After acquiring six-time All-Star forward Jimmy Butler midway through 2024/25, the Warriors’ offseason will be focused on building out their roster with an eye towards a longer playoff run next spring.
In a new summer preview piece, Yossi Gozlan of Third Apron notes that Golden State possesses the draft picks and movable contracts needed to make some key personnel improvements.
Per Gozlan, restricted free agent forward **Jonathan Kuminga**‘s next deal could prove crucial to helping the club level up. Gozlan considers a sign-and-trade with another team to be the best path for the Warriors to maximize value for the 22-year-old and for Kuminga to get the bigger role he seems to seek. The Warriors have other, more veteran free agents for whom they could extract value in sign-and-trade deals.
Golden State has just nine players on deals heading into the summer, and are $17.4MM below this year’s luxury tax.
There’s more out of California:
With the Buss family now poised to divest themselves from their majority stake in the Lakers after 46 years, Jim Alexander of The Orange County Register looks back on the transformative impact late patriarch Dr. Jerry Buss’ ownership had on the league at large. Beyond drafting superstars Magic Johnson and James Worthy early on during Buss’ tenure, Jerry Buss also helped eventize the league, making the games more than just basketball and helping elevate the NBA’s profile around the world.
Now-Pacers All-NBA guard **Tyrese Haliburton**‘s big showing in the ongoing Finals highlights a glaring point guard deficiency for the team who drafted him in 2020, the Kings, observes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Beyond trading Haliburton, Sacramento went on to trade one-time All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox to San Antonio midseason as part of a deal that netted them swingman Zach LaVine. New general manager Scott Perry now must work to find the club’s new lead ball handler of the future, Anderson asserts. Anderson notes that players like Ja Morant, Trae Young, Darius Garland, and Jrue Holiday have been floated as potential trade fits.
The Kings haven’t yet engaged in trade conversations about veteran wings Malik Monk or DeMar DeRozan, but Anderson tweets that talks could kick up with **Kevin Durant**‘s trade fate now resolved.