The next six Warriors weeks are crazy: upcoming key dates
Take a breath before the NBA Offseason goes into overdrive, overlapping the Olympics
Starting next week for 6 straight weeks, it will be very intense. Then there will be about 9 weeks of basketball desert before the NBA preseason begins around the first week of October.
Don’t forget that Perks and I hashed out a lot of the issues coming up in the Warriors offseason.
Jun 19: Gary Payton II has to decide whether to pick up his player option to return to GSW for $9.13M / 1y.
June 24: GSW must decide whether to waive Kevon Looney (and probably try to re-sign him for a lower salary as a free agent).
June 26: NBA Draft 2024 presented by State Farm (First Round – 8 ET, ABC, ESPN)
June 27: NBA Draft 2024 presented by State Farm (Second Round – 4 ET, ESPN)
This is the important day. GSW has pick #52.
The first round will continue to have five minutes between draft picks. For the second round, the time between draft picks will increase to four minutes from two minutes.
June 28: GSW must decide whether to waive Chris Paul (and save $30M in salary).
June 30: Each NBA team may begin negotiating with all other upcoming free agents (beginning at 6 p.m. ET)
July 6: Each NBA team may begin signing free agents to contracts (12:01 p.m. ET)
July 6-10: California Classic Summer League in both Sacramento & San Francisco
July 10: USA Basketball Showcase in Las Vegas: USA vs. Canada (10:30 ET, FS1)
July 12-22: NBA 2K25 Summer League (Las Vegas)
July 15: USA Basketball Showcase in Abu Dhabi: USA vs. Australia (Noon ET, FS1)
July 17: USA Basketball Showcase in Abu Dhabi: USA vs. Serbia (Noon ET, FS1)
July 20: USA Basketball Showcase in London: USA vs. South Sudan (3 ET, FOX)
July 22: USA Basketball Showcase in London: USA vs. Germany (3 ET, FOX)
July 26-Aug. 11: Paris 2024 Olympic Games
Alright, crazy thinking here:
If the Warriors release rights on Klay (and get rid of his cap hold), and release Looney, and guarantee CP3's contract, they're at 11 players and $169M committed, well under the trade restricting aprons. They could package CP3's $30M and another player (GP2?) for a $30-40M player. Then you've got:
Starters:
Steph, New guy, Dray, [Wiggins or JK], TJD
Bench:
[Wiggins or JK], Moody, Podz, [probably Looney], and Gui, TPMLE, 3x vet min.
It needs growth from the youngsters, and a relative return to "Good Wiggins", but that's a solid roster...
I'd probably rather get Klay back on a cheaper deal, let CP3 walk, and either keep GP2 or trade him... but if we know we're losing Klay, keeping CP3 is a viable path to improving the roster without blowing the bank.
So I've read a few ideas here and come up with a super aggressive offseason with some of these ideas that have been floating around. Some of them will be super unpopular, so let's get them out of the way first:
Jonathan Kuminga for Alex Caruso: We know the Dubs were interested at the deadline and while it's a raw skills downgrade, it's a huge BBIQ upgrade. It does mean that the Dubs are getting even smaller, so other moves will have to fill the size gap later.
Klay S&T for Jarrett Allen: The Dubs finally get a center who can block a shot and consistently post positive +/- numbers. Klay still can be a positive in this league, but I don't think it can be for the Dubs. There's too much history here.
Wiggs plus removing all but 1-3 protection on the FRP for Kuzma: It's not a fun trade, but it's pretty much the only way to trade the anchor that is Wiggins. Kuzma is more at ease scoring on broken plays and can guard 3/4 more readily than Wiggs who is more 2/3. It also allows the Dubs to trade a pick and still leave their full arsenal. While I'd love to target a Mikal Bridges instead, the value difference is just too great.
Sign Tobias Harris to NTPMLE. Harris consistently is a positive +/- and helps fill the 3/4 gap as well. It also pushes Kuzma to 6th man where he was when the Lakers won the title. If Harris doesn't sign for that little, sign DeAnthony Melton for that spot.
Sign Batum to a vet min. He was a target multiple times for the Dubs. Do they finally get their man?
Cut Looney and bring him back for vet min. Every dollar matters for getting a full NTPMLE.
The roster finally looks like:
Steph/Podz
Caruso/Moody/GP II
Harris/Kuzma
Draymond/Batum
Allen/TJD/Looney
It's not a young team, nor an especially athletic team. It likely has some spacing issues, and it's missing guys who can score 1:1 a ton. But what is chock full of is players who have super high BBIQ and consistently post out of this world +/- numbers. And at this point, that's all I can ask for.