Warriors hope to stay in depth
Biggest offseason questions surround their bench players
OAKLAND >> The Warriors could finally relax after winning their third NBA championship in four years. But general manager Bob Myers was not one of those people.
After riding on one of the buses during the championship parade, Myers returned to the team’s practice facility to oversee a pre-draft workout for Cincinnati junior forward Jacob Evans III, whom the Warriors drafted with the No. 28 pick. Now, Myers’ itinerary will become busier.
“You’d like to stop for one second,” Myers said. “But here we go.”
Here we go indeed. The Warriors are four days away from when free agency begins at 9:01 pm PT on Saturday. And the Warriors have more questions than answers on how that will play out.
The Warriors know that Kevin Durant will re-sign after he repeatedly stated that he would before and after winning his second NBA championship and Finals MVP award. When it comes to whether Durant will re-sign on a one-year deal or multiyear deal? That is not as certain. Same thing as to whether Durant will seek a max contract or take a discount as he voluntarily did last summer.
“I think we’ll figure that out this week or early next week,”
Myers said. “But again, I’m not too focused on it. Whatever works for him and us, I’m sure it’ll be easy.”
The Warriors anticipate the same thing with coach Steve Kerr. Both parties plan to agree to an extension on a contract that expires after the 2018-19 season. Nothing has progressed for the past two weeks, but Myers stressed that means absolutely nothing.
“I don’t have any fear. I don’t have any trepidation. We’ll get that done,” Myers said. “Steve’s been a great partner. I know he wants to be here. We want him here. That should be one of the lower-stress negotiations we have to do.”
Some of the higherstress negotiations: how do the Warriors upgrade their bench?
“We still need depth. We still would like to add maybe a young player or maybe one more veteran. But a lot of it will depend on what’s available to us,” Myers said. “I don’t know we’ll be engaging in deals at the jump. I think we’ll have to be a little bit more patient. But that’s OK.”
The Warriors do not need to chase marquee free agents, but they want to strengthen their bench. The only problem is that they do not have many spending tools to do so.
They have a mid-level exception ($5.3 million) and veteran’s minimum contracts. The Warriors would like to retain forwards Kevon Looney (unrestricted free agent) and Patrick McCaw, whom the Warriors extended with a qualifying offer worth $1.641 million on Monday to become a restricted free agent but that partly hinges on if the players receive lucrative offers elsewhere.
While the Warriors can only offer Looney up to $2.3 million per season, they have three days to match any offer McCaw receives. Though Warriors CEO Joe Lacob has stated and shown he will absorb luxury tax penalties, he will not write a blank check.
“Joe has always shown a high level of aggressiveness. So if it makes sense for us and helps us win, he’s always said yes,” Myers said. “But that’ll be the markers that have to be met. ‘Is this guy going to play for us?’ Obviously being in the tax, there’s an exponential cost for using taxpayer mid-level for us. We have to be smart and prudent with whatever we spend, even if it’s a minimum. Our roster spots are somewhat limited as well. There’s a little bit of juggling that has to go on. Hopefully when the dust settles, we have a team that is as competitive as last year’s team.”
That partly hinges on how many of their pending free agents the Warriors keep.
Veteran forward David West, 37, has not informed the team if he plans to retire after his 15th NBA season. The Warriors are open to re-signing him on a veteran’s minimum deal. West would not be expected to log significant minutes, but the Warriors would likely value him for his lockerroom presence.
The Warriors are not expected to re-sign veteran center Zaza Pachulia, who had a fluctuating role last season. Though Kerr altered his center rotation for matchup purposes, Pachulia played only in mop-up duty in seven of 21 playoff games because the plodding 6-foot-11, 270-pounder did not match up well against small-ball oriented teams.
Though Pachulia, 34, expressed optimism he will attract interest in the open market, he sounded uncertain about his Warriors future after making $3.2 million last season.
“Bob doesn’t need to tell me. We all know the way how it was for me. It’s different,” Pachulia told this newspaper. “I wasn’t expecting it. It just happened. That’s it. We’ll see what they’re going to think. I’m not saying I’m not coming back for sure. You never know what’s going to happen. There’s always a chance and always a possibility. We’ll see. At the end of the day, there are 30 teams. It’s like the same thing I did last year. We listen to the offers and try to make the best decision possible for me, my career and family. That’s it.”
It appears more likely that the Warriors would retain center JaVale McGee, whom Kerr also shuffled him in and out of the lineup.
The Warriors liked how McGee kept a positive attitude and remained productive despite uneven playing time. Despite playing sparingly in the Western Conference finals against Houston and conference semifinals against New Orleans, Kerr leaned on McGee in the first round against San Antonio (8.4 points, 5.2 rebounds) and the NBA Finals against Cleveland (8.0 points, 2.3 rebounds). If the Warriors retain McGee, it will likely be on a veteran’s minimum deal.
“I’m open for some things. I’m definitely open for the veteran’s minimum,” McGee told this newspaper. “But I definitely have to play the field and really see what is out there.”
It appears likely forward Nick Young will have to look elsewhere. Though Kerr has publicly praised Young for his defense in the playoffs and a key 3-pointer in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, the Warriors are mindful of Young’s shooting inconsistency (41.2 percent in the regular season and 30.2 percent in the postseason) and his season-long conditioning issues.
“I’m not here to talk about boring questions like that,” Young said about his pending free agency at McGee’s charity softball game last Saturday. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Because of that uncertainty, Myers anticipated he will not finalize the team’s roster until late July or early August. The Warriors will weigh if they want to use their two roster spots for two-way contracts on developing players or ones immediately ready to play. The Warriors might wait on filling out their bench, mindful that free-agency decisions likely hinge on where LeBron James and Paul George sign.
“The league is going to come after us, or any team for that matter. That’s what it should be,” Myers said. “You’re trying to win a championship. You expect it. For us, the job would be more about what are we trying to accomplish, and then whatever happens with the league, you tip your hat to him. There are some really smart people out there and competitive front offices and ownership, coaches and players. That’s what makes winning a championship worthwhile.”