Hoops Rumors is checking in on the 2026 offseason for all 30 NBA teams, recapping the summer’s free agent signings, trades, draft picks, departures, and more. We’ll take a look at each team’s offseason moves and consider what might still be coming before the regular season begins. Today, we’re focusing on the Golden State Warriors.
Free agent signings
Draymond Green: One year, $27,678,571. Fully guaranteed. Includes trade kicker (15%). Re-signed using Bird rights. Waived right to veto trade.
Al Horford: Two years, $13,985,100. Second-year player option. Includes trade kicker (15%). Re-signed using Non-Bird rights.
De’Anthony Melton: Two years, $12,431,200. Second-year player option. Re-signed using taxpayer mid-level exception.
Gary Payton II: One year, minimum salary. Fully guaranteed. Re-signed using minimum salary exception.
Georges Niang: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($1,838,009). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Charles Bassey: One year, minimum salary. Partially guaranteed ($1.4MM). Re-signed using minimum salary exception. Waived right to veto trade.
Brandon Williams: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed. Signed using minimum salary exception.
Dalen Terry: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 9). Signed using minimum salary exception.
Alex Toohey: One year, minimum salary. Non-guaranteed (Exhibit 9/10). Signed using minimum salary exception.
None
Draft picks
1-11: Yaxel Lendeborg
Signed to rookie scale contract (four years, $28,102,847). First two years guaranteed. Third- and fourth-year team options.
2-54: Lajae Jones
Unsigned.
Two-way signings
None
Note: The Warriors carried over LJ Cryer and Malevy Leons on two-way contracts from 2025/26.
Departed/unsigned free agents
Other roster moves
Signed Kristaps Porzingis to a two-year, $40,000,000 veteran contract extension that begins in 2026/27. Second-year player option (partially guaranteed for $3MM).
Salary cap situation
Note: Figures are rounded to one decimal place.
Operating over the first apron ($209MM) and below the second tax apron ($221.7MM).
Hard-capped at second apron.
Team salary: $220.8MM (tax); $221.3MM (apron).
Above luxury tax line by $20.4MM; above first apron by $12.3MM; below second apron by $348K.
One traded player exception frozen/unavailable (worth $2.2MM).
The offseason so far
After a disappointing, injury-disrupted 2025/26 season in which Jimmy Butler tore his ACL, Stephen Curry missed extended time due to runner’s knee, and Moses Moody tore his patellar tendon, Steve Kerr contemplated leaving his post as the longtime head coach of the Warriors.
However, after taking a couple weeks to decide his next steps, Kerr — whose contract had expired — returned on a new two-year deal. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported at the time that Kerr will continue to be the highest-paid head coach in the NBA.
While Kerr will be back in the fold for a 13th consecutive season, his coaching staff will look a little different. Former associate head coach Terry Stotts and No. 2 assistant Jerry Stackhouse were also on expiring contracts and parted ways with the team to pursue head coaching jobs. Golden State was reportedly in “advanced” talks to hire Willie Green to be the new top assistant, but he was hired by Dallas; instead, the Warriors hired Frank Vogel, who spent last season with the Mavs.
After learning that Kerr would return, the Warriors returned their attention to upgrading their roster following a 37-45 season. They entered the offseason with 10 potential free agents, among the highest totals in the league.
Golden State controlled two selections — Nos. 11 and 54 — in the 2026 draft and used those picks to add former Michigan star Yaxel Lendeborg and ex-Florida State wing Lajae Jones.
Lendeborg helped lead the Warriors to a championship at the Las Vegas Summer League, winning Summer League MVP in the process. The 6’9″ forward quickly signed his rookie scale contract with Golden State, but 54th pick Jones remains unsigned ahead of training camp, which will be held in Hawai’i again this year.
Anthony Slater of ESPN reported that Kerr was high on Brayden Burries and “audibly groaned” when the Bucks selected the former Arizona guard at No. 10, one pick before Golden State’s. However, Kerr is also high on Lendeborg and is open to the idea of making the rookie a day-one starter if he earns it in training camp and the preseason.
“It’s such a position of need,” Kerr told ESPN. “Then his positional size alone. We’re in a position now where we can be thinking of development and not just for Yaxel, but for our whole group. We are not in the (championship) conversation. So let’s see what we can do as a group to kind of reestablish what we stand for and how we operate and new beginnings in a lot of ways. All of that is really exciting to me. And Yaxel’s a big part of that.”
