When Free agency took place this year many believed the Golden State Warriors took a big hit when they lost Kevin Durrant. But in reality, the hit they took this offseason is in the salary cap. With the Warriors taking care of some of their own and grabbing a big free agent for themselves, can the Warriors survive the cap?
Warriors and The Cap
The Golden State Warriors signed Draymond Green to an extension that is worth 118M over the next five-years on August 3rd. They gave Klay Thompson 189.8M on July 10th. D’Angelo Russell got 117M over four-years on July seventh and they have Curry under contract for 201.1M.
That is great for Draymond as he gets what he deserves in today’s market. In fact, he really took a pay cut as if he had hit the open market he could have brought in 200M+. The fact is all those players deserve all the money they got according to the market today. But was it a good idea for the Warriors at this time? Take a look at a few numbers from Spotrac.
The fact is that’s 385.6M over the next three years on four players. The Warriors have a luxury tax threshold of $ 132,627,000. If the team exceeds this amount then they have to pay the NBA a luxury tax.
Now I will not get into all the ins and outs of the tax but the fact is this year alone the Warriors will pay $15,412,492. As one can see those numbers only grow over the next few years. The team will no doubt pay the tax each of the next three years. What does this mean for the Warriors?
The Fallout
All the talk about what it means for a team to pay this luxury tax is a bit confusing. You have to look at the NBA revenue sharing and a ton of other factors. To not bore us all, what it means is over the next few years this is what the warriors’ bench will look like. Willie Cauley-Stein, Alec Burks and Alfonzo McKinnie. No disrespect to these guys as they are NBA players, but when you look at the team GS has had during their championship runs, it is a step back.
The fact is when a team stakes all their cap money on four players the rest of the team suffers. Will they have a bench that can hold the court while the big money is off the court? Can they still be a force in the west where many of the team have improved their game? The Warriors are a contender, no one disputes that. The bigger question remains, can the Warriors survive the cap?
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