The Golden State Warriors completed a remarkable turnaround in the 2021-22 season as they became NBA champions once again. It was their 4th title in the last 8 seasons, but having missed the playoffs in 2020 as well as 2021, not many had them as serious contenders before the season began.
It became apparent early on in the regular season though, that the Warriors were back and while they had Stephen Curry and Draymond Green to thank for it, two others in Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins also emerged as key contributors. Klay Thompson also returned in January and the Warriors, armed with all that talent, went on to win it all.
While there is plenty of cause for celebration thanks to it, the front office also has some tough decisions to make in the form of contract extensions. Poole and Wiggins are up for extensions this summer, while Draymond seems to want a max extension as well. The Warriors, even with their deep pockets, cannot afford to keep all of them, and one NBA executive stated to Sean Deveney that the Warriors should let Thompson walk as a free agent in 2024.
via Heavy:
“But they have tough decisions and if one of the decisions is that, after this contract is up, they let Klay walk, he should have some choices. I think, sentimentally, they are going to keep him but if you are talking about losing (Jordan) Poole or (Andrew) Wiggins or even Draymond (Green) in order to keep a 34-year-old Klay Thompson, if you’re making the decision strictly on basketball, you know … you’d have to let Klay go.”
“And they could justify it. It’s not like they’ve treated Klay badly—they gave him almost $200 million a couple weeks after he tore his ACL and they knew he would be out for a year. Maybe he’d take a big discount to stay, he is a little off-beat like that, I am not sure getting every penny he can is what drives him.”
Klay would seem like the odd one out in this situation, but he might do the team a favor by taking a pay cut, just as they did him a favor by giving him that massive contract after he tore his ACL, as the executive suggested.
If he doesn’t do that, however, then their front office has some tough decisions to make. This regime has made the right decision more often than not since they took over, so Warriors fans can rest easy with the belief that they will go with the best possible solution.
