© Ken Blaze-USA TODAY Sports
When you retain one of the great cores in NBA history, you don’t need to spend the opening day of free agency shopping the player market for immediate solutions. When you’re back-to-back NBA Champions, winners of three titles in four years, appeasing your franchise cornerstones, namely Kevin Durant and Draymond Green this offseason, to ensure their returns takes precedence. The Warriors entered this offseason seemingly more focused internally than externally.
Twenty-nine other teams don’t have the same luxury.
That’s why on July 1st, the first day free agency opened, teams spent about $1 billion combined on player contracts. That included the splashiest signing of the offseason: four-time MVP LeBron James signing a four-year, $154 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The James signing meant a loaded Western Conference added another potential contender. Yet joining a 35-win team in 2017-18 (the majority of whose players have never experienced a playoff game) does not bridge the gap between the Lakers and Warriors. That could change if Los Angeles acquires Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard, who has long been linked to his hometown team, but for now, the Warriors comfortably hold that advantage.
The margin widened among the Warriors and Rockets— the team that pushed Golden State to the brink of elimination, leading by 11 points in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals— on Day 1 of free agency. Trevor Ariza, Houston’s starting small forward and 3-and-D specialist assigned to guard Durant, signed a one-year deal with the Phoenix Suns. Ariza reportedly sought a longer, more lucrative deal in the range of $50-60 million, but the Rockets instead awarded point guard Chris Paul to a four-year, $160-million max deal.
Adding Paul last offseason fueled Houston to the NBA Finals’ doorstep. But Paul is 33 years old and coming off a hamstring injury that kept him out of the final two games of the Western Conference Finals. Giving him that money for those years instead of re-signing Ariza is puzzling.
One night earlier, the Thunder reportedly re-signed forward Paul George to a four-year, $137 million deal. The Russell Westbrook-Carmelo Anthony-George trio flopped in their first year together, exiting the playoffs to the rookie Donavan Mitchell-led Utah Jazz in six games in the first round.
Last week, Anthony opted into the final year of his contract, worth $27.9 million. If the Thunder retain him, they will have made hardly any improvements— adding center Nerlens Noel does not immediately qualify— to a team that was never a real threat to the Warriors this past season. Instead of audibling, they doubled down, much to the Warriors’ benefit.
The Warriors, meanwhile, were quiet in the opening day-and-a-half of free agency. (Note: this piece was published before the Warriors later signed four-time All-Star DeMarcus Cousins Tuesday evening.)
Durant and Green have made it no secret that they want newly structured deals with the Warriors, which has been met with front office approval, though no new contracts have officially been inked. The Warriors did not re-sign center JaVale McGee, who announced Sunday night he will join James with the Lakers on a one-year deal. They let McGee walk so they could nurture their young frontcourt talent, including Kevon Looney, Jordan Bell, and Damian Jones.
Part of general Bob Myers and the rest of the Warriors front office’s genius is finding pluck-and-plug pieces that will complement the All-Stars, similar to acquiring McGee two summers ago. Both he and Nick Young, who signed a one-year deal last offseason, morphed from punchlines to NBA champs. Shaun Livingston revitalized his career to become one of Golden State’s marquee bench players during all three championship triumphs.
This year’s free agency class is replete with players who can do the same thing. The Warriors are staying patient to ensure they find the right pieces, a luxury afforded to them because of their all-time great core.
As they have done that, their competitors have dug deep into their pockets to dig an even greater hole, failing to shift the power balance — at least for now— in the opening hours of free agency.