Shortly after the draft, veteran big man Al Horford — one of three Warriors who controlled player options for 2026/27 — declined his $5.97MM option in order to re-sign with Golden State on a new two-year, $14MM deal that features a second-year player option and 15% trade kicker.
The second free-agent domino to fall was trade deadline acquisition Kristaps Porzingis, who was limited to 32 combined appearances with Atlanta and Golden State last season. The Latvian center technically bypassed free agency, having signed a two-year, $40MM extension on the final day he was eligible to do so (June 30).
Crucially, Porzingis’ second-year player option is only partially guaranteed for $3MM, giving the Warriors a measure of insurance next summer in case his health issues persist.
After the Warriors agreed to re-sign De’Anthony Melton on a two-year, $12.4MM deal (he declined his $3.45MM option for 2026/27) and brought back Charles Bassey on a minimum-salary contract in early July, their offseason was suspended for several weeks until LeBron James decided which team he wanted to join in free agency.
Golden State made an early effort to recruit James, with Draymond Green, Curry and governor Joe Lacob participating in that effort. However, the team was pessimistic in the weeks leading up to James’ decision, and he ended up signing with the Sixers, whom he viewed as having more championship upside.
With James out of the picture, Green returned on a one-year, $27.68MM deal — essentially the exact terms of his player option, which he declined to give the Warriors the opportunity to pursue LeBron. Golden State also finalized its agreement with Melton, which hard-capped the team at the second tax apron when it used the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception.
The Warriors opted not to match a cleverly constructed offer sheet the Grizzlies gave to restricted free agent center Quinten Post due to cap/apron concerns. Bassey appears to be the frontrunner to be the team’s third center, with veteran power forward Georges Niang — a free agent signee who missed all of last season due to a foot injury — another option in the frontcourt.
Other roster moves included re-signing Gary Payton II on a veteran’s minimum deal; signing free agent guard Brandon Williams to a non-guaranteed salary; and adding Dalen Terry and Alex Toohey on non-guaranteed training camp contracts. In addition to Post, the Warriors let Pat Spencer sign a two-way deal with Phoenix rather than giving him a qualifying offer to make him restricted, while Seth Curry and Nate Williams remain unsigned.
Up next
The Warriors have made most of their offseason moves ahead of the 2026/27 campaign. They’re only $348K below their second-apron hard cap, with 12 players on guaranteed standard contracts, Bassey and Niang on partially guaranteed deals, and Williams on a standard non-guaranteed agreement.
Golden State could swap out Williams with a player like Terry or Toohey if it wants to. Another option would be to waive all three players and sign Jones to a rookie minimum standard contract. That wouldn’t give the Warriors much financial flexibility though, and general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. has said the team plans to open the season with 15 players on the standard roster no matter who makes the final cut.
The more likely outcome would be Williams claiming the final standard roster spot and Jones slotting into Golden State’s open two-way spot. The other two-way players are LJ Cryer and Malevy Leons, who were carried over from 2025/26. For what it’s worth, Summer League big man Graham Ike has also been mentioned as a two-way candidate.
The only significant uncertainty hanging over Golden State’s offseason is whether Stephen Curry will sign a veteran’s contract extension ahead of the 2026/27 campaign or if he’ll hold off to potentially give both himself and the team more flexibility ahead of next summer, when the Warriors could have a ton of cap room.
Curry has consistently expressed a desire to finish out his career with the only franchise he’s ever known, but he recently suggested he’s not in a rush to sign an extension ahead of potential 2027 free agency. For their part, the Warriors are reportedly willing to give the 38-year-old guard whatever kind of contract he wants up to his max.
Another extension candidate is Brandin Podziemski, who’s entering the fourth year of his rookie scale contract. Unlike Curry, who will remain extension-eligible through June 30, 2027, Podziemski’s extension window will close on Oct. 19, the day before the regular season begins.
If Podziemski doesn’t sign an extension this offseason, he’ll be on track for restricted free agency in 2027 if he’s given a qualifying offer. Dunleavy said publicly that retaining the former 19th overall pick is a priority for the organization.
The Warriors are banking on the addition of Lendeborg inject some youthful energy into one of the oldest rosters in the league. When Butler and Moody will return to action is an open question, but Golden State has several players on short-term contracts and is a team to monitor on the trade market ahead of the February deadline.
Luke Adams contributed to this article.