What happens with Oubre now that he is still a Warrior after deadline?
The Warriors made the right move to not trade Kelly Oubre Jr. at the trade deadline — no one was offering even close to fair value — but now the Warriors have to find a way to avoid losing him for nothing in free agency. Luckily for the Warriors, there’s a route to go that’s not giving him a ton of money.
For a team as luxury-tax strapped as the Warriors,
UP NEXT Monday:
Bulls at Warriors, 7 p.m., NBCBA matching any deal Oubre would pick up on the open market — he could demand more than $20 million per season — is not a small request. Now, we know the Warriors have the money, but is a sixth man worth nearly $100 million per season? You could forgive the Warriors for being hesitant.
The issue is that should Oubre leave, there is no way to sign a different player — or players — for
the money he was set to make. His block of salary, created through an Andre Iguodala trade exception back in the day, is gone if he signs elsewhere.
But if the Warriors could find a way to execute a sign-and-trade for Oubre, they could create an even larger trade exception and they wouldn’t lose that salary block.
That’s easier said than done. The team that Oubre signs with this summer would have to agree to send back something (it’s usually a distant second-round pick that will likely never vest) to Golden State. They’d also be hard-capped for the upcoming season.
It’s possible that there would be a team willing to help the Warriors out, though. How the exception can be used get byzantine fast, but in a twisted way, if Oubre is going to leave, the Warriors should be rooting for him to land a massive deal. That would allow them to acquire another good player — or a few good players — via trade without having to match salaries.
Honestly, that option is better than the Warriors landing some distant firstround pick that will probably turn into a couple of seconds with protections. SHOULD THE WARRIORS START TANKING? >> It sure doesn’t seem like that’ll take a concerted effort. This team is painful
to watch without Stephen Curry. I wish I could have had you all over for Friday night’s game, when, at the end of the third quarter, I exclaimed — very loudly — “how is there still another quarter of this junk?”
I woke up my sleeping dog, who was the smarter of the two species that night. Whenever Curry comes back, the Warriors will likely go back to being a .500 team, but by then the damage might be done by then.
Golden State, as of Saturday morning, had a game-and-a-half lead on the Kings for the No. 10 spot in the Western Conference — aka, the final play-in tournament spot. More important, the Warriors have a two-game lead on the New Orleans Pelicans.
If the Pellies decide to stop choking away games late, they have a real chance to push Golden State down the stretch. I understand that’s a big ask, but it might be less ridiculous than asking this Warriors team to start playing defense again.
The past two weeks, the Warriors have allowed 114 points per 100 possessions, per Cleaning the Glass. They made the Kings look like a better defensive team on Thursday. The Kings! This team isn’t going to be a top-10 defense for much longer, and offensively, I have serious questions if a team that’s playing James Wiseman can be in the top-20 on offense — even with Curry.
So yeah, this will all take care of itself. But, as a reminder, Klay Thompson will fix all of it next year.