The debate clouding decisions in the not-so-golden state of the Warriors revolves around going all-in, half-in or not in at all.
Let’s talk about the fun one.
The concern about adding LeBron James to a team that already holds its team meetings in a hot tub revolves around the franchise’s future. Or lack thereof.
What happens in a couple of years when LeBron, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler retire?
You’re left with unsalted peanuts.
But what’s wrong with that?
Look at the current state of NBA free agency …
Jalen Duren wants out of Detroit. The Nuggets are at an impasse with Peyton Watson. The Hawks are done with Jonathan Kuminga. Nick Richards is looking for a new home.
From the bargain bin, you’ve got Ben Mathurin, Cam Thomas, Jaden Ivey, Cole Anthony, Bruce Brown Jr. and Ziaire Williams available.
And for those with a nostalgic urge, Draymond Green, James Harden, DeMar DeRozan, Russell Westbrook, Bradley Beal, Kelly Olynyk, Nicolas Batum and Kevin Love currently are without a uniform.
Oh, did I forget LeBron?
That’s what the salary cap and its ugly aprons have done to the NBA. All 19 of those guys could be yours … if you were the one team in the league who had money to spend. The more, the greedier.
And in the case of the future Warriors, with almost a blank slate, you’d be a destination site that surely would be on the wish list of many of that year’s frozen-out players.
That’s where we are today … except that nobody has money to spend.
Imagine if the Nets – and I’m not picking on them – had been forward-thinking and designated the Summer of 2026 as the time they were going to start over.
Surely they could have found a taker for Michael Porter Jr. and his $41 million deal within the last couple of years. Same with useful pieces like Terance Mann, Day’Ron Sharpe and Keon Ellis.
Then they’d be the team EVERYBODY would be calling. They’d be — hard to believe — on the map.
It starts with the two biggest victims of the current rules – Duren and Watson.
They want — and deserve — huge contracts, but ownership knows nobody has that kind of money available to give them in restricted free agency. So the Pistons and Nuggets, apparently captivated by the World Cup, recline and wait for their handcuffed assets either to cave at the team’s cap-friendly price, or match the offer sheet from a rival that has nothing more than the mid-level exception to offer.
It’s an eventuality that’s bad for Duren and bad for Watson; it’s bad for any of the other twenty-something teams that would love to have them; it’s even bad for the Pistons and Nuggets, who are dragging back key players kicking and screaming.
Somewhere, the Knicks and Thunder are laughing.
All because SOME BAD TEAM didn’t have the foresight to go all-in.
Having no money sounds bad, but actually it would make the Nets the most powerful team in the NBA right now. Not only would free agents be sitting courtside at Liberty games in Brooklyn in an effort to be seen and get local fans behind them, but they’d be the go-to trade facilitator that tends to add draft capital just for playing the game.
Imagine the Nets this season with Duren at center, Watson and DeRozan at forward, Mathurin and Westbrook at guard. With Nick Richards and Ziaire Williams, Olynyk, Kuminga, Beal and Anthony off the bench, along with the scraps (all players on cheap rookie contracts) filling the gaps.
Or — you REALLY want to go all-in? — hand the keys and a handful of blank checks to LeBron and let him play fantasy basketball. You don’t think he could talk Green, Harden and Westbrook to come along, as well as probably Duren and Watson because it’s where they’d have to go to get their big bucks?
Sure beats trotting Porter and the collegiate third-team All-Americans out there … again.
A new Collective Bargaining Agreement is in the works and here’s one thing that has to be terminated: Restricted free agency.
OK, keep it for rookie contracts. Otherwise … go ahead and ask Duren and Watson, two of the best young players in the league, how it’s working.
And if it remains … then it’s time for the Warriors to go all-in in 2028.
