No need to wait for documentaries and years of context to fix this: Saturday night’s events will go down as the threshold moment of a threshold offseason at a threshold point in a pretty significant part of Golden State Warriors history.
Preliminary Analysis: Not so good so far! (But check back in about a week for a final judgment.)
Klay Thompson is set to become a free agent, and barring a dramatic change of heart, the Warriors and Thompson are more than prepared for his imminent departure from the Bay Area. An NBA source said over the weekend that Klay and senior members of the Warriors organization said goodbye.
And Paul George, the Warriors’ target for acquisition this offseason, had the final year of his contract with the LA Clippers erased and became an unrestricted free agent, which basically cut off any realistic path for the Warriors because they don’t have the cap room to sign him as a free agent.
This came after very serious negotiations between the Warriors, George and the Clippers leading up to Saturday afternoon’s deadline for George’s contract decision and after the Warriors believed – on several occasions – that they were close to getting the 34-year-old small forward, team sources said.
The Warriors had agreed to a four-year extension for George when he arrived. They thought they had proposed several variations of a trade that the Clippers could and would accept. Stephen Curry and Draymond Green were 100 percent on board. George gave strong indications that he wanted to join the Warriors. But the Clippers never agreed to any version of a trade, and now George is a free agent and essentially out of reach of the Warriors.
There’s a lot to say, all before free agency begins on Sunday. And the current tally is that the Warriors are on the verge of losing one of their three dynastic players and one of the most popular athletes in Bay Area history, they did not acquire the big two-way wing they were looking for, they dangled Andrew Wiggins among others in trade talks, and now they must decide whether to guarantee Chris Paul’s $30 million contract for next season and determine if they can sell as part of an exchange.
No net gain. A fundamental loss. So much remains to be done. And all that’s at stake is the final stage of Curry’s climax.
The Warriors don’t have enough cap space to sign Paul George, seen here with Luka Doncic, as a free agent. (Jerome Miron/USA Today)
Let’s take a point-by-point look at what happened in recent days and how it shapes what the Warriors will try to do next:
• Any possible PG13 trade between the Warriors and Clippers was always going to be complicated, but Warriors executives thought they had solved the riddle. From what I’ve heard, some combination (but certainly not all) of Wiggins, CP3, Jonathan Kuminga or Moses Moody plus a future first-round pick have been in discussions with the Clippers.
There were versions that would have limited the Clippers’ long-term financial liability; there were versions that would have increased future earnings. I’m told the Warriors probably wouldn’t have put Wiggins and Kuminga together in a deal, but also that it never went that far, anyway. Whether that’s what would have gotten the deal done… who knows.
From what I understand, money problems weighed heavily on the Clippers’ side. If PG13 leaves as a free agent, they get nothing back… but they also come out of the second apron and have more room to maneuver in terms of the squad.
• If the Warriors had put Kuminga in a package for George, that would have been a risk in itself. The Warriors reportedly gave up their most valuable young player for an older player who has had injury issues and was set to make more than $260 million over the next five years, essentially locking the Warriors into the cap tax. luxury.
But PG13 would have been an elite scoring option at first base next to Curry, far better than anyone the Warriors have had at the position in years, and he could have gotten most of the highest defensive assignments difficult. Who will take his place for the Warriors now? Maybe Kuminga will get some of it. Maybe Moody. Maybe Brandin Podziemski too. Everything is a work in progress. The Boston Celtics proved once again that playoffs are won by tough, two-way power forwards, and the Warriors are still pretty needy in that category. That’s why they worked so hard for George.
• There will be time later for many comprehensive reflections on Thompson’s incredible legacy with the Warriors, and he deserves every one of them. Game 6 in Oklahoma City alone probably deserves a hundred of them. Coming back to shoot free throws – and limping on defense! – after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in the 2019 final should earn him a thousand more commemorations.
I’ll just note that, in retrospect, many of his actions and emotions in the final months of last season were likely signals that he was preparing to move on, from his repeated snappy press conference moments to his struggles to adjusting to his reduced his importance on the field until that final evening after the final regular season game at Chase Center, when he wandered into the locker room to ask his teammates to come ride on his boat with him.
CP3 and Moody accepted it, partly because it’s obviously an honor to get on that boat with Thompson, but also, I think, because they knew it was important to him that night that they do it.
• Thompson didn’t like his experience last season and said so. Multiple times. He didn’t like being moved to the bench for a few games behind Podziemski. He didn’t like the questions we asked him about his future. He didn’t like the national attention on his occasional struggles, including, of course, his 0-for-10 shooting in the play-in loss to the Sacramento Kings. Really I didn’t like that the Warriors placed a higher priority on finding a way to improve the roster rather than bringing him back this offseason.
In large part, I think Thompson didn’t like being compared to himself from another era, before his two major leg injuries, when he could guard anyone and turn any game into a personal piece of NBA shooting history. He wanted a fresh start. He’s going to get one. He’s also going to come to Chase Center with his new team and wants to beat the Warriors; maybe not bitterly, maybe a little bitterly, but it’s going to be fun to watch.
• Thompson probably wouldn’t be a starter if he stayed with the Warriors this season. That would be Podziemski. Or Moody. Or someone else. I’m not sure Thompson wants to go through that again, and I suspect the Warriors wouldn’t have liked it either. This seems like a cold conclusion to this incredible mandate, but it was inevitable.
The Warriors won’t be better without Thompson. They will miss his shooting, his personality, his wry humor and everything else. He will have a statue outside the arena. He will always be warmly welcomed wherever there are Warriors fans. Yes, the Warriors will miss him. But they’ll get something through a sign-and-trade deal, courtesy of Thompson, when he leaves, and maybe they won’t be much worse for it. They will be younger and probably more athletic.
And we’ll see what else they can add in the next week.
• The Warriors can use the CP3 contract as a version of a trade exception: They can negotiate with Paul to set the guarantee at any amount acceptable to both sides and use it to balance a trade, if there is a good one.
If the Warriors can’t work out a trade, they can release CP3, get under the aprons and luxury tax and maybe even under the cap line (depending on what kind of money they get back in a potential Thompson sign-and-trade). They can see what else they can get for Wiggins. As it stands, they’ll benefit from the $5.2 million taxpayer mid-level exception and could get into the $12.9 million non-taxpayer mid-level if they move Wiggins and get significantly less money in return.
• I’ll use another Thompson quote from that end-of-season press conference to conclude. Thompson was asked his reaction to Curry, with Draymond and Steve Kerr all saying how much they wanted him back. Again, Thompson said these words in April, but they seem particularly apt right now.
“It means a lot to me,” Thompson said. “I mean, we’ve been through the highs and the lows. Whether it’s losing a championship, winning a championship, missing the playoffs, we’ve been through it all together, so it means a lot to me. I’m grateful to have had some time with them. It was truly historic.”
Yes, it was. Past tense now.
(Top photo of Klay Thompson: Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)