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The Golden State Warriors likely didn’t have quite as much time to celebrate their 2016-17 NBA championship as they probably would have liked. The reason for that is because the Warriors front office had to get to work on signing a few of their key players while figuring out what they were going to do in order to make sure they kept their core group together as well.
Interestingly, the Warriors depth chart that featured players actually under contract after last season featured just five names. With that said, they did manage to lock in a few of their key players early on in the free agency period, but others remain unsigned at this point.
Let’s take a look at the current Warriors roster, as well a which players remain as free agents, per Spotrac.
UPDATE
Per Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports, the Warriors have agreed to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with Zaza Pachulia.
Zaza Pachulia back to the Warriors on a one-year, $3.5 million deal
C: Zaza Pachulia
PF: Draymond Green, David West, Jordan Bell, Damian Jones
SF: Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Kevon Looney
SG: Klay Thompson, Patrick McCaw
PG: Stephen Curry, Shaun Livingston
Free Agents: JaVale McGee, Ian Clark, Matt Barnes, James McAdoo
Obviously, there are a few keys to point out here. The most obvious is Durant, but as ESPN’s Chris Haynes reported, there’s not much reason for Warriors fans to be concerned with his status. Haynes explained that Durant was going to decline his player option for the 2017-18 season, but then re-sign with the team during free agency. Interestingly, his reason behind doing it, was because he wanted to improve the team’s chances of re-signing Iguodala.
UPDATE: As Haynes reported, Durant has agreed to a two-year deal worth nearly $53 million.
ESPN Sources: Kevin Durant to agree to a two-year, approximately $53 million deal to re-sign with Golden State.
That plan worked, as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Iguodala signed a three-year, $48 million deal with the team.
Iguodala’s deal will be worth $48M over the three years, league source tells ESPN. Warriors deepened offer, close deal tonight.
While the Warriors played their fair share of small ball last season, the decision to re-sign Pachulia makes a lot of sense. The Warriors also put pen to paper on a three-year, $24 million contract for Livingston, as Haynes also reported.
Golden State, Shaun Livingston reach agreement on 3-years, $24 million, league sources tell ESPN.
As things stand currently, the Warriors have just one center on their roster. But, they got two key deals done in Stephen Curry’s supermax deal, and Durant’s deal, both of which were expected to happen. As Wojnarowski pointed out, Curry’s new five-year, $201 million deal is now the richest contract in NBA history.
While the Warriors still have some questions ahead of the 2017-18 NBA season, it’s hard to imagine that the champions don’t retain the bulk of their roster or as much as they can afford.
