That's right. Brain fart.

Ibaka 3y65mm to stay in Toronto.

CFTXAG10 said:

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Gibson reuniting with Thibs.

Teague
Butler
Wiggins
Gibson
Big KAT

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Idk most of those players but they have good stats, can they play defense? If they have a good coach and play defense watch out GS.

Not near GS level but they do have a good coach who is all about D and will get a lot out of his players on that end of the court. KAT isn't known for his D though right now, but maybe he can improve some.

Ryan34 said:

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Enzo The Baker said:

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With Iggy going back to the Warriors it looks like they are going all in for the next two years (which they should). They'll pay $40 million in luxury taxes but that's probably just a drop in the bucket considering they'll probably get back to the finals the next two years. Then in two years when Klay is a free agent they can easily move Andre's expiring contract. **** the warriors.

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I was just watching a video on ESPN and it's closer to $68M in luxury tax once they add some guys to play center.

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Still seems like they could afford even that. Forbes estimates their profits at 90 million next year. Article below goes into Some detail in their financials. I am sure it is also easier to pay a bunch of taxes when you know that you are paying for a championship level team, and you are trying to keep the hype train going for the new arena coming online in 2019.

I don't think hoping the Warriors are broken up in the next couple of years due to taxes is much of a hope. After that, they may finally have to shed one of their 4 All-Stars.

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/02/kawakami-iguodalas-48-million-deal-why-he-got-it-what-it-means-how-the-warriors-budget-all-this/

Golden State taking a hard look at adding Nick Young. Averaged 13 ppg, shooting 40.4% from three, started 60 games last season for the Lakers.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2719525-warriors-rumors-nick-young-reportedly-serious-candidate-to-join-golden-state

Pumpkinhead said:

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Golden State taking a hard look at adding Nick Young. Averaged 13 ppg, shooting 40.4% from three, started 60 games last season for the Lakers.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2719525-warriors-rumors-nick-young-reportedly-serious-candidate-to-join-golden-state

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Someone needs to sign him before GS, **** would be ridiculous

CFTXAG10 said:

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Gibson reuniting with Thibs.

Teague
Butler
Wiggins
Gibson
Big KAT

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Cleveland is looking at approximately $40 million luxury tax next season. Golden State looks like will hit at least that as well. So the two most likely teams in the NBA Finals in June 2018 may be paying $80- 90 million combined in luxery taxes to get there, but perhaps that is simply the price of admission to win a title in the superteam era.

Pumpkinhead said:

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Cleveland is looking at approximately $40 million luxury tax next season. Golden State looks like will hit at least that as well. So the most likely two teams in the NBA Finals in June 2018 may be paying $80- 90 million in lucery taxes to get there, but maybe price of admission to win a title in the superteam era.

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And Portland of all teams currently has the highest payroll somewhere between 130-140mm.

Dead cap: Jason Thompson 1mm
Team:
Curry: 34.5
Iggy: 17.3
Shaun: 8
Klay 17.8
Dray 16.4
West 2.3
Looney: 1.5
Jones 1.3
McCaw 1.3
-------------------

101.4

+ Durant 30-34.5mm
+ Mid-Level Excption 5.1mm
+ Min Contract 1-2mm

~138-143mm

So if they end up paying 143mm, that's $60mm in luxury tax.

Don't forget Zaza. They have to have a center, and he has some leverage too, so projecting $10M or so is fairly reasonable.

The Western Conference is going to be very interesting to follow next season.

You got Golden State as the definite favorite, but then lots of aggressive offseason moves by other teams in the West where it could be a real bloodbath sorting out the....oh...#2 - #5 seeds in that conference. Multiple teams loaded with some real star power.

Ryan34 said:

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Don't forget Zaza. They have to have a center, and he has some leverage too, so projecting $10M or so is fairly reasonable.

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For last season after Durant signed, Golden State jacked up their season ticket prices by 221% and still sold 99.5% of their capacity (a franchise record apparently) with a waiting list of 32,000 people.

They are spending a lot of money, but also making a lot more money because they are selling a product that people are willing to spend lots of money to watch. Just from their deep playoff runs alone, they are apparently pulling in an extra $25-30 million dollars from the playoff home games.

Some of the Warriors players appear to be doing really good with endorsements from all the exposure as well. Klay Thompson last week just signed a 10-year $80 million dollar deal with a Chinese shoe company. So Thompson (arguably the 4th best player on the Warriors) right there is making $8 million per year in shoe money over the next decade.

Most articles seem to think the 2019-2020 season (2 years from now) is about when the Warriors ownership may have to make a tough decision on keeping all of their four All-Stars. But for the next couple of seasons, watching the Warriors spend is probably going to be like watching somebody spend Monopoly Money. They are paying for what people are saying is arguably the greatest basketball team in NBA history and the price is steep, but with that great cost comes a ton of extra income as well.

I'm not questioning GS's decision to spend like they are. If the Rockets were in that position, I'd want them to do the same as well. But this type of spending and hoarding of talent is exactly what the CBA and luxury tax were trying to prevent. Is a team cake-walking through the playoffs really a good thing for the league?

