The Golden State Warriors' top free agent target this offseason was Kevin Durant. Now that they've officially landed Durant, here's how the Warriors can afford to sign him this offseason?
Warriors currently don't have any cap space, once cap holds for free agents and restricted free agents are factored in. Including the cap holds for players like Harrison Barnes, the Warriors are actually over the $92 million salary cap for this season. That means the Warriors will need to make more cap space to fit Durant's $25 million max deal in their salary cap. Remember, the Warriors can't go over the salary cap to add Durant.
Release The Cap Holds Of Harrison Barnes And Festus Ezeli
This would also mean the Warriors pull the qualifying offers from both players, making them unrestricted free agents. While the duo haven't signed anywhere, they have cap holds against the Warriors cap space until they do or the Warriors release them. Barnes is carrying a cap hold of just over $9.5 million and Ezeli has one worth just over $5 million. In total, this clears up about $14.7 million.
Renounce Cap Holds On Other Free Agents
The Warriors have several pending free agents with cap holds that they'll need to let go off. They are Marreese Speights, Leandro Barbosa, Ian Clark, James Michael McAdoo, Brandon Rush and Anderson Varejao. Speights' cap hold is the largest, at $7.2 million. Barbosa checks in at $3.25 million, Clark at $1.25 million and McAdoo at just under $1.2 million. Rush and Varejao are just under $1 million. McAdoo and Rush are both restricted free agents, but we grouped them here because they aren't as pricey as Barnes and Ezeli. This saves roughly $15 million in space.
Trade Andrew Bogut
This is the major move. Without doing this, the Warriors have just over $11.3 million in cap space. Moving Bogut and his $11 million contract (plus $1.64 million in likely incentives) will give the Warriors just enough cap space to add Durant and his max deal. They could potentially deal Andre Iguodala as well, but Bogut frees up a bit more space But the Warriors would need to trade Bogut, as waiving him wouldn't save any cap space. The Warriors could find a taker for Bogut, although they might need to include another asset to get a team to take him.
The moves above give the Warriors just enough cap space, although they'd be limited in their efforts to fill the bench that would be decimated by the addition of Durant. Golden State could free up another $2.78 million by not guaranteeing Shaun Livingston's contract by June 30th, but at his $5.78 million salary, he's not worth letting go. Alternatively, the Warriors could trade Iguodala and try to keep Ezeli on the roster. The Warriors would only be able to sign players to the veteran minimum and using the $2.9 million mid-level exception. Durant would cost the Warriors their bench, but a starting lineup of Curry-Thompson-Durant-Green and a fifth is totally worth it.
Back to the Golden State Warriors Newsfeed