Getty Jonathan Kuminga #00, Kevon Looney #5, and Lester Quinones #25 of the Golden State Warriors battle Royce O'Neale #00, Cameron Johnson #2 of the Brooklyn Nets.
The Golden State Warriors made two roster moves after the NBA All-Star break to fill their open roster spot ahead of the February 22 deadline.
First, they promoted their former two-way player Lester Quiñones to the main team for their 14th roster spot, signing him to a standard contract for the rest of the season, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. Then they signed Santa Cruz Warriors mainstay Pat Spencer to take over Quiñones’ former two-way spot, per The Athletic’s Anthony Slater.
The 23-year-old Quiñones is having a strong February, averaging 7.1 points, 3.7 rebounds and 2.2 assists through nine games. His strong play included three double-digit outings — 13 points against the 76ers, 17 points against the Hawks and 10 points against the Grizzlies.
The Dominican-American swingman has spent the majority of the last two years in the G League with the Santa Cruz Warriors. He will become a restricted free agent after this season if they tender him a one-year $2.1 million qualifying offer.
On the other hand, the 27-year-old Spencer was a former Lacross star at Loyola, who reached the Final Four in 2016. He was the no. 1 pick in the Premier Lacrosse League’s inaugural draft in 2019. But he passed up on a professional Lacrosse career and pursued basketball in the remaining years of his college eligibility.
After using his college graduate year eligibility playing basketball at Northwestern, he signed with the Capital City Go-Go, the Washington Wizards team in the G League in 2021. Following his G League rookie year, he signed a training camp deal with the Warriors and then spent the next two seasons at Santa Cruz.
The 6-foot-3 Spencer averaged 15.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.3 steals for Santa Cruz this season under Nick Kerr, Steve’s son.
Magic Emerging as Potential Klay Thompson Suitor
According to NBA insider Marc Stein, the Orlando Magic are emerging as a potential landing spot for soon-to-be-unrestricted free agent Klay Thompson.
“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),” Stein reported in his February 20 substack newsletter.
The Magic are projected to have the third-most cap space in the offseason.
Klay Thompson Expected to Test Free Agency
Thompson is expected to test the open market, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.
“This is a guy, Klay Thompson, a four-time champion, All-NBA, All-Star-caliber guy, now coming off the bench,” Charania said on the “Pat McAfee Show” on February 16. “That’s an adjustment. You think about his contract situation. You think about the team as a whole; they’re a .500 team right now. … I think he’s been going through it at different points. I think he’s doing his best to get through it. He’s set to be a free agent at the end of the season. I expect him to test the marketplace. I would expect both Florida teams, both LA teams, and potentially a couple of East Coast teams to have interest in Klay Thompson. As of right now, unless there’s a miracle extension, he’s going to test the marketplace.”
Thompson’s role has shrunk in Golden State as he was relegated to the bench for the first time in 12 years amid the rise of their young players such as third-year forward Jonathan Kuminga, rookie Brandin Podziemski and Quiñones.