Again, I don't fault GS. They're playing by the same rules as everyone else. They built their roster through primarily savvy drafting and smart acquisitions/contracts. But I'm not sure having a team that good for the league.

Ryan34 said:

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I'm not questioning GS's decision to spend like they are. If the Rockets were in that position, I'd want them to do the same as well. But this type of spending and hoarding of talent is exactly what the CBA and luxury tax were trying to prevent. Is a team cake-walking through the playoffs really a good thing for the league?

Again, I don't fault GS. They're playing by the same rules as everyone else. They built their roster through primarily savvy drafting and smart acquisitions/contracts. But I'm not sure having a team that good for the league.

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Yeah, Golden State built a team that won an NBA title in 2015 and the followed that up with a 73-win season the 'normal' way by drafting well (Curry, Thompson, Harrison Barnes, and Green were all their own draft picks), making some trades that worked out great (e.g., trading for Iguodola), and hiring a good coach (Steve Kerr).

They then got lucky with Curry's very advantageous contract (due to his ankle issues early in his career), and a big cap spike and arguably the second best player in the NBA (Kevin Durant) coming up for FA at the same, superstar who had apparently tired of his situation and was ready for a change and for whom Golden State was literally the perfect fit in terms of could just plug him into Harrison Barnes spot and Presto! Another superstar may not have fit in with Golden State nearly as well but Kevin Durant was literally like a perfect piece for the system and other players that they already had in place.

So it was really just an odd 'once in a blue moon' sort of circumstances that allowed Durant to get to the Warriors so easily. Not sure really a major indictment of their CBA. Just a really weird lining up of events.

Ryan, in terms of NBA competitiveness, more so than worrying about Golden State, if I was the NBA office then I would be a bit annoyed how most of the star power has moved into the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference is just 'meh' and basically may just be the Cavs plaything again. The Cavs literally haven't done anything this off-season thus far, and yet their path to the Finals looks even easier that last year because most of the other star players are all off in the West.

It's not just that GS was able to sign Durant. It's that they didn't have to give up much of anything in the process. They're still able to give out contracts to Curry, Iggy, etc.

I agree regarding the conference imbalance, but I'm not sure how the league can tackle that without getting rid of conferences, which could further the imbalance (takes away one of the advantages the East can offer). Indiana just gave Paul George away for peanuts, presumably just to send him to a Western Conference team that he's not likely to resign with. The Knicks have been a parody of mismanagement for years. Toronto is probably one of the better run teams in the East, but they have to overpay to get free agents to come there. Philadelphia's "process" may just now be showing some signs of life. Etc etc. It's a real problem but one without an obvious solution IMO.

A lot of extra money to commit to the luxury tax if injuries happen.

Good Aggie Hunting said:

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Cavs must be the most successful dumpster fire in sports history.

It will be interesting to see the impact of the unbalanced conferences.

The East will have inflated records because of the weak conference, while the West will have a lower record because of more games against tougher teams.

In other words, it's quite likely that there could be a team in the East get 30 wins that is much less talented than a 30 win team in the West.

In the East, teams 5-15 are going to be having a tanking contest so they don't have to draft behind all the West teams and because they have no shot at the second round of the playoffs.

Which now that I think of it, won't make it different from any other year

Max would have been like 2y70 or so.

Setting himself up for the 5 year super max in 2019

uitarsoup said:

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Max would have been like 2y70 or so.

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Sounds like Durant has been pretty agreeable trying to work with Warriors ownership/GM to keep their core intact.

Quote:

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Kevin Durant was eligible to secure a max contract that would have paid him $34 million per year, but agreed to a deal worth $9 million less to give the Warriors every resource possible to recruit and retain talent. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

This gives the Warriors every resource possible to recruit and retain talent. Durant declined his 2017-18 player option to become a free agent for the sole purpose of allowing the Warriors to retain the Bird rights to Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston.

Golden State locked both players up for three more seasons, and it was Durant's gesture that helped the organization produce the finances necessary to get those deals done.

Sources say that had Iguodala left via free agency, Durant was willing to take even less to help restock the roster.

The Warriors still have work to do in bringing back their championship roster.

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Durant made about $30 million in endorsements last season (actually a bit more than his basketball salary) and apparently has been hooking up with heavily investing in tech companies in the area up there. Presumably makes it a lot easier for him to take pay cuts to keep his on-court basketball life as good as possible.

Another article debating whether Durant taking a significant pay cut so the Warriors can do other deals is a good or bad thing for the NBA and player's union.

https://theringer.com/kevin-durant-takes-a-pay-cut-for-new-contract-590018effe60

By my quick math KD has made 60 million more than Curry over the last 6 years. That probably makes it easier to take a little less now...

amercer said:

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By my quick math KD has made 60 million more than Curry over the last 6 years. That probably makes it easier to take a little less now...

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There have been other superstars like Tom Brady (Patriots) or Tim Duncan (Spurs) who took less than they could have made from their team to help sustain a longer period of championship runs, because over the long haul they are going to rake in tons of money regardless. Durant for example has a $300 million contract with Nike and things seem to be going well for him up in the Bay area getting involved with the tech investor scene. He also can set himself up for a supermax contract as well a couple of years down the road.