

All four players were in training camp on Exhibit 10 contracts, which can be converted to two-way deals or can make a player eligible for a bonus worth up to $50K if he spends at least 60 days with the team’s G League affiliate. Robinson and Spencer look like candidates to take the latter route and join the Santa Cruz Warriors if they clear waivers.

The 24th pick in the 2019 draft, Jerome spent his rookie season with the Suns before being sent to the Thunder as part of the Chris Paul trade. The 6’5″ guard, who helped Virginia win an NCAA championship in 2018/19, spent the last two seasons with Oklahoma City, averaging 8.6 PPG, 2.1 RPG and 2.6 RPG on .410/.353/.790 shooting in 81 total games with the Thunder (19.6 MPG). He was traded to Houston last month and was subsequently waived by the Rockets.

Lamb went undrafted out of Vermont in 2020 and signed a two-way contract with the Rockets during the ’20/21 season, appearing in 24 games (17.3 MPG) while averaging 5.5 PPG and 2.9 RPG on .390/.324/.857 shooting. He spent most of last season in the G League with Houston’s affiliate, the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, averaging 17.3 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 4.8 APG and 1.3 BPG on .466/.390/.757 shooting in 31 regular season games (34.4 MPG).

Jerome and Lamb will provide depth in the Warriors’ backcourt and are eligible to play in up to 50 regular season games on their two-way deals. They’ll earn $508,891 apiece this season.

While it’s possible Golden State will sign-and-waive more players on Saturday, the team’s roster looks fairly set for the regular season. The Warriors will keep the 15th spot on their standard roster open to start the year, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

Warriors Rumors: Poole, Green, Klay, Wiggins, Moody, More

October 14th, 2022 at 7:42am CST by Luke Adams

If the Warriors want to sign Jordan Poole to a rookie scale extension before the October 17 deadline, it will likely require a baseline offer of $120MM over four years, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic, who said during an appearance on the HoopsHype podcast that Tyler Herro‘s deal with Miami raised the bar for Golden State and Poole.

Slater, who believes the two sides will get something done in the coming days, suggests that the incident with Draymond Green last week might’ve create some additional urgency on the Warriors’ side, since they won’t want Poole’s contract situation hanging over his head all year after what happened with Green.

Slater also observes that there are some teams who project to have cap room next year that could realistically offer Poole a maximum-salary offer sheet. In Slater’s view, the Magic and Spurs are among the rebuilding teams who could use a backcourt scorer like Poole and would have the financial flexibility to make life difficult for the Warriors if the 23-year-old makes it to restricted free agency.

Here’s more out of Golden State:

The Warriors appear to be in “wait-and-see” mode on potential extensions for Green and Klay Thompson, says Slater. There’s no real urgency on the Thompson front because he’s under contract for two more guaranteed seasons. Green can become a free agent next summer, but the Warriors will likely want to see how this season plays out to get a sense of how he regains the team’s trust, what his market will be like, and whether he’ll be able to top his $27.6MM player option.
Andrew Wiggins is also extension-eligible, and Slater believes the Warriors would be interested in exploring a new deal if the former No. 1 pick is willing to take a slight pay cut (perhaps from his current $33.6MM into the 20s). But it’s unclear whether Wiggins would consider that as he comes off his best NBA season.
Slater believes Moses Moody is a better bet than Jonathan Kuminga or Patrick Baldwin Jr. to step into a rotation role immediately this season, since he’s a good fit for a three-and-D spot. While the Warriors like Baldwin’s long-term potential, Slater expects him to spend a lot of time in the G League as a rookie.
The Warriors allowed their veterans to take on a major role in the handling of the Green/Poole altercation last week, according to Slater, who points to Stephen Curry, Kevon Looney, and Andre Iguodala as players who were very involved. “The players are of the belief that it’s better for the team to bring Draymond back in now,” Slater said.