Despite an excellent season, the Golden State Warriors have quite a few worries heading into the next NBA season (2013-2014), knowing that it’s going to be very hard keeping the whole crew interact, especially key bench players like Jarrett Jack and Carl Landry.
At the moment, the Warriors are in line to be over the luxury tax next season, paying $75 million. Their GM and ownership have already said they don’t mind paying the tax if they know they have a team that can contend, but keeping Landry and Jack under the current circumstances is going to be very difficult. Richard Jefferson picked up his player option worth $11 million despite the Warriors really hoping he wouldn’t, while Andris Biedrins and Brandon Rush, together owed $13 million, are probably going to do the same.
Jarrett Jack had an excellent season as a backup point guard who got to be on court during crunch time and play an even more crucial role during the playoffs, averaging 17.2 points per game during the postseason. He made $5.4 million last season, and after demonstrating his abilities while playing around 30 minutes a game, is going to look for a bigger contract next season, which someone will probably give him, even though you can chalk down his performance to the “contract year” syndrome.
According to Jesse Scardina of WarriorsWorld.net, the Warriors are considering three players to replace Jack if they don’t reach a deal: Devin Harris, who played for the Atlanta Hawks last season; C.J. Watson, who played for the Brooklyn Nets; and Shaun Livingston, ending up with the Cleveland Cavaliers last season. Harris is probably the best player, but his price might be something the Warriors won’t pay ($8.3 million last season). Livingston and Watson are both a lot cheaper, but Watson is a very limited play-maker offensively, and Livingston is as injury prone as you can get, for a team that’s had its fair share of injuries to deal with.
Landry, who scored 11.8 points per game for the Warriors in the postseason and is probably one of the best inside scorer in the league for the money he made ($4 million) while coming off the bench, is likely to opt out of his contract which is worth $4 million next season, knowing he can get more elsewhere. The Warriors might be able to give him a slightly better offer, but not by much.
Options? DeMarre Carroll,Andray Blatche and Elton Brand. Blatche is the kind of player who can play both frontcourt positions and can score just as well as Landry in the paint and from a bit further away, but he’s sort of a loose cannon and has a problematic work ethic. Carroll is a different kind of player, something the Warriros already have in Draymond Green: A scrappy undersized power forward. Brand averaged 7.2 points and 6 rebounds per game for the Mavs last season, but his injury problems might get in the way of bringing him in.