With the dust settled on the Golden State Warriors‘ season-ending loss to the Sacramento Kings in the NBA’s play-in tournament, the franchise’s top brass will now ponder the team’s future and will have to make some tough decisions ahead of the 2024-25 season. Veterans Klay Thompson and Chris Paul’s futures in particular are now up in the air, with the franchise having to consider all kinds of changes to the roster. Amidst this, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr shockingly criticized his own roster for one glaring problem that has persisted all year.
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Kerr has already made it clear that changes are coming to the Warriors roster. On Wednesday, the veteran coach was on the Willard and Dibs Show and said,
“I don’t think it makes sense to have a massive payroll right now with our team…At some point, you can’t spend this much money for a team that didn’t make the playoffs. We have a lot of decisions to make and a lot of questions to answer.”
Kerr added that the Warriors’ top brass will look to acquire players that would elevate the roster to championship contenders again. However, he also added that they can still trust their younger players, something that was likely an allusion to the veterans on the roster failing to live up to their respective roles during this past campaign.
All things considered, the head coach and his franchise seem to be playing it smart at the moment. They aren’t panicking after a rough campaign and keeping every option open to ensure they return to the NBA’s pinnacle. That said, they can only feel they have made any sort of headway after they get out of the financial corner they put themselves into during the peak of their championship days.
Warriors’ financial conundrum
Following the Warriors’ loss to the Kings, Steve Kerr candidly admitted in the post-game press conference that despite Klay Thompson’s 0-point performance, the team intended to offer him an extension and bring him back next season, as seen in Clutch Points’ X[Formerly Twitter] post below. However, re-signing the veteran guard could prove to be a challenging prospect.
“We need Klay back… He’s still got good years left… What Klay has meant to this franchise… we desperately want him back.”
Steve Kerr on Klay Thompson’s future with the Warriors ️
(via @anthonyVslater)pic.twitter.com/3Ip8rxbdWK
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) April 17, 2024
Per ESPN’s Bobby Marks, the Warriors’ current wage bill for the 2024-25 season is $174 million, $2.7 million above the NBA’s salary tax threshold. The Warriors can waive Chris Paul and shed $30 million off it to create cap room to re-sign Thompson. However, that’d leave them with no financial flexibility while costing them one of their more experienced veterans off the bench. That said, Chris Paul hasn’t justified that kind of paycheck this past season either.
The popular opinion on the Warriors is that they need a squad overhaul to be able to challenge again, something cap flexibility will be very important for. If the franchise chooses to do this, offering Thompson a massive contract will likely be completely out of the question, something that has ramifications of its own.
Simply put, while the Golden State Warriors may still have ambitious goals, at the moment, they are stuck in a bit of a lose-lose situation.
