Warriors Roster, Salaries, Cap Space, Available Draft Picks and More
Everything you need to know.
With every passing season, it seems like NBA fans become more and more interested in the minutiae of team-building. The Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) used to be a discussion topic reserved only for front offices and the most hardcore fans. But now, most basketball fans are intrigued by the ins and outs of the CBA, in large part because it informs what kind of team-building the organization they love can get up to.
That’s doubly true for Golden State Warriors fans, who have seen CBA rules restrict ways that the team can spend, and punish Joe Lacob and Co. for spending so liberally. And, as a result, Warriors fans have seen first Bob Myers and now Mike Dunleavy Jr. get creative to try and find the best way to put together a championship roster, despite various restrictions — some of which were put in place specifically to combat moves that Golden State had made.
As a result, Dub Nation has a lot of questions about the salary specifics of Golden State’s roster — how much money they’re going to spend, how they’ll be taxed, and, most importantly, how they can find fiscal ways to reshape a roster that they’re hoping still has one last championship hurrah in it. And so we’ve partnered with the fine folks at SalarySwish to give you all the information you could need about the Warriors and their salary situation.
The table below is live and will update with every move that Dunleavy, Lacob, and Steve Kerr make, so you can keep returning to this document as the offseason goes on. I’ll keep it pinned on the main page so it’s easy for you to find and reference at all times.
Enjoy!
Warriors Roster, Salaries, Draft Picks, Cap Space and More
Here is a table with all of the Warriors’ salary information, courtesy of our friends at SalarySwish:
Now, because that is a lot of data, let’s dive into a few key pieces of context and what it means, and try to answer any questions it may call up for you.
FAQ
Now, let’s answer some of your most frequently asked questions about the Warriors’ salary cap and draft pick situations moving forward.
How much are Golden State’s core players making?
The biggest factor for any team’s payroll situation is the salary of their star players. Part of why up-and-coming teams do so well is because their best players are often still on modest contracts. For instance, a huge part of why the Warriors were able to add Kevin Durant in the summer of 2016 was because Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green were only owed about $48 million combined for the 2016-17 season.
Needless to say, that’s no longer the case. Curry himself makes significantly more than that, as he will make $55.7 million this year and $59.6 million in 2025-26. Green is in the second year of a four-year deal that will see him make $24.1 million this year, $25.9 million next year, and $27.7 million in 2026-27. Thompson is an unrestricted free agent, but Andrew Wiggins is set to make $26.3 million in the upcoming season, with $28.2 and $30.2 million in the following two years, respectively.
How much salary cap space can the Warriors have this offseason?
The Warriors don’t have a very realistic path towards creating fungible salary cap space. Even if they do not pick up the team options for Kevon Looney and Chris Paul, and let Thompson walk, the team would need to trade either Green or Wiggins without taking back much money if they wanted to have any salary cap space.
The Warriors can, however, get under the luxury tax figure (just over $171 million), which would allow them to not only save a huge amount of money in tax payments, but also reset their repeater tax, saving them money in future seasons. If the team waives Looney and Paul, they will sit at around $137 million in payroll. That’s not enough to get them under the salary cap, which is $141 million (since they’ll need to fill out their roster still), but it makes staying under the luxury tax a feasible outcome, as long as they don’t re-sign Thompson (or he takes a discount).
More realistically, I would expect the Warriors to retain Thompson and try to balance cost-cutting with building a contender for Curry’s final two seasons. They’ll certainly explore any and all ways to make a big splash and, in failing to do so, will probably run it back with a similar but slightly more fiscally-responsible team.
How much will the Warriors pay in luxury taxes this year?
This is a nearly impossible question to answer, but a good one to always be thinking about. As things currently stand, the Warriors are slated to pay about $6.7 million in luxury taxes. On the one hand, that figure is nearly $180 million less than last year. On the other hand, that number doesn’t provide much practical information. Those figures assume that the Warriors pick up Paul’s $30 million option and Looney’s $8 million option, which has $3 million guaranteed, and they also assume that the team will renounce Thompson. More importantly, that figure only includes 11 contracts, so the Warriors would still need to add at least three salaries to the mix.
It’s worth noting that the luxury tax isn’t calculated until the final day of the season, which is why the Warriors often get rid of veterans at the trade deadline and promote two-way contracts. Whatever the Warriors’ tax situation looks like at the start of the season, remember that it can easily change by season’s end.
What draft picks can the Warriors trade?
Trading draft picks is an important tool in team building, but the Warriors’ situation is fairly convoluted.
The Warriors can trade their first-round draft pick in the following drafts:
- 2025, but only after the 2024 NBA Draft (unless the Warriors get extremely lucky and land a top-four pick in June).
- Two of 2025, 2026, 2027, and 2028, but not in consecutive years.
- 2030, but only if it’s a top-20 pick.
Additionally, the Warriors can currently trade the following second-round draft picks:
- 2024 Bucks pick
- 2026 Hawks pick
- 2028 Hawks pick
- 2029 own pick
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