[Source](https://marcstein.substack.com/p/some-coaching-trade-and-free-agent)
> I am not budging from my belief that Klay Thompson will retire a Warrior.
> I remain convinced that Thompson will ultimately find common ground with Golden State on a new contract in the offseason that keeps him connected with Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.
>
> Curry, to be clear, is not done chasing championships at (almost) 36. But he wants to do it with Thompson and Green at his side. And that matters.
>
> However …
>
> Something to file away: Orlando has been increasingly mentioned as a potential suitor for Thompson in free agency.
>
> The Magic’s available cap space is difficult to project this far out.
> That figure could rise as high as $45 million but depends on their future plans with free agents-to-be Markelle Fultz and Gary Harris as well as Jonathan Isaac (whose $17.4 million salary next season is non-guaranteed).
by NokCha_
23 Comments
No world where another team offers him 45 mil man
I’m gonna be real with you. I love what Klay did for us but if you’re telling me him being shipped to Orlando (along with someone else) can give us a healthy run at Giannis? Say less fam. You know where I stand.
Lmao if Magic offers 45M you just let him go, totally not worth matching.
i doubt klay goes anywhere and eventually takes the team friendly deal. who knows tho
I don’t imagine it will take $45 million if Klay does decide to leave, but if we could arrange a S&T with such a team, we might get some value in return as we did with KD. We got DLo in that deal and eventually parlayed him into Wiggs + Kuminga. You could say that DLo was the wind beneath our wings 😉
In that deal, WE had to be able to accept an S&T, because DLo and KD were both signed and traded. With Klay, I’m imagining we would send him out on an S&T deal and get back players on existing contracts, so we would be allowed to make the deal despite being over the cap. We wouldn’t have to take back 100% of Klay’s salary, either, so we could win up with a substantial payroll reduction.
ORL is also pretty rich in Draft Picks, with 7 over the next 7 years plus one swap and 12 SRPs, so we might get some draft capital as well, which we could either use ourselves or use as trade assets.
3 year 45 thats the deal maybe 3 for 50 but thats my max. He’s not worth anything more than that now.
Aye he is all yours with that 45 mil, i know damn well we not paying that type of shit. Cant wait for Offseason
The way I am looking at the Klay situation is can he be a Number 1 or Number 2 player on an y of the contender teams. If he cannot find that role, he will lose a lot if he doesn’t accept his diminished but highly valuable role with the Warriors.
Here’s the thing: we shouldn’t be upset if Klay can still get the bag from another team! If Orlando is going to give 30-45M/y for the guy we should be happy for him. Everyone knows that the Warriors aren’t going to offer him any more than 25/y, and there’s no hard feelings about that. He knows he’s not that guy anymore, but why wouldn’t you trade 2-3 years away from the Warriors for an extra 30 million dollars? Yes, loyalty and family matter but they would 100% tell him to take that deal.
Klay’s doing the right thing at this point. He’s trying to get his value up as much as possible so he lands a better deal w/ the Warriors. I doubt he’s seriously thinking about playing anywhere else.
klay turned down a 2 year 48 million extension last summer
although he may likly won’t get a contract offer anywhere worth 24 million going forward i do think he’d at least want at least 50 million in his next deal in total just so he doesn’t lose face publicly that he’d take less money than what he reported rejected before this season
which is why i honestly think a 3 year extension worth anywhere from 50-60 million would potentially be on the table from the warriors this upcoming offseason
which would be 16-20 million per year which i think would be fair and not be a totally insulting offer from the warriors to a franchise legend in klay and that he can play his entire career alongside both curry and draymond and all of them to retire as warriors having not played for another team
that’s something not many great trios of the past 40-50 years have done
1980s lakers (magic/kareem/worthy) … kareem previously played for the bucks
1980s celtics (bird/mchale/parrish) … parrish played for the warriors and hornets
1990s bulls (jordan/pippen/grant & rodman) … pippen, grant, & rodman played with multiple teams
2000s/2010s spurs (duncan/ginobli/parker) … parker ultimately finished his career playing with the hornets
i think that’ll mean a lot to that trio of curry, thompson, and green for them to spend their entire careers with just one franchise which just doesn’t happen if you look at history
also who knows if such a championship trio who is a part of an NBA dynasty ever does that again in this modern NBA age and era where stars don’t stick with a single team anymore let alone again 3 stars whom are HOF caliber players for 10-15 years together
He demands anything more than 10mil a season let him go
So Orlando is the target for being a pawn to drive up klays value in negotiations.
J/s this as a giants fan 😭
It’s not just about his price tag. It’s about if Kerr can help himself from using him for anything beyond a bench scorer.
45 mil for Klay like whattt.
Good for him if he wants to leave.
But prolly best to take a pay cut and stay here.
When you already have the money, why go for the smaller market team and kinda tarnish your legacy and also not compete for a chip? Klay has no leverage here, the best thing he can do is to take the deal from the dubs and try to improve his game and retire as a warriors legend
I mean we’re in a great position, even if a team like Orlando were to offer him a large contract, love that money for him and then that opens up minutes for Brandin to start and Moody to have a larger role. If he stays, it’ll be on a team friendly contract and he’ll be more of a legacy role player, staying on the warriors until he retires. Obviously I think most dubs fans want the latter but we’ll be in a good spot either way.
If Thompson stays, it will be because he sacrificed a lot of money to stay with Steph and Dray.
I swear to god I’m going to lose it if some other team bids up Klay in bad faith just to fuck with us after the Lakers got away with no competition on Reaves. The Spurs could’ve completely shanked LA and they passed for no reason, and now we have to deal with stories about the Magic potentially offering $45 million to Klay? Nobody out there believes Curry will allow this team not to match any offer Klay gets, so they’d just be doing it to screw us.
Besides money ( which klay has more than enough of), why would he pick Orlando?
poison pill contract?
The market won’t be that strong for Klay. Not a lot of teams have a style that would allow him to thrive. And no other coach would give him the minutes Kerr has been force feeding him. He will stay, and take less money. For a 15 ppg bench player his max is $20m/yr but more likely closer to $15m.
If we were a serious contender, someone might offer him an outsized contract just to mess with us, but no team is going to bother doing that now that we’re out of the playoffs.
The dubs showed major loyalty during Klays injuries. It’s only right he does the same for the team so he can be around. I would love the big 3 to finish out their careers together.