The night full of possibilities for the Golden State Warriors turned out to be catastrophic. Equipped with the No. 2 overall pick in Wednesday’s draft and all the options that came with it, the franchise lost its collective breath when news broke that Clay Thompson had suffered a potentially fatal injury while working in Southern California. On thursday Bad fears were confirmed: Thompson will miss all next season with a torn right Achilles tendon.
You want to talk about bowel punch.
In addition to the terrifying feeling for Thaba Mpson, one of the NBA’s most favorite players and a guy who just likes to play basketball, the first question was whether this last-minute news could affect how the Warriors approach in the draft. He didn’t seem to be doing that, as he was a consistent player during the drafting process at James Wisman.
It was supposed to be a night of celebration for the Warriors, who expected Steff Kari and Thompson to return to the championship bout by giving them back to healthy and slotting like a missing-big man with a viceman. Now that Thompson is out, he has plans, too.
So what is Plan B? It starts with Kelly ub Bray Jr., who was acquired by the Warriors from Oklahoma City on Thursday, Adrian Wojnrowski of ESPN. To sign as a Ub Brain-over-the-cap team, the Warriors are using a trade exception of 2 17.2 million – through the deal that Andre Igudala sent to Memphis last year – for the next season of O’Brien will receive a salary of 14 14.4 million. His deal is set for later this season, so the Warriors are not committed to him ahead of 2021, on which Clay hopes to return.
You have to give credit to the owners of Warriors. They are putting their money where their mouth is. As an over-the-tax team, the Warriors have to pay a hefty fine on top of every dollar they spend. Here’s what Warriors pays O’Brien between his salary and tax penalties, according to ESPN’s cap guru Bobby Marks:
Yes, you’re reading that right: Warriors owned, currently it also stands, they would have decided not to use just that trade exception, which could easily be rationalized in Thompson’s absence; Paying a team the kind of money that no longer looks like a title contender can reasonably be seen as borderline crazy.
But J. Lac Kobe once vowed that the Warriors would never be outspotted, as long as he was around the money would not stop GM Bob Myers from being able to put the best team that could possibly assemble on the floor, and he would certainly speak his mind on it. Keeps up even in a brutal economy. Myers said Wednesday that Thompson would be given the green light to spend that trade exception before he was injured.
And the Warriors probably couldn’t afford spending. They still have a mid-level exception to their their 1 million taxpayer use, and they will have more money to doll out as a .3.93 million disabled player exception, for which they applied Thursday, According to the marks of ESPN. Longtime Warriors reporter Monte Poole told the Warriors on Wednesday He has his eye on the addition of four potential big men When the free agency opens Friday.
In other words, the Warriors are not giving up this season. If he starts now, he will likely be out of the starting five with Curry, Ub Bray, Rewandrew Wiggins, Dremond Green and Wiseman, Kevon Luni (they still feel loaded) and Eric Paschal off the bench. It’s a team that can still compete, but the burden on Curry to get back to his supernatural ways just got a lot heavier.
After all, there is no way to sugarcoat for this. After Thompson’s exit, the Warriors may have gone for a team from one of the top three or four title contenders who may have to fight to make the playoffs at the fairly loaded Western Conference. But no idea they might be able to punt semi-subtly this season following the news of Thompson. The Warriors are still going for it. No price.
