Steve Kerr<\/a> directed that U.S. men\u2019s national team to the gold medal in Paris.<\/p>\nThe catch, naturally, is money: The Warriors can offer James about $15 million, the non-taxpayer midlevel exception. James earned $52.6 million last season for the Lakers, so that would represent a massive paycut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
LeBron or no LeBron, the Warriors face many intriguing decisions this offseason as they seek to reshape their aging, injury-depleted roster. Only five Golden State players are under contract next season and expected to be available for training camp\u00a0\u2014 Curry, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos, Will Richard and Horford (once he signs his new deal July 6).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody have contracts, but they will both miss at least half the season as they continue to recover from major knee injuries.\u00a0
Here are some key elements of Golden State\u2019s offseason ahead:<\/p>\n
**Monday marks the deadline for players to exercise or decline their player options. Draymond Green has an option for nearly $27.7 million for next season, and De\u2019Anthony Melton has one for almost $3.5 million.<\/p>\n
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Melton is likely to reject his option, because he can command more on the open market (though the Warriors still might try to re-sign him). Green could spurn his option and return to the Warriors on a two-year deal at a lower annual salary, though he also might take the $27 million-plus.<\/p>\n
Horford already agreed to decline his player option for next season (for $6 million) in favor of a two-year, $14 million contract. He played well the second half of last season, but his return extends valid questions about the Warriors\u2019 collective age and whether they can stay healthy enough to contend for a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
**What to do about Kristaps Porzingis?<\/p>\n
Porzingis, an unrestricted free agent who earned $30.7 million last season, brings value as a 7-2 center who can shoot from the perimeter. He\u2019s also 30, in his prime \u2014 though a long injury history raises red flags.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Teams could start negotiating with their own free agents the day after the NBA Finals ended (so June 14), and the Warriors reportedly have made progress on a reasonably priced deal with Porzingis. They\u2019re no doubt intrigued by the space he creates for Curry in the half-court offense, but can Porzingis hold up physically?<\/p>\n
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Asked specifically about Porzingis and Green, general manager Mike Dunleavy said on June 17, \u201cI\u2019ve had conversations with all our free agents, their representatives. I think we\u2019re in a good place with all of them. \u2026 As far as Draymond and KP, we value both guys and want them here. We see them as kind of a piece of the puzzle next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
**The Warriors have committed $119.4 million next season to Curry ($62.6 million) and Butler ($56.8 million), so they don\u2019t have much flexibility to pursue players on the free-agent market.<\/p>\n
The list of unrestricted free agents is underwhelming, anyway. James obviously counts as the biggest name, and Miami\u2019s Norman Powell\u00a0\u2014 instant offense\u00a0\u2014 figures to command contract offers beyond Golden State\u2019s means. Three interesting UFAs reportedly already have agreed to remain with their previous teams: CJ McCollum (Atlanta), Coby White (Charlotte) and Ayo Dosunmu (Minnesota).\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Warriors have plenty of needs, as Dunleavy recently acknowledged. He didn\u2019t get into specifics, but let\u2019s start with size, shooting, passing, athleticism and defense. Remember, the Warriors were 37-45 last season.<\/p>\n
Dunleavy clearly is hoping Lendeborg\u00a0\u2014 on his affordable rookie contract\u00a0\u2014 makes an immediate impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\u201cYaxel connects some lineups with his size,\u201d Dunleavy said. \u201cHe can plug in at multiple positions because he can guard small (players) and he can guard big, he can play inside and he can play outside. It probably makes our job in free agency a little bit easier, frankly, given what\u2019s going on with Jimmy and Moses with their injuries.\u201d<\/p>\n
Golden State has two other unrestricted free agents of its own in Gary Payton II and Seth Curry, and also two restricted free agents in Quinten Post and Pat Spencer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James, left, and Stephen Curry have been teammates before. Would James, an unrestricted free agent, be willing…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":898116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[40],"tags":[3140,1260,62,67,132,68,7201],"class_list":["post-898115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-golden-state-warriors","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-warriors"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116826365255386170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}