Warriors Free Agency Guide 2023
Discover more from Dub Nation HQ
Warriors Free Agency Guide 2023
We'll try to keep this updated
This is the master post for DNHQ Free Agent Coverage.
Free Agent Tracker with Live Updates
If you want to help me keep this up to date, please email me at apricotan@gmail.com.
Free Agency Day 2: Warriors get outbid, will lose Ty Jerome and Donte DiVincenzo
Draymond Green is returning; re-signs at $100m / 4 years with player option
Free Agency Day 0: Results of DNHQ's Free Agent Poll; On Ty Jerome
Depth Chart before Free Agency
Yes, position names have less meaning in the modern NBA, but this is just for organization.
There are 10 signed players plus Dray, leaving 3 open spots plus a 15th spot usually left open for flexibility.
PG. Steph / CP3 / Brandin Podziemski
SG. Klay / Moody
SF. Wiggins / GP2
PF. Draymond (presumed) / Kuminga
C. Looney / Trayce Jackson-Davis
DNHQ People’s Choice
Because of the new collective bargaining agreement, the Warriors no longer have average salary (mid-level) exceptions to sign free agents, which means GSW can only target players who will accept a minimum salary.
Here are the results of the DNHQ tricider.com poll of favorite free agent targets, listed in order, with the micro scouting reports from DNHQ commenters.
Ty Jerome. Apparently, the Big 3 really like him. Good enough to be 3rd string PG for emergency cases. / Kerr likes and trusts him. Could move into 2nd PG role if Paul is moved.
Dario Saric. good stretch big for spacing / Useful to soak reg season minutes and add 2nd unit scoring. Not much D as 16 game player though.
Yuta Watanabe. Top choice. Hits the three, plays defense, fluid, what's not to like?
Jay Huff. Reigning G League DPOY, first team all G-League. Great rim protector and can stretch floor. Age f... more / He shot 64.5% from the field and 40.4% from three (1.7 3PA) last season. / C an probably get him on a two way
Kevin Love. If he doesn't resign with MIA, he can still rebound, pass, and shoot well for a 4/5.
Damion Lee. he might actually be available on a vet min / Knows the system, and can flourish as well as mentor.
Mike Muscala. Stretch big who could steal some minutes next to Draymond. Great on/off numbers in OKC last year
Danilo Gallinari. A guy who can play 4, maybe small 5, but can definitely shoot. Played with and succeeded with CP3
Dennis Smith Jr. Good defensive PG with a good A/TO and mid-20s. Might be helpful to have with Steph/CP3 durability / plus they could use a ballhandler with a good first step to help pressure rim
Sandro Mamukelashvili.
Juan Toscano-Anderson. Willing bench player that can bring the energy and ball movement to change games from off the bench. / If none of our other defensive center ideas pan out, he might fit. Good mentor, too.
Cam Johnson. Good bench wing. Can shoot and defend and will probably be a bargain. / Restricted FA, will get way more than the vet min
Frank Kaminsky. 7 footer whose a capable 3pt shooter whose also a good passer thats slightly below average on DEF
Joe Ingles. Good from deep, good passer, good defense and only a 3.7 million difference from his last contrac... more / Good from deep, good passer, good defense and only a 3.7 million difference from his last contract w / doubt he will get a min
Thomas Bryant. Good half year in LA. Pretty good looking PnR and high low passing. Seems more a 4 than 5. Car... more
Terrence Davis. Great fit, ala Slater, but Kings extended a QO, and hoopsrumors has him seeking a $9M contract. ... more
Justise Winslow. Ballhandling wing with size (can play with Curry or CP3, can pass, strong defender). Can't shoot/... more
Alex Len.
Omer Yurtseven. Big enough to pound inside, grab rebounds and foul Jokic/AD effectively six times a game. Old enough and experienced enough to have the BBIQ to fit into the Dubs, yet young enough to still have a lot of potential growth in his game.
Mo Bamba.
Keita Bates-Diop. Big wing who defends, rebounds, cuts, coached by Pop, can shoot a little bit
Free Agent Targets according to Anthony Slater
Anthony Slater has an excellent writeup on free agency, listing his general team needs as stretch big man, scoring guard, and wing. Go there for more detail on each of the targets below, listed in order of priority.
Let me know if we should add any *plausible* free agents who would sign at a minimum.
Bigs
Dario Šarić
Kevin Love
Georges Niang
Anthony Lamb
Trey Lyles
Jeff Green
Jock Landale
Mason Plumlee
Jaxson Hayes
Thomas Bryant
Robin Lopez
Montrezl Harrell
Alex Len
Paul Reed
Mo Wagner
Guards
Terence Davis
Seth Curry
Austin Rivers
Damion Lee
Dennis Smith Jr.
Patrick Beverley
Dennis Schröder
Ty Jerome
Derrick Rose
Raul Neto
Goran Dragić
George Hill
Reggie Jackson
Cam Payne
Justin Holiday
Dylan Windler
Kendrick Nunn
Wings
Joe Ingles
Yuta Watanabe
Jae Crowder
Terrence Ross
T.J. Warren
Will Barton
Cam Reddish
Hamidou Diallo
Troy Brown Jr.
When Is Free Agency?
The Official Calendar
June 30
• Free agent negotiations can begin (6 p.m. ET)
July 1
• Free agency moratorium (12:01 a.m. ET) Day 1
July 6
• Free agency begins (12:00 p.m. ET)
• Clock begins on offer sheets signed during the moratorium
The Reality
Free agency signings will be announced starting Day 1 of the Moratorium period.
