The Golden State Warriors entered training camp last September with four members of their core extension eligible. Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole received new long-term deals. Draymond Green and Klay Thompson didn’t. As the infamous preseason punch blared in the background, those choices read like declarations. Poole’s place with the Warriors stood a whole lot firmer than Green’s.
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But situations shift. The season went haywire. Playoff disappointment was preceded by a new CBA agreement laced with amendments directly penalizing their established roster plan. The Warriors reacted swiftly. Poole is gone. Green is back on a four-year, $100 million deal that trims the current luxury-tax bill while linking him with Wiggins as the two players they’re committed to the longest. Thompson is on an expiring deal, leading directly into the latest training camp checkpoint.
There isn’t as much to sort out financially as a year ago. Thompson isn’t alone. Steve Kerr also is entering the final year of his deal. But coaching salaries aren’t tied to the cap. Kerr has voiced a desire to be with the Warriors beyond this season. Ownership has indicated it wants to extend Kerr.
Mike Dunleavy Jr. and Kerr are scheduled to meet with reporters to preview the season on Monday afternoon. Kerr has voiced a desire to keep negotiations private and out of the media, but he will assuredly be asked about his contract status.
The dollar amount is up for bargaining. It’s a Kerr-friendly landscape. Monty Williams and Gregg Popovich just reset the coaching market with megadeals. Joe Lacob will need to pay up to retain Kerr, but it’s untaxed and untethered from the player salaries, leading to what should be a simpler negotiation.
There’s more built-in complexity to the Thompson contract talks. Here’s where it stands: No official offers or counteroffers have been made from either side, according to league sources who were granted anonymity so that they could speak freely. No exact salary numbers have been floated. There isn’t a rush from either side, and there isn’t a deadline. It could theoretically be done in-season, though I’d expect serious discussions (and perhaps an agreement) to come before that.
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The introduction of the second apron has made everything a little trickier. Beginning the following summer, if the Warriors are still into that second level of the tax bracket (where they currently live), they’ll be hit with a handful more punitive penalties, which include the loss of the mini midlevel exception, an inability to add buyout players in-season and frozen draft picks.
That’s been viewed as a no go for the Warriors internally. They’re remodeling their roster with the intention of ducking the second apron next summer and maintaining flexibility. It was a core reason for the Poole-for-Chris Paul trade. Poole is owed $30.1 million for the 2024-25 season. Paul’s $30 million that season is fully non-guaranteed until June 28, able to be completely shed, if needed.
That Poole-for-Paul swap should be viewed (among other things) as a clear sign of the Warriors’ commitment to keeping Thompson. He’s owed $43.1 million this season. An alternate path to duck under the second apron would’ve been to let Thompson’s contract expire and allow him to walk. But they’ve been firm in their intent to eventually extend him, and Thompson has maintained a desire to return.
This shifts the conversation to the exact financials that’ll get it done. Because the Warriors are unwilling to go into the second apron next summer, it puts an artificial cap on what they can offer Thompson. I asked our cap expert, Danny Leroux, to crunch some theoretical numbers to figure out how much they can offer Thompson while staying below the second apron.
The Warriors currently have $142.1 million committed to nine players. Assuming Paul’s number is completely wiped off the books and they only fill the rest of the roster with Thompson and vet minimums (they’ve traded their first-round pick), here are the numbers, via Leroux.
We split it into three sections because the cap increase is an important element being discussed behind the scenes within a Warriors’ front office that includes Onsi Saleh, the team’s cap expert. The cap is currently projected to go up 4.2 percent, but most around the league expect that increase to actually land somewhere between the 5 and 10 percent (max) range. Every percentage point it goes up is around an extra $1.4 million in breathing room, giving extra cushion to fit Thompson.
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But if an extension is to be agreed upon in the weeks ahead, it’ll need to be done long before that increase is finalized, which brings a level of blind risk and a desire for the Warriors to operate slightly more cautiously.
Let’s take that $42.07 million number for example. It’s the max amount of room for Thompson if the cap went up exactly how much the league is currently projecting. But don’t take the max number as the expected offer. Part of the appeal for the Warriors to stay below the second apron is to use the mini midlevel on a rotation piece. Maybe, if it works with Paul, they’ll try to find a reasonable contract number for him to return. He has stated a desire to play beyond one season.
Whatever they’d use on Paul or another mini midlevel veteran above the minimum would cut into that max salary number for Thompson. Let’s say it takes somewhere in the $10 million range to retain Paul; that’d shave an extra $8 million or so off the max amount to stay below the second apron. So it could be argued that it’s wiser for the Warriors to wait on committing a salary number to Thompson until next summer, when there’s a much clearer view of the financials and roster options at their disposal.
But that, of course, is attached to risk. Thompson just led the NBA in made 3s. He hit 301 of them at a 41.2 percent clip last season. He isn’t what he once was defensively, but there’s still a whole lot of value in what he brings as an elite floor spacer, microwave scorer, tough competitor and respected locker room presence. Just look at what the Rockets threw at Fred VanVleet in free agency. Don’t let Thompson’s down playoff series against the Lakers fool you. There’d be a market for Thompson if he opted to explore free agency.
But the Warriors have the benefit of what’s been built, allowing them to search for a discount. Wiggins ($24.3 million this upcoming season) and Green ($22.3 million) could’ve chased larger deals on the open market but took less to return. Thompson’s situation is much the same. It’s no secret his desire is to stay with Curry, Green and the only franchise he’s ever known.
So it now becomes about finding a reasonable enough number for both sides, where Thompson feels properly compensated deep into his mid-30s and the Warriors suppress the salary enough to maintain flexibility below the second apron while still being able to beef up the roster at the margins. There’s room to get it done and a blueprint laid by the Wiggins and Green contracts that came before it.
— The Athletic’s Danny Leroux contributed to this report.
(Photo of Klay Thompson: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)
