Klay Thompson will return to the Warriors next season, but it’s unclear what his future with the organisation will look like – or cost – ahead of a possible contract extension with his longtime franchise.
The four-time NBA champion is available for an extension this summer as he approaches the last year of his five-year, $190 million Warriors deal. With Thompson set to earn $43.2 million in the 2023-24 NBA season, The Athletic’s Shams Charania and Anthony Slater wrote Friday that if he does extend with Golden State this summer, the “expectation” is that Thompson would have to take a salary reduction.
With the Warriors’ ever-increasing luxury-tax burden and new CBA restrictions to contemplate, Thompson taking a salary reduction comparable to Andrew Wiggins last summer may go a long way. Wiggins inked a four-year, $109 million contract extension last offseason, with his salary dropping from $33.6 million to $24 million and $26 million, respectively, in the first two years of the new deal.
Charania and Slater’s story came immediately after the Warriors were eliminated from the NBA playoffs on Friday night, when Thompson scored eight points on 3-of-19 shooting in Golden State’s Game 6 defeat. Thompson shot only 25 percent from the field in the last four games of the Western Conference playoffs against the Lakers, hitting 10 of 36 3-point tries.
Given Thompson’s injury history and how he finished the Warriors’ most recent playoff run, Golden State is allegedly anticipating Thompson to earn less than the $43.2 million he’s set to earn next season, which makes sense. With Steph Curry and the freshly extended Wiggins and Jordan Poole on the roster, things are already pricey.
With an extension for Thompson and a multiyear contract for Draymond Green apparently in the works, the Warriors have a lot of questions to address this summer, including whether or not president of basketball operations and general manager Bob Myers will be returning.
As Slater and Charania note out, a request for Thompson to accept a wage reduction would be met “softer from Myers rather than a [Warriors owner Joe] Lacob-led front office.”
Following the Warriors’ defeat at Cypto.com Arena on Friday, Thompson made it obvious that he’s more focused on the job at hand: returning to the playoffs next season.
“… I obviously wish I would’ve shot the ball much more efficiently,” Thompson told reporters. “Probably the worst shooting series I’ve had in a long time.”At the end of the day, I’m still under contract with the Dubs, and I’m going to use this as fuel to be better in the playoffs next year.”
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