The Warriors Have Made Their Decision…

The Warriors Have Made Their Decision…

the clay situation is obviously one of the ones we’re going to be talking about there’s there’s hurt feelings there that need to be mended if he’s going to return to Golden State and he’s going to have suters around the league do you think the best course of action for the Warriors is to run it back with Clay who is 34 years old or to move on Klay Thompson fits anywhere and there would also be something cool about seeing him say you know what I want to prove I can make big shots in another place the Klay Thompson situation in Golden state is starting to get ugly this is team that has plenty of decisions to make this offseason throughout the roster but the primary one is figuring out what to do with clay and the nice thing for them is that they do have options because they have guys like Jonathan kaminga who’s young looks like a foundational piece for them someone that had a breakout season for Golden State and if they were to move on from Klay Thomson this offseason if they didn’t resign him to a contract it wouldn’t be the end of the world but it would be the end of an era he’s part of one of the most famous back courts in the history of the league he has been foundational he a pillar to everything the Warriors have done for over a decade as they’ve won multiple titles even as recently as a few seasons ago and that guy a guy that has meant as much to the Warriors as Klay Thompson has might be on a different team very soon and it might be the Warriors own decision to do so and the reason this is all coming up now is because there is a new rule in the NBA this season the NBA got tired of teams tampering with other teams free agents potentially signing away other teams free agents more than they wanted to and so they changed the rules this season this offseason you can begin negotiating with your own free agents right after the finals is over it’s why we just saw Malik monk get a new contract it’s why there’s been rumors about Paul George potentially returning to the Clippers it’s why we’re getting rumors about LeBron opting out of his contracts if you have a player that’s a free agent and they’re your own guy you can negotiate a contract with them and part of that is to obviously help with tampering but the other consequence of that is we kind of know what’s happening with these negotiations especially with with Klay Thompson right now rumors suggest that the Warriors would like to bring back Klay Thompson but they are being mindful of the long-term cost of that contract they understand that he’s getting older they understand that he’s not the same guy anymore and they would still like to keep him but maybe not more than other teams around the league would like to take him away from Golden State they are willing to offer him to this point A two-year contract probably upwards of 2025 maybe even close to $30 million a season given that it is a shorter contract whereas Clay is searching for a three-year deal or longer and obviously that makes perfect sense for clay he wants to extend his careers long as possible he wants to make as much money as possible and there’s a real possibility that in two seasons Clay is just not the same guy anymore he continues to fall off even more so his Market might not be there in two seasons he wants the longest deal with the most money possible and the nice thing for clay in terms of negotiating with golden state is there are a lot of teams that not only would like to have him on their team but are also in a position to add him and teams that could be possible contenders this season the Philadelphia 76ers are certainly near the top of the list they’re exploring potentially bringing in Paul George who’s trying to negotiate his own contract now with the Clippers the Orlando Magik team that I continue to mention as well when it comes to being semi contenders now and his potential fit there and Oklahoma City is certainly still an option as well they just brought in Alex Caruso but they still have $35 million in salary cap space that they could potentially sign Klay Thompson with we’ve only got about a week left or so for Golden State to make this decision to decide whether or not to bring back Klay Thompson on a new deal now before they actually get to the free agency window because once we get to free agency all bets are off in terms of clay and Golden State now working backwards through those three teams I think those are the three main Klay Thompson contenders right now Oklahoma City is incredibly interesting to me because they brought in Alex Caruso presumably to be their fifth starter but maybe there’s some kind of option here where they’re able to bring someone else off the or bring Caruso Off the Bench obviously clay would go to Oklahoma City to start and I really think that he has an opportunity to be in a much better situation on any of these three teams than what was happening in Golden State over the last few years as good as golden state has been over the last few years they’ve still lacked a good amount of playmaking and shot creation and and you know setting up other guys and at this point in his career klay’s not a guy that’s going to be creating shots he’s someone that finishes plays and in Oklahoma City SGA Jaylen Williams these guys are all going to create and the idea of Klay Thompson providing size a little bit of defense and three-point shooting to that Oklahoma City team seems absolutely perfect to me not to mention that Championship experience that he would bring as well it’s a similar situation in Orlando they have Paulo they have France presumably they’ll add another guard this offseason as well he would absolutely start in Orlando and I don’t think the magic are all that far off with continued development of the young guys with more spacing from being a true contender in what is at the moment a pretty weak Eastern Conference outside of the Boston Celtics but really where I think things get interesting for clay is in Philadelphia speaking of the rest of that Eastern Conference because they have three players on the roster right now they have Paul Reed Tyrese Maxi and jool and B now Maxi is going to get a new uh extension on his rookie deal so he’s going to be there but they’re still going to have Max contract space available it’s why there’s been rumors about the possibility of them bringing in Paul Georg in free agency depending on how that negotiation goes with the clippers but if that doesn’t happen there’s been conflict reports about their willingness to bring in Paul George or not if they move on from Paul George Klay Thompson could be a nice addition for them as well same situation is with with Oklahoma City in Orlando Klay can still be a good finisher of plays at this point in his career still provides good size and if if you’re not able to get Paul George if he ends up going back to the Clippers and now with another guy a Malik monk that was kind of on a similar tier in free agency as Klay Thompson you’re starting to run out of options in terms of these contending teams or semi contending teams that really want to bring in a another guy a floor spacer in the back court which only increases the value of clay and I say all that to say if if you’re a Warriors fan that is hoping to retain Klay Thompson I would start to get pretty nervous if the Warriors don’t step up and offer him a three-year contract I don’t think that he’s going to return I think one of these teams Orlando Oklahoma City Philadelphia even like San Antonio if they wanted to get crazy I think one of these teams is going to offer clay at least a three-year 20 to 25 million dollar a year deal if not even more than that and as of this moment it seems like the Warriors have already made their decision to not go up and match that number which would be pretty much the end of an era in Golden State still have Stu still have Draymond but those three guys together have been the foundation of everything the Warriors have been about for a decade now and even though it wasn’t a great season for clay losing him would be a huge loss for them having said all those things it might not be a terrible decision for Golden State they have Jonathan kaminga they have Moses m Moody they have all these other guys that they feel like can step up into that spot and maybe it would be good for them to just move on to try something different to go away from this formula that they’ve used for so long and start to prioritize some of those younger guys which of course brings into question the long-term future of someone like Draymond and less so the future of someone like Steph in Golden State losing Klay Thompson does not mean that the Warriors will not be good next season but it certainly would mean a shift in their mindset and given the reports and the rumors that we have right now about their willing this to really give a competitive offer to Klay Thompson it seems like they might have already made that decision and as much as the focus this offseason has been on other guys it’s been on Paul George it’s been on what’s going to happen with LeBron what’s going to happen with bronny I really feel like there’s a possibility that nine months from now we’re going into a playoff push where someone OKC Orlando Philadelphia or some other team has added Klay Thompson and he is a key piece in the potential playoff picture and that feels exciting to me it feels like a new opportunity for clay in a situation where he might actually be better off than he was in Golden State obviously we’re going to find out the answers to all of this very quickly but it’s very interesting to me that the Warriors might have already made a decision that seems like would have been really difficult for them to make

The Golden State Warriors have a huge offseason coming up in the NBA, mostly centered around Klay Thompson.

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