For context, in 2021:
within the first few hours of Day 1, half the Warriors’ free agent targets had already been signed by the Lakers. (Excuse me while I smile and smile about this from the comfort of post 2022 Championship.)
Otto Porter Jr’s signing news came at 9pm of Day 1 (Aug 2 2021)
Nemanja Bjelica’s signing news came around 9:30am of Day 2
Andre Iguodala signing news came Aug 6, after the moratorium.
The Official Rules before 2023
In THEORY and by rule, the key dates are :
Official start of league year and free agency moratorium when no agreements can be made. Teams can NOT start negotiating with players before. The moratorium gives all teams a chance to meet with any free agent, so it’s not a race.
Free agency moratorium ends. Teams officially can begin signing players and complete trades.
In reality, free agency negotiations are happening at all times, through intermediaries. The league turned a blind eye to this because of the difficulty of enforcement, but teams flouted the rules to ridiculous extents. Regularly, reports would come out on free agency agreements in the first minutes of the moratorium. The league finally had to crack down on MIL for announcing a sign-and-trade within minutes, and MIA and CHI for a complex three person sign-and-trade.
The practical result of this is to expect most free agency signings to be announced starting Day 1 of the moratorium.
These moratorium agreements are not binding of course, but it’s major news if someone backs out of the agreement (for instance the absurdly funny DeAndre Jordan situation in 2015, still my favorite NBA Twitter real-time saga).
Updates from the new 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement
According to Mike Vorkunov:
For those worried about tampering, there will be new rules in place to get ahead of that too. The incoming CBA stipulates that agents may now get fined up to $125,000 by the NBPA for violating the league’s tampering rules, going public with trade demands or the rules on when free-agency discussions can begin. Starting with the 2024 free-agency period, players and their agents will not be allowed to announce their new deals until the end of the moratorium period, unless that deal can legally be signed during it. The NBA will be able to fine teams or team personnel for violating the rules on premature free-agency talks. Those punishments include a fine up to $2 million, taking away draft picks and/or suspending people that work for that team.
So I think this year we’ll still hear news early, but in 2024 the moratorium is supposed to get quieter in press.
Warriors Free Agency Guide 2023
It's early in the morning and there are already so many good ideas for free agent targets, too many for me to track.
I want to try an experiment. I've opened up a vote at https://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2nc9mkeOJNJ Here you can propose free agents and also vote up the proposals of others that you support. You don't need an account there (but if you want one, they are free).
I will add the top vote getters to our Free Agent Tracker if they aren't already there.
*for everyone's sanity, only reply as a normal comment, do NOT reply directly to this pin. I will delete all direct replies.*
Warriors 2022-2023 9-man Playoff rotation. (2nd Rd Exit)
Curry, Klay, Wiggs, Dray, Loon
Poole, DDV, Moody & GP2 (tallest guy, 6'6")
Warriors 2023-2024 9-man Playoff rotation.
Curry, Klay, Wiggs, Dray, Loon (no change, one year older)
Chris Paul, Moody, GP2 and ?
If the bench is the problem as many claim, then improving the bench is the key to progressing further in the playoffs. Chris Paul, sports hate aside, is an upgrade on Jordan Poole's 'back up point guard' minutes and he is an upgrade on Poole's 'back up 2 guard minutes' because he would be pushing Curry into more off ball minutes when they share the floor. That is an improvement.
Size. It's obvious that the biggest jump the Dubs can make is adding size to the 4 man bench, something they lacked the prior year. The loss of DDV can be absorbed by Moody and GP2 (and Paul) who can replicate most aspects of DDV's game in their own minutes. I don't see a rookie getting real minutes in the playoffs, so we can scratch TJD off the list. So, this appears to be the biggest piece of the off-season puzzle. It's not making an improvement on a former player. It's filling an obvious and empty hole from the prior year. It's going from zero to something. And who this player is, this big, is in my mind, the bellwether of what direction the Dubs go in the playoffs, deeper or a quicker exit. Do we get a dynamic big that can add an element that we don't have currently, or will it end up being a placeholder big, a Kevin Love type, who will fill the backup role, but in a limited way?
Upgrades. Can the Warriors snag a guy on a vet min or via trade (JK, Moody, or GP2 headed out) that could be better than either GP2 or Moody in that 9 man unit? You're not going to beat Chris Paul as a bench player or whatever big the Warriors can land who will back up Dray and Loon in the front court. A dynamic poa and wing defender, a pump faking athlete who can hit some mid-range jumpers, who can put pressure on the rim and knock down some open 3s with a decent feel for the game would be nice. But those players are hard to come by and I can't imagine how the Warriors could find a guy like that. The Warriors finding a guy like that is like believing in Santa Claus.
Speaking of finding a guy like that, the Warriors could shop JK. Some GMs might still see potential in the former #7 pick and exchange a proven over the hill high IQ vet. Although warning to any potential JK buyers. Send a limo to pick him up at the airport. According to Curry, the kid is bus-averse.
Well, it looks like Chris Paul, Moody, GP2 and a roll of the dice on a vet big will fill out our 9-man playoff rotation. What's the confidence level out there with this group, and you get to pick a big (no Brook Lopez, c'mon people!)? I mean, we did it with Poole-GP2-OPJ-Beli. But has anyone ever believed that we would see "Chris Paul" and "Magical Season" used in the same sentence?