Resolution with McCaw doesn’t seem to be close
As a restricted free agent, guard’s options are limited
A game into its regular season, Golden State has no timetable on a resolution to its contract stalemate with restricted free agent Patrick McCaw.
He has already declined the team’s $1.7 million qualifying offer, and he reportedly has no intention to sign the Warriors’ latest offer: one year at $2.5 million, with a team option for a second year at $2.7 million.
Because McCaw is a restricted free agent, Golden State can match any offer he receives from another franchise. At this stage, only minimum contracts are seemingly available, a price point that the Warriors would have no problem meeting.
“Our stance has not changed on Patrick since we last addressed this a couple of weeks ago,” general manager Bob Myers told The Chronicle. “We hope he’ll be a member of our team.”
The only way McCaw can play for another team this season is if Golden State renounces him, which seems unlikely. Though he is coming off a disappointing season, McCaw, 22, is still a long, versatile wing with big-game experience and plenty of upside. Why would the
Warriors let him go for nothing when, at the very least, they could keep him as a potential trade piece?
It all raises questions about McCaw’s intentions. There is a growing belief that McCaw is continuing to hold out in hopes that his absence will so frustrate the team that it’ll eventually renounce him and let him find a bigger role elsewhere.
Even if he plays for the Warriors this season, McCaw probably wouldn’t command a significant spot in the rotation.
Over the past three weeks, while McCaw worked out on his own, Golden State reviewed its system and began ironing out substitution patterns. Quinn Cook, a far better shooter, is taking up most of the minutes that would have gone to McCaw. There is also rookie guard Jacob Evans, who, despite not playing in Tuesday’s opener, boasts many of the same attributes — length, defensive versatility, a high basketball IQ — that McCaw possesses.
Asked Wednesday morning to clarify the motives behind his son’s continued absence from the team, Jeff McCaw bristled, saying: “Right now, I’m not a fan of the media because they get to write things and it’s not true, and no one calls them on it.”
Meanwhile, McCaw’s former teammates are left to hope that his holdout is only a matter of business and not a sign of something more serious.
During his two seasons with the Warriors, McCaw built a reputation as the consummate teammate. Many in the organization admired his humble approach, the way he worked diligently, stayed ready and listened to more established players.
It is why in late May, after McCaw was undercut by Kings guard Vince Carter on a layup attempt and injured his spine, many of his coaches and teammates visited him at UC Davis Medical Center. Some in the front office viewed McCaw as an important building block — not just because of his skill set, but because he fit the locker room ethos.
However, McCaw has largely gone silent in recent months.
He hasn’t posted on Instagram since July 4, and he hasn’t tweeted since July 26. Warriors center Jordan Bell, who called McCaw a good friend, hasn’t seen McCaw since running into him at an Oakland gym this summer. The only time Warriors center Damian Jones heard from him recently was two weeks ago, when he texted McCaw about the video game “Fortnite.”
Tuesday night, around the time the Warriors were trying on their new championship rings, raising a banner to the Oracle Arena rafters and beating Oklahoma City in their season opener, McCaw was working out at a high school in his native St. Louis.
Someone at that gym posted a photo of McCaw to Snapchat, a screenshot of which surfaced on Twitter. Below the tweet, in a reply, one user distilled many of Golden State fans’ feelings about McCaw’s lingering absence to seven words: “I’d love to know why ???? What happened?”
“I just hope that everything’s OK with him,” Jones said. “He’s a good dude, so we’ll see.”